Auditorías en seguridad clínica para centros de atención primaria. Estudio piloto

Objetivo: Detectar procesos organizativos, infracciones de normas o actuaciones profesionales que supongan niveles de inseguridad clínica. Diseno: ¿ Estudio descriptivo transversal mediante encuesta personalizada heteroadministrada de junio de 2008 hasta febrero de 2010. Emplazamiento: Trece de los 53 equipos de atención primaria (EAP) del ICS Costa de Ponent, Barcelona. Participantes: Trabajadores de 13 EAP agrupados en: director/a, adjunto/a, responsable del servicio de admisiones y médico/a centinela. Métodos: Selección no aleatoria, aparejando centros docentes/no docentes, urbanos/rurales, pequenos/grandes. ¿ Se evaluaron 33 indicadores: 15 de procedimientos, 9 de cultura y actitud, 3 de formación y 6 de comunicación. Criterios de exclusión: no colaboración. Resultados: Características de los 55 profesionales encuestados: 84,6% de centros urbanos, 46,2% docentes y 76,9% EAP grandes. Distribución por estamentos: 13 responsables de atención al usuario, 13 adjuntos de enfermería, 13 directores y 16 médicos centinelas. Nivel de inseguridad: < 50% respuestas afirmativas por indicador. Los EAP estudiados presentaron niveles de inseguridad en: recepción de nuevos profesionales médicos, administración de inyectables, sistema de recogida de domicilios por enfermería en fines de semana, interconsultas urgentes a especialistas, pacientes agresivos, presencia de incidentes críticos sobre las agendas de los médicos y barreras de comunicación en planes terapéuticos y con inmigrantes

From Mesocates to Helicates: Structural, Magnetic and Chiro-Optical Studies on Nickel(II) Supramolecular Assemblies Derived from Tetradentate Schiff Bases

The systematic reactions of a family of tetradentate pyridyl/imine and quinolyl/imine racemic or enantiopure Schiff bases with Ni(NO3)(2) or Ni(ClO4)(2) in the presence of sodium azide yielded, as a function of the starting racemic, chiral or achiral base, a set of chiral, meso or achiral complexes. In all cases, the compounds consist of two Ni-II cations linked by a double azido bridge in its end-on coordination mode. All the dimers exhibit a mesocate supramolecular structure and one of them, the unprecedented mix of helicate and mesocate in 2:1 ratio. The transition from mesocate to helicate conformation has been reached by tuning the flexibility of the central spacers of the Schiff bases and the size of the substituents. Electronic circular dichroism (ECD) studies have been performed for two pairs of enantiomers and interpreted by means of DFT calculations. Susceptibility measurements show a ferromagnetic coupling between the Ni-II cations mediated by the end-on azido bridges

Primera aproximació al jaciment fortificat de Sant Llorenç d'Ares (Ager)

El castell de Sant Lorenç de Montsec, dit també d'Ares, està vinculat des desls seus origens a la tasca de reconquesta i repoblació de la Marca d'Urgell, duta a terme per un extraordinari guerrer com fou Arnau Mir de Tost. Aquest era provinent d'una important família de vicaris d'aquell castell de l'Alt Urgell. La seva fortuna s'acresqué gràcies al seu valor personal i a haver sabut aprofitar adequadament, a son favor, els períodes de declivi i afebliment comtals. tant de la casa de Barcelona, como de la d'Urgell i Pallars, augmentant així el patrimoni heretat del la Vall de Lord, les vesants de la serra del Cadí i el nucli de Tost

Catalytic activity and accessibility of acidic ion-exchange resins in liquid phase etherification reactions

Abstract Although macroreticular acidic ion-exchange resins have been widely used as catalysts in the industrial world for decades, their catalytic behavior is still far from being completely understood at a molecular level. Several characterization techniques coexist, which provide information about their properties. Only few of these techniques give an actual picture of their working-state features when swollen in anhydrous polar reactive media such as in etherification processes, where they are extensively used. The inverse steric exclusion chromatography technique, based on modeling the micropores structure, or gel-phase, as a set of discrete volume fractions with a characteristic polymer chain density, constitutes an appropriate procedure to assess the morphology of ion-exchangers in the swollen state. Present work proposes an empirical model to correlate the properties of the volume fractions with their catalytic activity in the etherification reaction rates of isobutene by addition of C1 to C4 linear primary alcohols. Sixteen different macroreticular acidic ion-exchange catalysts, both commercial and lab-made, have been used, which differ in acid capacity, sulfonation type, cross-linking degree and swollen-phase volume fractions distribution. Experimental reaction rates have been expressed as a sum of contributions of each individual volume fraction. The contribution of each polymer volume fraction corresponds to the product of the catalyst acidity, the characteristic volume fraction within the gel-phase of the catalyst, and a specific turnover frequency (TOF) of that fraction. Accessibility of the reacting alcohol, expressed in terms of the Ogston coefficient, has been also included in the empirical dependency equation presented in this work

New highly charged iron(III) metal-organic cube stabilized by a bulky amine.

