Spectroscopic characterization of Er3+-doped CaF2 nanoparticles: Luminescence concentration quenching, radiation trapping and transition probabilities

Er3+-doped CaF2 nanoparticles (NPs) with variable dopant concentration were synthesized by a direct precipitation method. X-Ray Powder Diffraction, SEM and TEM were used to analize the crystalline structure and morphology. The spectroscopic characterization, as function of the Er3+ content, has been performed under CW and pulsed excitation. Under steady state conditions, it has been found that the intensity of the main emission bands is affected by luminescence quenching processes. The population dynamics, recorded under pulsed excitation, confirms not only the existence of quenching processes but also the occurrence of radiation trapping. The intrinsic transition probabilities of the main Er3+ emitting manifolds, in absence of quenching and radiation trapping, have been estimated through a procedure commonly used in bulk doped materials. A modified Judd-Ofelt analysis has been performed to determine the radiative transition probabilities, radiative lifetimes and branching ratios of the Er3+ levels. Finally, an estimation of the gap law in these NPs is givenThis work has been partially supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) under project COLUMNAS (PID2019–110632RB-I00

ALEJANDRO DE LA SOTA. Genealogy of a sketch

[EN] Alejandro de la Sota is definitely one of the great masters of contemporary Spanish architecture. Long forgotten and reviled, the last few years have restored him into his proper place in the history of architectural critical thinking.As a proper Galician, not given to either architectural or personal excesses, and of great humility, he is often cryptic in its theoretical approach and works.This article aims to cast some light on his figure through the quiet interpretation of his many drawings, especially those less widespread. For example those made for the INC, with an interesting use of colour, or the ones for the Guzmán House, even the multiple caricatures of which he was very fond. It is in these strangers in which we focus, they all are proof of his genius and personality.Perhaps he would rather keep silent than speak, we hope that his drawings do it for him[ES] Alejandro de la Sota es sin duda uno de los grandes maestros de la arquitectura española contemporánea. Olvidado y denostado, estos últimos años le han devuelto a su lugar en la historia del pensamiento crítico arquitectónico. Como buen gallego, poco dado a excesos tanto arquitectónicos como personales, y de gran humildad, resulta a veces críptico en sus planteamientos teóricos y obra. Este artículo pretende aportar un poco más de luz a su figura por medio de la sosegada lectura de sus múltiples dibujos, sobre todo aquellos menos difundidos. Por ejemplo los que realizó para el INC, con un interesante uso del color, o para la casa Guzmán, incluso las múltiples caricaturas a las que era muy aficionado. Es en estos desconocidos en los que nos centraremos, todos dan muestra de su genialidad y personalidad. Tal vez calló más que habló, esperamos que sus dibujos lo hagan por él.Cortina Maruenda, FJ.; Cabanes Ginés, M.; Gilabert Sanz, S. (2013). Alejandro de la Sota. Genealogía de un boceto. EGA. Revista de Expresión Gráfica Arquitectónica. 18(22):214-223. doi:10.4995/ega.2013.1681SWORD2142231822– ÁBALOS, I., LLINÀS, J., PUENTE, M., 2009, Alejandro de la Sota, Fundación Caja de Arquitectos, Madrid.– VV.AA., 2004, 20 Arquitecturas ausentes del siglo XX; Ed. Ministerio de la Vivienda. Editorial Rueda, Madrid

A Performance/Cost Evaluation for a GPU-Based Drug Discovery Application on Volunteer Computing

Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary research field that develops tools for the analysis of large biological databases, and, thus, the use of high performance computing (HPC) platforms is mandatory for the generation of useful biological knowledge. The latest generation of graphics processing units (GPUs) has democratized the use of HPC as they push desktop computers to cluster-level performance. Many applications within this field have been developed to leverage these powerful and low-cost architectures. However, these applications still need to scale to larger GPU-based systems to enable remarkable advances in the fields of healthcare, drug discovery, genome research, etc. The inclusion of GPUs in HPC systems exacerbates power and temperature issues, increasing the total cost of ownership (TCO). This paper explores the benefits of volunteer computing to scale bioinformatics applications as an alternative to own large GPU-based local infrastructures. We use as a benchmark a GPU-based drug discovery application called BINDSURF that their computational requirements go beyond a single desktop machine. Volunteer computing is presented as a cheap and valid HPC system for those bioinformatics applications that need to process huge amounts of data and where the response time is not a critical factor.Ingeniería, Industria y Construcció

