Compressive strength and microstructure of alkali-activated blast furnace slag/sewage sludge ash (GGBS/SSA) blends cured at room temperature

In the present work, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) and sewage sludge ash (SSA) blends were assessed for the production of alkali-activated pastes and mortars. Percentages of SSA to substitute GGBS ranged from 0–30 wt.% and sodium concentrations of 6–10 mol.kg-1 were used for the activating solutions. Pastes and mortars were cured at 20 ºC for up to 90 days. Raw materials were characterised by granulometric analysis, XRF, XRD, FTIR and SEM techniques. The replacement percentage of GGBS by SSA and the sodium hydroxide concentration of the alkaline activator were optimised to produce mortar with compressive strengths close to 30 MPa after 28 curing days at room temperature. Best results were obtained in samples blended with 20 wt.% SSA activated with 6 mol.kg-1 NaOH solutions which, according to the XRD, FTIR and microscopic results, contained higher amounts of (N,C)-A-S-H gel. The potential use of SSA for the development of alternative cementitious materials at room temperature has been demonstrated

Los inicios del Catastro de Rústica en la provincia de Santa Cruz de Tenerife y la colección de fotografía aérea de 1954

RESUMENEl primer vuelo fotográfico con aplicación catastral de las Islas Canarias se realizó en 1954. En la actualidad, las fotografías aéreas se conservan en el Archivo Histórico Provincial de Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Su calidad y estado de conservación son bastante deficientes, pero los importantes cambios socieconómicos ocurridos en las islas a mediados del siglo pasado refuerzan el valor de muchas imágenes, que pueden ser particularmente útiles en los estudios de dinámica del paisaje.RÉSUMÉLes commencements du Cadastre de Rustique a Santa Cruz de Tenerife et la photographie aérienne de 1954.- Le premier survol photographique des Îles Canaries a finalité cadastrale eut lieu en 1954. Les photographies aériennes qui en résultèrent sont aujourd'hui gardées dans l'Archive Historique Provinciale de Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Leur qualité et leur état de conservation sont certes assez déficients, mais l'évolution socioéconomique que les Îles Canaries ont connue depuis la moitié du siècle dernier a renforcé la valeur de beaucoup de ces images, car elles peuvent être particulièrement utiles pour des études de dynamique du paysage.ABSTRACTThe beginnings of Rural Land Cadastral Recording in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the 1954 aerial photography.- The first aerial photographs with cadastral purposes in the Canary Islands were taken in 1954. At present, the photographs are kept in the Archivo Histórico Provincial of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Even though their quality and conservation conditions aren't good, the important socioeconomic changes which took place in the islands during the last half of the past century increased the interest in these images, which can be particularly useful from the point of view of landscape dynamics studies. Palabras clave / Mots clé / Key wordsFotografía aérea, catastro, vuelo de 1954, dinámica del paisaje, Islas Canarias.Photographie aérienne, cadastre, survol de 1954, dynamique du paysage, Îles Canaries.Aerial photography, cadastre, 1954 flight, landscape dynamics, Canary Islands

A mechanism of growth inhibition by abscisic acid in germinating seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana based on inhibition of plasma membrane H+-ATPase and decreased cytosolic pH, K+, and anions