In this work, we report a new octanuclear cluster based on FeIII and the ligand 1H-imidazole-4,5-dicarboxylic acid, [Et3NH]12[Fe8(IDC)12]·10DMF·13H2O (1), with a metal core containing eight FeIII connected by only one type of organic ligand. A peak at 573 m/z in the mass spectra of the compound suggests the adduct species {[Fe8(IDC)12]+8H}4-. By X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the oxidation state of the iron cation was confirmed to be 3+, also identifying the presence of a quaternary nitrogen species, which act as a countercation of the anionic metal core [Fe8(IDC)12]12-. Mössbauer spectra recorded at different temperatures show an isomer shift and quadrupole splitting parameters that confirm the existence of only FeIII-HS in the structure of 1. X-ray analysis reveals that compound 1 crystallizes in the orthorhombic system space group Ibam, confirming a molecular cluster structure with an almost regular cube as geometry, with the FeIII atoms located at the corners of the cube and connected by μ-1κ2 N,O:2κ2 N',O‴-IDC3- bridges. Additionally, the magnetic measurements reveal a weak antiferromagnetic coupling in the Fe8 III coordination cluster (J = -3.8 cm-1). To the best of our knowledge, 1 is the first member of the family of cubes assembled with 1H-imidazole-4,5-dicarboxylic acid and FeIII cation, exhibiting high pH stability over a broad pH range, making it an ideal candidate for the design of supramolecular structures and metal-organic frameworks

Metal transfer to sediments, invertebrates and fish following waterborne exposure to silver nitrate or silver sulfide nanoparticles in an indoor stream mesocosm

The fate of engineered nanomaterials in ecosystems is unclear. An aquatic stream mesocosm explored the fate and bioaccumulation of silver sulfide nanoparticles (AgS NPs) compared to silver nitrate (AgNO). The aims were to determine the total Ag in water, sediment and biota, and to evaluate the bioavailable fractions of silver in the sediment using a serial extraction method. The total Ag in the water column from a nominal daily dose of 10 μg L of Ag for the AgNO or AgS NP treatments reached a plateau of around 13 and 12 μg L, respectively, by the end of the study. Similarly, the sediment of both Ag-treatments reached ~380 μg Ag kg, and with most of it being acid-extractable/labile. The biota accumulated 4–59 μg Ag g dw, depending on the type of Ag-treatment and organism. The oligochaete worm, Lumbriculus variegatus, accumulated Ag from the AgS exposure over time, which was similar to the AgNO treatment by the end of the experiment. The planarian, Girardia tigrina, and the chironomid larva, Chironomus riparius, showed much higher Ag concentrations than the oligochaete worms; and with a clearer time-dependent statistically significant Ag accumulation relative to the untreated controls. For the pulmonate snail, Physa acuta, bioaccumulation of Ag from AgNO and AgS NP exposures was observed, but was lower from the nano treatment. The AgNO exposure caused appreciable Ag accumulation in the water flea, Daphnia magna, but accumulation was higher in the AgS NP treatment (reaching 59 μg g dw). In the rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, AgNO, but not AgS NPs, caused total Ag concentrations to increase in the tissues. Overall, the study showed transfer of total Ag from the water column to the sediment, and Ag bioaccumulation in the biota, with Ag from AgS NP exposure generally being less bioavailable than that from AgNO.This work was supported by the project NanoFASE (Nanomaterial Fate and Speciation in the Environment), financed by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 646002. RDH was partly supported by NanoHarmony under grant agreement 885931 in Horizon 2020 while redrafting the main text. PVS was awarded with a PhD grant (SFRH/BD/51571/2014) by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. SL and PVS received additional financial support from FCT/MCTES, through national funds, to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020+ LA/P/0094/2020)

Probing the immune responses to nanoparticles across environmental species. A perspective of the EU Horizon 2020 project PANDORA

Understanding how engineered nanomaterials affect immune responses of living organisms requires a strong collaborative effort between immunologists, toxicologists, ecologists, physiologists, inorganic chemists, nanomaterial scientists and experts in law and risk management. This perspective aims to provide a new viewpoint on the interaction between engineered nanomaterials and the immune defensive systems across living species, gained within the EU Horizon 2020 project PANDORA. We consider the effects of nanoparticle exposure on immune functions in plants, marine and terrestrial invertebrates and their relation to the current state of knowledge for vertebrates (in particular humans). These studies can shed light on the broader perspective of defensive and homeostatic mechanisms (immunity, inflammation, stress responses, microbiota, stem cell differentiation) suggesting ways to: i) perform a comparative analysis of the nanoparticle impact on immunity across model organisms; ii) inspire best practices in experimental methodologies for nanosafety/nanotoxicity studies; iii) regroup and harmonise fragmented research activities; iv) improve knowledge transfer strategies and nano-security; v) propose innovative tools and realistic solutions, thereby helping in identifying future research needs and tackling their challenges