Técnicas de electrónica de potencia para el electroaturdimiento y electrosacrificio, en el sector del atún rojo

Las técnicas de electropesca utilizadas en agua dulce han sido adaptadas a la explotación industrial de la pesca en agua salada de especies como el atún rojo. Por desgracia, como consecuencia de las descargas eléctricas aplicadas, a través de un arpón, se producen daños en la espina que disminuyen la calidad del producto. Se describe aquí un proyecto que aborda el desarrollo de un convertidor electrónico de potencia, versátil y que permite estudiar diferentes formas de onda y su efecto sobre la calidad del producto.Ginés Méndez España S.L

Preliminary trials on the development of electroslaughtering and electrostunning techniques for bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus (L., 1758) reared in floating cages

Preliminary results are presented from an ongoing study concerning the relationship between the type of electrical waves used to slaughter bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus (L., 1758) ongrown in floating cages, and damage to the dorsal column and fish meat, which reduces the fish's commercial value on the Japanese market. Our results indicate that varying the waves' characteristics can reduce those undesirable effects, making this technique the most suitable for bluefin tuna slaughtering, in order to obtain superior meat quality.Se presentan los resultados preliminares del estudio que se lleva a cabo sobre la relación existente entre el tipo de onda eléctrica utilizada para el electrosacrificio del atún rojo Thunnus thynnus (L., 1758), engordado en jaulas flotantes, y los daños producidos en la espina dorsal y la carne de los ejemplares de esta especie, que reducen su valor comercial en el mercado japonés. Se ha observado que se puede mitigar estos efectos indeseados variando las características de las ondas empleadas, haciendo de esta técnica la más apropiada en el sacrificio del atún para obtener una carne de calidad superior.Instituto Español de OceanografíaVersión del editor

High prevalence of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia among Mozambican children < 5 years of age admitted to hospital with clinical severe pneumonia

We aimed to describe Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) prevalence and features in children from sub-Saharan Africa, and to investigate PCP-associated risk factors. During 2006-2007 we used molecular methods to test children younger than 5 years old admitted with severe pneumonia to a hospital in Southern Mozambique for Pneumocystis infection. We recruited 834 children. PCP prevalence was 6.8% and HIV prevalence was 25.7%. The in-hospital and delayed mortality were significantly higher among children with PCP (20.8% vs. 10.2 %, p=0.021, and 11.5% vs. 3.6%, p=0.044, respectively). Clinical features were mostly overlapping between the two groups. Independent risk factors for PCP were age less than a year (OR 6.34, 95%CI 1.86-21.65), HIV infection (OR 2.99, 95%CI 1.16-7.70), grunting (OR 2.64, 95%CI 1.04-6.73), and digital clubbing (OR 10.75, 95%CI 1.21-95.56). PCP is a common and life-threatening cause of severe pneumonia in Mozambican children. Mother-to-child HIV transmission prevention should be strengthened. Better diagnostic tools are needed

QSAR Classification Models for Predicting the Activity of Inhibitors of Beta-Secretase (BACE1) Associated with Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders in elder population. The β-site amyloid cleavage enzyme 1 (BACE1) is the major constituent of amyloid plaques and plays a central role in this brain pathogenesis, thus it constitutes an auspicious pharmacological target for its treatment. In this paper, a QSAR model for identification of potential inhibitors of BACE1 protein is designed by using classification methods. For building this model, a database with 215 molecules collected from different sources has been assembled. This dataset contains diverse compounds with different scaffolds and physical-chemical properties, covering a wide chemical space in the drug-like range. The most distinctive aspect of the applied QSAR strategy is the combination of hybridization with backward elimination of models, which contributes to improve the quality of the final QSAR model. Another relevant step is the visual analysis of the molecular descriptors that allows guaranteeing the absence of information redundancy in the model. The QSAR model performances have been assessed by traditional metrics, and the final proposed model has low cardinality, and reaches a high percentage of chemical compounds correctly classified.Fil: Ponzoni, Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Sebastián Pérez, Víctor. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; Argentina. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas; EspañaFil: Martínez, María J.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Roca, Carlos. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas; EspañaFil: De la Cruz Pérez, Carlos. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas; EspañaFil: Cravero, Fiorella. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Vazquez, Gustavo Esteban. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Católica del Uruguay; UruguayFil: Páez, Juan A.. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto de Química Médica; EspañaFil: Diaz, Monica Fatima. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Campillo Martín, Nuria Eugenia. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas; Españ

