New insights about the electrochemical production of ozone

Ozone is a rather attractive oxidant, it is very efficient in the oxidation of pollutants and in the killing of pathogens and does not generate any hazardous waste during its use. Its generation has been constantly sought in an effective way, focusing on obtaining high concentrations of ozone at the lowest possible cost. Recently, electrochemical production of ozone show advantages over conventional corona discharge generation, since this technology do not need very high voltages, feeding oxygen or pure air or dissolving the ozone into wastewater to be treated. However, it is still at early development stage and there is still a long way to reach the high technology readiness levels needed to complete its value chain. Equipment considerations and operation conditions are the key points that need to be understood in order to increase efficiently. Recent novelties in the state of the art of research are summarized in this work

Electrochemical generation of ozone using a PEM electrolyzer at acidic pHs

This work focuses on the electrochemical production of ozone at acidic pHs, evaluating the influence of the salts in the electrolyte, temperature and pressure on the efficiency of its production. Results demonstrate that electrolysis with electrolytes containing perchlorate salts allow obtaining higher concentrations of ozone than electrolytes containing sulfates. Adding to that, the increase in the operation pressure and the decrease in temperature have a positive effect on the production of ozone. This indicates that not only the oxidation of water, but also the oxidation of oxygen is important to explain the electrochemical production of ozone. A simple model considering all these processes is formulated and validated with the experimental results that allow explaining the fundamentals of ozone production in acidic conditions

One health approach to identify research needs on Rhipicephalus microplus ticks in the Americas

We aim to provide a harmonized view of the factors that affect the survival and promote the spread of R. microplus in the Neotropics, approaching its different facets of biology, ecology, distribution, and control. We review the interactions among environmental niche, landscape fragmentation, vegetal coverage (abiotic traits), and the biotic aspects of its ecology (abundance of domesticated or wild competent hosts), proposing emerging areas of research. We emphasize a holistic view integrating an economically and ecologically sustainable control of infestations and transmitted pathogens by R. microplus in the Neotropics. Examples of research link the trends of climate, the composition of the community of hosts, the landscape features, and a tailored management based on ecological grounds. Our view is that factors driving the spread of R. microplus are complex and deeply interrelated, something that has been seldom considered in control strategies. The effects of climate may affect the dynamics of wildlife or the landscape composition, promoting new patterns of seasonal activity of the tick, or its spread into currently free areas. In this paper we encourage a One Health approach highlighting the main aspects governing the components of the tick’s life cycle and its interactions with livestock and wild animals.EEA RafaelaFil: Estrada-Peña, Agustin. Universidad de Zaragoza. Facultad de Veterinaria. Departamento de Patología Animal; EspañaFil: Estrada-Peña, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón, Research Group in Emerging Zoonoses; EspañaFil: Rodriguez Mallon, Alina. Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. Animal Biotechnology Department; CubaFill: Bermudez, Sergio. Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud; PanamáFill: Domingos, Ana. Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical. Global Health and Tropical Medicine; PortugalFill: Estrada Garcia, Mario Pablo. Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology; CubaFil: Labruna, Marcelo. Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Medicina Veterinaria e Zootecnia. Departamento de Medicina Veterinaria Preventiva e Saude Animal; BrasilFil: Merino, Octavio. University of Tamaulipas. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine; MexicoFil: Nava, Santiago. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela; ArgentinaFil: Nava, Santiago. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Nava, Santiago. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Instituto de Investigación de la Cadena Láctea (IDICAL); ArgentinaFil: Tarragona, Evelina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela. Instituto de Investigación de la Cadena Láctea (IDICAL); ArgentinaFil: Tarragona, Evelina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigación de la Cadena Láctea (IDICAL); ArgentinaFil: Venzal, José Manuel. Universidad de la República. CENUR Litoral Norte-Salto. Facultad de Veterinaria. Laboratorio de Vectores y Enfermedades Transmitidas; UruguayFil: De La Fuente, José. Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos; EspañaFil: Mosqueda, Juan. Autonomous University of Queretaro. College of Natural Sciences. Immunology and Vaccines Laboratory; MexicoFil: Lleonart Cruz, Ricardo. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP); PanamáFil: Lleonart Cruz, Ricardo. Sistema Nacional de Investigación (SNI); Panam

Polarsys towards Long-Term Availability of Engineering Tools for Embedded Systems

