Influence of Femtosecond Laser Modification on Biomechanical and Biofunctional Behavior of Porous Titanium Substrates

[Abstract] Bone resorption and inadequate osseointegration are considered the main problems of titanium implants. In this investigation, the texture and surface roughness of porous titanium samples obtained by the space holder technique were modified with a femtosecond Yb-doped fiber laser. Different percentages of porosity (30, 40, 50, and 60 vol.%) and particle range size (100–200 and 355–500 μm) were compared with fully-dense samples obtained by conventional powder metallurgy. After femtosecond laser treatment the formation of a rough surface with micro-columns and micro-holes occurred for all the studied substrates. The surface was covered by ripples over the micro-metric structures. This work evaluates both the influence of the macro-pores inherent to the spacer particles, as well as the micro-columns and the texture generated with the laser, on the wettability of the surface, the cell behavior (adhesion and proliferation of osteoblasts), micro-hardness (instrumented micro-indentation test, P–h curves) and scratch resistance. The titanium sample with 30 vol.% and a pore range size of 100–200 μm was the best candidate for the replacement of small damaged cortical bone tissues, based on its better biomechanical (stiffness and yield strength) and biofunctional balance (bone in-growth and in vitro osseointegration).This research was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación del Gobierno de España (PID2019-109371GB-100), Junta de Andalucía (Spain), through the Project PAIDI P20-00671Junta de Andalucía; P20-0067

Simultaneous quantification of light elements in thin films deposited on Si substrates using proton EBS (Elastic Backscattering Spectroscopy)

Quantification of light elements content in thin films is an important and difficult issue in many technological fields such as polymeric functional thin films, organic thin film devices, biomaterials, and doped semiconducting structures. Light elements are difficult to detect with techniques based on X-ray emission, such as energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX). Other techniques, like X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), can easily quantify the content of light elements within a surface but often these surface measurements are not representative of the lights elements global composition of the thin film. Standard Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), using alpha particles as probe projectiles, is not a good option to measure light elements deposited on heavier substrates composed of heavier elements like Si or glass. Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA) offers a good quantification method, but most of the nuclear reactions used are selective for the quantification of only one element, so several reactions and analysis are necessary to measure different elements. In this study, Elastic Backscattering Spectroscopy (EBS) using proton beams of 2.0 MeV simultaneously quantified different light elements (helium, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine) contained in thin films supported on silicon substrates. The capabilities of the proposed quantification method are illustrated with examples of the analysis for a series of thin film samples: amorphous silicon with helium bubbles, fluorinated silica, fluorinated diamond-like carbon and organic thin films. It is shown that this simple and versatile procedure allows the simultaneous quantification of light elements in thin films with thicknesses in the 200-500 nm range and contents lower than 10 at.%.España Mineco CSD2007- 42 CSD2008-00023 MAT2010-21228 MAT2010-1844

Influence of Femtosecond Laser Modification on Biomechanical and Biofunctional Behavior of Porous Titanium Substrates

Bone resorption and inadequate osseointegration are considered the main problems of titanium implants. In this investigation, the texture and surface roughness of porous titanium samples obtained by the space holder technique were modified with a femtosecond Yb-doped fiber laser. Different percentages of porosity (30, 40, 50, and 60 vol.%) and particle range size (100–200 and 355–500 μm) were compared with fully-dense samples obtained by conventional powder metallurgy. After femtosecond laser treatment the formation of a rough surface with micro-columns and micro-holes occurred for all the studied substrates. The surface was covered by ripples over the micro-metric structures. This work evaluates both the influence of the macro-pores inherent to the spacer particles, as well as the micro-columns and the texture generated with the laser, on the wettability of the surface, the cell behavior (adhesion and proliferation of osteoblasts), micro-hardness (instrumented micro-indentation test, P–h curves) and scratch resistance. The titanium sample with 30 vol.% and a pore range size of 100–200 μm was the best candidate for the replacement of small damaged cortical bone tissues, based on its better biomechanical (stiffness and yield strength) and biofunctional balance (bone in-growth and in vitro osseointegration).Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación del Gobierno de España PID2019-109371GB-100Junta de Andalucía (Spain) PAIDI P20-0067

