Root temperature and energy consumption at different cable depths in electrically heated substrates

A finite element method-based model of a substrate heated by an electric heating cable buried in a thermal isolated container was experimentally validated with root mean square error values of root zone temperature ranging 0.25 to 0.62 ºC. The two-dimensional transient model allowed variations in the physical properties of the substrate with temperature, water content and depth. The operation of nine configurations of a heating cable buried in sand at different depths (50 to 450 mm, at 50 mm intervals) at 200 mm spacing was simulated and assessed. The validated model was used to perform 24-h simulations applying boundary conditions, and substrate moisture content was experimentally obtained at a mean substrate surface temperature of 13.98 ºC. Such simulations reproduced the operation of the heating system by setting a reference temperature of 20 ºC at the control point in the root zone. Burying the heating cable in the surface layers of the substrate caused large temperature gradients and high heat losses through the substrate surface. Accordingly, average temperature in the root zone increased with heating cable depth, up to the 200 mm depth. For greater depths, temperature in the root zone was constant. The ON/OFF control was most effective with the heating cable buried in the root zone and at control point temperatures of 20 ± 1 ºC. Burying the heating cable in the surface layers required higher energy consumption, up to 28 % at 50 mm. The most efficient heating cable depth was 350 mm, with a daily energy consumption of 6750 kJ m-2

Tertiary treatment of urban wastewater by solar and UV-C driven advanced oxidation with peracetic acid: effect on contaminants of emerging concern and antibiotic resistance

Photo-driven advanced oxidation process (AOP) with peracetic acid (PAA) has been poorly investigated in water and wastewater treatment so far. In the present work its possible use as tertiary treatment of urban wastewater to effectively minimize the release into the environment of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and antibiotic-resistant bacteria was investigated. Different initial PAA concentrations, two light sources (sunlight and UV-C) and two different water matrices (groundwater (GW) and wastewater (WW)) were studied. Low PAA doses were found to be effective in the inactivation of antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli (AR E. coli) in GW, with the UV-C process being faster (limit of detection (LOD) achieved for a cumulative energy (QUV) of 0.3 kJL−1 with 0.2 mg PAA L−1) than solar driven one (LOD achieved at QUV = 4.4 kJL−1 with 0.2 mg PAA L−1). Really fast inactivation rates of indigenous AR E. coli were also observed in WW. Higher QUV and PAA initial doses were necessary to effectively remove the three target CECs (carbamazepine (CBZ), diclofenac and sulfamethoxazole), with CBZ being the more refractory one. In conclusion, photo-driven AOP with PAA can be effectively used as tertiary treatment of urban wastewater but initial PAA dose should be optimized to find the best compromise between target bacteria inactivation and CECs removal as well as to prevent scavenging effect of PAA on hydroxyl radicals because of high PAA concentration

Evaluation of Feature Selection Techniques for Breast Cancer Risk Prediction

This study evaluates several feature ranking techniques together with some classifiers based on machine learning to identify relevant factors regarding the probability of contracting breast cancer and improve the performance of risk prediction models for breast cancer in a healthy population. The dataset with 919 cases and 946 controls comes from the MCC-Spain study and includes only environmental and genetic features. Breast cancer is a major public health problem. Our aim is to analyze which factors in the cancer risk prediction model are the most important for breast cancer prediction. Likewise, quantifying the stability of feature selection methods becomes essential before trying to gain insight into the data. This paper assesses several feature selection algorithms in terms of performance for a set of predictive models. Furthermore, their robustness is quantified to analyze both the similarity between the feature selection rankings and their own stability. The ranking provided by the SVM-RFE approach leads to the best performance in terms of the area under the ROC curve (AUC) metric. Top-47 ranked features obtained with this approach fed to the Logistic Regression classifier achieve an AUC = 0.616. This means an improvement of 5.8% in comparison with the full feature set. Furthermore, the SVM-RFE ranking technique turned out to be highly stable (as well as Random Forest), whereas relief and the wrapper approaches are quite unstable. This study demonstrates that the stability and performance of the model should be studied together as Random Forest and SVM-RFE turned out to be the most stable algorithms, but in terms of model performance SVM-RFE outperforms Random Forest.The study was partially funded by the “Accion Transversal del Cancer”, approved on the Spanish Ministry Council on the 11th October 2007, by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III-FEDER (PI08/1770, PI08/0533, PI08/1359, PS09/00773, PS09/01286, PS09/01903, PS09/02078, PS09/01662, PI11/01403, PI11/01889, PI11/00226, PI11/01810, PI11/02213, PI12/00488, PI12/00265, PI12/01270, PI12/00715, PI12/00150), by the Fundación Marqués de Valdecilla (API 10/09), by the ICGC International Cancer Genome Consortium CLL, by the Junta de Castilla y León (LE22A10-2), by the Consejería de Salud of the Junta de Andalucía (PI-0571), by the Conselleria de Sanitat of the Generalitat Valenciana (AP 061/10), by the Recercaixa (2010ACUP 00310), by the Regional Government of the Basque Country by European Commission grants FOOD-CT- 2006-036224- HIWATE, by the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) Scientific Foundation, by the The Catalan Government DURSI grant 2009SGR1489. Samples: Biological samples were stored at the Parc de Salut MAR Biobank (MARBiobanc; Barcelona) which is supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III FEDER (RD09/0076/00036). Furthermore, at the Public Health Laboratory from Gipuzkoa and the Basque Biobank. Furthermore, sample collection was supported by the Xarxa de Bancs de Tumors de Catalunya sponsored by Pla Director d’Oncologia de Catalunya (XBTC). Biological samples were stored at the “Biobanco La Fe” which is supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (RD 09 0076/00021) and FISABIO biobanking, which is supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (RD09 0076/00058).S

