Association of Candidate Gene Polymorphisms With Chronic Kidney Disease: Results of a Case-Control Analysis in the Nefrona Cohort

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major risk factor for end-stage renal disease, cardiovascular disease and premature death. Despite classical clinical risk factors for CKD and some genetic risk factors have been identified, the residual risk observed in prediction models is still high. Therefore, new risk factors need to be identified in order to better predict the risk of CKD in the population. Here, we analyzed the genetic association of 79 SNPs of proteins associated with mineral metabolism disturbances with CKD in a cohort that includes 2, 445 CKD cases and 559 controls. Genotyping was performed with matrix assisted laser desorption ionizationtime of flight mass spectrometry. We used logistic regression models considering different genetic inheritance models to assess the association of the SNPs with the prevalence of CKD, adjusting for known risk factors. Eight SNPs (rs1126616, rs35068180, rs2238135, rs1800247, rs385564, rs4236, rs2248359, and rs1564858) were associated with CKD even after adjusting by sex, age and race. A model containing five of these SNPs (rs1126616, rs35068180, rs1800247, rs4236, and rs2248359), diabetes and hypertension showed better performance than models considering only clinical risk factors, significantly increasing the area under the curve of the model without polymorphisms. Furthermore, one of the SNPs (the rs2248359) showed an interaction with hypertension, being the risk genotype affecting only hypertensive patients. We conclude that 5 SNPs related to proteins implicated in mineral metabolism disturbances (Osteopontin, osteocalcin, matrix gla protein, matrix metalloprotease 3 and 24 hydroxylase) are associated to an increased risk of suffering CKD

Famílies botàniques de plantes medicinals

Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona. Ensenyament: Grau de Farmàcia, Assignatura: Botànica Farmacèutica, Curs: 2013-2014, Coordinadors: Joan Simon, Cèsar Blanché i Maria Bosch.Els materials que aquí es presenten són els recull de 175 treballs d’una família botànica d’interès medicinal realitzats de manera individual. Els treballs han estat realitzat per la totalitat dels estudiants dels grups M-2 i M-3 de l’assignatura Botànica Farmacèutica durant els mesos d’abril i maig del curs 2013-14. Tots els treballs s’han dut a terme a través de la plataforma de GoogleDocs i han estat tutoritzats pel professor de l’assignatura i revisats i finalment co-avaluats entre els propis estudiants. L’objectiu principal de l’activitat ha estat fomentar l’aprenentatge autònom i col·laboratiu en Botànica farmacèutica

Assessment of rising damp and indoor environmental quality in buildings after torrential rains in Mallorca, Spain

As a result of climate change, water-related disasters have increased in the last decade. In the month of October 2018, in the town of Sant Llorenç (Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain), torrential rains occurred that caused the overflow of the stream that passes through the municipality, causing personal and material damages (including death). In this research, it is intended to develop a characterization of the damage produced in the middle term (seven months after the natural hazard), through the analysis of hygrothermal conditions, humidity in walls, and indoor air quality in seven houses and in one corner shop. The most used or habitable rooms are selected, analyzing a total of twenty-one rooms. The UNE 171330-2-2014 standard is considered for the determination of environmental risks for the occupants' health. The results obtained show that the users are aware of the need of ventilating the spaces, but, although hygrothermal comfort conditions and indoor air quality are within acceptable ranges, the rising damp highest level is high, since it even exceeds 2 m high in three of the twenty-one rooms assessed. The importance of diagnosing the effects of damage and the vulnerability of buildings in the event of a natural disaster is shown. © Common Ground Research Networks, Joan Munoz, Cristian Carmona, Susana Hormigos-Jimenez, Francesc Masdeu, Gabriel Horrach, All Rights Reserved

Computational fluid dynamics evaluation of the furniture arrangement for ventilation efficiency

[eng] People spend most of their time indoors; therefore, maintaining a good indoor air quality and meeting the requirements of comfort and energy efficiency are essential. One of the most widespread strategies to achieve this objective is improving ventilation efficiency; therefore, the main aim of this study was to show an optimization of the ventilation efficiency, in a specific room, considering 47 variations (case studies) in the furniture arrangement. For this purpose, a numerical analysis using computational fluid dynamics techniques, validated by the tracer gas decay technique, was used to assess the distribution of the age of air within the space. The concept of age of air was implemented in the computational fluid dynamics code through user-defined functions, using the steady-state method based on the resolution of a transport equation for an additional scalar. Variations up to 5.75% in the ventilation efficiency between the cases studied have been achieved. It is concluded that an improvement up to 1.65% can be obtained when the elements of the study are introduced in a way that facilitates the air movement towards the exhaust; therefore, improvement of the ventilation efficiency through specific furniture distributions is possible, although not significant, according to the outcomes

CTA Contributions to the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015)

List of contributions from the CTA Consortium presented at the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, 30 July - 6 August 2015, The Hague, The Netherlands.Comment: Index of CTA conference proceedings at the ICRC2015, The Hague (The Netherlands). v1: placeholder with no arXiv links yet, to be replaced once individual contributions have been all submitted; v2: final with arXiv links to all CTA contributions and full author lis