Towards the understanding of the graphene oxide structure: How to control the formation of humic- and fulvic-like oxidized debris

Former structural models of graphene oxide (GO) indicated that it consists of graphene-like sheets with oxygen groups, and no attention was paid to the resulting sheet size. We now provide evidence of the complex GO structure consisting of large and small GO sheets (or oxidized debris). Different oxidation reactions were studied. KMnO4 derived GO consists of large sheets (20–30 wt.%), and oxidized debris deposits, which are formed by humic- and fulvic-like fragments. Large GO sheets contain oxygen groups, especially at the edges, such as carbonyl, lactone and carboxylic groups. Humic-like debris consists of an amorphous gel containing more oxygenated groups and trapped water molecules. The main desorbable fraction upon heating is the fulvic-like material, which contains oxygen groups and fragments with high edge/surface ratio. KClO3 in HNO3 or the Brodie method produces a highly oxidized material but at the flake level surface only; little oxidized debris and water contents are found. It is noteworthy that an efficient basal cutting of the graphitic planes in addition to an effective intercalation is caused by KMnO4, and the aid of NaNO3 makes this process even more effective, thus yielding large monolayers of GO and a large amount of humic- and fulvic-like substances.The authors thank the Government of Spain, Ministry for Economy and Competiveness, for financial support of project CTQ2013-44213-R, and Generalitat Valenciana for projects PROMETEOII/2014/007 and ISIC/2012/008. IRP thanks the Government of Spain, Ministry of Science and Education, for PhD Scholarship in the FPU program

Deep Sequential Models for Suicidal Ideation from Multiple Source Data

This paper presents a novel method for predicting suicidal ideation from electronic health records (EHR) and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data using deep sequential models. Both EHR longitudinal data and EMA question forms are defined by asynchronous, variable length, randomly sampled data sequences. In our method, we model each of them with a recurrent neural network, and both sequences are aligned by concatenating the hidden state of each of them using temporal marks. Furthermore, we incorporate attention schemes to improve performance in long sequences and time-independent pre-trained schemes to cope with very short sequences. Using a database of 1023 patients, our experimental results show that the addition of EMA records boosts the system recall to predict the suicidal ideation diagnosis from 48.13% obtained exclusively from EHR-based state-of-the-art methods to 67.78%. Additionally, our method provides interpretability through the t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) representation of the latent space. Furthermore, the most relevant input features are identified and interpreted medically.This work was supported in part by the Spanish MINECO under Grants TEC2015-69868-C2-1-R, TEC2016-78434-C3-3-R, and TEC2017-92552-EXP, in part by Spanish MICINN under Grant RTI2018-099655-B-I00, in part by Comunidad de Madrid under Grants IND2017/TIC-7618, IND2018/TIC-9649, Y2018/TCS-4705, and B2017/BMD-3740 AGES-CM 2CM, in part by BBVA Foundation under Deep-DARWiN - FBBVA Grant for scientific research teams 2018, in part by ISCIII under Grant PI16/01852, and in part by AFSP under Grant LSRG-1-005-16

Conversión hidrotérmica suscritica de residuos orgánicos y biomasa. mecanismos de reacción

La conversión hidrotérmica es un procedimiento que emula el proceso natural de conversión de la materia orgánica en un biocrudo con propiedades fisicoquímicas similares a las del petróleo. La transformación artificial de biomasa requiere conocer previamente las rutas de reacción y productos prevalentes. En la conversión de celulosa, el principal componente de la biomasa, se presenta despolimerización por hidrólisis y se obtienen oli- gosacaridos, los cuales presentan deshidratación y condensación retro-aldol, para transformarse en furfurales y ácidos carboxIlicos. Otros componentes de la biomasa como lignina, proteInas y ésteres grasos, presentan rutas de reacción en las que coexisten la hidrólisis y la pirólisis. Dada la presencia de carbohidratos en la biomasa, los principales productos de su conversión hidrotérmica subcrItica y de sus residuos seran analogos a los que presenta la celulosa. Dichas sustancias tienen un valor agregado que supera considerablemente los costos de adquisición de la materia prima. Al representar en un grafico las relaciones molares O/C, H/C de los principales productos de conversión hidrotérmica de biomasa reportados en la literatura, se evidencia que la trayectoria de evolución para los productos de conversión hacia biocrudos se traslapa con la evolución geológica de los combustibles fósiles.Hydrothermal conversion is a procedure which emulates organic matter’s natural conversion into bio-crude having physical and chemical properties analogous to petroleum. The artificial transformation of biomass requi- res previous knowledge of the main reaction routes and product availability. The main component of biomass (depolymerisation by hydrolysis) is presented in hydrothermal cellulose conversion, producing oligosaccharides which exhibit dehydration and retro-aldol condensation reactions for transforming into furfurals and carboxylic acids. Other biomass components (such as lignin, proteins, and fat esters) present both hydrolysis and pyrolysis reaction routes. As long as biomass mainly contains carbohydrates, subcritical hydrothermal conversion products and their wastes will be fundamentally analogous to those displaying cellulose. These substances have added- value by far surpassing raw material’s acquisition cost. When the main hydrothermal conversion products’ O/C, H/C molar ratios as reported in literature are plotted, an evolutionary tralectory for conversion products appears to be closely or even overlapped with fossil fuels’ geological evolution

