"La sensación de la soledad" en las Rimas de Bécquer (Aproximación a la poesía metafísica)

In our article we try to approximate to the topic of Spanish romanticism and the cosmovision of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer in particular. We evaluate the role of universal romantic symptom – the feeling of loneliness in Bécquer’s Rimas and observe how his poetic world is linked to the existensial vision of Miguel de Unamuno.En nuestro artículo intentamos acercarnos al tema del romanticismo español, y a la visión romántica de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer en particular. Dentro de ello investigamos el papel del síntoma universal del romanticismo – la sensación de la soledad en las Rimas de Bécquer y observamos cómo está vinculado su mundo romántico con la visión existencialista de Miguel de Unamuno

American political affiliation, 2003–43: a cohort component projection

The recent rise and stability in American party identification has focused interest on the long-term dynamics of party bases. Liberal commentators cite immigration and youth as forces which will produce a natural Democratic advantage in the future while conservative writers highlight the importance of high Republican fertility in securing Republican growth. These concerns foreground the neglect of demography within political science. This paper addresses this omission by conducting the first ever cohort component projection of American partisan populations to 2043 based on survey and census data. A number of scenarios are modeled, but, on current trends, we predict that American partisanship will shift much less than the nation’s ethnic composition because the parties’ age structures are similar. Still, our projections find that the Democrats gain two to three percentage points from the Republicans by 2043, mainly through immigration, though Republican fertility may redress the balance in the very long term

Reticular dysgenesis-associated AK2 protects hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell development from oxidative stress.

Adenylate kinases (AKs) are phosphotransferases that regulate the cellular adenine nucleotide composition and play a critical role in the energy homeostasis of all tissues. The AK2 isoenzyme is expressed in the mitochondrial intermembrane space and is mutated in reticular dysgenesis (RD), a rare form of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) in humans. RD is characterized by a maturation arrest in the myeloid and lymphoid lineages, leading to early onset, recurrent, and overwhelming infections. To gain insight into the pathophysiology of RD, we studied the effects of AK2 deficiency using the zebrafish model and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from fibroblasts of an RD patient. In zebrafish, Ak2 deficiency affected hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) development with increased oxidative stress and apoptosis. AK2-deficient iPSCs recapitulated the characteristic myeloid maturation arrest at the promyelocyte stage and demonstrated an increased AMP/ADP ratio, indicative of an energy-depleted adenine nucleotide profile. Antioxidant treatment rescued the hematopoietic phenotypes in vivo in ak2 mutant zebrafish and restored differentiation of AK2-deficient iPSCs into mature granulocytes. Our results link hematopoietic cell fate in AK2 deficiency to cellular energy depletion and increased oxidative stress. This points to the potential use of antioxidants as a supportive therapeutic modality for patients with RD

Effect of crosslinking on the microtribological behavior of model polymer brushes

Polymer brushes in good solvents are known to exhibit excellent tribological properties. We have modeled polymer brushes and their gels using a multibead-spring model and studied their tribological behavior via nonequilibrium molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations. Simulations of brush- against-wall systems were performed using an implicit solvent-based approach. Polymer chains were modeled as linear chains, randomly grafted on a planar surface. Quantities extracted from the simulations are the normal stress, shear stress and concentration profiles. We find that while an increase in the degree of crosslinking leads to an increase in the coefficient of friction, an increase of the length of crosslinker chains does the opposite. Effect of crosslinking can be understood in two ways: (i) there are fewer polymer chains in the outer layer as the degree of crosslinking increases to take part in brush-assisted lubrication, and (ii) crosslinked polymer chains are more resistant to shear than non-crosslinked ones

Chemical Upcycling of PET Waste towards Terephthalate Redox Nanoparticles for Energy Storage

Over 30 million ton of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is produced each year and no more than 60% of all PET bottles are reclaimed for recycling due to material property deteriorations during the mechanical recycling process. Herein, a sustainable approach is proposed to produce redox-active nanoparticles via the chemical upcycling of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) waste for application in energy storage. Redox-active nanoparticles of sizes lower than 100 nm were prepared by emulsion polymerization of a methacrylic-terephthalate monomer obtained by a simple methacrylate functionalization of the depolymerization product of PET (i.e., bis-hydroxy(2-ethyl) terephthalate, BHET). The initial cyclic voltammetry results of the depolymerization product of PET used as a model compound show a reversible redox process, when using a 0.1 M tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate/dimethyl sulfoxide electrolyte system, with a standard redox potential of −2.12 V vs. Fc/Fc+. Finally, the cycling performance of terephthalate nanoparticles was investigated using a 0.1 M TBAPF6 solution in acetonitrile as electrolyte in a three-electrode cell. The terephthalate anode electrode displays good cycling stability and performance at high C-rate (i.e., ≥5C), delivering a stable specific discharge capacity of 32.8 mAh.g−1 at a C-rate of 30 C, with a capacity retention of 94% after 100 cycles. However, a large hysteresis between the specific discharge and charge capacities and capacity fading are observed at lower C-rate (i.e., ≤2C), suggesting some irreversibility of redox reactions associated with the terephthalate moiety, in particular related to the oxidation process.NC would like to thank the University of the Basque Country for funding through a specialization of research staff fellowship (ESPDOC 19/99). JD thanks WBI International and the Gobierno Vasco/Eusko Jaurlaritza (IT 999–16) for fundings. NG acknowledges the funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 framework programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie agreement No. 101028682