International audienceThe Polarsys Industrial Working Group (http://www.polarsys.org) addresses specific issues of industrial users who develop and maintain Embedded Systems:• A satellite needs to be supported for more than 25 years.• An aircraft flight control system must be "certified" according to safety standards, including the tooling used to produce the software.During the whole life cycle of the product, system architects and developers of embedded systems need maturity assessment and long lasting support for their tooling. These concerns are also relevant in other safety-regulated environments like railway or energy, and for other domains with long life products like telecommunication or healthcare

Elaboración de informes virtuales de prácticas de Microbiología general, odontológica e industrial basados en fotografías y su integración en un banco común de imágenes de Microbiología

Este proyecto, que se platea como continuación del número 161 del curso 2016-2017, propone la creación y realización de informes de prácticas virtuales en distintas asignaturas del área de la Microbiología. Con ello, se pretende incentivar el estudio y mejorar el aprovechamiento de las prácticas realizadas por alumnos de distintos cursos, Grados y Facultades, mediante el uso de las nuevas tecnologías y metodologías más visuales. Dichas asignaturas son: • Microbiología e Inmunología, 2º curso Grado de Odontología, Facultad de Odontología. • Microbiología, 3º curso Grado en Farmacia, Facultad de Farmacia. • Microbiología Industrial y biotecnología (MIBT), 2º curso Grado en Ciencia y Tecnología de los alimentos (CYTA), Facultad de Veterinaria. Se han construido 4 espacios virtuales con plantillas de los informes de prácticas, ya que el proyecto se realizó en 4 grupos distintos. De esta forma se tendrían guías virtuales de las distintas asignaturas con la inclusión de las fotografías y su interpretación. También se comprobaría la utilidad de esta metodología según la estructura de las prácticas de las asignaturas y/o la idiosincrasia de los distintos grupos de alumnos. El otro objetivo general del proyecto es el almacenamiento y clasificación de las fotografías realizadas para ampliar el banco de fotografías de microorganismos y pruebas microbiológicas. Esto, también justifica la elección de las 3 asignaturas mencionadas. El proyecto se ha desarrollado según lo previsto y se han alcanzado de manera satisfactoria los objetivos propuestos. Además, aunque de forma desigual según las asignaturas, la realización de este proyecto ha resultado de interés para los estudiantes, repercutiendo de forma positiva en algunas calificaciones y no representando una carga de trabajo adicional excesiva. Para los profesores y otros miembros del equipo del proyecto también ha supuesto una experiencia gratificante y el material generado puede ahora tener múltiples aplicaciones docentes. Por lo tanto, está metodología se podrá seguir utilizando si los profesores así lo desean en las prácticas de las asignaturas en las que haya presentado mayor utilidad.Depto. de Microbiología y ParasitologíaFac. de FarmaciaFALSEsubmitte

Trends in hip fracture in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: Results from the Spanish National Inpatient Registry over a 17-year period (1999–2015). TREND-AR study

Purpose T o analyse trends in hip fracture (HF) rates in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) over an extended time period (17 years). Methods T his observational retrospective survey was performed by reviewing data from the National Surveillance System for Hospital Data, which includes more than 98% of Spanish hospitals. All hospitalisations of patients with RA and HF that were reported from 1999 to 2015 were analysed. Codes were selected using the Ninth International Classification of Diseases, Clinical Modification: ICD-9-CM: RA 714.0 to 714.9 and HF 820.0 to 820.3. The crude and age-adjusted incidence rate of HF was calculated by age and sex strata over the last 17 years. General lineal models were used to analyse trends. Results Between 1999 and 2015, 6656 HFs occurred in patients with RA of all ages (84.25% women, mean age 77.5 and 15.75% men, mean age 76.37). The ageadjusted osteoporotic HF rate was 221.85/100 000 RA persons/ year (women 227.97; men 179.06). The HF incidence rate increased yearly by 3.1% (95% CI 2.1 to 4.0) during the 1999–2015 period (p<0.001) and was more pronounced in men (3.5% (95% CI 2.1 to 4.9)) than in women (3.1% (95% CI 2.3 to 4.1)). The female to male ratio decreased from 1.54 in 1999 to 1.14 in 2015. The average length of hospital stays (ALHS) decreased (p<0.001) from 16.76 days (SD 15.3) in 1999 to 10.78 days (SD 7.72) in 2015. Age at the time of hospitalisation increased (p<0.001) from 75.3 years (SD 9.33) in 1999 to 79.92 years (SD 9.47) in 2015. There was a total of 326 (4.9%) deaths during admission, 247 (4.4%) in women and 79 (7.5%) in men (p<0.001). Conclusion I n Spain, despite the advances that have taken place in controlling disease activity and in treating osteoporosis, the incidence rate of HF increased in both male and female patients with RA.This work has a help for the research provided by the Society of Rheumatology of the Community of Madrid (SORCOM)

