Sex and Age-Related Differences in Neuroticism and Allostatic Load Index in Urban Patients with General Anxiety Disorder Treated with Alprazolam

Introduction: Allostatic Load (AL) index proposes indicators for the functioningof the main potentially stress-affected systems. Sex differences instress response and stress-related diseases susceptibility have been describedfor the general population. In this observational study we describe the effectsof sex and age on allostatic load variables, in a cohort of patients with generalanxiety disorders and neuroticism treated with alprazolam during 12 weeks,before and after treatment. Methods: Patients with general (DSM IV) anxietydisorders with >6 in Hamilton scale, Allostatic load (>1 Crimmins and SeemanAL modified criteria) and neuroticism >18 (NEO-FFI inventory), wereincluded. All patients completed psychiatric assessment, allostatic load indexdetermination before (−1 week) and after 12 weeks of treatment with alprazolam(0.25 - 1 mg/t.i.d). Allostatic load parameters comprised cardiovascular,metabolic and inflammatory variables. Univariate analysis (two-wayANOVA), Student?s t-test (related variables) and Pearson correlations weredetermined. Results: Fifty-four patients, 35 females (48.6 ± 11.7 years) and 19males (44.2 ± 12.8 years) with general anxiety disorder were included; 28 patientswith <50 years (60.7% females), and 26 with ≥50 years (69.2% females).Younger patients (<50 years) (two-way ANOVA, p = 0.02) were significantlyassociated with lower allostatic load index after treatment. However, womenshowed higher anxiety levels in both, before (Two-way ANOVA, p = 0.059)and after treatment (two-way ANOVA, p = 0.005), with a significantly betterprofile than men in many individual AL variables, particularly cardiovascular(systolic blood pressure), obesity (body mass index), and lipids (higher HDLlevels). After treatment a higher reduction of fibrinogen levels was found inmen (two-way ANOVA, p = 0.02). Conclusions: In this preliminary analysiswe described sex and age differences in psychiatry aspects and allostatic loadindexes in patients with general anxiety disorders in the short-term treatmentwith alprazolam. These considerations remark the need of pondering sex andage differences during the use of drugs for protracted periods.Fil: D`Alessio, Luciana. Universidad Nacional Arturo Jauretche. Unidad Ejecutora de Estudios en Neurociencias y Sistemas Complejos. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Alta Complejidad en Red El Cruce Dr. Néstor Carlos Kirchner Samic. Unidad Ejecutora de Estudios en Neurociencias y Sistemas Complejos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Unidad Ejecutora de Estudios en Neurociencias y Sistemas Complejos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Soria, Carlos A.. Henri Laborit Institute Of Biosciences; ArgentinaFil: Remedi, Carolina. Henri Laborit Institute Of Biosciences; Argentina; ArgentinaFil: Roldán, Emilio J. A.. Instituto de Neurobiología IDNEU; Argentin

Las viviendas informales de albañilería y su influencia en la vulnerabilidad sísmica en la asociación habitacional, sven ericsson y sus sectores -Tingo María - 2019

En cuanto a la investigación presentada a continuación cabe mencionar que tuvo como objetivo general la determinación de la influencia de las viviendas informales de albañilería en la vulnerabilidad sísmica en la asociación habitacional, Sven Ericsson y sus sectores-Tingo María-Huánuco-2019, para dicha investigación se seleccionó además una muestra de 35 viviendas al azar, este trabajo tiene un enfoque cuantitativo, diseño no experimental de nivel descriptivo – correlacional, se utilizó como instrumentos el cuestionario y la ficha de evaluación para la recopilación de datos, el cuestionario se aplicó a los propietarios de las viviendas y la ficha de evaluación se ha realizado a las viviendas de albañilería. Con este fin la pregunta de investigación es la siguiente: ¿Cuál será la influencia de las viviendas informales de albañilería en la vulnerabilidad sísmica en la asociación habitacional, Sven Ericsson y sus sectores – Tingo María – Huánuco – 2019?, en ese sentido las viviendas informales de albañilería vienen a ser edificaciones de viviendas sin las consideraciones técnicas de un profesional en la materia, en éste caso el asesoramiento de un ingeniero y por otro lado la vulnerabilidad sísmica correspondiente al daño que puede resistir la estructura ante un movimiento telúrico. Los resultados conseguidos indican que las viviendas informales de albañilería influyen significativamente en la vulnerabilidad sísmica en la asociación habitacional, Sven Ericsson y sus sectores – Tingo María – Huánuco – 2019; para un nivel de significancia de 0.05 se obtuvo el P valor = 0.040

