Is Cycling Safe? Does It Look like It? Insights from Helsinki and Barcelona

[EN] Cycling constitutes a clean, healthy, and low-cost mode of transport. Therefore, the promotion of cycling is currently one of the main goals of administrations around the word. Former studies have shown that safety perception plays a fundamental role in the acceptance of bikes as a habitual mode of transport. In this context, this research aims to determine which variables and actions can give rise to this feeling of safety and, therefore, collaborate in the modal shift towards a more sustainable mobility. For this purpose, different strategies have been developed in two different contexts, Helsinki and Barcelona, using two different methodologies, namely expert interviews and analysis of survey data. Particularly, the methodology of analysis used includes descriptive statistics and path analysis. Results point out that safety perception highly depends on trip purpose, as significant differences are observed for daily users compared to those who cycle for sport reasons. Demographic characteristics (age, gender, etc.) and use patterns are also associated with different perceptions of safety and different behaviors. However, for any cyclist, the quality of the available infrastructure significantly influences his/her safety perception. Thus, the provision of good quality and well-structured cycling infrastructure is the most important initiative to promote cycling.Martínez-Díaz, M.; Arroyo-López, MR. (2023). Is Cycling Safe? Does It Look like It? Insights from Helsinki and Barcelona. Sustainability. 15(2):1-25. https://doi.org/10.3390/su1502090512515

A comprehensive model of adjustment to pain in the co-occurrence of PTSD and chronic musculoskeletal pain: vulnerability and protective pathways

There are a significant comorbidity between PTSD and chronic pain. Thus, studies clarifying the vulnerability and protective variables and mechanisms associated with PTSD and chronic pain are needed. The aim of this study was to examine the association between trauma, resilience, PTSD symptoms, and the variables included in the fear-avoidance models (anxiety sensitivity, catastrophizing, fear-avoidance beliefs, fear of pain, pain hypervigilance) as well as pain acceptance and experiential avoidance in explaining adjustment to chronic pain (pain intensity, pain-related disability and emotional distress). Method: the sample consisted of 229 patients with chronic musculoskeletal back pain. Results: Structural Equation Modelling was used. Statistical tests indicated that the hypothesized model adequately fitted the data (RMSEA = .07; CFI = .99; NNFI = .98; TLI = .96). The χ2 test was significant (χ2 (8) = 19.25, χ2 /dl = 2.40, p = .014). The results provided support for the hypothesized model. All the standardized path coefficients were significant (p < .05). Conclusions: This study provides empirical support for the potential role of PTSD symptoms in fear-avoidance models of chronic pain, and may provide support for the diathesis-stress model of pain. It is the first comprehensive model of adjustment to pain to consider vulnerability and protective adaptation mechanisms in patients who have undergone a traumatic event. The study highlights the importance of a comprehensive framework of reference to understand the comorbidity of PTSD and chronic musculoskeletal pain, and the need to provide well-designed treatment programs for the simultaneous treatment of these conditions.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Querying a Polynomial Object-Relational Constraint Database in Model-Based Diagnosis

Many papers related to Constraint Databases (CDBs) theories exist, including proposals that present frameworks for the treatment of constraints as a new data type. Our proposal presents a new way of storing and manipulating constraints as a usual data, and of making queries about the constraint variables derived from an Object-Relational Constraint Database (ORCDB). In this work, the constraints stored in an ORCDB are only polynomial equality constraints. The proposal is based on Gr¨obner bases, constraint consistency and constraint optimisation techniques. Most works in CDB use spatial-temporal data as a case study, however this work presents an emergent engineering domain, that of fault diagnosis.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología DPI2003-07146-C02-0

HPV genotype distribution and anomalous association of HPV33 to cervical neoplastic lesions in San Luis Potosí, Mexico

