Synthesis and characterization of graphene/polythiophene (GR/PT) nanocomposites:Evaluation as high-performance supercapacitor electrodes

Composites of polythiophene (PT) and graphene (GR) with different mass proportions were studied for their application as supercapacitors. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) along with High Resolution Scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM) were employed in order to characterize the morphology and composition of the resulting composites. The electrochemical behaviour of these composites was studied by means of cyclic voltammetry and specific capacitance curves were derived from these measurements. The Faradaic impedance spectroscopy response of the different composites, along with that of GR, was also studied. From these measurements it was found that a 1:1 in mass composite of GR and PT showed a higher specific capacitance, even when compared with GR alone. The introduction of the GR in that proportion also showed an enhanced cyclic stability in comparison with the sole polymer. The high specific capacitance (365 F g-1 at 1 A g-1) of this composite material indicates its potential for use as an electrode material for supercapacitors.Fil: Melo, J. P.. Universidad Bernardo OHiggins; ChileFil: Schulz, Eduardo Nicolás. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ingeniería Química. Instituto de Ingeniería Electroquímica y Corrosión; Argentina. University of Birmingham; Reino UnidoFil: Morales Verdejo, C.. Universidad Bernardo OHiggins; ChileFil: Horswell, S. L.. University of Birmingham; Reino UnidoFil: Camarada, M. B.. Universidad Bernardo OHiggins; Chil

Exploiting the Hierarchical Structure of Rule-Based Specifications for Decision Planning

Rule-based specifications have been very successful as a declarative approach in many domains, due to the handy yet solid foundations offered by rule-based machineries like term and graph rewriting. Realistic problems, however, call for suitable techniques to guarantee scalability. For instance, many domains exhibit a hierarchical structure that can be exploited conveniently. This is particularly evident for composition associations of models. We propose an explicit representation of such structured models and a methodology that exploits it for the description and analysis of model- and rule-based systems. The approach is presented in the framework of rewriting logic and its efficient implementation in the rewrite engine Maude and is illustrated with a case study.

MISMIS: Desinformación y agresividad en los medios de comunicación social: agregando información y analizando el lenguaje

[EN] The general objectives of the project are to address and monitor misinformation (biased and fake news) and miscommunication (aggressive language and hate speech) in social media, as well as to establish a high quality methodological standard for the whole research community (i) by developing rich annotated datasets, a data repository and online evaluation services; (ii) by proposing suitable evaluation metrics; and (iii) by organizing evaluation campaigns to foster research on the above issues.[ES] Los objetivos generales del proyecto son abordar y monitorizar la desinformación (noticias sesgadas y falsas) y la mala comunicación (lenguaje agresivo y mensajes de odio) en los medios de comunicación social, así como establecer un estándar metodológico de calidad para toda la comunidad investigadora mediante: i) el desarrollo de datasets anotados, un repositorio de datos y servicios de evaluación online; ii) la propuesta de métricas de evaluación adecuadas; y iii) la organización de campañas de evaluación para fomentar la investigación sobre las cuestiones mencionadas.The MISMIS project (PGC2018-096212-B) is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.Rosso, P.; Casacuberta Nolla, F.; Gonzalo, J.; Plaza, L.; Carrillo, J.; Amigó, E.; Verdejo, MF.... (2020). MISMIS: Misinformation and Miscommunication in social media: aggregating information and analysing language. Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural. (65):101-104. https://doi.org/10.26342/2020-65-13S1011046

Comments on Marine Litter in Oceans, Seas and Beaches: Characteristics and Impacts.

Marine litter is observed along shorelines, pelagic, benthic marine and lake systems all around the globe. On beaches, litter creates aesthetic and related economic problems because a clean beach is one of the most important characteristics of a seaside resort required by visitors. Litter can reach the marine environment from marine or land activities but it is estimated that 80% originates from land-based sources. The marine-based sources of litter include all types of sea-going vessel and offshore installations, the most abundant plastic debris in the oceans being derelict (lost or improperly discarded) fishing gear. Most of marine litter is composed by plastics due to their greater durability and persistence, combined with plastic rising production and low rates of recovery. Special importance is linked to microplastics because their ubiquity, persistence, mechanical effects on biota and the ecosystem because of ingestion by organisms and their toxic potential. As plastics degrade they can release toxic chemicals initially incorporated during their manufacturing or persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals sorbed to their surfaces in the environment. Such toxins can disrupt endocrine functions and cause harmful reproductive and developmental effects in aquatic animals

Effects of ecstasy/polydrug use on memory for associative information

Rationale Associative learning underpins behaviours that are fundamental to the everyday functioning of the individual. Evidence pointing to learning deficits in recreational drug users merits further examination. Objectives A word pair learning task was administered to examine associative learning processes in ecstasy/polydrug users. Methods After assignment to either single or divided attention conditions, 44 ecstasy/polydrug users and 48 non-users were presented with 80 word pairs at encoding. Following this, four types of stimuli were presented at the recognition phase: the words as originally paired (old pairs), previously presented words in different pairings (conjunction pairs), old words paired with new words, and pairs of new words (not presented previously). The task was to identify which of the stimuli were intact old pairs. Results Ecstasy/ploydrug users produced significantly more false-positive responses overall compared to non-users. Increased long-term frequency of ecstasy use was positively associated with the propensity to produce false-positive responses. It was also associated with a more liberal signal detection theory decision criterion value. Measures of long term and recent cannabis use were also associated with these same word pair learning outcome measures. Conjunction word pairs, irrespective of drug use, generated the highest level of false-positive responses and significantly more false-positive responses were made in the divided attention condition compared to the single attention condition. Conclusions Overall, the results suggest that long-term ecstasy exposure may induce a deficit in associative learning and this may be in part a consequence of users adopting a more liberal decision criterion value

Efecto del incremento de la actividad física sobre la condición física en un grupo de adolescentes con sobrepeso y/u obesidad

This study evaluated the effect of increased physical activity (PA) to achieve PA recommendations according to the World Health Organization for improving health in a group of 42 adolescents (28 girls) with overweight / obesity (BMI = 29.37 ± 4.5 Kg / m²). The 12 weeks treatment consisted in the prescription and follow-up of the PA guidelines divided in two phases: intensive (weekly follow-up) and extensive (fortnightly follow-up). PA level was assessed using the Physician-based Assessment and Counseling questionnaire and the Physical Fitness using upper body isometric strength test, lower body explosive strength test and cardiorespiratory fitness test, all from the ALPHA battery fitness tests. After treatment, a significant improvement was observed (p <0.05) in cardiorespiratory fitness. In conclusion, this study shows that increasing PA practice and meeting the weekly recommendations of 300 minutes of moderate-vigorous PA, the adolescents’ group improved their cardiorespiratory fitness.Se analiza el efecto del incremento de actividad física (AF) para conseguir el cumplimiento de recomendaciones de AF para la mejora de la salud  según la Organización Mundial de la Salud  en un grupo de 42 adolescentes (28 chicas) con sobrepeso/obesidad (IMC=29.37±4.5 Kg/m²). El tratamiento de 12 semanas de duración consistió en la prescripción y seguimiento de AF en dos fases: intensiva (seguimiento semanal) y extensiva (seguimiento quincenal). El nivel de AF se valoró mediante el cuestionario Physician-based Assessment and Counseling  y  la condición física  mediante pruebas de fuerza isométrica del tren superior, fuerza explosiva de piernas y capacidad cardiorrespiratoria de la batería ALPHA. Tras el tratamiento se observa una mejora significativa (p<0,05) en capacidad cardiorrespiratoria. En conclusión, se muestra que incrementando la práctica de AF y cumpliendo las recomendaciones semanales de 300 minutos de AF moderada-vigorosa los adolescentes mejoraron su capacidad cardiorrespiratoria

Neurobehavioral consequences of chronic intrauterine opioid exposure in infants and preschool children: a systematic review and meta-analysis

<b>Background</b><p></p> It is assumed within the accumulated literature that children born of pregnant opioid dependent mothers have impaired neurobehavioral function as a consequence of chronic intrauterine opioid use.<p></p> <b>Methods</b><p></p> Quantitative and systematic review of the literature on the consequences of chronic maternal opioid use during pregnancy on neurobehavioral function of children was conducted using the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. We searched Cinahl, EMBASE, PsychINFO and MEDLINE between the periods of January 1995 to January 2012.<p></p> <b>Results</b><p></p> There were only 5 studies out of the 200 identified that quantitatively reported on neurobehavioral function of children after maternal opioid use during pregnancy. All 5 were case control studies with the number of exposed subjects within the studies ranging from 33–143 and 45–85 for the controls. This meta-analysis showed no significant impairments, at a non-conservative significance level of p < 0.05, for cognitive, psychomotor or observed behavioural outcomes for chronic intra-uterine exposed infants and pre-school children compared to non-exposed infants and children. However, all domains suggested a trend to poor outcomes in infants/children of opioid using mothers. The magnitude of all possible effects was small according to Cohen’s benchmark criteria.<p></p> <b>Conclusions</b><p></p> Chronic intra-uterine opioid exposed infants and pre-school children experienced no significant impairment in neurobehavioral outcomes when compared to non-exposed peers, although in all domains there was a trend to poorer outcomes. The findings of this review are limited by the small number of studies analysed, the heterogenous populations and small numbers within the individual studies. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine if any neuropsychological impairments appear after the age of 5 years and to help investigate further the role of environmental risk factors on the effect of ‘core’ phenotypes

Cognitive Flexibility and Clinical Severity in Eating Disorders

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore cognitive flexibility in a large dataset of people with Eating Disorders and Healthy Controls (HC) and to see how patient characteristics (body mass index [BMI] and length of illness) are related to this thinking style. METHODS: A dataset was constructed from our previous studies using a conceptual shift test--the Brixton Spatial Anticipation Test. 601 participants were included, 215 patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) (96 inpatients; 119 outpatients), 69 patients with Bulimia Nervosa (BN), 29 Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS), 72 in long-term recovery from AN (Rec AN) and a comparison group of 216 HC. RESULTS: The AN and EDNOS groups had significantly more errors than the other groups on the Brixton Test. In comparison to the HC group, the effect size decrement was large for AN patients receiving inpatient treatment and moderate for AN outpatients. CONCLUSIONS: These findings confirm that patients with AN have poor cognitive flexibility. Severity of illness measured by length of illness does not fully explain the lack of flexibility and supports the trait nature of inflexibility in people with AN

Knowledge to Serve the City: Insights from an Emerging Knowledge-Action Network to Address Vulnerability and Sustainability in San Juan, Puerto Rico

This paper presents initial efforts to establish the San Juan Urban Long-Term Research Area Exploratory (ULTRA-Ex), a long-term program aimed at developing transdisciplinary social-ecological system (SES) research to address vulnerability and sustainability for the municipality of San Juan. Transdisciplinary approaches involve the collaborations between researchers, stakeholders, and citizens to produce socially-relevant knowledge and support decision-making. We characterize the transdisciplinary arrangement emerging in San Juan ULTRA-Ex as a knowledge-action network composed of multiple formal and informal actors (e.g., scientists, policymakers, civic organizations and other stakeholders) where knowledge, ideas, and strategies for sustainability are being produced, evaluated, and validated. We describe in this paper the on-the-ground social practices and dynamics that emerged from developing a knowledge-action network in our local context. Specifically, we present six social practices that were crucial to the development of our knowledge-action network: 1) understanding local framings; 2) analyzing existing knowledge-action systems in the city; 3) framing the social-ecological research agenda; 4) collaborative knowledge production and integration; 5) boundary objects and practices; and 6) synthesis, application, and adaptation. We discuss key challenges and ways to move forward in building knowledge-action networks for sustainability. Our hope is that the insights learned from this process will stimulate broader discussions on how to develop knowledge for urban sustainability, especially in tropical cities where these issues are under-explored

Reference Data for the Ruff Figural Fluency Test Stratified by Age and Educational Level

The Ruff Figural Fluency Test (RFFT) was developed to avoid the difficulties that were encountered in earlier tests of figural fluency. Although the test characteristics of the RFFT seem to be good and it is a valuable addition to neuropsychological assessments, reference data are still scarce. To this aim, we required 2,404 community dwelling persons in Groningen, the Netherlands to perform the RFFT. All 1,651 persons with a complete RFFT and known educational level formed the reference sample. Their age ranged from 35 to 82 years and their educational level from primary school to university grade. Ninety-six percent of the persons were of Western European descent. All tests were analyzed by two independent examiners and subsequently three measures were calculated: number of unique designs, number of perseverative errors and error ratio. The main finding was that performance on the RFFT was dependent on age and educational level. This was not only observed in older persons but also in young and middle-aged persons. Reference data for the three RFFT measures are presented in groups of five years of age ranging from 35–39 years to 75 years or older