15{\mu}m Quantum well infrared photodetector for thermometric imagery in cryogenic windtunnel

Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP) usually suffer from a too moderate quantum efficiency and too large dark current which is often announced as crippling for low flux applications. Despite this reputation we demonstrate the ability of QWIP for the low infrared photon flux detection. We present the characterization of a state of the art 14.5\mu m QWIP from Alcatel-Thales 3-5 Lab. We developed a predictive model of the performance of an infrared instrument for a given application. The considered scene is a Cryogenic Wind Tunnel (ETW), where a specific Si:Ga camera is currently used. Using this simulation tool we demonstrate the QWIP ability to image a low temperature scene in this scenario. QWIP detector is able to operate at 30K with a NETD as low as 130mK. In comparison to the current detector, the temperature of use is three times higher and the use of a QWIP based camera would allow a huge simplification of the optical part

Effect of Maternal Exercise on Adverse Cardio-Pulmonary Responses in Offspring Exposed to Post-Natal Chronic Hypoxia

Emerging evidence shows exercise by women throughout pregnancy (i.e., maternal exercise) endows the offspring with positive health benefits and resistance to many diseases later in life. PURPOSE: To determine if maternal exercise reduces unfavorable cardiopulmonary development and improves exercise capacity in offspring after chronic hypoxic exposure throughout early life. METHODS: Female adult C57BL/6J mice were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: high altitude, sedentary (HS), high altitude, active (HE), or the respective, low-altitude conditions (LS or LE). Pregnant females in the exercise groups performed voluntary wheel running during mating and the perinatal period (about 4 weeks). Three days after birth, the pups in the high-altitude groups were exposed to chronic hypobaric hypoxia (450mmHg). When pups were eight weeks old, body size (weight and tail length) was measured and exercise capacity was assessed via a Rotarod test. Terminal procedures were performed to measure right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP), hematocrit, and heart remodeling (Fulton’s Index: right ventricular weight ratio to bodyweight (RV/BW) and to the left ventricle plus septum (RV/LV+S)). RESULTS: All variables measured had a main effect for altitude (pCONCLUSION: Chronic hypoxia decreases exercise capacity and attenuates growth. This stress also induces potentially harmful cardiovascular changes, such as high blood viscosity, RVSP, and right ventricular hypertrophy. Our results indicate that maternal exercise may attenuate some of the negative effects of chronic hypoxia in the offspring, but does not prevent significant development impairments

Host proteostasis modulates influenza evolution

Predicting and constraining RNA virus evolution require understanding the molecular factors that define the mutational landscape accessible to these pathogens. RNA viruses typically have high mutation rates, resulting in frequent production of protein variants with compromised biophysical properties. Their evolution is necessarily constrained by the consequent challenge to protein folding and function. We hypothesized that host proteostasis mechanisms may be significant determinants of the fitness of viral protein variants, serving as a critical force shaping viral evolution. Here, we test that hypothesis by propagating influenza in host cells displaying chemically-controlled, divergent proteostasis environments. We find that both the nature of selection on the influenza genome and the accessibility of specific mutational trajectories are significantly impacted by host proteostasis. These findings provide new insights into features of host-pathogen interactions that shape viral evolution, and into the potential design of host proteostasis-targeted antiviral therapeutics that are refractory to resistance.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Award 1DP2GM119162)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant P30-ES002109

Effect of salinity and temperature on the extraction of extracellular polymeric substances from an anaerobic sludge and fouling in submerged hollow fibre membranes

The results of the characterisation of anaerobic sludge-derived extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) under different extraction conditions and their effects on the fouling in submerged hollow fibre membranes are presented. A wide range of EPS extraction results was obtained depending on the extraction conditions. Proteins, polysaccharides, and humic substances represented 80–99% of the total organic matter extracted, with 54–60% identified as humic substances. Ultrasonication was more effective than vortex agitation, ensuring higher EPS extraction yields in a shorter contact time. The increase in temperature from 30 °C to 50 °C and the decrease in NaCl concentration favoured the EPS diffusion, but this positive temperature effect was negligible for an ultrasonic contact. Linear, quadratic, and combined effects of ultrasonication time and solvent salinity were statistically significant effects for ultrasonication-assisted EPS extraction. The highest extraction yield was achieved using ultrasonication at 30 ºC for at least 60 min with salt-free water as the solvent, and an EPS extract with 138.8 mg TOC/L was obtained. Batch ultrafiltration-backwash tests at different permeation rates allowed to determine the specific resistance to filtration of the EPS extracts, which increased from 103.8·1012 m/kg TOC to 169.4·1012 m/kg TOC in presence of 1.8 wt% of NaCl. Salinity also provided rigidity to the EPS gel layer, reducing the compressibility index from 0.23 to 0.03.TCUE 2018–2020 cofounded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Junta de Castilla y León, Spain. Ana García is grateful to the European Social Fund the Operative Program of Castile-Leon, the Regional Government of Castile-Leon, Spain, through the Ministry of Education, for her research contract (Orden EDU/310/2015)

International criteria for electrocardiographic interpretation in athletes: Consensus statement.

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is the leading cause of mortality in athletes during sport. A variety of mostly hereditary, structural or electrical cardiac disorders are associated with SCD in young athletes, the majority of which can be identified or suggested by abnormalities on a resting 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG). Whether used for diagnostic or screening purposes, physicians responsible for the cardiovascular care of athletes should be knowledgeable and competent in ECG interpretation in athletes. However, in most countries a shortage of physician expertise limits wider application of the ECG in the care of the athlete. A critical need exists for physician education in modern ECG interpretation that distinguishes normal physiological adaptations in athletes from distinctly abnormal findings suggestive of underlying pathology. Since the original 2010 European Society of Cardiology recommendations for ECG interpretation in athletes, ECG standards have evolved quickly, advanced by a growing body of scientific data and investigations that both examine proposed criteria sets and establish new evidence to guide refinements. On 26-27 February 2015, an international group of experts in sports cardiology, inherited cardiac disease, and sports medicine convened in Seattle, Washington (USA), to update contemporary standards for ECG interpretation in athletes. The objective of the meeting was to define and revise ECG interpretation standards based on new and emerging research and to develop a clear guide to the proper evaluation of ECG abnormalities in athletes. This statement represents an international consensus for ECG interpretation in athletes and provides expert opinion-based recommendations linking specific ECG abnormalities and the secondary evaluation for conditions associated with SCD

Neural activity patterns between different executive tasks are more similar in adulthood than in adolescence

Background: Adolescence is a time of ongoing neural maturation and cognitive development, especially regarding executive functions. In the current study, age-related differences in the neural correlates of different executive functions were tracked by comparing three age groups consisting of adolescents and young adults. Methods: Brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) from 167 human participants (13- to 14-year-old middle adolescents, 16- to 17-year-old late adolescents and 20-to 24-year-old young adults; 80 female, 87 male) while they performed attention and working memory tasks. The tasks were designed to tap into four putative sub-processes of executive function: division of attention, inhibition of distractors, working memory, and attention switching. Results: Behaviorally, our results demonstrated superior task performance in older participants across all task types. When brain activity was examined, young adult participants demonstrated a greater degree of overlap between brain regions recruited by the different executive tasks than adolescent participants. Similarly, functional connectivity between frontoparietal cortical regions was less task specific in the young adult participants than in adolescent participants. Conclusions: Together, these results demonstrate that the similarity between different executive processes in terms of both neural recruitment and functional connectivity increases with age from middle adolescence to early adulthood, possibly contributing to age-related behavioral improvements in executive functioning. These developmental changes in brain recruitment may reflect a more homogenous morphological organization between process-specific neural networks, increased reliance on a more domain-general network involved in executive processing, or developmental changes in cognitive strategy.Peer reviewe

Liver segmentation in MRI: a fully automatic method based on stochastic partitions

