Influence of indoor hygrothermal conditions on human quality of life in social housing

Background: Modern societies spend most of their time indoors, namely at home, and the indoor environment quality turns out to be a crucial factor to health, quality of life and well-being of the residents. The present study aims to understand how indoor environment relates with quality of life and how improving housing conditions impacts on individuals’ health. Design and Methods: This study case will rely on the following assessments in both rehabilitated and non-rehabilitated social housing: i) field measurements, in social dwellings (namely temperature, relative humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, air velocity, air change rate, level of mould spores and energy consumption); ii) residents’ questionnaires on social, demogaphic, behavioural, health characteristics and quality of life. Also, iii) qualitative interviews performed with social housing residents from the rehabilitated houses, addressing the self-perception of living conditions and their influence in health status and quality of life. All the collected information will be combined and analysed in order to achieve the main objective. Expected impact: It is expected to define a Predicted Human Life Quality (PHLQ) index, that combines physical parameters describing the indoor environment measured through engineering techniques with residents’ and neighbourhood quality of life characteristics assessed by health questionnaires. Improvement in social housing should be related with better health indicators and the new index might be an important tool contributing to enhance quality of life of the residents

Synthetic peptides derived from ribosomal proteins of leishmania spp. in mucocutaneous leishmaniasis: Diagnostic usefulness

Background: The serological diagnostic methods currently available for mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL) lack specificity when complete parasites are used; however, such specificity increases when protein fractions are used. Ribosomal proteins have been reported to induce antibodies in animal and humans infected with the parasite, making them a worth candidate to assess its diagnosis potential. Objective: This study was thus aimed at evaluating synthetic peptides derived from Leishmania braziliensis ribosomal proteins S25 and S5 as antigen candidates for diagnosing MCL by ELISA Methods: It was used 8 and 13 peptides derived from ribosomal proteins 25 and S5 respectively as antigens in order to detect IgG antibodies by ELISA in people with active MCL, Chagas disease (CH) and autoimmune disease (AID). Results: 4 of these 21 peptides (P4, P6, P19 and P21) had the greatest sensitivity (21.7%, 13.04%, 20% and 20%, respectively) as well as having 95%, 100%, 100% and 82.5% specificity, respectively. Conclusion: The study revealed the limited usefulness of the peptides being studied as a diagnostic tool in the conditions used here, because its low sensitivity, but it is worth highlighting that the use of peptides as antigen in the serodiagnosis of MCL may overcome the cross reaction presented with other antigens, thus avoiding false positives

Gating choreography and mechanism of the human proton-activated chloride channel ASOR

The proton-activated chloride channel ASOR (TMEM206/PAC) permeates anions across cellular membranes in response to acidification, thereby enhancing acid-induced cell death and regulating endocytosis. The molecular mechanisms of pH-dependent control are not understood, in part because structural information for an activated conformation of ASOR is lacking. Here, we reconstitute function from purified protein and present a 3.1-Å-resolution cryo-electron microscopy structure of human ASOR at acidic pH in an activated conformation. The work contextualizes a previous acidic pH structure as a desensitized conformation. Combined with electrophysiological studies and high-resolution structures of resting and desensitized states, the work reveals mechanisms of proton sensing and ion pore gating. Clusters of extracellular acidic residues function as pH sensors and coalesce when protonated. Ensuing conformational changes induce metamorphosis of transmembrane helices to fashion an ion conduction pathway unique to the activated conformation. The studies identify a new paradigm of channel gating in this ubiquitous ion channel

Efficacy of direct current generated by multiple-electrode arrays on F3II mammary carcinoma: experiment and mathematical modeling

BACKGROUND: The modified Gompertz equation has been proposed to fit experimental data for direct current treated tumors when multiple-straight needle electrodes are individually inserted into the base perpendicular to the tumor long axis. The aim of this work is to evaluate the efficacy of direct current generated by multiple-electrode arrays on F3II mammary carcinoma that grow in the male and female BALB/c/Cenp mice, when multiple-straight needle electrodes and multiple-pairs of electrodes are inserted in the tumor. METHODS: A longitudinal and retrospective preclinical study was carried out. Male and female BALB/c/Cenp mice, the modified Gompertz equation, intensities (2, 6 and 10 mA) and exposure times (10 and 20 min) of direct current, and three geometries of multiple-electrodes (one formed by collinear electrodes and two by pair-electrodes) were used. Tumor volume and mice weight were measured. In addition, the mean tumor doubling time, tumor regression percentage, tumor growth delay, direct current overall effectiveness and mice survival were calculated. RESULTS: The greatest growth retardation, mean doubling time, regression percentage and growth delay of the primary F3II mammary carcinoma in male and female mice were observed when the geometry of multiple-pairs of electrodes was arranged in the tumor at 45, 135, 225 and 325o and the longest exposure time. In addition, highest direct current overall effectiveness (above 66%) was observed for this EChT scheme. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that electrochemical therapy may be potentially addressed to highly aggressive and metastic primary F3II murine mammary carcinoma and the modified Gompertz equation may be used to fit data of this direct current treated carcinoma. Additionally, electrochemical therapy effectiveness depends on the exposure time, geometry of multiple-electrodes and ratio between the direct current intensity applied and the polarization current induced in the tumor