Nodular Mucinosis of the Breast in a Male : Reassessment of Diagnostic Criteria and Proposal for Its Classification as a Soft Tissue Tumor in the Myofibroblastoma and Spindle Cell Lipoma Spectrum

Nodular mucinosis of the breast (NMB) is a rare entity with only a few cases described in the literature, most of them in young girls. All cases are located in the nipple and areolar area and microscopically consist of a multinodular myxoid mesenchymal proliferation. Bands of sclerotic collagen containing preexisting breast ducts and abundant vascularization are other features typical of NMB. No relation to Carney complex has been reported, and an indolent behavior is the rule in all patients. We present a case of NMB occurring in the nipple of a 46-year-old man and analyze the clinicopathological features of the other cases of NMB reported in the English literature, concluding that two of them most likely correspond to trauma-induced cutaneous focal mucinosis of the mammary areola. Finally, we review diagnostic criteria for NMB and elaborate an ontogenetic hypothesis based on both its morphological resemblance to myofibroblastoma and its immunohistochemical profile

Substantivity of mouth‑rinse formulations containing cetylpyridinium chloride and O‑cymen‑5‑ol: a randomized‑crossover trial

Background: The efficacy of mouth-rinses strongly depends upon their substantivity. The use of natural and nontoxic products that avoid secondary effects is gaining interest in preventive dentistry. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the substantivity of two formulations of mouth-washing solutions based on cetylpyridinium (CPC) and O-cymen-5-ol. Methods: This was a randomized, double-blind, crossover trial conducted at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona. Bacterial re-colonization was followed by live/dead (SYTOTM9 + propidium iodide) bacterial staining and measured by confocal laser scanning microscopy and fluorometry. Unstimulated saliva samples were collected from 16 healthy individuals at baseline saliva and then, at 15 min, 30 min and 1, 2, 3, and 4 h after the following mouth-rinses: (i) a single, 1-min mouth-rinse with 15 ml of placebo (negative control); (ii) a single, 1-min mouth-rinse with 15 ml of CPC (0.05%) ; (iii) a single, 1-min mouth-rinse with 15 ml of O-cymen-5-ol (0.09%); (iv) a single, 1-min mouth-rinse with 15 ml of CPC (0.05%) + O-cymen-5-ol (0.09%). Results: Proportion of dead bacteria was significantly higher for all mouthrinses during the first 15 min compared to baseline (CPC = 48.0 ± 13.9; 95% CI 40.98-56.99; p < 0.001, O-cymen-5-ol = 79.8 ± 21.0; 95% CI 67.71-91.90; p < 0.05, CPC + O-cymen-5-ol = 49.4 ± 14; 95% CI 40.98-56.99; p < 0.001 by fluorometry and 54.8 ± 23.0; 95% CI 41.50-68.06; p < 0.001, 76.3 ± 17.1; 95% CI 66.36-86.14; p < 0.001, 47.4 ± 11.9; 95% CI 40.49-54.30; p < 0.001 by confocal laser scanning microscopy, respectively). Nevertheless, after 4 h, CPC + O-cymen-5-ol was the only one that obtained significant values as measured by the two quantification methods used (80.3 ± 22.8; 95% CI 67.15-93.50; p < 0.05 and 81.4 ± 13.8; 95% CI 73.45-89.43; p < 0.05). The combined use of CPC + O-cymen-5-ol increased the substantivity of the mouthrinse with respect to mouthrinses prepared with either of the two active products alone. Conclusion: The synergistic interaction of CPC and O-cymen-5-ol prolongs their substantivity. The resulting formulation may be as effective as other antimicrobials, such as triclosan or chlorhexidine, but without their undesirable secondary effects. Thus, mouthrinsing products based on Combinations of CPC and O-cymen-5-ol may replace in the near future Triclosan and Chlorhexidine¿based mouthrinses

Clinical aspects of usher syndrome and the USH2A gene in a cohort of 433 patients

IMPORTANCE A new statistical approach is needed to describe the clinical differences between type I and type II Usher syndrome and between the 2 most frequent mutations in the USH2A gene. OBJECTIVES To describe the primary phenotypic characteristics and differences between type I and type II Usher syndrome and to establish a phenotype-genotype correlation for the 2 most frequent mutations in the USH2A gene. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Cross-sectional study at a genetics department, in which clinical evaluations were performed for 433 patients (297 unrelated families) who were classified as having type I, II, III, atypical, or unclassified Usher syndrome according to their clinical history, pedigree data, results from ophthalmological studies, and audiological, neurophysiological, and vestibular test results. Molecular studies were performed for 304 patients (256 unrelated families). The Mann-Whitney U test or the χ2 test was used for calculating the differences between mean values for the analyzed parameters. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Age at diagnosis; age at onset of night blindness, visual field loss, visual acuity loss, and cataracts; and severity and age at diagnosis of hearing loss. RESULTS The comparison between patients with type I Usher syndrome and those with type II Usher syndrome revealed P < .001 for most items analyzed. The most frequent mutations in the USH2A gene were the p.Glu767Serfs*21 and p.Cys759Phe mutations, with an allelic frequency of 23.2%(63 of 272 alleles) and 8.1% (22 of 272 alleles), respectively. The phenotypic analysis for patients carrying p.Cys759Phe showed P < .001 for most items analyzed when compared with patients carrying p.Glu767Serfs*21 and when compared with patients carrying other mutations in the USH2A gene. None of the p.Cys759Phe patients exhibited a severe hearing loss phenotype, and more than 60%had only mild hearing loss. Most patients carrying the p.Glu767Serfs*21 mutation (72.1%) were moderately deaf. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Our study presents the clinical differences between type I and type II Usher syndrome and between the 2 most frequent mutations in the USH2A gene. Detailed genotype-phenotype correlations, as presented in our study, allow for a better correlation of clinical signs with a known genotype and can improve the clinical management, genetic counseling, and risk assessment of patients with Usher syndrome because an estimated prognosis of their disease can be madeThis work was supported by grant PI13/00226 (to Servicio de Genética, Instituto de Investigación–Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain), by grant PI13/00638 (to Unidad de Genética y Diagnóstico Prenatal, Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia, Spain), and by grant 06/07/0036 (to Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras, Madrid, Spain) from Fundaluce and Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españole

Burden of disease from exposure to secondhand smoke in children in Europe

Background Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure at home and fetal SHS exposure during pregnancy are a major cause of disease among children. The aim of this study is quantifying the burden of disease due to SHS exposure in children and in pregnancy in 2006–2017 for the 28 European Union (EU) countries. Methods Exposure to SHS was estimated using a multiple imputation procedure based on the Eurobarometer surveys, and SHS exposure burden was estimated with the comparative risk assessment method using meta-analytical relative risks. Data on deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) were collected from National statistics and from the Global Burden of Disease Study. Results Exposure to SHS and its attributable burden stalled in 2006–2017; in pregnant women, SHS exposure was 19.8% in 2006, 19.1% in 2010, and 21.0% in 2017; in children it was 10.1% in 2006, 9.6% in 2010, and 12.1% in 2017. In 2017, 35,633 DALYs among children were attributable to SHS exposure in the EU, mainly due to low birth weight. Conclusions Comprehensive smoking bans up to 2010 contributed to reduce SHS exposure and its burden in children immediately after their implementation; however, SHS exposure still occurs, and in 2017, its burden in children was still relevant

Unidades multidisciplinares de feridas crónicas: Clínica de feridas

As Unidades Multidisciplinares de Feridas Crónicas / Clínicas de feridas devem ser as líderes que garantam o direito a uma atenção que ponha ao serviço da pessoa com feridas crónicas todos os recursos técnicos e humanos em função das suas necessidades, sejam de prevenção, de atenção ao seu processo, dependendo obviamente das possibilidades do centro, sem que os cidadãos possam ser discriminados devido ao sexo, idade, raça, ideologia e condição socioeconómica. Possibilitar uma trama eficiente na atenção, prevenção, diagnóstico e tratamento independentemente do contexto assistencial e social das pessoas com feridas crónicas. Otimizar os recursos diagnósticos, preventivos e terapêuticos dirigidos às pessoas com feridas crónicas. Aglutinar a atividade investigadora e docente em matéria de feridas crónicas da sua área de influencia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Unidades multidisciplinares de feridas crónicas: Clínica de feridas

As Unidades Multidisciplinares de Feridas Crónicas / Clínicas de feridas devem ser as líderes que garantam o direito a uma atenção que ponha ao serviço da pessoa com feridas crónicas todos os recursos técnicos e humanos em função das suas necessidades, sejam de prevenção, de atenção ao seu processo, dependendo obviamente das possibilidades do centro, sem que os cidadãos possam ser discriminados devido ao sexo, idade, raça, ideologia e condição socioeconómica. Possibilitar uma trama eficiente na atenção, prevenção, diagnóstico e tratamento independentemente do contexto assistencial e social das pessoas com feridas crónicas. Otimizar os recursos diagnósticos, preventivos e terapêuticos dirigidos às pessoas com feridas crónicas. Aglutinar a atividade investigadora e docente em matéria de feridas crónicas da sua área de influencia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio