Trace analysis of flubendiamide in bee pollen using enhanced matrix removal-lipid sorbent clean-up and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Producción CientíficaIn this work, a new method has been proposed with the aim of determining flubendiamide, a recently commercialized insecticide, in bee pollen by using liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. For this purpose, a novel sample treatment has been proposed that has proven efficient in terms of recovery (average analyte recoveries were between 90% and 102%) and absence of matrix effect, and one which is effective, fast and selective. This involved a solvent extraction using an acetonitrile and water mixture, and a clean-up stage where, in addition to freezing, an enhanced matrix removal-lipid sorbent was successfully used for the first time with this matrix and analyte. The chromatographic conditions were also optimized, by selecting a C18 based column (Gemini® C18) and acetic acid (1 mM) in water and methanol as mobile phase components, allowing elution of flubendiamide in<4 min, with a total analysis time of 14 min. Validation was carried out, with the result that all the parameters studied complied with existing European legislation. It should be noted that the sensitivity of the method was excellent, with a quantification limit (4 μg/kg) well below the maximum residue level established for this insecticide in bee products (50 μg/kg). Finally, several bee pollen samples were analyzed, and flubendiamide residues were not found in any of the cases.Este trabajo forma parte de los proyectos de investigación financiados por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad e INIA-FEDER (RTA2013-00042-C10-03 y 06)

Supercritical fluid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry: A valuable tool in food analysis

Producción CientíficaSupercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), although known for several decades, has undergone a growing interest in the last few years fueled by the introduction of modern instruments with improved robustness, and hyphenation to mass spectrometry (MS). This allows the analysis of trace compounds in complex samples with high selectivity, high sensitivity and in a short time, which has contributed to its increased use in the food analysis area. This work reviews the principal applications of SFC-MS in food analysis, highlighting the most important achievements

Impacto del envejecimiento en la calidad de vida de los trabajadores con discapacidad intelectual

The increased life-expectancy of people with intellectual disability is generating new needs for attention and care that can assist healthy aging. This question is accentuated among workers from Special Employment Centers, for whom aging has a twofold impact, in so far as it interferes with their professional development and their means of earning a living. A study is conducted with a sample of 49 workers from a Special Employment Center, with the objective of analyzing the quality of life of people with intellectual disability. The information was gathered with the INICO-FEAPS Integral Evaluation Scale of the Quality of Life of People with Intellectual Disability. The Mann-Whitney U test; Spearman test and Anova are used for data analysis. The results highlighted the importance of age on quality-of-life deterioration, evident from lower scores for emotional wellbeing, social inclusion and social relations, among others, as well as the differences according to gender and training of the group. The need is noted to establish challenges and proposals that will minimize the negative impacts of aging on the journey towards a non-active stage. One limitation of the study is the need for larger sample sizes.El incremento en la esperanza de vida de las personas con discapacidad intelectual está generando nuevas necesidades de atención y cuidados que garanticen un envejecimiento saludable. Esta cuestión se acentúa en los trabajadores de los Centros Especiales de Empleo, para quienes el envejecimiento impacta doblemente al interferir en su desempeño profesional y su medio de vida. Con el objetivo de analizar la calidad de vida de personas con discapacidad intelectual, se realiza un estudio con una muestra de 49 trabajadores de un centro especial de empleo. La recogida de información se realiza mediante la Escala INICO-FEAPS de Evaluación Integral de la Calidad de Vida de Personas con Discapacidad Intelectual o del Desarrollo. Se realizan las pruebas U de Mann-Whitney; correlación de Spearman y Anova para el análisis de datos. Los resultados señalan la importancia de la edad en el deterioro de la calidad de vida que se manifiesta en peores puntuaciones en el bienestar emocional, inclusión social y relaciones interpersonales, entre otras, así como diferencias según el sexo y formación del colectivo. Se constata la necesidad de establecer retos y propuestas que minimicen los impactos negativos del envejecimiento en el tránsito hacia una etapa no activa. Es necesario ampliar el estudio con muestras más grandes

Stability and Thermal Properties Study of Metal Chalcogenide-Based Nanofluids for Concentrating Solar Power

Nanofluids are colloidal suspensions of nanomaterials in a fluid which exhibit enhanced thermophysical properties compared to conventional fluids. The addition of nanomaterials to a fluid can increase the thermal conductivity, isobaric-specific heat, diffusivity, and the convective heat transfer coefficient of the original fluid. For this reason, nanofluids have been studied over the last decades in many fields such as biomedicine, industrial cooling, nuclear reactors, and also in solar thermal applications. In this paper, we report the preparation and characterization of nanofluids based on one-dimensional MoS2 and WS2 nanosheets to improve the thermal properties of the heat transfer fluid currently used in concentrating solar plants (CSP). A comparative study of both types of nanofluids was performed for explaining the influence of nanostructure morphologies on nanofluid stability and thermal properties. The nanofluids prepared in this work present a high stability over time and thermal conductivity enhancements of up to 46% for MoS2-based nanofluid and up to 35% for WS2-based nanofluid. These results led to an increase in the efficiency of the solar collectors of 21.3% and 16.8% when the nanofluids based on MoS2 nanowires or WS2 nanosheets were used instead of the typical thermal oil

Enabling Process Mining in Aircraft Manufactures: Extracting Event Logs and Discovering Processes from Complex Data

