Distinguishing signatures of determinism and stochasticity in spiking complex systems

Acknowledgements: This work was supported in part by grant FA8655-12-1-2140 from EOARD US, grant FIS2009-13360 from the Spanish MCI and grant 2009 SGR 1168 from the Generalitat de Catalunya. C. Masoller acknowledges partial support from the ICREA Academia programme. N. Rubido acknowledges the Scottish University Physics Alliance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Investigating optical complexity of the phase transition in the intensity of a fibre laser radiation

Fibre lasers have been shown to manifest a laminar-to-turbulent transition when increasing its pump power. In order to study the dynamical complexity of this transition we use advanced statistical tools of time-series analysis. We apply ordinal analysis and the horizontal visibility graph to the experimentally measured laser output intensity. This reveal the presence of temporal correlations during the transition from the laminar to the turbulent lasing regimes. Both methods allow us to unveil coherent structures with well defined time-scales and strong correlations both, in the timing of the laser pulses and in their peak intensities

Global surveillance of cancer survival 1995-2009: analysis of individual data for 25,676,887 patients from 279 population-based registries in 67 countries (CONCORD-2)

BACKGROUND: Worldwide data for cancer survival are scarce. We aimed to initiate worldwide surveillance of cancer survival by central analysis of population-based registry data, as a metric of the effectiveness of health systems, and to inform global policy on cancer control. METHODS: Individual tumour records were submitted by 279 population-based cancer registries in 67 countries for 25·7 million adults (age 15-99 years) and 75,000 children (age 0-14 years) diagnosed with cancer during 1995-2009 and followed up to Dec 31, 2009, or later. We looked at cancers of the stomach, colon, rectum, liver, lung, breast (women), cervix, ovary, and prostate in adults, and adult and childhood leukaemia. Standardised quality control procedures were applied; errors were corrected by the registry concerned. We estimated 5-year net survival, adjusted for background mortality in every country or region by age (single year), sex, and calendar year, and by race or ethnic origin in some countries. Estimates were age-standardised with the International Cancer Survival Standard weights. FINDINGS: 5-year survival from colon, rectal, and breast cancers has increased steadily in most developed countries. For patients diagnosed during 2005-09, survival for colon and rectal cancer reached 60% or more in 22 countries around the world; for breast cancer, 5-year survival rose to 85% or higher in 17 countries worldwide. Liver and lung cancer remain lethal in all nations: for both cancers, 5-year survival is below 20% everywhere in Europe, in the range 15-19% in North America, and as low as 7-9% in Mongolia and Thailand. Striking rises in 5-year survival from prostate cancer have occurred in many countries: survival rose by 10-20% between 1995-99 and 2005-09 in 22 countries in South America, Asia, and Europe, but survival still varies widely around the world, from less than 60% in Bulgaria and Thailand to 95% or more in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and the USA. For cervical cancer, national estimates of 5-year survival range from less than 50% to more than 70%; regional variations are much wider, and improvements between 1995-99 and 2005-09 have generally been slight. For women diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005-09, 5-year survival was 40% or higher only in Ecuador, the USA, and 17 countries in Asia and Europe. 5-year survival for stomach cancer in 2005-09 was high (54-58%) in Japan and South Korea, compared with less than 40% in other countries. By contrast, 5-year survival from adult leukaemia in Japan and South Korea (18-23%) is lower than in most other countries. 5-year survival from childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is less than 60% in several countries, but as high as 90% in Canada and four European countries, which suggests major deficiencies in the management of a largely curable disease. INTERPRETATION: International comparison of survival trends reveals very wide differences that are likely to be attributable to differences in access to early diagnosis and optimum treatment. Continuous worldwide surveillance of cancer survival should become an indispensable source of information for cancer patients and researchers and a stimulus for politicians to improve health policy and health-care systems

A century of trends in adult human height

Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5-22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3-19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8-144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities 1,2 . This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity 3�6 . Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55 of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017�and more than 80 in some low- and middle-income regions�was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing�and in some countries reversal�of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories. © 2019, The Author(s)

FIRST PASSAGE TIME DISTRIBUTION FOR DELAYED LASER THRESHOLD INSTABILITY

The delay in the threshold instability induced by a sweep of cavity losses is characterized by a calculation of a first passage time distribution. Two different cases corresponding to slow and fast sweeping rates are considered

Relación entre el consumo dietético de ácidos grasos poliinsaturados omega 3 y actividad de la enfermedad en pacientes con artritis reumatoide

