Exploring the critical barriers to the implementation of renewable technologies in existing univeristy buildings

[EN] For more than a decade, the European Union has been implementing an ambitious energy policy focused on reducing CO2 emissions, increasing the use of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency. This paper investigates the factors that hinder the application of renewable energy technologies (RETs) in existing university buildings in Spain and Portugal. Following a qualitative methodology, 33 technicians working in the infrastructure management offices of 24 universities have been interviewed. The factors identified have been classified into economic-financial, administrative and legislative barriers, architectural, urban planning, technological, networking, social acceptance, institutional and others. It is concluded that there have not been sufficient economic incentives to carry out RETs projects in this type of building. Conditioning factors can act individually or jointly, generating a greater effect. Most participants consider that there are no social acceptance barriers. Knowledge of these determinants can facilitate actions that help implement this technology on university campuses in both countries.This research received funds given by the Department of Civil Engineering and Building (University of Castilla-La Mancha), for covering part cost of manuscript¿s publicationFuentes-Del-Burgo, J.; Navarro Astor, E.; Monteiro Ramos, NM.; Martins, JP. (2021). Exploring the critical barriers to the implementation of renewable technologies in existing univeristy buildings. Sustainability. 13(22):1-24. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212662124132

Strange and heavy mesons in hadronic matter

We present selected results on the properties of strange and heavy-flavoured mesons in a hot and dense nuclear medium, with emphasis in selfconsistent coupled-channel approaches based on the chiral Lagrangian. In the strangeness sector, we discuss how the enhanced reactivity of light strange vectors at FAIR conditions can be tied to in-medium effects on their predominant decay modes (e.g. /K* -> /K pi) and to the excitation of strange baryons in vector-meson nucleon interactions. In the heavy-flavour sector, we focus on recent determinations of the transport coefficients of charmed and bottomed mesons in a hadron gas at vanishing baryonic chemical potential. We comment on the role of microscopic transport simulations to establish a connection between theoretical models and experimental observables from heavy-ion collisions (HICs)

Severa complicación neurológica tras vertebroplastia percutánea

La vertebroplastia percutánea como tratamiento de las fracturas acuñamientos vertebrales osteoporóticos tras fracaso del tratamiento sintomático y ortopédico así como para el tratamiento de lesiones tumorales del caquis ha tomado un auge importante debido a los buenos resultados publicados y la baja tasa de complicaciones. Este hecho ha llevado a las casas comerciales a desarrollar productos específicos para esta técnica que simplifican su utilización y disminuyen en lo posible las dificultades técnicas del procedimiento así como sus complicaciones. A pesar de ello, en nuestra opinión es una técnica que requiere una alta demanda de entrenamiento y que puede dar lugar a graves complicaciones a pesar de que no existan prácticamente en la literatura complicaciones severas con la utilización de esta técnica. Presentamos un caso ocurrido en nuestra serie de una paraplejia completa no resuelta tras una vertebroplastia percutanea torácica para una fractura osteoporótica.The technique of percutaneous vertebroplasty for osteoporotic fractures and spine tumors was develop an important increase because there were a lot of publications with good results and low rate of complications. This fact was done a fast developing of instruments and new PMMA cements to simplify this technique and decreased the rate of complications. In our opinion the percutaneous vertebroplasty is a high demand technique and have a high potential of major neurological complications if it is not performed with use of appropriate safeguards, but the purpose of this article is not to condemn the technique because we have had a good results using it in this pathologies and the majority of publications have shown a high rate of excellent results

CRISPR-ERA for Switching Off (Onco) Genes

Genome-editing nucleases like the popular CRISPR/Cas9 enable the generation of knockout cell lines and null zygotes by inducing site-specific double-stranded breaks (DSBs) within a genome. In most cases, when a DNA template is not present, the DSB is repaired by nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ), resulting in small nucleotide insertions or deletions that can be used to construct knockout alleles. However, for several reasons, these mutations do not produce the desired null result in all cases, instead generating a similar protein with functional activity. This undesirable effect could limit the therapeutic efficiency of gene therapy strategies focused on abrogating oncogene expression by CRISPR/Cas9 and should be taken into account. This chapter reviews the irruption of CRISPR technology for gene silencing and its application in gene therapy

Factors influencing delay in the diagnosis of colorectal cancer: a study protocol

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most frequent tumor in developed countries. Since survival from CRC depends mostly on disease stage at the time of diagnosis, individuals with symptoms or signs suspicious of CRC should be examined without delay. Many factors, however, intervene between symptom onset and diagnosis. This study was designed to: 1) Describe the diagnostic process of CRC from the onset of first symptoms to diagnosis and treatment. 2) Establish the time interval from initial symptoms to diagnosis and treatment, globally and considering patient's and doctors' delay, with the latter due to family physician and/or hospital services. 3) Identify the factors related to defined types of delay. 4) Assess the concordance between information included in primary health care and hospital clinical records regarding onset of first symptoms.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>Descriptive study, coordinated, with 5 participant groups of 5 different Spanish regions (Balearic Islands, Galicia, Catalunya, Aragón and Valencia Health Districts), with a total of 8 acute public hospitals and 140 primary care centers.</p> <p>Incident cases of CRC during the study period, as identified from pathology services at the involved hospitals. A sample size of 896 subjects has been estimated, 150 subjects for each participant group.</p> <p>Information will be collected through patient interviews and primary health care and hospital clinical records. Patient variables will include sociodemographic variables, family history of cancer, symptom perception, and confidence in the family physician; tumor variables will include tumor site, histological type, grade and stage; symptom variables will include date of onset, type and number of symptoms; health system variables will include number of patient contacts with family physician, type and content of the referral, hospital services attending the patient, diagnostic modalities and results; and delay intervals, including global delays and delays attributed to the patient, family physician and hospital.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>To obtain a nonrestricted sample of patients with CRC we have minimized selection risk by identifying the patients from pathology services. A greater constraint may be associated with information sources based on clinical records. Due to inherent features of coordinated studies, it is important to standardize the collection of information.</p

Tuning the charge stabilization and transport in naphthalimide-based semiconductors via a fused-ring and core-engineering strategy

The synthesis and characterization of a family of rationally designed compounds based on naphtha- limide units attached, through conjugated nitrogenated linkers (i.e. pyrazine and imidazoline units), to fused thiophene-based moieties is shown. This combination of different donor–acceptor moieties allows fine tuning of the HOMO and LUMO energy levels, and thus the modulation of their electronic properties. A comprehensive physical chemistry study is carried out, in which the nature of the neutral and charged species are analyzed and their electrical performance is understood in terms of molecular and supramolecular characteristics.This work was financially supported by MICINN (PID2022- 138908NB-C33, PID2022-139548NB-I00 and TED2021-129886B- C43) and the UCM (INV.GR.00.1819.10759). R GN thanks the MICINN for a FPI predoctoral fellowship (PRE2020-092327). FSB and MJAN gratefully acknowledge Universidad Rey Juan Carlos for their predoctoral and postdoctoral contracts. Com- puter resources, technical expertise and assistance was pro- vided by the SCBI (Supercomputing and Bioinformatics) center of the University of M´alaga and are gratefully acknowledged. The Vibrational spectroscopy (EVI) lab of the Research Central Services (SCAI) of the University of M´alaga is also gratefully acknowledged. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBU

Study of mixing process of low temperature co-fired ceramics photocurable suspension for digital light processing stereolithography

The Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) materials are highly used for high frequency devices required for high-speed data communications, representing an attractive material for electronic applications with a direct industrial applicability. The development of a photocurable LTCC suspension for Digital Light Processing Stereolithography (DLP-SLA) technology is presented in this work. The LTCC suspension, with an optimal solid load of 40.4 vol%, was characterized along its preparation regarding the rheological behaviour, dispersant content, particle size distribution in function of milling time and photocuring properties in a visible light range. The effect of the particle size change, through ball milling, on viscosity and photocuring behaviour was studied, achieving an optimal mixing range time, which highlights the importance of the manufacturing standardization of the photocurable suspensions. The optimized suspension presents a viscosity of 3.6 Pa s at shear rate of 2 s−1, a sensitivity of 41 μm and a critical energy dose of 15 mJ cm−2. The printing process was successfully achieved, demonstrated by some defect-free printed pieces

Excitons, trions and Rydberg states in monolayer MoS2 revealed by low temperature photocurrent spectroscopy

We investigate excitonic transitions in a h-BN encapsulated monolayer $\textrm{MoS}_2$ phototransistor by photocurrent spectroscopy at cryogenic temperature (T = 5 K). The spectra presents excitonic peaks with linewidths as low as 8 meV, one order of magnitude lower than in earlier photocurrent spectroscopy measurements. We observe four spectral features corresponding to the ground states of neutral excitons ($\textrm{X}_{\textrm{1s}}^\textrm{A}$ and $\textrm{X}_{\textrm{1s}}^\textrm{B}$) and charged trions ($\textrm{T}^\textrm{A}$ and $\textrm{T}^\textrm{B}$) as well as up to eight additional spectral lines at energies above the $\textrm{X}_{\textrm{1s}}^\textrm{B}$ transition, which we attribute to the Rydberg series of excited states of $\textrm{X}^\textrm{A}$ and $\textrm{X}^\textrm{B}$. The relative intensities of the different spectral features can be tuned by the applied gate and drain-source voltages, with trions and Rydberg excited states becoming more prominent at large gate voltages. Using an effective-mass theory for excitons in two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides we are able to accurately fit the measured spectral lines and unambiguously associate them with their corresponding Rydberg states. The fit also allows us to determine the quasiparticle bandgap and spin-orbit splitting of monolayer $\textrm{MoS}_2$, as well as the exciton binding energies of $\textrm{X}^\textrm{A}$ and $\textrm{X}^\textrm{B}$

Cerebral insulin bolus revokes the changes in hepatic lipid metabolism induced by chronic central leptin infusion

Central actions of leptin and insulin on hepatic lipid metabolism can be opposing and the mechanism underlying this phenomenon remains unclear. Both hormones can modulate the central somatostatinergic system that has an inhibitory effect on growth hormone (GH) expression, which plays an important role in hepatic metabolism. Using a model of chronic central leptin infusion, we evaluated whether an increase in central leptin bioavailability modifies the serum lipid pattern through changes in hepatic lipid metabolism in male rats in response to an increase in central insulin and the possible involvement of the GH axis in these effects. We found a rise in serum GH in leptin plus insulin-treated rats, due to an increase in pituitary GH mRNA levels associated with lower hypothalamic somatostatin and pituitary somatostatin receptor-2 mRNA levels. An augment in hepatic lipolysis and a reduction in serum levels of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and triglycerides were found in leptin-treated rats. These rats experienced a rise in lipogenic-related factors and normalization of serum levels of NEFA and triglycerides after insulin treatment. These results suggest that an increase in insulin in leptin-treated rats can act on the hepatic lipid metabolism through activation of the GH axisThis research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation with the help of European FEDER funding (FIS PI19/00166), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (BFU 2017-82565-C2-1-R) and the Network Center for Biomedical Research on Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN) Instituto Carlos III. S.C. was supported by CIBEROB