Neighbourhood Influences on Population Health: Time to Unpack the Black Box

[No abstract available]This work was financed by national funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the project “HUG: The health impacts of inner-city gentrification, displacement and housing insecurity: a quasi-experimental multi-cohort study (PTDC/GES-OUT/1662/2020)” and the projects UIDB/04750/2020 and LA/P/0064/2020. AR was supported by National Funds through FCT, under the “Stimulus of Scientific Employment—Individual Support” programme within the contract CEECIND/02386/2018. PG is supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Subdirección General de Evaluación y Fomento de la Investigación, Government of Spain (PI18/00782) and by the Young Projects program funded by Comunidad de Madrid and UAH under the project GentriHealth (CM/JIN/2021-028). EM is supported by The Health Foundation’s Social and Economic Value of Health programme (R-000002350)

Microwave-assisted autohydrolysis of avocado seed for the recovery of antioxidant phenolics and glucose

This study describes the valorization of avocado seed (AS) within a green biorefinery concept using microwave-assisted autohydrolysis. After the treatment at temperatures of 150–230 ◦C for 5 min, the resulting solid and liquor were characterized. The temperature of 220 ◦C led to the simultaneous optimal values of antioxidant phenolics/flavonoids (42.15 mg GAE/g AS, 31.89 RE/g AS, respectively) and glucose + glucooligosaccharides (38.82 g/L) in the liquor. Extraction with ethyl acetate allowed the recovery of the bioactive compounds while maintaining the polysaccharides in the liquor. The extract was rich in vanillin (99.02 mg/g AS) and contained several phenolic acids and flavonoids. The solid phase and the phenolic-free liquor were subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis to produce glucose, reaching values of 9.93 and 105 g glucose/L, respectively. This work demonstrates that microwave-assisted autohydrolysis is a promising technology to obtain fermentable sugars and antioxidant phenolic compounds from avocado seeds following a biorefinery scheme.Universidade de Vigo/CISUGXunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431C 2017/62-GRCXunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431F 2020/03Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED481B-2022-020Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades | Ref. FPU21/02446Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades | Ref. FJC2021-046978-IMinisterio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades | Ref. RYC2018-024846-IMinisterio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades | Ref. RYC2018-026177-

The Effect of Different Oxygen Surface Functionalization of Carbon Nanotubes on the Electrical Resistivity and Strain Sensing Function of Cement Pastes

Different studies in the literature indicate the effectiveness of CNTs as reinforcing materials in cement–matrix composites due to their high mechanical strength. Nevertheless, their incorporation into cement presents some difficulties due to their tendency to agglomerate, yielding a non-homogeneous dispersion in the paste mix that results in a poor cement–CNTs interaction. This makes the surface modification of the CNTs by introducing functional groups on the surface necessary. In this study, three different treatments for incorporating polar oxygen functional groups onto the surface of carbon nanotubes have been carried out, with the objective of evaluating the influence of the type and oxidation degree on the mechanical and electrical properties and in strain-sensing function of cement pastes containing CNTs. One treatment is in liquid phase (surface oxidation with HNO3/H2SO4), the second is in gas phase (O3 treatment at 25 and 160 °C), and a third is a combination of gas-phase O3 treatment plus NaOH liquid phase. The electrical conductivity of cement pastes increased with O3- and O3-NaOH-treated CNTs with respect to non-treated ones. Furthermore, the oxygen functionalization treatments clearly improve the strain sensing performance of the CNT-cement pastes, particularly in terms of the accuracy of the linear correlation between the resistance and the stress, as well as the increase in the gage factor from 28 to 65. Additionally, the incorporation of either non-functionalized or functionalized CNTs did not produce any significant modification of the mechanical properties of CNTs. Therefore, the functionalization of CNTs favours the de-agglomeration of CNTs in the cement matrix and consequently, the electrical conductivity, without affecting the mechanical behaviour.This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, grant number 760940

Effect of excess weight and immune-related adverse events on the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy with anti-PD-1 antibodies

Immunotherapy is an effective treatment in advanced cancer, although predictors of response are limited. We studied whether excess weight influences the efficacy outcomes of immunotherapy. We have also evaluated the combined prognostic effect of excess weight and immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Efficacy of anti-PD-1 treatment was evaluated with both objective radiological response (ORR) rate and progression-free survival (PFS), and toxicity with irAEs. We studied the association between excess weight and ORR, PFS or irAEs. 132 patients diagnosed with advanced cancer were included. Median body mass index (BMI) was 24.9 kg/m2. 64 patients had normal weight (BMI<25 kg/m2), and 64 patients had excess weight (BMI≥25 kg/m2). Four patients had underweight and were excluded from further analysis. ORR was achieved in 50 patients (38.0%), median PFS was 6 months. 44 patients developed irAEs (33.3%). ORR was higher in excess weight patients than in patients with normal weight (51.6% vs 25.0%; OR 3.45, p = .0009). PFS was improved in patients with excess weight (7.25 months vs 4 months, HR 1.72, p = .01). The incidence of IrAEs was not different in patients with excess weight (54.5% vs 43.2%, p = .21). When high BMI and irAEs were combined, we observed a marked prognostic trend in ORR rate (87.5% vs 6.2%; OR 161.0, p < .00001), and in PFS (14 months vs 3 months; HR 5.89, p < .0001). Excess weight patients with advanced cancer that receive single-agent anti-PD-1 antibody therapy exhibit a significantly improved clinical outcome compared with normal BMI patients. This association was especially marked when BMI and irAEs were considered combined.This study was funded in part by the project Discovery, Validation and Implementation of Biomarkers for Precision Oncology [PIE15/00068], and the project FIS PI17/01865 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, awarded to RC, and the projects [JR 17/00007 and PI17/008], awarded to NRL

Chitosan-based silver nanoparticles: A study of the antibacterial, antileishmanial and cytotoxic effects

Silver nanoparticles have been studied as an alternative for treatment of microbial infections and leishmaniasis, without promoting induction of microbial or parasite resistance. In this study, chitosan-based silver nanoparticles were synthesized from silver nitrate (AgNO3), sodium borohydride as a reducing agent, and the biopolymer chitosan as a capping agent. The chitosanbased silver nanoparticles were characterized by ultraviolet–visible, Fourier transform infrared, dynamic light scattering, zeta potential, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscope. The antibacterial assay was performed by determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration. The antileishmanial and the cytotoxic effects induced by AgNO3, chitosan, and chitosan-based silver nanoparticles were analyzed by resazurin and MTT colorimetric assays, respectively. AgNO3, chitosan, and chitosan-based silver nanoparticles induced a marked activity against all bacterial strains and promastigote forms of Leishmania amazonensis at minimum inhibitory concentrations ranging from 1.69 to 3.38 μg Ag/mL. Interestingly, the chitosan-based silver nanoparticles presented less cytotoxicity than the AgNO3 alone and were more active against L. amazonensis than solely chitosan. Furthermore, the cytotoxic concentrations (CC50) of both chitosan and chitosan-based silver nanoparticles against macrophages were significantly higher than the IC50 against promastigotes. Thus, the chitosan-based silver nanoparticles represent a promising alternative for the treatment of microbial infections and leishmaniasis.N/

The first multi-model ensemble of regional climate simulations at kilometer-scale resolution, part I: evaluation of precipitation