Validation of Picture Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test for Illiteracy in Lima, Peru

Dementia in Latin America is a crucial public health problem. Identifying brief cognitive screening (BCS) tools for the primary care setting is crucial, particularly for illiterate individuals. We evaluated tool performance characteristics and validated the free and total recall sections of the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test-Picture version (FCSRT-Picture) to discriminate between 63 patients with early Alzheimer?s disease dementia (ADD), 60 amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and 64 cognitively healthy Peruvian individuals with illiteracy from an urban area. Clinical, functional, and cognitive assessments were performed. FCSRT-Picture performance was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curve analyses. The mean ± standard deviation scores were 7.7 ± 1.0 in ADD, 11.8 ± 1.6 in aMCI, and 29.5 ± 1.8 in controls. The FCSRT-Picture had better performance characteristics for distinguishing controls from aMCI compared with several other BCS tools, but similar characteristics between controls and early ADD. The FCSRT-Picture is a reliable BCS tool for illiteracy in Peru

Segmented YSO scintillation detectors as a new β-implant detection tool for decay spectroscopy in fragmentation facilities

A newly developed segmented YSO scintillator detector was implemented for the first time at the RI-beam Factory at RIKEN Nishina Center as an implantation-decay counter. The results from the experiment demonstrate that the detector is a viable alternative to conventional silicon-strip detectors with its good timing resolution and high detection efficiency for β particles. A Position-Sensitive Photo-Multiplier Tube (PSPMT) is coupled with a 48 × 48 segmented YSO crystal. To demonstrate its capabilities, a known short-lived isomer in Ni and the β decay of Co were measured by implanting those ions into the YSO detector. The half-lives and γ-rays observed in this work are consistent with the known values. The β-ray detection efficiency is more than 80 % for the decay of Co.The present experiment was carried out at the RI Beam Factory operated by RIKEN Nishina Center, RIKEN and CNS, University of Tokyo. This research was supported in part by the Offce of Nuclear Physics, U.S. Department of Energy under Award No. DE-FG02-96ER40983 (UTK)

Location of crossings in the Floquet spectrum of a driven two-level system

Calculation of the Floquet quasi-energies of a system driven by a time-periodic field is an efficient way to understand its dynamics. In particular, the phenomenon of dynamical localization can be related to the presence of close approaches between quasi-energies (either crossings or avoided crossings). We consider here a driven two-level system, and study how the locations of crossings in the quasi-energy spectrum alter as the field parameters are changed. A perturbational scheme provides a direct connection between the form of the driving field and the quasi-energies which is exact in the limit of high frequencies. We firstly obtain relations for the quasi-energies for some common types of applied field in the high-frequency limit. We then show how the locations of the crossings drift as the frequency is reduced, and find a simple empirical formula which describes this drift extremely well in general, and appears to be exact for the specific case of square-wave driving.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures. Minor changes to text, this version to be published in Physical Review

Revista del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

Alimentación del meloncillo Herpestes ichneumon y de la gineta Genetta genetta en la Reserva Biológica de Doñana, S.O. de la Península Ibérica.Determinación de la edad en Rana perezi Seoane, 1885. Aplicación al análisis del crecimiento somático de poblaciones.Influencias ambientales en la variación del tamaño, forma y peso de los huevos de la collalba rubia (Oenanthe hispanica L.)Características de un coro de sapos corredores (Bufo calamita) en el sureste de España.Estrategias alimentarias del ciervo (Cervus elaphus L.) en Montes de ToledoDistribución de los quirópteros de la provincia de Orense (Noroeste de España).Ecología trófica del lince ibérico en Doñana durante un periodo secoDesarrollo larvario de la rana común (Rana perezi) (anura: ranidae) en charcas temporales del noroeste de la Península Ibérica.Régimen alimenticio del mirlo común (Turdus merula) en el sureste de la Península Ibérica durante el periodo otoño-invierno.Reproducción del gorrión molinero (Passer montanus) en las Islas Canarias.Relación entre la cobertura vegetal y la distribución de nidos en las colonias de pagaza piconegraPeer reviewe