Ustekinumab as Induction and Maintenance Therapy for Crohn’s Disease

BACKGROUND Ustekinumab, a monoclonal antibody to the p40 subunit of interleukin-12 and inter-leukin-23, was evaluated as an intravenous induction therapy in two populations with moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease. Ustekinumab was also evaluated as subcutaneous maintenance therapy. METHODS We randomly assigned patients to receive a single intravenous dose of ustekinumab (either 130 mg or approximately 6 mg per kilogram of body weight) or placebo in two induction trials. The UNITI-1 trial included 741 patients who met the criteria for primary or secondary nonresponse to tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists or had unacceptable side effects. The UNITI-2 trial included 628 patients in whom conventional therapy failed or unacceptable side effects occurred. Patients who completed these induction trials then participated in IM-UNITI, in which the 397 patients who had a response to ustekinumab were randomly assigned to receive subcutaneous maintenance injections of 90 mg of ustekinumab (either every 8 weeks or every 12 weeks) or placebo. The primary end point for the induction trials was a clinical response at week 6 (defined as a decrease from baseline in the Crohn’s Disease Activity Index [CDAI] score of ≥100 points or a CDAI score <150). The primary end point for the maintenance trial was remission at week 44 (CDAI score <150). RESULTS The rates of response at week 6 among patients receiving intravenous ustekinumab at a dose of either 130 mg or approximately 6 mg per kilogram were significantly higher than the rates among patients receiving placebo (in UNITI-1, 34.3%, 33.7%, and 21.5%, respectively, with P≤0.003 for both comparisons with placebo; in UNITI-2, 51.7%, 55.5%, and 28.7%, respectively, with P<0.001 for both doses). In the groups receiving maintenance doses of ustekinumab every 8 weeks or every 12 weeks, 53.1% and 48.8%, respectively, were in remission at week 44, as compared with 35.9% of those receiving placebo (P = 0.005 and P = 0.04, respectively). Within each trial, adverse-event rates were similar among treatment groups. CONCLUSIONS Among patients with moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease, those receiving intravenous ustekinumab had a significantly higher rate of response than did those receiving placebo. Subcutaneous ustekinumab maintained remission in patients who had a clinical response to induction therapy. (Funded by Janssen Research and Development; ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT01369329, NCT01369342, and NCT01369355.

Search for neutral charmless B decays at LEP

A search for rare charmless decays of \Bd and \Bs mesons has been performed in the exclusive channels \Bd_{(\mathrm s)}\ra\eta\eta, \Bd_{(\mathrm s)}\ra\eta\pio and \Bd_{(\mathrm s)}\ra\pio\pio. The data sample consisted of three million hadronic \Zo decays collected by the L3 experiment at LEP from 1991 through 1994. No candidate event has been observed and the following upper limits at 90\% confidence level on the branching ratios have been set \begin{displaymath} \mathrm{Br}(\Bd\ra\eta\eta)<4.1\times 10^{-4},\,\, \mathrm{Br}(\Bs\ra\eta\eta)<1.5\times 10^{-3},\,\, \end{displaymath} \begin{displaymath} \mathrm{Br}(\Bd\ra\eta\pio)<2.5\times 10^{-4},\,\, \mathrm{Br}(\Bs\ra\eta\pio)<1.0\times 10^{-3},\,\, \end{displaymath} \begin{displaymath} \mathrm{Br}(\Bd\ra\pio\pio)<6.0\times 10^{-5},\,\, \mathrm{Br}(\Bs\ra\pio\pio)<2.1\times 10^{-4}. \end{displaymath} These are the first experimental limits on \Bd\ra\eta\eta and on the \Bs neutral charmless modes

The Anatomy of the bill Tip of Kiwi and Associated Somatosensory Regions of the Brain: Comparisons with Shorebirds

Three families of probe-foraging birds, Scolopacidae (sandpipers and snipes), Apterygidae (kiwi), and Threskiornithidae (ibises, including spoonbills) have independently evolved long, narrow bills containing clusters of vibration-sensitive mechanoreceptors (Herbst corpuscles) within pits in the bill-tip. These ‘bill-tip organs’ allow birds to detect buried or submerged prey via substrate-borne vibrations and/or interstitial pressure gradients. Shorebirds, kiwi and ibises are only distantly related, with the phylogenetic divide between kiwi and the other two taxa being particularly deep. We compared the bill-tip structure and associated somatosensory regions in the brains of kiwi and shorebirds to understand the degree of convergence of these systems between the two taxa. For comparison, we also included data from other taxa including waterfowl (Anatidae) and parrots (Psittaculidae and Cacatuidae), non-apterygid ratites, and other probe-foraging and non probe-foraging birds including non-scolopacid shorebirds (Charadriidae, Haematopodidae, Recurvirostridae and Sternidae). We show that the bill-tip organ structure was broadly similar between the Apterygidae and Scolopacidae, however some inter-specific variation was found in the number, shape and orientation of sensory pits between the two groups. Kiwi, scolopacid shorebirds, waterfowl and parrots all shared hypertrophy or near-hypertrophy of the principal sensory trigeminal nucleus. Hypertrophy of the nucleus basorostralis, however, occurred only in waterfowl, kiwi, three of the scolopacid species examined and a species of oystercatcher (Charadriiformes: Haematopodidae). Hypertrophy of the principal sensory trigeminal nucleus in kiwi, Scolopacidae, and other tactile specialists appears to have co-evolved alongside bill-tip specializations, whereas hypertrophy of nucleus basorostralis may be influenced to a greater extent by other sensory inputs. We suggest that similarities between kiwi and scolopacid bill-tip organs and associated somatosensory brain regions are likely a result of similar ecological selective pressures, with inter-specific variations reflecting finer-scale niche differentiation