Management of wet age-related macular degeneration in Spain: challenges for treat and extend implementation in routine clinical practice

Age-related macular degeneration; Ophthalmology services; Anti-VEGFDegeneración macular relacionada con la edad; Servicios de oftalmología; Anti-VEGFDegeneració macular relacionada amb l’edat; Serveis d’oftalmologia; Anti-VEGFPurpose. To ascertain wet AMD (wAMD) management patterns in Spain. Methods. A two-round Delphi study conducted through a questionnaire-based survey designed from literature review and validated by an independent Steering Committee. Results. Forty-nine retina specialists experienced in wAMD participated by answering the two-round study questionnaire. Retina specialists are the main responsible for wAMD diagnosis and monitoring, including visits and associated procedures, with a median time per visit of 15 minutes. Standard treatment strategies are based on anti-VEGF administration, including standard loading dose administration followed by maintenance with aflibercept or ranibizumab (81% of patients). Although treat and extend (T&E) dosing strategy is considered as optimal for wAMD management (78% of the panelists), the main routine healthcare limitations (i.e., visits overload, reduced staff, short visit time, coordination issues, lack of facilities) conduct to self-defined “flexible” strategies, based on T&E and pro-re-nata (PRN) protocols. Conclusion. Proactive treatment patterns (T&E) are the preferred ones by the retina specialists in Spain. However, their proper implementation is difficult due to healthcare resource limitations, as well as organisation and logistic issues. The use of anti-VEGF agents with longer duration of action could facilitate the use of strict T&E approaches according to routine clinical practices

Thickness-modulated tungsten-carbon superconducting nanostructures grown by focused ion beam induced deposition for vortex pinning up to high magnetic fields

We report efficient vortex pinning in thickness-modulated tungsten–carbon-based (W–C) nanostructures grown by focused ion beam induced deposition (FIBID). By using FIBID, W–C superconducting films have been created with thickness modulation properties exhibiting periodicity from 60 to 140 nm, leading to a strong pinning potential for the vortex lattice. This produces local minima in the resistivity up to high magnetic fields (2.2 T) in a broad temperature range due to commensurability effects between the pinning potential and the vortex lattice. The results show that the combination of single-step FIBID fabrication of superconducting nanostructures with built-in artificial pinning landscapes and the small intrinsic random pinning potential of this material produces strong periodic pinning potentials, maximizing the opportunities for the investigation of fundamental aspects in vortex science under changing external stimuli (e.g., temperature, magnetic field, electrical current)

Management of wet age-related macular degeneration in Spain: challenges for treat and extend implementation in routine clinical practice

Purpose: to ascertain wet AMD (wAMD) management patterns in Spain. Methods: a two-round Delphi study conducted through a questionnaire-based survey designed from literature review and validated by an independent Steering Committee. Results: forty-nine retina specialists experienced in wAMD participated by answering the two-round study questionnaire. Retina specialists are the main responsible for wAMD diagnosis and monitoring, including visits and associated procedures, with a median time per visit of 15 minutes. Standard treatment strategies are based on anti-VEGF administration, including standard loading dose administration followed by maintenance with aflibercept or ranibizumab (81% of patients). Although treat and extend (T&E) dosing strategy is considered as optimal for wAMD management (78% of the panelists), the main routine healthcare limitations (i.e., visits overload, reduced staff, short visit time, coordination issues, lack of facilities) conduct to self-defined "flexible" strategies, based on T&E and pro-re-nata (PRN) protocols. Conclusion: proactive treatment patterns (T&E) are the preferred ones by the retina specialists in Spain. However, their proper implementation is difficult due to healthcare resource limitations, as well as organisation and logistic issues. The use of anti-VEGF agents with longer duration of action could facilitate the use of strict T&E approaches according to routine clinical practices

Sobre proyectos de espacios públicos de calidad: estrategias urbanas comparadas

La ciudad compacta, policéntrica y con espacios públicos de calidad constituye un modelo urbano implícito en los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS). La Nueva Agenda Urbana promueve la calidad del espacio público como bien común, y por ello es pertinente reconsiderar los parámetros de calidad e investigar su potencial de desarrollo. Este artículo se fundamenta en una reflexión teórica y metodológica sobre la calidad de los espacios públicos, teniendo en cuenta las aportaciones de la tradición urbanística. Con esta perspectiva se han analizado una selección de proyectos de espacio público en el ámbito europeo, lo que ha permitido identificar una serie de parámetros que, posteriormente, se aplican a nueve ejemplos representativos en Madrid, Barcelona y Zaragoza. El objetivo es efectuar evaluaciones sobre la calidad de los espacios públicos y determinar en qué medida están en relación con las condiciones de seguridad, accesibilidad e inclusividad que estos ofrecen. The polycentric, compact city with quality public spaces constitutes an implicit urban model in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The New Urban Agenda promotes the quality of public space as a common good. Therefore, it is pertinent to reconsider the quality parameters and investigate its development potential. This article is based on a theoretical and methodological reflection on the quality of public spaces, taking into account the contributions of the urban tradition. With this perspective, a selection of public space projects in the European sphere has been analyzed. This has made it possible to identify a series of parameters that are subsequently applied to nine representative examples in Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza. The objective is to carry out evaluations on the quality of public spaces and determine to what extent they are in relation to the conditions of security, accessibility and inclusivity that they offer

Effectiveness of habitat management in the recovery of low-density populations of wild rabbit.

Understanding the relationship between spatial patterns of landscape attributes and population presence and abundance is essential for understanding population processes as well as supporting management and conservation strategies. This study evaluates the influence of three factors: environment, habitat management, and season on the presence and abundance of the wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), an important prey species for Mediterranean endangered predator species. To address this issue, we estimated wild rabbit presence and abundance by latrine counting in transects located in 45 plots within a 250×250 m grid from June 2007 until June 2009 in a 1,200 ha hunting area in southern Portugal.We then analyzed how wild rabbit presence and abundance correlatewith the aforementioned factors. Our results showed that the main variable influencing wild rabbit presence and abundance was the distance to the artificial warrens. North and northeast slope directions were negatively related to wild rabbit presence. Conversely, rabbit presence was positively correlated with short distances to ecotone, artificial warrens, and spring. Regarding rabbit abundance, in addition to artificial warrens, soft soils, bushes, and season also had a positive effect. We found that environmental variables, management practices, and season each affect wild rabbit presence and abundance differently at a home range scale in low-density population. Thus, our major recommendations are reducing the distance to artificial warrens and ecotone, ideally to less than 100 m, and promoting habitat quality improvement on slopes with plenty of sun exposure

Thickness-modulated tungsten–carbon superconducting nanostructures grown by focused ion beam induced deposition for vortex pinning up to high magnetic fields

We report efficient vortex pinning in thickness-modulated tungsten-carbon-based (W-C) nanostructures grown by focused ion beam induced deposition (FIBID). By using FIBID, W-C superconducting films have been created with thickness modulation properties exhibiting periodicity from 60 to 140 nm, leading to a strong pinning potential for the vortex lattice. This produces local minima in the resistivity up to high magnetic fields (2.2 T) in a broad temperature range due to commensurability effects between the pinning potential and the vortex lattice. The results show that the combination of single-step FIBID fabrication of superconducting nanostructures with built-in artificial pinning landscapes and the small intrinsic random pinning potential of this material produces strong periodic pinning potentials, maximizing the opportunities for the investigation of fundamental aspects in vortex science under changing external stimuli (e.g., temperature, magnetic field, electrical current).This work was supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity through projects No. MAT2014-51982-C2-1-R and MAT2014-51982-C2-2-R (including FEDER funds), FIS2014-54498-R, MDM-2014-0377, by the Aragon Regional Government, including European Social Funds, by the Comunidad de Madrid through program Nanofrontmag-CM (S2013/MIT-2850) and by EU (Cost MP-1201 and FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG 618321). I. G. Serrano acknowledges Abengoa Research Company for providing a thesis fellowship. I. G. acknowledges the European Research Council (ERC-2015-STG-679080), FBBVA and Axa Research Funds.Peer Reviewe

The Deubiquitinating Enzyme Ataxin-3 Regulates Ciliogenesis and Phagocytosis in the Retina

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