Stochastic hydro-economic model for groundwater quality management using Bayesian networks

A strong normative development in Europe, including the Nitrate Directive (1991) and the Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000), has been promulgated. The WFD states that all water bodies have to reach a good quantitative and chemical status by 2015. It is necessary to consider different objectives, often in conflict, for tackling a suitable assessment of the impacts generated by water policies aimed to reduce nitrate pollution in groundwater. For that, an annual lumped probabilistic model based on Bayesian networks (BNs) has been designed for hydro-economic modelling of groundwater quality control under uncertain conditions. The information introduced in the BN model comes from different sources such as previous groundwater flow and mass transport simulations, hydro-economic models, stakeholders and expert opinion, etc. The methodology was applied to the El Salobral-Los Llanos aquifer unit within the 'Easter Mancha' groundwater body, which is one of the largest aquifers in Spain (7,400 km(2)), included in the Júcar River Basin. Over the past 30 years, socioeconomic development within the region has been mainly depending on intensive use of groundwater resources for irrigating crops. This has provoked a continuous groundwater level fall in the last two decades and significant streamflow depletion in the connected Júcar River. This BN model has proved to be a robust Decision Support System for helping water managers in the decision making process.The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the following people and organizations. The study has been partially supported by the European Community 7th Framework Project GENESIS (226536) on groundwater systems and from the subprogram Juan de la Cierva (2010, 2011) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation as well as from the Plan Nacional I + D + i 2008-2011 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (subprojects CGL2009-13238-C02-01 and CGL2009-13238-C02-02). Finally, thanks to the Jucar River Basin Authority (CHJ), IDR of Univ. of Castilla-La Mancha, the Junta Central de Regantes de la Mancha Oriental, and all the different stakeholders who have collaborated on the data and information provided in this research.Molina, J.; Pulido-Velazquez, M.; Llopis Albert, C.; Peña Haro, S. (2013). Stochastic hydro-economic model for groundwater quality management using Bayesian networks. Water Science and Technology. 67(3):579-586. https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2012.598S57958667

Pulsating flow and convective heat transfer in a cavity with inlet and outlet sections

This paper deals with the study of 2-D, laminar, pulsating flow inside a heated rectangular cavity with different aspect ratios. The cooling liquid (water with temperature dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity) comes and leaves the cavity via inlet and outlet ports. The flow topology is characterised by the large recirculation regions that exist at inner corners of the cavity. These low velocity regions cause the heat transfer to be small when compared, for instance, to that of a straight channel. We study the effect that a prescribed pulsation at the inlet port has on the cavity heat transfer. This pulsating boundary condition, of the unsteady Poiseuille type, is described by its frequency and the amplitude of the pressure gradient. The time averaged Reynolds number of the flow, based on the hydraulic diameter of the inlet channel, is 100 and we consider that the dimensionless pulsation frequency (Strouhal number) varies in the range from 0.0 to 0.4. We show that the prescribed pulsation enhances heat transfer in the cavity and that the mechanism that causes this enhancement appears to be the periodic change in the recirculation flow pattern generated by the pulsation. Regarding the quantitative extent of heat transfer recovery, we find that appropriate selection of the pulsation parameters allows for the cavity to behave like a straight channel that is the configuration with the highest Nusselt number

Charge Fluctuations on Membrane Surfaces in Water

We generalize the predictions for attractions between over-all neutral surfaces induced by charge fluctuations/correlations to non-uniform systems that include dielectric discontinuities, as is the case for mixed charged lipid membranes in an aqueous solution. We show that the induced interactions depend in a non-trivial way on the dielectric constants of membrane and water and show different scaling with distance depending on these properties. The generality of the calculations also allows us to predict under which dielectric conditions the interaction will change sign and become repulsive

Sensitization of cervix cancer cells to Adriamycin by Pentoxifylline induces an increase in apoptosis and decrease senescence

