Mathematical modelling of kidney disease stages in patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus II

[EN] The direct costs associated with diabetes mellitus represent 8% of total healthcare expenditure in Spain, amounting to around 6 billion euros per year [1]. The overall prevalence of diabetes in people over 18 years of age (adjusted for age and sex) is estimated at 13.8% in 2010 [2], with type 2 (T2DM) being the most common type of diabetes, accounting for 85-95% of all diabetes cases in high-income countries [3]. T2DM is associated with multiple diseases such as chronic kidney disease [4], retinopathy, pyelonephritis, heart attack or stroke [5]. It is estimated that 35% of patients with T2DM develop diabetic kidney disease [6]. Treatment of end-stage renal disease requires expensive treatments such as haemodialysis and kidney transplantation. The objective of this study is to evaluate in patients with T2DM the degree of renal damage and the risk of suffering complications according to their socio-demographic, clinical and morbidity characteristics and to obtain the weight of the variables that have most influence.Escobar Carrera, X.; González-De Julián, S.; Barrachina Martínez, I. (2021). Mathematical modelling of kidney disease stages in patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus II. Universitat Politècnica de València. 96-100. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/1905669610

Methodology to resolve the transport equation with the discrete ordinates code TORT into the IPEN/MB-01 reactor

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Computer Mathematics in 2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00207160.2013.799668Resolution of the steady-state Neutron Transport Equation in a nuclear pool reactor is usually achieved by means of two different numerical methods: Monte Carlo (stochastic) and Discrete Ordinates (deterministic). The Discrete Ordinates method solves the Neutron Transport Equation for a set of selected directions, obtaining a set of directional equations and solutions for each equation which are the angular flux. In order to deal with the energy dependence, an energy multi-group approximation is commonly performed, obtaining a set of equations depending on the number of energy groups. In addition, spatial discretization is also required and the problem is solved by sweeping the geometry mesh. However, special cross-sections are required due to the energy and directional discretization, thus a methodology based on NJOY99 code capabilities has been used. Finally, in order to demonstrate the capability of this method, the 3D discrete ordinates code TORT has been applied to resolve the IPEN/MB-01 reactor.The authors wish to thank Departamento de Engenharia Nuclear da UFMG and Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares for all data and support.Bernal García, Á.; Abarca Giménez, A.; Barrachina Celda, TM.; Miró Herrero, R. (2014). Methodology to resolve the transport equation with the discrete ordinates code TORT into the IPEN/MB-01 reactor. International Journal of Computer Mathematics. 91(1):113-123. doi:10.1080/00207160.2013.799668S113123911Rhoades, W. A., & Simpson, D. B. (1997). The TORT three-dimensional discrete ordinates neutron/photon transport code (TORT version 3). doi:10.2172/58226

Distributional chaos for operators with full scrambled sets

In this article we answer in the negative the question of whether hypercyclicity is sufficient for distributional chaos for a continuous linear operator (we even prove that the mixing property does not suffice). Moreover, we show that an extremal situation is possible: There are (hypercyclic and non-hypercyclic) operators such that the whole space consists, except zero, of distributionally irregular vectors.The research of first and third author was supported by MEC and FEDER, project MTM2010-14909 and by GV, Project PROMETEO/2008/101. The research of second author was supported by the Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant of the European Commission under grant agreement no. PERG08-GA-2010-272297. The financial support of these institutions is hereby gratefully acknowledged. We also want to thank X. Barrachina for pointing out to us a gap in the proof of a previous version of Theorem 3.1.Martínez Jiménez, F.; Oprocha, P.; Peris Manguillot, A. (2013). Distributional chaos for operators with full scrambled sets. Mathematische Zeitschrift. 274(1-2):603-612. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00209-012-1087-8S6036122741-2Banks, J., Brooks, J., Cairns, G., Davis, G., Stacey, P.: On Devaney’s definition of chaos. Am. Math. Monthly 99(4), 332–334 (1992)Barrachina, X., Peris, A.: Distributionally chaotic translation semigroups. J. Differ. Equ. Appl. 18, 751–761 (2012)Beauzamy, B.: Introduction to Operator Theory and Invariant Subspaces. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1988)Bermúdez, T., Bonilla, A., Martínez-Giménez, F., Peris, A.: Li–Yorke and distributionally chaotic operators. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 373, 83–93 (2011)Bayart, F., Matheron, E.: Dynamics of linear operators, vol. 179. Cambridge University Press, London(2009).Costakis, G., Sambarino, M.: Topologically mixing hypercyclic operators. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 132, 385–389 (2004)Devaney, R.L.: An introduction to chaotic dynamical systems, 2nd edn. Addison-Wesley Studies in Nonlinearity. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Advanced Book Program. Redwood City (1989)Feldman, N.: Hypercyclicity and supercyclicity for invertible bilateral weighted shifts. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 131, 479–485 (2003)Grosse-Erdmann, K.-G.: Hypercyclic and chaotic weighted shifts. Studia Math. 139(1), 47–68 (2000)Grosse-Erdmann, K.-G., Peris Manguillot, A.: Linear Chaos. Universitext, Springer, London (2011)Hou, B., Cui, P., Cao, Y.: Chaos for Cowen-Douglas operators. Proc. Am. Math. Soc 138, 929–936 (2010)Hou, B., Tian, G., Shi, L.: Some dynamical properties for linear operators. Ill. J. Math. 53, 857–864 (2009)Li, T.Y., Yorke, J.A.: Period three implies chaos. Am. Math. Monthly 82(10), 985–992 (1975)Martínez-Giménez, F., Oprocha, P., Peris, A.: Distributional chaos for backward shifts. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 351, 607–615 (2009)Müller, V., Peris, A.: A Problem of Beauzamy on Irregular Operators (2011). (Preprint)Oprocha, P.: Distributional chaos revisited. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 361, 4901–4925 (2009)Oprocha, P.: A quantum harmonic oscillator and strong chaos. J. Phys. A 39(47), 14559–14565 (2006)Schweizer, B., Smítal, J.: Measures of chaos and a spectral decomposition of dynamical systems on the interval. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 344(2), 737–754 (1994)Wu, X., Zhu, P.: The principal measure of a quantum harmonic oscillator. J. Phys. A 44(505101), 6 (2011

