Abstract Background Decompensated cirrhosis due to hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the main indications for liver transplantation (LT) in Spain. Recurrence of HCV after LT is the main cause of ...graft loss and death in HCV-positive recipients. Advanced donor age determines a more aggressive recurrence of HCV and a shorter survival. In this setting, in our liver unit, grafts from younger donors are allocated to HCV-positive recipients. The aim of this study was a comparative analysis of allocation of grafts in HCV-positive recipients versus other etiologies and the impact on waiting list time, Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score progression until LT, need of admission in a hospital, survival until LT. Methods This was a retrospective study from the cohort of patients included in the waiting list for LT owing to decompensated cirrhosis in the Hospital Gregorio Marañón from January 2008 to June 2013. Results A total of 91 patients were included; 63 patients (69.23%) received LT; 19 (20.88%) retired from the waiting list: 6 because of improvement, 11 (12.08%) because of death. In both groups, the age of recipients was similar (HCV 52 y vs other 53 y; P = .549). HCV patients were included in the waiting list with lower MELD score than other etiologies (HCV 16.1 vs other 19.4; P = .010); nevertheless, MELD score was similar at the time of LT in both groups (HCV 18.9 vs other 19.4; P = .675). Time on waiting list was significantly longer in HCV patients (198 d vs 86 d; P = .002) and they were admitted in hospital more days (30 d vs 12 d; P = .03). Donor age in the HCV group was significantly lower (64.3 y vs 54.7 y; P = .006). The intention-to-treat survival analysis did not show differences between the groups (log rank = 0.504). Conclusions HCV patients with decompensated cirrhosis receive grafts from younger donors. HCV patients remain waiting longer for an optimal organ and suffer MELD deterioration and more days admitted in hospital. These differences in allocation of grafts did not affect final survival. In our experience, designating younger organs to HCV-positive patients does not penalize neither HCV recipients nor recipients with other etiologies.
The main global strategy to stop biodiversity loss is the designation of protected areas (PAs). Spain is a highly biodiverse country. It has one of the world's greatest terrestrial PA coverages. ...However, the status of its biodiversity is delicate as a result of serious pressures, and some important areas for biodiversity are outside PAs. We used official census data to spatially assess how 71 habitats of community interest (HCIs), 126 regionally threatened flora, fauna and fungi species and subspecies (RTSs), and 33 globally threatened species or subspecies (GTSs) are represented in a network of 404 PAs in Andalusia, a region rich in biodiversity in southern Spain. We also assessed the legal and managerial protection afforded to these threatened habitats and species by those PAs. The Andalusian PA network expands across one-third of the region’s territory and includes the threatened species’ richest areas. However, it only covers 57% of the area of occupancy of RTSs, 81% of the regional area of occupancy of GTSs, and 53% of the extent of HCIs. Over 61% of the regional PA network area is assigned more than 1 PA designation category, although cumulative legal protection is marginally related to RTS richness and unrelated to GTS richness. RTSs and especially GTSs occupy the most relative area in Ramsar sites (i.e. wetlands of international importance), although these are of relatively minor importance for threatened habitats. Wetlands and agricultural areas are the broad ecosystem types showing the greatest numbers of RTSs and GTSs. Seven GTSs were not included in the Andalusian Register of Threatened Species. One hundred and eleven unprotected Areas of High Importance for Threatened Species (AHITSs) and one Area of High Importance for Threatened Biodiversity (AHITB) were identified. Those species and sites are good candidates for a targeted expansion of legal protection of biodiversity in the region.
A
bstract
We consider defect operators in scalar field theories in dimensions
d
= 4 −
ϵ
and
d
= 6 −
ϵ
with self-interactions given by a general marginal potential. In a double scaling limit, where ...the bulk couplings go to zero and the defect couplings go to infinity, the bulk theory becomes classical and the quantum defect theory can be solved order by order in perturbation theory. We compute the defect
β
functions to two loops and study the Renormalization Group flows. The defect fixed points can move and merge, leading to fixed point annihilation; and they exhibit a remarkable factorization property where the
c
-dependence gets disentangled from the coupling dependence.
The specific function of putative cut2 protein (or CFP25), encoded by the
Rv2301
gene from
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
H37Rv, has not been identified yet. The aim of this study was to assess some of ...CFP25 characteristics and its possible biological role in
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
H37Rv invasion process to target cells. Molecular assays indicated that the gene encoding Rv2301 is present and transcribed in
M. tuberculosis
complex strains. The presence of Rv2301 protein over the bacilli surface was confirmed by Western blot and immunoelectron microscopy analyses, using goats sera inoculated with synthetic peptides derived from Rv2301 protein. Receptor–ligand binding assays with carcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549) and macrophages derived from human histolytic lymphoma monocytes (U937) allowed us to identify five high activity binding peptides (HABPs) in both cell lines, and two additional HABPs only in A549 cells. U937 HABPs binding interactions were characterized by saturation assays, finding dissociation constants (
K
d
) within the nanomolar range and positive cooperativity (
n
H
> 1). Inhibition assays were performed to assess the possible biological role of Rv2301 identified HABPs, finding that some of them were able to inhibit invasion at a 5 μM concentration, compared with the cytochalasin control. On the other hand, HABPs, and especially HABP 36507 located at the N-terminus of the protein, facilitated the internalization of fluorescent latex beads into A549 cells. These findings are of vital importance for the rational selection of Rv2301 HABPs, to be included as components of an antituberculosis vaccine.
Growing interest in processed frozen products with similar characteristics to natural products has generated the study of new products in the food industry field. The characteristics of each matrix, ...the process of elaboration, composition, and structure of the additives and the interactions amongst these modify the food's texture, structure, physical and sensory properties and, hence, interfere directly with consumer acceptance. This research studied the effect of adding cryoprotectors during frozen storage on the rheological, physicochemical, structural, and microbiological properties in a Mafafa‐quinoa‐olive oil puree. To carry out the study, the rheological properties were determined through dynamic oscillatory tests and in steady state; likewise, the physicochemical properties (humidity, color, pH, and syneresis) were analyzed. Regarding physicochemical properties, the humidity content in the purees formulated varied between 57 and 74%, without important variation (p > .05) with respect to the formulation, however, in the storage during the freezing/thawing process, this parameter diminished in greater proportion in those purees containing carrageenan as cryoconservant. Both the addition of cryoconservants and the storage time affected significantly (p < .05) the puree's syneresis, with the degree of exudation being lower in the formulation containing xanthan gum at 1% w/w. During the freezing/thawing process, decreased apparent viscosity was noted. Additionally, the analysis of the viscoelastic properties of the purees evidences that already described, given that a significant effect (p < .05) was observed of the formulation of purees in the elastic component G′, in contrast with a notable decrease in the viscous component G″.
Pig slurry was treated in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor. To maintain a stable operation, the organic loading rate (OLR) applied to the system was increased stepwise by decreasing ...the dilution ratio of the pig slurry. Finally, during the last operational stage, no dilution was applied to the influent. The reactor maintained a soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD
s
) removal efficiency of 82% when OLRs lower than 1.73 g COD
s
l
−1
d
−1
were applied, although its efficiency fell to 55% when operated at 2.48 g COD
s
l
−1
d
−1
. System performance was not affected by the presence of free ammonia (concentrations up to 375 mg NH
3
l
−1
). The distribution of the different molecular weight fractions changed significantly during anaerobic digestion. Proteins contained in the fractions higher than 10,000 Daltons are less degraded than those belonging to the lower fractions. An important percentage of both COD and BOD
5
in the effluent were observed in the lowest fraction, probably caused by the presence of volatile fatty acids (VFA).
The fabrication of spatially overlapped fibre Bragg gratings over microstructured polymer optical fibre allows to demonstrate low-cost and compact multichannel wavelength division demultiplexers. ...Coarse and dense wavelengths in high-capacity optical systems have been demonstrated for reduced size environments with the advantages of polymer fibres.
Holographic thermal correlators revisited Krishna, Hare; Rodriguez-Gomez, D.
The journal of high energy physics,
11/2021, Letnik:
2021, Številka:
11
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
A
bstract
We study 2-point correlation functions for scalar operators in position space through holography including bulk cubic couplings as well as higher curvature couplings to the square of the ...Weyl tensor. We focus on scalar operators with large conformal dimensions. This allows us to use the geodesic approximation for propagators. In addition to the leading order contribution, captured by geodesics anchored at the insertion points of the operators on the boundary and probing the bulk geometry thoroughly studied in the literature, the first correction is given by a Witten diagram involving both the bulk cubic coupling and the higher curvature couplings. As a result, this correction is proportional to the VEV of a neutral operator
O
k
and thus probes the interior of the black hole exactly as in the case studied by Grinberg and Maldacena
13
. The form of the correction matches the general expectations in CFT and allows to identify the contributions of
T
n
O
k
(being
T
n
the general contraction of
n
energy-momentum tensors) to the 2-point function. This correction is actually the leading term for off-diagonal correlators (i.e. correlators for operators of different conformal dimension), which can then be computed holographically in this way.
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