FUNCIONAMIENTO FAMILIAR DE CONSUMIDORES DE SUSTANCIAS ADICTIVAS CON Y SIN CONDUCTA DELICTIVA

El objetivo de esta investigación es comparar el funcionamiento familiar de consumidores de sustancias adictivas que delinquen con respecto a consumidores que no delinquen y un grupo control que no es consumidor ni delinque. Se estudió una muestra de 150 jóvenes distribuidos en los tres grupos de comparación, quienes contestaron la Escala de Clima Social en la Familia (FES), obteniéndose diferencias significativas entre el grupo de consumidores que delinquen y el grupo control con respecto a la cohesión y el conflicto familiar. Asimismo, las actividades intelectuales-culturales aparecen relegadas en ambos grupos de consumidores en relación con el grupo control. Se sugiere indagar otros factores mediadores como autoestima, personalidad, abuso emocional familiar, violencia familiar y considerar los condicionantes socioculturales que rodean actualmente a los consumidores y sus familias

Biodiesel and FAME synthesis assisted by microwaves: homogeneous batch and flow processes

Fatty acids methyl esters (FAME) have been prepared under microwave irradiation, using homogeneous catalysis, either in batch or in a flow system. The quality of the biodiesel obtained has been confirmed by GC analysis of the isolated product. While the initial experiments have been performed in a small scale laboratory batch reactor, the best experiment has been straightforward converted into a stop-flow process, by the use of a microwave flow system. Compared with conventional heating methods, the process using microwaves irradiation proved to be a faster method for alcoholysis of triglycerides with methanol, leading to high yields of FAME

Indications of the extraction of symptomatic impacted third molars. A systematic review

Background: A literature review was made to determine when third molar (3M) extraction is recommended in symptomatic patients and when it is not recommended. Material and methods: A Medline (PubMed) and EMBASE search was made for articles related to indications for the extraction of 3Ms, published in the last 10 years and up until September 2018. Results: The electronic search yielded 175 articles. After eliminating duplicates, a total of 173 articles were subjected to review of the title and abstract. Only 19 studies were finally included in the systematic review. There was a well documented increase in morbidity associated to impacted 3Ms (non-restorable caries, fracture, infection, periodontal disease, repeated pericoronitis, cysts and tumors), and in the presence of disease, extraction was considered to be indicated. The extraction of 3Ms with signs and/or symptoms of periodontal disease improved periodontal health at the distal surface of the second molar. Postoperative quality of life of patients with symptomatic 3Ms and with disease improved after surgical extraction. Conclusions: Extraction is indicated in the presence of disease associated to an impacted 3M, whether symptomatic or not. In contrast, extraction is not indicated in the absence of infection or other associated disease conditions

Discriminatory molecular biomarkers of allergic and nonallergic asthma and its severity

The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Asthma is a complex disease comprising various phenotypes and endotypes, all of which still need solid biomarkers for accurate classification. In a previous study, we defined specific genes related to asthma and respiratory allergy by studying the expression of 94 genes in a population composed of 4 groups of subjects: healthy control, nonallergic asthmatic, asthmatic allergic, and nonasthmatic allergic patients. An analysis of differential gene expression between controls and patients revealed a set of statistically relevant genes mainly associated with disease severity, i.e., CHI3L1, IL-8, IL-10, MSR1, PHLDA1, PI3, and SERPINB2. Here, we analyzed whether these genes and their proteins could be potential asthma biomarkers to distinguish between nonallergic asthmatic and asthmatic allergic subjects. Protein quantification was determined by ELISA (in serum) or Western blot (in protein extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells or PBMCs). Statistical analyses were performed by unpaired t-test using the Graph-Pad program. The sensitivity and specificity of the gene and protein expression of several candidate biomarkers in differentiating the two groups (and the severity subgroups) was performed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis using the R program. The ROC curve analysis determined single genes with good sensitivity and specificity for discriminating some of the phenotypes. However, interesting combinations of two or three protein biomarkers were found to distinguish the asthma disease and disease severity between the different phenotypes of this pathology using reproducible techniques in easy-to-obtain samples. Gene and protein panels formed by single biomarkers and biomarker combinations have been defined in easily obtainable samples and by standardized techniques. These panels could be useful for characterizing phenotypes of asthma, specifically when differentiating asthma severity.Supported in part by research grants PI13/01730 and PI17/01682, cofinanced by FEDER, CIBERES (ISCIII, 0013), and RETIC (RD09/0076/00101) from the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo, Spain). SB was supported by a grant from the Fundación Conchita Rábago and PI17/01682. DC was supported by a contract from Madrid regional government (PEJD-2016/BMD-2682, Sistema de Garantía Juvenil), LC-J was supported by a contract from MINECO (PEJ-2014-A- 31609, Sistema de Garantía Juvenil), and MdP was supported by a contract from Madrid regional government (PEJ-2017- AI/SAL-5938, Sistema de Garantía Juvenil), all cofinanced by The European Social Fund (ESF) and the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI

Diversity in oat potential immunogenicity: basis for the selection of oat varieties with no toxicity in coeliac disease

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.[Background and aims] Coeliac disease (CD) is triggered by an abnormal reaction to gluten. Peptides resulting from partially digested gluten of wheat, barley or rye cause inflammation of the small intestinal mucosa. Previous contradictory studies suggest that oats may trigger the abnormal immunological response in patients with CD. Monoclonal antibodies (moAbs) against the main immunotoxic 33-mer peptide (A1 and G12) react strongly against wheat, barley and rye but have less reactivity against oats. The stated aim of this study is to test whether this observed reactivity could be related to the potential toxicity of oats for patients with CD.[Methods] In the present study, different oat varieties, controlled for their purity and by their distinct protein pattern, were used to examine differences in moAb G12 recognition by ELISA and western blot. Immunogenicity of oat varieties was determined by 33-mer concentration, T cell proliferation and interferon γ production.[Results] Three groups of oat cultivars reacting differently against moAb G12 could be distinguished: a group with considerable affinity, a group showing slight reactivity and a third with no detectable reactivity. The immunogenicity of the three types of oats as well as that of a positive and negative control was determined with isolated peripheral blood mononuclear T cells from patients with CD by measurement of cell proliferation and interferon γ release. A direct correlation of the reactivity with G12 and the immunogenicity of the different prolamins was observed.[Conclusions] The results showed that the reactivity of the moAb G12 is proportional to the potential immunotoxicity of the cereal cultivar. These differences may explain the different clinical responses observed in patients suffering from CD and open up a means to identify immunologically safe oat cultivars, which could be used to enrich a gluten-free dietThis work was supported by Asociacio´n de Celı ´acos de Madrid (to SC) by grants PET2008_0055 from VI Plan Nacional de Investigacio´n Cientı ´fica, Desarrollo e Innovacio´n Tecnolo´gica (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacio´n), IAB (Instituto Andaluz de Biotecnologı ´a) (to SC) and by AGR2009-4966M (Proyecto de Excelencia, Junta de Andalucı ´a) (to TM). Biomedal thanks Corporacio´n Tecnolo´gica de Andalucı ´a and Agencia IDEA for co-founding this study (to CA).Peer reviewe

A new cosmological tracker solution for Quintessence

In this paper we propose a quintessence model with the potential $V(\Phi )=V_{o}[ \sinh {(\alpha \sqrt{\kappa_{o}}\Delta \Phi})] ^{\beta}$, which asymptotic behavior corresponds to an inverse power-law potential at early times and to an exponential one at late times. We demonstrate that this is a tracker solution and that it could have driven the Universe into its current inflationary stage. The exact solutions and the description for a complete evolution of the Universe are also given. We compare such model with the current cosmological observations.Comment: 13 pages REVTeX, 5 eps color figure

Maíz de alto contenido proteínico (Zea mays l.) en hogares rurales marginados del estado de Puebla