Sports, morality and body. The voices of sportswomen under Franco's dictatorship

The aim of this research is to study sportswomen's perceptions and experiences of women's sport in Francoist Spain (1939-1975). The main objective is to analyse the social, moral and aesthetic elements that are present in the experience of these athletes. This study was carried out with an intentional sample of 24 women from Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Basque Country, Catalonia and Valencia. They were interviewed by a network of researchers from six universities. Outstanding results show the existence of social limitations to start sports practice (particularly in the post-war period); the importance of sport as a character-building aspect; sport's remarkable influence on their body self-concept; and the incidence on sports of the mainstream moral discourse, which created a female model that even affected sports clothing. The main conclusion is that sportswomen in that period were pioneers and had to fight against most of society in order to develop their facet as athletes, as they would not follow the established model

Rapid reduction of arsenate in the medium mediated by plant roots

Microbes detoxify arsenate by reduction and efflux of arsenite. Plants have a high capacity to reduce arsenate, but arsenic efflux has not been reported. Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) and rice (Oryza sativa) were grown hydroponically and supplied with 10 mu M marsenate or arsenite, with or without phosphate, for 1-3 d. The chemical species of As in nutrient solutions, roots and xylem sap were monitored, roles of microbes and root exudates in As transformation were investigated and efflux of As species from tomato roots was determined. Arsenite remained stable in the nutrient solution, whereas arsenate was rapidly reduced to arsenite. Microbes and root exudates contributed little to the reduction of external arsenate. Arsenite was the predominant species in roots and xylem sap. Phosphate inhibited arsenate uptake and the appearance of arsenite in the nutrient solution, but the reduction was near complete in 24 h in both -P- and +P-treated tomato. Phosphate had a greater effect in rice than tomato. Efflux of both arsenite and arsenate was observed; the former was inhibited and the latter enhanced by the metabolic inhibitor carbonylcyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone. Tomato and rice roots rapidly reduce arsenate to arsenite, some of which is actively effluxed to the medium. The study reveals a new aspect of As metabolism in plants

Distributionally chaotic families of operators on Fréchet spaces

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Communications on Pure and Applied Analysis (CPAA) following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Conejero, J. A., Kostić, M., Miana, P. J., & Murillo-Arcila, M. (2016). Distributionally chaotic families of operators on Fréchet spaces.Communications on Pure and Applied Analysis, 2016, vol. 15, no 5, p. 1915-1939, is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3934/cpaa.2016022The existence of distributional chaos and distributional irregular vectors has been recently considered in the study of linear dynamics of operators and C-0-semigroups. In this paper we extend some previous results on both notions to sequences of operators, C-0-semigroups, C-regularized semigroups, and alpha-timesintegrated semigroups on Frechet spaces. We also add a study of rescaled distributionally chaotic C-0-semigroups. Some examples are provided to illustrate all these results.The first and fourth authors are supported in part by MEC Project MTM2010-14909, MTM2013-47093-P, and Programa de Investigacion y Desarrollo de la UPV, Ref. SP20120700. The second author is partially supported by grant 174024 of Ministry of Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia. The third author has been partially supported by Project MTM2013-42105-P, DGI-FEDER, of the MCYTS; Project E-64, D.G. Aragon, and Project UZCUD2014-CIE-09, Universidad de Zaragoza. The fourth author is supported by a grant of the FPU Program of Ministry of education of Spain.Conejero, JA.; Kostic, M.; Miana Sanz, PJ.; Murillo Arcila, M. (2016). Distributionally chaotic families of operators on Fréchet spaces. Communications on Pure and Applied Analysis. 15(5):1915-1939. https://doi.org/10.3934/cpaa.2016022S1915193915

Chaos for the Hyperbolic Bioheat Equation

The Hyperbolic Heat Transfer Equation describes heat processes in which extremely short periods of time or extreme temperature gradients are involved. It is already known that there are solutions of this equation which exhibit a chaotic behaviour, in the sense of Devaney, on certain spaces of analytic functions with certain growth control. We show that this chaotic behaviour still appears when we add a source term to this equation, i.e. in the Hyperbolic Bioheat Equation. These results can also be applied for the Wave Equation and for a higher order version of the Hyperbolic Bioheat Equation.The authors are supported in part by MEC and FEDER, Projects MTM2010-14909 and MTM2013-47093-P.Conejero, JA.; Ródenas Escribá, FDA.; Trujillo Guillen, M. (2015). Chaos for the Hyperbolic Bioheat Equation. Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems - Series A. 35(2):653-668. doi:10.3934/dcds.2015.35.653S65366835

Leptin Resistance in Vagal Afferent Neurons Inhibits Cholecystokinin Signaling and Satiation in Diet Induced Obese Rats

Background and Aims: The gastrointestinal hormone cholecystokinin (CCK) plays an important role in regulating meal size and duration by activating CCK1 receptors on vagal afferent neurons (VAN). Leptin enhances CCK signaling in VAN via an early growth response 1 (EGR1) dependent pathway thereby increasing their sensitivity to CCK. In response to a chronic ingestion of a high fat diet, VAN develop leptin resistance and the satiating effects of CCK are reduced. We tested the hypothesis that leptin resistance in VAN is responsible for reducing CCK signaling and satiation. Results: Lean Zucker rats sensitive to leptin signaling, significantly reduced their food intake following administration of CCK8S (0.22 nmol/kg, i.p.), while obese Zucker rats, insensitive to leptin, did not. CCK signaling in VAN of obese Zucker rats was reduced, preventing CCK-induced up-regulation of Y2 receptor and down-regulation of melanin concentrating hormone 1 receptor (MCH1R) and cannabinoid receptor (CB1). In VAN from diet-induced obese (DIO) Sprague Dawley rats, previously shown to become leptin resistant, we demonstrated that the reduction in EGR1 expression resulted in decreased sensitivity of VAN to CCK and reduced CCK-induced inhibition of food intake. The lowered sensitivity of VAN to CCK in DIO rats resulted in a decrease in Y2 expression and increased CB1 and MCH1R expression. These effects coincided with the onset of hyperphagia in DIO rats. Conclusions: Leptin signaling in VAN is required for appropriate CCK signaling and satiation. In response to high fat feeding

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

Epidemiology of intra-abdominal infection and sepsis in critically ill patients: “AbSeS”, a multinational observational cohort study and ESICM Trials Group Project

Purpose: To describe the epidemiology of intra-abdominal infection in an international cohort of ICU patients according to a new system that classifies cases according to setting of infection acquisition (community-acquired, early onset hospital-acquired, and late-onset hospital-acquired), anatomical disruption (absent or present with localized or diffuse peritonitis), and severity of disease expression (infection, sepsis, and septic shock). Methods: We performed a multicenter (n = 309), observational, epidemiological study including adult ICU patients diagnosed with intra-abdominal infection. Risk factors for mortality were assessed by logistic regression analysis. Results: The cohort included 2621 patients. Setting of infection acquisition was community-acquired in 31.6%, early onset hospital-acquired in 25%, and late-onset hospital-acquired in 43.4% of patients. Overall prevalence of antimicrobial resistance was 26.3% and difficult-to-treat resistant Gram-negative bacteria 4.3%, with great variation according to geographic region. No difference in prevalence of antimicrobial resistance was observed according to setting of infection acquisition. Overall mortality was 29.1%. Independent risk factors for mortality included late-onset hospital-acquired infection, diffuse peritonitis, sepsis, septic shock, older age, malnutrition, liver failure, congestive heart failure, antimicrobial resistance (either methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Gram-negative bacteria, or carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria) and source control failure evidenced by either the need for surgical revision or persistent inflammation. Conclusion: This multinational, heterogeneous cohort of ICU patients with intra-abdominal infection revealed that setting of infection acquisition, anatomical disruption, and severity of disease expression are disease-specific phenotypic characteristics associated with outcome, irrespective of the type of infection. Antimicrobial resistance is equally common in community-acquired as in hospital-acquired infection