[EN] The stress hormone abscisic acid (ABA) induces expression of defence genes in many organs, modulates ion homeostasis and metabolism in guard cells, and inhibits germination and seedling growth. Concerning the latter effect, several mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana with improved capability for H+ efflux (wat1-1D, overexpression of AKT1 and ost2-1D) are less sensitive to inhibition by ABA than the wild type. This suggested that ABA could inhibit H+ efflux (H+ -ATPase) and induce cytosolic acidification as a mechanism of growth inhibition. Measurements to test this hypothesis could not be done in germinating seeds and we used roots as the most convenient system. ABA inhibited the root plasma-membrane H+ -ATPase measured in vitro (ATP hydrolysis by isolated vesicles) and in vivo (H+ efflux from seedling roots). This inhibition involved the core ABA signalling elements: PYR/PYL/RCAR ABA receptors, ABA-inhibited protein phosphatases (HAB1), and ABA-activated protein kinases (SnRK2.2 and SnRK2.3). Electrophysiological measurements in root epidermal cells indicated that ABA, acting through the PYR/PYL/RCAR receptors, induced membrane hyperpolarization (due to K+ efflux through the GORK channel) and cytosolic acidification. This acidification was not observed in the wat1-1D mutant. The mechanism of inhibition of the H+ -ATPase by ABA and its effects on cytosolic pH and membrane potential in roots were different from those in guard cells. ABA did not affect the in vivo phosphorylation level of the known activating site (penultimate threonine) of H+ -ATPase in roots, and SnRK2.2 phosphorylated in vitro the C-terminal regulatory domain of H+ -ATPase while the guard-cell kinase SnRK2.6/OST1 did not.This work was funded by grants BFU2011-22526 (to RS) and BIO2011-23446 (to PLR) of the Spanish 'Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad', Madrid, Spain, and grant PROMETEO/2010/038 (to RS) of the 'Generalitat Valenciana', Valencia, Spain. MGG was funded by a JAE-DOC contract of the Spanish 'Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas', Madrid, Spain. We thank Dr Toshinori Kinoshita (Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan) for the rabbit antibody against the last 9 aa of AHA2 H+-ATPase with the penultimate Thr947 phosphorylated. We also thank the Proteomics Facility of the 'Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia', Madrid, Spain, for the attempts to identify the phosphorylation site of the H+-ATPase.Planes Ferrer, MD.; Niñoles Rodenes, R.; Rubio, L.; Bissoli, G.; Bueso Ródenas, E.; Garcia-Sanchez, MJ.; Alejandro Martínez, S.... (2015). A mechanism of growth inhibition by abscisic acid in germinating seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana based on inhibition of plasma membrane H+-ATPase and decreased cytosolic pH, K+, and anions. Journal of Experimental Botany. 66(3):813-825. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eru442S81382566

Hyaluronic Acid Levels Predict Risk of Hepatic Encephalopathy and Liver-Related Death in HIV/Viral Hepatitis Coinfected Patients

Background:Whereas it is well established that various soluble biomarkers can predict level of liver fibrosis, their ability to predict liver-related clinical outcomes is less clearly established, in particular among HIV/viral hepatitis co-infected persons. We investigated plasma hyaluronic acid's (HA) ability to predict risk of liver-related events (LRE; hepatic coma or liver-related death) in the EuroSIDA study.Methods:Patients included were positive for anti-HCV and/or HBsAg with at least one available plasma sample. The earliest collected plasma sample was tested for HA (normal range 0-75 ng/mL) and levels were associated with risk of LRE. Change in HA per year of follow-up was estimated after measuring HA levels in latest sample before the LRE for those experiencing this outcome (cases) and in a random selection of one sixth of the remaining patients (controls).Results:During a median of 8.2 years of follow-up, 84/1252 (6.7%) patients developed a LRE. Baseline median (IQR) HA in those without and with a LRE was 31.8 (17.2-62.6) and 221.6 ng/mL (74.9-611.3), respectively (p<0.0001). After adjustment, HA levels predicted risk of contracting a LRE; incidence rate ratios for HA levels 75-250 or ≥250 vs. <75 ng/mL were 5.22 (95% CI 2.86-9.26, p<0.0007) and 28.22 (95% CI 14.95-46.00, p<0.0001), respectively. Median HA levels increased substantially prior to developing a LRE (107.6 ng/mL, IQR 0.8 to 251.1), but remained stable for controls (1.0 ng/mL, IQR -5.1 to 8.2), (p<0.0001 comparing cases and controls), and greater increases predicted risk of a LRE in adjusted models (p<0.001).Conclusions:An elevated level of plasma HA, particularly if the level further increases over time, substantially increases the risk of contracting LRE over the next five years. HA is an inexpensive, standardized and non-invasive supplement to other methods aimed at identifying HIV/viral hepatitis co-infected patients at risk of hepatic complications. © 2013 Peters et al

Factors related to the development of health-promoting community activities in Spanish primary healthcare: two case-control studies

Atenció Primària de Salut; Salut Comunitària; Promoció de la SalutAtención Primaria de Salud; Salud Comunitaria; Promoción de la SaludPrimary Health Care; Community Health; Health PromotionOBJECTIVE: Spanish primary healthcare teams have the responsibility of performing health-promoting community activities (CAs), although such activities are not widespread. Our aim was to identify the factors related to participation in those activities. DESIGN: Two case-control studies. SETTING: Performed in primary care of five Spanish regions. SUBJECTS: In the first study, cases were teams that performed health-promoting CAs and controls were those that did not. In the second study (on case teams from the first study), cases were professionals who developed these activities and controls were those who did not. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Team, professional and community characteristics collected through questionnaires (team managers/professionals) and from secondary sources. RESULTS: The first study examined 203 teams (103 cases, 100 controls). Adjusted factors associated with performing CAs were percentage of nurses (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.14), community socioeconomic status (higher vs lower OR 2.16, 95% CI 1.18 to 3.95) and performing undergraduate training (OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.93). In the second study, 597 professionals responded (254 cases, 343 controls). Adjusted factors were professional classification (physicians do fewer activities than nurses and social workers do more), training in CAs (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.1), team support (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.5 to 5.7), seniority (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.09), nursing tutor (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.5), motivation (OR 3.7, 95% CI 1.8 to 7.5), collaboration with non-governmental organisations (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.1) and participation in neighbourhood activities (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.9 to 5.1). CONCLUSIONS: Professional personal characteristics, such as social sensitivity, profession, to feel team support or motivation, have influence in performing health-promoting CAs. In contrast to the opinion expressed by many professionals, workload is not related to performance of health-promoting CAs

