Geographical and environment-related variations of essential oils in isolated populations of Thymus richardii Pers. in the Mediterranean basin

Composition of essential oils of different populations of Thymus richardii grex of six localities from Bosnia-Herzegovina (Konjic, Borci), Spain (Majorca, Ibiza, Valencia) and Italy (Marettimo, Sicily) were determined by GC/FID and GC/MS. The main constituents in most of the samples were aromatic monoterpenes corresponding to non-phenolic cyclic compounds (p-cymene, gamma-terpinene). The highest monoterpene concentrations were found in the Bosnian samples (70%), and the lowest in samples from the Balearic Islands ( 50%) in samples from Majorca with beta-bisabolene (>40%) being the principal constituent. Discriminant analysis (LDA) shows the differentiation of two chemotypes: A (phenol chemotype), with p-cymene and gamma-terpinene as characteristic compounds and B, with beta-bisabolene and carvacrol, as major and significative compounds. The occurrence of the chemotypes was related to summer positive precipitation and to deep of soils.Llorens, L.; Llorens Molina, JA.; Agnello, S.; Boira Tortajada, H. (2014). Geographical and environment-related variations of essential oils in isolated populations of Thymus richardii Pers. in the Mediterranean basin. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology. 56:246-254. doi:10.1016/j.bse.2014.05.0072462545

Cerclajes y enclavado intramedular en fracturas subtrocantéreas: ¿vascularización femoral o reducción anatómica?

Nuestro objetivo es valorar el beneficio y los resultados clínico-radiológicos del uso de los cerclajes y el enclavado intramedular en las fracturas subtrocantéreas tipo IIIA de Seinsheimer y compararlo con un grupo control. Se utilizaron dos grupos de 19 pacientes (grupo con cerclaje y grupo sin cerclaje) y se obtuvieron los siguientes resultados; tasas de reducción anatómica 89.5% y 84.2%; tasas de consolidación 100% y 94,7%; tiempo medio de consolidación 20 y 23.9 semanas. Los resultados utilizando la escala de Harris fueron de 62,7 y 68,3; y una tasa de complicaciones del 5.2% y del 21%. Estos resultados sugieren que el uso de cerclajes en las fracturas subtrocantéreas, no influencia de forma negativa nuestra tasa de consolidación, infección o complicaciones; sin embargo promovemos el uso de cerclajes después de intentar la reducción de manera cerrada, y siempre con un buen manejo de partes blandas.Our goal is to assess the benefit and the clinical and radiological outcomes of using cerclage and intramedullary nail in subtrochanteric fractures type IIIA of Seinsheimer and comparing with a control group. Two groups of 19 patients (cerclage group and non-cerclage group) were used and the following results were obtained; anatomic reduction rates 89.5% and 84.2; consolidation rates 100% and 94.7%; mean healing time 20 and 23.9 weeks. Our mean Harris Hip Score were 62.7 and 68.3; and a complication rate of 5.2% and 21%. The results suggest that the use of cerclage in subtrochanteric fractures does not negatively influence in the rate of consolidation, infection or complications as opposed to a subotpimal reduction. Nevertheless we emphasize open reduction and cerclage wiring after the attempt of closed reduction, and always taking care of soft tissues

Strain balanced quantum posts

Quantum posts are assembled by epitaxial growth of closely spaced quantum dot layers, modulating the composition of a semiconductor alloy, typically InGaAs. In contrast with most self-assembled nanostructures, the height of quantum posts can be controlled with nanometer precision, up to a maximum value limited by the accumulated stress due to the lattice mismatch. Here we present a strain compensation technique based on the controlled incorporation of phosphorous, which substantially increases the maximum attainable quantum post height. The luminescence from the resulting nanostructures presents giant linear polarization anisotropy.Comment: Submitted to Applied Physics Letters (7th March 2011). 4 pages, 4 figure

Benchmarking microbiome transformations favors experimental quantitative approaches to address compositionality and sampling depth biases

While metagenomic sequencing has become the tool of preference to study host-associated microbial communities, downstream analyses and clinical interpretation of microbiome data remains challenging due to the sparsity and compositionality of sequence matrices. Here, we evaluate both computational and experimental approaches proposed to mitigate the impact of these outstanding issues. Generating fecal metagenomes drawn from simulated microbial communities, we benchmark the performance of thirteen commonly used analytical approaches in terms of diversity estimation, identification of taxon-taxon associations, and assessment of taxon-metadata correlations under the challenge of varying microbial ecosystem loads. We find quantitative approaches including experimental procedures to incorporate microbial load variation in downstream analyses to perform significantly better than computational strategies designed to mitigate data compositionality and sparsity, not only improving the identification of true positive associations, but also reducing false positive detection. When analyzing simulated scenarios of low microbial load dysbiosis as observed in inflammatory pathologies, quantitative methods correcting for sampling depth show higher precision compared to uncorrected scaling. Overall, our findings advocate for a wider adoption of experimental quantitative approaches in microbiome research, yet also suggest preferred transformations for specific cases where determination of microbial load of samples is not feasible

Internal evaluation of a physically-based distributed model using data from a Mediterranean mountain catchment

An evaluation of the performance of a physically-based distributed model of a small Mediterranean mountain catchment is presented. This was carried out using hydrological response data, including measurements of runoff, soil moisture, phreatic surface level and actual evapotranspiration. <i>A-priori</i> model parameterisation was based as far as possible on property data measured in the catchment. Limited model calibration was required to identify an appropriate value for terms controlling water loss to a deeper regional aquifer. The model provided good results for an initial calibration period, when judged in terms of catchment discharge. However, model performance for runoff declined substantially when evaluated against a consecutive, rather drier, period of data. Evaluation against other catchment responses allowed identification of the problems responsible for the observed lack of model robustness in flow simulation. In particular, it was shown that an incorrect parameterisation of the soil water model was preventing adequate representation of drainage from soils during hydrograph recessions. This excess moisture was then being removed via an overestimation of evapotranspiration. It also appeared that the model underestimated canopy interception. The results presented here suggest that model evaluation against catchment scale variables summarising its water balance can be of great use in identifying problems with model parameterisation, even for distributed models. Evaluation using spatially distributed data yielded less useful information on model performance, owing to the relative sparseness of data points, and problems of mismatch of scale between the measurement and the model grid.</p> <p style='line-height: 20px;'><b>Keywords: </b>physically-based distributed model, SHETRAN, parameterisation, Mediterranean mountain catchment, internal evaluation, multi-respons

Development of an acoustic transceiver for the KM3NeT positioning system

[EN] In this paper we describe an acoustic transceiver developed for the KM3NeT positioning system. The acoustic transceiver is composed of a commercial free flooded transducer, which works mainly in the 20-40 kHz frequency range and withstands high pressures (up to 500 bars). A sound emission board was developed that is adapted to the characteristics of the transducer and meets all requirements: low power consumption, high intensity of emission, low intrinsic noise, arbitrary signals for emission and the capacity of acquiring the receiving signals with very good timing precision. The results of the different tests made with the transceiver in the laboratory and shallow sea water are described, as well as, the activities for its integration in the Instrumentation Line of the ANTARES neutrino telescope and in a NEMO tower for the in situ tests. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work has been supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (Spanish Government), Project references FPA2009-13983-C02-02, ACI2009-1067, AIC10-D-00583, and Consolider-Ingenio Multidark (CSD2009-00064). It has also been funded by Generalitat Valenciana, Prometeo/2009/26, and the European 7th Framework Programme, Grant no. 212525.Larosa, G.; Ardid Ramírez, M.; Llorens Alvarez, CD.; Bou Cabo, M.; Martínez Mora, JA.; Adrián Martínez, S.; KM3NeT Consortium (2013). Development of an acoustic transceiver for the KM3NeT positioning system. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment. 725:215-218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2012.11.167S21521872