Efficiency in Spanish banking: A multistakeholder approach analysis

Searching for greater inter efficiency has been used as a reason tomodify the Spanish banking system since 2009. This paper aimsto contribute to quantify the magnitude of efficiency, but not onlythe economic one, but also social and overall efficiency from 2000to 2011. The case of Spain – compared to other banking systems –provides unique information regarding the stakeholder governancebanking literature because over the last century savings banks havebecome rooted in the Spanish culture. The results – confirmed bya two-stage frontiers analysis, a DEA and a model combined withbootstrapped tests – indicate that Spanish savings banks are notless efficient globally than banks and are more efficient socially.Moreover, our results – with potentially important implications –encourage the participation of stakeholders in banking systems andunderline the importance of attaining long-term efficiency gains tosupport financial stability objectives

Heterogenous Reduction of CO2 Over Boron-Rich AlB2

Evidence suggests that the recent drastic changes in the global climate have been caused by greenhouse gases, especially CO­2. As a result, scientists are aiming to develop processes that either minimize the production of these gases or convert them into products of higher value. To that end, the catalytic properties of a two-dimensional boron-rich material were investigated. Herein is reported that such a material can reduce CO2 into benzene, C3 species, and C4 species at relatively low temperatures (225-450 ℃) and pressures (0.38 MPa). Current data suggest that a low-temperature induction period (e.g., 225 ℃) is needed to achieve the conversion of CO2 into benzene whereas the conversion of CO2 into light hydrocarbons does not require such a pretreatment. Additionally, it was found that Al1-xB2 loses its activity after approximately 17 hours. Such loss of activity may be due to the buildup of non-volatile compounds on the active sites (coking). Work presented here also indicates that Al(OH)3 species left behind after the preparation of Al1-xB2 act synergistically with the boron sheets, enhancing activity. The level of enhancement appears to depend heavily on the way Al(OH)3 is introduced into the system. Grinding amorphous boron and Al(OH)3 by hand afforded the greatest reactivity towards CO2, albeit it needs to be confirmed whether the B atoms are being actively consumed during the reaction. On the other hand, exposing Al1-xB2 to air during its synthesis yields a more reactive material, suggesting that air plays a significant role. Based on this, if the synthetic route of Al1-xB2 is optimized, it is certain to yield an industrially suitable catalyst. Finally, ∆Gºrxn calculations can be utilized to partially predict the observed product distributions, albeit more advanced calculations are needed

More Insights into the Association between RVX-208 and Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Reply

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A realistic simulation environment as a teaching aid in educational robotics

The experimental component is an essential method in Engineering education. Sometimes the availability of laboratories and components is compromised, and the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the situation. Resorting to an accurate simulation seems to help this process by allowing students to develop the work, program, test, and validate it. Moreover, it lowers the development time and cost of the prototyping stages of a robotics project. As a multidisciplinary area, robotics requires simulation environments with essential characteristics, such as dynamics, connection to hardware (embedded systems), and other applications. Thus, this paper presents the Simulation environment of SimTwo, emphasizing previous publications with models of sensors, actuators, and simulation scenes. The simulator can be used for free, and the source code is available to the community. Proposed scenes and examples can inspire the development of other simulation scenes to be used in electrical and mechanical Engineering projects. © 2022 IEEE.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CeDRI (UIDB/05757/2020 and UIDP/05757/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2021). Thadeu Brito was supported by FCT PhD grant SFRH/BD/08598/2020 and Joao Braun received the ˜ support of a fellowship from ”la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434) with code LCF/BQ/DI20/11780028.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Increased systemic IL-6 levels point to inflammation as a determinant of renal cell carcinoma development

Introduction: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most prevalent kidney tumors. Inflammation is believed to be a key factor in its progression and spread since inflammatory markers are generally associated with poor prognosis in RCC patients. Cytokines are cell communication molecules involved in both healthy and pathological processes, including tumor growth and progression. Recent findings suggest that cytokine level measurements could be used for cancer monitoring and prognosis. Methods: This study characterized and compared the levels of different cytokines associated with the classical Th1, Th2, and Th17 immune responses in plasma samples from RCC patients (n = 25) and healthy controls (n = 29). Cytokine levels (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IL-17A) were evaluated by flow cytometry using a BD Cytometric Bead Array (CBA) kit. Results: No statistical differences in systemic IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, IL-17A, TNF, and INF-γ levels were observed between RCC patients and controls (p > 0.05). However, higher systemic IL-6 levels were observed in RCC patients (p = 0.0034). Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of assessing the impact of IL-6 on RCC pathogenesis and its potential role as a biomarker of disease progression

A Wireless Charging System Applying Phase-Shift and Amplitude Control to Maximize Efficiency and Extractable Power

Wireless power transfer (WPT) is an emerging technology with an increasing number of potential applications to transfer power from a transmitter to a mobile receiver over a relatively large air gap. However, its widespread application is hampered due to the relatively low efficiency of current Wireless power transfer (WPT) systems. This study presents a concept to maximize the efficiency as well as to increase the amount of extractable power of a WPT system operating in nonresonant operation. The proposed method is based on actively modifying the equivalent secondary-side load impedance by controlling the phase-shift of the active rectifier and its output voltage level. The presented hardware prototype represents a complete wireless charging system, including a dc-dc converter which is used to charge a battery at the output of the system. Experimental results are shown for the proposed concept in comparison to a conventional synchronous rectification approach. The presented optimization method clearly outperforms state-of-the-art solutions in terms of efficiency and extractable power

Microscopic and Genetic Characterization of Bacterial Symbionts With Bioluminescent Potential in Pyrosoma atlanticum

The pelagic tunicate pyrosome, Pyrosoma atlanticum, is known for its brilliant bioluminescence, but the mechanism causing this bioluminescence has not been fully characterized. This study identifies the bacterial bioluminescent symbionts of P. atlanticum collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico using several methods such as light and electron microscopy, as well as molecular genetics. The bacteria are localized within the pyrosome light organs. Greater than 50% of the bacterial taxa present in the tunicate samples were the bioluminescent symbiotic bacteria Vibrionaceae as determined by utilizing current molecular genetics methodologies. A total of 396K MiSeq16S rRNA reads provided total pyrosome microbiome profiles to determine bacterial symbiont taxonomy. After comparing with the Silva rRNA database, a Photobacterium sp. r33-like bacterium (which we refer to as “Photobacterium Pa-1”) matched at 99% sequence identity as the most abundant bacteria within Pyrosoma atlanticum samples. Specifically designed 16S rRNA V4 probes for fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) verified the Photobacterium Pa-1 location as internally concentrated along the periphery of each dual pyrosome luminous organ. While searching for bacterial lux genes in two tunicate samples, we also serendipitously generated a draft tunicate mitochondrial genome that can be used for Pyrosoma atlanticum identification. Scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopy confirmed the presence of intracellular rod-like bacteria in the light organs. This intracellular localization of bacteria may represent bacteriocyte formation reminiscent of other invertebrates

Assessment of satisfaction and Quality of Life using self - reported questionnaires after urethroplasty : a prospective analysis

Objectives: To assess patient satisfaction and quality of life after urethroplasty using two different self-reported outcome measures and to compare it with objective clinical data. Materials and Methods: We prospectively collected data from 35 consecutive patients who underwent urethroplasty from January 2013 to September 2014. Patient demographics, International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), quality of life score, urethral stricture surgery patient-reported outcome measure (USS-PROM), maximum flow rate (Qmax) and post-void residual urine were collected before, two and eight months after surgery. Failure occurred when any postoperative instrumentation was performed. General estimation equation was used to compare the results and linear regression analysis to correlate both questionnaires with objective data. Results: Mean age was 61 years. Urethroplasties were equally divided between anastomotic and buccal mucosa grafts and 19 patients (59.3%) had a previous urethral procedure. Overall success rate was 87.5%. IPSS improved from a mean 19 at baseline to 5.32 at 8 months (p <0.001). The mean USS-PROM score also improved from 13.21 preoperatively to 3.36 after surgery (p <0.001) and 84.3% of patients were satisfied or very satisfied with surgical results. Mean Qmax increased from 4.64mL/s to 11mL/s (p <0.001). Strong negative correlation was found respectively between flow rate and USS-PROM (r=-0.531, p <0.001) and with IPSS (r=-0.512, p <0.001). Conclusions: Significant improvements in urinary symptoms and in quality of life are expected after urethroplasty and they are correlated with objective measures