Blackwater fever in a non-immune patient with Plasmodium falciparum malaria after intravenous artesunate

Blackwater fever was typically reported after quinine administration, although it is poor recognized in patients receiving artesunate. This case describes a blackwater fever in a non-immune patient after artesunate for severe malaria. It highlights the importance of monitoring haemolytic parameters in severe malaria to avoid renal impairment or severe anaemia

Mediation Role of Physical Fitness and Its Components on the Association Between Distribution-Related Fat Indicators and Adolescents' Cognitive Performance: Exploring the Influence of School Vulnerability. The Cogni-Action Project

Background: Physical fitness and fatness converge simultaneously modulating cognitive skills, which in turn, are associated with children and adolescents' socioeconomic background. However, both fitness components and fat mass localization are crucial for understanding its implication at the cognitive level. Objective: This study aimed to determine the mediation role of a global physical fitness score and its components on the association between different fatness indicators related to fat distribution and adolescents' cognitive performance, and simultaneously explore the influence of school vulnerability. Methods: In this study, 1,196 Chilean adolescents participated (aged 10-14; 50.7% boys). Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), muscular fitness (MF), and speed-agility fitness (SAF) were evaluated, and a global fitness score (GFS) was computed adjusted for age and sex (CRF + MF + SAF z-scores). Body mass index z-score (BMIz), sum-of-4-skinfolds (4SKF), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were used as non-specific, peripheral, and central adiposity indicators, respectively. A global cognitive score was computed based on eight tasks, and the school vulnerability index (SVI) was registered as high, mid or low. A total of 24 mediation analyses were performed according to two models, adjusted for sex and peak high velocity (Model 1), and adding the school vulnerability index (SVI) in Model 2. The significance level was set at p < 0.05. Results: The fitness mediation role was different concerning the fatness indicators related to fat distribution analyzed. Even after controlling for SVI, CRF (22%), and SAF (29%), but not MF, mediated the association between BMIz and cognitive performance. Likewise, CRF, SAF and GFS, but not MF, mediated the association between WHtR and cognitive performance (38.6%, 31.9%, and 54.8%, respectively). No mediations were observed for 4SKF. Conclusion: The negative association between fatness and cognitive performance is mitigated by the level of adolescents' physical fitness, mainly CRF and SAF. This mediation role seems to be more consistent with a central fat indicator even in the presence of school vulnerability. Strategies promoting physical fitness would reduce the cognitive gap in children and adolescents related to obesity and school vulnerability.The ``Cogni-Action Project'' was supported by the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research CONICYT/FONDECYT INICIACION 2016 grant no. 11160703. IE-C was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC2019-027287-I)

Precision on leptonic mixing parameters at future neutrino oscillation experiments

We perform a comparison of the different future neutrino oscillation experiments based on the achievable precision in the determination of the fundamental parameters theta_{13} and the CP phase, delta, assuming that theta_{13} is in the range indicated by the recent Daya Bay measurement. We study the non-trivial dependence of the error on delta on its true value. When matter effects are small, the largest error is found at the points where CP violation is maximal, and the smallest at the CP conserving points. The situation is different when matter effects are sizable. As a result of this effect, the comparison of the physics reach of different experiments on the basis of the CP discovery potential, as usually done, can be misleading. We have compared various proposed super-beam, beta-beam and neutrino factory setups on the basis of the relative precision of theta_{13} and the error on delta. Neutrino factories, both high-energy or low-energy, outperform alternative beam technologies. An ultimate precision on theta_{13} below 3% and an error on delta of < 7^{\circ} at 1 sigma (1 d.o.f.) can be obtained at a neutrino factory.Comment: Minor changes, matches version accepted in JHEP. 30 pages, 9 figure

The HADES RV Programme with HARPS-N at TNG XI. GJ 685 b: a warm super-Earth around an active M dwarf

