► We present a brief overview of the current state of methodologies used to size hybrid energy systems. ► By means of combining sizing methods, it is possible to improve optimization results in the ...design of hybrid energy systems. ► We compare advantages and disadvantages of the methodologies presented.
Taking into account oil depletion, increasing population, and increasing energy demand, electrical power generation has entered into a new phase of evolution, which can be characterized mainly by increasing concerns about climate change, by a transition from a hydrocarbon-based economy, and by an efficient utilization of energy. In this sense, it seems that alternative energies have gathered considerable momentum since 1970s oil crisis. Moreover, Earth seems to have enough power to cover World’s electrical power demand but not by a single source; for this reason, recent researches have been carried out in order to design in an optimal way system’s configuration. Nevertheless, because of the randomized nature of alternative energy sources, electrical load profile, as well as the non-linear response of system components, to mention a few, is not an easy to assess the hybrid energy system performance; therefore, hybrid energy system designing has been a complex task. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to present a brief review about the sizing methodologies developed in the recent years.
Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in adults even in developed countries. Several lifestyle factors and comorbidities have been linked to an increased ...risk, although their prevalence has not been well documented in the primary care setting. The aim of this study is to assess the incidence, risk factor and comorbid conditions distribution of CAP in adults in primary care in Spain.
Retrospective observational study in adults (>18 years-old) with CAP diagnosed and attended at primary care in Spain between 2009 and 2013, using the Computerized Database for Pharmacoepidemiological Studies in Primary Care (BIFAP).
Twenty-eight thousand four hundred thirteen patient records were retrieved and analyzed. Mean age (standard deviation): 60.5 (20.3) years, 51.7 % males. Global incidence of CAP in adults was estimated at 4.63 per 1000 persons/year. CAP incidence increased progressively with age, ranging from a 1.98 at 18-20 years of age to 23.74 in patients over 90 years of age. According to sex, global CAP incidence was slightly higher in males (5.04) than females (4.26); CAP incidence from 18 to 65 year-olds up was comparable between males (range: 2.18-5.75) and females (range: 1.47-5.21), whereas from 65 years of age, CAP incidence was noticeable higher in males (range: 7.06-36.93) than in females (range: 5.43-19.62). Average prevalence of risk factors was 71.3 %, which increased with age, doubling the risk in males by the age of 75 (females 20 % vs males 40 %). From 55 years of age, at least one risk factor was identified in 85.7 % of cases: one risk factor (23.8 %), two risk factors (23.4 %), three or more risk factors (38.5 %). Major risk factors were: metabolic disease (27.4 %), cardiovascular disease (17.8 %) and diabetes (15.5 %).
The annual incidence of CAP in primary care adults in Spain is high, comparable between males and females up to 65 years of age, but clearly increasing in males from that age. CAP risk increases with age and doubles in males older than 75 years. The majority of CAP cases in patients over 55 years of age is associated to at least one risk factor. The main risk factors associated were metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.
Con base en el Censo Mexicano de Población 2020, se analiza la inserción escolar de los menores de edad migrantes recientes procedentes de EUA y del Triángulo Norte de Centroamérica y sus factores ...asociados. Para tal fin, se utiliza estadística descriptiva y modelos de regresión logística multinomial. Ambos tipos de migrantes internacionales presentan mayor inasistencia escolar y rezago en grados que los no migrantes, los migrantes centroamericanos con cifras muy superiores a aquellos de EUA. El bajo estrato económico y la escasa educación de los padres de los centroamericanos, así como la ausencia de los padres en los hogares tanto de los migrantes de Centroamérica como de EUA actúan como factores de riesgo para el abandono y la discontinuidad escolar.
Based on the 2020 Mexican Population Census, we analyzed the school insertion of recent child migrants from the United States and the Northern Triangle of Central America and their associated factors. To this end, descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression models were used. Both types of international migrants have higher school absenteeism and grade repetition rates than non-migrants, with those for Central American migrants being much higher than for those from the United States. The low economic status and parental schooling of Central Americans, as well as the absence of parents in the home among both Central American and US migrants constitute risk factors for school dropout and discontinuity.
