Productivity Growth across Spanish Regions and Industries: A Production-Frontier Approach

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Regional Studies on 21 Aug 2012, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00343404.2012.709611Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology; Andalusian Council of Innovation and Scienc

Key enabling technologies, methodologies, frameworks, tools and techniques of smart and sustainable systems

For manufacturing systems, Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is currently considered a big challenge and is closely related to intelligent manufacturing or production, alongside a more or less wide set of technologies, methodologies, frameworks, tools and techniques. I4.0 encompasses a diversity of approaches to enable the progress of production systems, resulting in shortened production times, production efficiencies, product quality, customization and flexibility of performance. Due to the general awareness about the importance of enabling intelligent manufacturing alongside sustainable production, sustainability is gaining renewed importance. Due to the importance of the theme, there is a need for an updated review of the main enabling approaches of I4.0 for sustainable manufacturing systems. For this purpose, a literature review was conducted considering the research question: Is there increased attention being given to sustainability issues nowadays in Industry 4.0? Through this work, it was possible to verify the main I4.0 and sustainability pillars considered in academia, which for I4.0 are the integration of horizontal and vertical systems, with 94% of the relevant articles mentioning this pillar. The additive manufacturing and 3D printing was refered in 56% of the relevant articles, and for sustainability, the economic pillar was mentioned with 95%, being the main one, with a large difference from other factors.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020

Association of tumor necrosis factor alpha-308 promoter polymorphism with spondyloarthritides patients in Colombia

Q3Q2Comunicación corta2195-2197The pathogenesis of SpA is considered to be a complex and multi-factorial process and, similar to other autoimmune diseases, includes the activity of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF alpha. Our study compared the -308 promoter polymorphism of TNF alpha with TNF alpha levels, HLA-B27 status, age at the onset of symptoms, SpA subtype and the clinical degree of activity in Colombian SpA patients and healthy subjects (HS). Comparisons of the TNF alpha-308A genotype among HS and SpA patients (P = 0.004), uSpA patients (P = 0.040), ReA patients (P = 0.001), were significantly different and AS patients (P = 0.110), as were alleles for SpAs (P = 0.007) between patients with SpAs and controls. Initial exploratory analyses demonstrated that the TNF alpha-308 SNP genotype frequencies were different among SpA patients and HS in the Colombian population studied. Furthermore, there was no significant correlation with activity and functional clinical index, serum TNF alpha level or HLA B27 status. Allele frequencies, on the other hand, were correlated with the activity clinical index

Heterogeneous Infectivity and Pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 Variants Beta, Delta and Omicron in Transgenic K18-hACE2 and Wildtype Mice

The emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) may display enhanced transmissibility, more severity and/or immune evasion; however, the pathogenesis of these new VOCs in experimental SARS-CoV-2 models or the potential infection of other animal species is not completely understood. Here we infected K18-hACE2 transgenic mice with B.1, B.1.351/Beta, B.1.617.2/Delta and BA.1.1/Omicron isolates and demonstrated heterogeneous infectivity and pathogenesis. B.1.351/Beta variant was the most pathogenic, while BA.1.1/Omicron led to lower viral RNA in the absence of major visible clinical signs. In parallel, we infected wildtype (WT) mice and confirmed that, contrary to B.1 and B.1.617.2/Delta, B.1.351/Beta and BA.1.1/Omicron can infect them. Infection in WT mice coursed without major clinical signs and viral RNA was transient and undetectable in the lungs by day 7 post-infection. In silico modeling supported these findings by predicting B.1.351/Beta receptor binding domain (RBD) mutations result in an increased affinity for both human and murine ACE2 receptors, while BA.1/Omicron RBD mutations only show increased affinity for murine ACE2

DEVELOPING TECHNICAL ENGLISH SKILLS FOR CIVIL ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Traditionally, Spanish schools of civil engineering provide their students a class on “Technical English” in order to develop their language skills. However, this class does not cover all the skills that the student would need in the labor market and mainly focuses in the reading and writing skills, and in a lower degree in the speaking and listening ones. This paper proposes a series of innovative and informal training activities, such as cine-forum on technical civil engineering topics and role playing on real professional situations, that allow Spanish civil engineering students to develop English skills, that can rarely be worked in the classroom (i.e. speaking, negotiating and conversing), which encourage debate, participation, and foster their self-confidence to speak about technical-English topics in public. Although the students’ level of English is much lower than expected, they all agree on the importance of technical English for their future career. The results also show the students’ lack in skills that are difficult to train in regular classes (speaking and talking). Consequently, this situation would require to provide complementary activities like the ones suggested in this project in order to develop these skills and increase the students’ demand for engineering classes taught in English

What is the optimal level of vitamin D in non-dialysis chronic kidney disease population?

