Geodetic works carried out in the Strait of Gibraltar

The proximity between Europe and Africa and the fact that the Strait of Gibraltar has historically acted as a link between races, cultures and religions have made absolutely necessary to establish a relationship between the Northern African coast and the Southern European equivalent. From the Nineteenth Century the possibility of building a permanent link between both continents through the Strait of Gibraltar has been taken into account. In order to establish that relationship it is necessary to have coastal zones completely geo-referenced, under the same geodetic system and with a unique projection system. The paper describes the work carried out in the Strait of Gibraltar for this purpose

Covalent functionalization of N-doped graphene by N-alkylation

[EN] Nitrogen doped graphene was modified by N-alkylation using a combination of phase transfer catalysis and microwave irradiation. The resulting derivatives of N-doped graphene were analysed showing that the bandgap of the material varied depending on the alkylation agent used.Financial support from MINECO (Spain) (CTQ2013-48252-P and CTQ2012-32315), Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (PEII-2014-014-P) and Generalidad Valenciana (Prometeo 13/19) is gratefully acknowledged. M.B. thanks the MINECO for a doctoral FPI grant.Barrejon, M.; Primo Arnau, AM.; Gomez-Escalonilla, M.; Fierro, JLG.; García Gómez, H.; Langa, F. (2015). Covalent functionalization of N-doped graphene by N-alkylation. Chemical Communications. 51(95):16916-16919. https://doi.org/10.1039/c5cc06285cS16916169195195Wang, H., Maiyalagan, T., & Wang, X. (2012). Review on Recent Progress in Nitrogen-Doped Graphene: Synthesis, Characterization, and Its Potential Applications. ACS Catalysis, 2(5), 781-794. doi:10.1021/cs200652yNavalon, S., Dhakshinamoorthy, A., Alvaro, M., & Garcia, H. (2014). Carbocatalysis by Graphene-Based Materials. Chemical Reviews, 114(12), 6179-6212. doi:10.1021/cr4007347Rodríguez-Pérez, L., Herranz, M. Á., & Martín, N. (2013). The chemistry of pristine graphene. Chemical Communications, 49(36), 3721. doi:10.1039/c3cc38950bWei, D., Liu, Y., Wang, Y., Zhang, H., Huang, L., & Yu, G. (2009). Synthesis of N-Doped Graphene by Chemical Vapor Deposition and Its Electrical Properties. Nano Letters, 9(5), 1752-1758. doi:10.1021/nl803279tLee, W. J., Maiti, U. N., Lee, J. M., Lim, J., Han, T. H., & Kim, S. O. (2014). Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes and graphene composite structures for energy and catalytic applications. Chemical Communications, 50(52), 6818. doi:10.1039/c4cc00146jPrimo, A., Atienzar, P., Sanchez, E., Delgado, J. M., & García, H. (2012). From biomass wastes to large-area, high-quality, N-doped graphene: catalyst-free carbonization of chitosan coatings on arbitrary substrates. Chemical Communications, 48(74), 9254. doi:10.1039/c2cc34978gPrimo, A., Sánchez, E., Delgado, J. M., & García, H. (2014). High-yield production of N-doped graphitic platelets by aqueous exfoliation of pyrolyzed chitosan. Carbon, 68, 777-783. doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2013.11.068Wang, X., Sun, G., Routh, P., Kim, D.-H., Huang, W., & Chen, P. (2014). Heteroatom-doped graphene materials: syntheses, properties and applications. Chem. Soc. Rev., 43(20), 7067-7098. doi:10.1039/c4cs00141aWu, M., Cao, C., & Jiang, J. Z. (2010). Light non-metallic atom (B, N, O and F)-doped graphene: a first-principles study. Nanotechnology, 21(50), 505202. doi:10.1088/0957-4484/21/50/505202Rani, P., & Jindal, V. K. (2013). Designing band gap of graphene by B and N dopant atoms. RSC Adv., 3(3), 802-812. doi:10.1039/c2ra22664bLatorre-Sánchez, M., Primo, A., Atienzar, P., Forneli, A., & García, H. (2014). p-n Heterojunction of Doped Graphene Films Obtained by Pyrolysis of Biomass Precursors. Small, 11(8), 970-975. doi:10.1002/smll.201402278Gupta, M., Gaur, N., Kumar, P., Singh, S., Jaiswal, N. K., & Kondekar, P. N. (2015). Tailoring the electronic properties of a Z-shaped graphene field effect transistor via B/N doping. Physics Letters A, 379(7), 710-718. doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2014.12.046Kim, H. S., Kim, H. S., Kim, S. S., & Kim, Y.-H. (2014). Atomistic mechanisms of codoping-induced p- to n-type conversion in nitrogen-doped graphene. Nanoscale, 6(24), 14911-14918. doi:10.1039/c4nr05024jShirakawa, S., & Maruoka, K. (2013). Recent Developments in Asymmetric Phase-Transfer Reactions. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 52(16), 4312-4348. doi:10.1002/anie.201206835Langa, F., & la Cruz, P. (2007). Microwave Irradiation: An Important Tool to Functionalize Fullerenes and Carbon Nanotubes. Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening, 10(9), 766-782. doi:10.2174/138620707783018487Langa, F., de la Cruz, P., Espı́ldora, E., Garcı́a, J. J., Pérez, M. C., & de la Hoz, A. (2000). Fullerene chemistry under microwave irradiation. Carbon, 38(11-12), 1641-1646. doi:10.1016/s0008-6223(99)00284-5Kappe, C. O. (2004). Controlled Microwave Heating in Modern Organic Synthesis. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 43(46), 6250-6284. doi:10.1002/anie.200400655Keglevich, G., Grün, A., & Bálint, E. (2013). Microwave Irradiation and Phase Transfer Catalysis in C-, O- and N-Alkylation Reactions. Current Organic Synthesis, 10(5), 751-763. doi:10.2174/1570179411310050006Ni, Z. H., Ponomarenko, L. A., Nair, R. R., Yang, R., Anissimova, S., Grigorieva, I. V., … Geim, A. K. (2010). On Resonant Scatterers As a Factor Limiting Carrier Mobility in Graphene. 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A precision medicine test predicts clinical response after idarubicin and cytarabine induction therapy in AML patients

Complete remission (CR) after induction therapy is the first treatment goal in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients and has prognostic impact. Our purpose is to determine the correlation between the observed CR/CRi rate after idarubicin (IDA) and cytarabine (CYT) 3 + 7 induction and the leukemic chemosensitivity measured by an ex vivo test of drug activity. Bone marrow samples from adult patients with newly diagnosed AML were included in this study. Whole bone marrow samples were incubated for 48 h in well plates containing IDA, CYT, or their combination. Pharmacological response parameters were estimated using population pharmacodynamic models. Patients attaining a CR/CRi with up to two induction cycles of 3 + 7 were classified as responders and the remaining as resistant. A total of 123 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were evaluable for correlation analyses. The strongest clinical predictors were the area under the curve of the concentration response curves of CYT and IDA. The overall accuracy achieved using MaxSpSe criteria to define positivity was 81%, predicting better responder (93%) than non-responder patients (60%). The ex vivo test provides better yet similar information than cytogenetics, but can be provided before treatment representing a valuable in-time addition. After validation in an external cohort, this novel ex vivo test could be useful to select AML patients for 3 + 7 regimen vs. alternative schedules

Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30 to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy -- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of the Radiation Energy in the Radio Signal of Extensive Air Showers as a Universal Estimator of Cosmic-Ray Energy

We measure the energy emitted by extensive air showers in the form of radio emission in the frequency range from 30 to 80 MHz. Exploiting the accurate energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we obtain a radiation energy of 15.8 \pm 0.7 (stat) \pm 6.7 (sys) MeV for cosmic rays with an energy of 1 EeV arriving perpendicularly to a geomagnetic field of 0.24 G, scaling quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy. A comparison with predictions from state-of-the-art first-principle calculations shows agreement with our measurement. The radiation energy provides direct access to the calorimetric energy in the electromagnetic cascade of extensive air showers. Comparison with our result thus allows the direct calibration of any cosmic-ray radio detector against the well-established energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Supplemental material in the ancillary file

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Global maps of soil temperature

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km² resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e., offset) between in-situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km² pixels (summarized from 8500 unique temperature sensors) across all the world’s major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in-situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

A search for ultra-high-energy photons at the Pierre Auger Observatory exploiting air-shower universality

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the most sensitive detector to primary photons with energies above ∼0.2 EeV. It measures extensive air showers using a hybrid technique that combines a fluorescence detector (FD) with a ground array of particle detectors (SD). The signatures of a photon-induced air shower are a larger atmospheric depth at the shower maximum (X$_{max}$) and a steeper lateral distribution function, along with a lower number of muons with respect to the bulk of hadron-induced background. Using observables measured by the FD and SD, three photon searches in different energy bands are performed. In particular, between threshold energies of 1-10 EeV, a new analysis technique has been developed by combining the FD-based measurement of X$_{max}$ with the SD signal through a parameter related to its muon content, derived from the universality of the air showers. This technique has led to a better photon/hadron separation and, consequently, to a higher search sensitivity, resulting in a tighter upper limit than before. The outcome of this new analysis is presented here, along with previous results in the energy ranges below 1 EeV and above 10 EeV. From the data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory in about 15 years of operation, the most stringent constraints on the fraction of photons in the cosmic flux are set over almost three decades in energy