Fabrication of luminescent nanostructures by electron-beam direct writing of PMMA resist

We report on the conversion of non-luminescent conventional poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA)-based electron-beam resists into luminescent materials when used as negative-tone resists, that is, when exposed to high electron irradiation doses. Raman spectroscopy reveals the chemical transformation induced by electron irradiation which is responsible for the observed luminescence in the visible (blue) region. The emission intensity from exposed PMMA-based patterns can be controlled by the electron irradiation dose employed to create them

In vivo larvicidal activity of menthol against Anisakis type I

Se ha estudiado la actividad larvicida in vivo de mentol, principal componente del aceite esencial de Mentha pipperita, frente a larvas de Anisakis tipo I aisladas del hospedador Micromesistius poutassou (bacaladilla), adquiridas en diversas pescaderías de la ciudad de Granada. Los resultados obtenidos en el ensayo muestran que en el grupo tratado con mentol no se apreciaron lesiones en el aparato digestivo, mientras que en el grupo control estas lesiones fueron observadas en el 93’3% de los animales de experimentación. En este mismo grupo se encontraron larvas que habían perforado la pared gástrica, localizándose libres en la cavidad corporal.We have studied the in vivo larvicidal activity of menthol, the main component of the essential oil of Mentha pipperita, against Anisakis type I larvae isolated from the host Micromesistius poutassou (blue whiting), acquired in several fishmongers in the city of Granada. The in vivo test results showed no gastric wall lesions in the group treated with menthol, while in the control group, 93.3% of infected rats showed those lesions. In the same control group were found larvae that had drilled the gastric wall, located free in the abdominal cavity.Trabajo financiado por el proyecto: P07-CVI-03249

Seasonal and Long-Term Variability of the Mixed Layer Depth and its Influence on Ocean Productivity in the Spanish Gulf of Cádiz and Mediterranean Sea

The warming of the surface ocean is expected to increase the stratification of the upper water column. This would decrease the efficiency of the wind-induced mixing, reducing the nutrient supply to the euphotic layer and the productivity of the oceans. Climatic projections show that the Mediterranean Sea will experience a strong warming and salting along the twenty first century. Nevertheless, very few works have found and quantified changes in the water column stratification of the Western Mediterranean. In this work, we obtain time series of Mixed Layer Depth (MLD) along the Spanish Mediterranean waters and the Gulf of Cádiz, using periodic CTD profiles collected under the umbrella of the Ocean Observing system of the Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO-CSIC). The length of the time series analyzed is variable, depending on the geographical area, but in some cases these time series extend from the beginning of the 1990s decade. Our results show that at present, no statistically significant changes can be detected. These results are confirmed by the analysis of MLD time series obtained from Argo profilers. Some of the meteorological factors that could affect the water column stratification (wind intensity and precipitation rates) did not experience significant changes for the 1990-2021 period, neither were observed long-term changes in the chlorophyll concentration. The hypothesis proposed to explain this lack of trends, is that the salinity increase of the surface waters has compensated for the warming, and consequently, the density of the upper layer of the Western Mediterranean (WMED) has remained constant. As the wind intensity has not experienced significant trends, the stratification of the Spanish Mediterranean waters and those of the Gulf of Cádiz would have not been affected. Nevertheless, we do not discard that our results are a consequence of the short length of the available time series and the large variance of the variables analyzed, evidencing the importance of the maintenance of the ocean monitoring programs.En prens

IN VIVO activity of essential oil Origanum elongatum against larva L3 of Anisakis pegreffii

En este trabajo se aborda la posible actividad larvicida in vivo del aceite esencial de Origanum elongatum, recolectado en Marruecos, frente a las larvas L3 de Anisakis pegreffii, que parasitan distintas especies marinas. Los resultados obtenidos son demostrativos del interés potencial de este aceite esencial como preventivo de la infección por Anisakis, tras ingestión del pescado parasitado.Anisakiasis is an emerging zoonotic disease caused by species of the genus Anisakis. In humans, this parasite is manifested by digestive symptoms. In the virtual absence of effective treatments against this infection, our working group has initiated a series of investigations aimed at finding natural products such as essential oils and their major components, which might be of interest in the treatment of the infectious form of these zoonoses. OBJECTIVE: Establishment of the possible in vivo activity of essential oil of O. elongatum, against L3 larva of Anisakis pegreffii. METHODOLOGY: For the study in vivo, parasites were isolated from the host Scomber japonicus (mackerel) and Trachurus trachurus (horse mackerel). The experimental animals (female Wistar rats) were infected with 6 Anisakis larva by gastric catheter, this technique was used also for the administration of O. elongatum (46.9 mg / 0.5 ml of olive oil), according to the following guidelines: infection and joint treatment and sacrifice at 4 hours. Parallel to this, a control test was performed, administering 0.5 ml olive oil together with six larvae of the parasite to a group of animals. The identification of the larvae was carried out using molecular techniques (PCR-RFLP). The identification of the main components of essential oil was performed by GC-MS.Trabajo financiado por el proyecto: P07-CVI-0324

The evolution of the zooplankton community in the gulf of Cadiz, SW Iberian Peninsula

The Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) has been conducting a multidisciplinary study of the marine ecosystem in the Gulf of Cadiz (GoC; SW Iberian Peninsula) since 2009 within the frame of the program Time Series of Oceanographic data in the Gulf of Cadiz (STOCA, in Spanish). The program maintains repeated observations along five across-shelf transects: three times a year from 2009 to 2012 and quarterly on hereafter. In this paper we present the temporal evolution of the zooplankton community in the GoC. In particular, we focused on samples from three stations located off the Guadalquivir river mouth: GD1 (20 m depth), GD3 (80 m) and GD6 (450 m). Samples were taken with bongo-40 cm paired zooplankton nets (mesh size 200 mm). Double oblique hauls were conducted from top to bottom or to a maximum depth of 200 m) while the ship was steaming at 2.5 kn. A total of 43 samples per station were included in the analysis. Samples were imaged with ZooScan. Full images were processed with ZooProcess which generated set of associated features measured on each identified object (Gorsky et al, 2010). These objects were sorted following a common taxonomic guide using the web application EcoTaxa (http://ecotaxa.obs-vlfr.fr). As a sanity check, a variable number of aliquots were directly identified by light microscopy. These results permitted the description of the mean and variable components of the plankton community, their seasonal in the context of the thermohaline and transport variability in the 2010s

IFNL4 ss469415590 polymorphism is associated with unfavourable clinical and immunological status in HIV-infected individuals

AbstractThe IFNL4 ss469415590 polymorphism, in high linkage disequilibrium with the IL28B rs12979860 variant, has been associated with hepatitis C virus clearance. We evaluated whether ss469415590 is associated with clinical and immunovirological parameters in human immunodeficiency virus-infected subjects. We found an independent association of the IFNL4 ss469415590 polymorphism with higher prevalence of AIDS-defining illnesses and lower CD4 T cell numbers. These results suggest the existence of common host defence mechanisms against different viral infections

DEVELOPING TECHNICAL ENGLISH SKILLS FOR CIVIL ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Traditionally, Spanish schools of civil engineering provide their students a class on “Technical English” in order to develop their language skills. However, this class does not cover all the skills that the student would need in the labor market and mainly focuses in the reading and writing skills, and in a lower degree in the speaking and listening ones. This paper proposes a series of innovative and informal training activities, such as cine-forum on technical civil engineering topics and role playing on real professional situations, that allow Spanish civil engineering students to develop English skills, that can rarely be worked in the classroom (i.e. speaking, negotiating and conversing), which encourage debate, participation, and foster their self-confidence to speak about technical-English topics in public. Although the students’ level of English is much lower than expected, they all agree on the importance of technical English for their future career. The results also show the students’ lack in skills that are difficult to train in regular classes (speaking and talking). Consequently, this situation would require to provide complementary activities like the ones suggested in this project in order to develop these skills and increase the students’ demand for engineering classes taught in English

Resonance capture cross section of 207Pb

The radiative neutron capture cross section of 207Pb has been measured at the CERN neutron time of flight installation n_TOF using the pulse height weighting technique in the resolved energy region. The measurement has been performed with an optimized setup of two C6D6 scintillation detectors, which allowed us to reduce scattered neutron backgrounds down to a negligible level. Resonance parameters and radiative kernels have been determined for 16 resonances by means of an R-matrix analysis in the neutron energy range from 3 keV to 320 keV. Good agreement with previous measurements was found at low neutron energies, whereas substantial discrepancies appear beyond 45 keV. With the present results, we obtain an s-process contribution of 77(8)% to the solar abundance of 207Pb. This corresponds to an r-process component of 23(8)%, which is important for deriving the U/Th ages of metal poor halo stars.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Influence of the length of hospitalisation in post-discharge outcomes in patients with acute heart failure: Results of the LOHRCA study

Objective: To investigate the relationship between length of hospitalisation (LOH) and post-discharge outcomes in acute heart failure (AHF) patients and to ascertain whether there are different patterns according to department of initial hospitalisation. Methods: Consecutive AHF patients hospitalised in 41 Spanish centres were grouped based on the LOH (15 days). Outcomes were defined as 90-day post-discharge all-cause mortality, AHF readmissions, and the combination of both. Hazard ratios (HRs), adjusted by chronic conditions and severity of decompensation, were calculated for groups with LOH >6 days vs. LOH <6 days (reference), and stratified by hospitalisation in cardiology, internal medicine, geriatrics, or short-stay units. Results: We included 8563 patients (mean age: 80 (SD = 10) years, 55.5% women), with a median LOH of 7 days (IQR 4–11): 2934 (34.3%) had a LOH 15 days. The 90-day post-discharge mortality was 11.4%, readmission 32.2%, and combined endpoint 37.4%. Mortality was increased by 36.5% (95%CI = 13.0–64.9) when LOH was 11–15 days, and by 72.0% (95%CI = 42.6–107.5) when >15 days. Conversely, no differences were found in readmission risk, and the combined endpoint only increased 21.6% (95%CI = 8.4–36.4) for LOH >15 days. Stratified analysis by hospitalisation departments rendered similar post-discharge outcomes, with all exhibiting increased mortality for LOH >15 days and no significant increments in readmission risk. Conclusions: Short hospitalisations are not associated with worse outcomes. While post-discharge readmissions are not affected by LOH, mortality risk increases as the LOH lengthens. These findings were similar across hospitalisation departments

Single Spin Asymmetry ANA_N in Polarized Proton-Proton Elastic Scattering at s=200\sqrt{s}=200 GeV

We report a high precision measurement of the transverse single spin asymmetry $A_N$ at the center of mass energy $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV in elastic proton-proton scattering by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The $A_N$ was measured in the four-momentum transfer squared $t$ range $0.003 \leqslant |t| \leqslant 0.035$ \GeVcSq, the region of a significant interference between the electromagnetic and hadronic scattering amplitudes. The measured values of $A_N$ and its $t$-dependence are consistent with a vanishing hadronic spin-flip amplitude, thus providing strong constraints on the ratio of the single spin-flip to the non-flip amplitudes. Since the hadronic amplitude is dominated by the Pomeron amplitude at this $\sqrt{s}$, we conclude that this measurement addresses the question about the presence of a hadronic spin flip due to the Pomeron exchange in polarized proton-proton elastic scattering.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure