Approach to the Roman settlement in the Valley of Alcoi

Estudiem les evidències de l’ocupació romana a L’Alcoià i El Comtat (Alacant, Espanya). A partir del reconeixement superficial del terreny i de la revisió dels materials arqueològics proposem una caracterització del poblament entre els ss. I aC i VII dC. L’anàlisi ens permet proposar una ocupació densa i estructurada, encara que de marcat caràcter rural, que contrasta amb les tradicionals visions de la zona com un espai marginal en l’època romana. Paraules clau: Època Romana; Valls d’Alcoi; Hispania Tarraconensis; Villae; Ocupació camperolaIn this paper we study the evidences of the Roman settlement in L’ Alcoià and El Comtat counties (Alicante Province, Spain). We propose a characterization of the settlement pattern in the study area between 1st BC to 7th AD cents. on the basis of archeological surveys. The analysis shows a dense and structured occupation, rural in character, which contrasts with the traditional visions of the zone as a marginal space in Roman period. Key words: Roman period; Valley of Alcoi; Hispania Tarraconensis; Villae; peasant settlementEstudiamos las evidencias de la ocupación romana en L’Alcoià y El Comtat (Alicante, España). Mediante el reconocimiento superficial del terreno y la revisión de los materiales arqueológicos se propone la caracterización del poblamiento entre los s. I a.C. y VII d.C. El análisis ofrece una ocupación densa y estructurada, aunque de marcado carácter rural, que contrasta con las tradicionales visiones de la zona como un espacio marginal en época romana. Palabras clave: Época Romana; Valle de Alcoi; Hispania Tarraconensis; Villae; Ocupación campesin

The forest and climate change: example of application in open science schooling

This work is an application of Open Science Schooling (OSS) where schools, in cooperation with other stakeholders, become an agent of community well-being; families are encouraged to become real partners in school life and activities; professionals from enterprise, civil and wider society are actively involved in bringing real-life projects into the classroom. Specifically, it has been working with a European project: Project Erasmus+ Open Science Schooling: Fostering re-engagement in science learning through open science schooling. Developed at the secondary school Pere Fontdevila in Gironella, a direct application of OSS has been carried out around the forest. Secondary school youth work forest as a key element in the fight against the climate change and study its role in energy saving. In a first phase of awareness of the magnitude of their role in energy saving, the students have been taking part of an action named SAVEnergy. The project SAVEnergy is promoted by Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya through the research group EXPLORATORI: natural resources. It has been installed a device that measures the electric consumption at the electric board at home of every student participating in the project. The goal is become aware of energy consumption at their own homes. From this point, and to be able to extrapolate individual energy saving and pass globally, students have worked on CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. For this reason, a study of the emissions from Spanish State since 2007 to 2017 has been carried out, applying statistical techniques. In addition, to saving energy and get to know how to study the effect of this savings on a global level, students have closed the cycle studying a source of renewable energy from the forest: biomass. To put their knowledge into practice and learn through the experience they have built a biomass boiler in the form of a prototype. Studying how to fight the climate change through the forest it is essential talk about Agenda 2030. The framework of this project is the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4: Quality Education and the SDG number 13: The climate action. The activities mentioned are also in relation with the SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy and the SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production. Taking into account the fact that the forest might seem like a distant space in the day to day of the students, it has been desired to work on the vegetation that really surrounds them: the urban woodland. This issue has been related to the SDG 3: Good health and well-being. Nowadays it is fashionable to say that the trees in the cities improve the health of the population. The trees, besides beautifying a city, provide fresh and clean air that help in the physical and mental health of its inhabitants. For these reasons, they must be thought as a public health infrastructure. In order to work about this topic, the students are now doing a study about the wooded areas in 2 cities with different size: Berga and Manresa. This work is related with the SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

SAVEnergy: foment de l'estalvi d'energia a les llars dels joves de secundària

SAVEnergy és un projecte impulsat per la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya a través del grup de recerca EXPLORATORI dels recursos de la natura. Aquest projecte promou la conscienciació dels joves envers l'estalvi energètic, promovent-lo a les seves llars, mitjançant un equip de mesura de consum energètic, que s'instal·la al quadre elèctric de les llars de cada estudiant que participa en el projecte. Alhora els estudiants competeixen, online , per descobrir qui és el més estalviador. The project SAVEnergy is promoted by Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya through the research group EXPLORATORI: natural resources. This project promotes the awareness of students about saving energy by promoting saving energy at home. This is achieved with a Device that measures the electric consumption at the electric board, at home of every Student participating in the project. At the same time students are competing, online, in order to know who saves more energy.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Open schooling: application in the study of the forest