Women and employment: advances and challenges in policies for women's labour-force participation in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean in the context of the post-pandemic recovery

The purpose of this document is to provide inputs and contribute to reflection for decision-making in the field of equality in employment between men and women. It aims to be a document of proposals and measures of public policies that can be taken into consideration, both in the 27 countries of the European Union (EU27) and in their relationship with their partners in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), to increase women's participation into labour market in a stable and equitable manner.Fil: Daza Aramayo, LourdesFil: Křížková, AlenaFil: López Igual, PurificaciónFil: Černohorská, Vanda MaufraFil: Nyklová, BlankaFil: Partida Rocha, RaquelFil: Peterson, ElinFil: Pospíšilová, MarieFil: Rocha Carpiuc, CeciliaFil: Rodríguez-Modroño, PaulaFil: Távora, IsabelFil: Vohlidalová, MartaFil: Actis Di Pasquale, Eugenio. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Addabbo, TindaraFil: Aspiazu, Eliana. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Cutuli, Romina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Damiani, FilippoFil: Daza Aramayo, Lourdes GabrielaFil: Dudová, RadkaFil: Espinosa Fajardo, JuliaFil: Fernández Marín, Ana MaríaFil: Formánková, LenkaFil: Hermanová, Mari

Vertical characterization of fine and coarse dust particles during an intense Saharan dust outbreak over the Iberian Peninsula in springtime 2021

An intense and long-lasting Saharan dust outbreak crossed the Iberian Peninsula (IP) from the southwest (SW) to the northeast (NE) from 25 March until 7 April 2021. This work aims to assess the optical and mass contribution of both fine and coarse dust particles along their transport. Five Iberian lidar stations were monitoring the transport and evolution of the Saharan dust particles, i.e. El Arenosillo/Huelva, Granada, Torrejón/Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, and Évora in Portugal. The particular meteorological conditions determined the aerosol scenario along the overall dust event, differing in the first part of the event (25–31 March), in which the strongest dust incidence occurred on 29–31 March at the south and central stations and 1 April at Barcelona, from the second one (1–7 April). The use of the two-step POLIPHON algorithm showed the relevance of using polarized lidar measurements for separating the aerosol properties of dust fine and coarse particles as an added value. Both the fine dust (Df) and coarse dust (Dc) components of the total particle backscatter coefficient (total dust, DD¿=¿Dc¿+¿Df) were separately derived. The dust plume was well-mixed with height and no significant differences were found in the vertical structure of both the Dc and Df particle backscatter coefficients. From the beginning of the dust outbreak until 1 April, the vertical Df¿¿DD mass ratio was nearly constant in time at each station and also in altitude with values of ~¿10¿%. Moreover, the mean dust optical depth at 532¿nm was decreasing along that dust pathway, reporting values from SW to NE stations of 0.34 at El Arenosillo/Huelva, 0.28 at Granada, 0.20 at Évora, 0.28 at Torrejón/Madrid, and 0.14 at Barcelona, although its Df¿¿DD ratio remained almost constant (28¿%–30¿%). A similar pattern was found for the total dust mass loading and its Df¿¿DD ratio, i.e. mostly decreasing mean mass values were reported, being constant in its Df¿¿DD ratio (~¿10¿%) along the SW–NE dust pathway. In addition, the episode-mean centre-of-mass height increased with latitude overall, showing a high variability, being greater than 0.5¿km at the southern sites (El Arenosillo/Huelva, Granada, Évora) and ~¿1.0¿km at Torrejón/Madrid and Barcelona. However, despite the relatively high intensity of the dust intrusion, the expected ageing of the dust particles was hardly observed, by taking into account the minor changes found in the contribution and properties of the coarse and fine dust particles. This is on the basis that the IP is relatively close to the Saharan dust sources and then, under certain dust transport conditions, any potential ageing processes in the dust particles remained unappreciated. The following must be highlighted: the different relative contribution of the fine dust particles to the total dust found for their optical properties (~¿30¿%) associated with the radiative effect of dust, with respect to that for the mass features (~¿10¿%) linked to air quality issues, along the overall dust event by crossing the IP.This research has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant no. PID2019-104205GB-C21/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Vulnerabilidade de emissão de gases com efeito de estufa devido a incêndios em ecossistemas florestais: Quatro casos de estudo no espaço SUDOE

