Ridge regression has been widely applied to estimate under collinearity by defining a class of estimators that are dependent on the parameter k. The variance inflation factor (VIF) is applied to ...detect the presence of collinearity and also as an objective method to obtain the value of k in ridge regression. Contrarily to the definition of the VIF, the expressions traditionally applied in ridge regression do not necessarily lead to values of VIFs equal to or greater than 1. This work presents an alternative expression to calculate the VIF in ridge regression that satisfies the aforementioned condition and also presents other interesting properties.
Yebes 40m radio telescope is the main and largest observing instrument at Yebes Observatory and it is devoted to Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and single dish observations since 2010. It ...has been covering frequency bands between 2 GHz and 90 GHz in discontinuous and narrow windows in most of the cases, to match the current needs of the European VLBI Network (EVN) and the Global Millimeter VLBI Array (GMVA).
Nanocosmos project, a European Union funded synergy grant, opened the possibility to increase the instantaneous frequency coverage to observe many molecular transitions with single tunnings in single dish mode. This reduces the observing time and maximises the output from the telescope.
We present the technical specifications of the recently installed 31.5 - 50GHz (Q band) and 72 - 90.5 GHz (W band) receivers along with the main characteristics of the telescope at these frequency ranges. We have observed IRC+10216, CRL 2688 and CRL 618, which harbour a rich molecular chemistry, to demonstrate the capabilities of the new instrumentation for spectral observations in single dish mode.
The results show the high sensitivity of the telescope in the Q band. The spectrum of IRC+10126 offers a signal to noise ratio never seen before for this source in this band. On the other hand, the spectrum normalised by the continuum flux towards CRL 618 in the W band demonstrates that the 40 m radio telescope produces comparable results to those from the IRAM 30 m radio telescope, although with a smaller sensitivity. The new receivers fulfil one of the main goals of Nanocosmos and open the possibility to study the spectrum of different astrophysical media with unprecedented sensitivity.
Widespread habitat-forming invaders inhabiting marinas, such as the spaghetti bryozoan Amathia verticillata, allow exploring facilitation processes across spatiotemporal contexts. Here we investigate ...the role of this bryozoan as habitat for native and exotic macrofaunal assemblages across different ecoregions of Western Mediterranean and East Atlantic coasts, and a monthly variation over a year. While only 7 (all peracarid crustaceans) of the 54 associated species were NIS, they dominated macrofaunal assemblages in terms of abundance, raising the potential for invasional meltdown. NIS richness and community structure differed among marinas but not among ecoregions, highlighting the importance of marina singularities in modulating facilitation at spatial scale. Despite facilitation did not depend on bryozoan abundance fluctuations, it was affected by its deciduous pattern, peaking in summer and disappearing in late winter. Monitoring A. verticillata in marinas, especially in summer periods, may improve the detection and management of multiple associated NIS.
•Amathia verticillata host a diverse epifaunal community.•The bryozoan was prone to invasional meltdown.•Seven NIS found, all peracaridean crustaceans.•NIS richness and community structure differed among marinas but not among ecoregions.•Facilitation did not depend on bryozoan abundance.
Plasma treatment is recognized as a suitable technology to improve germination efficiency of numerous seeds. In this work Quinoa seeds have been subjected to air plasma treatments both at atmospheric ...and low pressure and improvements found in germination rate and percentage of success. Seed water uptake by exposure to water vapor, although slightly greater for plasma treated seeds, did not justify the observed germination improvement. To identify other possible factors contributing to germination, the chemical changes experienced by outer parts of the seed upon plasma exposure have been investigated by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX). XPS revealed that the outer layers of the Quinoa plasma treated seeds were highly oxidized and appeared enriched in potassium ions and adsorbed nitrate species. Simultaneously, SEM-EDX showed that the enrichment in potassium and other mineral elements extended to the seed pericarp and closer zones. The disappearance from the surface of both potassium ions and nitrate species upon exposure of the plasma treated seeds to water vapor is proposed as a factor favoring germination. The use of XPS to study chemical changes at seed surfaces induced by plasma treatments is deemed very important to unravel the mechanisms contributing to germination improvement.