Effectiveness, safety/tolerability of OBV/PTV/r ± DSV in patients with HCV genotype 1 or 4 with/without HIV-1 co-infection, chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage IIIb-V and dialysis in Spanish clinical practice - Vie-KinD study

Limited data are available on the effectiveness and tolerability of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) therapies in the real world for HCV-infected patients with comorbidities. This study aimed to describe the effectiveness of OBV/PTV/r ± DSV (3D/2D regimen) with or without ribavirin (RBV) in HCV or HCV/HIV co-infected patients with GT1/GT4 and CKD (IIIb-V stages), including those under hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis in routine clinical practice in Spain in 2015.Non-interventional, retrospective, multicenter data collection study in 31 Spanish sites. Socio-demographic, clinical variables, study treatment characteristics, effectiveness and tolerability data were collected from medical records.Data from 135 patients with a mean age (SD) of 58.3 (11.4) years were analyzed: 92.6% GT1 (81.6% GT1b and 17.6% GT1a) and 7.4% GT4, 14 (10.4%) HIV/HCV co-infected, 19.0% with fibrosis F3 and 28.1% F4 by FibroScan®, 52.6% were previously treated with pegIFN and RBV. 11.1%, 14.8% and 74.1% of patients had CKD stage IIIb, IV and V respectively. 68.9% of patients were on hemodialysis; 8.9% on peritoneal dialysis and 38.5% had history of renal transplant. A total of 125 (96.2%) of 135 patients were treated with 3D, 10 (7.4%) with 2D and 30.4% received RBV. The overall intention-to-treat (ITT) sustained virologic response at week 12 (SVR12) was 92.6% (125/135) and the overall modified-ITT (mITT) SVR12 was 99.2% (125/126). The SVR12 rates (ITT) per sub-groups were: HCV mono-infected (91.7%), HCV/HIV co-infected (100%), GT1 (92.0%), GT4 (100%), CKD stage IIIb (86.7%), stage IV (95%) and stage V (93%). Among the 10 non-SVR there was only 1 virologic failure (0.7%); 4 patients had missing data due lost to follow up (3.0%) and 5 patients discontinued 3D/2D regimen (3.7%): 4 due to severe adverse events (including 3 deaths) and 1 patient´s decision.These results have shown that 3D/2D regimens are effective and tolerable in patients with advanced CKD including those in dialysis with GT 1 or 4 chronic HCV mono-infection and HIV/HCV coinfection in a real-life cohort. The overall SVR12 rates were 92.6% (ITT) and 99.2% (mITT) without clinically relevant changes in eGFR until 12 weeks post-treatment. These results are consistent with those reported in clinical trials

Construcción y análisis funcional de un horno de tipología romana del ámbito de la Bahía de Cádiz

In this article, we present the results of the work realized in the Laboratory Experimental Archaeology ERA. There surrendered to systematical experimentation, diverse aspects about constructive technologies applicable to the Roman Empire and to the manufactures of “alphar” from bahía de Cádiz.En este trabajo presentamos los primeros resultados del trabajo realizado en el Laboratorio de Arqueología Experimental ERA. Se sometieron a experimentación sistemática diversos aspectos de las técnicas constructivas aplicables al Imperio Romano y la fabricación de alfares en el ámbito de la bahía de Cádiz

Impact of Caffeic Acid Addition on Phenolic Composition of Tempranillo Wines from Different Winemaking Techniques