Trabajo presentado en el 9º Congresso Florestal Nacional Portugal, celebrado en Funchal (Portugal) del 10 al 14 de octubre de 2022.Os incêndios florestais são uma das maiores fontes globais de emissão de Gases com Efeito de Estufa (GEE), os quais interferem na entrada de radiação solar, a qualidade do ar e o clima a escalas regionais e globais. Durante um processo de combustão completa, o O2 está presente em quantidade suficiente e o CO2 é um dos GEE que é mais libertado. Pelo contrário, num processo de combustão incompleta, a combustão é muito ineficiente e contribui para a emissão de outros gases como CO, metano e óxido nitroso em maiores quantidades. Este último processo pode ocorrer também devido a condições ambientais, severidade do incêndio, e humidade do combustível, entre outros fatores. Para o presente estudo, o stock de C armazenado na vegetação foi considerado como a principal fonte potencial de GEE a ser libertada devido a incêndios florestais. No âmbito do projeto SUDOE REMAS- Gestão de risco de emissão de gases com efeito de estufa em incêndios florestais (SOE3/P4/E0954), a vulnerabilidade às emissões de GEE por incêndios florestais foi mapeada em quatro áreas de estudo florestais no sul da Europa: Serra do Caldeirão (SC-Portugal), Chelva (CH-Espanha), Guadalajara (GJ- Espanha) e Landes de Gascogne (LG-França). Estas áreas, dominadas por diferentes ecossistemas florestais, apresentam diferentes vulnerabilidades ao fogo e às emissões de GEE. Definiu-se vulnerabilidade como as características do ecossistema florestal que o tornam suscetível a perder C (emissões) devido a incêndios florestais e foi quantificada espacialmente para cada área de estudo com base no produto de três componentes: i) Exposição - probabilidade de uma área para arder (%); ii) Sensibilidade - risco de perda instantânea de C em caso de incêndio (proporção entre 0 e 1); (iii) Resiliência - recuperação do sistema após o incêndio (meses). Para estimar as três componentes da vulnerabilidade utilizaram-se áreas ardidas, mapas de uso e ocupação do solo (COS) e imagens de satélite (Landsat). A exposição foi estimada para cada classe de COS como o produto da sua seletividade ao fogo pela frequência do fogo na área de estudo. A sensibilidade foi estimada com o índice NBR (Normalized Burn Ratio) antes e depois do incêndio para cada classe de COS. A resiliência foi estimada por comparação da diferença de NBR entre área ardida e a área não ardida circundante ao longo do tempo, até esta diferença ser nula. Pósteriormente, os valores de biomassa (e C) em 2020 foram estimados com base nos dados dos inventários florestais recolhidos nas parcelas de campo e extrapolados para toda a área de estudo com recurso a machine learning e utilizando-se a correlação entre biomassa e o índice NBR. Por último, com o produto da vulnerabilidade pelo valor estimado de C obteve-se a perda de C por hectare por ano, para cada área de estudo. A exposição ao fogo variou entre 0,1% (LG) e 2,3% (SC), a sensibilidade entre 0,71% (GJ) e 0,89 (LG), e a resiliência entre os 33 meses (SC) e os 60 meses (LG). Como resultado, a perda de carbono ao longo do tempo nas áreas de estudo selecionadas variou de 530 a 200 kg C.ha.ano-1, sendo mais elevada em CH e mais baixa em LG. Obteve-se também um mapa de vulnerabilidade dos ecossistemas florestais, à perda de carbono por incêndios florestais, por pixel (30 x 30m), com base na biomassa atual estimada. Estes resultados permitem uma atualização contínua e pretendem apoiar a gestão e as políticas florestaisEstudo desenvolvido no âmbito do projeto REMAS-SUDOE “Gestão do risco de emissões de gases com efeito de estufa por incêndios florestais”, financiado pelo Programa INTERREG SUDOE, FEDER (UE), referência REMAS – SOE3/P4/E0954

Newborn screening for presymptomatic diagnosis of complement and phagocyte deficiencies

The clinical outcomes of primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs) are greatly improved by accurate diagnosis early in life. However, it is not common to consider PIDs before the manifestation of severe clinical symptoms. Including PIDs in the nation-wide newborn screening programs will potentially improve survival and provide better disease management and preventive care in PID patients. This calls for the detection of disease biomarkers in blood and the use of dried blood spot samples, which is a part of routine newborn screening programs worldwide. Here, we developed a newborn screening method based on multiplex protein profiling for parallel diagnosis of 22 innate immunodeficiencies affecting the complement system and respiratory burst function in phagocytosis. The proposed method uses a small fraction of eluted blood from dried blood spots and is applicable for population-scale performance. The diagnosis method is validated through a retrospective screening of immunodeficient patient samples. This diagnostic approach can pave the way for an earlier, more comprehensive and accurate diagnosis of complement and phagocytic disorders, which ultimately lead to a healthy and active life for the PID patientsThis work was supported by the Swedish Research Council (VR) and grants provided by the Stockholm County Council (ALF)

Characterization of Tajogaite volcanic plumes detected over the Iberian Peninsula from a set of satellite and ground-based remote sensing instrumentation

Three volcanic plumes were detected during the Tajogaite volcano eruptive activity (Canary Islands, Spain, September–December 2021) over the Iberian Peninsula. The spatiotemporal evolution of these events is characterised by combining passive satellite remote sensing and ground-based lidar and sun-photometer systems. The inversion algorithm GRASP is used with a suite of ground-based remote sensing instruments such as lidar/ ceilometer and sun-photometer from eight sites at different locations throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Satellite observations showed that the volcanic ash plumes remained nearby the Canary Islands covering a mean area of 120 ± 202 km2 during the whole period of eruptive activity and that sulphur dioxide plumes reached the Iberian Peninsula

The pest kill rate of thirteen natural enemies as aggregate evaluation criterion of their biological control potential of Tuta absoluta

Ecologists study how populations are regulated, while scientists studying biological pest control apply population regulation processes to reduce numbers of harmful organisms: an organism (a natural enemy) is used to reduce the population density of another organism (a pest). Finding an effective biological control agent among the tens to hundreds of natural enemies of a pest is a daunting task. Evaluation criteria help in a first selection to remove clearly ineffective or risky species from the list of candidates. Next, we propose to use an aggregate evaluation criterion, the pest kill rate, to compare the pest population reduction capacity of species not eliminated during the first selection. The pest kill rate is the average daily lifetime killing of the pest by the natural enemy under consideration. Pest kill rates of six species of predators and seven species of parasitoids of Tuta absoluta were calculated and compared. Several natural enemies had pest kill rates that were too low to be able to theoretically reduce the pest population below crop damaging densities. Other species showed a high pest reduction capacity and their potential for practical application can now be tested under commercial crop production conditions

The pest kill rate of thirteen natural enemies as aggregate evaluation criterion of their biological control potential of Tuta absoluta

Ecologists study how populations are regulated, while scientists studying biological pest control apply population regulation processes to reduce numbers of harmful organisms: an organism (a natural enemy) is used to reduce the population density of another organism (a pest). Finding an effective biological control agent among the tens to hundreds of natural enemies of a pest is a daunting task. Evaluation criteria help in a first selection to remove clearly ineffective or risky species from the list of candidates. Next, we propose to use an aggregate evaluation criterion, the pest kill rate, to compare the pest population reduction capacity of species not eliminated during the first selection. The pest kill rate is the average daily lifetime killing of the pest by the natural enemy under consideration. Pest kill rates of six species of predators and seven species of parasitoids of Tuta absoluta were calculated and compared. Several natural enemies had pest kill rates that were too low to be able to theoretically reduce the pest population below crop damaging densities. Other species showed a high pest reduction capacity and their potential for practical application can now be tested under commercial crop production conditions.Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectore