Prescribing curvatures in the disk via conformal changes of the metric: the case of negative Gaussian curvature

This paper deals with the question of prescribing the Gaussian curvature on a disk and the geodesic curvature of its boundary by means of a conformal deformation of the metric. We restrict ourselves to a symmetric setting in which the Gaussian curvature is negative, and we are able to give general existence results. Our approach is variational, and solutions will be searched as critical points of an associated functional. The proofs use a perturbation argument via the monotonicity trick of Struwe, together with a blow-up analysis and Morse index estimates. We also give a nonexistence result that shows that, to some extent, the assumptions required for existence are necessary.Comment: 24 pages and 3 figure

Optical properties from extinction cross-section of single pollen particles under laboratory-controlled relative humidity

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through projects ELPIS (PID2020-12001-5RB-I00), by the Junta de Andalucía Excellence project ADAPNE (P20-00136), AEROPRE (P-18-RT-3820), FEDER Una manera de hacer Europa, EQC2019-006423-P, INTEGRATYON (PID2020-117825 GB-C21 and PID2020-117825 GB-C22), the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program through project ACTRIS. IMP (grant agreement No 871115), and ATMO-ACCESS (grant agreement No 101008004), and ACTRIS-España (RED2022-134824-E), FEDER/Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades project DEM3TRIOS (A-RNM-430-UGR20) and by University of Granada Plan Propio through Excellence Research Unit Earth Science and Singular Laboratory AGORA (LS2022-1) programs and project Pre-GREENMITIGATION (PP2022.PP.34).A growing body of research suggests that pollen suspended in the atmosphere have a major environmental and climatic impact. However, our current knowledge of pollen is rather limited with respect to its extinction capacity, its optical properties and how these vary with atmospheric water content. Understanding their water absorption capacity can improve our understanding of their radiative effects and, thus, improve climate models. In this work, an electrodynamic Paul trap was coupled to a cavity ring down spectroscopy (CRDS) to directly measure the ring down time () of four individual types of pollen particles: Olea, Fraxinus, Populus and Salix exposed to changing relative humidity (RH). Resonant structures in values between ∼90 and 45 % RH indicated that pollen was wettable at high RHs. was used to calculate light extinction cross-section at 532 nm as a function of RH. Optical growth factor () was evaluated as the ratio between and From , the semi-empirical single hygroscopicity parameter () was found to be 0.038–0.058 for the four pollen types. Under controllable treatment of the water content and an adequate selection of complex refractive index , CRDS- data was fitted to theoretical from Mie theory. The reasonable agreement achieved allowed for gaining knowledge about the and how particle size shrugged during dehydration. As a result, a climate-lowering effect of Olea pollen particles, which contain a fraction of scattered aerosol, should be considered in the models.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2020-12001-5RB-I00)Junta de Andalucía Excellence: ADAPNE (P20-00136), AEROPRE (P-18-RT-3820), FEDER Una manera de hacer Europa, EQC2019-006423-P, INTEGRATYON (PID2020-117825GB-C21, PID2020-117825GB-C22)European Union's Horizon 2020 CTRIS.IMP 871115ATMO-ACCESS 101008004ACTRIS-España (RED2022-134824-E)FEDER/Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades DEM3TRIOS (A-NM-430-UGR20)University of Granada LS2022-1, PP2022.PP.3

Trace Elements Distribution in Red Soils under Semiarid Mediterranean Environment

This study states the potential trace elements (TE’s) content of red soils located at the centre region of Spain, characterized by low rainfall and slight acidity over prolonged weathering periods. For this purpose, three soil profiles from a catena were described, sampled and analyzed. The most notable characteristics are the low organic matter content and the predominantly acidic pH. Illite and kaolinite are the predominant clay minerals. The fertility of the soils is sufficient to provide most of the nutrients required, with very suitable potassium levels. The geochemical characters of this soil are: only few elements remain almost invariable across the profiles and over time, however the majority of them were directly linked with the clay content. These soils are characterized by relatively low levels of some trace elements such as Sr (64.35 mg?kg–1), Ba (303.67 mg?kg–1) and Sc (13.14 mg?kg–1); high levels of other trace elements such as V (103.92 mg?kg–1), Cr (79.9 mg?kg–1), Cu (15.18 mg?kg–1), Hf (10.26 mg?kg–1), Ni (38 mg?kg–1) and Zr (337 mg?kg–1); while the levels for rare earth elements (REE’s) such as La (48.36 mg?kg–1), Ce (95.07 mg?kg–1), Th (13.33 mg?kg–1) and Nd (42.65 mg?kg–1) are significantly high. The distribution of mayor and trace elements was directly re- lated to weathering processes, parent material and anthropogenic activities

Litter Content of Colombian Beaches and Mangrove Forests: Results from the Caribbean and Pacific Coasts

Litter abundance and typology were investigated at different beaches and mangrove forests at nine sites on the Colombian Caribbean and Pacific coasts. Average litter abundance on the Caribbean Sea beaches (1.42 items/m2–12.21 g/m2) and in mangrove forests (1.29 items/m2– 28.72 g/m2) were greater than that of the Pacific Ocean beaches (0 items/m2–0 g/m2) and mangrove forests (1.13 items/m2–79.41 g/m2). The most abundant litter material was plastic, which represented 93.61% of the total litter content. According to the Clean Coast Index, the sites analyzed in the Caribbean Sea were “Moderate” to “Extremely Dirty”, while those in the Pacific Ocean were “Clean” to “Moderate Dirty”. The Magdalena River is considered the main source of litter on the Caribbean Sea coast, while on the Pacific Ocean coast, litter is essentially associated with the mismanagement of solid wastes. This study constitutes a baseline on the litter content of beaches and mangrove forests, and is useful for establishing sound strategies for their protection, restoration and conservation

The Relationship between Depressive Symptoms, Quality of Life and miRNAs 8 Years after Bariatric Surgery

Altres ajuts: Universidad de Málaga, UMA20-FEDERJA-144; Junta de Andalucia, PI-0194-2017, C-0028-2018, RC-005-2020, DOC_00288 and DOC_01095Background: There are conflicting results on whether weight loss after bariatric surgery (BS) might be associated with quality of life (QoL)/depressive symptomatology. We aim to determine whether BS outcomes are associated with QoL/depressive symptomatology in studied patients at the 8-year follow-up after BS, as well as their relationship with different serum proteins and miRNAs. Methods: A total of 53 patients with class III obesity who underwent BS, and then classified into "good responders" and "non-responders" depending on the percentage of excess weight lost (%EWL) 8 years after BS (%EWL ≥ 50% and %EWL < 50%, respectively), were included. Basal serum miRNAs and different proteins were analysed, and patients completed tests to evaluate QoL/depressive symptomatology at 8 years after BS. Results: The good responders group showed higher scores on SF-36 scales of physical functioning, role functioning-physical, role functioning-emotional, body pain and global general health compared with the non-responders. The expression of hsa-miR-101-3p, hsa-miR-15a-5p, hsa-miR-29c-3p, hsa-miR-144-3p and hsa-miR-19b-3p were lower in non-responders. Hsa-miR-19b-3p was the variable associated with the response to BS in a logistic regression model. Conclusions: The mental health of patients after BS is limited by the success of the intervention. In addition, the expression of basal serum miRNAs related to depression/anxiety could predict the success of BS

HF broadband antenna design for shipboard communications: Simulation and measurements

The objective pursued in this work is to highlight the convenience of using electromagnetic simulation software as an alternative to the traditional scale model measurement when dealing with the design of HF antennas on real complex platforms. The experience was developed during the building process of a real vessel. A low and a medium band antennas (fan-wire type) were designed ad-hoc for this project. The HF broadband antennas’ study covered from the preliminary design stages to the final verification measurements completed onboard the ship. The experiment has demonstrated that more accurate results can be obtained when using an adequate electromagnetic simulation code, which, besides, brings important advantages in flexibility and usability. These advantages, inherent to the use of virtual models, hinge on the ability of the simulation tools to properly handle any modification of the vessel’s structure that might arise during the platform construction

Human papillomavirus infections in women seeking cervical Papanicolaou cytology of Durango, Mexico: prevalence and genotypes

BACKGROUND: HPV infection in women from developing countries is an important public health problem. Therefore, we sought to determine the prevalences of HPV infection and HPV genotypes in a female population of Durango City, Mexico. Also to determine whether any socio-demographic characteristic from the women associated with HPV infection exists. METHODS: Four hundred and ninety eight women seeking cervical Papanicolaou examination in three public Health Centers were examined for HPV infection. All women were tested for HPV DNA PCR by using HPV universal primers. In addition, all positive HPV DNA PCR samples were further analyzed for genotyping of HPV genotype 16, 18 and 33. Socio-demographic characteristics from each participant were also obtained. RESULTS: Twenty-four out of four hundred and ninety-eight (4.8%) women were found infected by HPV. HPV genotype 16 was found in 18 out of the 24 (75%) infected women. Two of them were also coinfected by HPV genotype 18 (8.3%). In the rest 6 PCR positive women, genotyping for HPV genotypes 16, 18 and 33 were negative. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of HPV in women of Durango City is low; however, most infected women have high risk HPV genotype. The women who were studied showed low frequency of risk factors for HPV infection and this may explain the low prevalence of HPV infection. The high frequency of high risk HPV genotypes observed might explain the high rate of mortality for cervical cancer in our region

Fitoplancton en el sistema lagunar tropical Carmen Pajonal Machona, Tabasco

Background. Phytoplankton is considered an important indicator of natural and anthropogenic processes that take place in basins and coastal environments. An example of these systems is the formed by the El Car- men, Pajonal and La Machona lagoons, in which there is intense fishing and oyster farming activity, as well as agricultural activities, oil extraction and forestry in their surroundings. Goals.Identifying the phytoplankton species, with emphasis on the potentially harmful and / or toxic ones, their distribution and differences between the samplings, north winds (2015) and rainy (2016), as well as reporting the physicochemical variables was the aimed of this work. Methods. Net samples with a mesh size of 20 μm were taken and physicoche- mical variables were measured with a water quality sonde. 300 organisms were counted and the specific richness, relative abundances and diversity index were calculated. To identify differences between the two seasons sampled the Mann-Whitney U test was performed. In addition, the most important physicochemical variables were identified to explore their relationship with the species through a distance-based redundancy analysis (dbRDA). Results. A total of 86 species were identified, of which ten are new records and 15 are potentially harmful and / or toxic ones. The taxonomic group with the most species in both seasons was Bacillaryophyta (43 Northeast and 22 Rains). Specific richness was significantly different between seasons. In the north winds season, the most abundant species were from the Cyanoprokaryota and Bacillaryophyta groups, while for rainy season they were from the Dinoflagellata. Conclusions. Water temperature and salinity were the physicochemical variables that defined the phyto- plankton composition in the CPM lagoons; the presence of potentially toxic species is an alert for the lagoon system because it reflects a latent situation that could trigger blooms at any time.Antecedentes. El fitoplancton es considerado un indicador importante de los procesos naturales y antro- pogénicos que se desarrollan en las cuencas y en los ambientes costeros. Un ejemplo de estos sistemas es el conformado por las lagunas El Carmen, Pajonal y La Machona (CPM), en las cuales hay una intensa actividad pesquera y de ostricultura, así como actividades agrícolas, extracción petrolera y forestal a sus alrededores. Objetivo. El objetivo fue identificar las especies fitoplanctónicas, con énfasis en las potencial- mente nocivas y/o tóxicas, su distribución y diferencias entre los muestreos, nortes (2015) y lluvias (2016), así como reportar las variables fisicoquímicas. Métodos. Se tomaron muestras de red de 20 μm de abertura de malla y midieron las variables con una sonda de calidad de agua. Se contabilizaron 300 organismos y se obtuvieron la riqueza específica, abundancias relativas e índice de diversidad. Para identificar diferencias entre las dos temporadas muestreadas se realizó la prueba U de Mann-Whitney. Además, se identificaron las variables fisicoquímicas más importantes para explorar su relación con las especies mediante un análisis de redundancia basado en distancias (dbRDA). Resultados. Se identificaron un total de 86 especies de las cuales diez son nuevos registros para el área y 15 son potencialmente tóxicas. El grupo taxonómico con más especies fue el de las Bacillaryophyta (43 nortes y 22 lluvias). La riqueza específica fue significativamente diferente entre temporadas. Las especies más abundantes fueron de los grupos de las Cyanoprokaryota y las Bacillaryophyta para la temporada de nortes, mientras que para la temporada de lluvias fueron del grupo Dinoflagellata. Conclusiones. La temperatura y la salinidad fueron las variables que determinaron la com- posición del fitoplancton en las lagunas CPM; la presencia de especies potencialmente tóxicas es una alerta para el sistema lagunar debido a que refleja una situación latente que podría desencadenar florecimientos en cualquier momento

