COVAD survey 2 long-term outcomes: unmet need and protocol

Vaccine hesitancy is considered a major barrier to achieving herd immunity against COVID-19. While multiple alternative and synergistic approaches including heterologous vaccination, booster doses, and antiviral drugs have been developed, equitable vaccine uptake remains the foremost strategy to manage pandemic. Although none of the currently approved vaccines are live-attenuated, several reports of disease flares, waning protection, and acute-onset syndromes have emerged as short-term adverse events after vaccination. Hence, scientific literature falls short when discussing potential long-term effects in vulnerable cohorts. The COVAD-2 survey follows on from the baseline COVAD-1 survey with the aim to collect patient-reported data on the long-term safety and tolerability of COVID-19 vaccines in immune modulation. The e-survey has been extensively pilot-tested and validated with translations into multiple languages. Anticipated results will help improve vaccination efforts and reduce the imminent risks of COVID-19 infection, especially in understudied vulnerable groups

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

Reproducibility in the absence of selective reporting : An illustration from large-scale brain asymmetry research

Altres ajuts: Max Planck Society (Germany).The problem of poor reproducibility of scientific findings has received much attention over recent years, in a variety of fields including psychology and neuroscience. The problem has been partly attributed to publication bias and unwanted practices such as p-hacking. Low statistical power in individual studies is also understood to be an important factor. In a recent multisite collaborative study, we mapped brain anatomical left-right asymmetries for regional measures of surface area and cortical thickness, in 99 MRI datasets from around the world, for a total of over 17,000 participants. In the present study, we revisited these hemispheric effects from the perspective of reproducibility. Within each dataset, we considered that an effect had been reproduced when it matched the meta-analytic effect from the 98 other datasets, in terms of effect direction and significance threshold. In this sense, the results within each dataset were viewed as coming from separate studies in an "ideal publishing environment," that is, free from selective reporting and p hacking. We found an average reproducibility rate of 63.2% (SD = 22.9%, min = 22.2%, max = 97.0%). As expected, reproducibility was higher for larger effects and in larger datasets. Reproducibility was not obviously related to the age of participants, scanner field strength, FreeSurfer software version, cortical regional measurement reliability, or regional size. These findings constitute an empirical illustration of reproducibility in the absence of publication bias or p hacking, when assessing realistic biological effects in heterogeneous neuroscience data, and given typically-used sample sizes

Instrumentación de actividades en rutina clínica de neurorehabilitación funcional de extremidad superior

Resumo Neste artigo descreve-se detalhadamente o processo de captura de uma atividade de neuroreabilitação em membros superiores disposta em rotina clínica, utilizando dispositivos que permitem extrair variáveis de interesse clínico, dentro das quais se encontra o tempo, a mobilidade e ângulos. Estas variáveis se armazenaram quantitativamente, de maneira que seja possível ter um rastreamento contínuo e exaustivo sobre a reabilitação do paciente, e assim ter verossimilitude de cumprimento nestas rotinas.Resumen En este artículo se describe detalladamente el proceso de captura de una actividad de neurorehabilitación en miembros superiores dispuesta en rutina clínica, utilizando dispositivos que permiten extraer variables de interés clínico, dentro de las cuales se encuentra el tiempo, la movilidad y ángulos. Estas variables se almacenarán cuantitativamente, de manera que sea posible tener un seguimiento continuo y exhaustivo sobre la rehabilitación del paciente, y así tener verosimilitud de cumplimiento en estas rutinas.Abstract This article describes, in detail, the process of capturing a neuro-rehabilitation activity in upper limbs for clinical routines, using devices that enable the extraction of variables of clinical interest within the patient’s task of execution, within which there is a focus on time, mobility and angles. These variables will be stored quantitatively, so that it is possible to have continuous and exhaustive follow-ups of the rehabilitation of the patient and, thus having compliance authenticity in these routines

Investigation on the sliding of aluminium thin foils against PVD-coated carbide forming-tools during micro-forming