" Background: The association of human papillomavirus (HPV) types to neoplastic lesions increase as a function of their oncogenicity and the duration of the infection since lesion severity progresses from low-grade to high-grade and cancer. In an outbreak, the prevalence of the HPV type involved would increase and the proportion of the associated low-grade lesions would predominate over severe lesions. In this study, the prevalence of HPV types and their association to neoplastic lesions was determined in women subjected to colposcopy in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Methods: DNA from high-risk (HR) and low-risk (LR) HPV types was identified by E6 nested multiplex PCR in cervical scrapes from 700 women with normal cytology, atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS), low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) or invasive cervical cancer (CC). Results: Overall HPV-DNA prevalence was 67.7 %, that of HR-HPV was 63.1 %, and that of LR-HPV was 21.3 %. The highest prevalence (78.2 %) occurred in the 15-24 year group, whereas that of single infections was 52 % and that of multiple infections (i.e., by 2-6 HPV types) was 48 %. The most prevalent HR types were HPV33 (33.1 %), HPV16 (16.6 %), HPV18 and HPV51 (6.7 % each). HR-HPV prevalence was 29.6 % in normal cytology, 26.7 % in ASCUS, 63.3 % in LSIL, 68.2 % in HSIL, and 90.5 % in CC. Three prevalence trends for HR-HPV types were found in neoplastic lesions of increasing severity: increasing (LSIL CC) for HPV33. Conclusions: Two-thirds of the women subjected to colposcopy from 2007 to 2010 in San Luis Potosi have HPV infections which predominate in the 15-24 years group. Around half of the infections are by one viral type and the rest by 2-6 types. HPV33 is the most prevalent type, followed by HPV16. Overall HR-HPV prevalence increases with the severity of neoplastic lesions. HPV33 prevalence is highest in LSIL and its U-shaped trend with progressing neoplastic lesions differs from the growing/asymptotic trends of other HR-HPV types. An ongoing or recent HPV33 outbreak is consistent with its high prevalence and anomalous association to LSIL.

La realidad de la práctica médica : el pluralismo asistencial en la monarquía hispánica (ss. XVI- XVIII). Introducción

La inclusión de la realidad de la práctica médica como objeto de reflexión en este número monográfico de Dynamis, parte de la voluntad de los editores y del consejo de redacción de hacerse eco, en las páginas de la revista, de una de las líneas de investigación historiográfica que más interés ha despertado en los últimos años, así como de seguir, seis años más tarde, el camino ya emprendido en esta misma dirección con la publicación del conjunto de artículos consagrados al Protomedicato (Dynamis, vol. 16, 1996). De hecho, como puede verse, una buena parte de los autores y dos de los editores del presente monográfico, María Luz López Terrada y Àlvar Martínez Vidal, lo fueron también del anterior. No se trata de algo casual sino que, por el contrario, refleja una línea de continuidad en las investigaciones emprendidas que, por lo demás, y en lo que se refiere al espacio geográfico español en su globalidad, no han hecho mas que empezar. Vale la pena, pues, enlazar uno y otro bloque de trabajos separados por seis años en la misma revista

The Size of a Graph Without Topological Complete Subgraphs

In this note we show a new upperbound for the function ex(n;TKp), i.e., the maximum number of edges of a graph of order n not containing a subgraph homeomorphic to the complete graph of order p. Further, for ${\left \lceil \frac{2n+5}{3}\right \rceil}\leq p < n$ we provide exact values for this function

Extremal Graphs without Topological Complete Subgraphs

The exact values of the function $ex(n;TK_{p})$ are known for ${\lceil \frac{2n+5}{3}\rceil}\leq p < n$ (see [Cera, Diánez, and Márquez, SIAM J. Discrete Math., 13 (2000), pp. 295--301]), where $ex(n;TK_p)$ is the maximum number of edges of a graph of order n not containing a subgraph homeomorphic to the complete graph of order $p.$ In this paper, for ${\lceil \frac{2n+6}{3} \rceil}\leq p < n - 3,$ we characterize the family of extremal graphs $EX(n;TK_{p}),$ i.e., the family of graphs with n vertices and $ex(n;TK_{p})$ edges not containing a subgraph homeomorphic to the complete graph of order $p.

The application of regenerable sorbents for mercury capture in gas phase

Mercury is a well-known toxic element, and flue gas streams emitted from coal-fired utilities are one of the largest anthropogenic sources of this element. This study briefly reviews the proposed technologies for reducing mercury emissions from coal combustion, focusing on an emerging process which involves the use of regenerable sorbents and especially those loaded with noble metals. Among the mercury species formed during coal combustion, elemental mercury is the most difficult to remove from the flue gases due to its low reactivity and insolubility in water. The widespread interest in using regenerable sorbents with metals is due to their ability to retain elemental mercury. With this technology, not only can efficiencies of 100 % be reached in the retention of elemental mercury but also a way to avoid the generation of new wastes loaded with mercury. This study considers the main aspects that must be taken into account when developing effective regenerable sorbents for mercury capture, with special attention to sorbents containing noble metals. The characteristics of this process are compared with those of other processes in a more advanced state of development.The financial support for this work was provided by the projects CTQ2014-58110-R and GRUPIN14-031. The authors thank PCTI Asturias for awarding N. Fernández Miranda a pre-doctoral fellowship.Peer reviewe