High-Resolution 3D Printing Fabrication of a Microfluidic Platform for Blood Plasma Separation

Additive manufacturing technology is an emerging method for rapid prototyping, which enables the creation of complex geometries by one-step fabrication processes through a layer-by-layer approach. The simplified fabrication achieved with this methodology opens the way towards a more efficient industrial production, with applications in a great number of fields such as biomedical devices. In biomedicine, blood is the gold-standard biofluid for clinical analysis. However, blood cells generate analytical interferences in many test procedures; hence, it is important to separate plasma from blood cells before analytical testing of blood samples. In this research, a custom-made resin formulation combined with a high-resolution 3D printing methodology were used to achieve a methodology for the fast prototype optimization of an operative plasma separation modular device. Through an iterative process, 17 different prototypes were designed and fabricated with printing times ranging from 5 to 12 min. The final device was evaluated through colorimetric analysis, validating this fabrication approach for the qualitative assessment of plasma separation from whole blood. The 3D printing method used here demonstrates the great contribution that this microfluidic technology will bring to the plasma separation biomedical devices market.This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 778001 (DNASurf), “Ministerio de Ciencia y Educación de España” under grant PID2020-120313GB-I00/AIE/10.13039/501100011033, the Basque Government (Grant IT1271-19) and the US National Institutes of Health (R01 EB027096 and R15 GM123405-02)

Barriers to Accessing Eye Health Services in Suburban Communities in Nampula, Mozambique

Globally, an estimated 2.2 billion people are visually impaired (VI) or blind, and a large proportion (90%) of those affected live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where access to eye health services is limited. This study aimed to identify barriers to accessing eye health services and associated factors in suburban communities of Nampula. A cross-sectional community-based study was carried out on adults ≥18 years old. A total of 338 adults were randomly selected from three communities (Muthita, Piloto, and Nthotta). Individual interviews were carried out and socio-demographic data, eye symptoms, date of last eye examination, and barriers to access to eye health services were extracted. Among participants, 49.4% had eye symptoms and 41.7% did not have their eye examinations up to date. The most cited barriers were crowding in hospitals (40.7%), financial difficulties (30.0%), self-medication (20.5%), traditional treatment (17.8%), and buying eyeglasses on the street (11.6%). Barriers limited the service target to 33%. Lower levels of schooling and monthly family income and farmer occupation were statistically associated with the most barriers as risk factors. The use of eye health services was lower due to barriers to accessing eye services. More specific intervention plans and greater cooperation between sectors are needed to improve these indicators

RGB-D based framework to Acquire, Visualize and Measure the Human Body for Dietetic Treatments

This research aims to improve dietetic-nutritional treatment using state-of-the-art RGB-D sensors and virtual reality (VR) technology. Recent studies show that adherence to treatment can be improved using multimedia technologies. However, there are few studies using 3D data and VR technologies for this purpose. On the other hand, obtaining 3D measurements of the human body and analyzing them over time (4D) in patients undergoing dietary treatment is a challenging field. The main contribution of the work is to provide a framework to study the effect of 4D body model visualization on adherence to obesity treatment. The system can obtain a complete 3D model of a body using low-cost technology, allowing future straightforward transference with sufficient accuracy and realistic visualization, enabling the analysis of the evolution (4D) of the shape during the treatment of obesity. The 3D body models will be used for studying the effect of visualization on adherence to obesity treatment using 2D and VR devices. Moreover, we will use the acquired 3D models to obtain measurements of the body. An analysis of the accuracy of the proposed methods for obtaining measurements with both synthetic and real objects has been carried out

Burden of respiratory disease attributable to secondhand smoke exposure at home in children in Spain (2015)

This study aimed to estimate the number of incident cases and hospital admissions attributable to secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure at home for asthma, otitis media (OM), and lower respiratory infections (LRI) in children in Spain. The burden of respiratory disease caused by SHS exposure was estimated in terms of incident cases and hospitalized cases for asthma, OM, and LRI. Estimates were calculated using the population attributable fraction. The age-specific (0-1 year, 0-4 years, 5-11 years, and 0-11 years) prevalence of SHS exposure in children was estimated through a telephone survey performed in a representative sample of Spanish households with children in 2016. The risk estimates for all diseases were selected from international meta-analyses. The number of hospitalized cases was obtained for each disease from the Hospital Minimum Data Set provided by the Ministry of Health of Spain. Incident cases were obtained from the Global Health Data Exchange. In 2015, SHS exposure caused an estimated total of 136,403 incident cases of the following respiratory diseases: 9058 (8.5%) cases of asthma, 120,248 (8.5%) of OM, and 7097 (13.5%) of LRI in children aged 0-14 years old in Spain. Likewise, SHS exposure caused a total of 3028 hospitalized cases, with 379 (8.5%) for asthma and 167 (8.5%) for OM in children 0-11 years old, and 2482 (11.6%) for LRI in children <2 years old. The high burden of respiratory disease attributed to SHS exposure supports the need to improve protection of children against SHS exposure by extending smoke-free regulations to homes and cars

Type III secretion inhibitors for the management of bacterial plant diseases

The identification of chemical compounds that prevent and combat bacterial diseases is fundamental for crop production. Bacterial virulence inhibitors are a promising alternative to classical control treatments, because they have a low environmental impact and are less likely to generate bacterial resistance. The major virulence determinant of most animal and plant bacterial pathogens is the type III secretion system (T3SS). In this work, we screened nine plant extracts and 12 isolated compounds including molecules effective against human pathogens for their capacity to inhibit the T3SS of plant pathogens and for their applicability as virulence inhibitors for crop protection. The screen was performed using a luminescent reporter system developed in the model pathogenic bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum. Five synthetic molecules, one natural product and two plant extracts were found to down‐regulate T3SS transcription, most through the inhibition of the regulator hrpB. In addition, for three of the molecules, corresponding to salicylidene acylhydrazide derivatives, the inhibitory effect caused a dramatic decrease in the secretion capacity, which was translated into impaired plant responses. These candidate virulence inhibitors were then tested for their ability to protect plants. We demonstrated that salicylidene acylhydrazides can limit R. solanacearum multiplication in planta and protect tomato plants from bacterial speck caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. Our work validates the efficiency of transcription reporters to discover compounds or natural product extracts that can be potentially applied to prevent bacterial plant diseases

On the Road to Sustainable Water Supply: Reducing Public Health Risks and Preserving Surface Water Resources in the Milluni Micro-Basin, Bolivia

[EN] Bolivia is among the countries with the highest availability of freshwater globally. However, many of its natural sources are impacted by anthropogenic activities, such as mining. Water is intimately linked to public health and is essential to achieving sustainable development. It is necessary to preserve water resources by designing and validating monitoring programs that help control the quality of the sources that supply important population centers. The study area in this research is the upper part of the Milluni micro-basin, whose lagoon system supplies water for two large cities. Milluni is close to illegal and abandoned mining areas, making the region highly vulnerable to heavy metal contamination. This study aimed to optimize the resources available for monitoring Milluni. The frequency of monitoring was statistically determined, and the correlation between parameters measured in situ (pH and conductivity) and metal ion concentrations to determine low-cost indicators to monitor the presence of heavy metals. A multivariate analysis of friction of the results of the pilot year of the monitoring program designed for Milluni, considering the characteristics and economic limitations, is presented. An approximation of the quality of the surface water resources of Milluni is presented as a result of the monitoring operations.This work was supported by The Universidad Catolica Boliviana-Academic Units of La Paz and Tarija, and PROGRAMA ADSIDEO-2018 Development Cooperation Center Of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Alvizuri Tintaya, PA.; Villena Martínez, EM.; Micó-Vicent, B.; Lora Garcia, J.; Torregrosa López, JI.; Lo-Iacono-Ferreira, VG. (2022). On the Road to Sustainable Water Supply: Reducing Public Health Risks and Preserving Surface Water Resources in the Milluni Micro-Basin, Bolivia. Environments. 9(1):1-16. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments9010004S1169