[EN] The effect of prefermentative and postfermentative caffeic acid (CFA) addition, prefermentative cold maceration, and a simulation of the micro-oxygenation technique through acetaldehyde addition on the phenolic and color composition of Tempranillo wines was investigated. Cold soaking and dry ice addition were performed as prefermentative techniques. Wines were analyzed after the end of the malolactic fermentation and after 6 and 12 months storage. The results showed an important effect in wines to which CFA had been added, suggesting intramolecular copigmentation reactions through direct interaction between anthocyanins and free phenolic acids, thereby increasing the acylated anthocyanin fraction with an increase in color stability. The higher concentration of total phenols and lower hue values in CFA-added wines also contributed to the stability of these compounds during storage. Prefermentative cold maceration was shown to be influenced by the vintage. Phenolic acids, the acylated anthocyanin fraction, and total phenolics showed higher values in CFA-added and acetaldehyde-added wines. No differences were found in color density between the control wines and both the prefermentative and postfermentative CFAadded wines. However, a higher anthocyanin polymeric fraction and higher acylated anthocyanins, phenolic acids, and total phenols were observed in the CFA-added wines. The implications of this for the color stability of Tempranillo are also discussed.Aleixandre Tudo, J.; Alvarez Cano, MI.; Lizama Abad, V.; García Esparza, MJ.; Aleixandre Benavent, JL.; Du Toit, WJ. (2013). Impact of Caffeic Acid Addition on Phenolic Composition of Tempranillo Wines from Different Winemaking Techniques. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 61(27):11900-11912. https://doi.org/10.1021/jf402713dS1190011912612

Modelling phenolic and volatile composition to characterize the effects of pre-fermentative cold soaking in Tempranillo wines

[EN] The impact of pre-fermentative cold soak, alone or in combination with dry ice addition, on colour, phenolic and volatile composition of Tempranillo wines at 12 months after bottling was studied. A control wine without cold soak was also evaluated. A sample set consisting of 66 wines was investigated. The results from ANOVA and PCA analysis showed significant treatment-related differences for a number of chemical measurements, as well as overlapping effects. Orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) of the data showed that the dry ice addition treatment had a major effect on the anthocyanin fraction and on the levels of ethyl decanoate, 2-phenylethyl acetate and decanoic acid. In comparison, the cold soak treatment only had a slight effect on the bisulphite bleaching anthocyanins and volatile composition.The research reported here is a project financially supported by the Spanish Government (AGL 2006-10723-C02-02) which the authors gratefully acknowledge.Aleixandre-Tudó, JL.; Alvarez Cano, MI.; Lizama Abad, V.; Nieuwoudt, H.; García Esparza, MJ.; Aleixandre Benavent, JL.; Du Toit, WJ. (2016). Modelling phenolic and volatile composition to characterize the effects of pre-fermentative cold soaking in Tempranillo wines. LWT - Food Science and Technology. 66:193-200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2015.10.033S1932006

Genome-wide association study meta-analysis identifies five new loci for systemic lupus erythematosus

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a common systemic autoimmune disease with a complex genetic inheritance. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have significantly increased the number of significant loci associated with SLE risk. To date, however, established loci account for less than 30% of the disease heritability and additional risk variants have yet to be identified. Here we performed a GWAS followed by a meta-analysis to identify new genome-wide significant loci for SLE. Methods: We genotyped a cohort of 907 patients with SLE (cases) and 1524 healthy controls from Spain and performed imputation using the 1000 Genomes reference data. We tested for association using logistic regression with correction for the principal components of variation. Meta-analysis of the association results was subsequently performed on 7,110,321 variants using genetic data from a large cohort of 4036 patients with SLE and 6959 controls of Northern European ancestry. Genetic association was also tested at the pathway level after removing the effect of known risk loci using PASCAL software. Results: We identified five new loci associated with SLE at the genome-wide level of significance (p < 5 × 10− 8): GRB2, SMYD3, ST8SIA4, LAT2 and ARHGAP27. Pathway analysis revealed several biological processes significantly associated with SLE risk: B cell receptor signaling (p = 5.28 × 10− 6), CTLA4 co-stimulation during T cell activation (p = 3.06 × 10− 5), interleukin-4 signaling (p = 3.97 × 10− 5) and cell surface interactions at the vascular wall (p = 4.63 × 10− 5). Conclusions: Our results identify five novel loci for SLE susceptibility, and biologic pathways associated via multiple low-effect-size loci.This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant numbers: PSE-010000-2006-6 and IPT-010000-2010-36). This work has been also sponsored by the grant SEV-2011-00067 of Severo Ochoa Program, awarded by the Spanish Government. This work was supported by an EFSD/Lilly research fellowship. Josep M. Mercader was supported by Sara Borrell Fellowship from the Instituto Carlos III. Sílvia Bonàs was awarded an FI-DGR Fellowship from FI-DGR 2013 from Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR, Generalitat de Catalunya)