Small rocky planets seem to be very abundant around low-mass M-type stars. Their actual planetary population is however not yet precisely understood. Currently several surveys aim to expand the statistics with intensive detection campaigns, both photometric and spectroscopic. We analyse 106 spectroscopic HARPS-N observations of the active M0-type star GJ 685 taken over the past five years. We combine these data with photometric measurements from different observatories to accurately model the stellar rotation and disentangle its signals from genuine Doppler planetary signals in the RV data. We run an MCMC analysis on the RV and activity indexes time series to model the planetary and stellar signals present in the data, applying Gaussian Process regression technique to deal with the stellar activity signals. We identify three periodic signals in the RV time series, with periods of 9, 24, and 18 d. Combining the analyses of the photometry of the star with the activity indexes derived from the HARPS-N spectra, we identify the 18 d and 9 d signals as activity-related, corresponding to the stellar rotation period and its first harmonic respectively. The 24 d signals shows no relations with any activity proxy, so we identify it as a genuine planetary signal. We find the best-fit model describing the Doppler signal of the newly-found planet, GJ 685\,b, corresponding to an orbital period $P_b = 24.160^{+0.061}_{-0.047}$ d and a minimum mass $M_P \sin i = 9.0^{+1.7}_{-1.8}$ M$_\oplus$. We also study a sample of 70 RV-detected M-dwarf planets, and present new statistical evidence of a difference in mass distribution between the populations of single- and multi-planet systems, which can shed new light on the formation mechanisms of low-mass planets around late-type stars.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&

The HADES RV Programme with HARPS-N@TNG II. Data treatment and simulations

The distribution of exoplanets around low-mass stars is still not well understood. Such stars, however, present an excellent opportunity of reaching down to the rocky and habitable planet domains. The number of current detections used for statistical purposes is still quite modest and different surveys, using both photometry and precise radial velocities, are searching for planets around M dwarfs. Our HARPS-N red dwarf exoplanet survey is aimed at the detection of new planets around a sample of 78 selected stars, together with the subsequent characterization of their activity properties. Here we investigate the survey performance and strategy. From 2700 observed spectra, we compare the radial velocity determinations of the HARPS-N DRS pipeline and the HARPS-TERRA code, we calculate the mean activity jitter level, we evaluate the planet detection expectations, and we address the general question of how to define the strategy of spectroscopic surveys in order to be most efficient in the detection of planets. We find that the HARPS-TERRA radial velocities show less scatter and we calculate a mean activity jitter of 2.3 m/s for our sample. For a general radial velocity survey with limited observing time, the number of observations per star is key for the detection efficiency. In the case of an early M-type target sample, we conclude that approximately 50 observations per star with exposure times of 900 s and precisions of about 1 m/s maximizes the number of planet detections

Encouraging natural ventilation to improve indoor environmental conditions at schools. Case studies in the north of Spain before and during COVID

The COVID pandemic has strongly affected daily life both in Spanish schools and worldwide. Providing the best environmental conditions for children allowing face-to-face learning with healthy and safe indoor spaces is a challenge. In the present study, empirical research about how these environmental conditions change with COVID is presented comparing the situation from March 2020 to January 2021. The methodology combines surveys conducted in nine schools with a case study in a selected school where a detailed monitoring of the building was developed during both heating seasons. This data ana- lyzes the impact of the new COVID prevention protocols on indoor environmental conditions (especially those related to natural ventilation). Results show a mean CO2 reduction of 1,400 ppm, having in the sec- ond term values around 1,000 ppm, although temperatures diminished nearly 2 °C to mean values of 18 °C. Evolution of temperature and CO2 concentration throughout the day was also analyzed, being these indoor conditions especially important for the children with poorer health. Mechanical ventilation with heating recovery should complement natural ventilation, at least during the coldest months or hours of the day, although systems have to be carefully designed and installed to work effectively

Direct conversion of methane to aromatics in a catalytic co-ionic membrane reactor

