Adsorció de l'herbicida Paraquat en Alginat de Calci

La sostenibilitat de l’ús de l’aigua esta lligada de forma fonamental al seu ús en l’agricultura. L’activitat agrària afecta directament la qualitat de les aigües. Els residus de fertilitzants i de productes fitosanitaris, entre ells els herbicides, constitueixen una font de contaminació del sòl, els quals a través de processos d’escorrentia i infiltració alteren la qualitat de diferents masses d’aigua. La detecció de residus d’herbicides i els seus metabòlits en les aigües dels rius i el mar fa que la eliminació d’aquets productes orgànics, molts d’ells tòxics, s’hagi convertit en un dels problemes mediambientals més importants. Per tal de intentar solucionar aquest problema s’han realitzat nombrosos estudis sobre la eliminació d’aquests compostos mitjançant diferents processos, essent uns del més utilitzats el procés d’adsorció. En les últimes dècades, la utilització de biopolímers com adsorbents per la eliminació de compostos orgànics de les aigües residuals ha demostrat ser eficaç [1]. En aquest treball es presenta l’estudi sobre l’adsorció de l’herbicida paraquat en l’alginat de calci, així com l’efecte de la presencia del colorant reactive black 5 (RB5) sobre l’adsorció del paraquat. Hem de tenir en compte que les formulacions comercials contenen a més del propi herbicida altres substancies com els colorants que eviten la confusió amb altres tipus de begudes. El paraquat és altament tòxic i pel fet de estar carregat positivament s’uneix fortament a les argiles del sòl, al humus i altres compostos orgànics que poden estar presents en el sòl, però no s’adsorbeix en terres sorrenques amb baix contingut de matèria orgànica. En aquest últim cas el paraquat pot esser alliberat passant a les aigües circumdants al terreny on s’ha aplicat, per escorrentia o infiltració [2]. Les variables que s’han tingut en compte en l’estudi de la capacitat d’adsorció del paraquat en alginat de calci són: el pH, la concentració inicial de paraquat; la velocitat d’agitació; massa d’adsorbent i la concentració de colorant present en la dissolució. Els resultats obtinguts ens han demostrat que l’alginat de calci és eficaç en l’eliminació del paraquat de les dissolucions aquoses. L’adsorció del paraquat es veu influenciada per el pH. Al augmentar el pH augmenta la capacitat d’adsorció del paraquat. La presència de colorant disminueix l’adsorció del paraquat, conservant-se una reducció del 20 i 24% quan s’addicionen 50 i 100 mg/L, respectivament. En aquest estudi també s’ha realitzat un tractament estadístic dels resultats experimentals, aplicant la tècnica de mínims quadrats parcials (PLS; Partial Least Square) [3-5]. La regressió per mínims quadrats parcials (PLS, Partial Least Squares) fa ser introduïda per Herman Wold (1975) per a ser aplicada a ciències econòmiques i socials, tot i que desprès ha estat aplicada a moltes altres branques científiques. La metodologia PLS generalitza i combina característiques de l’Anàlisi de Components Principals (PCA) i l’Anàlisi de Regressió Múltiple. L’anàlisi PLS és utilitzat quan volem correlacionar un elevat nombre de descriptors (variables independents), amb un determinat nombre de variables dependents. Els càlculs s’han realitzat amb el programa SIMPCA-P [6], fent possible la valoració de la capacitat d’adsorció, la predicció toxicològica i l’impacta ambiental en processos similars.Peer Reviewe

Prevalence Rates of Loneliness and Its Impact on Lifestyle in the Healthy Population of Madrid, Spain

12 p.Background: The Spanish population presents higher levels of loneliness than citizens of countries in Northern Europe. Numerous studies have linked loneliness to increased morbidity and mortality, but very few studies have associated loneliness with healthy lifestyles. The objectives of this research are to identify the feeling of unwanted loneliness in various age and gender groups in the city of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, Spain), to determine lifestyle habits in the areas of diet and physical exercise, and to examine the association between lifestyle habits and perceived loneliness. Methods: A cross-sectional, observational and analytical study on the perception of loneliness among men (59.06%) and women (60.06%) in a sample (n = 611) of the general population (N = 198,945), by means of random assignment of a health survey, was conducted. The data were collected using an ad hoc questionnaire. The data were stratified and analyzed with the IBM SSPS® v.25 software package. Results: The frequency of loneliness is stratified by sex and age, and healthy lifestyle habits in terms of diet and physical exercise are analyzed. Conclusions: People with perceived loneliness do not have worse lifestyle habits. However, women living with other people have a higher perception of loneliness than those living alone. Specifically, the perception of loneliness in young adult women could suggest a low level of moderate physical exercise

Genome-wide association analysis of dementia and its clinical endophenotypes reveal novel loci associated with Alzheimer's disease and three causality networks : The GR@ACE project

