Family, trade and politics: Miguel Riesco y Puente between Chile and Spain in the early 19thcentury

Este artículo analiza las estrategias familiares y mercantiles como parte de redes sociales, económicas y políticas de amplio alcance a través de la correspondencia mantenida entre Manuel Riesco, cabeza de una casa comercial chilena, y su hijo Miguel, que llegaría a ejercer como diputado suplente en las Cortes de Cádiz durante su estancia en España a principios del siglo XIX. En este contexto, las trayectorias en el ámbito privado y las experiencias en el espacio público permiten redimensionar el proceso de cambio al que se asistía por entonces en el mundo hispánico desde claves familiares y privadas, tanto por sus efectos al interior de los grupos de parentesco, como por sus repercusiones en la posición y proyección social de los mismos.This article examines family and commercial strategies as part of long-range social, economic and political networks through the letters exchanged by Manuel Riesco, the head of a Chilean trading house, and his son Miguel, who sat as substitute representative in the Cortesof Cádiz, during his time in Spain in the early 19thcentury. In this context, private trajectories and the experience of the public arena allow us to reassess the process of change that the Hispanic world was undergoing during this period, from a private and family perspective, both in terms of its effects on household internal structure and of its impact on the social projection of its members

Correlation between optical characterization of the plasma in reactive magnetron sputtering deposition of Zr-N on SS 316L and surface and mechanical properties of the deposited films

Abstract Optical and surface spectroscopies as well as nanoindentation techniques have been used to study ZrN coatings on 316L stainless steel obtained by DC-reactive magnetron sputtering. The deposit process was carried out using initial and working pressures of 10 À6 Torr and 10 À3 Torr, respectively. The experimental set-up for optical spectra acquisition was designed for the study in situ of the plasma in the deposition chamber. Auger spectroscopy, SEM and X-ray diffraction were used to characterize the coatings. Nanoindentation tests were carried out to measure the mechanical properties of the coating. Plasma characterization revealed the presence of CN molecules and Cr ions in the plasma. Surface spectroscopy results showed that ZrN, Zr 3 N 4 and ZrC coexist in the coating. These results allowed the understanding of the mechanical behavior of the coatings, demonstrating the importance of the plasma characterization as a tool for tailoring the properties of hard coatings.

A novel bismuth-based lead-free piezoelectric transducer immunosensor for carbaryl quantification

[EN] A novel BNT-BKT-BT piezoelectric ceramic immunosensor, tested for quantification of the pesticide carbaryl is here presented. The measuring format was based on a competitive immunoassay of immobilized conjugate using monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) as specific immunoreagent. The immunosensor is able to detect concentrations of the analyte from one and up to three orders of magnitude below the reported values of high- and low- frequency quartz crystal commercial resonators (HFF-QCM and QCM), respectively. Furthermore, the minimum content of quantified carbaryl is 0.11 ¿g L-1, which is clearly lower than reported values of any commercial quartz-based biosensors. Such measurement characteristics are only possible due to the high electromechanical coupling factor (kt) of the Bi-based piezoelectric ceramic, approaching the commercial QCM, HFF-QCM and ELISA techniques and strongly enhancing the sensitivity of the immunoassay.This project received support from CONACYT (Grants Nr. CB-220734, FC 2015-2-896, LN 292686 and 293429). This work has been carried out at CENAPROT and LIDTRA national laboratories as well as at Center for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering (Ci2B) of Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Fernández-Benavides, D.; Cervera-Chiner, L.; Jiménez Jiménez, Y.; Arias De Fuentes, O.; Montoya, Á.; Muñoz-Saldaña, J. (2019). A novel bismuth-based lead-free piezoelectric transducer immunosensor for carbaryl quantification. Sensors and Actuators B Chemical. 285:423-430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2019.01.081S42343028

Whole sequence of the mitochondrial DNA genome of Kearns Sayre Syndrome patients: Identification of deletions and variants

Mitochondria both produce the energy of the cell as ATP via respiration and regulate cellular metabolism. Accordingly, any deletion or mutation in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) may result in a disease. One of these diseases is Kearns Sayre syndrome (KSS), described for the first time in 1958, where different large-scale deletions of different sizes and at different positions have been reported in the mitochondrial genome of patients with similar clinical symptoms. In this study, sequences of the mitochondrial genome of three patients with clinic features of KSS were analyzed. Our results revealed the position, heteroplasmy percentage, size of deletions, and their haplogroups. Two patients contained deletions reported previously and one patient showed a new deletion not reported previously. These results display for the first time a systematic analysis of mtDNA variants in the whole mtDNA genome of patients with KSS to help to understand their association with the disease

Role of age and comorbidities in mortality of patients with infective endocarditis

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyse the characteristics of patients with IE in three groups of age and to assess the ability of age and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) to predict mortality. Methods: Prospective cohort study of all patients with IE included in the GAMES Spanish database between 2008 and 2015. Patients were stratified into three age groups:<65 years, 65 to 80 years, and = 80 years.The area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) curve was calculated to quantify the diagnostic accuracy of the CCI to predict mortality risk. Results: A total of 3120 patients with IE (1327 < 65 years;1291 65-80 years;502 = 80 years) were enrolled.Fever and heart failure were the most common presentations of IE, with no differences among age groups.Patients =80 years who underwent surgery were significantly lower compared with other age groups (14.3%, 65 years; 20.5%, 65-79 years; 31.3%, =80 years). In-hospital mortality was lower in the <65-year group (20.3%, <65 years;30.1%, 65-79 years;34.7%, =80 years;p < 0.001) as well as 1-year mortality (3.2%, <65 years; 5.5%, 65-80 years;7.6%, =80 years; p = 0.003).Independent predictors of mortality were age = 80 years (hazard ratio [HR]:2.78;95% confidence interval [CI]:2.32–3.34), CCI = 3 (HR:1.62; 95% CI:1.39–1.88), and non-performed surgery (HR:1.64;95% CI:11.16–1.58).When the three age groups were compared, the AUROC curve for CCI was significantly larger for patients aged <65 years(p < 0.001) for both in-hospital and 1-year mortality. Conclusion: There were no differences in the clinical presentation of IE between the groups. Age = 80 years, high comorbidity (measured by CCI), and non-performance of surgery were independent predictors of mortality in patients with IE.CCI could help to identify those patients with IE and surgical indication who present a lower risk of in-hospital and 1-year mortality after surgery, especially in the <65-year group