Rayleigh-wave attenuation by a semi-infinite two-dimensional elastic-band-gap crystal

In this paper, we report experiments on the scattering of surface-elastic waves by a periodic array of cylindrical holes. The experiments were performed in a marble quarry by drilling cylindrical holes in two different configurations: honeycomb and triangular lattices. The attenuation spectra of the surface waves show the existence of absolute band gaps for elastic waves in these semi-infinite two-dimensional crystals. Results are compared with theoretical calculations based on a scalar-wave approach. The scaling property of the underlying theory has led us to explore the possible application of the results obtained to the attenuation of surface waves in seismic movements.This work was partially supported by the Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología of Spain, Contract No. MAT97-0698-C04. We also thank the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas for the special funding to perform this experiment.Peer reviewe

First appointment of Monosteira unicostata (Mulsant & Rey, 1852) (Hemiptera: Tingidae) for Argentina, found in Mendoza province

Se cita a la especie paleártica Monosteira unicostata (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Tingidae), por primera vez para el nuevo mundo, con materiales provenientes de la provincia de Mendoza, República Argentina. Fueron encontradas sobre Salicaceae. Se muestran imágenes del material colectado, así como la ubicación geográfica de los sitios de muestreo. Se comenta brevemente la importancia de la aparición de esta especie en esa región.The Palaearctic species Monosteira unicostata (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Tingidae) is cited for the first time for the new world, with materials from the province of Mendoza, Argentina. They were found on Salicaceae. Images of the collected material are shown as well as the geographical location of the sampling sites. The importance of the appearance of this species in the region is briefly discussed.Fil: Carpintero, Diego Leonardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; Argentina. Universidad Maimónides. Departamento de Ciencias Naturales y Antropología ; ArgentinaFil: López Plantey, Rodrigo Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Quiroga, Viviana N.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Holgado, Miriam G.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; Argentin

A Systems Biology Approach Identifies Molecular Networks Defining Skeletal Muscle Abnormalities in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is an inflammatory process of the lung inducing persistent airflow limitation. Extensive systemic effects, such as skeletal muscle dysfunction, often characterize these patients and severely limit life expectancy. Despite considerable research efforts, the molecular basis of muscle degeneration in COPD is still a matter of intense debate. In this study, we have applied a network biology approach to model the relationship between muscle molecular and physiological response to training and systemic inflammatory mediators. Our model shows that failure to co-ordinately activate expression of several tissue remodelling and bioenergetics pathways is a specific landmark of COPD diseased muscles. Our findings also suggest that this phenomenon may be linked to an abnormal expression of a number of histone modifiers, which we discovered correlate with oxygen utilization. These observations raised the interesting possibility that cell hypoxia may be a key factor driving skeletal muscle degeneration in COPD patients

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Two-dimensional elastic bandgap crystal to attenuate surface waves

Experiments on the attenuation of Rayleigh waves in a marble quarry by a periodic array of cylindrical holes, in a honeycomb and in a triangular distribution, are reported. The results are explained in terms of elastic wave crystals (EWC's), and compared to theoretical calculations performed with scalar waves. The scaling property of the underlying theory has led us to explore the possible application of the results obtained to the attenuation of surface waves in seismic movements.This work was supported in part by the Comision Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnologıa of Spain under Contract MAT97-0698-C04, Generalitat Valenciana, and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientıficasPeer Reviewe

Modelling the fuel consumption and pollutant emissions of the urban bus fleet of the city of Madrid

An integrated methodology to estimate the emissions of automotive vehicles is proposed in this work, with application to the vehicle fleet of Madrid Municipal Transport Company. The fleet composed of 2000 buses and 20 different types, operating 167 routes providing a service to the whole of the city of Madrid, with 3.165 million inhabitants and over 404 million passengers in the year 2014. The results of the model have been validated by calculating the fuel consumption and comparing them with the actual consumption, as this is the only data that can be used by taking estimations that are external to the model. The errors found were small and acceptable. Thus, the approach of this work has two features: it uses both measured transport activity data and vehicle activity data with specific emissions models for the calculation of consumption and emissions for a bus fleet based on an urban area; it also has two outcomes: it provides useful information for understanding where and how air pollutants are originated and it is a tool for designing intervention measures

Pembrolizumab in combination with gemcitabine for patients with HER2-negative advanced breast cancer: GEICAM/2015-04 (PANGEA-Breast) study.

We evaluated a new chemoimmunotherapy combination based on the anti-PD1 monoclonal antibody pembrolizumab and the pyrimidine antimetabolite gemcitabine in HER2- advanced breast cancer (ABC) patients previously treated in the advanced setting, in order to explore a potential synergism that could eventually obtain long term benefit in these patients. HER2-negative ABC patients received 21-day cycles of pembrolizumab 200 mg (day 1) and gemcitabine (days 1 and 8). A run-in-phase (6 + 6 design) was planned with two dose levels (DL) of gemcitabine (1,250 mg/m2 [DL0]; 1,000 mg/m2 [DL1]) to determine the recommended phase II dose (RP2D). The primary objective was objective response rate (ORR). Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) density and PD-L1 expression in tumors and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) levels in peripheral blood were analyzed. Fourteen patients were treated with DL0, resulting in RP2D. Thirty-six patients were evaluated during the first stage of Simon's design. Recruitment was stopped as statistical assumptions were not met. The median age was 52; 21 (58%) patients had triple-negative disease, 28 (78%) visceral involvement, and 27 (75%) ≥ 2 metastatic locations. Progression disease was observed in 29 patients. ORR was 15% (95% CI, 5-32). Eight patients were treated ≥ 6 months before progression. Fourteen patients reported grade ≥ 3 treatment-related adverse events. Due to the small sample size, we did not find any clear association between immune tumor biomarkers and treatment efficacy that could identify a subgroup with higher probability of response or better survival. However, patients that experienced a clinical benefit showed decreased MDSCs levels in peripheral blood along the treatment. Pembrolizumab 200 mg and gemcitabine 1,250 mg/m2 were considered as RP2D. The objective of ORR was not met; however, 22% patients were on treatment for ≥ 6 months. ABC patients that could benefit of chemoimmunotherapy strategies must be carefully selected by robust and validated biomarkers. In our heavily pretreated population, TILs, PD-L1 expression and MDSCs levels could not identify a subgroup of patients for whom the combination of gemcitabine and pembrolizumab would induce long term benefit. ClinicalTrials.gov and EudraCT (NCT03025880 and 2016-001,779-54, respectively). Registration dates: 20/01/2017 and 18/11/2016, respectively