The feeding of American plaice (Hippoglossoides platessoides), Redfish (Sebastes marinus) and Cod (Gadus morhua) in the Flemish Cap during July 1988

A randomly stratified bottom-trawl survey was realized in the Flemish Cap (NAFO Div. 3M) in July 1988. The stomach contents of three species were studied: 320 of American plaice (Hippoglossoides platessoides), 203 of redfish (Sebastes Marinus) and 468 of cod (Gadus morhua). The cod specimens were classified taking into account age groups; in the case of other species by length classes. The food items, the prey occurrence index and the diversity index were determined too. The Schoener overlap index was calculated to study the intraspecific diet overlap in cod and the interspecific diet overlap between the three species. The relation between predator size (cod) and prey size (redfish) was also studied

MEGARA cryogenic system

MEGARA (Multi Espectrógrafo en GTC de Alta Resolución para Astronomía) is the new integral field unit (IFU) and multi-object spectrograph (MOS) instrument for the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). The selected cryogenic device to harbor the CCD detector for the MEGARA spectrograph is a liquid nitrogen open-cycle cryostat. The LN2 open-cycle cryostat is a custom made product which has been designed by the INAOE astronomical instrumentation group. The proposed cryostat offers modular stages for easy assembly and testing whilst also allowing future modifications to accommodate the required CCDs, electronics and optics

MEGARA detector test bench at LICA-UCM

LICA (Laboratorio de Instrumentaci´on Cient´ıfica Avanzada) is an initiative of the Campus de Excelencia Internacional of UCM. Among the facilities within LICA, a new laboratory has been assigned to MEGARA project for subsystem tests and AIV. This paper presents the current facilities installed at LICA for detector characterization, which will be used to test and characterize MEGARA detectors

Fresh inflation and decoherence of super Hubble fluctuations

I study a stochastic approach to the recently introduced fresh inflation model for super Hubble scales. I find that the state loses its coherence at the end of the fresh inflationary period as a consequence of the damping of the interference function in the reduced density matrix. This fact should be a consequence of a) the relative evolutions of both the scale factor and the horizon and b) the additional thermal and dissipative effects. This implies a relevant difference with respect to supercooled inflationary scenarios which require a very rapid expansion of the scale factor to give the decoherence of super Hubble fluctuations.Comment: version with minor changes. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Protocolo de la campaña de investigación pesquera en el Gran Banco de Terranova, Divisiones 3LNO de la NAFO (Programa Nacional de Recopilación, Gestión y Uso de los Datos Pesqueros (PNDB)).

Junio 2012, Anexo H, "Escalas de Madurez Macroscópica", revisado y actualizado. Diciembre 2013, corrección errata en nombre de autorJune 2012, Annex H, Macroscopic Maturity Scales, revised and updated. December 2013, correction author nameSe describen los procedimientos utilizados en la serie histórica de campañas de arrastre de fondo, realizadas en el Área de Regulación de la NAFO, divisiones 3LNO. El objetivo de estas campañas es conocer el estado y evolución de los principales recursos explotados en la zona, mediante la estima de índices, así como los cambios producidos en el ecosistema. El protocolo comprende desde la realización del plan de pescas, la estrategia de muestreo y la elección de las posiciones, hasta los distintos trabajos realizados a bordo, tanto los muestreos de la captura de peces e invertebrados o la conservación de muestras, como el análisis de los contenidos estomacales de peces y la toma de datos hidrográficos. Además indican los métodos utilizados no solo en la toma de datos a bordo sino en su posterior procesado y almacenamiento. Se incluyen una serie de anexos en los que se presenta el aparejo usado, los distintos estadillos de muestreo así como varias escalas macroscópicas de madurez de peces y camarón boreal.It describes the procedures used in the time of bottom trawl surveys series, carried out in NAFO the Regulatory Area, divisions 3LNO. The aim of these campaigns is to know the status and evolution of the main resources exploited in the area, by the index estimation and also changes in the ecosystem. The protocol extends from the implementation of fishing plan, sampling strategy and choice positions give to various tasks performed on board, both the sampling of the catch of fish and invertebrates or preservation of specimens, such as analysis of stomach contents of fish and hydrographical data collection. Also indicate the methods used not only to collect data on board but in subsequent processing and storage. It includes a series of annexes that present the trawl used, sampling different trawl sampling log and various macroscopic maturity scales of fish and northern shrimp

Reliability of a novel electro-medical device for wheal size measurement in allergy skin testing: An exploratory clinical trial

Skin prick testing (SPT) is the cornerstone of IgE-mediated allergy diagnosis,1 due to its high sensitivity and specificity.2 However, a uniform method for wheal measurement does not exist. Ansotegui et al.2 recommends to measure wheals in millimeters with a ruler, in many centers they are outlined with a pen and transfer by tape to a paper and then measured. Subsequently, the specialist is able to manually measure the maximum (MD) and orthogonal diameter (OD) of the wheal. This procedure is time consuming and makes repro-ducible measurements difficult.2,3 Knowing the wheal's area could help make a more accurate diagnosis.4 Over the last 30 years, many attempts have been made to develop a device to measure the size of SPT.3 Nexkin DSPT® (Figure S1A,B) is a novel mechatronic system based on 3D laser technology, that automatically locates allergen's wheal and measures its size (MD, OD and area in square millimeters) (Figure S1C)

Bortezomib plus melphalan and prednisone in elderly untreated patients with multiple myeloma: updated time-to-events results and prognostic factors for time to progression

New treatment options offering enhanced activity in elderly, newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma are required. One strategy is to combine melphalan and prednisone with novel agents. We previously reported an 89% response rate, including 32% complete responses and 11% near complete responses, in our phase 1/2 study of bortezomib plus melphalan and prednisone (VMP) in 60 newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients with a median age of 75 years. Here, we report updated time-to-events data and the impact of poor prognosis factors on outcome

Strategies to design clinical studies to identify predictive biomarkers in cancer research

The discovery of reliable biomarkers to predict efficacy and toxicity of anticancer drugs remains one of the key challenges in cancer research. Despite its relevance, no efficient study designs to identify promising candidate biomarkers have been established. This has led to the proliferation of a myriad of exploratory studies using dissimilar strategies, most of which fail to identify any promising targets and are seldom validated. The lack of a proper methodology also determines that many anti-cancer drugs are developed below their potential, due to failure to identify predictive biomarkers. While some drugs will be systematically administered to many patients who will not benefit from them, leading to unnecessary toxicities and costs, others will never reach registration due to our inability to identify the specific patient population in which they are active. Despite these drawbacks, a limited number of outstanding predictive biomarkers have been successfully identified and validated, and have changed the standard practice of oncology. In this manuscript, a multidisciplinary panel reviews how those key biomarkers were identified and, based on those experiences, proposes a methodological framework—the DESIGN guidelines—to standardize the clinical design of biomarker identification studies and to develop future research in this pivotal field