El déficit en ingesta diaria de proteínas y calorías registrado en la población infantil mexicana, se muestra de modo extremo en áreas rurales. El déficit se agudiza por la problemática económica y sanitaria actual, lo que se constituye en un problema alimentario de naturaleza nacional. En este trabajo se estudió el nivel de aceptabilidad del maíz de alta calidad proteínica (ACP) con el cálculo de un índice de aceptabilidad, con información de 78 productores, del sur del estado de Puebla, que participan en un programa de la SDR, caracterizados por IDH bajo y alto índice de desnutrición. Se aplicó un cuestionario de 51 preguntas a una muestra por muestreo aleatorio simple, con grado de confiabilidad de 95%. Se encontró que la semilla del maíz ACP se distribuye con sus atributos proteínicos, pero con una deficiente transferencia de tecnología; con índice de aceptabilidad del 60%, que muestra buena aceptación para ser sembrado por los productores. Lo siembran uno, dos o tres años, valorando sus circunstancias para repetirlo en ciclos siguientes, ignorando sus propiedades proteínicas. El consumo, del maíz ACP se incorpora al forraje para animales de traspatio y esporádicamente en la dieta de la familia

Water saving options in hydropower by means of variable speed operation: a prototype study in a mid-head Francis turbine

Nowadays, in order to mitigate the global warming effects, there is a need of renewable energy generation for the objective of carbon neutrality. In this context, hydropower plays a key role not only because the amount of renewable energy generated but also because it is a fundamental player to ensure the stability of the electrical grid, as one of the main dispatchable sources. Nevertheless, hydropower is facing nowadays with the climatological problem of the extreme droughts, that are expected to be more common in the upcoming years. Therefore, it has become more important than ever to use the water flowing through the rivers properly. In this paper, the potentiality of using variable speed operation with the aim of increasing the overall efficiency of Francis turbines, which are the most widely used hydro turbines worldwide, is numerically explored. This implies to use less water to produce the same amount of electrical power. The study is based on an accurate modelling with real prototype data which has been made available for this study. It is shown that variable speed could improve the overall efficiency of the unit with respect to the constant speed generator, typically used in hydropower. While this idea has been mentioned in some previous studies, in this paper we also consider the electrical efficiency decrease of the variable speed technologies and restrictions of the unit regarding the electrical power generated. Results show that when the unit operates at some specific operating conditions, namely low heads at part load operations and high heads at maximum power, variable speed technologies could be used to save more than 2% of water with respect to the fixed speed unit. Main results and models of this paper can be used as a reference for future studies with similar type of units.First of all, Authors would like to acknowledge XFLEX Hydro [20]. This study is a direct output of the technologies being studied in this project. The Hydropower Extending Power System Flexibility (XFLEX HYDRO) project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 857832. Alexandre Presas would like to acknowledge, Nicolas Hugo from ALPIQ, Thomas Hildinger from VOITH and Josep Bordonau from UPC for his expertise and valuable comments regarding the FSFC and DFIG models and also Jo˜ao Delgado for his valuable contributions and ideas during part of this project. Alexandre Presas and David Valentín acknowledge the Serra Húnter program of Generalitat de Catalunya.Postprint (published version

MycoBank gearing up for new horizons.

MycoBank, a registration system for fungi established in 2004 to capture all taxonomic novelties, acts as a coordination hub between repositories such as Index Fungorum and Fungal Names. Since January 2013, registration of fungal names is a mandatory requirement for valid publication under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants (ICN). This review explains the database innovations that have been implemented over the past few years, and discusses new features such as advanced queries, registration of typification events (MBT numbers for lecto, epi- and neotypes), the multi-lingual database interface, the nomenclature discussion forum, annotation system, and web services with links to third parties. MycoBank has also introduced novel identification services, linking DNA sequence data to numerous related databases to enable intelligent search queries. Although MycoBank fills an important void for taxon registration, challenges for the future remain to improve links between taxonomic names and DNA data, and to also introduce a formal system for naming fungi known from DNA sequence data only. To further improve the quality of MycoBank data, remote access will now allow registered mycologists to act as MycoBank curators, using Citrix software

Doctor, how much weight will I lose? - a new individualized predictive model for weight loss

Bariatric surgery is an effective treatment for weight loss, but the patient’s ability to reach a sustained weight loss depends upon several technical and individual factors. Creating an easy model that adapts bariatric surgery’s weight loss goals for each patient is very important for pre-surgery and follow-up evaluations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio