Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is affected by numerous clinical variables, including disease activity, damage, fibromyalgia, depression and anxiety. However, these associations have not yet ...been described in Mexican patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
To evaluate the relationship between disease activity, damage, depression and fibromyalgia and HRQOL measured by the LupusQoL-instrument in Mexican patients with SLE.
A cross-sectional study was conducted in women fulfilling the 1997 ACR classification criteria for SLE. HRQOL was evaluated using a disease-specific instrument for SLE, the LupusQoL (validated for the Spanish-speaking population). Patients were evaluated clinically to determine the degree of disease activity and damage using the Mexican Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (Mex-SLEDAI) and Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics-Damage Index (SLICC), respectively. Fibromyalgia and depression were assessed using the ACR criteria and the CES-D scale, respectively. The relationship between HRQOL and these variables was measured using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and linear regression analysis.
A total of 138 women with SLE, age 40.3±11 years, disease duration 8.8±6.4 years, with disease activity in 51.4%, depression in 50%, damage in 43% and fibromyalgia in 19.6% were included. Poorer HRQOL correlated with depression (r = -0.61; p< 0.005), fibromyalgia (r = -0.42; p< 0.005), disease activity (r = -0.37; p < 0.005) and damage (r = -0.31; p < 0.005). In the multivariate linear regression analysis, damage (β = -3.756, p<0.005), fibromyalgia (β = -0.920, p<0.005), depression (β = -0.911, p<0.005) and disease activity (β = -0.911, p<0.005) were associated with poor HRQOL.
SLE disease activity, damage, fibromyalgia and depression were associated with poor HRQOL in our sample of Mexican SLE patients.
Van der Waals Spin Valves Cardoso, C; Soriano, D; García-Martínez, N A ...
Physical review letters,
2018-Aug-10, Letnik:
121, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We propose spin valves where a 2D nonmagnetic conductor is intercalated between two ferromagnetic insulating layers. In this setup, the relative orientation of the magnetizations of the insulating ...layers can have a strong impact on the in-plane conductivity of the 2D conductor. We first show this for a graphene bilayer, described with a tight-binding model, placed between two ferromagnetic insulators. In the antiparallel configuration, a band gap opens at the Dirac point, whereas in the parallel configuration, the graphene bilayer remains conducting. We then compute the electronic structure of graphene bilayer placed between two monolayers of the ferromagnetic insulator CrI_{3}, using density functional theory. Consistent with the model, we find that a gap opens at the Dirac point only in the antiparallel configuration.
The study of public opinion can provide us with valuable information. The analysis of sentiment on social networks, such as Twitter or Facebook, has become a powerful means of learning about the ...users’ opinions and has a wide range of applications. However, the efficiency and accuracy of sentiment analysis is being hindered by the challenges encountered in natural language processing (NLP). In recent years, it has been demonstrated that deep learning models are a promising solution to the challenges of NLP. This paper reviews the latest studies that have employed deep learning to solve sentiment analysis problems, such as sentiment polarity. Models using term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) and word embedding have been applied to a series of datasets. Finally, a comparative study has been conducted on the experimental results obtained for the different models and input features.
This work describes the removal of 6 quinolone antibiotics from wastewaters under different redox conditions (aerobic, nitrifying and anoxic) through batch experiments in laboratory scale activated ...sludge reactors using mixed liquor from a membrane bioreactor pilot plant (MBR). The main removal pathways for antibiotics from wastewaters involved in each treatment are described. Mass balances indicated that sorption on sludge played a dominating role in the elimination of antibiotics. Sorption potential depended on the redox conditions, being lower in nitrifying (Kd, 414–876 L kg−1) and anoxic (Kd, 471–930 L kg−1) sludge in comparison with aerobic sludge (Kd, 534–1137 L kg−1). Kd was higher for piperazinylic quinolones. Redox conditions also influenced biodegradation, a secondary pathway, which followed first-order kinetics with degradation rates constants ranging from 1.8·10−3 to 8.2·10−3 h−1. Biodegradation rates under anoxic conditions were negligible. The experimental results have also demonstrated much higher removal efficiency by biodegradation (36.2–60.0%) under nitrifying conditions in comparison with aerobic conditions (14.9–43.8%). The addition of allylthiourea, an ammonia monooxygenase inhibitor, inhibited nitrification completely and reduced significantly the biodegradation of target antibiotics (16.5–29.3%). The residual biodegradation in the presence of allylthiourea may be due to the activity of heterotrophs in the enriched nitrifier culture. The removal of the selected antibiotics under the studied redox conditions depended significantly on the bacteria composition of the sludge. These results suggest that despite the known persistence of this group of antibiotics it is possible to enhance their degradation using nitrifying conditions, which at adequate working conditions as high SRT, typical in MBR, become a promising alternative for improving quinolones removal from environment.
► Sorption and biodegradation are the main pathways for quinolone removal. ► The nitrifying conditions improve biodegradation and reduce sorption potential. ► Biodegradation does not significantly occur under anoxic conditions. ► The inhibition of nitrification reduces the removal of antibiotics by biodegradation. ► Removal of target antibiotics depends on the composition of bacterial populations.
