13,077 research outputs found
Recovery of early meteorological records from Extremadura region (SW Iberia): The ''CliPastExtrem'' (v1.0) database
In this work, we provide instrumental meteorological data recovered for the Extremadura region (interior SW Iberia), from 1826 to mid-20th century. Meteorological variables such as air temperature, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, wind direction and humidity, among others, were retrieved. In total, more than 750 000 instrumental data in 157 meteorological series belonging to 131 different locations throughout Extremadura were rescued. It must be noted that daily resolution data constitutes 80% of the database. This great effort of digitization and data collection has been carried out with the aim of contributing to a significant expansion of the length of the databases with meteorological information in this region. Therefore, this database will provide a better understanding of climate variability, trends and extreme events of the Extremadura region
Cost-Utility Analysis of a Medication Review with Follow-Up Service for Older Adults with Polypharmacy in Community Pharmacies in Spain: The conSIGUE Program
© 2015, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. Background: The concept of pharmaceutical care is operationalized through pharmaceutical professional services, which are patient-oriented to optimize their pharmacotherapy and to improve clinical outcomes. Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of a medication review with follow-up (MRF) service for older adults with polypharmacy in Spanish community pharmacies against the alternative of having their medication dispensed normally. Methods: The study was designed as a cluster randomized controlled trial, and was carried out over a time horizon of 6 months. The target population was older adults with polypharmacy, defined as individuals taking five or more medicines per day. The study was conducted in 178 community pharmacies in Spain. Cost-utility analysis adopted a health service perspective. Costs were in euros at 2014 prices and the effectiveness of the intervention was estimated as quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). In order to analyze the uncertainty of ICER results, we performed a non-parametric bootstrapping with 5000 replications. Results: A total of 1403 older adults, aged between 65 and 94 years, were enrolled in the study: 688 in the intervention group (IG) and 715 in the control group (CG). By the end of the follow-up, both groups had reduced the mean number of prescribed medications they took, although this reduction was greater in the IG (0.28 ± 1.25 drugs; p < 0.001) than in the CG (0.07 ± 0.95 drugs; p = 0.063). Older adults in the IG saw their quality of life improved by 0.0528 ± 0.20 (p < 0.001). In contrast, the CG experienced a slight reduction in their quality of life: 0.0022 ± 0.24 (p = 0.815). The mean total cost was €977.57 ± 1455.88 for the IG and €1173.44 ± 3671.65 for the CG. In order to estimate the ICER, we used the costs adjusted for baseline medications and QALYs adjusted for baseline utility score, resulting in a mean incremental total cost of −€250.51 ± 148.61 (95 % CI −541.79 to 40.76) and a mean incremental QALY of 0.0156 ± 0.004 (95 % CI 0.008–0.023). Regarding the results from the cost-utility analysis, the MRF service emerged as the dominant strategy. Conclusion: The MRF service is an effective intervention for optimizing prescribed medication and improving quality of life in older adults with polypharmacy in community pharmacies. The results from the cost-utility analysis suggest that the MRF service is cost effective
Towards the critical behavior for the light nuclei by NIMROD detector
The critical behavior for the light nuclei with A has been
investigated experimentally by the NIMROD multi-detectors. The wide variety of
observables indicate the critical point has been reached in the disassembly of
hot nuclei at an excitation energy of 5.60.5 MeV/u.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; Proceeding of 18th Nuclear Physics Division
Conference of the Euro. Phys. Society (NPDC18) "Phase transitions in strongly
interacting matter", Prague, 23.8.-29.8. 2004. To be published in Nuclear
Physics
H-ficolin binds Aspergillus fumigatus leading to activation of the lectin complement pathway and modulation of lung epithelial immune responses.
Aspergillus fumigatus is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that typically infects the lungs of immunocompromised patients leading to a high mortality. H-Ficolin, an innate immune opsonin, is produced by type II alveolar epithelial cells and could participate in lung defences against infections. Here, we used the human type II alveolar epithelial cell line, A549, to determine the involvement of H-ficolin in fungal defence. Additionally, we investigated the presence of H-ficolin in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from transplant patients during pneumonia. H-Ficolin exhibited demonstrable binding to A. fumigatus conidia via l-fucose, d-mannose and N-acetylglucosamine residues in a calcium- and pH-dependent manner. Moreover, recognition led to lectin complement pathway activation and enhanced fungal association with A549 cells. Following recognition, H-ficolin opsonization manifested an increase in interleukin-8 production from A549 cells, which involved activation of the intracellular signalling pathways mitogen-activated protein kinase MAPK kinase 1/2, p38 MAPK and c-Jun N-terminal kinase. Finally, H-ficolin concentrations were significantly higher in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of patients with lung infections compared with control subjects (n = 16; P = 0·00726). Receiver operating characteristics curve analysis further highlighted the potential of H-ficolin as a diagnostic marker for lung infection (area under the curve = 0·77; P < 0·0001). Hence, H-ficolin participates in A. fumigatus defence through the activation of the lectin complement pathway, enhanced fungus-host interactions and modulated immune responses
Evidence of Critical Behavior in the Disassembly of Nuclei with A ~ 36
A wide variety of observables indicate that maximal fluctuations in the
disassembly of hot nuclei with A ~ 36 occur at an excitation energy of 5.6 +-
0.5 MeV/u and temperature of 8.3 +- 0.5 MeV. Associated with this point of
maximal fluctuations are a number of quantitative indicators of apparent
critical behavior. The associated caloric curve does not appear to show a
flattening such as that seen for heavier systems. This suggests that, in
contrast to similar signals seen for liquid-gas transitions in heavier nuclei,
the observed behavior in these very light nuclei is associated with a
transition much closer to the critical point.Comment: v2: Major changes, new model calculations, new figure
Critical Behavior in Light Nuclear Systems: Experimental Aspects
An extensive experimental survey of the features of the disassembly of a
small quasi-projectile system with 36, produced in the reactions of 47
MeV/nucleon Ar + Al, Ti and Ni, has been carried
out. Nuclei in the excitation energy range of 1-9 MeV/u have been investigated
employing a new method to reconstruct the quasi-projectile source. At an
excitation energy 5.6 MeV/nucleon many observables indicate the presence
of maximal fluctuations in the de-excitation processes. The fragment
topological structure shows that the rank sorted fragments obey Zipf's law at
the point of largest fluctuations providing another indication of a liquid gas
phase transition. The caloric curve for this system shows a monotonic increase
of temperature with excitation energy and no apparent plateau. The temperature
at the point of maximal fluctuations is MeV. Taking this
temperature as the critical temperature and employing the caloric curve
information we have extracted the critical exponents , and
from the data. Their values are also consistent with the values of the
universality class of the liquid gas phase transition. Taken together, this
body of evidence strongly suggests a phase change in an equilibrated mesoscopic
system at, or extremely close to, the critical point.Comment: Physical Review C, in press; some discussions about the validity of
excitation energy in peripheral collisions have been added; 24 pages and 32
figures; longer abstract in the preprin
Tracing the Evolution of Temperature in Near Fermi Energy Heavy Ion Collisions
The kinetic energy variation of emitted light clusters has been employed as a
clock to explore the time evolution of the temperature for thermalizing
composite systems produced in the reactions of 26A, 35A and 47A MeV Zn
with Ni, Mo and Au. For each system investigated, the
double isotope ratio temperature curve exhibits a high maximum apparent
temperature, in the range of 10-25 MeV, at high ejectile velocity. These
maximum values increase with increasing projectile energy and decrease with
increasing target mass. The time at which the maximum in the temperature curve
is reached ranges from 80 to 130 fm/c after contact. For each different target,
the subsequent cooling curves for all three projectile energies are quite
similar. Temperatures comparable to those of limiting temperature systematics
are reached 30 to 40 fm/c after the times corresponding to the maxima, at a
time when AMD-V transport model calculations predict entry into the final
evaporative or fragmentation stage of de-excitation of the hot composite
systems. Evidence for the establishment of thermal and chemical equilibrium is
discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Properties of the Initial Participant Matter Interaction Zone in Near Fermi-Energy Heavy Ion Collisions
The sizes, temperatures and free neutron to proton ratios of the initial
interaction zones produced in the collisions of 40 MeV/nucleon Ar +
Sn and 55 MeV/nucleonAl + Sn are derived using total
detected neutron plus charged particle multiplicity as a measure of the impact
parameter range and number of participant nucleons. The size of the initial
interaction zone, determined from a coalescence model analysis, increases
significantly with decreasing impact parameter. The temperatures and free
neutron to proton ratios in the interaction zones are relatively similar for
different impact parameter ranges and evolve in a similar fashion.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
A Ghoshal-like Test of Equilibration in Near-Fermi-Energy Heavy Ion Collisions
Calorimetric and coalescence techniques have been employed to probe
equilibration for hot nuclei produced in heavy ion collisions of 35 to 55 MeV/u
projectiles with medium mass targets. Entrance channel mass asymmetries and
energies were selected in order that very hot composite nuclei of similar mass
and excitation would remain after early stage pre-equilibrium particle
emission. Inter-comparison of the properties and de-excitation patterns for
these different systems provides evidence for the production of hot nuclei with
decay patterns relatively independent of the specific entrance channel.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
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