Cobalt superalloys are used in several applications, mainly involving corrosive environments and high temperatures, in which wear and corrosion resistance are key factors in their performance. These ...alloys can be produced by a variety of manufacturing processes. Among these, the technology of laser cladding coatings has emerged as a promising and economically viable alternative to produce coatings from cobalt-based alloys. One of the applications of these alloys is in the production of components to obtain second-generation ethanol. In this application, about 8% of the processed material is composed of micrometric abrasive particles, mainly silica, among others, which cause wear of components. In order to better understand the tribological behavior of these alloys in microabrasion, three coatings of commercial cobalt-based superalloys, Stellite 1, 6 and 12, were produced by laser cladding. Additionally, two cast alloys, Stellite 250 and an experimental Stellite alloy, were also evaluated. Microabrasion tests using a statistical design of experiments were performed with SiO2, Al2O3 and SiC abrasives in a suspension of distilled water. Statistical analysis revealed that the wear coefficients of these alloys are influenced by both the abrasives and the alloy. The as-cast Stellite 250 alloy showed the highest wear coefficients, while the coated Stellite 1 and the as-cast experimental Stellite showed the lowest wear coefficients. The predominant wear micromechanism was scratching, except for Stellite 6 and 12 coated alloys in SiC tests, in which predominant mechanism were mixed and rolling, respectively. The presence of secondary micromechanism of rolling wear was also observed and associated with the granulometric distribution of the abrasives. The analysis of wear severity allowed the comprehension of the granulometric distribution influence of abrasive particles on wear.
•Microabrasion tests of as-cast and laser cladding Stellite alloys were performed.•Alloys produced by laser cladding have a more refined microstructure when compared to alloys obtained by the casting process.•Hardness was influenced both by the carbides volumetric fraction and the microstructure refinement, including the size of the carbides.•The laser clad Stellite alloy with the highest carbides volumetric fraction showed the lowest values of wear coefficients for all the abrasives used among the evaluated alloys.•The main wear mechanism was grooving. The mixed and rolling mechanism were also observed.
Estimate the prevalence of functional dentition among Brazilian adults using four different definitions and identify associated factors.
A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 9564 Brazilian ...adults aged 35-44 years who participated in the 2010 National Oral Health Survey. Data collection involved oral examinations and the administration of questionnaires. The following definitions were used: 1-WHO Functional Dentition (FDWHO: ≥ 20 teeth present); 2-well-distributed teeth (WDT: ≥ 10 teeth in each arch); 3 -Functional dentition classified by esthetics and occlusion (FDClass5: dentitions that sequentially exhibit at least one tooth in each arch, at least 10 teeth in each arch, all maxillary and mandibular anterior teeth, three or four premolar posterior occluding pairs POPs, and at least one molar POP bilaterally); 4-Functional dentition classified by esthetics, occlusion and periodontal status (FDClass6: corresponds to FDClass5 with the addition of periodontal status of all sextants in the oral cavity with, at most, shallow pockets and/or clinical attachment level of 5 mm (CPI ≤ 3 and/or CAL ≤ 1). The independent variables were individual factors (gender, self-declared skin color, schooling, monthly household income, age group, self-rated treatment need, dental pain, dental appointment in the previous 12 months and dental services) and contextual factors (Municipal Human Development Index MHDI), Gini coefficient, fluoridated water supply and oral health coverage). Multilevel mixed-effect Poisson regression analyses were performed.
The prevalence of functional dentition based on the FDWHO, WDT, FDClass5 and FDClass6 definitions was 77.9%, 72.9%, 42.6% and 40.3%, respectively. Adults with ≥12 years of schooling and monthly household income from US$ 853 to 2557 had higher prevalence rates of FDWHO (PR: 1.41 and 1.10, respectively), WDT (PR: 1.58 and 1.14, respectively), FDClass5 (PR: 2.03 and 1.27, respectively) and FDClass6 (PR: 2.15 and 1.35, respectively). These values in the final models were adjusted for gender, self-declared skin color (FDClass5), age group, self-rated treatment need (FDWHO, FDClass5 and FDClass6), dental appointment in the previous 12 months (FDWHO and WDT), dental services (FDWHO and WDT) and contextual factors. A very high MHDI and presence of fluoridated water supply were associated with higher prevalence rates of the four outcomes.
The incorporation of the criteria of new definitions of functional dentition led to a lower prevalence rate among Brazilian adults. Striking individual and contextual inequalities were identified with regard to the four definitions analyzed, which need to be addressed through inter-sector efforts.
Abstract Background The robotic platform has been increasingly utilized to perform colorectal surgery. The benefits of robotic colectomy when compared to laparoscopic colectomy have not been ...definitively established. Study Design A retrospective review of the NSQIP database was performed on patients undergoing laparoscopic or robotic colectomy in the year 2013. Demographics, length of stay, operative time, and 30-day postoperative complications were compared in the 2 groups. Results Of the 17,774 colectomies performed during the study period, 11,267 (63.4%) were performed laparoscopically and 653 (3.7%) were performed robotically. In comparison with laparoscopic colectomy, robotic colectomy was associated with increased operative time (233 vs 180 mins; p<0.01) and decreased length of stay (5.04 vs 6.06 days; p<0.01). There was no significant difference with respect to mortality rate (0.2% vs 0.4%; p<0.312), anastomotic leak (3.4% vs 3.1%, p = 0.715), reoperation (4.9% vs 4.0%, p = 0.27), conversion rate (10.3% vs 12.2%, p=0.13), or readmission rate (9.3% vs 8.7%, p=0.593). The difference in length of stay and operative time persisted in the right colectomy and left colectomy/sigmoid resection subgroup analysis with no difference in conversion rates. Conclusions In this head-to-head comparison of laparoscopic colectomy and robotic colectomy, the majority of postoperative outcomes were equivalent except for an increase in operative time and shorter length of stay in the robotic group. Robotic colectomy appears to be a safe option for minimally invasive colectomy but further studies are needed to elucidate whether it is cost-effective when compared to laparoscopic colectomy.