Recommender systems have been applied in a wide range of domains such as e-commerce, media, banking, and utilities. This kind of system provides personalized suggestions based on large amounts of ...data to increase user satisfaction. These suggestions help client select products, while organizations can increase the consumption of a product. In the case of social data, sentiment analysis can help gain better understanding of a user’s attitudes, opinions and emotions, which is beneficial to integrate in recommender systems for achieving higher recommendation reliability. On the one hand, this information can be used to complement explicit ratings given to products by users. On the other hand, sentiment analysis of items that can be derived from online news services, blogs, social media or even from the recommender systems themselves is seen as capable of providing better recommendations to users. In this study, we present and evaluate a recommendation approach that integrates sentiment analysis into collaborative filtering methods. The recommender system proposal is based on an adaptive architecture, which includes improved techniques for feature extraction and deep learning models based on sentiment analysis. The results of the empirical study performed with two popular datasets show that sentiment–based deep learning models and collaborative filtering methods can significantly improve the recommender system’s performance.
The serine/threonine protein phosphatases type 2A (PP2A) are involved in several physiological responses in plants, playing important roles in developmental programs, stress responses and hormone ...signaling. Six PP2A catalytic subunits (StPP2Ac) were identified in cultivated potato. Transgenic potato plants constitutively overexpressing the catalytic subunit StPP2Ac2b (StPP2Ac2b-OE) were developed to determine its physiological roles. The response of StPP2Ac2b-OE plants to the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of late blight, was evaluated. We found that overexpression of StPP2Ac2b enhances susceptibility to the pathogen. Further bioinformatics, biochemical, and molecular analyses revealed that StPP2Ac2b positively regulates developmental and pathogen-induced senescence, and that P. infestans infection promotes senescence, most likely through induction of StPP2Ac2b expression.
Little information exists regarding population-based epidemiological changes in infective endocarditis (IE) in Europe.
This study sought to analyze temporal trends in IE in Spain from 2003 to 2014.
...This retrospective, population-based, temporal trend study analyzed the incidence, epidemiological and clinical characteristics, and outcome of all patients discharged from hospitals included in the Spanish National Health System with a diagnosis of IE, from January 2003 to December 2014.
Overall, 16,867 episodes of IE were identified during the study period, 66.3% in men. The rate of IE significantly increased, from 2.72 in 2003 to 3.49 per 100,000 person-years in 2014, and this rise was higher among older adults. The most frequent microorganisms were staphylococci (28.7%), followed by streptococci (20.4%) and enterococci (13.1%). Twenty-three percent of patients underwent cardiac surgery. The in-hospital mortality rate was 20.4%. Throughout the study period, the proportion of patients with previously known heart valve disease and diabetes mellitus significantly increased, whereas the prevalence of intravenous drug use decreased. Regarding microorganisms, Staphylococcus aureus and streptococci slightly declined, whereas coagulase-negative staphylococci and enterococci consistently increased over the years. In-hospital complications and cardiac surgery rates significantly increased across the years. The risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality rate diminished (0.2% per year) during the study period.
The incidence of IE episodes significantly increased over the decade of the study period, particularly among older adults. Relevant changes in clinical and microbiological profile included older patients with more comorbidity and a rise in enterococci and coagulase-negative staphylococcal infections. Adjusted mortality rates slightly declined over the study period.
Aims
The aim of this study was to investigate the dynamic changes in the bacterial structure and potential interactions of an acclimatized marine microbial community during a light crude oil ...degradation experiment.
Methods and Results
The bacterial community effectively removed 76·49% of total petroleum hydrocarbons after 30 days, as evidenced by GC‐FID and GC‐MS analyses. Short‐chain alkanes and specific aromatic compounds were completely degraded within the first 6 days. High‐throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene indicated that the starting bacterial community was mainly composed by Marinobacter and more than 30 non‐dominant genera. Bacterial succession was dependent on the hydrocarbon uptake with Alcanivorax becoming dominant during the highest degradation period. Sparse correlations for compositional data algorithm revealed one operational taxonomic unit (OTU) of Muricauda and an assembly of six OTUs of Alcanivorax dieselolei and Alcanivorax hongdengensis as critical keystone components for the consortium network maintenance and stability.
Conclusions
This work exhibits a stabilized marine bacterial consortium with the capability to efficiently degrade light crude oil in 6 days, under laboratory conditions. Successional and interaction patterns were observed in response to hydrocarbon consumption, highlighting potential interactions between Alcanivorax and keystone non‐dominant OTUs over time.
Significance and Impact of the Study
Our results contribute to the understanding of interactions and potential roles of specific members of hydrocarbonoclastic marine bacterial communities, which will be useful for further bioaugmentation studies concerning the associations between indigenous and introduced micro‐organisms.
Seventeen Middle Pleistocene crania from the Sima de los Huesos site (Atapuerca, Spain) are analyzed, including seven new specimens. This sample makes it possible to thoroughly characterize a Middle ...Pleistocene hominin paleodeme and to address hypotheses about the origin and evolution of the Neandertals. Using a variety of techniques, the hominin-bearing layer could be reassigned to a period around 430,000 years ago. The sample shows a consistent morphological pattern with derived Neandertal features present in the face and anterior vault, many of which are related to the masticatory apparatus. This suggests that facial modification was the first step in the evolution of the Neandertal lineage, pointing to a mosaic pattern of evolution, with different anatomical and functional modules evolving at different rates.
This investigation analyzes the propagation of the uncertainty of the number of life cycles to fatigue failure, taking into account the strain life method, considering as random variables some ...parameters of the material and loading in a steel plate under fatigue, with constant and variable loading through multidimensional Hermite polynomials. The application of series of multidimensional Hermite polynomials allowed the prediction of the randomness of the output vector. This research has shown that a multidimensional Hermite polynomial adequately estimates the propagation of the uncertainty of the input random variables. The results showed that variations in material and loading parameters can generate important failure probabilities and allowed quantifying the variability in the number of life cycles for fatigue failure steel parts
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