Process mining is employed by organizations to completely understand and improve their processes and to detect possible deviations from expected behavior. Process discovery uses event logs as input data, which describe the times of the actions that occur the traces. Currently, Internet-of-Things environments generate massive distributed and not always structured data, which brings about new complex scenarios since data must first be transformed in order to be handled by process min ing tools. This paper shows the success case of application of a solution that permits the transformation of complex semi-structured data of an assembly-aircraft process in order to create event logs that can be man aged by the process mining paradigm. A Domain-Specific Language and a prototype have been implemented to facilitate the extraction of data into the unified traces of an event log. The implementation performed has been applied within a project in the aeronautic industry, and promis ing results have been obtained of the log extraction for the discovery of processes and the resulting improvement of the assembly-aircraft process.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología RTI2018-094283-B-C3

Evaluation of the outcomes of newly diagnosed patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome according to the initial therapeutical strategies chosen in usual clinical practice

Clinical practice; Myelodysplastic syndrome; TreatmentPràctica clínica; Síndrome mielodisplàstica; TractamentPráctica clínica; Síndrome mielodisplásico; TratamientoMyelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of diseases without a care standard and show variability in treatment outcomes. This Spanish, observational, prospective study ERASME (CEL-SMD-2012-01) assessed the evolution of newly diagnosed and treatment-naïve high-risk MDS patients (according to IPPS-R). 204 patients were included: median age 73.0 years, 54.4% males, 69.6% 0-1 ECOG, and 94.6% with comorbidities. Active treatment was the most common strategy (52.0%) vs. stem cell transplantation (25.5%) and supportive care/watchful-waiting (22.5%). Overall (median) event-free survival was 7.9 months (9.1, 8.3, and 5.3); progression-free survival: 10.1 months (12.9, 12.8, and 4.3); and overall survival: 13.8 months (15.4, 14.9; 8.4), respectively, with significant differences among groups. Adverse events (AEs) of ≥3 grade were reported in 72.6% of patients; serious AEs reported in 60.6%. 33.1% of patients died due to AEs. Three patients developed second primary malignant neoplasms (median: 8.2 months). Our study showed better outcomes in patients receiving active therapy early after diagnosis

Development and validation of a new method for the simultaneous determination of spinetoram J and L in honey from different botanical origins employing solid-phase extraction with a polymeric sorbent and liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Producción CientíficaThe objective of this study was to propose a novel method to determine residues of the bio-insecticide spinetoram, which is a mixture of two components (spinetoram J and L), in honey from multifloral, rosemary and heather botanical origins; liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry was the technique employed. An efficient sample treatment (recoveries between 82% and 95%) involving a solid phase extraction with a polymeric sorbent has been recommended, and no matrix effect was observed. Chromatographic analysis (4 min) was performed in reverse phase mode by using a fused-core column (Kinetex® EVO C18) with acetonitrile and ammonium formate as the mobile phase components, which was applied in isocratic elution mode. Method was validated according to the current European legislation. Not only was it selective, but it also displayed a wide linear range, good precision (relative standard deviation values lower than 9%) and sensitivity (low limits of detection (spinetoram J, 0.1–0.3 μg/kg; spinetoram L, 0.1–0.2 μg/kg) and quantification (spinetoram J, 0.3–1.2 μg/kg; spinetoram L, 0.4–0.7 μg/kg). Several honey samples were analyzed with this method and no spinetoram residues were found above the limits of detection.Este trabajo forma parte de los proyectos de investigación financiados por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad e INIA-FEDER (RTA2013-00042-C10-03 y 06

On First Passage Times in Discrete Skeletons and Uniformized Versions of a Continuous-Time Markov Chain

In this paper, the aim is to study similarities and differences between a continuous-time Markov chain and its uniformized Markov chains and discrete skeletons in terms of first passage times when the taboo subset of states is assumed to be accessible from a class of communicating states. Under the assumption of a finite communicating class, we characterize the first-passage times in terms of either continuous or discrete phase-type random variables. For illustrative purposes, we show how first passage times in uniformized Markov chains and discrete skeletons can be used to approximate the random duration of an outbreak in the SIS epidemic model

Enabling Process Mining in Airbus Manufacturing : Extracting Event Logs and Discovering Processes from Complex Data

Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología RTI2018-094283-B-C3

Investigation of enhanced thermal properties in NiO-based nanofluids for concentrating solar power applications: A molecular dynamics and experimental analysis

Nanofluids could be a promising alternative to the typical heat transfer fluids (HTF) used in concentrating solar power. This study analyses nanofluids based on a typical HTF for concentrating solar power (CSP) applications and NiO nanoparticles. The optimum nanoparticle concentration was determined by analysing the stability of the nanofluids. Some of their properties, such as density, viscosity, isobaric specific heat and thermal con- ductivity, were characterized to evaluate their performance. Their thermal conductivity increased by up to 96% and the heat transfer coefficient by 50%. Molecular dynamics calculations were performed to explain from a molecular perspective how the presence of equal proportions of two surfactants, benzalkonium chloride (BAC) and 1-Octadecanethiol (ODT), enhanced the thermal properties of the NiO nanofluid. The isobaric specific heat and thermal conductivity values followed the same experimental tendency. The analysis of the radial distribu- tion functions (RDFs) and spatial distribution functions (SDFs) revealed an inner layer of base fluid and sur- factant molecules around the NiO cell. This first layer contained BAC molecules at all the temperatures, while ODT was only incorporated at higher temperatures. The exchange of surfactant and base fluid molecules around the NiO as the temperature increases may play an important role in the enhancement of the thermal properties