Measurement of Tailored agent-oriented design processes by resorting to flow graphs: A preliminary investigation

This work describes the OMaSE-based Flow Graph (OFG). OFG is a tool for assessing the advantages and disadvantages of tailored agent-oriented design process in assembling time

Modelling forage yield and water productivity of continuous crop sequences in the Argentinian Pampas

In recent years, the use of forage crop sequences (FCS) has been increased as a main component into the animal rations of the Argentinian pasture-based livestock systems. However, it is unclear how year-by-year rainfall variability and interactions with soil properties affect FCS dry matter (DM) yield in these environments. Biophysical crop models, such as Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM), are tools that enable the evaluation of crop yield variability across a wide of environments. The objective of this study was to evaluate the APSIM ability to predict forage DM yield and water productivity (WP) of multiple continuous FCS. Thirteen continuous FCS, including winter and summer crops, were simulated by APSIM during two/three growing seasons in five locations across the Argentinian Pampas. Our modelling approach was based on the simulation of multiple continuous FCS, in which crop DM yields depend on the performance of the previous crop in the same sequence and the final soil variables of the previous crop are the initial conditions for the next crop. Overall, APSIM was able to accurately simulate FCS DM yield (0.93 and 3.2 Mg ha−1 for concordance correlation coefficient [CCC] and root mean square error [RMSE] respectively). On the other hand, the model predictions were better for annual (CCC = 0.94; RMSE = 0.4 g m−2 mm−1) than for seasonal WP (CCC = 0.71; RMSE = 1.9 g m−2 mm−1), i.e. at the crop level. The model performance to predict WP was associated with better estimations of the soil water dynamics over the long-term, i.e. at the FCS level, rather than the short-term, i.e. at the crop level. The ability of APSIM to predict WP decreased as seasonal WP values increased, i.e. for low water inputs. For seasonal water inputs, <200 mm, the model tended to under-predict WP, which was directly associated with crop DM yield under-predictions for frequently harvested crops. Even though APSIM showed some weaknesses in predicting seasonal DM yield and WP, i.e. at the crop level, it appears as a potential tool for further research on complementary forage crops based on multiple continuous FCS in the Argentinian livestock systems

Niveles de pensamiento crítico en estudiantes de universidades en Barranquilla (Colombia)

The purpose of the research was to characterize the levels of critical thinking in students of VI semester of Higher Education in the Universities of the Atlantic and Coast in Barranquilla, approaching theoretical references and presenting the institutional experience with two groups of interest of the mentioned universities. The methodology used was with an emerging paradigm, descriptive - explanatory and quasi experimental, descriptive, field. Concluding that critical thinking of students presents particular characteristics of the Systematic level.La investigación tuvo como propósito, caracterizar los niveles de pensamiento crítico en estudiantes de VI semestre de Educación Superior en las Universidades del Atlántico y de la Costa, en Barranquilla, abordando referentes teóricos y presentando la experiencia institucional con dos grupos de interés de las Universidades mencionadas. La metodología utilizada fue con paradigma emergente, de tipo descriptivo – explicativo y diseño cuasi experimental, descriptivo, de campo. Concluyendo que, el pensamiento crítico de los estudiantes presenta características particulares del nivel Sistemátic

Critical COPD respiratory illness is linked to increased transcriptomic activity of neutrophil proteases genes

BACKGROUND: Gene expression profiling (GEP) in cells obtained from peripheral blood has shown that this is a very useful approach for biomarker discovery and for studying molecular pathogenesis of prevalent diseases. While there is limited literature available on gene expression markers associated with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), the transcriptomic picture associated with critical respiratory illness in this disease is not known at the present moment. FINDINGS: By using Agilent microarray chips, we have profiled gene expression signatures in the whole blood of 28 COPD patients hospitalized with different degrees of respiratory compromise.12 of them needed of admission to the ICU, whilst 16 were admitted to the Respiratory Medicine Service. GeneSpring GX 11.0 software was used for performing statistical comparisons of transcript levels between ICU and non-ICU patients. Ingenuity pathway analysis 8.5 (IPA) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) were used to select, annotate and visualize genes by function and pathway (gene ontology). T-test showed evidence of 1501 genes differentially expressed between ICU and non-ICU patients. IPA and KEGG analysis of the most representative biological functions revealed that ICU patients had increased levels of neutrophil gene transcripts, being [cathepsin G (CTSG)], [elastase, neutrophil expressed (ELANE)], [proteinase 3 (PRTN3)], [myeloperoxidase (MPO)], [cathepsin D (CTSD)], [defensin, alpha 3, neutrophil-specific (DEFA3)], azurocidin 1 (AZU1)], and [bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI)] the most representative ones. Proteins codified by these genes form part of the azurophilic granules of neutrophils and are involved in both antimicrobial defence and tissue damage. This “neutrophil signature” was paralleled by the necessity of advanced respiratory and vital support, and the presence of bacterial infection. CONCLUSION: Study of transcriptomic signatures in blood suggests an essential role of neutrophil proteases in COPD patients with critical respiratory illness. Measurement and modulation of the expression of these genes could present an option for clinical monitoring and treatment of severe COPD exacerbations

Predictive model of pheochromocytoma based on the imaging features of the adrenal tumours

The purpose of our study was to develop a predictive model to rule out pheochromocytoma among adrenal tumours, based on unenhanced computed tomography (CT) and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features. We performed a retrospective multicentre study of 1131 patients presenting with adrenal lesions including 163 subjects with histological confirmation of pheochromocytoma (PHEO), and 968 patients showing no clinical suspicion of pheochromocytoma in whom plasma and/or urinary metanephrines and/or catecholamines were within reference ranges (non-PHEO). We found that tumour size was significantly larger in PHEO than non-PHEO lesions (44.3 +/- 33.2 versus 20.6 +/- 9.2 mm respectively; P < 0.001). Mean unenhanced CT attenuation was higher in PHEO (52.4 +/- 43.1 versus 4.7 +/- 17.9HU; P < 0.001). High lipid content in CT was more frequent among non-PHEO (83.6% versus 3.8% respectively; P < 0.001); and this feature alone had 83.6% sensitivity and 96.2% specificity to rule out pheochromocytoma with an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC-ROC) of 0.899. The combination of high lipid content and tumour size improved the diagnostic accuracy (AUC-ROC 0.961, sensitivity 88.1% and specificity 92.3%). The probability of having a pheochromocytoma was 0.1% for adrenal lesions smaller than 20 mm showing high lipid content in CT. Ninety percent of non-PHEO presented loss of signal in the out of phase MRI sequence compared to 39.0% of PHEO (P < 0.001), but the specificity of this feature for the diagnosis of non-PHEO lesions low. In conclusion, our study suggests that sparing biochemical screening for pheochromocytoma might be reasonable in patients with adrenal lesions smaller than 20 mm showing high lipid content in the CT scan, if there are no typical signs and symptoms of pheochromocytoma

Non-invasive ventilation in obesity hypoventilation syndrome without severe obstructive sleep apnoea

Background Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) is an effective form of treatment in patients with obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS) who have concomitant severe obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). However, there is a paucity of evidence on the efficacy of NIV in patients with OHS without severe OSA. We performed a multicentre randomised clinical trial to determine the comparative efficacy of NIV versus lifestyle modification (control group) using daytime arterial carbon dioxide tension (PaCO2) as the main outcome measure. Methods Between May 2009 and December 2014 we sequentially screened patients with OHS without severe OSA. Participants were randomised to NIV versus lifestyle modification and were followed for 2 months. Arterial blood gas parameters, clinical symptoms, health-related quality of life assessments, polysomnography, spirometry, 6-min walk distance test, blood pressure measurements and healthcare resource utilisation were evaluated. Statistical analysis was performed using intention-to-treat analysis. Results A total of 365 patients were screened of whom 58 were excluded. Severe OSA was present in 221 and the remaining 86 patients without severe OSA were randomised. NIV led to a significantly larger improvement in PaCO2 of -6 (95% CI -7.7 to -4.2) mm Hg versus -2.8 (95% CI -4.3 to -1.3) mm Hg, (p<0.001) and serum bicarbonate of -3.4 (95% CI -4.5 to -2.3) versus -1 (95% CI -1.7 to -0.2 95% CI) mmol/L (p<0.001). PaCO2 change adjusted for NIV compliance did not further improve the inter-group statistical significance. Sleepiness, some health-related quality of life assessments and polysomnographic parameters improved significantly more with NIV than with lifestyle modification. Additionally, there was a tendency towards lower healthcare resource utilisation in the NIV group. Conclusions NIV is more effective than lifestyle modification in improving daytime PaCO2, sleepiness and polysomnographic parameters. Long-term prospective studies are necessary to determine whether NIV reduces healthcare resource utilisation, cardiovascular events and mortality

Abatacept in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and interstitial lung disease: A national multicenter study of 63 patients

OBJECTIVE: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is one of the most serious complications of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In the present study, we aimed to assess the efficacy of abatacept (ABA) in patients with ILD associated to RA. METHODS: National multicenter, non-controlled, open-label registry study of RA patients with ILD treated with ABA. RESULTS: 63 patients (36 women) with RA-associated ILD undergoing ABA therapy were studied. The mean ± standard deviation age at the time of the study was 63.2 ± 9.8 years. The median duration of RA and ILD from diagnosis were 6.8 and 1 year, respectively. RA was seropositive in 55 patients (87.3%). In 15 (23.8%) of 63 patients the development of ILD was closely related to the administration of synthetic or biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. After a follow-up of 9.4 ± 3.2 months, two-thirds of patients remained stable whereas one-quarter experienced improvement in the Modified Medical Research Council scale. At that time forced vital capacity remained stable in almost two-thirds of patents and improved in one out of five patients assessed. Also, diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide remained stable in almost two-thirds and showed improvement in a quarter of the patients assessed. At 12 months, 50% of the 22 patients in whom chest HRCT scan was performed due persistence of respiratory symptoms showed stabilization, 8 (36.4%) improvement and 3 worsening of the HRCT scan pattern. Eleven of 63 patients had to discontinue ABA, mainly due to adverse events. CONCLUSION: ABA appears to be an effective in RA-associated ILD.Funding: This work was partially supported by RETICS Programs, RD08/0075 (RIER) and RD12/0009/0013 from ‘‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III’’ (ISCIII), Spain

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13