Resonant structure of space-time of early universe

A new fully quantum method describing penetration of packet from internal well outside with its tunneling through the barrier of arbitrary shape used in problems of quantum cosmology, is presented. The method allows to determine amplitudes of wave function, penetrability $T_{\rm bar}$ and reflection $R_{\rm bar}$ relatively the barrier (accuracy of the method: $|T_{\rm bar}+R_{\rm bar}-1| < 1 \cdot 10^{-15}$), coefficient of penetration (i.e. probability of the packet to penetrate from the internal well outside with its tunneling), coefficient of oscillations (describing oscillating behavior of the packet inside the internal well). Using the method, evolution of universe in the closed Friedmann--Robertson--Walker model with quantization in presence of positive cosmological constant, radiation and component of generalize Chaplygin gas is studied. It is established (for the first time): (1) oscillating dependence of the penetrability on localization of start of the packet; (2) presence of resonant values of energy of radiation $E_{\rm rad}$, at which the coefficient of penetration increases strongly. From analysis of these results it follows: (1) necessity to introduce initial condition into both non-stationary, and stationary quantum models; (2) presence of some definite values for the scale factor $a$, where start of expansion of universe is the most probable; (3) during expansion of universe in the initial stage its radius is changed not continuously, but passes consequently through definite discrete values and tends to continuous spectrum in latter time.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, 4 table

Analysis of a spatial Lotka-Volterra model with a finite range predator-prey interaction

We perform an analysis of a recent spatial version of the classical Lotka-Volterra model, where a finite scale controls individuals' interaction. We study the behavior of the predator-prey dynamics in physical spaces higher than one, showing how spatial patterns can emerge for some values of the interaction range and of the diffusion parameter.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

On the secular trend of COₓ and CO₂ in the lower thermosphere

An analysis of recent observations (2004–2013) made by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE‐FTS) instrument indicate that total carbon (COx = CO + CO₂) has been increasing rapidly in the lower thermosphere, above 10˜³ hPa (90 km). The estimated trend (~9% per decade) is about a factor of 2 larger than the rate of increase that can be ascribed to anthropogenic emissions of CO₂ (~5% per decade). Here we investigate whether the observed trends of CO₂ and COx can be reproduced using the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), a comprehensive global model with interactive chemistry, wherein vertical eddy diffusion is estimated from a parameterization of gravity wave breaking that can respond to changes in the model climate. We find that the modeled trends of CO² and COx do not differ significantly at any altitude from the value expected from anthropogenic increases of CO₂ and that WACCM does not produce significant changes in eddy diffusivity. We show that the discrepancy between model and observations cannot be attributed to uncertainties associated with geophysical noise and instrumental effects, to difficulties separating a linear trend from the 11 year solar signal, or to sparse sampling by ACE‐FTS. Estimates of the impact of vertical diffusion on CO₂ in the model indicate that a large increase in Kzz (~30% per decade) would be necessary to reconcile WACCM results with observations. It might be possible to ascertain whether such a large change in vertical mixing has in fact taken place by examining the trend of water vapor in the upper mesosphere

Differences in formal and informal sports participation at regional level in England

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to provide a regional approach to analyse sports participation in two different contexts: organised/formal versus non-organised/informal participation, using the England's Active People Survey (APS) national dataset. Method: We have estimated two models: first, a general model to explain differences in regional informal and formal participation rates; second, an econometric model dealing with formal participation at a regular frequency. Results: The results emphasise the different roles played by some correlates depending on the context of sports participation under study. Only economic and cultural variables seem to have a general influence throughout all the sports participation contexts. The results reinforce the role played by sport supply and sport funding in some sports participation levels, offering interesting implications for sport policy. The urban environment, for example, appears to be positively related to the transition from informal to formal sport participation. Conclusions: The distinct analysis of the sports participation contexts provides the opportunity to evaluate ways of boosting that participation as well as to suggest some interesting policy implications towards this aim. For example, sporting infrastructure is only influential for the transition from non-participation to formal participation, implying that in general the key question about sport funding and supply is not the amount of funds but rather the direction and aims of sport policy. Finally, the paper offers some explanations about the gender inequality detected in some forms of sports participation. Keywords: sports participation, formal and informal participation, sports infrastructure, Dirichlet model