Summary
Background
To date, genetic studies of hypersensitivity reactions to non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been carried out mainly in aspirin‐induced asthma and to a lesser ...extent in chronic urticaria, with no studies in patients with acute urticaria (AU), the most common entity induced by these drugs.
Objective
In this work, we analysed the association of common variants of 15 relevant genes encoding both enzymes and receptors from the arachidonic acid (AA) pathway with NSAID‐induced AU.
Methods
Patients were recruited in several Allergy Services that are integrated into the Spanish network RIRAAF, and diagnosed of AU induced by cross‐intolerance (CRI) to NSAIDs. Genotyping was carried out by TaqMan allelic discrimination assays.
Results
A total of 486 patients with AU induced by CRI to NSAIDs and 536 unrelated controls were included in this large Spanish case‐control study. Seven variants from 31 tested in six genes were associated in a discovery study population from Malaga (0.0003 ≤ p‐value ≤ 0.041). A follow‐up analysis in an independent sample from Madrid replicated three of the SNPs from the ALOX15 (rs7220870), PTGDR (rs8004654) and CYSLTR1 (rs320095) genes (1.055x10‐6≤meta‐analysis p‐value ≤ 0.003).
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance
Genetic variants of the AA pathway may play an important role in NSAID‐induced AU. These data may help understand the mechanism underlying this disease.
Background
Few reported studies compare drug survival in moderate‐to‐severe psoriasis vulgaris.
Objectives
To describe and compare drug survival of systemic drugs, including biologic agents ...(infliximab, etanercept, adalimumab and ustekinumab) and classical drugs (acitretin, ciclosporin and methotrexate) in moderate‐to‐severe psoriasis.
Methods
This was a multicenter, prospective, cohort study of patients receiving systemic therapies between 2008 and 2013 in 12 hospitals in Spain. Baseline data and drug discontinuation were collected. Drug survival is presented using Kaplan–Meier survival curves. We compared adjusted risk ratios of serious adverse events (AEs) with results of survival analysis for AEs.
Results
A total of 1956 patients were included for analysis (1240 exposed to biologics during follow‐up and 1076 to classic therapies). Median follow‐up time was 3.3 years (0.0–5.1 years). There were 2209 discontinuations out of 3640 therapy cycles started. The main reason for discontinuation was lack of efficacy (36.4%) and remission (27.2%). Biologics showed a higher drug survival than classics and the pattern of survival results for all outcomes (positive or negative) were very similar. Adjusted risk ratios of serious AEs did not agree with results of survival analysis.
Limitations
A limitation is that this is an observational study with potential selection bias.
Conclusion
Survival as a proxy measure of drug safety in psoriasis is inadequate.
This work employed a two-step biorefining process, consisting of a hemicellulose-rich liquor production through ultrasound-assisted cold alkaline extraction (CAE), followed by thermochemical ...treatment of the resultant solid phase. The post-CAE solid phase's pyrolytic potential was assessed by application of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Friedman's isoconversional method, and also from hydrogen production. The solid phases remaining after the CAE treatment were more reactive than the untreated raw material. Notably, the alkali concentration employed in the first step was the individual variable most pronounced influence on their activation energy (E
). Thus, at a degree of conversion α = 0.50, E
ranged from 109.7 to 254.3 kJ/mol for the solid phases, compared to 177 kJ/mol for the raw material; this value decreased with rising glucan content. At maximal degradation, the post-CAE solid phases produced up to 15.57% v/v more hydrogen than did the untreated raw material.
•AID-FOREST is a totally automatic software once launched.•AID-FOREST processes very large Lidar point cloud files without any problem.•Artificial intelligence has for the first time been used ...efficiently to detect trees.•Tree detectability was over 97% despite the ecosystem visual complexity.•Diameter at breast height and stem volume estimations were statistically unbiased.
Forest inventories are essential to accurately estimate different dendrometric and forest stand parameters. However, classical forest inventories are time consuming, slow to conduct, sometimes inaccurate and costly. To address this problem, an efficient alternative approach has been sought and designed that will make this type of field work cheaper, faster, more accurate, and easier to complete. The implementation of this concept has required the development of a specifically designed software called “Artificial Intelligence for Digital Forest (AID-FOREST)”, which is able to process point clouds obtained via mobile terrestrial laser scanning (MTLS) and then, to provide an array of multiple useful and accurate dendrometric and forest stand parameters. Singular characteristics of this approach are: No data pre-processing is required either pre-treatment of forest stand; fully automatic process once launched; no limitations by the size of the point cloud file and fast computations.
To validate AID-FOREST, results provided by this software were compared against the obtained from in-situ classical forest inventories. To guaranty the soundness and generality of the comparison, different tree species, plot sizes, and tree densities were measured and analysed. A total of 76 plots (10,887 trees) were selected to conduct both a classic forest inventory reference method and a MTLS (ZEB-HORIZON, Geoslam, ltd.) scanning to obtain point clouds for AID-FOREST processing, known as the MTLS-AIDFOREST method. Thus, we compared the data collected by both methods estimating the average number of trees and diameter at breast height (DBH) for each plot. Moreover, 71 additional individual trees were scanned with MTLS and processed by AID-FOREST and were then felled and divided into logs measuring 1 m in length. This allowed us to accurately measure the DBH, total height, and total volume of the stems.
When we compared the results obtained with each methodology, the mean detectability was 97% and ranged from 81.3 to 100%, with a bias (underestimation by MTLS-AIDFOREST method) in the number of trees per plot of 2.8% and a relative root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 9.2%. Species, plot size, and tree density did not significantly affect detectability. However, this parameter was significantly affected by the ecosystem visual complexity index (EVCI). The average DBH per plot was underestimated (but was not significantly different from 0) by the MTLS-AIDFOREST, with the average bias for pooled data being 1.8% with a RMSE of 7.5%. Similarly, there was no statistically significant differences between the two distribution functions of the DBH at the 95.0% confidence level.
Regarding the individual tree parameters, MTLS-AIDFOREST underestimated DBH by 0.16 % (RMSE = 5.2 %) and overestimated the stem volume (Vt) by 1.37 % (RMSE = 14.3 %, although the BIAS was not statistically significantly different from 0). However, the MTLS-AIDFOREST method overestimated the total height (Ht) of the trees by a mean 1.33 m (5.1 %; relative RMSE = 11.5 %), because of the different height concepts measured by both methodological approaches. Finally, AID-FOREST required 30 to 66 min per ha−1 to fully automatically process the point cloud data from the *.las file corresponding to a given hectare plot. Thus, applying our MTLS-AIDFOREST methodology to make full forest inventories, required a 57.3 % of the time required to perform classical plot forest inventories (excluding the data postprocessing time in the latter case). A free trial of AID-FOREST can be requested at dielmo@dielmo.com.
Objective
To demonstrate that delayed cord clamping (DCC) is safe in mothers with confirmed SARS‐CoV‐2 infection.
Design, setting and participants
Prospective observational study involving ...epidemiological information from 403 pregnant women with SARS‐CoV‐2 between 1 March and 31 May 2020. Data were collected from 70 centres that participate in the Spanish Registry of COVID‐19.
Methods
Patients' information was collected from their medical chart.
Main outcomes and measures
The rate of perinatal transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 and development of the infection in neonates within 14 days postpartum.
Results
The early cord clamping (ECC) group consisted of 231 infants (57.3%) and the DCC group consisted of 172 infants (42.7%). Five positive newborns (1.7% of total tests performed) were identified with the nasopharyngeal PCR tests performed in the first 12 hours postpartum, two from the ECC group (1.7%) and three from the DCC group (3.6%). No significant differences between groups were found regarding neonatal tests for SARS‐CoV‐2. No confirmed cases of vertical transmission were detected. The percentage of mothers who made skin‐to‐skin contact within the first 24 hours after delivery was significantly higher in the DCC group (84.3% versus 45.9%). Breastfeeding in the immediate postpartum period was also significantly higher in the DCC group (77.3% versus 50.2%).
Conclusions
The results of our study show no differences in perinatal outcomes when performing ECC or DCC, and skin‐to‐skin contact, or breastfeeding.
Tweetable
This study demonstrates that delayed cord clamping is safe in mothers with confirmed SARS‐CoV‐2 infection.
Tweetable
This study demonstrates that delayed cord clamping is safe in mothers with confirmed SARS‐CoV‐2 infection.
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