Marie Sklodowska-Curie : una combinació excepcional de capacitat intel·lectual i qualitat humana

Un recorregut per la vida de Marie Sklodowska-Curie (1867-1934) palesa les qualitats humanes i científiques d'aquesta dona excepcional. La seva trajectòria correspon a la d'una pionera: descobreix, juntament amb Pierre Curie, dos nous elements químics radioactius (1898); es converteix en la primera dona catedràtica de la Sorbona (1906); esdevé membre de les Conferències Solvay (1911-1933) i de l'Acadèmia de Medicina (1922), i és guanyadora de dos premis Nobel, el de Física (1903) i el de Química (1911).A journey through Marie Sklodowska-Curie’s life (1867-1934) reveals her exceptional human and scientific qualities. The pathway she followed is that of a pioneer: she discovered, together with Pierre Curie, two new radioactive elements (1898); she was the first woman to be appointed as full professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris (1906); she was member of the Solvay Conferences (1911-1933) and of the Academy of Medicine (1922), and she obtained two Nobel prizes, Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911)

Structural investigation of homonuclear Pt2 and heteronuclear PdPt complexes containing a metal-metal bond bridged by hydrido and sulfido ligands

The complex [Pt2(/.t-H)(#-S)(dppe)2](PF6) undergoes a displacive order-disorder transformation at ca 230 K. The low-temperature structure is ordered with one cation-anion pair as the asymmetric unit in space group P2Jn. At room temperature the b axis is halved and the space group is P2/n, imposing crystallographic twofold rotation symmetry on both ions; the anion shows major disorder and there is probably minor disorder in the cation, but its internal geometry remains essentially unchanged. The heteronuclear complex [PdPt(ft-H)(/.t-S)(dppe)2](PF6) is isostructural with the Pt2 complex at room temperature. All three structures have been determined crystallographically and both complexes have been extensively characterized by NMR spectroscopy, unambiguously confirming the genuine heteronuclear nature of the mixed-metal complex and the presence of the bridging hydride ligand

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries(1,2). However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world(3) and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health(4,5). However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol-which is a marker of cardiovascular riskchanged from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million-4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world.Peer reviewe

Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions