A comparative study between the fluxes of trace elements in bulk atmospheric deposition at industrial, urban, traffic, and rural sites

The input of trace elements via atmospheric deposition towards industrial, urban, traffic, and rural areas is quite different and depends on the intensity of the anthropogenic activity. A comparative study between the element deposition fluxes in four sampling sites (industrial, urban, traffic, and rural) of the Cantabria region (northern Spain) has been performed. Sampling was carried out monthly using a bulk (funnel bottle) sampler. The trace elements, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Ti, Zn, and V, were determined in the water soluble and insoluble fractions of bulk deposition samples. The element deposition fluxes at the rural, urban, and traffic sites followed a similar order (Zn>Mn>>Cu=Ti>Pb>V=Cr>Ni>>As=Mo>Cd). The most enriched elements were Cd, Zn, and Cu, while V, Ni, and Cr were less enriched. An extremely high deposition of Mn was found at the industrial site, leading to high enrichment factor values, resulting from the presence of a ferro-manganese/silicomanganese production plant in the vicinity of the sampling site. Important differences were found in the element solubilities in the studied sites; the element solubilities were higher at the traffic and rural sites, and lower at the urban and industrial sites. For all sites, Zn and Cd were the most soluble elements, whereas Cr and Ti were less soluble. The inter-site correlation coefficients for each element were calculated to assess the differences between the sites. The rural and traffic sites showed some similarities in the sources of trace elements; however, the sources of these elements at the industrial and rural sites were quite different. Additionally, the element fluxes measured in the insoluble fraction of the bulk atmospheric deposition exhibited a good correlation with the daily traffic volume at the traffic site.The authors are grateful for the financial support from the CTM 2010-16068 (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) and CTM 2013-43904 R (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) projects. The “Consejería de Medio Ambiente” from the Cantabria Government is also acknowledged for sending the report on the background levels of heavy metals and trace elements in soils in the Cantabria region. The authors are also grateful to “Ayuntamiento de Camargo” for helping us with the sampling site of Maliaño

Variability in metal deposition among industrial, rural and urban areas in the Cantabria region (Northern Spain)

Cantabria is a small region located in Northern Spain that combines different land uses; thus, urban, industrial and rural areas are present in a relatively small area (5300 km2); however, the anthropogenic influence is evident by studying the deposition of metals towards these areas. Three sampling sites (industrial, urban and rural) were selected to assess the variability in metal deposition. Sampling was carried out monthly (from January 2012 to July 2012) using a bulk (funnelbottle) sampler. As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Ti, Zn and V were determined in the water-soluble and in the insoluble fractions of deposition samples. The impact of the human activities in the industrial area can be seen on several metals such as Pb, Zn, Cu and Mn. The most obvious influence was found for Mn, high fluxes were measured in the industrial site with a mean value of 2260 μg/m2·day; in contrast to urban (99.6 μg/m2·day) and rural (15.3 μg/m2·day) areas. The lowest flux values were found in the rural area for all the elements. Enrichment Factor (EF) analysis were also studied for the three sites. The high EFs values found for Pb, Mn, Cu, and Zn (>100) in the industrial site point to significant anthropogenic sources, mainly originated from industrial activities (steel and ferro-manganese alloy manufacturing plants) and road traffic

Levels and sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the soluble fraction of the atmospheric deposition in Cantabria (northern Spain)

The aim of this work is to assess the levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the soluble fraction of the bulk atmospheric deposition in four sites of a small region located in northern Spain (Cantabria). Samples were collected monthly for two years at an urban site (Santander), and for one year at an industrial (Maliaño), rural (Bárcena Mayor) and traffic (Cabezón de la Sal) sites. Samples were filtered and the filtrate was extracted, concentrated, purified and analysed for 15 PAHs: acenaphthylene (ACY), acenaphthene (ACE), fluorene (FLU), phenanthrene (PHE), anthracene (ANT), fluoranthene (FLA), pyrene (PYR), benzo[a]anthracene (BaA), chrysene (CHR), benzo[b]fluoranthene (BbF), benzo[k]fluoranthene (BkF), benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene (IcdP), dibenzo[a,h]anthracene (DahA), and benzo[ghi]perylene (BghiP). The highest deposition fluxes of PAHs were found at the industrial site (Maliaño); the total PAH fluxes at the other sites were similar. Box plots of the PAH levels found in the literature in wet and bulk deposition samples were used to compare the values observed in this work. FLA, BaA, PHE and PYR were the most abundant PAHs at the industrial site. At the urban and rural site, the profile found in the deposition samples was similar: PHE>FLA>BaA>PYR. The traffic site showed a different profile: PYR>ANT>FLU>FLA. A preliminary source identification study was made by calculating diagnostic ratios of some PAH isomers (FLA/(FLA+PYR) and BaA/(BaA+CHR)); these ratios were compared with those found for the main PAH industrial and non-industrial sources in the region.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through the Projects CTM2010-16068 and CTM2013-43904R

Color Stabilization of Red Wines. A Chemical and Colloidal Approach

Este artículo es parte del International Workshop on Anthocyanins (IWA2013)[EN]The effects of cold treatment and time on CIELAB color parameters and on anthocyanin and anthocyanin-derived pigments composition have been evaluated as has been the effectiveness of either an enological tannin or a mannoprotein (M) on their stabilization. With respect to color, hue (hab) was increased in the wines treated with both enological products. Furthermore, the color changes induced by cold treatment were lessened by the addition of these two enological products, although the protective effect was higher for the wines treated with M. The pigment analysis revealed higher percentages of anthocyanin-derived pigments in tannin and M-treated samples (in both cold treated and not) in relation to control ones. The addition of the enological tannin may favor the synthesis of anthocyanin-derived pigments, which are chemically more stable than native anthocyanins, whereas M seems to stabilize anthocyanin-derived pigments from a colloidal point of view, avoiding their aggregation and further precipitation

Cardiac Hepatopathy

Liver disease resulting from heart disease has generally been referred as “cardiac hepatopathy.” The two main forms of cardiac hepatopathy are acute cardiogenic liver injury (ACLI) and congestive hepatopathy (CH). ACLI most commonly occurs in the setting of acute cardiocirculatory failure, whereas CH results from passive venous congestion in the setting of chronic right-sided heart failure (HF). Both conditions often coexist and potentiate the deleterious effects of each other on the liver. In CH, the chronic passive congestion leads to sinusoidal hypertension, centrilobular fibrosis, and ultimately, cirrhosis (“cardiac cirrhosis”) and hepatocellular carcinoma. The differentiation between congestion and fibrosis currently represents an unmet need and a growing research area. Although cardiac cirrhosis may only arise after several decades of ongoing injury, the long-term survival of cardiac patients due to advances in medical and surgical treatments is responsible for the increased number of liver complications in this setting. Eventually, the liver disease could become as clinically relevant as the cardiac disease and further complicate its management

Interaction of silver atomic quantum clusters with living organisms: bactericidal effect of Ag3 clusters mediated by disruption of topoisomerase–DNA complexes

Essential processes for living cells such as transcription and replication depend on the formation of specific protein–DNA recognition complexes. Proper formation of such complexes requires suitable fitting between the protein surface and the DNA surface. By adopting doxorubicin (DOX) as a model probe, we report here that Ag3 atomic quantum clusters (Ag-AQCs) inhibit the intercalation of DOX into DNA and have considerable influence on the interaction of DNA-binding proteins such as topoisomerase IV, Escherichia coli DNA gyrase and the restriction enzyme HindIII. Ag-AQCs at nanomolar concentrations inhibit enzyme activity. The inhibitory effect of Ag-AQCs is dose-dependent and occurs by intercalation into DNA. All these effects, not observed in the presence of Ag+ ions, can explain the powerful bactericidal activity of Ag-AQCs, extending the knowledge of silver bactericidal properties. Lastly, we highlight the interest of the interaction of Ag clusters with living organisms, an area that should be further explored due to the potential consequences that it might have, both beneficial and harmful.This work was supported by Obra Social“la Caixa” (OSLC-2012-007), European Commission through FEDER program (0681 InveNNta 1 E); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain (MAT2010-20442, MAT2011-28673-C02-01); MINECO, Spain (MAT2012-36754-C02-01 and CTQ2014-58812-C2-2-R), Xunta de Galicia, Spain (GRC2013-044, FEDER Funds). C. P.-A. is grateful for the FPU grant from Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, Madrid, Spain (FPU13/00180)S

Application of Artificial Intelligence Algorithms Within the Medical Context for Non-Specialized Users: the CARTIER-IA Platform

The use of advanced algorithms and models such as Machine Learning, Deep Learning and other related approaches of Artificial Intelligence have grown in their use given their benefits in different contexts. One of these contexts is the medical domain, as these algorithms can support disease detection, image segmentation and other multiple tasks. However, it is necessary to organize and arrange the different data resources involved in these scenarios and tackle the heterogeneity of data sources. This work presents the CARTIER-IA platform: a platform for the management of medical data and imaging. The goal of this project focuses on providing a friendly and usable interface to organize structured data, to visualize and edit medical images, and to apply Artificial Intelligence algorithms on the stored resources. One of the challenges of the platform design is to ease these complex tasks in a way that non-AI-specialized users could benefit from the application of AI algorithms without further training. Two use cases of AI application within the platform are provided, as well as a heuristic evaluation to assess the usability of the first version of CARTIER-IA. Year of Publication 2021 Journal International Journal of Interactive Multimedia and Artificial Intelligence Volume 6 Issue Regular Issue Number 6 Number of Pages 46-53 Date Published 06/2021 ISSN Number 1989-1660 URL https://www.ijimai.org/journal/sites/default/files/2021-05/ijimai_6_6_5.pdf DOI 10.9781/ijimai.2021.05.005 DOI Google Scholar BibTeX EndNote X3 XML EndNote 7 XML Endnote tagged Marc RIS Attachment ijimai_6_6_5.pdf 932.11 K

Changes in Circulating Lysyl Oxidase-Like-2 (LOXL2) Levels, HOMA, and Fibrosis after Sustained Virological Response by Direct Antiviral Therapy

Background: we aimed to assess the influence of metabolic syndrome on fibrosis regression (using liver-stiffness measurement (LSM) and serological scores) and the relationship with the expression of lysyl oxidase-like-2 as a potential goal of antifibrotic therapy. Methods: We included 271 patients treated with Direct Antiviral Therapy (DAAs) in our hospital who achieved a sustained virological response (SVR); physical examination, blood tests, and LSM were made at baseline (B) and 24 months (24 M) after SVR. Hemodynamic studies and transjugular liver biopsies were performed on 13 patients. Results: At B, 68 patients were F1 (25.1%); F2 n = 59 (21.7%); F3 n = 44 (16.05%); and 100 were F4 (36.9%). Although the LSM (absolute value) improved in 82% of patients (n = 222), it progressed in 17.5% of patients (n = 48). At 24 M, 48 patients met the metabolic syndrome (MetS) criteria and there was an increase in patients with a BMI of >25 kg/m2 (p 25 kg/m2 is a risk factor for significant fibrosis or steatosis at 24 M (p 9 kPa vs. <9 kPa (p = 0.046). Conclusion: Regression of LSM was reached in 82% of patients. Downregulated LOXL2 was demonstrated post-SVR, with overexpression in cirrhotic patients being a potential therapy goal in selected patients.Funding: This study was supported by the Health Research Institute Marqués de Valdecilla. IDIVAL. Santander. NEXT VAL15/12 grant to Dra Angela Puente Sanchez: Regresión de la fibrosis hepática tras erradicación del virus de la hepatitis C. Papel de la LOXL2. Acknowledgments: This study has been supported by competitive grants from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spanish Ministries of Health and of Economy; PIE15/00079 and PI15/02138)

Flexible Heuristics for Supporting Recommendations Within an AI Platform Aimed at Non-expert Users

The use of Machine Learning (ML) to resolve complex tasks has become popular in several contexts. While these approaches are very effective and have many related benefits, they are still very tricky for the general audience. In this sense, expert knowledge is crucial to apply ML algorithms properly and to avoid potential issues. However, in some situations, it is not possible to rely on experts to guide the development of ML pipelines. To tackle this issue, we present an approach to provide customized heuristics and recommendations through a graphical platform to build ML pipelines, namely KoopaML, focused on the medical domain.With this approach, we aim not only at providing an easy way to apply ML for non-expert users, but also at providing a learning experience for them to understand how these methods work

Altmetrics analysis of Archivos de Bronconeumología from 2014 to 2018

Introduction: Alternative metrics or altmetrics are non-traditional measurements of scientific production that reflect a publication's influence in social networks and similar channels of dissemination. The aim of this study was to analyze the media impact of ARCHIVOS DE BRONCONEUMOLOGÍA according to 2 altmetric aggregators and website visits. Methods: This was an observational study of the original articles and review and consensus articles published in ARCHIVOS DE BRONCONEUMOLOGÍA during the period 2014-2018. Data from the PlumX Metrics and Altmetric aggregators and visits to the ARCHIVOS DE BRONCONEUMOLOGÍA website were analyzed. Five comparisons were made: by specialty area, by funding received, by number of participating centers, by document type, and by topic. In a subanalysis, altmetrics were correlated with the conventional citation system. Results: We analyzed 273 papers, of which 186 were original articles (68.1%). The papers that achieved greater media impact in the 2 aggregators analyzed, and in terms of website visits, were pulmonology papers and review and consensus articles. The mean Altmetric Attention Score was 1.9 ± 4.4 (range 0-59), which is above average for the date of publication of the paper. A statistically significant weak to moderate correlation was identified between altmetrics and conventional citations. Conclusions: Review articles, consensus documents, and pulmonology papers had a greater media impact. Mean Altmetric Attention Score was higher than the average based on the date of publication. A weak to moderate correlation between altmetrics and conventional citations was identified.Introducción: Las métricas alternativas o altmetrics son todas aquellas mediciones de la producción científica diferentes a los indicadores clásicos y recogen su influencia mediática en redes sociales y canales de difusión similares. El objetivo del estudio fue analizar el impacto mediático de Archivos de Bronconeumología en 2 agregadores de altmetrics y de las visitas a su página web. Métodos: Estudio observacional de los artículos originales, de revisión y de consenso de Archivos de Bronconeumología durante el periodo 2014-2018. Se analizaron los agregadores PlumX Metrics y Altmetric, y las visitas a la página web de Archivos de Bronconeumología. Se realizaron 5 comparaciones: por especialidad firmante, por financiación recibida, por número de centros participantes, por tipología documental y por área temática. Como subanálisis, se correlacionaron las altmetrics con las citaciones convencionales. Resultados: Se analizaron 273 publicaciones de las que 186 fueron artículos originales (68,1%). Las publicaciones de Neumología y las de revisión y consenso obtuvieron mayor impacto mediático en los 2 agregadores analizados, así como en las visitas a la página web. El score medio de atención de Altmetric fue de 1,9 ± 4,4 (rango 0-59), por encima del promedio para la antigüedad de la publicación. Se documentó una correlación estadísticamente significativa débil a moderada entre las altmetrics y las citaciones clásicas. Conclusiones: Las publicaciones de revisión, de consenso y las de Neumología tuvieron mayor impacto mediático. El score medio de atención de Altmetric fue superior al promedio en función de la antigüedad de las publicaciones. Se objetivó una correlación débil a moderada de las altmetrics con las citaciones convencionale