In this work, it has been doing a comparison between some really knowing methodologies of student-centred learning -Learning by doing; method Montessori; Constructivism; Constructionism and the innovating system Open Schooling. The objective is being able to evaluate it. Specifically, it has been working with an European project: Project Erasmus+ Open Science Schooling: Fostering re-engagement in science learning through open science schooling. The most important goal of the project consists in encouraging “Open Science Schooling” where schools, in cooperation with other stakeholders, become an agent of community well-being; families are encouraged to become real partners in school life and activities; professionals from enterprise, civil and wider society are actively involved in bringing real-life projects into the classroom. The project is composed of three periods and nine phases, furthermore a conclusive phase. The blue period, the first one, aims to create consensus and readiness among partners, teachers and students and to mobilise the resources to collaborate with the project, locally and transnationally. The Green Period, the second one, will create the knowledge, experience and documentation on which the project outcomes will be based; the resource creation will follow the project’s five didactic challenges, stepwise building up capacity and resources towards the Red Period: the production and sharing of final results. The project’s final period, the Red Period, will transform the produced raw material, including from the Open Science Schooling Encounter, into high-quality useful outcomes. The outcome presentation will build on the project’s attractive access design that was developed along the project. The final production will, of course, be accompanied by systematic and powerful local and European level sharing and dissemination. The study case is a school located in Gironella, Berguedà. During the first twelve months, the last school year, it was studied the environment with the mean idea of saving energy. The students have visited several companies and enterprises, in order to known their local community. The implication of the students’ families was essential for a good structure of the project. At the fifth phase, in this school year, it was selected the topic to study: “The forest: exploitation and contribution to the sustainability”. It has been chosen, given that the region contributes 70% of the wood of Catalonia. It is considered to be a topic that involves different stakeholders of local society: Wood sector companies (sawmills, biomass plant ...), the food sector (mushrooms, aromatic plants, honey ...), Research centres (Forest Technology Centre of Catalonia, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Fundació Alicia ...), Administration (Department of Education, City Councils, Regional Council ...) ... the central theme of the Forest will be approached from two points of very differentiated view: Use as raw material on the one hand, and contribution from the forest to the sustainability of the other.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Mostrar la química cotidiana a los estudiantes de secundaria

Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Invasive pneumococcal disease in healthy adults: increase of empyema associated with the clonal-type Sweden1-ST306

Background: Adult invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) occurs mainly in the elderly and patients with co-morbidities. Little is known about the clinical characteristics, serotypes and genotypes causing IPD in healthy adults. Methods: We studied 745 culture-proven cases of IPD in adult patients aged 18-64 years (1996-2010). Patients were included in two groups: 1.) adults with co-morbidities, and 2.) healthy adults, who had no prior or coincident diagnosis of a chronic or immunosuppressive underlying disease. Microbiological studies included pneumococcal serotyping and genotyping. Results: Of 745 IPD episodes, 525 (70%) occurred in patients with co-morbidities and 220 (30%) in healthy adults. The healthy adults with IPD were often smokers (56%) or alcohol abusers (18%). As compared to patients with co-morbidities, the healthy adults had (P,0.05): younger age (43.5+/213.1 vs. 48.7+/211.3 years); higher proportions of women (45% vs.24%), pneumonia with empyema (15% vs. 7%) and infection with non-PCV7 serotypes including serotypes 1 (25% vs. 5%), 7F (13% vs. 4%), and 5 (7% vs. 2%); and lower mortality (5% vs. 20%). Empyema was more frequently caused by serotype 1. No death occurred among 79 patients with serotype 1 IPD. There was an emergence of virulent clonal-types Sweden1-ST306 and Netherlands7F-ST191. The vaccine serotype coverage with the PCV13 was higher in healthy adults than in patients with co-morbidities: 82% and 56%, respectively, P,0.001. Conclusion: In this clinical study, one-third of adults with IPD had no underlying chronic or immunosuppressive diseases (healthy adults). They were often smokers and alcohol abusers, and frequently presents with pneumonia and empyema caused by virulent clones of non-PCV7 serotypes such as the Sweden1-ST306. Thus, implementing tobacco and alcohol abuse-cessation measures and a proper pneumococcal vaccination, such as PCV13 policy, in active smokers and alcohol abusers may diminish the burden of IPD in adults

Indirect effects of paediatric conjugate vaccines on invasive pneumococcal disease in older adults

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the indirect effect of paediatric 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) vaccination on people ≥65 years of age with invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in Catalonia and to determine factors predictive of mortality. Methods: During 2014-2016, 1285 IPD cases were reported to the Public Health Agency of Catalonia. The indirect effect of paediatric PCV13 vaccination was calculated by comparing the incidence rate (IR) in 2016 (PCV13 year) with that in 2009 (pre-PCV13). Predictors of mortality were determined using multivariate logistic regression. Results: Comparing 2016 and 2009, IPD decreased by 19% (IR 40.1 and 32.5 per 100 000 person-years, respectively). PCV13 serotypes decreased by 57% (IR 23.7 and 10.1), while non-PCV13 serotypes increased by 36% (IR 16.4 and 22.4). During 2014-2016, the mortality rate was 17.5%, and mortality was associated with age ≥85 years (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2.91, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.89, 4.48), meningitis (aOR 2.29, 95% CI 1.25, 4.19), non-focal bacteraemia (aOR 3.73, 95% CI 2.00, 6.94), and ≥1 high-risk condition (aOR 1.89, 95% CI 1.08, 3.32). PPV23non13 serotypes were associated with lower mortality than PCV13 serotypes (aOR 0.54, 95% CI 0.34, 0.86). Conclusions: The incidence of IPD in people ≥65 years of age decreased after the introduction of paediatric PCV13, and this was due to a reduction in PCV13 serotypes, although an increase in non-PCV13 serotypes was observed. Mortality was associated with age, meningitis, non-focal bacteraemia, ≥1 high-risk condition, and PCV13 serotypes

Clinical and molecular epidemiology of haemophilus influenzae causing invasive disease in adult patients

Objectives The epidemiology of invasive Haemophilus influenzae (Hi) has changed since the introduction of the Hi type b (Hib) vaccine. The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical and molecular epidemiology of Hi invasive disease in adults. Methods Clinical data of the 82 patients with Hi invasive infections were analyzed. Antimicrobial susceptibility, serotyping, and genotyping were studied (20082013). Results Men accounted for 63.4% of patients (whose mean age was 64.3 years). The most frequent comorbidities were immunosuppressive therapy (34.1%), malignancy (31.7%), diabetes, and COPD (both 22%). The 30-day mortality rate was 20.7%. The majority of the strains (84.3%) were nontypeable (NTHi) and serotype f was the most prevalent serotype in the capsulated strains. The highest antimicrobial resistance was for cotrimoxazole (27.1%) and ampicillin (14.3%). Twenty-three isolates (32.9%) had amino acid changes in the PBP3 involved in resistance. Capsulated strains were clonal and belonged to clonal complexes 6 (serotype b), 124 (serotype f), and 18 (serotype e), whereas NTHi were genetically diverse. Conclusions Invasive Hi disease occurred mainly in elderly and those with underlying conditions, and it was associated with a high mortality rate. NTHi were the most common cause of invasive disease and showed high genetic diversity

Molecular Epidemiology of Klebsiella pneumoniae Strains Causing Bloodstream Infections in Adults

Molecular epidemiology of Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteremic strains allows for a better understanding of preventive and therapeutic strategies. Clinical and microbiological characteristics of 348 K. pneumoniae bacteremia cases (2007-2009) were retrospectively characterized by multilocus sequence typing and extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL) production. Overall, 223 (64.08%) cases were nosocomial (NA), 58 (16.67%) healthcare associated, and 67 (19.25%) community acquired. The main infection origins were urinary tract (16.6%, 50.0%, and 43.3%), biliary tract (10.8%, 24.2%, and 31.3%), and catheter-related infection (39.9%, 5.2%, and 0%). The 30-day mortality rate was around 20%. The rates of resistance were around 45% the highest being among NA cases, and ESBL production was detected in 7.2% of cases. A total of 161 different sequence types were grouped into 13 clonal sets by e-burst analysis. No relationship could be established between clonal sets and the origin of infection or the healthcare-related settings. The high genetic variability among the isolates suggests their intrapatient endogenous origin

Epidemiology of invasive pneumococcal disease in older people in Spain (2007-2009): implications for future vaccination strategies

Background: Recently, the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) has been recommended for adults. We analyzed the epidemiology of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in older adults in Spain before PCV13 introduction. Methodology/Principal Findings: IPD episodes, defined as clinical findings together with an invasive pneumococcal isolate, were prospectively collected from patients aged over 65 years in three hospitals in Spain from 2007 to 2009. A total of 335 IPD episodes were collected. Pneumonia was the main clinical syndrome, while chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus and cancer were the main underlying diseases. Pneumococcal isolates were serotyped and the molecular typing was performed by PFGE/MLST. PCV13 serotypes accounted for 59.3% of isolates, the most prevalent being serotypes 19A (15.1%), 3 (9.6%), 7F (7.5%), 14 (6.9%) and 1 (5.4%). The most frequent non-PCV13 serotypes were serotypes 16F (4.5%), 22F (3.6%), 24F (3.3%) and 6C (2.1%). The most common genotypes were CC230 (8.5%, serotypes 19A and 24F), CC156 (8.2%, serotypes 9V and 14), ST191 (7.9%, serotype 7F), CC260 (6.6%, serotype 3), ST306 (5.2%, serotype 1), CC30 (4.6%, serotype 16F) and ST433 (3.6%, serotype 22F). Comparing the 335 IPD isolates to 174 invasive pneumococci collected at the same hospitals in 1999-2000, PCV7 serotypes decreased (45.4% vs 18.4%,p,0.001), non-PCV7 serotypes included in PCV13 increased (26.4% vs 41.0%,p = 0.001) and two non-PCV13 serotypes increased (serotype 6C 0% vs 2.1%, p = 0.05; serotype 24F 0.6% vs 3.3%, p = 0.04,). Conclusion: In our older adult population two serotypes (19A and 3) included in PCV13 accounted for about a quarter of IPD episodes in people $65 years. Non-PCV13 emerging serotypes should be carefully monitored in future surveillance studies