[EN] Nonoxidative methane dehydroaromatization (MDA: 6CH(4) C6H6 + 9H(2)) using shape-selective Mo/zeolite catalysts is a key technology for exploitation of stranded natural gas reserves by direct conversion into transportable liquids. However, this reaction faces two major issues: The one-pass conversion is limited by thermodynamics, and the catalyst deactivates quickly through kinetically favored formation of coke. We show that integration of an electrochemical BaZrO3-based membrane exhibiting both proton and oxide ion conductivity into an MDA reactor gives rise to high aromatic yields and improved catalyst stability. These effects originate from the simultaneous extraction of hydrogen and distributed injection of oxide ions along the reactor length. Further, we demonstrate that the electrochemical co-ionic membrane reactor enables high carbon efficiencies (up to 80%) that improve the technoeconomic process viability.This work was supported by the Research Council of Norway (grants 195912, 210418, 210765, and 219194) and the Spanish government (grants SEV-2012-0267 and ENE2014-57651). We thank the ALBA Synchrotron Light Laboratory for beam time provision. C.K. and P.K.V. have applied for a patent based on this work (PCT/EP2014/071697). Experimental data are available online at ftp://itqrepositorio.itq.upv.es/pub/.Hernández Morejudo, S.; Zanón González, R.; Escolástico Rozalén, S.; Yuste Tirados, I.; Malerod Fjeld, H.; Vestre, PK.; Coors, WG.... (2016). Direct conversion of methane to aromatics in a catalytic co-ionic membrane reactor. Science. 353(6299):563-566. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aag0274S563566353629

Frequency and properties of bars in cluster and field galaxies at intermediate redshifts

We present a study of large-scale bars in field and cluster environments out to redshifts of ~0.8 using a final sample of 945 moderately inclined disk galaxies drawn from the EDisCS project. We characterize bars and their host galaxies and look for relations between the presence of a bar and the properties of the underlying disk. We investigate whether the fraction and properties of bars in clusters are different from their counterparts in the field. The total optical bar fraction in the redshift range z=0.4-0.8 (median z=0.60), averaged over the entire sample, is 25% (20% for strong bars). For the cluster and field subsamples, we measure bar fractions of 24% and 29%, respectively. We find that bars in clusters are on average longer than in the field and preferentially found close to the cluster center, where the bar fraction is somewhat higher (~31%) than at larger distances (~18%). These findings however rely on a relatively small subsample and might be affected by small number statistics. In agreement with local studies, we find that disk-dominated galaxies have a higher optical bar fraction (~45%) than bulge-dominated galaxies (~15%). This result is based on Hubble types and effective radii and does not change with redshift. The latter finding implies that bar formation or dissolution is strongly connected to the emergence of the morphological structure of a disk and is typically accompanied by a transition in the Hubble type. (abridged)Comment: 17 pages, accepted for publication in A&

Challenges of viticulture adaptation to global change: tackling the issue from the roots

Viticulture is facing emerging challenges not only because of the effect of climate change on yield and composition of grapes, but also of a social demand for environmental-friendly agricultural management. Adaptation to these challenges is essential to guarantee the sustainability of viticulture. The aim of this review is to present adaptation possibilities from the soil-hidden, and often disregarded, part of the grapevine, the roots. The complexity of soil-root interactions makes necessary a comprehensive approach taking into account physiology, pathology and genetics, in order to outline strategies to improve viticulture adaptation to current and future threats. Rootstocks are the link between soil and scion in grafted crops, and they have played an essential role in viticulture since the introduction of phylloxera into Europe at the end of the 19th century. This review outlines current and future challenges that are threatening the sustainability of the wine sector and the relevant role that rootstocks can play to face these threats. We describe how rootstocks along with soil management can be exploited as an essential tool to deal with the effects of climate change and of emerging soil-borne pests and pathogens. Moreover, we discuss the possibilities and limitations of diverse genetic strategies for rootstock breeding.This work is framed in the networking activities of RedVitis (AGL2015-70931-REDT) and RedVitis 2.0 (AGL2017-90759-REDT), funded by the State Research Agency (AEI) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Ms Diana Marin is beneficiary of postgraduate scholarship funded by Universidad Publica de Navarra (FPI-UPNA-2016). Dr Juan Emilio Palomares-Rius acknowledges the State Research Agency (AEI) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the 'Ramon y Cajal' Fellowship RYC-2017-22228 and Dr David Gramaje acknowledges Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the 'Ramon y Cajal' Fellowship RYC-2017-23098