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a progressive autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the joint synovial membrane that causes pain, progressive loss of function and disability. Extra-articular disease affecting a variety of organs is an important factor in RA morbidity and mortality. Several studies showed the anti-inflammatory effects of omega 3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFA), present in fish and fish oils, on clinical manifestations of the inflammatory diseases. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between the frequency of polyunsaturated fatty acids omega 3 (n-3 PUFA) food sources consumption and RA inflammatory activity. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in 49 outpatients with RA, ages ranging from 23 to 80 (x = 49.34 �} sd 13.31) years, 81.6% (n = 40) female, who attended in Rheumatology Service, School Hospital Eva Peron in Granadero Baigorria, Rosario, during December 2012 and April 2013. RA activity was evaluated using the DAS (Disease Activity Score) - 28. Results obtained showed that the majority of patients did not regularly consume a-linolenic acid (ALA) or n-3-PUFA food source in the 3 months prior to the study. However, a significant association between DAS-28 value in patients who consumed fish or seafood .2 times/month, compared with those who reported to consume them <1 time/month (p = 0.005) was found. Subjects who reported to consume some of the fatty fish species evaluated more frequently were in �gremission�h (DAS-28 . 2.4) compared to those who reported not doing so; with significant differences among them: canned tuna (p = 0.02), mackerel (p = 0.04), horse mackerel (p = 0.01) and salmon and mussels (p = 0.03) Although there are no specific recommendations for n-3-PUFA consumption for patients with RA, adequate quantity to reduce the inflammatory activity of the RA could be reached with frequent consumption of fatty fish. Further studies that deepen these findings are required.La artritis reumatoide (AR) es una enfermedad autoinmune progresiva, caracterizada por inflamacion cronica de la membrana sinovial que causa dolor y perdida progresiva de la funcion articular e incapacidad. Presenta, ademas, un compromiso extra-articular que puede afectar varios organos aumentando la morbi-mortalidad. Varios estudios han demostrado los efectos antiinflamatorios de los acidos grasos poliinsaturados de cadena larga omega 3 (AGPI-CL n-3), presentes en pescados y aceites de pescado, sobre las manifestaciones clinicas de las enfermedades de base inflamatoria. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue determinar la relacion entre la frecuencia de consumo de alimentos fuente de acidos grasos poliinsaturados omega 3 (AGPI n-3) y la actividad inflamatoria de la AR. Se realizo un estudio descriptivo de corte transversal utilizando un cuestionario de frecuencia de consumo de alimentos fuente de AGPI n-3 en 49 pacientes con edades comprendidas entre 23 y 80 (x = 49,34 �} sd 13,31) anos, 81,6% (n=40) de sexo femenino, que concurrieron al Servicio de Reumatologia del Hospital Escuela Eva Peron de la localidad de Granadero Baigorria, Rosario, durante los meses de diciembre de 2012 y abril de 2013. La actividad de la AR fue valorada por clinimetria a traves del DAS (Disease Activity Score)-28. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que la mayoria de los pacientes no consumieron en forma habitual alimentos fuente de acido a-linolenico (ALA) o AGPI-CL n-3 en los 3 meses previos a la realizacion del estudio. Sin embargo, se encontro una asociacion significativa en el valor de DAS-28 entre los pacientes que consumieron pescados o mariscos .2 veces/ mes, en relacion con aquellos que respondieron consumirlos <1 vez/mes (p=0,005). Los individuos que respondieron consumir con mayor frecuencia algunas de las especies de pescados grasos evaluadas se encontraban en �gremision�h (DAS-28 . 2,4) en relacion con quienes informaron no hacerlo; obteniendose diferencias significativas entre ellos: atun en lata (p=0,02), caballa (p=0,04), jurel (p=0,01) y salmon y mejillones (p=0,03). No existen recomendaciones especificas sobre el consumo de AGPI-CL n-3 para pacientes con AR. Sin embargo, la cantidad adecuada para disminuir la actividad inflamatoria de la AR podria alcanzarse con el consumo frecuente de pescados grasos. Se requieren mas estudios que profundicen estos hallazgos

Modelling long-term phophorus leaching and changes in phosphorus fertility in excessively fertilized acid sandy soils

The sound management of agricultural soils that are heavily loaded with phosphorus (P) involves minimizing the losses of P responsible for eutrophication of surface waters, while ensuring enough P for crops. This paper describes a simple model to examine the compatibility of these two objectives in acid sandy soils in a temperate humid climate. The model is based on several assumptions regarding reversible and irreversible P sorption by P-reactive soil compounds (mainly poorly crystalline Fe and Al oxides) and release of P to water (water-P test). Model inputs are amount of P leached, P uptake by crops, and contents of poorly crystalline Fe and Al oxides in soil. The model predicts that reducing the amount of leached P to what is environmentally acceptable (e.g. 0.44 kg P ha1 year1, equivalent to 1 kg P2O5 ha1 year1) results in the long run in available soil P test values below target concentrations for optimum crop growth. When the amount of leached P is set to a fixed value the model predicts that soils with large contents of Fe and Al oxides can maintain the initial soil P test values for longer periods than other soils. The content in available P decreases if fertilizer P is applied to the soil at a rate equal to P uptake by crops. These results stress the difficulties involved in trying to make agricultural and environmental needs compatible in acid sandy soils

Adherencia a la restricción dietética de sodio en pacientes con hipertensión arterial esencial

Hypertension is an asymptomatic chronic disease that requires lifelong treatment. How- ever, numerous studies show that a high percentage of hypertensive patients do not adhere to treatment being exposed to suffer complications. The dietary sodium restriction, as a hypertension non-pharmacological treatment, is effective and without risks for its control. The main aims of the present work were to determine the compliance to a sodium restrict- ed diet in patients with essential hypertension and to identify some of the possible factors related to lack of compliance. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in 97 outpatients with essential hyper- tension, randomly selected, who attended to 2 health centers (public and private) in San José de la Esquina, during November and December 2011. The results show different rates of compliance according to the used test. Using Meyer's questionnaire, which values subjective components, higher compliance rate (79.4%) was found, while using the Batalla and the Haynes-Sackett's tests, which present a greater degree of objectivity, non-compliance predominated (99% and 93.8%, respectively). The reasons assigned to the lack of compliance were "lack of will" (65.9%), "difficulty in following a different diet from the rest of the family" (29.3%) and "social gatherings" (4.9%). 93.8% of the individuals received doctor's advice on how to follow a low sodium diet, and this information was considered as "sufficient" by 82.5% of the patients. It is required to reinforce nutritional education strategies that improve the level of knowl- edge, and allow incorporating and maintaining compliance to dietary sodium restriction in hypertensive patients.La hipertensión arterial (HTA) es una enfermedad crónica y asintomática que exige tratamiento de por vida. Sin embargo, numerosos estudios evidencian que un alto porcentaje de pacientes hipertensos no adhieren al tratamiento exponiéndose a pade- cer las complicaciones de la enfermedad. La restricción dietética de sodio como tratamien- to no farmacológico de la HTA es una medida eficaz y exenta de riesgos para su control. Los objetivos principales del presente trabajo fueron determinar la adherencia a la restricción dietética de sodio de pacientes con HTA esencial e identificar algunos de los posibles factores relacionados con la falta de adherencia. Se realizó un estudio descriptivo, de corte transversal en 97 pacientes ambulatorios con HTA esencial seleccionados al azar, que concurrieron a 2 centros de salud (público y privado) de la localidad de San José de la Esquina, durante los meses de noviembre y diciembre de 2011. Los resultados muestran diferentes niveles de adherencia según los tests empleados. Con el Cuestionario de creencias de hipertensión de Meyer, que valora componentes subjeti- vos, se demostró mayor prevalencia de adherencia (79,4%), mientras que en aquellos con mayor grado de objetividad, test de Batalla y de cumplimiento autocomunicado, predomi- nó la falta de adherencia (99% y 93.8% respectivamente). Los motivos asignados a la falta de adherencia fueron "falta de voluntad" (65.9%), "dificultad para adherirse a una dieta diferente de la del resto de la familia" (29.3%) y "reuniones sociales" (4.9%). El 93,8% de los pacientes recibió asesoramiento sobre cómo realizar la dieta hiposódica por parte de los médicos, siendo la información recibida considerada �suficiente� por el 82,5% de los encuestados. Se requiere fortalecer estrategias de educación nutricional que permitan mejorar el nivel de conocimiento e incorporar y mantener la adherencia a la restricción dietética de sodio en pacientes con HTA

Modelling long-term phophorus leaching and changes in phosphorus fertility in excessively fertilized acid sandy soils

The sound management of agricultural soils that are heavily loaded with phosphorus (P) involves minimizing the losses of P responsible for eutrophication of surface waters, while ensuring enough P for crops. This paper describes a simple model to examine the compatibility of these two objectives in acid sandy soils in a temperate humid climate. The model is based on several assumptions regarding reversible and irreversible P sorption by P-reactive soil compounds (mainly poorly crystalline Fe and Al oxides) and release of P to water (water-P test). Model inputs are amount of P leached, P uptake by crops, and contents of poorly crystalline Fe and Al oxides in soil. The model predicts that reducing the amount of leached P to what is environmentally acceptable (e.g. 0.44 kg P ha1 year1, equivalent to 1 kg P2O5 ha1 year1) results in the long run in available soil P test values below target concentrations for optimum crop growth. When the amount of leached P is set to a fixed value the model predicts that soils with large contents of Fe and Al oxides can maintain the initial soil P test values for longer periods than other soils. The content in available P decreases if fertilizer P is applied to the soil at a rate equal to P uptake by crops. These results stress the difficulties involved in trying to make agricultural and environmental needs compatible in acid sandy soils