Cross sections for the excitation of isovector charge-exchange resonances in 208Tl

The Glauber approximation for the treatment of heavy-ion scattering, has already been shown to give reliable predictions for the reaction cross section in the particular case of intermediate energy charge-exchange processes. In the present work, we couple a Glauber-type model to microscopic Random Phase Approximation calculations of the charge-exchange excitations of $^{208}$Pb. The aim is to solve the longstanding question whether the very elusive charge-exchange isovector monopole has been really identified in the past experiments, or other multipoles were prevalent in the observed spectra.Comment: text + 4 figures; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Study of cross-spectra of velocity components and temperature series in a nocturnal boundary layer

Póster presentado en: European Geosciences Union General Assembly celebrada del 2 al 7 de mayo de 2010 en Viena.This research has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (projects CGL 2006-12474-C03-03 and CGL2009-12797-C03-03). GR58/08 program (supported by BSCH and UCM) has also partially financed this work through the Research Group “Micrometeorology and Climate Variability” (nº 910437)

Long-distance migration and venting of methane from the base of the hydrate stability zone

\ua9 2023, The Author(s).Marine methane hydrate is an ice-like substance that is stable in sediment around marine continental margins where water depths are greater than ~450–700 m. The release of methane due to melting of hydrates is considered to be a mechanism for past global carbon-cycle perturbations and could exacerbate ongoing anthropogenic climate change. Increases in bottom-water temperature at the landward limit of marine hydrate around continental margins, where vulnerable hydrate exists at or below the seabed, cause methane to vent into the ocean. However, this setting represents only ~3.5% of the global hydrate reservoir. The potential for methane from hydrate in deeper water to reach the atmosphere was considered negligible. Here we use three-dimensional (3D) seismic imagery to show that, on the Mauritanian margin, methane migrated at least 40 km below the base of the hydrate stability zone and vented through 23 pockmarks at the shelf break, probably during warmer Quaternary interglacials. We demonstrate that, under suitable circumstances, some of the 96.5% of methane bound in deeper water distal hydrates can reach the seafloor and vent into the ocean beyond the landward limit of marine hydrate. This reservoir should therefore be considered for estimating climate change-induced methane release during a warming world

Swarm hybrid optimization for a piecewise model fitting applied to a glucose model

[EN] Purpose ¿ The purpose of this paper is to study insulin pump therapy and accurate monitoring of glucose levels in diabetic patients, which are current research trends in diabetology. Both problems have a wide margin for improvement and promising applications in the control of parameters and levels involved. Design/methodology/approach ¿ The authors have registered data for the levels of glucose in diabetic patients throughout a day with a temporal resolution of 5 minutes, the amount and time of insulin administered and time of ingestion. The estimated quantity of carbohydrates is also monitored. A mathematical model for Type 1 patients was fitted piecewise to these data and the evolution of the parameters was analyzed. Findings ¿ They have found that the parameters for the model change abruptly throughout a day for the same patient, but this set of parameters account with precision for the evolution of the glucose levels in the test patients. This fitting technique could be used to personalize treatments for specific patients and predict the glucose-level variations in terms of hours or even shorter periods of time. This way more effective insulin pump therapies could be developed. Originality/value ¿ The proposed model could allow for the development of improved schedules on insulin pump therapiesAcedo Rodríguez, L.; Botella, M.; Cortés, J.; Hidalgo, J.; Maqueda, E.; Villanueva Micó, RJ. (2018). Swarm hybrid optimization for a piecewise model fitting applied to a glucose model. Journal of Systems and Information Technology. 20(4):9618-9627. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-10-2017-0103S9618962720

Depolarization-repolarization synchrony after right ventricular and left bundle branch area pacing

Introduction: Left bundle branch area pacing (LBBAP) has been recently proposed to overcome the limitations associated with right ventricular pacing (RVP) and has been suggested as a new physiological pacing form with high feasibility and safety. A greater difference between QRS complex and T-wave angle directions has been proposed as a marker of abnormal electrical activity in several patient populations, but a comparison between these two pacing modalities has never been performed. The total cosine R to T (TCRT) is an ECG descriptor that accounts for depolarization-repolarization synchrony by measuring the difference between their directions. The purpose of this study was to compare TCRT in patients referred for RVP and LBBAP pacing as anti-bradycardia therapy. Methods: ECG recordings from 134 patients (82 LBBAP, 52 RVP) were classified into two groups, narrow QRS and wide QRS, depending on the patient’s QRS duration prior to implantation. In the post-implantation state, the TCRT index was calculated from a median beat calculated for each patient. Singular value decomposition was applied to the median beat in the eight independent ECG leads (I, II, V1, V2, V3, V4, V5, V6). The QRS complex and T wave loops in a three-dimensional space were determined from the first three components of the decomposition. TCRT was computed as the average of the cosines of the angles between the QRS complex directions and the maximum T wave direction. More positive values corresponded to more synchronized depolarization and repolarization processes while more negative values indicated larger differences in the orientation of the QRS and T wave loops and, therefore, greater dyssynchronization. Results: showed that TCRT took negative values for both techniques, RVP and LBBAP, and both groups, narrow and wide QRS, indicating that pacing generated dyssynchronization between ventricular depolarization and repolarization. Nevertheless, TCRT values for both groups were significantly more negative (p<0.01) for RVP than for LBBAP. We hypothesize that cardiac memory induced by pacing could account for these negative TCRT values. In any case, LBBAP did not increase the difference in the QRS complex and T wave loop orientations as much as RVP. Conclusion: LBBAP induces less dyssynchrony than RVP in the depolarization-repolarization process

Breakdown-induced negative charge in ultrathin SiO2 films measured by atomic force microscopy

Atomic-force-microscopy-based techniques have been used to investigate at a nanometer scale the dielectric breakdown (BD) of ultrathin (<6 nm) SiO2films of metal-oxide-semiconductordevices. The results show that BD leads to negative charge at the BD location and the amount of created charge has been estimated. Moreover, the comparison of the charge magnitude generated during current-limited stresses and stresses without current limit demonstrates that the observed BD induced negative charge is related to the structural damage created by the oxide BD

Quality of life with first-line pembrolizumab for PD-L1–positive advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma: results from the randomised phase III KEYNOTE-062 study

Cáncer gástrico; Pembrolizumab; Calidad de vidaCàncer gàstric; Pembrolizumab; Qualitat de vidaGastric cancer; Pembrolizumab; Quality of lifeBackground In the randomised phase III KEYNOTE-062 study, pembrolizumab was non-inferior to chemotherapy for overall survival in patients with programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)-positive [combined positive score (CPS) ≥1] advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer. We present findings of prespecified health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) analyses for pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy in this population. Materials and methods HRQOL, a secondary endpoint, was measured in patients who received ≥1 dose of study treatment and completed ≥1 HRQOL questionnaire [European Organisation for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) 30-question quality-of-life (QLQ-C30), EORTC 22-question quality-of-life gastric-cancer-specific module (QLQ-STO22)]. Least squares mean (LSM) change (baseline to week 18) in global health status/quality of life (GHS/QOL; EORTC QLQ-C30) and time to deterioration (TTD) in GHS/QOL, nausea/vomiting and appetite loss scores (EORTC QLQ-C30) and abdominal pain/discomfort scores (EORTC QLQ-STO22) were evaluated. Results The HRQOL population comprised 495 patients with CPS ≥1 (pembrolizumab, 252; chemotherapy, 243). Compliance rates at week 18 were similar for pembrolizumab and chemotherapy (EORTC QLQ-C30, 87.9% and 81.9%; EORTC QLQ-STO22, 87.9% and 81.3%, respectively). There was no between-arm difference in LSM score change in GHS/QOL [−0.16; 95% confidence interval (CI) −5.01 to 4.69; P = 0.948]. The LSM score change for most subscales showed comparable worsening in both arms. TTD for GHS/QOL [hazard ratio (HR), 0.96; 95% CI, 0.67-1.38; P = 0.826], appetite loss (HR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.58-1.20; P = 0.314) and pain (HR, 1.22; 95% CI, 0.78-1.91; P = 0.381) were similar between arms. Longer TTD was observed for pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy for nausea/vomiting (HR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.44-0.85; P = 0.003). Conclusions HRQOL was maintained with first-line treatment with pembrolizumab in patients with PD-L1–positive advanced gastric/GEJ cancer and was similar between pembrolizumab and chemotherapy in this population.This work was supported by Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. (no grant number), a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc. (no grant number), Kenilworth, NJ, USA

Structure of the vacuum states in the presence of isovector and isoscalar pairing correlations

The long standing problem of proton-neutron pairing and, in particular, the limitations imposed on the solutions by the available symmetries, is revisited. We look for solutions with non-vanishing expectation values of the proton, the neutron and the isoscalar gaps. For an equal number of protons and neutrons we find two solutions where the absolute values of proton and neutrons gaps are equal but have the same or opposite sign. The behavior and structure of these solutions differ for spin saturated (single l-shell) and spin unsaturared systems (single j-shell). In the former case the BCS results are checked against an exact calculation.Comment: 19 pages, 5 postscript figure

Thermal and thermo-oxidative characterisation of rice straw for its use in energy valorisation processes

[EN] The processes of pyrolysis and combustion of rice straw will be carried out in a spouted bed reactor. Both thermo-chemical processes were simulated in the first stage by multi-rate linear non-isothermal thermogravimetric (TGA) experiments using Ar and O-2 as carrier gas respectively. The results obtained from the TGA measurements, the kinetic methodology based on the combination of the iso-conversional methods Friedman, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa, Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose, Vyazovkin and the use of Master Plots assessed by Perez-Maqueda criterion have permitted to describe mathematically both thermo-chemical reactions. Lower operational temperatures and higher kinetic parameters (Ea, n, A) were required to carry out combustion reactions respect to those for pyrolysis. These results will be the initial parameters that will define both thermo-chemical processes in a spouted bed reactor. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Moliner, C.; Bosio, B.; Arato, E.; Ribes-Greus, A. (2016). Thermal and thermo-oxidative characterisation of rice straw for its use in energy valorisation processes. Fuel. 180:71-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2016.04.021S717918