eCultura. Platform for Preservation and Exploitation of Cultural Content

Poster presentado en Cultural Heritage on line (2009).The eCultura project aims at developing a semantically-enriched web platform that enables cultural heritage institutions to manage and exhibit the semantics of publicly available web assets at a minimal cost and with a short investments on required software infrastructure. The platform will provide a complete set of applications and services to enhance the user experience when accessing web-based contents of the cultural domain. These services include semantic wikis, multimedia annotations, timeline presentations, interactive maps, and so on, which are deployed on a common platform. The eCultura platform is integrated by a number of open source applications grounded on a semantic web infrastructure that supports the semantic integration of all services. Semantic web technologies enable to share information among these services, as well as provide interoperability with external systems. W3C knowledge representation languages and standards are used to describe concepts of the cultural domain and provide a semantically interoperable environment. Web 2.0 techniques are used to build user communities around the shared information of cultural institutions, having the specific goal of exploiting their knowledge base in learning and educational environments. The communication among software components and applications is based on a producer/consumer model. Some services, such as wikis and blogs, work as source of information and knowledge, while other services, such as interactive maps and timeline, work as consumers to exploit the semantically enriched information. The knowledge base is stored on a shared OWL repository gathering the semantics of diverse cultural fields, including the CIDOC reference model, the FRBR ontology and the MusicOntology

Sulfur-doped carbon nanofibers as support for tantalum oxides bifunctional catalysts for the oxygen reduction and evolution reactions

Highly efficient, low-cost and stable bifunctional catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are highly desirable for the development of green electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices. Here, we report the synthesis of sulfur-doped carbon nanofibers (CNF) as support for tantalum oxide nanoparticles. Carbon nanofibers and tantalum oxides represent a durable choice for oxygen electrocatalysis, but an improvement of catalytic activity is required. Upon doping, sulfur is found to be mainly bonded to carbon as C–S–C species (more than 80%). The results show that the effective incorporation of sulfur in the support has a clear positive effect on the electroactivity of the tantalum oxide catalysts. It causes a decrease of OER/ORR overpotential of 80 mV with respect to the undoped counterpart, with special improvement in the ORR. The new catalysts have shown an interesting bifunctional behavior for the OER and ORR, as well as a good stability through time

Dogs Detecting COVID-19 From Sweat and Saliva of Positive People : A Field Experience in Mexico

ContextMolecular tests are useful in detecting COVID-19, but they are expensive in developing countries. COVID-19-sniffing dogs are an alternative due to their reported sensitivity (>80%) and specificity (>90%). However, most of the published evidence is experimental, and there is a need to determine the performance of the dogs in field conditions. Hence, we aimed to test the sensitivity and specificity of COVID-19-sniffing dogs in the field. MethodsWe trained four dogs with sweat and three dogs with saliva of COVID-19-positive patients, respectively, for 4.5 months. The samples were obtained from a health center in Hermosillo, Sonora, with the restriction to spend 5 min per patient. We calculated sensitivity, specificity, and their 95% confidence intervals (CI). ResultsTwo sweat-sniffing dogs reached 76 and 80% sensitivity, with the 95% CI not overlapping the random value of 50%, and 75 and 88% specificity, with the 95% CI not overlapping the 50% value. The 95% CI of the sensitivity and specificity of the other two sweat dogs overlapped the 50% value. Two saliva-sniffing dogs had 70 and 78% sensitivity, and the 95% CI of their sensitivity and specificity did not overlap the 50% value. The 95% CI of the third dog's sensitivity and specificity overlapped the 50% value. ConclusionFour of the six dogs were able to detect positive samples of patients with COVID-19, with sensitivity and specificity values significantly different from random in the field. We considered the performance of the dogs promising because it is reasonable to expect that with gauze exposed for a longer time to sweat and saliva of people with COVID-19, their detection capacity would improve. The target is to reach the sensitivity range requested by the World Health Organization for the performance of an antigen test (>= 80% sensitivity, >= 97% specificity). If so, dogs could become important allies for the control of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in developing countries.Peer reviewe

Synthesis and Leishmanicidal Activity of Novel Urea, Thiourea, and Selenourea Derivatives of Diselenides

A novel series of thirty-one N-substituted urea, thiourea, and selenourea derivatives containing diphenyldiselenide entities were synthesized, fully characterized by spectroscopic and analytical methods, and screened for their in vitro leishmanicidal activities. The cytotoxic activity of these derivatives was tested against Leishmania infantum axenic amastigotes, and selectivity was assessed in human THP-1 cells. Thirteen of the synthesized compounds showed a significant antileishmanial activity, with 50% effective concentration (EC50) values lower than that for the reference drug miltefosine (EC50, 2.84¿¿M). In addition, the derivatives 9, 11, 42, and 47, with EC50 between 1.1 and 1.95¿¿M, also displayed excellent selectivity (selectivity index ranged from 12.4 to 22.7) and were tested against infected macrophages. Compound 11, a derivative with a cyclohexyl chain, exhibited the highest activity against intracellular amastigotes, with EC50 values similar to those observed for the standard drug edelfosine. Structure-activity relationship analyses revealed that N-aliphatic substitution in urea and selenourea is recommended for the leishmanicidal activity of these analogs. Preliminary studies of the mechanism of action for the hit compounds was carried out by measuring their ability to inhibit trypanothione reductase. Even though the obtained results suggest that this enzyme is not the target for most of these derivatives, their activity comparable to that of the standards and lack of toxicity in THP-1 cells highlight the potential of these compounds to be optimized for leishmaniasis treatment.Comunidad de MadridMinisterio de Economía y CompetitividadFoundation for Applied Medical Investigatio

Evolving trends in the management of acute appendicitis during COVID-19 waves. The ACIE appy II study

Background: In 2020, ACIE Appy study showed that COVID-19 pandemic heavily affected the management of patients with acute appendicitis (AA) worldwide, with an increased rate of non-operative management (NOM) strategies and a trend toward open surgery due to concern of virus transmission by laparoscopy and controversial recommendations on this issue. The aim of this study was to survey again the same group of surgeons to assess if any difference in management attitudes of AA had occurred in the later stages of the outbreak. Methods: From August 15 to September 30, 2021, an online questionnaire was sent to all 709 participants of the ACIE Appy study. The questionnaire included questions on personal protective equipment (PPE), local policies and screening for SARS-CoV-2 infection, NOM, surgical approach and disease presentations in 2021. The results were compared with the results from the previous study. Results: A total of 476 answers were collected (response rate 67.1%). Screening policies were significatively improved with most patients screened regardless of symptoms (89.5% vs. 37.4%) with PCR and antigenic test as the preferred test (74.1% vs. 26.3%). More patients tested positive before surgery and commercial systems were the preferred ones to filter smoke plumes during laparoscopy. Laparoscopic appendicectomy was the first option in the treatment of AA, with a declined use of NOM. Conclusion: Management of AA has improved in the last waves of pandemic. Increased evidence regarding SARS-COV-2 infection along with a timely healthcare systems response has been translated into tailored attitudes and a better care for patients with AA worldwide

Why Are Outcomes Different for Registry Patients Enrolled Prospectively and Retrospectively? Insights from the Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF).

Background: Retrospective and prospective observational studies are designed to reflect real-world evidence on clinical practice, but can yield conflicting results. The GARFIELD-AF Registry includes both methods of enrolment and allows analysis of differences in patient characteristics and outcomes that may result. Methods and Results: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and ≥1 risk factor for stroke at diagnosis of AF were recruited either retrospectively (n = 5069) or prospectively (n = 5501) from 19 countries and then followed prospectively. The retrospectively enrolled cohort comprised patients with established AF (for a least 6, and up to 24 months before enrolment), who were identified retrospectively (and baseline and partial follow-up data were collected from the emedical records) and then followed prospectively between 0-18 months (such that the total time of follow-up was 24 months; data collection Dec-2009 and Oct-2010). In the prospectively enrolled cohort, patients with newly diagnosed AF (≤6 weeks after diagnosis) were recruited between Mar-2010 and Oct-2011 and were followed for 24 months after enrolment. Differences between the cohorts were observed in clinical characteristics, including type of AF, stroke prevention strategies, and event rates. More patients in the retrospectively identified cohort received vitamin K antagonists (62.1% vs. 53.2%) and fewer received non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (1.8% vs . 4.2%). All-cause mortality rates per 100 person-years during the prospective follow-up (starting the first study visit up to 1 year) were significantly lower in the retrospective than prospectively identified cohort (3.04 [95% CI 2.51 to 3.67] vs . 4.05 [95% CI 3.53 to 4.63]; p = 0.016). Conclusions: Interpretations of data from registries that aim to evaluate the characteristics and outcomes of patients with AF must take account of differences in registry design and the impact of recall bias and survivorship bias that is incurred with retrospective enrolment. Clinical Trial Registration: - URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier for GARFIELD-AF (NCT01090362)

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

Electrocatalizadores de tantalio y nanoestructuras carbonosas para la reducción y evolución de oxígeno

Tesis presentada para optar al grado de Doctor en Ingeniería Química por la Universidad de Zaragoza.-- Fecha de lectura de la tesis: 27/09/2022.[EN] Hydrogen is considered an advantageous energy vector compared to fossil fuels, as it is a cleaner fuel when obtained in combination with renewable energy sources. In this framework, unitized regenerative fuel cells (URFC) are interesting devices because they allow the electrolysis of water to obtain hydrogen and the combustion of hydrogen to obtain electric energy in the same device. Some current limitations in the development of URFCs are the cost, the bifunctionality and the durability of the electrocatalysts at the electrodes and, in particular, the oxygen electrode. The most active catalysts known today for the oxygen reactions that take place in a URFC are Pt for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR); and Ir, Ru and their oxides for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). These metals are critical raw materials with high supply risk and economic importance, which means that the final cost of URFCs is high. To overcome these limitations, other types of metallic catalysts are being studied, such as those based on metals from groups IV and V of the periodic table (Ti, Zr, Ta, etc.), which are characterized by excellent stability but low activity and electrical conductivity. In this sense, the incorporation of carbonaceous supports is postulated as a promising way to improve the conductivity, the stability and the dispersion of the catalytic metal particles. The work presented in this memory focuses on the study of electrocatalysts based on tantalum oxides supported on carbonaceous materials as bifunctional catalysts for the oxygen electrode of URFC. The effect of using different carbonaceous supports as well as the preparation conditions of the tantalum catalysts on the activity for ORR and OER and their durability have been studied. Within the great variety of carbonaceous supports that are currently known, carbon black was chosen to optimize the synthesis route of the active phase. Once the favorable preparation parameters were established, the study was deepened using carbon nanofibers (CNFs), a composite of reduced graphene oxide and carbon nanofibers (rGO-CNF), and sulfur-doped carbon nanofibers, in order to improve the activity and durability of tantalum based electrocatalysts. The results indicate that the support determines the electrocatalytic activity of the catalyst as well as its resistance to degradation. The tantalum particles have been deposited on the carbonaceous supports by a microemulsion method and then followed by a thermal treatment. The effect of particle size, influenced by the microemulsion conditions, and the annealing temperature of the catalysts on their activity have been investigated. The electrocatalytic activity has been studied in a three-electrode cell in an alkaline medium at room temperature as a preliminary study before application. Under these conditions, it has been observed that most catalysts have good activity for OER but need to be improved for ORR so that they can be competitive against other electrocatalysts for oxygen reactions. Although carbon black served to define a synthesis route for the tantalum-based catalysts, it proved not to be a good support, giving rise to catalysts with low activity and poor durability for ORR and OER.The use of carbon nanofibers has resulted in improved OER activity, close to that of Ir, proving to be better supports than carbon black. This support also presented much better durability than carbon black. However, its activity for ORR is low. The composite of reduced graphene oxide and carbon nanofibers presented better activity for ORR than that provided by carbon nanofibers, but with a slight reduction in activity for OER. These electrocatalysts also had good durability. Sulfur-doped nanofibers improved ORR activity compared to CNFs but not as much as the rGOCNF composite. The activity for the OER with this support decreases with respect to the support of CNFs. Among all the electrocatalysts studied, the catalysts based on tantalum supported on the rGOCNF composite are finally those that present the best bifunctionality for the ORR/OER pair and also have good durability.[ES] El hidrógeno se baraja como un vector energético ventajoso frente a los combustibles fósiles, por ser un combustible más limpio si se obtiene en combinación con las fuentes de energía renovables. En este marco, las pilas de combustible regenerativas en una unidad (URFC) son dispositivos interesantes porque permiten en un mismo dispositivo la electrólisis del agua para obtener hidrógeno y la combustión de hidrógeno para obtener energía eléctrica. Algunas de las limitaciones actuales en el desarrollo de las URFCs son el coste, la bifuncionalidad y la durabilidad de los electrocatalizadores que componen los electrodos, y en particular el electrodo de oxígeno. Los catalizadores más activos conocidos a día de hoy para las reacciones de oxígeno que tienen lugar en una URFC son el Pt para la reacción de reducción de oxígeno (ORR); y el Ir, el Ru y sus óxidos para la reacción de evolución de oxígeno (OER). Estos metales preciosos son materias críticas cuyo uso supone un riesgo de suministro además de un coste elevado, lo que hace que el coste final de las URFCs sea muy elevado. Para superar estas limitaciones se están estudiando otro tipo de catalizadores metálicos como los basados en metales de los grupos IV y V de la tabla periódica (Ti, Zr, Ta, etc.) que se caracterizan por una buena estabilidad pero baja actividad y conductividad eléctrica. En ese sentido la incorporación de soportes carbonosos se postula como una vía prometedora para mejorar la conductividad, estabilidad y dispersión de las partículas metálicas catalíticas. El trabajo presentado en esta memoria se centra en el estudio de electrocatalizadores basados en óxidos de tantalio soportados en materiales carbonosos como catalizadores bifuncionales para el electrodo de oxígeno de las URFC. Se ha estudiado cuál es el efecto de usar diferentes soportes carbonosos nanoestructurados así como las condiciones de preparación de los catalizadores de tantalio en la actividad de cada catalizador para la ORR, la OER y la durabilidad. Dentro de la gran variedad de soportes carbonosos que se conocen actualmente, se eligió el negro de carbono para optimizar la ruta de síntesis de la fase activa. Una vez establecidas las condiciones de preparación más favorables, se profundizó en el estudio utilizando nanofibras de carbono (CNFs), materiales compuestos (composites) de óxido de grafeno reducido y nanofibras de carbono (rGO-CNF), y nanofibras de carbono dopadas con azufre, con la finalidad de mejorar la actividad y la durabilidad de los electrocatalizadores de tantalio. Se ha visto como el soporte condiciona la actividad electrocatalítica del catalizador así como su resistencia a la degradación. Las partículas de tantalio se han depositado en los soportes carbonosos por un método de microemulsión y posteriormente se han tratado térmicamente. Se ha estudiado cómo afecta el tamaño de partícula (regulable durante la etapa de microemulsión) y la temperatura de activación de los catalizadores en la actividad final de los mismos. Los estudios de la actividad electrocatalítica se han realizado en una celda de tres electrodos en medio alcalino a temperatura ambiente como estudio preliminar previo a su aplicación. En estas condiciones se ha observado cómo la mayoría de catalizadores presentan buena actividad para la OER pero necesitan ser mejorados para la ORR para que puedan ser competitivos frente a otros electrocatalizadores para las reacciones de oxígeno.Aunque el negro de carbono permitió definir una ruta de síntesis para los catalizadores, este demostró no ser buen soporte dando lugar a catalizadores con baja actividad y muy baja durabilidad para la ORR y la OER. Las nanofibras de carbono han permitido obtener electrocatalizadores con una buena actividad para la OER, próxima a la del Ir, demostrando ser mejores soportes que el negro de carbono. Este soporte además presentó tener mucha mejor durabilidad que el negro de carbono. Sin embargo, su actividad para la ORR ha demostrado ser baja. El composite de óxido de grafeno reducido y nanofibras de carbono presentó mejor actividad para la ORR que el proporcionado por las nanofibras de carbono pero con una ligera reducción de la actividad para la OER. Estos electrocatalizadores presentaron además una buena durabilidad. Las nanofibras dopadas con azufre mejoraron la actividad para la ORR comparado con las CNFs sin dopar pero no tanto como el composite rGO-CNF. La actividad para la OER con este soporte disminuyó con respecto al soporte de CNFs. Entre todos los electrocatalizadores estudiados, los catalizadores basados en tantalio soportados sobre el composite rGO-CNF son los que presentan una mejor bifuncionalidad para el par ORR/OER, teniendo además una buena durabilidad.Beca personal investigador predoctoral en formación del Gobierno de Aragón 2016, financiada al 50% por Gobierno de Aragón, Departamento de Ciencia, Universidad y Sociedad del Conocimiento y Fondo Social Europeo "Construyendo Europa desde Aragón".Peer reviewe