Magnetothermal properties of molecule-based materials

We critically review recent results obtained by studying the low-temperature specific heat of some of the most popular molecular magnets. Perspectives of this field are discussed as well.Comment: 12 pages text + 14 pages figures, Submitted as "feature article" to Journal of Materials Chemistr

Social Exclusion Modifies Climate and Deforestation Impacts on a Vector-Borne Disease

American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis emergence has been associated with changes in the interaction between people and forests. The association between outbreaks and forest clearance, higher risk for populations living close to forests, and the absence of this disease from urban settings has led to the proposal that it will disappear with the destruction of primary forests. This view ignores the complex nature of deforestation as a product of socioeconomic inequities. Our study shows that such inequities, as measured by a marginalization index, may ultimately determine risk within the country, with socially excluded populations most affected by the disease. Contrary to the established view, living close to the forest edge can diminish the risk provided other factors are taken into account. Additionally, differences in vulnerability to climatic variability appear to interact with forest cover to influence risk across counties where the disease has its largest burden. Incidence exacerbation associated with El Niño Southern Oscillation is observed in counties with larger proportions of deforestation. Our study calls for control efforts targeted to socially excluded populations and for more localized ecological studies of transmission in vectors and reservoirs in order to understand the role of biodiversity changes in driving the emergence of this disease

Influence of Microelement Concentration on the Intensity of Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome

Aims: To establish a nutritional and constitutional profile concerning the micronutrient plasma concentration of patients who suffer from AWS. Method: Observational case control study to determine whether patients who exhibited symptoms of AWS (N = 60) had micronutrient plasmatic concentration deficiencies when compared with healthy controls (N = 34). Results: There were statistically significant differences between the concentrations of nutrients that are correlated with glutamate hyperactivity (zinc, magnesium and folate/vitamin B12/homocysteine). Conclusion: Evidence from literature and our experiment suggests that brain activity, especially the glutamatergic system, might be directly involved in micronutrient concentrations. Therefore, their supplementation to the AWS patient might improve symptom evolution.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Associacao Fundo de Incentivo a Pesquisa (AFIP)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Universidade Federal de São Paulo UNIFESP, Dept Psychobiol, São Paulo, BrazilCtr Referencia Tratamento Alcool Tabaco & Outras, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo UNIFESP, Dept Psychobiol, São Paulo, BrazilFAPESP: 2012/06731-4Web of Scienc

Impact of the faecal immunochemical test on colorectal cancer survival.

BACKGROUND: There is already evidence that the faecal immunochemical test (FIT) is a useful tool for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) that helps to identify symptomatic patients requiring early colonoscopy. Although the recommendation to use FIT is widely accepted, there are no data concerning whether this strategy improves patient survival.The objective was to assess whether the survival is higher if CRC patients have been first diagnosed by FIT (as compared with the rest of patients with CRC). METHODS: We identified all cases of CRC diagnosed between 2009 and 2016 in Donostialdea (Spain), excluding all the CRC detected in population screening. We focused on symptomatic patients. One thousand five hundred twenty-seven cases of CRC were divided into two groups based on the route to diagnosis: group 1: individuals who tested positive in a FIT during the year before diagnosis, and group 2: others.Survival was assessed by Kaplan-Meier estimation, and with the log-rank test. A Cox regression model was used to adjust for differences between groups due to other variables associated with survival. RESULTS: One thousand nine hundred sixty-seven cases of invasive CRC were identified, of which 22.4% were detected in population screening. Of the 1527 cases diagnosed in symptomatic patients, 317 patients had undergone a FIT in the year before the diagnosis of CRC. In 279 cases(18.3%), the result had been positive and this was the first step towards their CRC diagnosis (group 1). Group 2 was composed of the 1248 cases of CRC (81.7%). Considering these cases, 1210 patients with CRC did not undergo any FIT while 38 patients presented a negative result in the year before the diagnosis. The rate of early-stage disease (stage I or II) was higher in group 1 (51.3% vs 45.5% in group 2) (p = 0.04). Furthermore, the 3-year survival was longer in group 1 (72% vs 59% in group 2) (HR 1.50; 95% CI 1.22-1.84).The variables independently associated with worse survival were: group 2, age > 70 years and stage at the moment of diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: The use of FIT as a diagnostic strategy in symptomatic patients may improve survival in CRC. Nonetheless,FIT is still not widely used in our region

Sim-to-real transfer and reality gap modeling in model predictive control for autonomous driving

The main challenge for the adoption of autonomous driving is to ensure an adequate level of safety. Considering the almost infinite variability of possible scenarios that autonomous vehicles would have to face, the use of autonomous driving simulators is becoming of utmost importance. Simulation suites allow the used of automated validation techniques in a wide variety of scenarios, and enable the development of closed-loop validation methods, such as machine learning and reinforcement learning approaches. However, simulation tools suffer from a standing flaw in that there is a noticeable gap between the simulation conditions and real-world scenarios. Although the use of simulators powers most of the research around autonomous driving, and is generally used within all domains it is divided into, there is an inherent source of error given the stochastic nature of activities performed in real world, which are unreplicable in computer environments. This paper proposes a new approach to assess the real-to-sim gap for path tracking systems. The aim is to narrow down the sources of error between simulation results and real-world conditions, and to evaluate the performance of the simulation suite in the design process by employing the information extracted from gap analysis, which adds a new dimension of development against other approaches for autonomous driving. A real-time model predictive controller (MPC) based on adaptive potential fields was developed and validated using the CARLA simulator. Both the path planning and vehicle control systems where tested in real traffic conditions. The error between the simulator and the real data acquisition was evaluated using the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) and the max normalized cross-correlation (MNCC). The controller was further evaluated on a process of sim-to-real transfer, and was finally tested both in simulation and real traffic conditions. A comparison was performed against an optimal-control ILQR-based model predictive controller was carried out to further showcase the validity of this approach

Applying a set-based parametric design method to structural design of bridges

Set-based design has been widely applied in manufacturing and product development, as it allows to consider a large number of alternatives during the design process. The design process in civil engineering projects may benefit from this alternative design approach, however its applicability in this field remains unexplored. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of applying a set-based parametric design method to the structural design of bridges. The method developed here combines set-based design, parametric design, finite element analysis and multi-criteria decision analysis. The developed method is applied to two existing bridges considering two sustainability criteria in the evaluation of the alternatives: material cost and carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent emissions. Preliminary results indicate that the method leads to bridges that are more efficient with regard to the selected sustainability criteria

Variety discrimination of Tigridia pavonia (L.f.) DC. assesed by different length RAPD primers

Tigridia pavonia (L.f.) DC. is one of the important phytogenetic resources of M\ue9xico. This species is used as ornamental, food and medicinal purposes. Despite its ornamental and economic potential, there is little information about the genetic variability. In this study, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers of 10, 15 and 20 bases were used to assess the level of genetic variation among nine botanical varieties of Tigridia pavonia collected in three localities within State of M\ue9xico. The total number fragments, polymorphic fragments, percentage of polymorphism and resolving power were greater for 15 base (55, 52, 94.5 and 5, respectively) and 20 base (47, 45, 95.7 and 3.8, respectively), in comparison with those obtained from 10 base primers (44, 41, 93.1 and 3.6, respectively). Results showed the major effectiveness of 15 and 20 bases RAPD primers in the genetic differentiation of varieties as compared to 10 bases RAPD primers. The dendrograms based on un-weighted pair group method arithmetic average (UPGMA) analysis of the 10, 15, 20 and the pooled (10, 15 and 20) bases RAPD data were consistent in the clustering varieties, grouping them in two main clusters