Self organizing maps as a novel tool for data analysis in education

Young people currently live and are connected to the virtual world in a natural and simple way. Nevertheless, in spite of the great advantages of the use of Information and Communication Technology, and particularly social networks, there are several drawbacks, principally security and privacy of net users. However, human behaviour is strongly non-linear, so usual statistical analysis does not yield accurate results. Now, machine learning algorithms are very common in solving real life non-linear problems, such as economics, medicine and engineering. So it would be worthy to apply this methodology on education data sets. In this work, a non-linear, visual algorithm named Self Organizing Map (SOM) has been applied in order to extract some conclusions about related aspects mainly, to security and privacy perception of teenagers when using Virtual Social Networks. SOMs are a particular tool based on Artificial Neural Networks, and provide both a non linear approach and a visualization tool of data. The present work proposes a study to determine and analyze the different aspects. A methodology based on a survey consisting of 27 questions has been carried out on a 170 teenagers, aged between 12 and 16 years. SOMs have been applied on variables related to Facebook privacy and security issues. Data on every variable have been mapped into a 7x12 neurons network. The results have revealed a lack of knowledge of privacy, protection mechanisms and even their own image, that Virtual Social Network implements. A lack of awareness and sensibility about the problems that a thoughtless use of these social networks can cause has been detected. In other way, this work also has proved that SOM is a valuable, interesting tool to infer knowledge from non-linear data and a different proposal from the classical linear statistical methods

Semantic and Phonemic Verbal Fluency Performance in Patients with General Anxiety Disorders and Allostatic Load under Alprazolam Treatment

Purpose: Anxiety disorders are frequently associated with chronic stress with possible cognitive consequences. The aim of this study was to determine the verbal fluency performance in a cohort of patients with anxiety disorders and allostatic load, treated with alprazolam during 12 weeks. Methods: Patients with GAD (general anxiety disorders, DSM IV), with >6 in Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), neuroticism > 18 (NEO-FFI inventory), and normal Mini-Mental State Examination were included. Clinical and Psychiatric examination, Allostatic Load Index and cognitive assessment were analyzed before and after 12 weeks of treatment. The phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tests were determined in all patients. The scoring for each fluency task was determined by counting the number of correct words. The total score from each semantic and phonemic verbal task was analyzed comparing the individual score with normal data controlled by age and sex. Patients with scores > −2 standard deviation (SD) from normative data were considered impaired. Results: Fifty-four patients completed the semantic verbal fluency test before treatment and fifty patients completed after treatment. According to the z-scores before treatment 7 patients of 54 (12.9%) had verbal fluency impairments. After treatment none patients showed semantic verbal fluency deficits but 3 patients of 50 (6%) showed phonemic impairments. Impaired group was significantly associated with an older age before treatment (p = 0.033) and with a similar tendency but not significant (p = 0.09) after treatment (Student t test). Conclusion: In this study older age factor was associated with verbal fluency impairment in GAD patients. Stratified treatments.Fil: Soria, Carlos Alberto. Institute of Biosciences Henri Laborit; ArgentinaFil: Remedi, Carolina. Institute of Biosciences Henri Laborit; ArgentinaFil: D`alessio, Luciana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Roldán, Emilio J. A.. Dirección Científica Gador S. A.; Argentin

Tratamiento digital de señales. Problemas y ejercicios resueltos

El documento es un libro de problemas y ejercicios de Tratamiento Digital de Señales. Este libro publicado por Prentice-Hall en 2003, se ofrece actualmente como recurso de acceso abierto tras su descatalogación. En él se ofrecen ejemplos de problemas y ejercicios resueltos de Tratamiento Digital de Señales, a los que previamente se introduce la base teórica suficiente como para seguir el desarrollo del texto. El contenido es el siguiente: Señales y sistemas en tiempo discreto; Análisis frecuencial de señales y sistemas; Transformada z; Realización de sistemas en tiempo discreto; Efectos de longitud de palabra finita; Diseño de filtros digitales; Sistemas adaptativos.That document is a book of problems and exercices of Digital Signal Processing. This book was published in 2003 by Prentice-Hall, and is now offered as an Open Acces resource after gotten out of catalog. It shows the resolution of problems and exercices of Digital Signal Processing, with a previous theoric introduction, enough to follow the text. The contents are: Discrete signals and systems; Frequencial analysis of signals and systems; Z Transform; Discrete-time systems implementation; Finite word-lenth effects; Digital filters design; Adaptative systems

Self-Organizing Maps to Analyze Value Creation in Mergers and Acquisitions in the Telecommunications Sector

A great effort has been made in recent years to refine the study methods that emerged in the 1990s to assess long-term abnormal returns in the stock markets as a way to evaluate the value creation or destruction of merger and acquisition (M&A) in the sector of telecommunications. It is regularly addressed in generic merger and acquisition studies, with a short-term time horizon or just with a qualitative focus. In this work, we use a visual data-mining tool, Self-Organizing-Maps (SOM), to analyze mergers and acquisitions in telecommunications sector. The relationship among variables influencing the M&A was only observed due to the capabilities of the visual neural map method that allow to relate variables, which is not possible with other classical methods. In this work, the relationship obtained with the SOM linking M&A language, M&A cross-border, and size of the acquiring company is an important result

Thermodynamic analysis of the hardening process on iron ore Pellet

El presente estudio está enfocado en la dilucidación de la fenomenología fisicoquímica de la etapa de endurecido de pelet de mineral de hierro. Empleando el método de minimización de energía libre de Gibbs se desarrolló un diagrama de equilibrio propio del endurecido del pelet, el cual muestra la evolución de las fases en equilibrio en función de la historia térmica, el sistema inicial está dado mediante el análisis químico del pelet verde, antes de ser introducido en el horno. Esta parte del estudio se validó mediante resultados de difracción de Rayos X. Se analizó el proceso industrial de peletización mediante un balance de materia y energía que integra mediciones de flujos de los materiales de alimentación, análisis químicos del mineral, caudales másicos de aditivos, flujo de gas para combustión, aire inyectado a quemadores, flujo y análisis químico de gases de chimenea. El balance de materia y energía del endurecido de pelet permite determinar la energía requerida por la fusión parcial del mineral de hierro en combinación con la disociación de aditivos como la caliza y dolomita, la energía necesaria para la eliminación de humedad, los calores sensibles arrastrados por las corrientes de salida y las pérdidas de calor a través de las paredes del horno.Abstract: The present study is focused on the energetic evaluation and in the elucidation of the physicochemical phnomenology of the stage of hardened of pellet, using the method of minimization of free energy of Gibbs was developed a equilibrium diagram of the pellet induration process, which shows the evolution of the phases in balance depending on the thermal history, the initial system is given by means of the chemical analysis of the green pelet, before being introduced in the oven. This report of the study was validated by means of results of diffraction of X-rays. The industrial-scale process for pellets production was analyzed based on a heat and material balance that includes measurements of flows of raw materials, chemical analysis of the iron ore, additives, gas flow for combustion, air injected to burners, flue gases analysis. The heat and material balance of pellet induration process allows the determination of the energy needed by the incipient melting of the iron ore in combination with the additives as the limestone one and dolomite, the energy necessary for the elimination of moisture, the specific heats dragged by the currents of exit and the heat losses across the walls of the oven

Crystallographic Visualization of a Double Water Molecule Addition on a Pt-1-MOF during the Low-temperature Water-Gas Shift Reaction

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: C. Bilanin, E. Tiburcio, J. Ferrando-Soria, D. Armentano, A. Leyva-Pérez, E. Pardo, ChemCatChem 2021, 13, 1195, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.202001492. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.[EN] The low-temperature water-gas shift reaction (WGSR, CO+H2O H-2+CO2) is considered a very promising reaction -candidate for fuel cells- despite an efficient and robust catalyst is still desirable. One of the more prominent catalysts for this reaction is based on single Pt atoms (Pt-1) on different supports, which are supposed to manifold the reaction by the accepted mechanism for the general WGSR, i. e. by addition of one H2O molecule to CO, with generation of CO2 and H-2. Here we show, experimentally, that not one but two H2O molecules are added to CO on the Pt-1 catalyst, as assessed by a combination of reactivity experiments with soluble Pt catalysts, kinetic and spectroscopic measurements, and finally by in-operando single crystal X-ray diffraction on a Pt-1-MOF, to visualize the formation of the hemiacetal intermediate on the solid catalytic site. These results confirm our previous DFT predictions and provide a paradigmatic shift in the assumed mechanism of the WGSR, which may open the debate if two H2O molecules are recurrently added during the WGSR, not only for Pt-1 catalysts but also for other metal catalysts.This work was supported by the Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universita e della Ricerca (Italy) and the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (Spain) (Projects PID2019-104778GB-I00 and CTQ2017-86735-P and the excellence units "Severo Ochoa" SEV-2016-0683 and "Maria de Maeztu" CEX2019-000919-M). C. B. and E. T. thank ITQ and MINECO for the concession of fellowships. Thanks are extended to the "2019 Post-doctoral Junior Leader-Retaining Fellowship, la Caixa Foundation (ID100010434 and fellowship code LCF/BQ/PR19/11700011" (J. F.-S.). D.A. acknowledges the financial support of the Fondazione CARIPLO / "Economia Circolare: ricerca per un futuro sostenibile" 2019, Grant number: 2019-2090, MOCA. We thank to Dr. R. Adam, Dr. J. Oliver-Meseguer and J. C. Arango for their help. E.P. acknowledges the financial support of the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme / ERC Grant Agreement No 814804, MOF-reactors. We acknowledge Diamond Light Source for awarded beamtime and provision of synchrotron radiation facilities with dosing gas cell and thank Dr Mark Warren for his assistance at I19 beamline (Proposal number MT18768-2).Bilanin-Artigado, C.; Tiburcio, E.; Ferrando-Soria, J.; Armentano, D.; Leyva Perez, A.; Pardo, E. (2021). Crystallographic Visualization of a Double Water Molecule Addition on a Pt-1-MOF during the Low-temperature Water-Gas Shift Reaction. ChemCatChem. 13(4):1195-1200. https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.202001492S1195120013

Numerical and Experimental Evaluation and Heat Transfer Characteristics of a Soft Magnetic Transformer Built from Laminated Steel Plates

The present work evaluates, both experimentally and numerically, the heat transfer characteristics of a 5 kW three-phase transformer built from laminated steel sheets. The transformer is operated at different powers, and its temperature distribution is monitored using 108 thermocouples. The experimental measurements are used firstly to determine the heat dissipated at the core and the windings of the transformer. This information is used as an input for a finite element numerical model, which evaluates the heat transfer characteristics of the transformer. The model proposed in this work simply solves the diffusion equation inside the transformer, accounting for the anisotropic thermal conductivity of the different components of the transformer, together with well-known correlations at its boundaries. The results reveal that the proposed numerical model can correctly reproduce the maximum temperature, the temperature distribution, and the time-evolution of the temperature at specific points of the transformer measured during the experimental campaign. These results are of great use for the subsequent development of transformers of the same type in lab-scale or industrial-scale size and reveal the applicability of simplified numerical models to accurately predict the heat transfer characteristics of this kind of transformers.Eduardo Cano-Pleite acknowledges support from the CONEX-Plus programme funded by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 801538.Publicad

Exploring the Heterogeneity and Trajectories of Positive Functioning Variables, Emotional Distress, and Post-traumatic Growth During Strict Confinement Due to COVID-19

COVID-19 pandemic-related confinement may be a fruitful opportunity to use individual resources to deal with it or experience psychological functioning changes. This study aimed to analyze the evolution of different psychological variables during the first coronavirus wave to identify the different psychological response clusters, as well as to keep a follow-up on the changes among these clusters. The sample included 459 Spanish residents (77.8% female, Mage = 35.21 years, SDage = 13.00). Participants completed several online self-reported questionnaires to assess positive functioning variables (MLQ, Steger et al. in J Loss Trauma 13(6):511–527, 2006. 10.1080/15325020802173660; GQ-6, McCullough et al. in J Person Soc Psychol 82:112–127, 2002. 10.1037/0022-3514.82.1.112; CD-RISC, Campbell-Sills and Stein in J Traum Stress 20(6):1019–1028, 2007. 10.1002/jts.20271; CLS-H, Chiesi et al. in BMC Psychol 8(1):1–9, 2020. 10.1186/s40359-020-0386-9; SWLS; Diener et al. in J Person Assess, 49(1), 71–75, 1985), emotional distress (PHQ-2, Kroenke et al. in Med Care 41(11):1284–1292, 2003. 10.1097/01.MLR.0000093487.78664.3C; GAD-2, Kroenke et al. in Ann Internal Med 146(5):317–325, 2007. 10.7326/0003-4819-146-5-200703060-00004; PANAS, Watson et al. in J Person Soc Psychol 47:1063–1070, 1988; Perceived Stress, ad hoc), and post-traumatic growth (PTGI-SF; Cann et al. in Anxiety Stress Coping 23(2):127–137, 2010. 10.1080/10615800903094273), four times throughout the 3 months of the confinement. Linear mixed models showed that the scores on positive functioning variables worsened from the beginning of the confinement, while emotional distress and personal strength improved by the end of the state of alarm. Clustering analyses revealed four different patterns of psychological response: “Survival”, “Resurgent”, “Resilient”, and “Thriving” individuals. Four different profiles were identified during mandatory confinement and most participants remained in the same cluster. The “Resilient” cluster gathered the largest number of individuals (30–37%). We conclude that both the heterogeneity of psychological profiles and analysis of positive functioning variables, emotional distress, and post-traumatic growth must be considered to better understand the response to prolonged adverse situations