Ellipsometric study of nematic alignment on silicon oxides for display

Vertical Alignment Nematics (VANs) displays are a form of LCDs in which the liquid crystals naturally align vertically to the glass substrates. In spite of their name, the liquid crystal (LC) director is never exactly vertical, rather it always show a small angle with the normal to the sample plane called tilt that may vary throughout the cell bulk. Its values are ultimately determined by the pretilt, defined as the tilt angle on the surfaces in the absence of voltage

Effect of dietary inclusion of distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) on carcass and meat quality in growing rabbits

Se evaluó el efecto de la inclusión de diferentes niveles (0, 10, 20 y 30 %) de grano seco de destilería con solubles (DDGS), sobre la calidad de la canal y de la carne de conejos en crecimiento, utilizando 56 conejos (Negro Azteca x Chinchilla) de 40 días de edad. Terminado el período de ceba, se sacrificaron 20 conejos (5 por tratamiento) y se determinó la proporción de la canal conformada por las extremidades anteriores, extremidades posteriores, costillas y lomo. Se determinó el peso total de carne, hueso y grasa del lomo, y se calculó la relación carne:hueso para toda la canal. Se realizó la evaluación sensorial de la carne con 46 panelistas que valoraron el olor, color, sabor y textura. En el músculo Longissimus dorsi se determinó el color, evaluando la luminosidad (L*), el índice de rojo (a*) y el índice de amarillos (b*). Además, se evaluó textura mediante medición de la fuerza de ruptura. Los resultados de calidad de la canal y de la carne se analizaron por medio de ANOVA. Los resultados de la evaluación sensorial seevaluaron con estadística no paramétrica. No hubo diferencias (P>0.05) en las mediciones de la canal, características organolépticas ni textura de la carne. El parámetro b* del color de la carne fue mayor (P0.05) were present in the carcass, organoleptic and meat texture results. The b* chromatic parameter was higher (P<0.05) in the treatments containing 10, 20 and 30 % DDGS (11.77, 12.17 and 12.22, respectively) than in the control diet (9.68). Sensory evaluation showed that rabbit meat with or without DDGS was perceived as having an agreeable aroma and taste, pale color and soft texture. Dietary inclusion of DDGS at up to 30 % had no effect on carcass or meat characteristics in rabbits

