Structural analysis, magnetic and transport properties of the (Ru1-xCox)Sr2GdCu2O8 system

The effects of Co substitution on structural and superconducting properties of RuSr2GdCu2O8 compound have been studied. Rietveld refinements of the X-ray diffraction patterns indicate that the cobalt ion progressively replaces ruthenium sites. This replacement induces significant changes on the crystal structure and on the magnetic and superconducting properties. The effects Co substitution on the superconducting behaviour, and more particulary on the changes induce by the hole doping mechanism, were investigated in (Ru1-xCox)Sr2GdCu2O8 by a "bond valence sum" analysis with Co content from x= 0.0 to x = 0.2. The weak ferromagnetic transition at Tm= 138.2 K is shifted to lower temperature, and suppressed at higher Co content. From the crystallographic point of view the Ru-O(1)-Cu bond angle, associated to the rotation of the RuO6 octahedra, around the c-axis remain essetially constant when Ru is substituted by Co. Furthermore, increasing Co content has the effect to increase the weak ferromagnetic moment, which may be interpreted as the main responsible for breaking the delicate balance between magnetic and superconducting ordering.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

Electron transport, penetration depth and upper critical magnetic field of ZrB12 and MgB2

We report on the synthesis and measurements of the temperature dependence of resistivity, R(T), the penetration depth, l(T), and upper critical magnetic field, Hc2(T), for polycrystalline samples of dodecaboride ZrB12 and diboride MgB2. We conclude that ZrB12 as well as MgB2 behave like simple metals in the normal state with usual Bloch-Gruneisen temperature dependence of resistivity and with rather low resistive Debye temperature, TR=280 K, for ZrB12 (as compared to MgB2 with TR=900 K). The R(T) and l(T) dependencies of ZrB12 reveal a superconducting transition at Tc=6.0 K. Although a clear exponential l(T)dependence in MgB2 thin films and ceramic pellets was observed at low temperatures, this dependence was almost linear for ZrB12 below Tc/2. These features indicate s-wave pairing state in MgB2, whereas a d-wave pairing state is possible in ZrB12. A fit to the data gives a reduced energy gap 2D(0)/kTc=1.6 for MgB2 films and pellets, in good agreement with published data for 3D \pi - sheets of the Fermi surface. Contrary to conventional theories we found a linear temperature dependence of Hc2(T) for ZrB12 (Hc2(0)=0.15 T).Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, submitted to JET

Más allá del hipo persistente. A propósito de un caso

A 69-year-old man, after several emergency medical care admissions, and one admission to Internal Medicine Service for persistent hiccup, was been discharged without conclusive results. After 48 hours, patient showed lower limb paraesthesia and hypaesthesia, finding in physical exams pyramidalism with positive Babinski reflex and sensitive level at D5. Myelography is performed finding out extensive cervical-thoracic myelitis, indeed neuromyelitis optica is diagnosed, confirmed by the presence of the anti-aquaporin-4 antibody in blood test. Therefore, this case shows one possible atypical presentations of neuromyelitis optica.Varón de 69 años que tras varias consultas a Urgencias y un ingreso en Medicina Interna por hipo persistente, es dado de alta sin resultados concluyentes. A las 48 horas comienza con parestesias e hipoestesia en miembros inferiores, objetivando en la exploración piramidalismo con Babinski bilateral positivo y nivel sensitivo en D5. Se realiza mielografía en la que se observan signos de mielitis extensa cervicodorsal, confirmando mediante la presencia en sangre de anticuerpos antiacuaporina-4, el diagnóstico de enfermedad de Devic. Por tanto, este caso muestra una de las posibles presentaciones atípicas de la neuromielitis óptica

Suppression of Tc in the (Y0.9Ca0.1)Ba2Cu4-xFexO8 system

In this paper, the effects produced by the iron substitutions in the (Y0.9Ca0.1)Ba2Cu4-xFexO8 system on the superconducting and structural properties are studied. The Rietveld fit of the crystal structure and Mossbauer spectroscopy results of (Y0.9Ca0.1)Ba2Cu4-xFexO8 samples indicate that, the iron atoms occupy the Cu(1) sites of the (Cu-O)2 double chain in fivefold coordination at low iron concentrations. Besides at high iron concentrations the iron atoms occupy the Cu(1) sites of single Cu-O chainss and Cu(2) sites in the CuO2 planes of the (Y0.9Ca0.1)Ba2Cu4-xFexO8 phase with structural defects. Simultaneouly, as iron concentration increases, a faster decrease of Tc is observed in this material comapred with the YBa2Cu3-xFexO7-y system. According to the charge transfer model proposed for YBa2Cu4O8 under pressure, the decrease in the Cu(1)-O(4) bond length in parallel to the increase in the Cu(2)-O(4) bond length may affect the charge transfer mechanism leading to the suppression of Tc.Comment: submitted to Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter on 12 October 2001, 8 figures, 2 tables, 9 page

Prediction of peptide and protein propensity for amyloid formation

Understanding which peptides and proteins have the potential to undergo amyloid formation and what driving forces are responsible for amyloid-like fiber formation and stabilization remains limited. This is mainly because proteins that can undergo structural changes, which lead to amyloid formation, are quite diverse and share no obvious sequence or structural homology, despite the structural similarity found in the fibrils. To address these issues, a novel approach based on recursive feature selection and feed-forward neural networks was undertaken to identify key features highly correlated with the self-assembly problem. This approach allowed the identification of seven physicochemical and biochemical properties of the amino acids highly associated with the self-assembly of peptides and proteins into amyloid-like fibrils (normalized frequency of β-sheet, normalized frequency of β-sheet from LG, weights for β-sheet at the window position of 1, isoelectric point, atom-based hydrophobic moment, helix termination parameter at position j+1 and ΔGº values for peptides extrapolated in 0 M urea). Moreover, these features enabled the development of a new predictor (available at http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/appnn/index.html) capable of accurately and reliably predicting the amyloidogenic propensity from the polypeptide sequence alone with a prediction accuracy of 84.9 % against an external validation dataset of sequences with experimental in vitro, evidence of amyloid formation

Cost-Utility Analysis of a Medication Adherence Management Service Alongside a Cluster Randomized Control Trial in Community Pharmacy.

Background: It is necessary to determine the cost utility of adherence interventions in chronic diseases due to humanistic and economic burden of non-adherence. Purpose: To evaluate, alongside a cluster-randomized controlled trial, the cost-utility of a pharmacist-led medication adherence management service (MAMS) compared with usual care in community pharmacies. Materials and Methods: The trial was conducted over six months. Patients with treatments for hypertension, asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were included. Patients in the intervention group (IG) received a MAMS based on a brief complex intervention, whilst patients in the control group (CG) received usual care. The cost–utility analysis adopted a health system perspective. Costs related to medications, healthcare resources and adherence intervention were included. The effectiveness was estimated as quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), using a multiple imputation missing data model. The incremental cost–utility ratio (ICUR) was calculated on the total sample of patients. Results: A total of 1186 patients were enrolled (IG: 633; CG: 553). The total intervention cost was estimated to be € 27.33 ± 0.43 per patient for six months. There was no statistically significant difference in total cost of medications and healthcare resources per patient between IG and CG. The values of EQ-5D-5L at 6 months were significantly higher in the IG [IG: 0.881 ± 0.005 vs CG: 0.833 ± 0.006; p = 0.000]. In the base case, the service was more expensive and more effective than usual care, resulting in an ICUR of € 1,494.82/QALY. In the complete case, the service resulted in an ICUR of € 2,086.30/QALY, positioned between the north-east and south-east quadrants of the cost–utility plane. Using a threshold value of € 20,000/QALY gained, there is a 99% probability that the intervention is cost-effective. Conclusion: The medication adherence management service resulted in an improvement in the quality of life of the population with chronic disease, with similar costs compared to usual care. The service is cost-effective

A systematic cross-search for radio/infrared counterparts of XMM-Newton sources

We present a catalog of cross-correlated radio, infrared and X-ray sources using a very restrictive selection criteria with an IDL-based code developed by us. The significance of the observed coincidences was evaluated through Monte Carlo simulations of synthetic sources following a well-tested protocol. We found 3320 coincident radio/X-ray sources with a high statistical significance characterized by the sum of error-weighted coordinate differences. For 997 of them, 2MASS counterparts were found. The percentage of chance coincidences is less than 1%. X-ray hardness ratios of well-known populations of objects were used to provide a crude representation of their X-ray spectrum and to make a preliminary diagnosis of the possible nature of unidentified X-ray sources. The results support the fact that the X-ray sky is largely dominated by Active Galactic Nuclei at high galactic latitudes (|b| >= 10^\circ). At low galactic latitudes (|b| <= 10^\circ) most of unidentified X-ray sources (~94%) lie at |b| <= 2^\circ. This result suggests that most of the unidentified sources found toward the Milky Way plane are galactic objects. Well-known and unidentified sources were classified in different tables with their corresponding radio/infrared and X-ray properties. These tables are intended as a useful tool for researchers interested in particular identifications.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap&SS. 47 pages, 10 figures. On-line material: figures and table

Percepción de los formadores colegiales sobre el futuro profesional de esta nueva figura laboral en la farmacia comunitaria

Objetivo: Explorar la percepción de Formadores Colegiales con experiencia previa sobre su formación y sus funciones futurasen la implantación y sostenibilidad del servicio de Seguimiento Farmacoterapéutico en el ámbito de la farmacia comunitariaespañola. Método: Estudio cualitativo mediante la técnica del grupo focal. El coordinador de la reunión focal utilizó un guión temáticopreviamente elaborado que permitía explorar la opinión de los Formadores Colegiales sobre sus experiencias y percepciones acercadel futuro de esta nueva figura profesional. El contenido de la conversación fue registrado en una grabadora, transcrito en su totalidady posteriormente analizado mediante análisis de contenido. Resultados: La reunión grupal celebrada en la sede del Consejo General de Colegios Oficiales de Farmacéuticos, en Madrid, tuvo unaduración de 95 minutos. Participaron seis Formadores Colegiales. En función de los temas tratados se identificaron dos dimensiones;una primera que abarca las funciones que debe desempeñar un Formador Colegial (resaltando la función de motivador, facilitadorde la comunicación y formador metodológico y clínico) y una segunda en las que se describen las características que ese profesionaldebe tener para poder realizar su papel facilitador (entre las que destacan que debe ser un profesional contratado por el Colegio deFarmacéuticos correspondiente, con lugar físico de trabajo dentro del mismo, y con jornada laboral completa y flexible, entre otrascaracterísticas). Conclusiones: El presente artículo aporta información relevante sobre la figura innovadora del Formador Colegial, describiendo lascaracterísticas intrínsecas necesarias para desarrollar su labor y las funciones a desempeñar. Dicha información debería ser utilizadapor aquellos Colegios Oficiales de Farmacéuticos provinciales que deseen implantar Servicios Profesionales Farmacéuticos, talescomo el servicio de Seguimiento Farmacoterapéutico

Percepción de los formadores colegiales sobre el futuro profesional de esta nueva figura laboral en la farmacia comunitaria

Objetivo: Explorar la percepción de Formadores Colegiales con experiencia previa sobre su formación y sus funciones futurasen la implantación y sostenibilidad del servicio de Seguimiento Farmacoterapéutico en el ámbito de la farmacia comunitariaespañola. Método: Estudio cualitativo mediante la técnica del grupo focal. El coordinador de la reunión focal utilizó un guión temáticopreviamente elaborado que permitía explorar la opinión de los Formadores Colegiales sobre sus experiencias y percepciones acercadel futuro de esta nueva figura profesional. El contenido de la conversación fue registrado en una grabadora, transcrito en su totalidady posteriormente analizado mediante análisis de contenido. Resultados: La reunión grupal celebrada en la sede del Consejo General de Colegios Oficiales de Farmacéuticos, en Madrid, tuvo unaduración de 95 minutos. Participaron seis Formadores Colegiales. En función de los temas tratados se identificaron dos dimensiones;una primera que abarca las funciones que debe desempeñar un Formador Colegial (resaltando la función de motivador, facilitadorde la comunicación y formador metodológico y clínico) y una segunda en las que se describen las características que ese profesionaldebe tener para poder realizar su papel facilitador (entre las que destacan que debe ser un profesional contratado por el Colegio deFarmacéuticos correspondiente, con lugar físico de trabajo dentro del mismo, y con jornada laboral completa y flexible, entre otrascaracterísticas). Conclusiones: El presente artículo aporta información relevante sobre la figura innovadora del Formador Colegial, describiendo lascaracterísticas intrínsecas necesarias para desarrollar su labor y las funciones a desempeñar. Dicha información debería ser utilizadapor aquellos Colegios Oficiales de Farmacéuticos provinciales que deseen implantar Servicios Profesionales Farmacéuticos, talescomo el servicio de Seguimiento Farmacoterapéutico