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chemotherapeutic drugs like Adriamycin (ADR) induces apoptosis or senescence in cancer cells but these cells often develop resistance and generate responses of short duration or complete failure. The methylxantine drug Pentoxifylline (PTX) used routinely in the clinics setting for circulatory diseases has been recently described to have antitumor properties. We evaluated whether pretreatment with PTX modifies apoptosis and senescence induced by ADR in cervix cancer cells.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>HeLa (HPV 18+), SiHa (HPV 16+) cervix cancer cells and non-tumorigenic immortalized HaCaT cells (control) were treated with PTX, ADR or PTX + ADR. The cellular toxicity of PTX and survival fraction were determinated by WST-1 and clonogenic assay respectively. Apoptosis, caspase activation and ADR efflux rate were measured by flow cytometry, senescence by microscopy. IκBα and DNA fragmentation were determinated by ELISA. Proapoptotic, antiapoptotic and senescence genes, as well as HPV-E6/E7 mRNA expression, were detected by time real RT-PCR. p53 protein levels were assayed by Western blot.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>PTX is toxic (WST-1), affects survival (clonogenic assay) and induces apoptosis in cervix cancer cells. Additionally, the combination of this drug with ADR diminished the survival fraction and significantly increased apoptosis of HeLa and SiHa cervix cancer cells. Treatments were less effective in HaCaT cells. We found caspase participation in the induction of apoptosis by PTX, ADR or its combination. Surprisingly, in spite of the antitumor activity displayed by PTX, our results indicate that methylxantine, <it>per se </it>does not induce senescence; however it inhibits senescence induced by ADR and at the same time increases apoptosis. PTX elevates IκBα levels. Such sensitization is achieved through the up-regulation of proapoptotic factors such as <it>caspase </it>and <it>bcl </it>family gene expression. PTX and PTX + ADR also decrease E6 and E7 expression in SiHa cells, but not in HeLa cells. p53 was detected only in SiHa cells treated with ADR.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>PTX is a good inducer of apoptosis but does not induce senescence. Furthermore, PTX reduced the ADR-induced senescence and increased apoptosis in cervix cancer cells.</p

X chromosome inactivation does not necessarily determine the severity of the phenotype in Rett syndrome patients

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a severe neurological disorder usually caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene. Since the MECP2 gene is located on the X chromosome, X chromosome inactivation (XCI) could play a role in the wide range of phenotypic variation of RTT patients; however, classical methylation-based protocols to evaluate XCI could not determine whether the preferentially inactivated X chromosome carried the mutant or the wild-type allele. Therefore, we developed an allele-specific methylation-based assay to evaluate methylation at the loci of several recurrent MECP2 mutations. We analyzed the XCI patterns in the blood of 174 RTT patients, but we did not find a clear correlation between XCI and the clinical presentation. We also compared XCI in blood and brain cortex samples of two patients and found differences between XCI patterns in these tissues. However, RTT mainly being a neurological disease complicates the establishment of a correlation between the XCI in blood and the clinical presentation of the patients. Furthermore, we analyzed MECP2 transcript levels and found differences from the expected levels according to XCI. Many factors other than XCI could affect the RTT phenotype, which in combination could influence the clinical presentation of RTT patients to a greater extent than slight variations in the XCI pattern

The global burden of cancer attributable to risk factors, 2010–19: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