Introduction: Large variability among Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases might impact genetic discoveries and complicate dissection of underlying biological pathways. Methods: Genome Research at Fundacio ACE (GR@ACE) is a genome-wide study of dementia and its clinical endophenotypes, defined based on AD's clinical certainty and vascular burden. We assessed the impact of known AD loci across endophenotypes to generate loci categories. We incorporated gene coexpression data and conducted pathway analysis per category. Finally, to evaluate the effect of heterogeneity in genetic studies, GR@ACE series were meta-analyzed with additional genome-wide association study data sets. Results: We classified known AD loci into three categories, which might reflect the disease clinical heterogeneity. Vascular processes were only detected as a causal mechanism in probable AD. The meta-analysis strategy revealed the ANKRD31-rs4704171 and NDUFAF6-rs10098778 and confirmed SCIMP-rs7225151 and CD33-rs3865444. Discussion: The regulation of vasculature is a prominent causal component of probable AD. GR@ACE meta-analysis revealed novel AD genetic signals, strongly driven by the presence of clinical heterogeneity in the AD series

CIBERER : Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative

Altres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country. CIBERER's mission is to be a center prioritizing and favoring collaboration and cooperation between biomedical and clinical research groups, with special emphasis on the aspects of genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular research of RDs. This research is the basis for providing new tools for the diagnosis and therapy of low-prevalence diseases, in line with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) objectives, thus favoring translational research between the scientific environment of the laboratory and the clinical setting of health centers. In this article, we intend to review CIBERER's 15-year journey and summarize the main results obtained in terms of internationalization, scientific production, contributions toward the discovery of new therapies and novel genes associated to diseases, cooperation with patients' associations and many other topics related to RD research

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

Multiancestry analysis of the HLA locus in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases uncovers a shared adaptive immune response mediated by HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes

Across multiancestry groups, we analyzed Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) associations in over 176,000 individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus controls. We demonstrate that the two diseases share the same protective association at the HLA locus. HLA-specific fine-mapping showed that hierarchical protective effects of HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes best accounted for the association, strongest with HLA-DRB1*04:04 and HLA-DRB1*04:07, and intermediary with HLA-DRB1*04:01 and HLA-DRB1*04:03. The same signal was associated with decreased neurofibrillary tangles in postmortem brains and was associated with reduced tau levels in cerebrospinal fluid and to a lower extent with increased Aβ42. Protective HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes strongly bound the aggregation-prone tau PHF6 sequence, however only when acetylated at a lysine (K311), a common posttranslational modification central to tau aggregation. An HLA-DRB1*04-mediated adaptive immune response decreases PD and AD risks, potentially by acting against tau, offering the possibility of therapeutic avenues

Prevalence Rates of Loneliness and Its Impact on Lifestyle in the Healthy Population of Madrid, Spain

Background: The Spanish population presents higher levels of loneliness than citizens of countries in Northern Europe. Numerous studies have linked loneliness to increased morbidity and mortality, but very few studies have associated loneliness with healthy lifestyles. The objectives of this research are to identify the feeling of unwanted loneliness in various age and gender groups in the city of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, Spain), to determine lifestyle habits in the areas of diet and physical exercise, and to examine the association between lifestyle habits and perceived loneliness. Methods: A cross-sectional, observational and analytical study on the perception of loneliness among men (59.06%) and women (60.06%) in a sample (n = 611) of the general population (N = 198,945), by means of random assignment of a health survey, was conducted. The data were collected using an ad hoc questionnaire. The data were stratified and analyzed with the IBM SSPS® v.25 software package. Results: The frequency of loneliness is stratified by sex and age, and healthy lifestyle habits in terms of diet and physical exercise are analyzed. Conclusions: People with perceived loneliness do not have worse lifestyle habits. However, women living with other people have a higher perception of loneliness than those living alone. Specifically, the perception of loneliness in young adult women could suggest a low level of moderate physical exercise

Adsorció de l'herbicida paraquat en alginat de calci

La sostenibilitat de l’ús de l’aigua esta lligada de forma fonamental al seu ús en l’agricultura. L’activitat agrària afecta directament la qualitat de les aigües. Els residus de fertilitzants i de productes fitosanitaris, entre ells els herbicides, constitueixen una font de contaminació del sòl, els quals a través de processos d’escorrentia i infiltració alteren la qualitat de diferents masses d’aigua. La detecció de residus d’herbicides i els seus metabòlits en les aigües dels rius i el mar fa que la eliminació d’aquets productes orgànics, molts d’ells tòxics, s’hagi convertit en un dels problemes mediambientals més importants. Per tal de intentar solucionar aquest problema s’han realitzat nombrosos estudis sobre la eliminació d’aquests compostos mitjançant diferents processos, essent uns del més utilitzats el procés d’adsorció. En les últimes dècades, la utilització de biopolímers com adsorbents per la eliminació de compostos orgànics de les aigües residuals ha demostrat ser eficaç.Peer Reviewe