Quantifying Nonequilibrium Behavior with Varying Cooling Rates

We investigate nonequilibrium behavior in (1+1)-dimensional stochastic field theories in the context of Ginzburg-Landau models at varying cooling rates. We argue that a reliable measure of the departure from thermal equilibrium can be obtained from the absolute value of the rate of change of the momentum-integrated structure function, $\Delta S_{\rm{tot}}$. We show that the peak of $\Delta S_{\rm{tot}}$ scales with the cooling, or quench, time-scale, $\tau_q$, in agreement with the prediction by Laguna and Zurek for the scaling of freeze-out time in both over and under-damped regimes. Furthermore, we show that the amplitude of the peak scales as $\tau_q^{-6/5}$ independent of the viscosity.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

2-DE analysis of sera protein expression profiles in early stages of human neonatal development. A preliminary study.

Comunicaciones a congreso

T-Wave Morphology Changes as Surrogate for Blood Potassium Concentration in Hemodialysis Patients

End-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) are at high risk of arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death as a result of blood potassium concentration ([K+ ]) changes. The aim of this study is to investigate if dw, a time-warping-based electrocardiogram (ECG) biomarker of T-wave morphology changes, reflects [K+] evolution in HD patients, facilitating noninvasive [K+] monitoring and avoiding in-hospital blood tests analysis. 48-hour ECGs and a set of hourly-collected blood samples from 12 ESRD patients were acquired and analyzed. dw was calculated between a reference T-wave, measured at the end of the HD session, and the T-waves corresponding to each hour along the whole HD session, when [K+] was measured from blood samples. The values of dw correlated with the relative variations in [K+] with respect to the reference value (end of HD, ¿[K+ ]), with a median (interquartile) correlation coefficient of 0.90 (0.30), evidencing a strong relation between them. Our findings support the use of dw as a surrogate of ¿[K+], suggesting a potential use of dw for non-invasive hyperkalemia monitoring both in hospital and ambulatory settings

Monitoring blood potassium concentration in hemodialysis patients by quantifying T-wave morphology dynamics.

We investigated the ability of time-warping-based ECG-derived markers of T-wave morphology changes in time ([Formula: see text]) and amplitude ([Formula: see text]), as well as their non-linear components ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]), and the heart rate corrected counterpart ([Formula: see text]), to monitor potassium concentration ([Formula: see text]) changes ([Formula: see text]) in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD). We compared the performance of the proposed time-warping markers, together with other previously proposed [Formula: see text] markers, such as T-wave width ([Formula: see text]) and T-wave slope-to-amplitude ratio ([Formula: see text]), when computed from standard ECG leads as well as from principal component analysis (PCA)-based leads. 48-hour ECG recordings and a set of hourly-collected blood samples from 29 ESRD-HD patients were acquired. Values of [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] were calculated by comparing the morphology of the mean warped T-waves (MWTWs) derived at each hour along the HD with that from a reference MWTW, measured at the end of the HD. From the same MWTWs [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] were also extracted. Similarly, [Formula: see text] was calculated as the difference between the [Formula: see text] values at each hour and the [Formula: see text] reference level at the end of the HD session. We found that [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] showed higher correlation coefficients with [Formula: see text] than [Formula: see text]-Spearman's ([Formula: see text]) and Pearson's (r)-and [Formula: see text]-Spearman's ([Formula: see text])-in both SL and PCA approaches being the intra-patient median [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] in SL and [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] in PCA respectively. Our findings would point at [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] as the most suitable surrogate of [Formula: see text], suggesting that they could be potentially useful for non-invasive monitoring of ESRD-HD patients in hospital, as well as in ambulatory settings. Therefore, the tracking of T-wave morphology variations by means of time-warping analysis could improve continuous and remote [Formula: see text] monitoring of ESRD-HD patients and flagging risk of [Formula: see text]-related cardiovascular events

Implementation of higher-order absorbing boundary conditions for the Einstein equations

We present an implementation of absorbing boundary conditions for the Einstein equations based on the recent work of Buchman and Sarbach. In this paper, we assume that spacetime may be linearized about Minkowski space close to the outer boundary, which is taken to be a coordinate sphere. We reformulate the boundary conditions as conditions on the gauge-invariant Regge-Wheeler-Zerilli scalars. Higher-order radial derivatives are eliminated by rewriting the boundary conditions as a system of ODEs for a set of auxiliary variables intrinsic to the boundary. From these we construct boundary data for a set of well-posed constraint-preserving boundary conditions for the Einstein equations in a first-order generalized harmonic formulation. This construction has direct applications to outer boundary conditions in simulations of isolated systems (e.g., binary black holes) as well as to the problem of Cauchy-perturbative matching. As a test problem for our numerical implementation, we consider linearized multipolar gravitational waves in TT gauge, with angular momentum numbers l=2 (Teukolsky waves), 3 and 4. We demonstrate that the perfectly absorbing boundary condition B_L of order L=l yields no spurious reflections to linear order in perturbation theory. This is in contrast to the lower-order absorbing boundary conditions B_L with L<l, which include the widely used freezing-Psi_0 boundary condition that imposes the vanishing of the Newman-Penrose scalar Psi_0.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures. Minor clarifications. Final version to appear in Class. Quantum Grav

Tidally-induced thermonuclear Supernovae

We discuss the results of 3D simulations of tidal disruptions of white dwarfs by moderate-mass black holes as they may exist in the cores of globular clusters or dwarf galaxies. Our simulations follow self-consistently the hydrodynamic and nuclear evolution from the initial parabolic orbit over the disruption to the build-up of an accretion disk around the black hole. For strong enough encounters (pericentre distances smaller than about 1/3 of the tidal radius) the tidal compression is reversed by a shock and finally results in a thermonuclear explosion. These explosions are not restricted to progenitor masses close to the Chandrasekhar limit, we find exploding examples throughout the whole white dwarf mass range. There is, however, a restriction on the masses of the involved black holes: black holes more massive than $2\times 10^5$ M$_\odot$ swallow a typical 0.6 M$_\odot$ dwarf before their tidal forces can overwhelm the star's self-gravity. Therefore, this mechanism is characteristic for black holes of moderate masses. The material that remains bound to the black hole settles into an accretion disk and produces an X-ray flare close to the Eddington limit of $L_{\rm Edd} \simeq 10^{41} {\rm erg/s} M_{\rm bh}/1000 M$_\odot$), typically lasting for a few months. The combination of a peculiar thermonuclear supernova together with an X-ray flare thus whistle-blows the existence of such moderate-mass black holes. The next generation of wide field space-based instruments should be able to detect such events.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, EuroWD0

Aproximación Proteómica al síndrome de apneas-hipopneas del sueño

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Devetnaesti put o Petriću i drugi put o Boškoviću – u Cresu (str. 409-414). Znanstveni skup Od Petrića do Boškovića: hrvatski filozofi u europskom kontekstu / From Petrić to Bošković: Croatian Philosophers in the European Context, Cres, 26–29. rujna 2012. Ivana Zagorac i Ivica Martinović (ur.), "21. Dani Frane Petrića / 21st days of Frane Petrić" (Zagreb: HFD, 2012), uvodnik na pp. 18–20; program skupa »Od Petrića do Boškovića: hrvatski filozofi u europskom kontekstu / From Petrić to Bošković: Croatian Philosophers in the European Context« na pp. 37–42; dvojezični sažeci na pp. 135–180; adresar izlagača na pp. 191–192.

The perovskite La0.15Sm0.35Sr0.08Ba0.42FeO3 − δ has been prepared by the glycine nitrate (GNC) route, varying the fuel/oxidizer ratio (glycine/nitrate, G/N = 1 and 2) and cooling rate (slow cooling and air-quenched), in order to study the influence of sample preparation on the materials' properties, in the context of their application as a cathode material for SOFCs. For this, the performance of the prepared mixed ion and electron conducting perovskite oxides is dictated by their structure, oxygen stoichiometry (3 − δ), chemical composition and thermal expansion properties. High-resolution Synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction patterns were collected at room temperature and at 700 and 800 °C. It was found that the materials had a cubic crystal structure at these temperatures. As expected, 3 − δ decreased as temperature increased, and was slightly smaller for the quenched sample. Higher electrical conductivity values were obtained for the sample with G/N = 1 (air-quenched) in the cooling rate. At 700 and 800 °C the cathode synthesized with G/N = 1 and air-quenched showed the smallest polarization resistance values in impedance spectroscopy studies. Therefore, the physicochemical and electrochemical characterization clearly demonstrated the influence of the synthetic conditions on the cathode performance.This research has been funded by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MAT2016-76739-R (AEI/FEDER, UE) and MAT2015-86078-R), and Departamento de Educación of the Basque Government (IT-630-13). The authors thank SGIker of UPV/EHU for technical and personnel support. This work was benefited from the BL04-MSPD beamline at ALBA. The authors thank Dr. Francois Fauth of the Experiments Division of ALBA for his assistance in situ synchrotron measurements. K. Vidal thanks UPV/EHU for funding.Peer reviewe

Evaluation of rapid methods for diagnosis of tuberculosis in slaughtered free-range pigs

Free-range pigs can be infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) and may contribute to the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). In the present study, the diagnostic values of bacteriological culture, a duplex real-time quantitative PCR and an antibody ELISA were evaluated in an abattoir study of submandibular lymph nodes and serum samples from 73 pigs with and without lesions consistent with bTB. The duplex qPCR was an accurate method for diagnosis of TB in pigs (specificity 100%; sensitivity 80%). Combining qPCR with histopathology improved sensitivity and had very good concordance (κ = 0.94) with the reference method. Serological results suggest that the antibody ELISA can be used for monitoring herds but not individuals

Educational and labor wastage of doctors in Mexico: towards the construction of a common methodology

BACKGROUND: This paper addresses the problem of wastage of the qualified labor force, which takes place both during the education process and when trained personnel try to find jobs in the local market. METHODS: Secondary sources were used, mainly the Statistical yearbooks of the National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions (ANUIES in Spanish). Also, the 2000 Population Census was used to estimate the different sources of labor market wastage. The formulas were modified to estimate educational and labor wastage rates. RESULTS: Out of every 1000 students who started a medical training in 1996, over 20% were not able to finish the training by 2000. Furthermore, out of every 1000 graduates, 31% were not able to find a remunerated position in the labor market that would enable them to put into practice the abilities and capacities obtained at school. Important differences can be observed between generalists and specialists, as well as between men and women. In the case of specialists and men, lower wastage rates can be observed as compared to the wastage rates of generalists and women. A large percentage of women dedicate themselves exclusively to household duties, which in labor terms represents a wastage of their capacity to participate in the production of formal health services. CONCLUSION: Women are becoming a majority in most medical schools, yet their participation in the labor market does not reflect the same trend. Among men, policies should be formulated to incorporate doctors in the specific health field for which they were trained. Regarding women, specific policies should target those who are dedicated full-time to household activities in order to create the possibility of having them occupy a remunerated job if they are willing to do so. Reducing wastage at both the educational and labor levels should improve the capacity of social investment, thereby increasing the capacity of the health system as a whole to provide services, particularly to those populations who are most in need