Alert classification for the ALeRCE broker system: The real-time stamp classifier

We present a real-time stamp classifier of astronomical events for the Automatic Learning for the Rapid Classification of Events broker, ALeRCE. The classifier is based on a convolutional neural network, trained on alerts ingested from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). Using only the science, reference, and difference images of the first detection as inputs, along with the metadata of the alert as features, the classifier is able to correctly classify alerts from active galactic nuclei, supernovae (SNe), variable stars, asteroids, and bogus classes, with high accuracy (~94%) in a balanced test set. In order to find and analyze SN candidates selected by our classifier from the ZTF alert stream, we designed and deployed a visualization tool called SN Hunter, where relevant information about each possible SN is displayed for the experts to choose among candidates to report to the Transient Name Server database. From 2019 June 26 to 2021 February 28, we have reported 6846 SN candidates to date (11.8 candidates per day on average), of which 971 have been confirmed spectroscopically. Our ability to report objects using only a single detection means that 70% of the reported SNe occurred within one day after the first detection. ALeRCE has only reported candidates not otherwise detected or selected by other groups, therefore adding new early transients to the bulk of objects available for early follow-up. Our work represents an important milestone toward rapid alert classifications with the next generation of large etendue telescopes, such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.The authors acknowledge support from the National Agency of Research and Development’s Millennium Science Initiative through grant IC12009, awarded to the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (RC, ER, CV, FF, PE, GP, FEB, IR, PSS, GC, SE, Ja, EC, DR, DRM, MC) and from the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) grants: BASAL Center of Mathematical Modelling AFB-170001 (CV, FF, IR, ECN, CS, ECI) and Centro de Astrofísica y Tecnologías Afines AFB170002 (FEB, PSS, MC); FONDECYT Regular #1171678 (PE), #1200710 (FF), #1190818(FEB), #1200495 (FEB), #1171273 (MC), #1201793(GP); FONDECYT Postdoctorado #3200250 (PSS); FONDECYT Iniciación #11191130 (CV); Magíster Nacional 2019 #22190947 (ER). This work was funded in part by project CORFO 10CEII-9157 Inria Chile (PS). The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities (MICIU) under the 2019 Ramón y Cajal program RYC2019- 027683 (LG)

Prevalence of Symptomatic Axial Osteoarthritis Phenotypes in Spain and Associated Socio-Demographic, Anthropometric, and Lifestyle Variables

Epidemiology of RMDFinanciado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG[Abstract] Objective. Axial osteoarthritis (OA) is a common cause of back and neck pain, however, few studies have examined its prevalence. The aim was to estimate the prevalence and the characteristics of symptomatic axial OA in Spain. Methods. EPISER2016 is a cross-sectional multicenter population-based study of people aged 40 years or older. Subjects were randomly selected using multistage stratified cluster sampling. Participants were contacted by telephone to complete rheumatic disease screening questionnaires. Two phenotypes were analyzed, patients with Non-exclusive axial OA (NEA-OA) and Exclusive axial OA (EA-OA). To calculate the prevalence and its 95% confidence interval (CI), the sample design was considered and weighting was calculated according to age, sex and geographic origin. Results. Prevalence of NEA-OA by clinical or clinical-radiographic criteria was 19.17% (95% CI: 17.82–20.59). The frequency of NEA-OA increased with age (being 3.6 times more likely in patients aged 80 s or more than in those between 40 and 49 years) and body mass index. It was significantly more frequent in women, as well as in the center of Spain. It was less frequent in those with a higher level of education. Lumbar OA was more frequent than cervical OA. This difference grew with increasing age and was not associated with gender. It was also greater in overweight and obese subjects. Conclusions. This is the first study on the prevalence of axial OA phenotypes in Europe describing the associated socio-demographic, anthropometric, and lifestyle variables.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. EPISER2016 was supported by Celgene, Gebro Pharma, Merck Sharp & Dohme in Spain, Pfizer, and Sanofi-Aventis, none of whom had any role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, interpretation, or writing of this manuscript. MS was financed via the Rio Hortega Contract—Health Research Fund (CM17/00101), the Sanitary Research Fund integrated in the National Plan of Scientific Program, Technological Development and Innovation 2013–2016 and funded by the ISCIII-Subdirectorate General Evaluation and Promotion of Research-European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) "A way of making Europe