Effectiveness of a strategy that uses educational games to implement clinical practice guidelines among Spanish residents of family and community medicine (e-EDUCAGUIA project):A clinical trial by clusters

This study was funded by the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias FIS Grant Number PI11/0477 ISCIII.-REDISSEC Proyecto RD12/0001/0012 AND FEDER Funding.Background: Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) have been developed with the aim of helping health professionals, patients, and caregivers make decisions about their health care, using the best available evidence. In many cases, incorporation of these recommendations into clinical practice also implies a need for changes in routine clinical practice. Using educational games as a strategy for implementing recommendations among health professionals has been demonstrated to be effective in some studies; however, evidence is still scarce. The primary objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a teaching strategy for the implementation of CPGs using educational games (e-learning EDUCAGUIA) to improve knowledge and skills related to clinical decision-making by residents in family medicine. The primary objective will be evaluated at 1 and 6months after the intervention. The secondary objectives are to identify barriers and facilitators for the use of guidelines by residents of family medicine and to describe the educational strategies used by Spanish teaching units of family and community medicine to encourage implementation of CPGs. Methods/design: We propose a multicenter clinical trial with randomized allocation by clusters of family and community medicine teaching units in Spain. The sample size will be 394 residents (197 in each group), with the teaching units as the randomization unit and the residents comprising the analysis unit. For the intervention, both groups will receive an initial 1-h session on clinical practice guideline use and the usual dissemination strategy by e-mail. The intervention group (e-learning EDUCAGUIA) strategy will consist of educational games with hypothetical clinical scenarios in a virtual environment. The primary outcome will be the score obtained by the residents on evaluation questionnaires for each clinical practice guideline. Other included variables will be the sociodemographic and training variables of the residents and the teaching unit characteristics. The statistical analysis will consist of a descriptive analysis of variables and a baseline comparison of both groups. For the primary outcome analysis, an average score comparison of hypothetical scenario questionnaires between the EDUCAGUIA intervention group and the control group will be performed at 1 and 6months post-intervention, using 95% confidence intervals. A linear multilevel regression will be used to adjust the model. Discussion: The identification of effective teaching strategies will facilitate the incorporation of available knowledge into clinical practice that could eventually improve patient outcomes. The inclusion of information technologies as teaching tools permits greater learning autonomy and allows deeper instructor participation in the monitoring and supervision of residents. The long-term impact of this strategy is unknown; however, because it is aimed at professionals undergoing training and it addresses prevalent health problems, a small effect can be of great relevance. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02210442.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Complement component C4 structural variation and quantitative traits contribute to sex-biased vulnerability in systemic sclerosis

Altres ajuts: Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), "A way of making Europe".Copy number (CN) polymorphisms of complement C4 play distinct roles in many conditions, including immune-mediated diseases. We investigated the association of C4 CN with systemic sclerosis (SSc) risk. Imputed total C4, C4A, C4B, and HERV-K CN were analyzed in 26,633 individuals and validated in an independent cohort. Our results showed that higher C4 CN confers protection to SSc, and deviations from CN parity of C4A and C4B augmented risk. The protection contributed per copy of C4A and C4B differed by sex. Stronger protection was afforded by C4A in men and by C4B in women. C4 CN correlated well with its gene expression and serum protein levels, and less C4 was detected for both in SSc patients. Conditioned analysis suggests that C4 genetics strongly contributes to the SSc association within the major histocompatibility complex locus and highlights classical alleles and amino acid variants of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DPB1 as C4-independent signals

Zoonosis, cambio climático y sociedad

La sociedad contemporánea se enfrenta a uno de los retos más grandes de la historia humana, el calentamiento global, mismo que acarrea enormes consecuencias, tales como los disturbios climáticos, así como los patrones de las enfermedades de origen animal transmisibles al hombre. Precisamente ante este escenario las instituciones educativas de nivel superior deben dar cumplimiento a su responsabilidad y ser las generadoras de alternativas de solución mediante el trabajo especializado de investigación; y para ello, la pesquisa científica es la mejor de las alternativas a nuestro alcance para comprender y encarar estos desafíos.Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México y Ediciones y Gráficos Eón, S.A. de C.V

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true