COVID-19 has become a global pandemic during 2020 due to its high contagiousness and the high mobility of the world's population today. In just one year, this virus has caused millions of infections ...and deaths worldwide. These numbers will continue to grow until the population becomes immune to the virus thanks to an effective vaccine. Until this is possible, the only viable strategy is to try to stop its expansion through preventive measures such as limiting mobility, the use of masks, etc. In order to support these measures, this article presents a service to provide safe navigation solutions to reduce the likelihood of infection by avoiding potential conflict areas in the city. To identify these hotspots, a strategy that combines a rule-based system and a common-sense knowledge base is proposed. Through this strategy, an occupation model and a danger model are inferred. This requires the prior capture of knowledge about the general functioning of the city, its inhabitants and the virus. The proposed service makes decisions from these two models. Finally, a validation process has been carried out through surveys to evaluate the proposed solution. Obtained results demonstrate the potential of the proposed solution as a tool to identify safe routes that allow citizens to move around the city with low exposure to COVID-19.
A systematic study concerning the discretization of the angle of incidence in surrogate models obtained with support vector regression (SVR) is presented. The problem addressed in this work arises ...from the dependence of the reflection coefficients on the angle of incidence. While the direct coefficients are usually stable with the angle of incidence, this is not the case with the cross-coefficients, which translates this behavior to the crosspolar component of the radiation pattern. Then, correctly assessing this influence and minimizing radiation pattern distortion allow training SVR surrogate models per angle of incidence without penalizing accuracy in the prediction of the far field. The results shown in this work are directly relevant to improving the computational performance of SVRs applied to reflectarray design since they allow reducing the dimensionality of the models by generating surrogate models per angle of incidence instead of including the angles of incidence as input variables. In addition, it highlights the importance of a proper discretization of the angles of incidence for a correct prediction of the crosspolar pattern for its subsequent optimization, especially for advanced space applications with tight crosspolar requirements.
Despite better treatments and care for patients with type 1 diabetes (T1DM), all-cause and cardiovascular mortality still remains higher compared to the general population. We evaluated mortality and ...risk factors for mortality in a representative cohort of patients with T1DM.
DIACAM1 was a cross-sectional, multicenter study on adult patients (≥ 16 years old) and diabetes with at least 5 years since diabetes diagnosis conducted between 2009 and 2010. DIACAM1 2010–2020 study was a follow-up study, extension of DIACAM1, where vital status of patients was evaluated between June 2019 and June 2020.
4.03% CI95%, 2.53–5.62) of the 1465 patients with T1DM included in the cohort of the DIACAM1 in 2010 had died. Survival was lower than in the sex- and age-matched general population in the same region. 40.7% of deaths were due to cardiovascular disease. HbA1c levels < 7% and triglyceride levels < 150 mg/dL were associated with lower mortality, whereas retinopathy and plasma creatinine were associated with increased mortality.
We confirmed a lower survival in people with T1DM, with cardiovascular disease being the main cause of mortality. High HbA1c, high triglycerides, retinopathy, and high creatinine are factors associated with mortality.
•4.03% of 1465 type 1 diabetes patients included in 2010 died before June 2020.•This mortality was higher than expected for the age- and sex-matched population.•The most common causes of death were cardiovascular and infectious diseases.•High HbA1c, high triglycerides, retinopathy, and high creatinine are factors associated with mortality.
OBJECTIVETo evaluate degree of metabolic control and treatment regimens in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) enrolled in the DIACAM1 study, after 10 years of follow-up under routine ...clinical practice conditions. PATIENTS AND METHODSA total of 1,465 patients enrolled in the DIACAM1 study, a multicentre, cross-sectional study conducted in Castilla-La Mancha in 2010, were analysed. Of these patients, 58 (4%) died during the 10-year follow-up period. Anthropometric, clinical, laboratory and treatment data were reviewed for 1,121 (76.5%) patients in active follow-up. RESULTSMean glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels were 7.66% lower than in 2010 (p<0.001), 26% of patients achieved HbA1c levels <7%, 24.4% were obese, 51.7% had dyslipidaemia and 33.6% had hypertension. The following were found to be predictive factors for good glycaemic control (HbA1c<7%): good glycaemic control in 2010 (odds ratio OR 4.8); the use of intensified insulin regimens, including the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI) guideline and glucose monitoring (OR 2.8); no hyperlipidaemia (OR 1.97); and higher levels of education (OR 1.4). The recommended targets for lipid and blood pressure control were met by 76% of patients; 40% of the patients enrolled required drug treatment. CONCLUSIONSGlycaemic control in patients with T1DM in Castilla-La Mancha improved after 10 years of follow-up. The use of intensified insulin regimens and technology applied to diabetes care appear to be determining factors in achieving this improvement. Despite the increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, the majority of the patients achieved good lipid and blood pressure control.
The aim of this study was to assess the effect of local application of IGF-I on osseointegration of dental implants placed in osteoporotic bones.
16 rabbits were randomly distributed into two groups: ...eight animals were ovariectomized and fed a low-calcium diet for six weeks, in order to induce experimental osteoporosis, and the others were sham-operated and fed a standard diet. A titanium implant was inserted into the tibiae in both groups. In half of the rabbits, 4 μg of IGF-I was applied into the ostectomy, prior to the implant insertion. A total of 32 implants were placed. Animals were sacrificed two weeks after surgery and decalcified samples were processed for Bone-To-Implant Contact (BIC) and Bone Area Density (BAD) measurements. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for statistical evaluation. P<0.05 was considered to be significant.
Ovariectomy induced statistically significant lower BAD values (p=0.008) and a tendency towards lower BIC values when compared osteoporotic and healthy groups. The administration of 4 μg of IGF-I did not produce statistically significant differences neither on BIC nor on BAD values, neither in the osteoporotic animals nor in healthy.
Within the limitations of this experimental study, local administration of 4 μg of IGF-I was not able to induce any changes in the osseointegration process two weeks after surgery, neither in healthy rabbits nor in the osteoporotic group.
Mid–Late Holocene environmental changes in the Cantabrian Mountains are a consequence of both climate variability and human activity. A 182cm-long sedimentary sequence was collected from Belbín ...depression, Western Massif of Picos de Europa (Cantabrian Mountains, NW Spain), in order to reconstruct Holocene environmental dynamics and the factors triggering landscape changes in the area. Using multi-proxy analysis of the uppermost 60cm of the sediments (texture, organic matter content, quartz grains microstructures, charcoal deposition) together with three 14C AMS dates, a sequence of alternating warmer and colder phases has been inferred for the last ca. 6.7kycalBP. Warm stages are defined by low to moderate chemical weathering of the quartz grain particles with relative increases of the C/N ratio, while colder phases show a moderate to intense physical weathering of the quartz grains and lower C/N ratios. Warmer temperatures were recorded in Belbín area between: 6.7–5, 3.7–3, 2.6–1.1, 0.87–0.51 and since 0.01kycalBP. A colder regime occurred between 5–3.7, 3–2.6, 1.1–0.87 and 0.51 to 0.01kycalBP. The increasing organic matter content during the Late Holocene may be associated with increasing temperatures. The charcoal particles do not show a higher or lower concentration during prevailing colder or warmer conditions, and therefore may be linked to human-induced fire management of the landscape. The most intense period with fire activity occurred between 3.5 and 3kycalBP during the Bronze Age.
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•We analyse a high resolution sedimentary sequence from Picos de Europa, NW Spain.•Sediments reveal cryogenic processes and fire activity for the Mid–Late Holocene.•Climate variability was inferred based on quartz grain particles morphologies.•The most frequent fire events occurred during the Bronze Age (3.5–3kycalBP).•Fire severity influences physical/chemical weathering intensity on quartz grains.
Background: Shift working is associated with a profound desynchronization of circadian rhythm and in particular, night-shift work disrupts normal circadian physiology. Sleep deprivation affects the ...functioning of certain brain areas and thus impairs cognitive performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the night shift on cognitive performance and cerebral oxygenation/haemodynamics. Methods: A prospective, observational, comparative, randomized and cross-over study was carried out. A total of 74 intensive care unit nurses in Spain were included in the study. The following variables were measured: sociodemographic, burnout, anxiety, baseline cerebral oxygenation levels on night and day shift using a near-infrared spectroscopy system and cognitive task performance during a verbal fluency task to evaluate the alterations in the prefrontal cortex, assessed as changes in regional saturation index. Results: The average regional saturation index decreased significantly in the night shift (r = 0.560, p < 0.001). The ICU nurses showed a significant decrease in the verbal fluency test on average (8.53 ± 8.49, p < 0.001) and, in general, there was also a significant increase in anxiety score (3.17 ± 7.56, p = 0.001). Conclusions: Sleep deprivation during the night shift was considered to be related to decreased dorsolateral PFC reactivity. After the night shift, the nurses showed a decrease in prefrontal cortex activity and in cognitive performance.
Light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) showing a white emission have been prepared with Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films of the metallosurfactant ...bis2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)pyridine2-(1-hexadecyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)pyridineiridium(III) chloride (1), which work with an air-stable Al electrode. They were prepared by depositing a LB film of 1 on top of a layer of poly(N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(4-hexylphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine (pTPD) spin-coated on indium tin oxide (ITO). The white color of the electroluminescence of the device contrasts with the blue color of the photoluminescence of 1 in solution and within the LB films. Furthermore, the crystal structure of 1 is reported together with the preparation and characterization of the Langmuir monolayers (π–A compression isotherms and Brewster angle microscopy (BAM)) and LB films of 1 (IR, UV–vis and emission spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), specular X-ray reflectivity (SXR), and atomic force microscopy (AFM)).
As part of the research for techniques to control the final energy reaching the receivers of central solar power plants, this work combines two contrasting methods in a novel way as a first step ...towards integrating such systems in solar plants. To determine the effective power reaching the receiver, the direct normal irradiance was predicted at ground level using a total sky camera, TSI-880 model. Subsequently, these DNI values were used as the inputs for a heliostat model (Fiat-Lux) to trace the sunlight’s path according to the mirror features. The predicted valuex of flux, obtained from these simulations, differ of less than 20% from the real values. This represents a significant advance in integrating different technologies to quantify the losses produced in the path from the heliostats to the central receiver, which are normally caused by the presence of atmospheric attenuation factors.
Wireless sensor networks deployed within metallic cavities are known to suffer from a very severe fading, even in strong line-of-sight propagation conditions. This behavior is well-captured by the ...Two-Wave with Diffuse Power (TWDP) fading distribution, which shows great fit to field measurements in such scenarios. In this paper, we address the joint estimation of the parameters K and Δ that characterize the TWDP fading model, based on the observation of the received signal envelope. We use a moment-based approach to derive closed-form expressions for the estimators of K and Δ, as well as closed-form expressions for their asymptotic variance. Results show that the estimation error is close to the Cramer-Rao lower bound for a wide range of values of the parameters K and Δ. The performance degradation due to a finite number of observations is also analyzed.
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