AIM: To evaluate thresholds for serum 25(OH)D concentrations in relation to death, kidney progression and hospitalization in non-dialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD) population. METHODS: Four hundred and seventy non-dialysis 3-5 stage CKD patients participating in OSERCE-2 study, a prospective, multicenter, cohort study, were prospectively evaluated and categorized into 3 groups according to 25(OH)D levels at enrollment (less than 20 ng/mL, between 20 and 29 ng/mL, and at or above 30 ng/mL), considering 25(OH)D between 20 and 29 ng/mL as reference group. Association between 25(OH)D levels and death (primary outcome), and time to first hospitalization and renal progression (secondary outcomes) over a 3-year follow-up, were assessed by Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox-proportional hazard models. To identify 25(OH)D levels at highest risk for outcomes, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were performed. RESULTS: Over 29 ± 12 mo of follow-up, 46 (10%) patients dead, 156 (33%) showed kidney progression, and 126 (27%) were hospitalized. After multivariate adjustment, 25(OH)D < 20 ng/mL was an independent predictor of all-cause mortality (HR = 2.33; 95%CI: 1.10-4.91; P = 0.027) and kidney progression (HR = 2.46; 95%CI: 1.63-3.71; P < 0.001), whereas the group with 25(OH)D at or above 30 ng/mL did not have a different hazard for outcomes from the reference group. Hospitalization outcomes were predicted by 25(OH) levels (HR = 0.98; 95%CI: 0.96-1.00; P = 0.027) in the unadjusted Cox proportional hazards model, but not after multivariate adjusting. ROC curves identified 25(OH)D levels at highest risk for death, kidney progression, and hospitalization, at 17.4 ng/mL [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.60; 95%CI: 0.52-0.69; P = 0.027], 18.6 ng/mL (AUC = 0.65; 95%CI: 0.60-0.71; P < 0.001), and 19.0 ng/mL (AUC = 0.56; 95%CI: 0.50-0.62; P = 0.048), respectively. CONCLUSION: 25(OH)D < 20 ng/mL was an independent predictor of death and progression in patients with stage 3-5 CKD, with no additional benefits when patients reached the levels at or above 30 ng/mL suggested as optimal by CKD guidelines.Abbott and the Spanish Society of Nephrolog

Fractional Integration Versus Structural Change: Testing the Convergence of CO2 Emissions

This paper assesses the stochastic convergence of relative CO₂ emissions within 28 OECD countries over the period 1950–2013. Using the local Whittle estimator and some of its variants we assess whether relative per capita CO₂ emissions are long memory processes which, although highly persistent, may revert to their mean/trend in the long run thereby indicating evidence of stochastic convergence. Furthermore, we test whether (possibly) slow convergence or the complete lack of it may be the result of structural changes to the deterministics of each of the relative per-capita emissions series by means of the tests of Berkes et al. (Ann Stat 1140–1165, 2006) and Mayoral (Oxford Bull Econ Stat 74(2):278–305, 2012). Our results show relatively weak support for stochastic convergence of CO₂ emissions, indicating that only between 30 and 40% of the countries converge to the OECD average in a stochastic sense. This weak evidence disappears if we enlarge the sample to include 4 out of the 5 BRICS, indicating that our results are not robust to the inclusion of countries which are experiencing rates of growth which are far larger than those of the OECD members. Our results also decisively indicate that a slow or lack of convergence is not the results of a structural break in the relative CO₂ emissions series

Treatment with tocilizumab or corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients with hyperinflammatory state: a multicentre cohort study (SAM-COVID-19)

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the association between tocilizumab or corticosteroids and the risk of intubation or death in patients with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) with a hyperinflammatory state according to clinical and laboratory parameters. Methods: A cohort study was performed in 60 Spanish hospitals including 778 patients with COVID-19 and clinical and laboratory data indicative of a hyperinflammatory state. Treatment was mainly with tocilizumab, an intermediate-high dose of corticosteroids (IHDC), a pulse dose of corticosteroids (PDC), combination therapy, or no treatment. Primary outcome was intubation or death; follow-up was 21 days. Propensity score-adjusted estimations using Cox regression (logistic regression if needed) were calculated. Propensity scores were used as confounders, matching variables and for the inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTWs). Results: In all, 88, 117, 78 and 151 patients treated with tocilizumab, IHDC, PDC, and combination therapy, respectively, were compared with 344 untreated patients. The primary endpoint occurred in 10 (11.4%), 27 (23.1%), 12 (15.4%), 40 (25.6%) and 69 (21.1%), respectively. The IPTW-based hazard ratios (odds ratio for combination therapy) for the primary endpoint were 0.32 (95%CI 0.22-0.47; p < 0.001) for tocilizumab, 0.82 (0.71-1.30; p 0.82) for IHDC, 0.61 (0.43-0.86; p 0.006) for PDC, and 1.17 (0.86-1.58; p 0.30) for combination therapy. Other applications of the propensity score provided similar results, but were not significant for PDC. Tocilizumab was also associated with lower hazard of death alone in IPTW analysis (0.07; 0.02-0.17; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Tocilizumab might be useful in COVID-19 patients with a hyperinflammatory state and should be prioritized for randomized trials in this situatio