Actas: Reunión Iberoamericana sobre cannabis medicinal

El día 5 de marzo de 2020 –a una semana de entrar en estado de alarma, con confinamientos, restricciones y vuelta al estado de alarma- pudimos celebrar en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Información de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid una reunión sobre cannabis medicinal. La organización se enmarca en una línea estrecha línea de colaboración mantenida durante los últimos años entre el Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Neuroquímica y el Proyecto de Investigación “Fiscalización internacional de drogas: problemas y soluciones”. Una vez más, quienes desde la UCM estudiamos distintos aspectos del cannabis medicinal, quisimos poner de manifiesto tres cuestiones. La primera, que a día de hoy existen evidencias suficientes sobre la utilidad medicinal del cannabis. La segunda, que resulta sin duda deseable obtener más evidencias, lo que requiere más investigación. Y, la tercera, que es necesario un marco legal que permita esa investigación y la dispensación del cannabis medicinal, como ocurre ya en muchos países de todo el planeta. En la reunión contamos con expertos de distintas áreas y del máximo nivel en sus respectivos ámbitos de salud o políticas legislativas. Sus valiosas aportaciones se recogen ahora y se hacen públicas como documentos muy relevantes en una discusión que continúa viva y que debemos seguir alimentando para que el conocimiento científico y la necesidad de los pacientes dejen de enfrentarse a unas políticas legislativas, nacionales e internacionales, irracionales y que desprecian dos enfoques básicos: el enfoque científico y el enfoque de derechos humanos. Especialmente relevante es la reciente posición de la OMS sobre el cannabis medicinal. En 2017 este organismo decidió realizar una revisión crítica sobre el valor medicinal de la planta, sus principios activos y algunos imitadores de síntesis. Las razones que llevaron a esta revisión fueron explicitadas así por la OMS: 1ª) No hay evidencias de muertes por sobredosis. 2ª) Es una sustancia relativamente segura. 3ª) Existe abundante literatura preclínica que avala su efectividad en cáncer, dolor crónico, dolor neuropático, epilepsias pediátricas, estimulación de apetito, estrés postraumático, trastornos del sueño y dependencia a opiáceos. 4ª) Los efectos adversos son posibles, pero leves. 5ª) La clasificación actual del cannabis como droga muy peligrosa, muy adictiva y sin ninguna indicación terapéutica no se justifica. Tras analizar evidencias y bibliografía, la OMS propuso a la Comisión de Estupefacientes una reclasificación del cannabis que permitiese su uso medicinal y facilitase la investigación sobre el potencial médico; además se indicaba que los extractos y las tinturas y el principio activo CBD no deberían ser objeto de clasificación en las Convenciones de drogas. La Comisión de Estupefacientes, sin razón que lo justifique, ha pospuesto por dos veces, en 2019 y en 2020, pronunciarse sobre las recomendaciones de la OMS. Se espera para diciembre de 2020 otra reunión de la Comisión de Estupefacientes en la que debería pronunciarse aceptando las recomendaciones, evitando así que dentro de Naciones Unidas existan dos voces opuestas sobre una misma cuestión. Con todo, son muchos los países y territorios que, sin esperar a la reclasificación en Naciones Unidas, han reglamentado programas de dispensación de cannabis medicinal. Se trata en concreto de Italia, Reino Unido, Portugal, Holanda, Alemania, República Checa, Dinamarca, Luxemburgo, Finlandia, Polonia, Israel, Canadá, Uruguay, Colombia, Perú, Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Jamaica, Sudáfrica, Malaui, Zimbabue, Tailandia, Australia, Nueva Zelanda y 33 estados de EE. UU. España posee condiciones y modelos suficientes para acometer prontamente la regulación del cannabis medicinal; solo falta la voluntad política de hacerlo

Search for Third Generation Vector Leptoquarks in p anti-p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

We describe a search for a third generation vector leptoquark (VLQ3) that decays to a b quark and tau lepton using the CDF II detector and 322 pb^(-1) of integrated luminosity from the Fermilab Tevatron. Vector leptoquarks have been proposed in many extensions of the standard model (SM). Observing a number of events in agreement with SM expectations, assuming Yang-Mills (minimal) couplings, we obtain the most stringent upper limit on the VLQ3 pair production cross section of 344 fb (493 fb) and lower limit on the VLQ3 mass of 317 GeV/c^2 (251 GeV/c^2) at 95% C.L.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR

Helicobacter pylori Diagnostic Tests Used in Europe : Results of over 34,000 Patients from the European Registry on Helicobacter pylori Management

Funding Information: This study was funded by Richen; however, clinical data were not accessible and the company was not involved in any stage of the Hp-EuReg study (design, data collection, statistical analysis, or manuscript writing). We want to thank Richen for their support. This project was promoted and funded by the European Helicobacter and Microbiota Study Group (EHMSG), the Spanish Association of Gastroenterology (AEG) and the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd). The Hp-EuReg was co-funded by the European Union programme HORIZON (grant agreement number 101095359) and supported by the UK Research and Innovation (grant agreement number 10058099). The Hp-EuReg was co-funded by the European Union programme EU4Health (grant agreement number 101101252). Acknowledgments We want to especially thank Sylva-Astrik Torossian for her assistance in language editing. Natalia García Morales is the first author who is acting as the submission’s guarantor. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Role of compliance in Helicobacter pylori eradication treatment : Results of the European Registry on H. pylori management

Peer reviewe

Role of age and comorbidities in mortality of patients with infective endocarditis

[Purpose]: The aim of this study was to analyse the characteristics of patients with IE in three groups of age and to assess the ability of age and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) to predict mortality. [Methods]: Prospective cohort study of all patients with IE included in the GAMES Spanish database between 2008 and 2015.Patients were stratified into three age groups:<65 years,65 to 80 years,and ≥ 80 years.The area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) curve was calculated to quantify the diagnostic accuracy of the CCI to predict mortality risk. [Results]: A total of 3120 patients with IE (1327 < 65 years;1291 65-80 years;502 ≥ 80 years) were enrolled.Fever and heart failure were the most common presentations of IE, with no differences among age groups.Patients ≥80 years who underwent surgery were significantly lower compared with other age groups (14.3%,65 years; 20.5%,65-79 years; 31.3%,≥80 years). In-hospital mortality was lower in the <65-year group (20.3%,<65 years;30.1%,65-79 years;34.7%,≥80 years;p < 0.001) as well as 1-year mortality (3.2%, <65 years; 5.5%, 65-80 years;7.6%,≥80 years; p = 0.003).Independent predictors of mortality were age ≥ 80 years (hazard ratio [HR]:2.78;95% confidence interval [CI]:2.32–3.34), CCI ≥ 3 (HR:1.62; 95% CI:1.39–1.88),and non-performed surgery (HR:1.64;95% CI:11.16–1.58).When the three age groups were compared,the AUROC curve for CCI was significantly larger for patients aged <65 years(p < 0.001) for both in-hospital and 1-year mortality. [Conclusion]: There were no differences in the clinical presentation of IE between the groups. Age ≥ 80 years, high comorbidity (measured by CCI),and non-performance of surgery were independent predictors of mortality in patients with IE.CCI could help to identify those patients with IE and surgical indication who present a lower risk of in-hospital and 1-year mortality after surgery, especially in the <65-year group

Evolutionary Analyses of Entire Genomes Do Not Support the Association of mtDNA Mutations with Ras/MAPK Pathway Syndromes

BACKGROUND: There are several known autosomal genes responsible for Ras/MAPK pathway syndromes, including Noonan syndrome (NS) and related disorders (such as LEOPARD, neurofibromatosis type 1), although mutations of these genes do not explain all cases. Due to the important role played by the mitochondrion in the energetic metabolism of cardiac muscle, it was recently proposed that variation in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome could be a risk factor in the Noonan phenotype and in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), which is a common clinical feature in Ras/MAPK pathway syndromes. In order to test these hypotheses, we sequenced entire mtDNA genomes in the largest series of patients suffering from Ras/MAPK pathway syndromes analyzed to date (n = 45), most of them classified as NS patients (n = 42). METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The results indicate that the observed mtDNA lineages were mostly of European ancestry, reproducing in a nutshell the expected haplogroup (hg) patterns of a typical Iberian dataset (including hgs H, T, J, and U). Three new branches of the mtDNA phylogeny (H1j1, U5b1e, and L2a5) are described for the first time, but none of these are likely to be related to NS or Ras/MAPK pathway syndromes when observed under an evolutionary perspective. Patterns of variation in tRNA and protein genes, as well as redundant, private and heteroplasmic variants, in the mtDNA genomes of patients were as expected when compared with the patterns inferred from a worldwide mtDNA phylogeny based on more than 8700 entire genomes. Moreover, most of the mtDNA variants found in patients had already been reported in healthy individuals and constitute common polymorphisms in human population groups. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: As a whole, the observed mtDNA genome variation in the NS patients was difficult to reconcile with previous findings that indicated a pathogenic role of mtDNA variants in NS

MASTREE+ : time-series of plant reproductive effort from six continents

Significant gaps remain in understanding the response of plant reproduction to environmental change. This is partly because measuring reproduction in long-lived plants requires direct observation over many years and such datasets have rarely been made publicly available. Here we introduce MASTREE+, a data set that collates reproductive time-series data from across the globe and makes these data freely available to the community. MASTREE+ includes 73,828 georeferenced observations of annual reproduction (e.g. seed and fruit counts) in perennial plant populations worldwide. These observations consist of 5971 population-level time-series from 974 species in 66 countries. The mean and median time-series length is 12.4 and 10 years respectively, and the data set includes 1122 series that extend over at least two decades (≥20 years of observations). For a subset of well-studied species, MASTREE+ includes extensive replication of time-series across geographical and climatic gradients. Here we describe the open-access data set, available as a.csv file, and we introduce an associated web-based app for data exploration. MASTREE+ will provide the basis for improved understanding of the response of long-lived plant reproduction to environmental change. Additionally, MASTREE+ will enable investigation of the ecology and evolution of reproductive strategies in perennial plants, and the role of plant reproduction as a driver of ecosystem dynamics