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

Reduction of ash sintering precursor components in rice straw by water washing

The thermal conversion of rice straw is an attractive option for recovering its energy, but the process requires exhaustive control because of ash-related problems. Straw washing is one method of reducing ash-related problems and improving combustion behaviour. In this study, the ash of washed and unwashed rice straw samples was chemically characterized, tested using thermogravimetric analysis and environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), and subjected to higher combustion temperatures in a muffle furnace. Results showed that silicon was the most important component in the ash. Furthermore, a reduction in undesirable inorganic compounds related to ash problems, such as chlorine and potassium, was achieved by washing the straw samples. This practice could improve thermal behaviour and decrease the sintering formation of ash.This research was funded by the Innovation and Science Division of the Andalusian Regional Government (Research Projects P08-RNM-03584 and TIC-02913), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Research Project CTM2009-07199), and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (Project AP/045946/11)

Dynamics of changes in climate zones and building energy demand. A case study in spain

In the current context of the climate crisis, it is essential to design buildings that can cope with climate dynamics throughout their life cycle. It will ensure the development of sustainable and resilient building stock. Thus, this study's primary objective has been to demonstrate that the current climatic zones for buildings in peninsular Spain do not represent the current climatic reality and are not adapted to climate change and the impact on the energy demand of buildings. For this reason, the climatic zones of 7967 peninsular cities have been updated and adapted to the RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios by using the data measured in 77 meteorological reference stations. The results obtained have shown that in more than 80% of the cities, buildings are designed and constructed according to an obsolete climatic classification that does not take into account the current or future climatic reality, which will significantly affect the thermal performance of a building and highlights the need to review the climatic zoning in the country. The results obtained can be extrapolated to other regions. The methodology defined in this work can be used as a reference, thus making an essential scientific contribution in reflecting on current capacities and the possibilities of improving the building stock. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Environmental decision-support systems for evaluating the carrying capacity of land areas: Optimal site selection for grid-connected photovoltaic power plants

Today's environmental policies are largely devoted to fostering the development and implementation in Europe of renewable energy technologies, such as grid-connected photovoltaic solar energy, which are being actively promoted by European Union countries. This article describes an environmental decision-support system (EDSS) for selecting optimal sites for grid-connected photovoltaic power plants. This system combines multicriteria analysis and the analytic hierarchy process with geographical information systems (GIS) technology and at the same time takes into account environment, orography, location, and climate factors.Environmental decision-support systems Renewable energy Photovoltaic systems

Circulating miRNAs and BAG3-related dilated cardiomyopathy

Trabajo presentado en el 4th World Congress on Acute Heart Failure, celebrado en París (Francia), del 29 de abril al 2 de mayo de 2017Peer reviewe

Antibiotic susceptibility patterns among shigella sonnei, isolated during three different periods in región metropolitana, Chile Patrones de susceptibilidad antimicrobiana de cepas de Shigella sonnei aisladas durante tres períodos diferentes en la región

Background: Shigella sonnei gastroenteritis improves clinically and microbiologically with antibacterial treatment; however choosing a useful drug is a universal challenge because of in vitro susceptibility of S. sonnei frequently evolves to be resistant. Objective: To evaluate in vitro susceptibility of S. sonnei strains isolated from patients attending at the Chilean Región Metropolitana and to know the evolution that resistant patterns of S. sonnei have experienced. Material: In this study, the antimicrobial susceptibility profile of 277 isolates of Shigella sonnei was compared. The analyzed periods of time were: period I (1995-1997) 85 strains; period II (2004-2006) 92 strains and period III (2008-2009) 100 strains, in Santiago, Chile. The method performed to analyze susceptibility patterns was the disc diffusion (Kirby-Bauer). Results: The strains showed rates of resistance to ampicillin: period I, 85.8%; period II, 53.3%; period III, 100%, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole: period I

EARLY DETECTION OF CARDIAC DAMAGE

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