There are few fully automated methods for liver segmentation in magnetic resonance images (MRI) despite the benefits of this type of acquisition in comparison to other radiology techniques such as computed tomography (CT). Motivated by medical requirements, liver segmentation in MRI has been carried out. For this purpose, we present a new method for liver segmentation based on the watershed transform and stochastic partitions. The classical watershed over-segmentation is reduced using a marker-controlled algorithm. To improve accuracy of selected contours, the gradient of the original image is successfully enhanced by applying a new variant of stochastic watershed. Moreover, a final classifier is performed in order to obtain the final liver mask. Optimal parameters of the method are tuned using a training dataset and then they are applied to the rest of studies (17 datasets). The obtained results (a Jaccard coefficient of 0.91 +/- 0.02) in comparison to other methods demonstrate that the new variant of stochastic watershed is a robust tool for automatic segmentation of the liver in MRI. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.This work has been supported by the MITYC under the project NaRALap (ref. TSI-020100-2009-189), partially by the CDTI under the project ONCOTIC (IDI-20101153), by Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia Spain, Project Game Teen (TIN2010-20187) projects Consolider-C (SEJ2006-14301/PSIC), "CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition, an initiative of ISCIII" and Excellence Research Program PROMETEO (Generalitat Valenciana. Conselleria de Educacion, 2008-157). We would like to express our gratitude to the Hospital Clinica Benidorm, for providing the MR datasets and to the radiologist team of Inscanner for the manual segmentation of the MR images.López-Mir, F.; Naranjo Ornedo, V.; Angulo, J.; Alcañiz Raya, ML.; Luna, L. (2014). Liver segmentation in MRI: a fully automatic method based on stochastic partitions. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine. 114(1):11-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmpb.2013.12.022S1128114

Effect of a single acupuncture treatment on surgical wound healing in dogs: a randomized, single blinded, controlled pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of acupuncture on wound healing after soft tissue or orthopaedic surgery in dogs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>29 dogs were submitted to soft tissue and/or orthopaedic surgeries. Five dogs had two surgical wounds each, so there were totally 34 wounds in the study. All owners received instructions for post operative care as well as antibiotic and pain treatment. The dogs were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Treated dogs received one dry needle acupuncture treatment right after surgery and the control group received no such treatment. A veterinary surgeon that was blinded to the treatment, evaluated the wounds at three and seven days after surgery in regard to oedema (scale 0-3), scabs (yes/no), exudate (yes/no), hematoma (yes/no), dermatitis (yes/no), and aspect of the wound (dry/humid).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was no significant difference between the treatment and control groups in the variables evaluated three and seven days after surgery. However, oedema reduced significantly in the group treated with acupuncture at seven days compared to three days after surgery, possibly due the fact that there was more oedema in the treatment group at day three (although this difference was nor significant between groups).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The use of a single acupuncture treatment right after surgery in dogs did not appear to have any beneficial effects in surgical wound healing.</p

Factores dinámicos en el comportamiento de delincuentes juveniles con perfil de ajuste social. Un estudio de reincidencia

Este estudio tiene por objeto evaluar el riesgo de reincidencia, analizando el impacto de los factores dinámicos en adolescentes en conflicto con la ley (ACL). Para ello, se evalúa una muestra de 157 ACL con perfil de ajuste social mediante el instrumento para la evaluación del riesgo de violencia de adolescentes Structured Assesment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), además de otras técnicas de análisis cualitativo que triangulan el proceso empírico. Por un lado, destaca que la amplia estructura relacional y la vinculación intermitente con redes formales e informales de aprendizaje y empleo de que disponen los ACL con perfil de ajuste estiman un buen nivel de ajuste futuro y una baja reincidencia delictiva. Por otro lado, la escasa autonomía para resolver problemas y la impulsividad en la gestión de dificultades amplían el riesgo de reincidencia delictiva. Un foco de interés reside en las relaciones e influencias que el ACL establece con su entorno, para evitar prácticas de riesgo o someterse a ellas. Se incide en las actividades cotidianas del ACL, pudiendo estas condicionar su ajuste social

Milankovitch-paced erosion in the southern Central Andes

It has long been hypothesized that climate can modify both the pattern and magnitude of erosion in mountainous landscapes, thereby controlling morphology, rates of deformation, and potentially modulating global carbon and nutrient cycles through weathering feedbacks. Although conceptually appealing, geologic evidence for a direct climatic control on erosion has remained ambiguous owing to a lack of high-resolution, long-term terrestrial records and suitable field sites. Here we provide direct terrestrial field evidence for long-term synchrony between erosion rates and Milankovitch-driven, 400-kyr eccentricity cycles using a Plio-Pleistocene cosmogenic radionuclide paleo-erosion rate record from the southern Central Andes. The observed climate-erosion coupling across multiple orbital cycles, when combined with results from the intermediate complexity climate model CLIMBER-2, are consistent with the hypothesis that relatively modest fluctuations in precipitation can cause synchronous and nonlinear responses in erosion rates as landscapes adjust to ever-evolving hydrologic boundary conditions imposed by oscillating climate regimes