Here we present the first multi-model ensemble of regional climate simulations at kilometer-scale horizontal grid spacing over a decade long period. A total of 23 simulations run with a horizontal grid spacing of ?3 km, driven by ERA-Interim reanalysis, and performed by 22 European research groups are analysed. Six different regional climate models (RCMs) are represented in the ensemble. The simulations are compared against available high-resolution precipitation observations and coarse resolution (? 12 km) RCMs with parameterized convection. The model simulations and observations are compared with respect to mean precipitation, precipitation intensity and frequency, and heavy precipitation on daily and hourly timescales in different seasons. The results show that kilometer-scale models produce a more realistic representation of precipitation than the coarse resolution RCMs. The most significant improvements are found for heavy precipitation and precipitation frequency on both daily and hourly time scales in the summer season. In general, kilometer-scale models tend to produce more intense precipitation and reduced wet-hour frequency compared to coarse resolution models. On average, the multi-model mean shows a reduction of bias from ? ?40% at 12 km to ? ?3% at 3 km for heavy hourly precipitation in summer. Furthermore, the uncertainty ranges i.e. the variability between the models for wet hour frequency is reduced by half with the use of kilometer-scale models. Although differences between the model simulations at the kilometer-scale and observations still exist, it is evident that these simulations are superior to the coarse-resolution RCM simulations in the representing precipitation in the present-day climate, and thus offer a promising way forward for investigations of climate and climate change at local to regional scales.The ETH and UIBK team acknowledges PRACE for awarding access to Piz Daint at Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS, Switzerland), and the Federal Office for Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), and ETH Zürich for their contributions to the development of the GPU-accelerated version of COSMO. The funding for their research was provided by the Swiss National Sciences Foundation through the Sinergia Grant CRSII2_154486 ’crCLIM’. The ETH team, MZ, CNRM IPSL, ICTP, SMHI, Met-Office, DMI, CMCC, HZG, KNMI acknowledge funding from the HORIZON 2020 EUCP (European Climate Prediction System) project (https://www.eucp-project.eu, grant agreement No. 776613). The RegCM simulations by the ICTP have been completed thanks to the support of the Consorzio Interuniversitario per il Calcolo Automatico dell’Italia Nord Orientale (CINECA) super-computing center (Bologna, Italy). ICTP team acknowledge the CETEMPS, University of L’Aquila, for allowing access to the Italian database of precipitation which GRIPHO is based on. EK and SK acknowledge the GRNET HPC-ARIS infrastructure (project pr003005) and the AUTH-IT scientific center for their support. MT acknowledge that computational resources were made available by the German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ) through support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF), and further acknowledge the funding of the German Research Foundation (DFG) through grant nr. 401857120. HT and DM acknowledge the projects HighEnd:Extremes, EASICLIM, and reclip:convex, funded by the Austrian Climate Research Programme (ACRP) of the Klima- und Energiefonds (nos. B368608, KR16AC0K13160, and B769999, respectively) and the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC) (projects 70992 and 71193). HT, DM and KG gratefully acknowledge the computing time granted through JARA (project JJSC39) and the John von Neumann Institute for Computing (NIC) (project HKA19) at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre. AL-G acknowledges support by the Spanish government through grant BES-2016-078158 and MINECO/FEDER co-funded project MULTI-SDM (CGL2015-66583-R). UCAN simulations have been carried out on the Altamira Supercomputer at the Instituto de Física de Cantabria (IFCA, CSIC-UC), member of the Spanish Supercomputing Network. SS and TL gratefully acknowledge the support of the Norwegian Environment Agency and their basic funding support of NORCE’s Climate Services strategic project. Their simulations were performed on resources provided by UNINETT Sigma2—the National Infrastructure for High Performance Computing and Data Storage in Norway. JM and JF gratefully acknowledge the support by the Spanish government R+D programme through grant INSIGNIA (CGL2016-79210-R), co-funded by the ERDF/FEDER. The UHOH team and JM are also thankful for the support of the German Science Foundation (DFG) through project FOR 1695. The UHOH simulations were carried out using the computational resources received from the supercomputing center HLRS in Stuttgart, Germany. IPSL’s work was granted access to the HPC resources of TGCC under the allocations 2018-A0030106877 and 2019-A0030106877 made by GENCI. EB and BA thank the Hessian Competence Center for High Performance Computing. The CICERO team was funded through the Norwegian Research Council project HYPRE (grant no. 243942) and acknowledges computing resources from Notur (NN9188K). EJK gratefully acknowledges funding from the Joint UK BEIS/Defra Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme (GA01101). All authors gratefully acknowledge the WCRP-CORDEX-FPS on Convective phenomena at high resolution over Europe and the Mediterranean (FPSCONV-ALP-3) and the research data exchange infrastructure and services provided by the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, Germany, as part of the Helmholtz Data Federation initiative