Recovery of early meteorological records from Extremadura region (SW Iberia): The ''CliPastExtrem'' (v1.0) database

In this work, we provide instrumental meteorological data recovered for the Extremadura region (interior SW Iberia), from 1826 to mid-20th century. Meteorological variables such as air temperature, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, wind direction and humidity, among others, were retrieved. In total, more than 750 000 instrumental data in 157 meteorological series belonging to 131 different locations throughout Extremadura were rescued. It must be noted that daily resolution data constitutes 80% of the database. This great effort of digitization and data collection has been carried out with the aim of contributing to a significant expansion of the length of the databases with meteorological information in this region. Therefore, this database will provide a better understanding of climate variability, trends and extreme events of the Extremadura region

Halo based reconstruction of the cosmic mass density field

We present the implementation of a halo based method for the reconstruction of the cosmic mass density field. The method employs the mass density distribution of dark matter haloes and its environments computed from cosmological N-body simulations and convolves it with a halo catalog to reconstruct the dark matter density field determined by the distribution of haloes. We applied the method to the group catalog of Yang etal (2007) built from the SDSS Data Release 4. As result we obtain reconstructions of the cosmic mass density field that are independent on any explicit assumption of bias. We describe in detail the implementation of the method, present a detailed characterization of the reconstructed density field (mean mass density distribution, correlation function and counts in cells) and the results of the classification of large scale environments (filaments, voids, peaks and sheets) in our reconstruction. Applications of the method include morphological studies of the galaxy population on large scales and the realization of constrained simulations.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Apology and forgiveness evolve to resolve failures in cooperative agreements

Making agreements on how to behave has been shown to be an evolutionarily viable strategy in one-shot social dilemmas. However, in many situations agreements aim to establish long-term mutually beneficial interactions. Our analytical and numerical results reveal for the first time under which conditions revenge, apology and forgiveness can evolve and deal with mistakes within ongoing agreements in the context of the Iterated Prisoners Dilemma. We show that, when the agreement fails, participants prefer to take revenge by defecting in the subsisting encounters. Incorporating costly apology and forgiveness reveals that, even when mistakes are frequent, there exists a sincerity threshold for which mistakes will not lead to the destruction of the agreement, inducing even higher levels of cooperation. In short, even when to err is human, revenge, apology and forgiveness are evolutionarily viable strategies which play an important role in inducing cooperation in repeated dilemmas.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Locally Cold Flows from Large-Scale Structure

We show that the "cold" Hubble flow observed for galaxies around the Milky Way does not represent a problem in cosmology but is due to the particular geometry and dynamics of our local wall. The behavior of the perturbed Hubble flow around the Milky Way is the result of two main factors: at small scales (R < 1 Mpc) the inflow is dominated by the gravitational influence of the Milky Way. At large scales (R > 1 Mpc) the out flow reflects the expansion of our local wall which "cools down" the peculiar velocities. This is an intrinsic property of walls and is independent of cosmology. We find the dispersion of the local Hubble flow (1 < R < 3 Mpc) around simulated "Milky Way" haloes located at the centre of low-density cosmological walls to be {\sigma}_H ~ 30 km/s, in excellent agreement with observations. The expansion of our local wall is also reflected in the value of the measured local Hubble constant. For "Milky Way" haloes inside walls, we find super-Hubble flows with h_local \simeq 0.77 - 1.13. The radius of equilibrium (R_0) depends not only on the mass of the central halo and the Hubble expansion but also on the dynamics given by the local LSS geometry. The super-Hubble flow inside our local wall has the effect of reducing the radius at which the local expansion balances the gravitational influence of the Milky Way. By ignoring the dynamical effect of the local wall, the mass of the Milky Way estimated from R_0 can be underestimated by as much as ~ 30%.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to MNRA

Effective Phone Calls

“Effective Phone Calls” is a practical and accessible course specifically designed to develop students` essential communication and language skills. It is divided into six units, which contain face-to-face with teacher and self-study materials. The course aims to develop both competence and confi-dence in a variety of situations, so that by the end of the period of study students will have acquired the necessary skills to handle almost any kind of call in business setting

Extracorporeal liver assist device to exchange albumin and remove endotoxin in acute liver failure: Results of a pivotal pre-clinical study

Background & AimsIn acute liver failure, severity of liver injury and clinical progression of disease are in part consequent upon activation of the innate immune system. Endotoxaemia contributes to innate immune system activation and the detoxifying function of albumin, critical to recovery from liver injury, is irreversibly destroyed in acute liver failure. University College London-Liver Dialysis Device is a novel artificial extracorporeal liver assist device, which is used with albumin infusion, to achieve removal and replacement of dysfunctional albumin and reduction in endotoxaemia. We aimed to test the effect of this device on survival in a pig model of acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure.MethodsPigs were randomised to three groups: Acetaminophen plus University College London-Liver Dialysis Device (n=9); Acetaminophen plus Control Device (n=7); and Control plus Control Device (n=4). Device treatment was initiated two h after onset of irreversible acute liver failure.ResultsThe Liver Dialysis Device resulted in 67% reduced risk of death in acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure compared to Control Device (hazard ratio=0.33, p=0.0439). This was associated with 27% decrease in circulating irreversibly oxidised human non-mercaptalbumin-2 throughout treatment (p=0.046); 54% reduction in overall severity of endotoxaemia (p=0.024); delay in development of vasoplegia and acute lung injury; and delay in systemic activation of the TLR4 signalling pathway. Liver Dialysis Device-associated adverse clinical effects were not seen.ConclusionsThe survival benefit and lack of adverse effects would support clinical trials of University College London-Liver Dialysis Device in acute liver failure patients

Design and evaluation of a treatment programme for Spanish adolescents with overweight and obesity. The EVASYON Study

Background The prevalence of overweight and obesity (OW/OB) among adolescents worldwide has increased since the 60 s. Spain has reached one of the highest OW/OB prevalence rates among adolescents from European countries. The aim of this methodological paper is to describe the design and evaluation in the EVASYON study (Development, implementation and evaluation of the efficacy of a therapeutic programme for adolescents with OW/OB: integral education on nutrition and physical activity). Methods/Design The EVASYON was planned by a multidisciplinary team to treat OW/OB in Spanish adolescents. The EVASYON is a multi-centre study conducted in 5 hospitals in 5 Spanish cities (Granada, Madrid, Pamplona, Santander and Zaragoza) and two hundred and four OW/OB Spanish adolescents were recruited for this intervention. The treatment was implemented for approximately one-year follow-up. The adolescents were treated in groups of a maximum of 10 subjects; each group had 20 visits during the treatment period in two phases: intensive during the first 2 months (1st to 9th visits), and extensive during the last 11 months (10th to 20th visits). In order to assess the efficacy of the treatment, 8 dimensions were measured: diet; physical activity and fitness; eating behaviour; body composition; haematological profile; metabolic profile; minerals and vitamins; immuno-inflammatory markers. Moreover, genetic polymorphisms were also determined. Discussion The treatment programme developed in the EVASYON study was designed as a national pilot study to be implemented as an effective treatment for adolescents with OW/OB into the Spanish Health Care Service

Dark energy domination in the Virgocentric flow

The standard \LambdaCDM cosmological model implies that all celestial bodies are embedded in a perfectly uniform dark energy background, represented by Einstein's cosmological constant, and experience its repulsive antigravity action. Can dark energy have strong dynamical effects on small cosmic scales as well as globally? Continuing our efforts to clarify this question, we focus now on the Virgo Cluster and the flow of expansion around it. We interpret the Hubble diagram, from a new database of velocities and distances of galaxies in the cluster and its environment, using a nonlinear analytical model which incorporates the antigravity force in terms of Newtonian mechanics. The key parameter is the zero-gravity radius, the distance at which gravity and antigravity are in balance. Our conclusions are: 1. The interplay between the gravity of the cluster and the antigravity of the dark energy background determines the kinematical structure of the system and controls its evolution. 2. The gravity dominates the quasi-stationary bound cluster, while the antigravity controls the Virgocentric flow, bringing order and regularity to the flow, which reaches linearity and the global Hubble rate at distances \ga 15 Mpc. 3. The cluster and the flow form a system similar to the Local Group and its outflow. In the velocity-distance diagram, the cluster-flow structure reproduces the group-flow structure with a scaling factor of about 10; the zero-gravity radius for the cluster system is also 10 times larger. The phase and dynamical similarity of the systems on the scales of 1-30 Mpc suggests that a two-component pattern may be universal for groups and clusters: a quasi-stationary bound central component and an expanding outflow around it, due to the nonlinear gravity-antigravity interplay with the dark energy dominating in the flow component.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, Astronomy and Astrophysics (accepted

Activation of the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) Is Associated with Cholangiocellular Injury, Fibrosis and Carcinogenesis in an Experimental Model of Fibropolycystic Liver Disease

Fibropolycystic liver disease is characterized by hyperproliferation of the biliary epithelium and the formation of multiple dilated cysts, a process associated with unfolded protein response (UPR). In the present study, we aimed to understand the mechanisms of cyst formation and UPR activation in hepatocytic c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1/2 (Jnk1/2) knockout mice. Floxed JNK1/2 (Jnkf/f) and Jnk∆hepa animals were sacrificed at different time points during progression of liver disease. Histological examination of specimens evidenced the presence of collagen fiber deposition, increased α-smooth muscle actin (αSMA), infiltration of CD45, CD11b and F4/80 cells and proinflammatory cytokines (Tnf, Tgfβ1) and liver injury (e.g., ALT, apoptosis and Ki67-positive cells) in Jnk∆hepa compared with Jnkf/f livers from 32 weeks of age. This was associated with activation of effectors of the UPR, including BiP/GRP78, CHOP and spliced XBP1. Tunicamycin (TM) challenge strongly induced ER stress and fibrosis in Jnk∆hepa animals compared with Jnkf/f littermates. Finally, thioacetamide (TAA) administration to Jnk∆hepa mice induced UPR activation, peribiliary fibrosis, liver injury and markers of biliary proliferation and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Orthoallografts of DEN/CCl4-treated Jnk∆hepa liver tissue triggered malignant CCA. Altogether, these results suggest that activation of the UPR in conjunction with fibrogenesis might trigger hepatic cystogenesis and early stages of CCA