Influence of the substrate type on CVD grown homoepitaxial diamond layer quality by cross sectional TEM and CL analysis

To assess diamond-based semiconducting devices, a reduction of point defect levels and an accurate control of doping are required as well as the control of layer thickness. Among the analyses required to improve such parameters, cross sectional studies should take importance in the near future. The present contribution shows how FIB (focused ion beam) preparations followed by electron microscopy related techniques as TEM or CL allowed to performanalysis versus depth in the layer, doping and point defect levels. Three samples grown along the sameweek in the same machinewith identical growth conditions but on different substrates (CVD-IIIa (110) oriented, CVD-optical grade (100) oriented and a HPHT-Ib (100) oriented) are studied. Even though A-band is observed by CL, no dislocation is observed by CTEM. Point defect type and level are shown to substantially change with respect to the substrate type as well as the boron doping levels that vary within an order of magnitude. H3 present in the epilayer grown on HPHT type of substrate is replaced by T1 and NE3 point defects for epilayers grown on the CVD type one. An increase of excitonic transitions through LO phonons is also shown to take place near the surface while only TO ones are detected deeper in the epilayer. Such results highlight the importance of choosing the correct substrate.5 page

Desarrollo y validación estructural de una escala para evaluar la regulación de la ira y la tristeza en situaciones interpersonales

The purpose of this research was to develop and validate a new instrument to assess the regulation of anger and sadness in interpersonal situations, covering a wide range of emotion regulation strategies. Two studies were carried out, both of them using purposively selected samples. In Study 1 we created a set ofitems based on previous studies of emotion regulation, applied a preliminary version of this scale to a pilot sample of undergraduate students (n = 400), and then selected, using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), the best 28 items to include in a brief version of the instrument, the Scale of Emotion Regulation in Interpersonal Situations (SERIS). In Study 2 we tested the resulting scale ina new sample of undergraduate students (n = 259) by means of confirmatory factor analysis. Study 2 validated the factor structure identified in the EFA. Results showed that the scale has adequate internal consistency and psychometric properties. The new scale also identifies the strategies that are most frequently used in the anger and sadness scenarios, showing differential patterns which are consistent with previous literature on emotion regulation. We discuss the limitations of the study and acknowledge that future studies addressing the scale’s convergent and discriminant validity are now required.El objetivo de este trabajo es desarrollar una escala para evaluar la regulación emocional de la ira y la tristeza en situaciones interpersonales y que incluya un amplio rango de estrategias de regulación. Se realizaron dos estudios, contando ambos con muestras seleccionadas de manera intencional. En el estudio 1, se construyó un banco de ítems a partir de la revisión de la literatura, se aplicó a una muestra de estudiantes universitarios (n = 400) y se seleccionaron, mediante análisis factorial exploratorio, los mejores 28 indicadores para conformaruna escala breve llamada Escala de Regulación Emocional en Situaciones Interpersonales (ERESI). En el estudio 2 se validó en una nueva muestra, compuesta también por estudiantes universitarios (n = 259), la estructura factorial de la escala desarrollada en el estudio 1, aplicando un análisis factorial confirmatorio. Los resultados validaron la estructura factorial extraída del estudio 1, y señalaron que el instrumento cuenta con adecuada consistencia interna y validez estructural. También se verificó que el instrumento permite identificarlas estrategias más aplicadas en las situaciones de ira y de tristeza, hallando patrones diferenciales para cada emoción, y consistentes con la literatura existente sobre regulación emocional. Se discutieron las limitaciones y la necesidad de continuar con estudios de validación convergente y discriminante

Production of E. coli non-proliferative as culture medium for C. elegans

Motivation: The nematode and model organism Caenorhabditis elegans is normally fed with the OP50 strain of Escherichia coli B. This culture condition is widely used and is suitable for most approaches. Nonetheless, the fact that it is administered alived in proliferative state can present  some problems, for example when is used to administer a drug to C. elegans and observe the consequences, the bacteria can modify it, or colonize the gut of the animal influencing its life span and the effect of the drug. For this reason, our approach to avoid these problems is to generate nonprolifetartive bacterial biomass as food for C. elegans.Methods: Various physical treatments have been made on OP50 cultures to check their effects on bacterial viability, including drying in a vacuum hood, storage at different temperatures and different times, freezing; ultraviolet irradiation and lyophilization.Performance of the N2 strain of C. elegans fed with treated and non-treated OP50 was analyzed.Furthermore, with genetic engineering we will inactivate DNA repair genes (UvrB, UvrD and RecA) on E. coli B OP50 strain by P1 transduction or by homologous recombination.Results: It has been found that the drying after giving to OP50 ultraviolet radiation is the treatment that reduced more the viability of OP50. It was also noted that the worms fed with dried OP50 take more time to hatch and grow to maturity, also were observed that some worms had gonads problems and few worms had died.Conclusions: Physical treatments such as drying and application of ultraviolet radiation can be useful reducing the growth of bacteria, but is expected that OP50 with DNA repair genes inactivated have better results reducing bacterial viability

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on chronic pain in Spain: a scoping review

The COVID-19 outbreak has been a great challenge in the management of chronic pain patients. We have conducted a rapid scoping review to assess the impact of the pandemic (and the associated public health measures) on the health status and management practices of chronic pain patients in Spain. To this end, we performed a bibliographic search in LitCOVID and PubMed, and reviewed official websites and documents, and expert reports. The review showed that (1) the studies consistently indicate that the pandemic has had a very negative impact on the physical and psychological health of chronic pain patients; (2) there are scarce data on how the pandemic affected pain unit consultations and a lack of protocols to organize health care in the face of future waves of contagion, with little implementation of telehealth. We make proposals to improve management of chronic pain patients in pandemic situations, which should pivot around 3 axes: (1) a coordinated response of all the relevant stakeholders to define a future roadmap and research priorities, (2) a biopsychosocial approach in pain management, and (3) development and implementation of novel telemedicine solutions.The authors thank Beatriz Casal, information specialist, for advice on the bibliographic search, and to Dr. Carina Fernandes, Dr. López-País and to Dr. Mónica Moldes who provided input to a first draft of the article. Funding: this study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (reference PID2019-107986RB-100)

Brain electrical activity associated with visual attention and reactive motor inhibition in patients with fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a generalized chronic pain condition associated with multiple cognitive impairments, including altered inhibitory processes. Inhibition is a key component of human executive functions and shares neural substrate with pain processing, which may explain the inhibitory deficits in FM. Here, we investigated the integrity of brain inhibitory mechanisms in these patients.Galician Government (Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; axudas para a consolidación e estruturación de unidades de investigación competitivas do Sistema Universitario de Galicia; grant number GPC2014/047) and funding from the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad; grant number PSI2013-45818-R). A.G.V. was partially supported by a grant from the Xunta de Galicia (Axudas de apoio á etapa de formación posdoutoral 2018) and by a research grant from the Diputación da Coruñ

Elementos del Grupo del Platino y sus Minerales. Modelos de Depósitos en la Argentina y en el Mundo.

Fil: Villar, Luisa María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET); Argentina.Fil: Segal, Susana J. Servicio Geológico Minero Argentino. Instituto de Geología y Recursos Minerales; Argentina.Este trabajo compendia y actualiza la metalogénesis de los elementos del grupo del platino (EGP) y sus minerales, los ambientes geológicos con los que se asocian los yacimientos, así como su potencial geológico – minero en la Argentina. Los seis elementos del grupo del platino (EGP): ruthenio, paladio, osmio, iridio, rhodio y platino, y los minerales del grupo del platino (MGP) son en este momento uno de los grupos de más relevancia industrial y económica. Por lo tanto, esta publicación adquiere importancia dado que ciertas manifestaciones descriptas pueden llegar a constituir «blancos» de exploración de interés para la industria minera y contribuir así al proceso de inversión en Argentina

Combination of Noninvasive Approaches for General Assessment of Induction Motors

[EN] There exists no single quantity able to diagnose all possible failures taking place in induction motors. Currents and vibrations monitoring are rather common in the industry, but each of these quantities alone can only detect some specific failures. Moreover, even for the specific faults that a quantity is supposed to detect, many problems may rise. As a consequence, a reliable and general diagnosis system cannot rely on a single quantity. On the other hand, it would be desirable to rely on quantities that can be measured in a noninvasive way, which is a crucial requirement in many industrial applications. This paper proposes a twofold method to detect electromechanical failures in induction motors. The method relies on analysis of currents (steady state + transient) combined with analysis of infrared data captured by using appropriate cameras. Each of these noninvasive techniques may provide complementary information that may be very useful to diagnose an enough wide range of failures. In the present paper, the detection of three illustrative faults is analyzed: broken rotor bars, cooling system problems and bearing failures. The results show the potential of the methodology that may be particularly suitable for large, expensive motors, where the prevention of eventual failures justifies the costs of such system, due to the catastrophic implications that these unexpected faults may have.Picazo-Rodenas, MJ.; Antonino-Daviu, J.; Climente Alarcon, V.; Royo, R.; Mota-Villar, A. (2015). Combination of Noninvasive Approaches for General Assessment of Induction Motors. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications. 51(3):2172-2180. doi:10.1109/TIA.2014.2382880S2172218051

Fire-related debris flows in the Iberian Range, Spain

38 páginas, 2 tablas, 11 figuras[EN] Debris flows occurred three weeks after a wildfire in August 1986 in the Najerilla River valley in the Iberian Range, northern Spain. The flows were triggered by a brief, intense rainstorm (approximately 25 mm h− 1 over 15 min) in a small area with steep slopes covered by a thick colluvium of quartzite clasts. This storm resulted in the development of several unconfined hillslope debris flows and the formation of an alluvial fan at the mouth of the Pítare stream, which partially blocked the Najerilla River. We analysed the conditions that led to the development of the debris flows, and estimated the rainfall threshold for the debris flows to occur as well as the total volume of mobilised sediment. Four factors contributed to the debris flows: (i) the occurrence of a rainstorm three weeks after a wildfire, which had removed the plant cover from the soil; (ii) the steep slopes in the area (> 30°), which were the most affected by debris flows; (iii) the presence of quartzite scarps on the hillslopes, which favoured the development of a ‘firehose effect’ involving channelised surface runoff; and (iv) the low plasticity index values of the fine material of the colluvium (indices of 7 to 8), which enabled rapid liquefaction. Estimates of rainfall intensity derived from the estimated peak flow in the Pítare stream suggests that around 80 mm of rainfall fell in approximately 15 min, although this is clearly an overestimated value given the high proportion of sediment load transported during the peak flow. Various equations estimated a rainfall-threshold of approximately 25 mm h− 1 considering a concentration time of 15 min. The total sediment transported by the debris flows was 10,500 m3 (15,750 Mg, 6800 Mg km− 2), and the Pítare stream alone transported a minimum of 4000 m3 (6000 Mg, 2500 Mg km− 2). These results suggest that the rainfall threshold for initiating debris flows decreases following a wildfire, such that an ordinary rainstorm is able to trigger a severe erosion and sediment transport event. Given the absence of fresh landslide scars on the hillslopes, the origin of the fire-related debris flows in the Najerilla River valley appears to have been directly linked to increased rates of overland flow having a greater effect than infiltration for triggering debris flows.Support for this research was provided by the projects PROBASE (CGL2006-11619/HID) and INDICA (CGL2011-27753-C02-01 and CGL2011-27753-C02-02), which was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, and ACQWA (FP7-ENV-2007-1-212250), which was financed by the European Commission. Noemí Lana-Renault was the recipient of a research contract (Programme “Juan de la Cierva”, Human Resources Mobility, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity). The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Susan Canon, Dr. Francisco Gutiérrez-Santolalla and an anonymous reviewer for their comments and suggestions, which significantly helped to improve this paper.Peer reviewe

Fenología de los bracónidos (hymenoptera, ichneumonoidea, braconidae) del pirineo andorrano

[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] fenología de la familia Braconidoe (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonoidea) ha sido estudiada mediante una trampa Malaise en Andorra durante el año 1993. Han sido colectados 1.892 bracónidos (excepto Aphidiinae), pertenecientes a 23 subfamilias y 79 géneros. El 93,7% de los bracónidos capturados representa la estrategia biológica koinobionte frente al 6,3% de idiobiontes. La correlación de las capturas de los bracónidos con las condiciones meteorológicas ha permitido caracterizar la fenología anual de éstos. La evolución anual de las poblaciones alcanza sus máximes en el período comprendido entrelos dos épocas de lluvias, pudiéndose señalar un único pico para la familia Braconidae, el cual transcurre desde mediados de mayo a finales de agosto, debido a las condiciones xerotérmicas de la localidad andorranaPhenology of the Braconidae (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonoidea) at Andorra has been conducted/studied using a Malaise trap after a one-year cycle during 1993. A total of 1.892 specimens, representing 23 subfamilies and 79 genera were sampled. About 93.7% of the captures were koinobiont braconids, whereas 6.3% belonged to idiobiont braconids. The annual phenology has been characterized through the correlation between the evolution of the collected braconids and the weather (meteorological conditions). The maximum of the populations were registered between the two rain periods. In fact, the family Braconidae shows an abundance peak from middle of May to end of August, due to the xerothermic conditions of the andorran locality