A model for risk alert in the management of call option issues on the IBEX-35 Spanish index

En este trabajo se analizan las posibilidades de formación de carteras réplicas y el establecimiento de estrategias de cobertura basadas en la delta neutral. La idea consiste en estudiar el grado de exposición al riesgo de los emisores de opciones call sobre el índice IBEX-35, intentando diseñar un modelo que lo recoja, e idear un sistema o indicador que dé la voz de alerta cuando el riesgo sea grande. Tras la simulación por ordenador de los resultados de pérdidas y ganancias de las distintas estrategias de cobertura, con ayuda de funciones matemáticas primarias y transformadas y de un análisis de filtros para los parámetros delta, gamma y gamma modificada, proponemos, y contrastamos, un modelo de alerta de utilidad, que sirve como herramienta de gestión del riesgo a los emisores de opciones, basado en una estrategia de cobertura dinámica con cartera réplica.This paper analyses the possibilities of forming replicating portfolio and establishing a hedge strategy based on neutral delta. The idea is based on a study of the degree of risk to which the issuers of call options on the IBEX- 35 stock index are exposed. The goal is to design a model that alerts issuers to an increase in risk. Several useful indicators based on this model are tested. After a computer simulation of gains and losses of different hedge strategies, with primary and transformed mathematics equations, and a filter analysis to delta, gamma and modified gamma parameters, we compare the results obtained. Finally, we recommend a valuable tool for managing the risk of call options issues as a dynamic hedge strategy with replicating portfolio

Describing Complexity in Palliative Home Care Through HexCom : A Cross-Sectional, Multicenter Study

Complexity has become a core issue in caring for patients with advanced disease and/or at the end-of-life. The Hexagon of Complexity (HexCom) is a complexity assessment model in the process of validation in health-care settings. Our objective is to use the instrument to describe differences in complexity across disease groups in specific home care for advanced disease and/or at the end-of-life patients, both in general and as relates to each domain and subdomain. Cross-sectional study of home care was conducted in Catalonia. The instrument includes 6 domains of needs (clinical, psychological/emotional, social/family, spiritual, ethical, and death-related), 4 domains of resources (intrapersonal, interpersonal, transpersonal, and practical), and 3 levels of complexity (High (H), Moderate (M), and Low (L)). Interdisciplinary home care teams assessed and agreed on the level of complexity for each patient. Forty-three teams participated (74.1% of those invited). A total of 832 patients were assessed, 61.4% of which were cancer patients. Moderate complexity was observed in 385 (47.0%) cases and high complexity in 347 (42.4%). The median complexity score was 51 for cancer patients and 23 for patients with dementia (p<0.001). We observed the highest level of complexity in the social/family domain. Patients/families most frequently used interpersonal resources (80.5%). This study sheds light on the high-intensity work of support teams, the importance of the social/family domain and planning the place of death, substantial differences in needs and resources across disease groups, and the importance of relationship wellbeing at the end-of-life

Highlights from the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest cosmic ray observatory. Our current exposure reaches nearly 40,000 km$^2$ str and provides us with an unprecedented quality data set. The performance and stability of the detectors and their enhancements are described. Data analyses have led to a number of major breakthroughs. Among these we discuss the energy spectrum and the searches for large-scale anisotropies. We present analyses of our X$_{max}$ data and show how it can be interpreted in terms of mass composition. We also describe some new analyses that extract mass sensitive parameters from the 100% duty cycle SD data. A coherent interpretation of all these recent results opens new directions. The consequences regarding the cosmic ray composition and the properties of UHECR sources are briefly discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, talk given at the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference, Rio de Janeiro 201

The Roles of the S3MPC: Monitoring, Validation and Evolution of Sentinel-3 Altimetry Observations

The Sentinel-3 Mission Performance Centre (S3MPC) is tasked by the European Space Agency (ESA) to monitor the health of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites and ensure a high data quality to the users. This paper deals exclusively with the effort devoted to the altimeter and microwave radiometer, both components of the Surface Topography Mission (STM). The altimeters on Sentinel-3A and -3B are the first to operate in delay-Doppler or SAR mode over all Earth surfaces, which enables better spatial resolution of the signal in the along-track direction and improved noise reduction through multi-looking, whilst the radiometer is a two-channel nadir-viewing system. There are regular routine assessments of the instruments through investigation of telemetered housekeeping data, calibrations over selected sites and comparisons of geophysical retrievals with models, in situ data and other satellite systems. These are performed both to monitor the daily production, assessing the uncertainties and errors on the estimates, and also to characterize the long-term performance for climate science applications. This is critical because an undetected drift in performance could be misconstrued as a climate variation. As the data are used by the Copernicus Services (e.g., CMEMS, Global Land Monitoring Services) and by the research community over open ocean, coastal waters, sea ice, land ice, rivers and lakes, the validation activities encompass all these domains, with regular reports openly available. The S3MPC is also in charge of preparing improvements to the processing, and of the development and tuning of algorithms to improve their accuracy. This paper is thus the first refereed publication to bring together the analysis of SAR altimetry across all these different domains to highlight the benefits and existing challenges

Gender and observed complexity in palliative home care : A prospective multicentre study using the hexcom model

This study analyses gender differences in the complexity observed in palliative home care through a multicentre longitudinal observational study of patients with advanced disease treated by palliative home care teams in Catalonia (Spain). We used the HexCom model, which includes six dimensions and measures three levels of complexity: high (non-modifiable situation), medium (difficult) and low. Results: N = 1677 people, 44% women. In contrast with men, in women, cancer was less prevalent (64.4% vs. 73.9%) (p < 0.001), cognitive impairment was more prevalent (34.1% vs. 26.6%; p = 0.001) and professional caregivers were much more common (40.3% vs. 24.3%; p < 0.001). Women over 80 showed less complexity in the following subareas: symptom management (41.7% vs. 51,1%; p = 0.011), emotional distress (24.5% vs. 32.8%; p = 0.015), spiritual distress (16.4% vs. 26.4%; p = 0.001), socio-familial distress (62.7% vs. 70.1%; p = 0.036) and location of death (36.0% vs. 49.6%; p < 0.000). Men were more complex in the subareas of "practice" OR = 1.544 (1.25-1.90 p = 0.000) and "transcendence" OR = 1.52 (1.16-1.98 p = 0.002). Observed complexity is related to male gender in people over 80 years of age. Women over the age of 80 are remarkably different from their male counterparts, showing less complexity regarding care for their physical, psycho-emotional, spiritual and socio-familial needs

A search for point sources of EeV photons

Measurements of air showers made using the hybrid technique developed with the fluorescence and surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory allow a sensitive search for point sources of EeV photons anywhere in the exposed sky. A multivariate analysis reduces the background of hadronic cosmic rays. The search is sensitive to a declination band from -85{\deg} to +20{\deg}, in an energy range from 10^17.3 eV to 10^18.5 eV. No photon point source has been detected. An upper limit on the photon flux has been derived for every direction. The mean value of the energy flux limit that results from this, assuming a photon spectral index of -2, is 0.06 eV cm^-2 s^-1, and no celestial direction exceeds 0.25 eV cm^-2 s^-1. These upper limits constrain scenarios in which EeV cosmic ray protons are emitted by non-transient sources in the Galaxy.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa