Relaxational dynamics in the glassy, supercooled liquid, and orientationally disordered crystal phases of a polymorphic molecular material

12 págs.; 12 figs.The relaxational dynamics of the ambient pressure phases of ethyl alcohol are studied by means of measurements of frequency dependent dielectric susceptibility. A comparison of the a relaxation in the supercooled liquid and in the rotator phase crystal indicates that the molecular rotational degrees of freedom are the dominant contribution to structural relaxation at temperatures near the glass transition, the flow processes having lesser importance. Below the glass transition a secondary β relaxation is resolved for the orientational and structural glasses. Computer molecular-dynamics results suggest that localized molecular librations, strongly coupled to the low-frequency internal molecular motions, are responsible for this secondary relaxation. ©1999 The American Physical Society.This work was performed in part under DGICYT (Spain) Grant Nos. PB95-0075-C03-01 and PB94-0468.Peer Reviewe

Application Dependent End-of-Life Threshold Definition Methodology for Batteries in Electric Vehicles

The end-of-life event of the battery system of an electric vehicle is defined by a fixed end-of-life threshold value. However, this kind of end-of-life threshold does not capture the application and battery characteristics and, consequently, it has a low accuracy in describing the real end-of-life event. This paper proposes a systematic methodology to determine the end-of-life threshold that describes accurately the end-of-life event. The proposed methodology can be divided into three phases. In the first phase, the health indicators that represent the aging behavior of the battery are defined. In the second phase, the application specifications and battery characteristics are evaluated to generate the end-of-life criteria. Finally, in the third phase, the simulation environment used to calculate the end-of-life threshold is designed. In this third phase, the electric-thermal behavior of the battery at different aging conditions is simulated using an electro-thermal equivalent circuit model. The proposed methodology is applied to a high-energy electric vehicle application and to a high-power electric vehicle application. The stated hypotheses and the calculated end-of-life threshold of the high-energy application are empirically validated. The study shows that commonly assumed 80 or 70% EOL thresholds could lead to mayor under or over lifespan estimations.The iModBatt project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme for research and innovation under Grant Agreement No. 770054

In-silico gene essentiality analysis of polyamine biosynthesis reveals APRT as a potential target in cancer

Constraint-based modeling for genome-scale metabolic networks has emerged in the last years as a promising approach to elucidate drug targets in cancer. Beyond the canonical biosynthetic routes to produce biomass, it is of key importance to focus on metabolic routes that sustain the proliferative capacity through the regulation of other biological means in order to improve in-silico gene essentiality analyses. Polyamines are polycations with central roles in cancer cell proliferation, through the regulation of transcription and translation among other things, but are typically neglected in in silico cancer metabolic models. In this study, we analysed essential genes for the biosynthesis of polyamines. Our analysis corroborates the importance of previously known regulators of the pathway, such as Adenosylmethionine Decarboxylase 1 (AMD1) and uncovers novel enzymes predicted to be relevant for polyamine homeostasis. We focused on Adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) and demonstrated the detrimental consequence of APRT gene silencing on diferent leukaemia cell lines. Our results highlight the importance of revisiting the metabolic models used for in-silico gene essentiality analyses in order to maximize the potential for drug target identifcation in cance

Diferencias en el perfil de derivación recibido en los centros de rehabilitación psicosocial en función del género.

Introducción: La percepción de los profesionales que trabajan en recursos de atención social a personas con trastorno mental grave apunta a la existencia de diferencias en las características de los hombres y mujeres que llegan a estos dispositivos. Material y Método: Este trabajo pretende ser una aproximación al análisis de dichas diferencias, para lo cual se ha comparado el perfil sociodemográfico y clínico-psiquiátrico de los hombres y mujeres derivados a los Centros de Rehabilitación Psicosocial de San Fernando de Henares, Alcalá de Henares y La Elipa, pertenecientes a la Red de recursos de atención social a personas con enfermedad mental grave y duradera de la Comunidad de Madrid, durante un período de cinco años. Durante esos años u total de 302 personas fueron derivadas a estos recursos, 188 varones y 114 mujeres. La muestra total se dividió en dos grupos: hombres-mujeres y se realizaron las tablas de contingencia y los análisis estadísticos pertinentes de las variables referidas. Resultados: Los análisis realizados indican que las mujeres que son derivadas a estos recursos son más mayores que los hombres, tienen en mayor medida certificado de minusvalía, cobran más a menudo pensiones no contributivas, no tienen una profesión definida y llegan tras un periodo de evolución mayor del trastorno

Pan-genomes: estimating the true genomic diversity of plant species

A pan-genome is defined as the union of all the genes and non-coding DNA found in all individuals of a species or broader taxon. While pan-genomes have been extensively studied in bacteria, and related to their ecological and pathogenic properties, our knowledge of pan-genomes in wild plants and crops is still limited. In this talk I will review how genome and RNA sequencing of both monocot and dicot models (Brachypodium distachyon and Arabidopsis thaliana) and crops (Hordeum vulgare) show that plants, as microorganisms, contain core genes, detected in all accessions, and also accessory sequences, which are present only in some of them. Core genes are more likely to be involved in essential biological functions, whereas accessory loci evolve faster and are conditionally expressed with roles in defense and development. Comparison of de-novo genome assemblies of B. distachyon accessions indicates that accessory genes accumulate in pericentromeric regions, close to transposable elements, in agreement with expression and enrichment analyses in barley. Our results demonstrate that pan-genomes are useful to explore germplasm diversity and show that mobile genetic elements play a key role in shaping plant genomes.Peer reviewe

Peritoneal carcinomatosis of colorectal origin. Current treatment: Review and update Carcinomatosis peritoneal de origen colorrectal. Estado actual del tratamiento: Revisión y puesta al día

Colorectal cancer is the most frequent tumor of the digestive tract. The high incidence of abdominal dissemination; the poor prognosis of these patients, with median survival consistently ranging from 5 to 9 months in all studies of peritoneal carcinomatosis from colorectal cancer; the failure of adjuvant systemic chemotherapy treatment with a maximal survival of 18 months despite the development of new cytostatic drugs, and new combinations of use, make it crucial to search for and develop new treatment strategies. We review the principles of Sugarbaker´s treatment protocol, which involves the combination of maximum cytoreductive radical oncological surgery for the treatment of all macroscopically disseminated disease with maximum perioperative intraperitoneal intensification chemotherapy to treat residual microscopic disease. We present the results of several scientific papers, all of them phase II studies with more than 10 patients treated, published in the medical literature by the main groups working in this line of treatment, together with the only phase III study reported and published so far, and finally the results of a recently reported retrospective international multicenter study. With this new alternative therapeutic approach, overall mean survival is 40% at 36 months, and 20% at 5 years. Based on these results, this new therapeutic approach is proposed as the treatment of choice for these unfortunate patients.El cáncer colorrectal es el tumor más frecuente del tracto digestivo. La alta incidencia de diseminación abdominal, el pobre pronóstico de estos pacientes con una mediana de supervivencia entre 5 y 9 meses demostrada repetidamente en todos los estudios de carcinomatosis peritoneal por cáncer colorrectal, el fracaso de los tratamientos sistémicos adyuvantes con quimioterapia con supervivencias máximas de 18 meses independientemente del desarrollo de nuevas drogas citostáticas y las nuevas combinaciones o formas de uso, hacen crucial la investigación y el desarrollo de nuevas estrategias de tratamiento. Revisamos los principios del protocolo del tratamiento de Sugarbaker, que contempla la combinación de la máxima cirugía radical oncológica citorreductora para el tratamiento de la enfermedad macroscópica diseminada con la máxima quimioterapia de intensificación intraperitoneal perioperatoria para el tratamiento de la enfermedad microscópica residual. Se presentan los resultados de las publicaciones científicas, de todos los estudios fase II con más de 10 pacientes tratados publicados en la literatura médica por los principales grupos de trabajo en esta línea de tratamiento, junto con el único estudio fase III publicado hasta el momento, y finalmente los resultados de un reciente estudio multicéntrico internacional retrospectivo. Con esta nueva alternativa terapéutica, la supervivencia media a los 36 meses es del 40, y del 20% a los 5 años. Basados en estos resultados, proponemos esta alternativa de tratamiento como el tratamiento de elección de estos desafortunados pacientes