BACKGROUND: Understanding the magnitude of cancer burden attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors is crucial for development of effective prevention and mitigation strategies. We analysed results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 to inform cancer control planning efforts globally. METHODS: The GBD 2019 comparative risk assessment framework was used to estimate cancer burden attributable to behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risk factors. A total of 82 risk–outcome pairs were included on the basis of the World Cancer Research Fund criteria. Estimated cancer deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) in 2019 and change in these measures between 2010 and 2019 are presented. FINDINGS: Globally, in 2019, the risk factors included in this analysis accounted for 4·45 million (95% uncertainty interval 4·01–4·94) deaths and 105 million (95·0–116) DALYs for both sexes combined, representing 44·4% (41·3–48·4) of all cancer deaths and 42·0% (39·1–45·6) of all DALYs. There were 2·88 million (2·60–3·18) risk-attributable cancer deaths in males (50·6% [47·8–54·1] of all male cancer deaths) and 1·58 million (1·36–1·84) risk-attributable cancer deaths in females (36·3% [32·5–41·3] of all female cancer deaths). The leading risk factors at the most detailed level globally for risk-attributable cancer deaths and DALYs in 2019 for both sexes combined were smoking, followed by alcohol use and high BMI. Risk-attributable cancer burden varied by world region and Socio-demographic Index (SDI), with smoking, unsafe sex, and alcohol use being the three leading risk factors for risk-attributable cancer DALYs in low SDI locations in 2019, whereas DALYs in high SDI locations mirrored the top three global risk factor rankings. From 2010 to 2019, global risk-attributable cancer deaths increased by 20·4% (12·6–28·4) and DALYs by 16·8% (8·8–25·0), with the greatest percentage increase in metabolic risks (34·7% [27·9–42·8] and 33·3% [25·8–42·0]). INTERPRETATION: The leading risk factors contributing to global cancer burden in 2019 were behavioural, whereas metabolic risk factors saw the largest increases between 2010 and 2019. Reducing exposure to these modifiable risk factors would decrease cancer mortality and DALY rates worldwide, and policies should be tailored appropriately to local cancer risk factor burden

Second order formalism for lattice fermions

The territory is the field of this article. Because there are thus several kinds of territories and several scales (Western Europe, national, regional...), any society rests on one or more territories. With the setting of the Information technologies and mobilities involved, it results from this a new concept, that of the nonphysical dimension of the virtual territories

Aptitude for critical reading of clinical research reports in medical residents of the IMSS in Jalisco

Objective. To investigate the aptitude degree of the critical reading in reports of clinical investigation in the residents of the different areas of medical specialties. Material and methods. It was elaborated and it validated an instrument to explore the critical reading in their abilities of to interpret and to judge. We studied 572 medical residents of eight units of the Mexican Institute of the Social Security: 292 of the medical area, 227 of the surgical area, 30 of the area of auxiliary in diagnosis and treatment, and 23 of the research area. Results. The median of the qualifications obtained, they were low (considering a theoretical qualification maxim of 100), for the residents of the three areas: medicine with 34, surgical whit 30 and auxiliary in diagnosis and treatment with 28.5. For the research area, the aptitude was a medium degree with 49. Of the 572 residents 98 (17.1%) it didn't surpass the limit of the accountable qualifications for a random effect. In the medical area we found a positive differential effect of the time of residence in the aptitude for the critical reading, particularly in the specialty of Internal Medicine. Conclusions. The development of the aptitude for the critical reading of reports of clinical investigation in general is low, the exception, are the residents in investigation and in certain measure those of internal medicine; in this last one it seems product of an intentional, grupal, systematic and progressive exercise

[Aptitude for critical reading of clinical research reports among medical residents of the Mexican Social Security Institute in Jalisco]

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the aptitude degree of the critical reading in reports of clinical investigation in the residents of the different areas of medical specialties. MATERIAL AND METHODS: It was elaborated and it validated an instrument to explore the critical reading in their abilities of to interpret and to judge. We studied 572 medical residents of eight units of the Mexican Institute of the Social Security: 292 of the medical area, 227 of the surgical area, 30 of the area of auxiliary in diagnosis and treatment, and 23 of the research area. RESULTS: The median of the qualifications obtained, they were low (considering a theoretical qualification maxim of 100), for the residents of the three areas: medicine with 34, surgical with 30 and auxiliary in diagnosis and treatment with 28.5. For the research area, the aptitude was a medium degree with 49. Of the 572 residents 98 (17.1%) it didn't surpass the limit of the accountable qualifications for a random effect. In the medical area we found a positive differential effect of the time of residence in the aptitude for the critical reading, particularly in the specialty of Internal Medicine. CONCLUSIONS: The development of the aptitude for the critical reading of reports of clinical investigation in general is low, the exception, are the residents in investigation and in certain measure those of internal medicine; in this last one it seems product of an intentional, collective, systematic and progressive exercise