This paper reports an investigation on the tribological properties of Al thin foils (0.2 mm nominal thickness) in sliding contact with PVD-coated carbide forming-tools, with reference to the applications in the manufacture of miniature/micro-products, particularly through micro-forming. The study addresses the evolution of the friction coefficient between both surfaces under dry lubrication conditions, its influence on the surface quality of the processed material and the damage produced on the tool due to sticking phenomena. Uncoated, CrN-coated and WC-C-coated tools were tested, using a pin-on-disc configuration to monitor the evolution of the relative friction coefficients under different contact pressures. It was shown that the contact sliding of Al foils on the untreated carbide tool produced a significant transfer of Al to the tool, leading to a rapid degradation of both tool and foil surfaces, even faster than that produced on bulk aluminium. Conversely, the sticking of Al was retarded using low friction magnetron sputtered WC-C-coated carbides. Other PVD coatings such as CrN failed under similar operation conditions. Aluminium transfer to the WC-C-coated tool surfaces during sliding seemed to be a non-continuous process, which appeared after certain sliding distances. Temperature accelerated the Al transfer to the WC-C tool surfaces, probably due to the increase of the thermoplastic behaviour of Al above 100 °C, which led to an increase of the adhesive interaction with the WC-C coating

Friction, nanowear and corrosion properties of electroplated Nickel surfaces after dual implantation of Cr+ and N2+ ions : Influence of the implantation energy of the N2+ ions

In this work, dual implantation of Cr+ and N2+ ions on electroplated Ni substrates have been investigated for N2+ implantation energies of 140 keV, 100 keV and 60 keV. The implanted specimens have been analyzed by glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, nano-indentation, coefficient of friction, nano-wear and potentiodynamic corrosion curves. The properties of the dual implanted samples have been compared to Cr+ or N2+ implanted specimens. The microstructural and mechanical properties of the Ni plates depend on the penetration ranges of the Cr and N atomic profiles obtained after the implantation process. The increase of hardness reduced the coefficient of friction of the samples and the wear rates. Preferential formation of Cr–N over Ni–N compounds has been observed when the Cr and N atomic profiles coexist within the Ni matrix. The potentiodynamic corrosion curves in acidic solutions revealed that the presence of Me–N species is detrimental for the chemical stability of the plates. Both nano-wear and corrosion properties are optimized when a Ni–N sublayer is formed underneath a top Cr–Ni implanted film. This is achieved by tuning the implantation energies of Cr+ and N2+ ions at 140 keV. This bilayer structure could be a suitable treatment for micro-embossing dies for plastic texturing processes

Gradient Cr(C,N) cathodic arc PVD coatings

This work reports on recent advances in Cathodic Arc Physical Vapor Deposition of low friction-coefficient coatings.. The study evaluates the mechanical and tribological performance of engineered Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) coatings based on complementary carbon/nitrogen gradient concentrations through the film thickness. Traditional cathodic-arc-evaporated (Ti,Cr)N-based coatings show overall good mechanical performance, especially for cutting applications. However in forming applications, they still exhibit the undesirable effects of excessive material transfer (sticking), which arises from poor quality of the surface finish of the manufactured pieces. To overcome these pernicious effects, a set of cathodic arc PVD gradient Cr(C,N) coatings was produced. The coatings developed in this study exhibited friction coefficients of as low as 0.2-0.3 against 100Cr6 bearing steel, whilst having a similar mechanical strength to that of CrN. It is worthy of note that these values of the friction coefficients are achievable at industrial scale principally by the use of sputtering methods involving such as MoS2, or WC-C films. Metal adhesion during the sliding friction of CrCN coated tools on AISI316L were monitored using a pin-on-disc experimental set-up. Preliminary results demonstrated the low tendency of the deposited films to pick up material from the AISI316L steels surfaces, in comparison to that found when using standard CrN cathodic arc PVD films

CrCN cathodic arc PVD coatings

This work reports on the growth and properties of Cathodic Arc Physical Vapor Deposition of low friction-coefficient CrCN coatings, as deposited on the basis of complementary carbon/nitrogen gradient concentrations through the film thickness. The coatings developed in this study exhibited friction coefficients ranging from 0.2 to 0.6, against 100Cr6 bearing steel, depending on the preparation conditions. Gradient CrCN films with COF of 0.35 and comparable mechanical strength to that of CrN were achieved. The adhesion rate of metallic elements such as Fe during the sliding process of CrCN coated tools on AISI316L steels were monitored using a pin-on-disc experimental set-up. The results demonstrated a low tendency of the gradient CrCN deposited films to pick up material from the AISI316L steels surfaces, in contrast to that found when using standard CrN cathodic arc PVD films