Acting as a goalkeeper in a video-game, a participant is asked to predict the successive choices of the penalty taker. The sequence of choices of the penalty taker is generated by a stochastic chain ...with memory of variable length. It has been conjectured that the probability distribution of the response times is a function of the specific sequence of past choices governing the algorithm used by the penalty taker to make his choice at each step. We found empirical evidence that besides this dependence, the distribution of the response times depends also on the success or failure of the previous prediction made by the participant. Moreover, we found statistical evidence that this dependence propagates up to two steps forward after the prediction failure.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a multifactorial and complex neuropathology that involves impairment of many intricate molecular mechanisms. Despite recent advances, AD pathophysiological ...characterization remains incomplete, which hampers the development of effective treatments. In fact, currently, there are no effective pharmacological treatments for AD. Integrative strategies such as transcription regulatory network and master regulator analyses exemplify promising new approaches to study complex diseases and may help in the identification of potential pharmacological targets.
In this study, we used transcription regulatory network and master regulator analyses on transcriptomic data of human hippocampus to identify transcription factors (TFs) that can potentially act as master regulators in AD. All expression profiles were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database using the GEOquery package. A normal hippocampus transcription factor-centered regulatory network was reconstructed using the ARACNe algorithm. Master regulator analysis and two-tail gene set enrichment analysis were employed to evaluate the inferred regulatory units in AD case-control studies. Finally, we used a connectivity map adaptation to prospect new potential therapeutic interventions by drug repurposing.
We identified TFs with already reported involvement in AD, such as ATF2 and PARK2, as well as possible new targets for future investigations, such as CNOT7, CSRNP2, SLC30A9, and TSC22D1. Furthermore, Connectivity Map Analysis adaptation suggested the repositioning of six FDA-approved drugs that can potentially modulate master regulator candidate regulatory units (Cefuroxime, Cyproterone, Dydrogesterone, Metrizamide, Trimethadione, and Vorinostat).
Using a transcription factor-centered regulatory network reconstruction we were able to identify several potential molecular targets and six drug candidates for repositioning in AD. Our study provides further support for the use of bioinformatics tools as exploratory strategies in neurodegenerative diseases research, and also provides new perspectives on molecular targets and drug therapies for future investigation and validation in AD.
Evolutionary theories posit that emotions prime organisms for action. This study examined whether corticospinal excitability (CSE) is modulated by the emotional valence of a to-be-grasped stimulus. ...CSE was estimated based on the amplitude of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and recorded on the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle. Participants were instructed to grasp (ACTION condition) or just look at (NO-ACTION condition) unpleasant, pleasant and neutral stimuli. TMS pulses were applied randomly at 500 or 250 ms before a go signal. MEP amplitudes were normalized within condition by computing a ratio for the emotion-laden stimuli by reference to the neutral stimuli. A divergent valence effect was observed in the ACTION condition, where the CSE ratio was higher during the preparation to grasp unpleasant compared to pleasant stimuli. In addition, the CSE ratio was lower for pleasant stimuli during the ACTION condition compared to the NO-ACTION condition. Altogether, these results indicate that motor preparation is selectively modulated by the valence of the stimulus to be grasped. The lower CSE for pleasant stimuli may result from the need to refrain from executing an imminent action.
A hallmark of the inflammatory response to pathogen exposure is the production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) that coordinates innate and adaptive immune responses by functioning in an autocrine or ...paracrine manner. Numerous molecular mechanisms contributing to TNF production have been identified, but how they function together in macrophages remains unclear. Here, we pursued an iterative systems biology approach to develop a quantitative understanding of the regulatory modules that control TNF mRNA synthesis and processing, mRNA half-life and translation, and protein processing and secretion. By linking the resulting model of TNF production to models of the TLR-, the TNFR-, and the NFκB signaling modules, we were able to study TNF's functions during the inflammatory response to diverse TLR agonists. Contrary to expectation, we predicted and then experimentally confirmed that in response to lipopolysaccaride, TNF does not have an autocrine function in amplifying the NFκB response, although it plays a potent paracrine role in neighboring cells. However, in response to CpG DNA, autocrine TNF extends the duration of NFκB activity and shapes CpG-induced gene expression programs. Our systems biology approach revealed that network dynamics of MyD88 and TRIF signaling and of cytokine production and response govern the stimulus-specific autocrine and paracrine functions of TNF.
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