Online audio-visual information on oral cancer for Spanish-speaking laypersons. A cross-sectional study

Lack of knowledge and awareness of oral cancer seem to be the main causes of diagnostic delay. Online resources are often used by patients to obtain health/medical information. However, there are no reports on the quality and usefulness of oral cancer audio-visual resources in Spanish. The aims of this investigation were to disclose the type of information about oral cancer available, and whether it may be useful to shorten the patients? oral cancer appraisal time-interval. Cross-sectional study undertaken at three video-sharing sites on October, 13th 2019. Keywords: ?Cáncer oral?; ?cáncer de boca?. The first 100 results in each viewing list were retrieved by three reviewers. Demographical data was recorded, and interaction indexes, viewing rates, comprehensiveness, and usefulness were calculated for each video. The presence of non-scientifically supported information was also assessed. A descriptive analysis was undertaken, and relationships between variables were explored using the Spearman correlation test. A total of 127 videos were selected. They were produced mainly by mass-media (46.5%; n=59) and their length ranged from 0.28 to 105.38 minutes (median 4.15 minutes; IQR: 2.34-9.67). The most viewed video (10,599,765 views; visualization rate 726,508.9) scored 0 both in usefulness and comprehensiveness. The most useful video gathered 44,119 views (visualization rate 2.033.13). A highly significant positive correlation (0.643; p<0.001) could be observed between usefulness and comprehensiveness of the videos, together with negative correlations between the visualization rate and usefulness (-0.186; p<0.05), and visualization rate and comprehensiveness (-0.183; p<0.05). Online audio-visual material about oral cancer in Spanish is incomplete, of limited usefulness, and often includes non-scientifically supported information. Most of these resources are produced by mass media and healthcare professionals, with minor contributions from educational and healthcare institutions. Visualization rates negatively correlated with the usefulness and comprehensiveness of the contents in these digital objects

Knowledge of oral cancer and preventive attitudes of Spanish dentists. Primary effects of a pilot educational intervention

Objective: To assess the knowledge and preventive attitudes that Spanish dentists have towards oral cancer, before and after an educational intervention. Methods: A quasi-experimental study based on a nationwide intervention. All Spanish dentists were offered an on-site course on oral cancer. An individual questionnaire was administered before and after attending the course. The main outcome measures were systematic examination of the oral cavity, promotion of healthy habits and knowledge of clinical aspects. Results: 440 GDPs entered the study. Age: 40.7±10.7, range 21-74. Professional experience: 13.9±8.9 years, range 0-45. Of those who participated in the study, 53.1% had never attended a course on oral cancer, 72.4% stated that they perform a systematic examination of the oral mucosa, 88.2% provided systematic counselling on tobacco cessation, and 54.7% reported that they did the same for alcohol. In addition, 32.3% advised patients to eat fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants. Professional experience was significantly associated with oral mucosa systematic examination (t= 2.9; p=0.003), advice on alcohol consumption (t=5.0; p=0.000), and on fruit and vegetable intake (t=5.1; p<0.001). None of these practices were specifically associated with knowledge on oral cancer. All areas of knowledge examined showed statistically significant improvement after the educational intervention. Conclusions: The intervention appears to have improved the GDP´s knowledge, confirming the importance of this national campaign

Evaluation of Toll-like-receptor gene family variants as prognostic biomarkers in rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease whose main feature is persistent joint inflammation. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play critical roles in the activation of innate and adaptive immune responses, and influence the activity of NF?B, a key player in chronic inflammation. We aimed at investigating the association of TLR allelic variants with susceptibility and severity of RA through a systematic, high-throughput, analysis of TLR genes. All coding exons and flanking regions of nine members of the TLR family (TLR1-9) were analyzed in 66 patients with RA and 30 healthy controls by next generation sequencing. We focussed on three single allelic variants, N248S in TLR1, Q11L in TLR7 and M1V in TLR8 based on the allelic frequencies in both patient and control populations, the predicted impact on protein function and the novelty in RA research. Analysis of these selected variants in a larger cohort of 402 patients with RA and in 208 controls revealed no association with susceptibility. However, the M1V allele was associated with a lower need for disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) (p =0.008) and biologic treatments (p =0.021). Functional studies showed that the M1V variant leads to a reduced production of inflammatory cytokines, IL-1?, IL-6 and TNF?, in response to TLR8 agonists. Thus, the presence of this variant confers a significant protective effect on disease severity. These results show for the first time the association between the M1V variant of TLR8 and reduced disease severity in RA, which could have prognostic value for these patients.This work was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grant PI11/02012, and grant RD12/0036/0022 from Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer, Sociedad Española de Reumatología grant FER13/13 and Instituto de Investigación Valdecilla (IDIVAL) grant APG-03. I.V. is funded by programa Ramón y Cajal, Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain

An international effort towards developing standards for best practices in analysis, interpretation and reporting of clinical genome sequencing results in the CLARITY Challenge

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.-- et al.[Background]: There is tremendous potential for genome sequencing to improve clinical diagnosis and care once it becomes routinely accessible, but this will require formalizing research methods into clinical best practices in the areas of sequence data generation, analysis, interpretation and reporting. The CLARITY Challenge was designed to spur convergence in methods for diagnosing genetic disease starting from clinical case history and genome sequencing data. DNA samples were obtained from three families with heritable genetic disorders and genomic sequence data were donated by sequencing platform vendors. The challenge was to analyze and interpret these data with the goals of identifying disease-causing variants and reporting the findings in a clinically useful format. Participating contestant groups were solicited broadly, and an independent panel of judges evaluated their performance. [Results]: A total of 30 international groups were engaged. The entries reveal a general convergence of practices on most elements of the analysis and interpretation process. However, even given this commonality of approach, only two groups identified the consensus candidate variants in all disease cases, demonstrating a need for consistent fine-tuning of the generally accepted methods. There was greater diversity of the final clinical report content and in the patient consenting process, demonstrating that these areas require additional exploration and standardization. [Conclusions]: The CLARITY Challenge provides a comprehensive assessment of current practices for using genome sequencing to diagnose and report genetic diseases. There is remarkable convergence in bioinformatic techniques, but medical interpretation and reporting are areas that require further development by many groups.This work was supported by funds provided through the Gene Partnership and the Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Center for Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School and by generous donations in-kind of genomic sequencing services by Life Technologies (Carlsbad, CA, USA) and Complete Genomics (Mountain View, CA, USA).Peer Reviewe

Using ultrafine particles from a coal washing plant in metallurgical coke production

Blending ultrafine particles from a coal washing plant was studied for coke production by briquetting using 6%w coal tar as binder. The ultrafine coal particles were characterised and a pilot coking test was made in a Koppers’ furnace. Coke quality was evaluated by proximate analysis, stability (micum 10 and micum 40), coke reactivity index (CRI) with CO2 and the coke’s mechanical strength after reaction with carbon dioxide (CSR index). Briquetting results showed that was possible to obtain coke having 19.0 % CRI and 75.6% CSR, these being the characteristics required in metallurgical processes.Se estudió el aprovechamiento en mezclas de ultrafinos provenientes de una planta de lavado de carbón para la producción de coque por el proceso de briquetación, utilizando 6% en peso de alquitrán de carbón como aglomerante. Se caracterizaron las materias primas y se realizó una prueba piloto de coquización en un horno tipo Koppers. Se determinó la calidad del coque por pruebas de análisis próximo, estabilidad (Micum 10, M10 y Micum 40, M40), índice de reactividad del coque al CO2 (CRI) y de resistencia después de la reacción con dióxido de carbono (CSR). Los resultados mostraron que la briquetación permite obtener un coque con un CRI de 19,0% y un CSR de 75,6%, características requeridas en los procesos metalúrgicos

Anuario de estudios celianos 2016-17

La Universidad Camilo José Cela recoge en estos anuarios las investigaciones que se llevan a cabo cada año sobre la obra de quien fue su rector Honorario. Se compromete así, en colaboración con la Fundación que también lleva su nombre, con la herencia literaria y la memoria de CJC, y favorece la divulgación de las conclusiones de los estudios más importantes realizados cada año

Circulating neutrophil counts and mortality in septic shock

Producción CientíficaPolynuclear neutrophils can play dual roles in sepsis: on the one hand they mediate major antimicrobial activities and on the other hand they can contribute to the development of multiple organ failure [1]. Nonetheless, in spite of the importance of these cells in sepsis, the influence of the circulating neutrophil count (CNC) on the prognosis of septic patients with this pathology has not been properly evaluated. We analyzed the association between CNC and outcome in two cohorts of patients with diagnostic criteria of septic shock (SS) [2]: the first was recruited in the context of a single center study (EXPRESS study, discovery cohort, n = 195; Table 1), and the second in the context of a multi-centric study (GRECIA study, validation cohort, n = 194; Table 2). Written informed consent was obtained from each patient or their legal representative. The two studies were approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Hospital Clínico Universitario, Valladolid, Spain (for the EXPRESS study) and Hospital Universitario Río Hortega, Valladolid, Spain (coordinating center for the GRECIA study).Instituto de Salud Carlos III (grant PI 10/01362)Junta de Castilla y León (grant BOCYL-D-26072010