A chemo-centric view of human health and disease

Efforts to compile the phenotypic effects of drugs and environmental chemicals offer the opportunity to adopt a chemo-centric view of human health that does not require detailed mechanistic information. Here we consider thousands of chemicals and analyse the relationship of their structures with adverse and therapeutic responses. Our study includes molecules related to the aetiology of 934 health-threatening conditions and used to treat 835 diseases. We first identify chemical moieties that could be independently associated with each phenotypic effect. Using these fragments, we build accurate predictors for approximately 400 clinical phenotypes, finding many privileged and liable structures. Finally, we connect two diseases if they relate to similar chemical structures. The resulting networks of human conditions are able to predict disease comorbidities, as well as identifying potential drug side effects and opportunities for drug repositioning, and show a remarkable coincidence with clinical observations

Probabilistic models to assist maintenance of multiple instruments

The paper discusses maintenance challenges of organisations with a huge number of devices and proposes the use of probabilistic models to assist monitoring and maintenance planning. The proposal assumes connectivity of instruments to report relevant features for monitoring. Also, the existence of enough historical registers with diagnosed breakdowns is required to make probabilistic models reliable and useful for predictive maintenance strategies based on them. Regular Markov models based on estimated failure and repair rates are proposed to calculate the availability of the instruments and Dynamic Bayesian Networks are proposed to model cause-effect relationships to trigger predictive maintenance services based on the influence between observed features and previously documented diagnostic

Embedded systems: impact and future challenges

S’analitza l’impacte que tenen els moderns sistemes electrònics encastats en diferents àmbits, com són la societat, l’àmbit industrial i l’educació. Es presenta una breu definició del que és un sistema encastat i es donen alguns exemples de les aplicacions que pot tenir. Es fa un repàs de les tendències actuals dels sistemes encastats i una projecció a mitjà i llarg termini de l’impacte que poden arribar a tenir. Es conclou amb unes recomanacions d’actuació amb l’objectiu de preparar la societat i la indústria catalana vers l’imminent futur dels objectes cibernètics interconnectats. Paraules clau: sistemes encastats, Internet de les coses, ciberobjectes.The impact of modern embedded electronic systems in different scenarios – such as society, industry and education – is analyzed. A brief definition is given of what an embedded system is, providing some examples of possible applications. A review of current trends in embedded systems is made, presenting a medium- and long-term impact projection. This introductory article concludes with some recommendations for action in order to prepare Catalonia’s industry and society in general for the imminent future of the cyber interconnected objects. Keywords: embedded systems, Internet of things, cyberobjects

Els sistemes encastats: impacte i reptes de futur

S’analitza l’impacte que tenen els moderns sistemes electrònics encastats en diferents àmbits, com són la societat, l’àmbit industrial i l’educació. Es presenta una breu definició del que és un sistema encastat i es donen alguns exemples de les aplicacions que pot tenir. Es fa un repàs de les tendències actuals dels sistemes encastats i una projecció a mitjà i llarg termini de l’impacte que poden arribar a tenir. Es conclou amb unes recomanacions d’actuació amb l’objectiu de preparar la societat i la indústria catalana vers l’imminent futur dels objectes cibernètics interconnectats.The impact of modern embedded electronic systems in different scenarios – such as society, industry and education – is analyzed. A brief definition is given of what an embedded system is, providing some examples of possible applications. A review of current trends in embedded systems is made, presenting a medium- and long-term impact projection. This introductory article concludes with some recommendations for action in order to prepare Catalonia’s industry and society in general for the imminent future of the cyber interconnected objects.Postprint (published version

Holocene hydrography evolution in the Alboran Sea: a multi-record and multiproxy comparison

A new high-resolution deglacial and Holocene sea surface temperature (SST) reconstruction is presented for the Alboran Sea (western Mediterranean), based on Mg=Ca ratios measured in the planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides. This new record is evaluated by comparison with other Mg=Ca SST records and previously published alkenone SST reconstructions from the same region for both the Holocene and glacial periods. In all cases there is a high degree of coherence between the different Mg=Ca SST records but strong discrepancies when compared to the alkenone SST records. We argue that these discrepancies are due to differences in the proxy response during deglaciation which we hypothesize to reflect a resilience strategy of G. bulloides, changing its main growth season, and consequently Mg=Ca records a shorter deglacial warming than alkenones. In contrast, short-term Holocene SST variability is larger in the Mg=Ca SST than in the alkenone SST records. We propose that the larger Mg=Ca SST variability is a result of spring temperatures variability, while the smoothed alkenone SST variability represents averaged annual temperatures. The Mg=Ca SST record differentiates the Holocene into three periods: (1) the warmest SST values occurred during the Early Holocene (11.7-9 cal. kyr BP), (2) a continuous cooling trend occurred during the Middle Holocene that culminated in the coldest Holocene SST having a double cold peak structure centred at around 4.2 cal. kyr BP, and (3) the Late Holocene (4.2 cal. kyr BP to present) did not follow any clear cooling/warming trend although millennial-scale oscillations were enhanced. This SST evolution is discussed in the context of the changing properties in the Atlantic inflow water associated with North Atlantic circulation conditions and also with local hydrographical and atmospheric changes. We propose that a tight link between North Atlantic circulation patterns and the inflow of surface waters into the Mediterranean played a major role in controlling Holocene climatic variability of this region

On the principles of multicellular organism development

Non-equilibrium physics has traditionally dealt mostly with inanimate matter. Yet, in the last decades there has been increasing interest in understanding living systems from this perspective. One example is using the framework and tools of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and nonlinear physics to study how living organisms composed of many differentiated cells develop from a single initial cell. The dynamic process of multicellular organism development is out of equilibrium, in that it consumes and dissipates energy. It also involves the formation of many precise and complex structures. Herein we review some of the paradigms being used that focus on how these multicellular structures initially emerge at the molecular level

High resolution paleo-environmental changes during the Sapropel 1 in the North Ionian Sea, central Mediterranean

High-resolution paleoceanographic reconstruction of surface water properties during the most recent Sapropel event (S1) has been carried out by means of quantitative analyses of planktonic foraminiferal assemblages, planktonic foraminiferal oxygen isotopes (δ18O) and XRF elemental data from a 655 m depth core recovered in the North Ionian Sea. The results show that the S1 interval presents two distinctive warm phases (S1a and S1b), separated by a cold interruption event (S1i). High resolution faunal and geochemical analyses allow to identify two sub-phases within S1a interval, the oldest one has similar characteristics to S1b interval while the youngest sub-phase has less stratified surface waters with relatively lower nutrient content. The high abundance of Globigerinoides ruber white variety opposite to the low percentages of Neogloboquadrina pachyderma during the pre-S1 phase suggests that the onset of surface waters stratification occurred prior to the beginning of Sapropel deposition, acting as a pre-conditioning phase. Paleo-productivity proxies indicate that the deposition of S1 initiated after an increase in nutrient content, potentially related to increased fluvial inputs. Based on the integrated ecological interpretation of our records we argue that S1a and S1b are characterized as warm, stratified and nutrient rich surface waters in the Ionian Sea, while proxies related to oxygen content indicate dysoxic deep waters linked to a combination of the high nutrient content and stratified water column. The S1 interruption phase is characterized by the entrance of colder waters that caused mixing of the stratified water column and re-ventilation of the deep dysoxic waters

Holocene humidity changes in southern Iberia inferred from the geochemical signature of marine sediments

The Mediterranean region is particularly sensitive to global climate variability that critically reflects on its hydrological conditions. A recently published high resolution reconstruction of Holocene Sea Surface Temperature (SST) based on Globigerina bulloides Mg/Ca ratios, set the basis to explore, within a warm climatic period, the impact of North Atlantic oceanographic conditions shaping the properties of the inflowing waters into the Mediterranean Sea. Here we go a step further in establishing the potential links between these oceanographical changes with the hydrological conditions on the southern Iberian Peninsula.This study combines XRF-core-scanner analyses with the radiogenic isotopes characterization (Sr, Nd and Pb) of the terrigenous fraction in core ALB-2 from the Alboran Sea. Results indicate that the most humid conditions developed during the early to middle Holocene with a transition towards drier conditions and colder SST that occurred by the late Holocene. The radiogenic Sr, Nd and Pb records do not show any covariance with the millennial scale oscillations shown in the Zr and K XRF records interpreted as humidity changes. This could suggest that inputs of African dust are not the main controlling factor in the XRF records. In contrast, the Sr isotope record shows a significant transition around the middle Holocene while SSTs show a cooling trend. For an accurate interpretation of that feature, this study also targets a novel approach by characterizing the radiogenic isotope composition of settling particles recovered by moored sediment traps under well characterized meteorological conditions

Holocene changes in deep-water circulation of the Western Mediterranean Basin, links to North Atlantic climate variability

preliminary results from multicores recovered in the Minorca sediment drift, south of the Western Mediterranean Deep Water formation area, reveal changes in deep-water circulation during the last 2500 yr. Records of grain-size and SST Mg/Ca derived from G. bulloides show oscillations in deep-water current intensities that could be related to cool periods on land, i.e. the Little Ice Age, but also denote some relationship with changes in sea surface salinity likely associated with changes in continental humid conditions