Evaluation of integrated care services in Catalonia: Population-based and service-based real-life deployment protocols

Background: Comprehensive assessment of integrated care deployment constitutes a major challenge to ensure quality, sustainability and transferability of both healthcare policies and services in the transition toward a coordinated service delivery scenario. To this end, the manuscript articulates four different protocols aiming at assessing large-scale implementation of integrated care, which are being developed within the umbrella of the regional project Nextcare (2016-2019), undertaken to foster innovation in technologically-supported services for chronic multimorbid patients in Catalonia (ES) (7.5 M inhabitants). Whereas one of the assessment protocols is designed to evaluate population-based deployment of care coordination at regional level during the period 2011-2017, the other three are service-based protocols addressing: i) Home hospitalization; ii) Prehabilitation for major surgery; and, iii) Community-based interventions for frail elderly chronic patients. All three services have demonstrated efficacy and potential for health value generation. They reflect different implementation maturity levels. While full coverage of the entire urban health district of Barcelona-Esquerra (52

Population and molecular responses to warming in Netzelia tuberspinifera – An endemic and sensitive protist from East Asia

With the effects of global warming becoming ever more obvious, biodiversity conservation is facing severe challenges. Currently, a deeper understanding the mechanisms of the effects of warming on sensitive species has become an important topic in aquatic biodiversity and ecological management. Our study first overcame the “challenge” for a sensitive indicator species (Netzelia tuberspinifera, an endemic testate amoeba species in East Asia) of culturing under laboratory conditions, and then explored its molecular response mechanisms to warming using transcriptomic analysis. Our data indicate that temperature mainly drove the geographical and seasonal variation of N. tuberspinifera populations. Transcriptomic results indicate that when the temperature is 25 °C, it triggers molecular processes related with cell division, test formation and general biomass increase. However, once the temperature exceeds 40 °C, N. tuberspinifera is unable to survive. Following from these results, the distribution of N. tuberspinifera might expand towards higher altitude or latitude regions under global warming. For the first time, our study showed direct evidence for sensitive protozoa species that presents a very narrow adaptation mechanism to local climate. Our work provides fundamental data for regional biodiversity conservation and scientific reference in subtropical and tropical waterbodies

Two Dimensional Aggregation Procedure: An Alternative to the Matrix Algebraic Algorithm

Matrix algebra, Aggregation algorithms, Modelling software, C82, C87, C88,

Ultrasonic Measurements In Brazilian Hardwood

This paper reports on a study of the application of ultrasound waves in wood with the purpose of evaluating the latter's mechanical properties. The evaluation is based on the correlation between the speed of sound, modulus of elasticity and density. The speed of transmission is sensitive to the material's quality-determining factors; hence, this technique is an important industrial tool to improve the quality control of processes. The species used in the experimental procedure were "cupiúba" (Goupia glabra) and "jatobá" (Hymenaea sp). Tests were carried out to determine the properties of apparent density at 12% humidity content (rhoap,12%), modulus of elasticity in static deflection (E M), and modulus of rupture (MOR). Ultrasound tests were also performed to find the stiffness matrix coefficient (C LL), for purposes of comparison with the static findings. The results and analyses lead us to conclude that the nondestructive ultrasound method can be employed to obtain reliable evaluations of the mechanical properties of dicotyledons