Unidad Técnica de Biblioteca y Documentación de la Estación Experimental de Aula Dei (CSIC) (Z-EEAD)

2 Pag. A-3, 1 Fot., 1 Map.Información actualizada de la Unidad Técnica de Biblioteca y Documentación (UTBD) de la Estación Experimental de Aula Dei (EEAD-CSIC), una de las 78 Bibliotecas que conforman la Red de Bibliotecas CSIC, en consonancia con la proporcionada en reciente Plan Estratégico CSIC 2010-2013. Incluye relación de Prestaciones de servicio ofrecidas para el período 2010-2013.Peer reviewe

Aragon workers’ health study – design and cohort description

BACKGROUND: Spain, a Mediterranean country with relatively low rates of coronary heart disease, has a high prevalence of traditional cardiovascular risk factors and is experiencing a severe epidemic of overweight/obesity. We designed the Aragon Workers’ Health Study (AWHS) to characterize the factors associated with metabolic abnormalities and subclinical atherosclerosis in a middle aged population in Spain free of clinical cardiovascular disease. The objective of this paper is to describe the study design, aims and baseline characteristics of participants in the AWHS. METHODS/DESIGN: Longitudinal cohort study based on the annual health exams of 5,400 workers of a car assembly plant in Figueruelas (Zaragoza, Spain). Study participants were recruited during a standardized clinical exam in 2009–2010 (participation rate 95.6%). Study participants will undergo annual clinical exams and laboratory assays, and baseline and triennial collection of biological materials for biobanking and cardiovascular imaging exams (carotid, femoral and abdominal ultrasonography, coronary calcium score, and ankle-arm blood pressure index). Participants will be followed-up for 10 years. RESULTS: The average (SD) age, body mass index, and waist circumference were 49.3 (8.7) years, 27.7 (3.6) kg/m(2) and 97.2 (9.9) cm, respectively, among males (N = 5,048), and 40.8 (11.6) years, 24.4 (3.8) kg/m(2), and 81.9 (9.9) cm, among females (N = 351). The prevalence of overweight, obesity, current smoking, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes were 55.0, 23.1, 37.1, 40.3, 75.0, and 7.4%, respectively, among males, and 23.7, 8.3, 45.0, 12.1, 59.5, and 0.6%, respectively, among females. In the initial 587 study participants who completed all imaging exams (94.5% male), the prevalence of carotid plaque, femoral plaque, coronary calcium score >1 to 100, and coronary calcium score >100 was 30.3, 56.9, 27.0, and 8.8%, respectively. 67.7% of study participants had at least one plaque in the carotid or femoral arteries. DISCUSSION: Baseline data from the AWHS show a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and of sublinical atherosclerosis. Follow-up of this cohort will allow the assessment of subclinical atherosclerosis progression and the link of disease progression to traditional and emergent risk factors

Reversal of apixaban induced alterations in hemostasis by different coagulation factor concentrates: significance of studies in vitro with circulating human blood

Apixaban is a new oral anticoagulant with a specific inhibitory action on FXa. No information is available on the reversal of the antihemostatic action of apixaban in experimental or clinical settings. We have evaluated the effectiveness of different factor concentrates at reversing modifications of hemostatic mechanisms induced by moderately elevated concentrations of apixaban (200 ng/ml) added in vitro to blood from healthy donors (n = 10). Effects on thrombin generation (TG) and thromboelastometry (TEM) parameters were assessed. Modifications in platelet adhesive, aggregating and procoagulant activities were evaluated in studies with blood circulating through damaged vascular surfaces, at a shear rate of 600 s−1. The potential of prothrombin complex concentrates (PCCs; 50 IU/kg), activated prothrombin complex concentrates (aPCCs; 75 IU/kg), or activated recombinant factor VII (rFVIIa; 270 μg/kg), at reversing the antihemostatic actions of apixaban, were investigated. Apixaban interfered with TG kinetics. Delayed lag phase, prolonged time to peak and reduced peak values, were improved by the different concentrates, though modifications in TG patterns were diversely affected depending on the activating reagents. Apixaban significantly prolonged clotting times (CTs) in TEM studies. Prolongations in CTs were corrected by the different concentrates with variable efficacies (rFVIIa≥aPCC>PCC). Apixaban significantly reduced fibrin and platelet interactions with damaged vascular surfaces in perfusion studies (p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively). Impairments in fibrin formation were normalized by the different concentrates. Only rFVIIa significantly restored levels of platelet deposition. Alterations in hemostasis induced by apixaban were variably compensated by the different factor concentrates investigated. However, effects of these concentrates were not homogeneous in all the tests, with PCCs showing more efficacy in TG, and rFVIIa being more effective on TEM and perfusion studies. Our results indicate that rFVIIa, PCCs and aPCCs have the potential to restore platelet and fibrin components of the hemostasis previously altered by apixaban

Acquired predisposition to renal damage associated to tobacco consumption

A relation between tobacco and renal damage has been described during the last years. Referring to early diagnosis of renal disease, our group has developed the acquired predisposition concept, which can be applied to the smoking patient context. So, our hypothesis is that tobacco may cause predisposition to acute kidney injury (AKI), which means smokers may suffer AKI after being exposed to any nephrotoxin, including under-toxicity-level doses. Our aim was to study the relationship between the predisposition biomarkers 1 (BM1), 2 (BM2) and 3 (BM3) (characterized in our laboratory) and tobacco consumption./nUrinary samples were taken from smokers and non-smokers volunteers with no renal damage nor exposure to risk factors of renal disease. The plasma creatinine of the patients was obtained from their medical history. The cotinine levels, which inform of the grade of smoking, were measured by ELISA. The urinary creatinine, used to correct urinary concentrations of biomarkers, was measured with a commercial kit based on Jaffé reaction, and the urinary biomarkers levels were measured by Western blot./nOnly BM3 showed greater excretion in smoking patients than in non-smokers. However, that excretion is not related to cotinine levels. In any case, BM3 could be a good clinical biomarker of AKI predisposition which would help to prevent renal damage in smokers.En los últimos años se ha visto una relación entre el tabaquismo y el daño renal. En cuanto al diagnóstico temprano del daño renal, nuestro grupo ha desarrollado el concepto de predisposición, aplicable al contexto de pacientes fumadores. Así, nuestra hipótesis es que el tabaco podría causar predisposición a sufrir daño renal agudo (DRA), lo que supondría que los fumadores podrían padecer DRA tras ser expuestos a alguna nefrotoxina, incluyendo dosis inferiores al límite tolerable. Nuestro objetivo es estudiar la relación entre los biomarcadores caracterizados en nuestro laboratorio: 1, 2 y 3 (BM1, BM2 y BM3) y el consumo de tabaco./nSe tomaron muestras de orina de pacientes fumadores y no fumadores, sin daño renal ni exposición a factores de riesgo de este. Se midieron la cotinina (ELISA), la creatininuria (kit comercial) y los biomarcadores (western blot). La creatinina plasmática se obtuvo del historial clínico de los pacientes./nSolo se vio una mayor excreción de BM3 en fumadores con respecto a no fumadores, aunque no se obtuvo una correlación con los niveles de cotinina (metabolito de nicotina que informa del grado de tabaquismo). A pesar de ello, BM3 podría suponer un buen biomarcador clínico para detectar la predisposición al DRA, lo que ayudaría a prevenir el daño renal en pacientes fumadores./n

Metabolic profiling for the identification of Huntington biomarkers by on-line solid-phase extraction capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry combined with advanced data analysis tools

In this work, an untargeted metabolomic approach based on sensitive analysis by on-line solid-phase extraction capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry (SPE-CE-MS) in combination with multivariate data analysis is proposed as an efficient method for the identification of biomarkers of Huntington's disease (HD) progression in plasma. For this purpose, plasma samples from wild type (wt) and HD (R6/1) mice of different ages (8, 12 and 30 weeks), were analysed by C18-SPE-CE-MS in order to obtain the characteristic electrophoretic profiles of low molecular mass compounds. Then, multivariate curve resolution alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) was applied to the multiple full scan MS data sets. This strategy permitted the resolution of a large number of metabolites being characterised by their electrophoretic peaks and their corresponding mass spectra. A total number of 29 compounds were relevant to discriminate between wt and HD plasma samples, as well as to follow-up the HD progression. The intracellular signalling was found to be the most affected metabolic pathway in HD mice after 12 weeks of birth, when mice already showed motor coordination deficiencies and cognitive decline. This fact agreed with the atrophy and dysfunction of specific neurons, loss of several types of receptors and changed expression of neurotransmitters

Association Between a Social-Business Eating Pattern and Early Asymptomatic Atherosclerosis.

BACKGROUND: The importance of a healthy diet in relation to cardiovascular health promotion is widely recognized. Identifying specific dietary patterns related to early atherosclerosis would contribute greatly to inform effective primary prevention strategies. OBJECTIVES: This study sought to quantify the association between specific dietary patterns and presence and extent of subclinical atherosclerosis in a population of asymptomatic middle-aged adults. METHODS: The PESA (Progression of Early Subclinical Atherosclerosis) study enrolled 4,082 asymptomatic participants 40 to 54 years of age (mean age 45.8 years; 63% male) to evaluate the presence of subclinical atherosclerosis in multiple vascular territories. A fundamental objective of this cohort study was to evaluate the life-style-related determinants, including diet, on atherosclerosis onset and development. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data, including detailed information on dietary habits obtained as part of the overall life-style and risk factor assessment, as well as a complete vascular imaging study that was performed blinded to the clinical information. RESULTS: Most PESA participants follow a Mediterranean (40% of participants) or a Western (41%) dietary pattern. A new pattern, identified among 19% of participants, was labeled as a social-business eating pattern, characterized by a high consumption of red meat, pre-made foods, snacks, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages and frequent eating-out behavior. Participants following this pattern presented a significantly worse cardiovascular risk profile and, after adjustment for risk factors, increased odds of presenting subclinical atherosclerosis (odds ratio: 1.31; 95% confidence interval: 1.06 to 1.63) compared with participants following a Mediterranean diet. CONCLUSIONS: A new social-business eating pattern, characterized by high consumption of red and processed meat, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages, and by frequent snacking and eating out as part of an overall unhealthy life-style, is associated with an increased prevalence, burden, and multisite presence of subclinical atherosclerosis. (Progression of Early Subclinical Atherosclerosis [PESA]; NCT01410318)

Chagas Cardiomiopathy: The Potential of Diastolic Dysfunction and Brain Natriuretic Peptide in the Early Identification of Cardiac Damage

Chagas disease remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in several countries of Latin America and has become a potential public health problem in countries where the disease is not endemic as a result of migration flows. Cardiac involvement represents the main cause of mortality, but its diagnosis is still based on nonspecific criteria with poor sensitivity. Early identification of patients with cardiac damage is desirable, since early treatment may improve prognosis. Diastolic dysfunction and elevated brain natriuretic peptide levels are present in different cardiomyopathies and in advanced phases of Chagas disease. However, there are scarce data about the role of these parameters in earlier forms of the disease. We conducted a study to assess the diastolic function, regional systolic abnormalities and brain natriuretic peptide levels in the different forms of Chagas disease. The main finding of our investigation is that diastolic dysfunction occurs before any cardiac dilatation or motion abnormality. In addition, BNP levels identify patients with diastolic dysfunction and Chagas disease with high specificity. The results reported in this study could help to early diagnose myocardial involvement and better stratify patients with Chagas disease