Diseño, fabricación y aplicaciones analíticas de nanocelulosa y sus híbridos

El gran avance nanotecnológico que ha experimentado la Química Analítica en los últimos años ha sido un indicador del grado de bienestar de la sociedad. La multidisciplinaridad de la Nanociencia y Nanotecnología ha sido esencial para el avance de los métodos y herramientas analíticas, así como para llevar a cabo la automatización, simplificación y miniaturización de los procesos analíticos integrados en los laboratorios [1]. En este campo, son muchos los nanomateriales explorados por sus propiedades excepcionales (ópticas, eléctricas, magnéticas) como sensores y sorbentes así como su amplio rango de aplicación de interés medioambiental o en bienes de consumo, cosmética, agroalimentación, entre otros. Sin embargo, la nanocelulosa no se ha explorado en química analítica aun siendo postulada como uno de los nanomateriales emergentes del siglo XXI, debido a su carácter biodegradable y su abundancia en la naturaleza, así como a otras fascinantes propiedades que le confieren un sinfín de aplicaciones. No cabe duda que en la búsqueda de los nanomateriales del futuro la nanocelulosa revolucionará las industrias electrónica, textil, farmacéutica y la energética, por su producción a gran escala con bajo coste a partir de un recurso natural renovable. Teniendo en cuenta lo anteriormente expuesto, la Tesis Doctoral tiene como objetivo general el estudio de la nanocelulosa en química analítica, centrándonos en el diseño de nanofibras de celulosa como herramienta en la mejora de los procesos analíticos, así como en la separación de productos farmacéuticos y otros

Smoking and quit attempts during pregnancy and postpartum: a longitudinal UK cohort.

OBJECTIVES: Pregnancy motivates women to try stopping smoking, but little is known about timing of their quit attempts and how quitting intentions change during pregnancy and postpartum. Using longitudinal data, this study aimed to document women's smoking and quitting behaviour throughout pregnancy and after delivery. DESIGN: Longitudinal cohort survey with questionnaires at baseline (8-26 weeks' gestation), late pregnancy (34-36 weeks) and 3 months after delivery. SETTING: Two maternity hospitals in one National Health Service hospital trust, Nottingham, England. PARTICIPANTS: 850 pregnant women, aged 16 years or over, who were current smokers or had smoked in the 3 months before pregnancy, were recruited between August 2011 and August 2012. OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported smoking behaviour, quit attempts and quitting intentions. RESULTS: Smoking rates, adjusting for non-response at follow-up, were 57.4% (95% CI 54.1 to 60.7) at baseline, 59.1% (95% CI 54.9 to 63.4) in late pregnancy and 67.1% (95% CI 62.7 to 71.5) 3 months postpartum. At baseline, 272 of 488 current smokers had tried to quit since becoming pregnant (55.7%, 95% CI 51.3 to 60.1); 51.3% (95% CI 44.7 to 58.0) tried quitting between baseline and late pregnancy and 27.4% (95% CI 21.7 to 33.2) after childbirth. The percentage who intended to quit within the next month fell as pregnancy progressed, from 40.4% (95% CI 36.1 to 44.8) at baseline to 29.7% (95% CI 23.8 to 35.6) in late pregnancy and 14.2% (95% CI 10.0 to 18.3) postpartum. Postpartum relapse was lower among women who quit in the 3 months before pregnancy (17.8%, 95% CI 6.1 to 29.4) than those who stopped between baseline and late pregnancy (42.9%, 95% CI 24.6 to 61.3). CONCLUSIONS: Many pregnant smokers make quit attempts throughout pregnancy and postpartum, but intention to quit decreases over time; there is no evidence that smoking rates fall during gestation

Longitudinal cohort survey of women's smoking behaviour and attitudes in pregnancy: study methods and baseline data.

OBJECTIVES: To report the methods used to assemble a contemporary pregnancy cohort for investigating influences on smoking behaviour before, during and after pregnancy and to report characteristics of women recruited. DESIGN: Longitudinal cohort survey. SETTING: Two maternity hospitals, Nottingham, England. PARTICIPANTS: 3265 women who attended antenatal ultrasound scan clinics were offered cohort enrolment; those who were 8-26 weeks pregnant and were currently smoking or had recently stopped smoking were eligible. Cohort enrollment took place between August 2011 and August 2012. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of smoking at cohort entry and at two follow-up time points (34-36 weeks gestation and 3 months postnatally); response rate, participants' sociodemographic characteristics. RESULTS: 1101 (33.7%, 95% CI 32.1% to 35.4%) women were eligible for inclusion in the cohort, and of these 850 (77.2%, 95% CI 74.6% to 79.6%) were recruited. Within the cohort, 57.4% (N=488, 95% CI 54.1% to 60.7%) reported to be current smokers. Current smokers were significantly younger than ex-smokers (p<0.05), more likely to have no formal qualifications and to not be in current paid employment compared to recent ex-smokers (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This contemporary cohort, which seeks very detailed information on smoking in pregnancy and its determinants, includes women with comparable sociodemographic characteristics to those in other UK cross-sectional studies and cohorts. This suggests that future analyses using this cohort and aimed at understanding smoking behaviour in pregnancy may produce findings that are broadly generalisable

Attribution of neuropsychiatric symptoms and prioritisation of evidence in the diagnosis of neuropsychiatric lupus:a mixed method study

OBJECTIVE: Neuropsychiatric lupus (NPSLE) is challenging to diagnose. Many neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as headache and hallucinations, cannot be verified by tests or clinician assessment. We investigated prioritisations of methods for diagnosing NPSLE and attributional views.METHODS: Thematic and comparative analyses were used to investigate how clinicians prioritise sources of evidence from a 13-item list, and explore discordances in clinician and patient perspectives on attribution.RESULTS: We identified high levels of variability and uncertainty in clinicians' assessments of neuropsychiatric symptoms in SLE patients. In attributional decisions, clinicians (surveys n = 400, interviews n = 50) ranked clinicians' assessments above diagnostic tests (many of which they reported were often unenlightening in NPSLE). Clinicians ranked patient opinion of disease activity last, and 46% of patients reported never/rarely having been asked if their SLE was flaring, despite experienced patients often having "attributional insight". SLE Patients (surveys n = 676, interviews n = 27) estimated higher attributability of neuropsychiatric symptoms to the direct effects of SLE on the nervous system than clinicians (p &lt; 0.001 for all symptoms excluding mania), and 24% reported that their self-assessment of disease activity was never/rarely concordant with their clinicians. Reports of misattributions were common, particularly of non-verifiable diffuse symptoms. Terminology differed between clinicians and influenced attribution estimates.CONCLUSION: NPSLE diagnostic tests and clinician assessments have numerous limitations, particularly in detecting diffuse neuropsychiatric symptoms that can be directly attributable and benefit from immunosuppression. Our findings suggest that incorporating patient attributional insights-although also subject to limitations-may improve attribution decision-making. Consensus regarding terminology and interpretations of "direct attributability" is required.</p

An integrative approach to characterize Malagasy bats of the subfamily Vespertilioninae Gray, 1821, with the description of a new species of Hypsugo

Although important advances have been made in recent years in the taxonomy of different families and subfamilies of Malagasy bats, those belonging to the Vespertilioninae remain partially unresolved. Herein using a mitochondrial marker (cytochrome b) as the point of departure for 76 specimens of Malagasy vespers and appropriate African taxa, we diagnose the six taxa of this subfamily on the island by overlaying different morphological and bioacoustic characters on the clade structure of sequenced animals. The species include: endemic Neoromicia matroka, which is sister to African N. capensis; endemics N. malagasyensis and N. robertsi, which form sister species; a member of the genus Hypsugo, which is sister to African H. anchietae and described herein as new to science; Pipistrellus hesperidus for which Madagascar animals are genetically close but distinct from African populations of the same species; and endemic P. raceyi, which shows segregation of eastern (mesic) and western (dry) populations and its sister species relationships are unresolved. While the external and craniodental measurements, as well as bioacoustics variables, allow only partial differentiation of these six species of Vespertilioninae, molecular characters provide definitive separation of the taxa, as do male bacular morphology.Irene D. Pritzker Foundation associated with the Field Museum of Natural History African Training Fund; John D and Catherine T.MacArthur Foundation; Volkswagen Foundation; and the Centre de Recherche et de Veille sur les maladies émergentes dans l’Océan Indien (CRVOI) through the Fonds Européen de Développement Régional Programme Opérationnel de Coopération Territoriale Réunion, pathogènes associés à la faune sauvage ocean Indien #31189. SYNTHESYS project http://synthesys.info/, which is financed by European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 Integrating Activities Program.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1096-36422016-04-30hb2015Zoology and EntomologyMammal Research Institut

A computer simulation study of the effect of pressure on Mg diffusion in forsterite

Computer simulation techniques were used to investigate the effect of pressure on magnesium diffusionin forsterite between 0 and 10 GPa. We studied the diffusion path along the c crystallographic axis (we always refer to the Pbnm system) via a vacancy mechanism. Using a Mott-Littleton approach withinthe code GULP, we were able to precisely map the diffusion path of a Mg vacancy and we found theactivation energy, E = 3.97 eV at 0 GPa (with Ef = 3.35 eV for the formation energy and Em = 0.62 eV for the migration) and E = 4.46 eV at 10 GPa (Ef = 3.81 eV and Em = 0.65 eV). Preliminary results using the supercell technique gave the same saddle point coordinates and energies. This saddle point of the Mg vacancy diffusion found with GULP was then introduced in an ab initio code, confirming the values of the migration energy both at 0 and 10 GPa. We were therefore able to estimate the activation volume (V) to be around 5 cm3/mol and d(V)/dP = 0. The effect of pressure applies mostly on defect formation and little on migration

Glacial refugia of southern Australian echinoderms: past responses to climate change in the temperate marine environment

© 2013 Dr. Kate Marilyn NaughtonDistributions of organisms are known to vary in response to glacial and interglacial climate cycling. While this process has been widely studied in terrestrial and aquatic environments, comparatively few have focused on marine invertebrates. The bulk of studies focus specifically on intertidal organisms, fish species and Northern Hemisphere coastlines, with fewer still addressing the dynamics of subtidal organisms and the Australian coastline. In this thesis, I address the question of population responses to glacial dynamics in a number of endemic southern Australian shallow-water echinoderm species, with the goal of expanding our understanding of the phylogeography of the region. The study region extends from Western Australia to northern New South Wales and includes Tasmania. The study is overall a comparative one, utilising multiple species and multiple genetic markers in order to track population dynamics over various time scales. Samples of all target species are initially screened for the presence of cryptic species and deep mitochondrial lineages, with the result that a high number of additional species are discovered and the initial sample size of target species is reduced. As intermittent barriers to gene flow are present on the southern coast of Australia, and as these vary in response to climate cycling, each species complex is investigated in terms of the timing of lineage production, examining the relationship of younger, allopatric lineages to older, sympatric lineages in the presence of intermittent barriers to gene flow. A large-scale comparative phylogeography of the southern coast is undertaken, examining intraspecific variation and congruent genetic breaks across ten species. A moderate level of phylogeographic congruence is apparent across these species and in this region. There was high support for all proposed biogeographic breaks. Finally, more recent dynamics are investigated by examining the distribution of intraspecific diversity and population expansion since the Last Glacial Maximum. These results suggest that, while expansions on the southern and western coasts tend to pre-date the Last Glacial Maximum, the south-eastern region of Australia is quite active in regard to post-LGM expansion

The impact of urban environments and nature relatedness on directed attention restoration

Research has identified that exposure to natural environments can improve cognitive performance through restoring fatigued directed attention. Although restoration likelihood has been mainly linked to natural environments, recent research has indicated that urban environments may have restorative potential. Restoration may also be influenced by individual factors such as nature relatedness. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a virtual environmental exposure intervention on the directed attention of participants with different levels of nature relatedness. Using a 2x2 factorial between within design, the present study measured the directed attention performance of participants using the Backward Digit Span task (BDS) before and after exposure to a six-minute natural outdoor environment video or urban café environment video. Nature relatedness was investigated using the Nature Relatedness Scale (NR-6). In contrast to previous research, the directed attention of participants who viewed the urban environment video was significantly improved compared to those who viewed the nature video, regardless of nature relatedness. The findings of this study suggest that, brief virtual exposure to an urban environment is effective in restoring fatigued directed attention. Additional studies are required to further investigate the potential benefits of virtual urban environment interventions in reducing negative affect.</p