Computational modelling of the behaviour of biomarker particles of colorectal cancer in fecal matter

Colorectal adenocarcinoma is one of the carcinogenic diseases that is increasing the morbidity and mortality rates worldwide. The disease initially occurs through the segregation of biomarker substances in the human system without manifesting symptoms that affect the health of the carrier. Early detection would allow the application of more effective treatments, less invasive procedures and reduce the development of cancer. The purpose of this investigation was the elaboration of a mathematical model and the development of computational simulations to visualize the behavior of biomarker particles in transit through the colon. The flow conditions, properties of the viscous medium and biological regions of interest were established. Constitutive models, numerical conditions and solution strategies were determined. A numerical grid was used to represent the model of the colon and the human feces that carry the bioparticles (biomarkers). The results indicated the trajectories of the bioparticles in the fecal mass and the interactive movement with the natural contractions of the colon. The analysis of the movement of the biomarker particles can provide future less invasive alternatives for the detection in real time of the cancer by means of the implantation of biosensors in the walls of the colon

The Liquefaction of Sand Lenses Due to Cyclic Loading

Many studies have been conducted on the effects of cyclic loading on homogeneous saturated deposits of sand, and to a lesser extent on silt and clay. In contrast, very little research has been performed on the effects of cyclic loading on saturated sand lenses located within clay masses. Sand lenses and thin discontinuous layers of loose sand are frequently encountered in saturated clay or silt deposits located in areas of the United States prone to earthquakes. Sand lenses are also frequently associated with hydraulic fill structures, which are known to perform poorly during earthquake loading. The liquefaction and failure of sand lenses has been identified as a major factor in the Turnagain Heights Landslide during the 1964 Alaska Earthquake and lateral spreading landslides in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, among others. A major obstacle to laboratory testing of sand lenses is the modeling of a sand lens or lenses within a clay deposit or block, and finding equipment that can subject the sample to cyclic loading. Until now, only theoretical analyses of sand lens failure have been performed, with the most promising method utilizing the principles of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) theory. This study developed a method of constructing one or more sand lenses within a block of clay and then applying a uniform cyclic loading with a shaking table. For clay blocks with a single sand lens and with two sand lenses, behavior was closely monitored during the cyclic loading to the point of failure. The results of the testing verified that the principles of the LEFM theory can be used to determine the mode of failure of a sand lens or lenses due to cyclic loading

The District Energy-Efficient Retrofitting of Torrelago (Laguna de Duero – Spain)

The urban growth is estimated to reach up the 66 % by 2050 and consequently the need of resources within the cities will increase significantly. This, combined with the 40 % of energy consumption and 36 % of CO2 emissions of the building sector, makes necessary to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable cities. The CITyFiED project contributes to this transition, aiming to develop an innovative and holistic methodological approach for energy-efficient district renovation and deliver three large scale demonstration cases in the cities of Lund (Sweden), Laguna de Duero (Spain) and Soma (Turkey). CITyFiED methodology consists of several phases that ease the decision-making tasks towards the district renovation, considering the energy efficiency as the main pillar and local authorities as clients. For the case of Torrelago district (Spain) the intervention consists of a set of energy conservative measures including the facąde retrofitting of 143.025 m2 of living space in 31 twelve-storey buildings; the renovation of the district heating network with a new biomass thermal plant; the integration of renewable energy sources, including a micro-cogeneration system, and the installation of individual smart meters. After the renovation action, one-year monitoring campaign is ongoing. The CITyFiED monitoring platform will collect information from the energy systems and deliver environmental, technical, economic and social key performance indicators by March 2019. At the end of the project the achievement of the predefined goals will be verified: Up to 36 % of energy saving and 3,429 tons-CO2/yr emissions saving covering the 59,4 % of the energy consumption with renewable sources.The research and results presented in this paper evolve from activities related to the CITyFiED project, which has received funding from the European Commission under the Grant Agreement no. 609129. This article is the result of cooperative research work of many experts from various countries and we would like to gratefully acknowledge the rest of the CITyFiED partners

Monitoring Active Sites for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction at Model Carbon Surfaces

Carbon is ubiquitous as an electrode material in electrochemical energy conversion devices. If used as support material, the evolution of H2 is undesired on carbon. However, recently carbon-based materials are of high interest as economic and eco-conscious alternative to noble metal catalysts. The targeted design of improved carbon electrode materials requires atomic scale insight into the structure of the sites that catalyse H2 evolution. This work demonstrates that electrochemical scanning tunnelling microscopy under reaction conditions (n-EC-STM) can monitor active sites of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite for the hydrogen evolution reaction. With down to atomic resolution, the most active sites in acidic medium are pinpointed near edge sites and defects, whereas the basal planes remain inactive. Density functional theory calculations support these findings and reveal that only specific defects on graphite are active. Motivated by these results, the extensive usage of n-EC-STM on doped carbon-based materials is encouraged to locate their active sites and guide the synthesis of enhanced electrocatalysts.The authors thank Prof. Plamen Atanassov (University of California, Irvine, USA) and Dr. Jun Maruyama (Osaka Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, Japan) for fruitful discussion regarding some experimental results. RMK, RWH and ASB acknowledge the financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG), in the framework of the projects BA 5795/4-1 and BA 5795/3-1, and under Germany's Excellence Strategy–EXC 2089/1–390776260, cluster of excellence ‘e-conversion’. ASB acknowledges the funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement HERMES No. 952184. FCV acknowledges financial support from Spanish MICIUN through RTI2018-095460-B-I00 and María de Maeztu (MDM-2017-0767) grants and a Ramón y Cajal research contract (RYC-2015-18996), and also from Generalitat de Catalunya (grants 2017SGR13 and XRQTC). The use of supercomputing facilities at SURFsara was sponsored by NWO Physical Sciences, with financial support from NWO

La rotación del personal en los Gobiernos Autónomos Descentralizados Municipales y su impacto en el clima organizacional/The rotation of personnel in the Municipal Decentralized Autonomous Governments and their impact on the organizational climate

Los cambios constantes en el nivel de las organizaciones públicas hacen que estas expandan su visión y la competitividad permanente lleva a los Gobiernos Autónomos Descentralizados (GAD) Municipales a desarrollar estrategias para alcanzar sus objetivos, es así como, la contratación y la continuidad de los despidos del personal representa un problema de gran magnitud para las instituciones, pues sin duda, limita el desarrollo eficiente que se desearía tener, ya que la productividad de la institución se ve significativamente afectada, evidenciándose un mal clima organizacional, restando la eficiencia eficacia y efectividad en los procesos, influyendo directamente en los resultados Esta investigación determina un análisis de las causas del clima organizacional en una institución pública. Debido a la alta tasa de rotación evidenciada dentro de los municipios según se constata en las encuestas realizadas, principalmente en el personal operativo, que son aquellos que trabajan directamente con los usuarios y pueden tener los efectos causados por el servicio ofrecido. En consecuencia, esta investigación conlleva aumentar el servicio al usuario proporcionado por los colaboradores públicos. Y una relación muy estrecha entre el clima organizacional medido y la rotación de personar también se define al analizar la premisa de que si el clima organizacional mejora la rotación de personal se reducirá el malestar entre compañeros de trabajo, ya que puede haber razones que no se conocen o están fuera del control y, por lo tanto, no se pueden mejorar el lineamiento de prestigio institucional. Constant changes at the level of public organizations mean that they expand their vision and permanent competitiveness leads the Municipal Autonomous Decentralized Governments (GAD) to develop strategies to achieve their objectives, such as hiring and continuity of layoffs The staff represents a problem of great magnitude for the institutions, because without a doubt, it limits the efficient development that one would like to have, since the productivity of the institution is significantly affected, evidencing a bad organizational climate, subtracting the efficiency effectiveness and effectiveness in the processes, directly influencing the results This research determines an analysis of the causes of the organizational climate in a public institution. Due to the high rate of turnover evidenced within the municipalities as found in the surveys carried out, mainly in the operating personnel, which are those that work directly with users and can have the effects caused by the service offered. Consequently, this research entails increasing the user service provided by public collaborators. And a very close relationship between the measured organizational climate and the turnover of people is also defined when analyzing the premise that if the organizational climate improves staff turnover, discomfort among coworkers will be reduced, since there may be reasons that are not they know or are out of control and, therefore, the institutional prestige guidelines can not be improved. Palabras Clave: desempeño, talento humano, rotación, clima laboral, decisiones. Keywords: performance, human talent, rotation, labor climate, decisions

CB6 87. Sustitución valvular aórtica en octogenarios

IntroducciónEn las últimas décadas, la población mayor de 80 años que requiere una cirugía por estenosis aórtica degenerativa ha aumentado sustancialmente.Material y métodosSe compararon los resultados a corto y medio plazo de la sustitución valvular aórtica convencional (SVAo) en estenosis aórtica degenerativa en pacientes mayores y menores de 80 años intervenidos en nuestro centro entre abril de 2004 y diciembre de 2008. Los predictores de mortalidad y eventos adversos mayores cardio y cerebrovasculares (MACCE) en el postoperatorio y el seguimiento se determinaron por análisis multivariante.ResultadosCuatrocientos cincuenta y un pacientes fueron incluidos; 94 (20,8%) eran mayores de 80 años. La cirugía cardíaca previa (odds ratio [OR]: 4,08; p=0,047), la insuficiencia renal (OR: 6,75; p < 0,001), la cirugía coronaria concomitante (OR: 2,57; p=0,034), el sexo femenino (OR: 2,49; p=0,047) y la hipertensión pulmonar grave (OR: 3,68; p=0,024) fueron predictores independientes de mortalidad hospitalaria. En el seguimiento, la edad (hazard ratio [HR]: 2,24; p=0,02), la vasculopatía periférica (HR: 5,1; p < 0,001) e hipertensión arterial (HTA) (HR: 5,2; p=0,025) fueron predictores independientes de mortalidad tardía. Sólo la vasculopatía periférica (HR: 3,55; p=0,014) e HTA (HR: 8,24; p=0,04) fueron predictores independientes de mortalidad cardíaca tardía. La insuficiencia renal (OR: 2,57; p=0,005), hipertensión pulmonar grave (OR: 3,49; p=0,005) y cirugía coronaria asociada (OR: 2,49; p=0,002) fueron predictores independientes de MACCE postoperatorios. Diabetes mellitus (HR: 2,03; p=0,033) y vasculopatía periférica (HR: 2,3; p=0,041) predijeron una mayor incidencia de MACCE en el seguimiento.ConclusionesLa edad mayor de 80 años no empeora el pronóstico a corto y medio plazo tras la SVAo por estenosis aórtica grave degenerativa

Global Research Alliance N2O chamber methodology guidelines: Recommendations for deployment and accounting for sources of variability

Adequately estimating soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions using static chambers is challenging due to the high spatial variability and episodic nature of these fluxes. This paper discusses how static chamber N2O experiments can be designed, and protocols implemented, to better account for this variability and reduce the uncertainty of N2O emission estimates. It is part of a series of papers in this special issue, each discussing a particular aspect of N2O chamber methodology. Aspects of experimental design and sampling affected by spatial variability include site selection, and chamber layout, size and areal coverage. Where used, treatment application adds a further level of spatial variability. Time of day, frequency and duration of sampling (both in terms of individual chamber closures and overall experiment duration) affect the temporal variability captured. In addition, we present best practice recommendations for experimental chamber installation and sampling protocols to minimise the introduction of further uncertainty. To obtain the best N2O emission estimates, resources should be allocated to minimise the overall uncertainty in line with experiment objectives. In some cases, this will mean prioritising individual flux measurements and increasing their accuracy and precision by, for example, collecting ≥4 headspace samples during each chamber closure. However, where N2O fluxes are exceptionally spatially variable, for example, in heterogeneous agricultural landscapes, such as uneven and woody grazed pastures, using available resources to deploy more chambers with fewer headspace samples per chamber may be beneficial. Similarly, for particularly episodic N2O fluxes, generated for example by irrigation or freeze-thaw cycles, increasing chamber sampling frequency will improve the accuracy and reduce the uncertainty of temporally interpolated N2O fluxe

Whole-genome mapping of quantitative trait loci and accuracy of genomic predictions for resistance to columnaris disease in two rainbow trout breeding populations

International audienceAbstractBackgroundColumnaris disease (CD) is an emerging problem for the rainbow trout aquaculture industry in the US. The objectives of this study were to: (1) identify common genomic regions that explain a large proportion of the additive genetic variance for resistance to CD in two rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) populations; and (2) estimate the gains in prediction accuracy when genomic information is used to evaluate the genetic potential of survival to columnaris infection in each population.MethodsTwo aquaculture populations were investigated: the National Center for Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture (NCCCWA) odd-year line and the Troutlodge, Inc., May odd-year (TLUM) nucleus breeding population. Fish that survived to 21 days post-immersion challenge were recorded as resistant. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes were available for 1185 and 1137 fish from NCCCWA and TLUM, respectively. SNP effects and variances were estimated using the weighted single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) for genome-wide association. Genomic regions that explained more than 1% of the additive genetic variance were considered to be associated with resistance to CD. Predictive ability was calculated in a fivefold cross-validation scheme and using a linear regression method.ResultsValidation on adjusted phenotypes provided a prediction accuracy close to zero, due to the binary nature of the trait. Using breeding values computed from the complete data as benchmark improved prediction accuracy of genomic models by about 40% compared to the pedigree-based BLUP. Fourteen windows located on six chromosomes were associated with resistance to CD in the NCCCWA population, of which two windows on chromosome Omy 17 jointly explained more than 10% of the additive genetic variance. Twenty-six windows located on 13 chromosomes were associated with resistance to CD in the TLUM population. Only four associated genomic regions overlapped with quantitative trait loci (QTL) between both populations.ConclusionsOur results suggest that genome-wide selection for resistance to CD in rainbow trout has greater potential than selection for a few target genomic regions that were found to be associated to resistance to CD due to the polygenic architecture of this trait, and because the QTL associated with resistance to CD are not sufficiently informative for selection decisions across populations