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A través de calculos de primeros principios basados en la Teoria del Funcional de la Densidad (DFT) a nivel de la aproximación del gradiente generalizado GGA (el funcional Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof, PBE) se investiga el mecanismo de adsorción de metanol en dos adsorbentes hidrofóbicos, ZIF-71 y ZIF-71(CIBr) a través del calculo de las energias de interacción en los sitios mas favorecidos en los adsorbentes. El estudio se realizó con el fragmento Zn-imidazolato y el metanol. La posición mas favorecida de la molécula de metanol hacia el adsorbente fue a través del grupo hidroxilo, lo cual genera una deformación de la molécula original debido a las interacciones de enlaces tipo puente de hidrógeno en los ligantes imidazolato del adsorbente. En la posición del alcohol a través del grupo metilo hacia el adsorbente, no se observa esta deformación en la molécula. Estas caracteristicas son relevantes para la adsorcién del metanol sobre la superficie del MOF donde la reorientacion de los ligantes esta impedida dada la rigidez de su red cristalina.

This article analyses the accountability of intelligence agencies in Spain and Brazil. Drawing from critical intelligence studies, this article will argue that the goal of accountability is to expand legitimacy by incorporating the civil society. This requires redeveloping the scope of intelligence and its audience beyond legal norms and traditional decision-makers. To do so, the article will consider the following actors: 1) the media; 2) whistleblowers and leaks; 3) scholars; and 4) fiction writers. These actors may complement intelligence by gathering information or acting as knowledge advisory groups. Moreover, they can also challenge intelligence by promoting deeper scrutiny and transparency, while constructing archetypes that represent secret agencies. The conclusion will summarize the strengths and limitations deriving from these actors to promote accountability. It will also claim that, through a critical approach, exploring new accountability forms are necessary to expand the social legitimacy of intelligence policies. Received: 2022-10-07Revised: 2022-01-05

Reports of long-term ( 5-15-year) outcomes assessing the safety and efficacy of primary revisional laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) are few.Retrospective long-term comparisons of primary (pLSG) and revisional (rLSG) procedures were matched for gender, age ± 5 years, and body mass index (BMI) ± 5 kg/mBetween May 1, 2006, and December 31, 2016, 194 matched patients with severe obesity (mean BMI 44.1 ± 6.7 kg/mThere were no significant differences in long-term weight loss or associated medical condition outcomes in matched pLSG and rLSG patients.

Background Bariatric surgery can influence the presentation, diagnosis, and management of gastrointestinal cancers. Oesophago-Gastric (OG) malignancies in patients who have had a prior bariatric procedure have not been fully characterised. Objective To characterise OG malignancies after bariatric procedures. Setting University Hospital, United Kingdom. Methods We performed a retrospective, multi-centre observational study of patients with OG malignancies after bariatric surgery to characterise this condition. Results This study includes 170 patients from 75 centres in 25 countries who underwent bariatric procedures between 1985 and 2020. At the time of the bariatric procedure, the mean age was 50.2 ± 10 years and the mean weight 128.8 ± 28.9 kg. Females comprised 57.3% (n=98) of the population. Most (n=64) patients underwent a Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) followed by Adjustable Gastric Band (AGB) (n = 46) and Sleeve Gastrectomy (SG) (n = 43). Time to cancer diagnosis after bariatric surgery was 9.5 ± 7.4 years and mean weight at diagnosis was 87.4 ± 21.9 kg. The time lag was 5.9 ± 4.1 years after SG compared to 9.4 ± 7.1 years after RYGB and 10.5 ± 5.7 years after AGB. One-third of patients presented with metastatic disease. The majority of tumours were adenocarcinoma (82.9%). Approximately 1 in 5 patients underwent palliative treatment from the outset. Time from diagnosis to mortality was under one year for most patients who died over the intervening period. Conclusions The OGMOS (Oesophago-Gastric Malignancies after Obesity/ Bariatric Surgery) study presents the largest series to date of patients developing OG malignancies after bariatric surgery and attempts to characterise this condition.

Resumen. Se reporta un caso de hematofagia indirecta en el que participó la araña saltarina Frigga pratensis (Peckham y Peckham) al consumir un ejemplar hembra de Aedes albopictus Skuse en la ciudad de Chetumal, Quintana Roo, México. Este es el primer registro de tan inusual fenómeno en el Neotrópico; se discute si se trata de un caso aislado o existen implicancias ecológicas mayores.

Lack of palliative care (PC) awareness is a barrier to its utilization in developing contexts.To identify and understand strategies that changed awareness of the concepts and value of palliative care in a multi-site quality improvement project in India.The Palliative Care - Promoting Assessment and Improvement of the Cancer Experience (PC-PAICE) evaluation team conducted 44 semi-structured interviews with clinician and organization stakeholders at seven geographically dispersed sites. We used inductive and deductive approaches in this secondary analysis to identify emerging themes.We identified the following strategies to improve awareness of concepts and value of palliative care. Strategy 1: Educate medical trainees, staff, and the community about palliative care and its concepts. Sub-strategies: Participate in community events. Integrate PC concepts into early medical education. Standardize training for practitioners. Strategy 2: Design and disseminate India-specific research to reinforce awareness of the value of palliative care. Sub-strategies: Publish and use India-specific palliative care research. Strategy 3: Facilitate communication between providers and departments to improve awareness of palliative care services and its concepts. Sub-strategies: Create referral frameworks and network with providers referring to palliative care to change awareness of available services and palliative care concepts.To increase palliative care utilization, program development can include community and provider-focused efforts on awareness of the concepts and value of palliative care. These three strategies held salience across sites representing diverse Indian geographic and cultural settings; as such, they may be applicable to other contexts.

Backed by decades of empirical research, there has been increasing acknowledgment in policy, practice and research of the importance of neighborhood opportunity in shaping well-being. This has led to the proliferation of opportunity maps in cities throughout the United States with the purpose of identifying low opportunity neighborhoods in need of investment and intervention and high opportunity neighborhoods that can offer access to resources and amenities to disadvantaged population groups. By explicitly linking investment to the identification of neighborhoods that are high or low in opportunity, opportunity indices have the potential to help transform local and regional landscapes of spatial inequality. Despite this common goal, indices rely on varying theoretical conceptualizations, data, variables, and statistical approaches. How much these opportunity definitions overlap has yet to be fully examined. In this study, we compared five approaches to measuring neighborhood opportunity in California. We found low to moderate overlap across the indices, with disagreement higher for low opportunity designations. As with any quantitative analysis, opportunity mapping is not a purely technical exercise and requires a series of subjective decisions. The only way to validate these decisions is for opportunity measures to be constructed transparently and vetted by the research community. This study is a first step in this process.

COVID-19 is challenging modern dentistry, obliging all professionals to look for treatment strategies that are in accordance with health and ethical standards, so as to avoid virus transmission in the dental office. In recent years, paediatric dentistry has benefited from minimally invasive techniques to prevent and treat early childhood caries. Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) is a material that follows this philosophy because it provides professionals preventive and arresting actions for carious lesions in a practical and effective way. The present case details the management of a preschool-age patient who attended the dental office due to an emergency during the pandemic. The patient's emergency was resolved, but due to the diagnosis of severe early childhood caries, other mild and moderate carious, lesions were managed with SDF with the objective of avoiding future pulpal lesion development. The aim of this case is to raise awareness among dentists who treat children to consider the biological benefits of SDF in situations, such as the current contingency, as well as the benefits of mitigating the aesthetic effects thanks to the use of potassium iodide. CPD/Clinical Relevance: The use of silver diamine fluoride in a paediatric patient with early childhood caries is highlighted.

Can serial measurements of serum oestradiol, progesterone and β-human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) concentrations, starting from the day of the first positive pregnancy test, predict live birth after natural cycle frozen-thawed embryo transfer (NC-FET)?This was a historical cohort study of women with a positive pregnancy test following NC-FET, between March 2009 and January 2020. Serum β-HCG, oestradiol and progesterone concentrations were measured on the day of the first pregnancy test and 48 and 96 h later. Pregnancies resulting in a live birth were compared with non-viable pregnancies.Of 101 women with a positive pregnancy test included in the study, 78 had a live birth and 23 had a non-viable pregnancy. Serum β-HCG concentrations were comparable on the day of the first pregnancy test (P = 0.09) but became significantly higher in women with a live birth 48 and 96 h later (P = 0.018 and P = 0.003). Serum oestradiol concentrations were higher in women with a live birth at all three measurements (P = 0.02, P = 0.007 and P = 0.02). Serum progesterone concentrations were higher 48 h after the first pregnancy test in women with a live birth (P = 0.04). On multivariate analysis, after controlling for the women's ages and number of embryos transferred, serum concentrations above the 25th percentile for oestradiol (488-526 pmol/L) and progesterone (63-70 nmol/L) were independent predictors of live birth at all three measurements.Increased serum oestradiol and progesterone concentrations in early NC-FET pregnancies are associated with increased likelihood of live birth. Oestradiol and progesterone concentrations can be used in conjunction with β-HCG to predict pregnancy viability and assist in patient counselling.

The collection of all $n$-point metric spaces of diameter $\le 1$ constitutes a polytope $\mathcal{M}_n \subset \mathbb{R}^{\binom{n}{2}}$, called the \emph{Metric Polytope}. In this paper, we consider the best approximations of $\mathcal{M}_n$ by ellipsoids. We give an exact explicit description of the largest volume ellipsoid contained in $\mathcal{M}_n$. When inflated by a factor of $\Theta(n)$, this ellipsoid contains $\mathcal{M}_n$. It also turns out that the least volume ellipsoid containing $\mathcal{M}_n$ is a ball. When shrunk by a factor of $\Theta(n)$, the resulting ball is contained in $\mathcal{M}_n$. We note that the general theorems on such ellipsoid posit only that the pertinent inflation/shrinkage factors can be made as small as $O(n^2)$., Comment: 17 pages

Kinematic analysis of movement following brain damage is key for diagnosing motor impairments and for recovery assessment. Advances in computer vision offer novel marker-less tracking tools that could be implemented in the clinic due to their simple operation and affordability. An important question that arises is whether marker-less technologies are sufficiently accurate compared to well established marker-based technologies. This study aims to perform validation of kinematic assessment using two high-speed cameras and a 3D pose estimation model. Four participants performed reaching movements with the upper limb between fixed targets, in different velocities. Movement kinematics were simultaneously measured using the DeepBehavior model and marker-based optical motion capture (QTM), as a gold standard. The differences in corresponding joint angles, estimated from the two different methods throughout the analysis, are presented as a mean absolute error (MAE) of the elbow angle. Quantitatively, the MAE of all movements was relatively small across velocity and joints (~2°). In a condition where the movements were made towards the DeepBehavior cameras, and the view of the elbow was occluded in one of the cameras, the errors were higher. In conclusion, the results demonstrated that marker-less motion capture is a valid alternative to marker-based motion capture. Inaccuracies of the DeepBehavior system could be explained by occlusions of key-points and are not associated with failure of the pose estimation algorithm.

El acetoclor es un herbicida ampliamente utilizado en la producción de maíz, cuyo frecuente uso ha provocado persistencia grave en el suelo ocasionando alteraciones en las poblaciones del microbiota, lo que causa bajos rendimientos y dificultad para el establecimiento de otros cultivos, así como también genera amenazas en el ecosistema y en la salud de las personas. Por tal motivo, el propósito de este estudio es aislar e identificar microorganismos bacterianos asociados a los suelos con presencia de acetoclor para abrir un panorama hacia el uso de la biorremediación como biotecnología para la recuperación parcial o total de este recurso. EL proyecto se llevó a cabo dentro de las instalaciones del Instituto de Ciencias Agropecuarias (ICAp), se ubicó un productor de maíz que ha utilizado con frecuencia acetoclor para el control de malezas. Se tomaron muestras de suelo de la parcela y se llevó a cabo el aislamiento de microorganismos por técnica de dilución. Se realizaron lecturas periódicas cada 24 horas de incubación y se aislaron cinco colonias visualmente diferentes para proceder a su purificación. Se llevó a cabo identificación morfológica, la cual la mayoría fueron diferentes en almenos un aspecto, así como pruebas de tinción de Gram en las que resultaron del grupo Grampositivas. Este estudió puede sentar las bases para la identificación de un consorcio bacteriano que pueda tener aplicabilidad biorremediadora en el futuro.

Making ancient handwritten manuscripts accessible to the general public is challenging, for several reasons. Foremost, they are handwritten. Each and every one is unique, so there is a need for manual transcription for providing enough examples for training a machine-learning-based algorithm to automatically transcribe the handwritten text. Moreover, the quality of the text is diverse—over time the ink faded, pages were damaged, and so forth. Furthermore, the boundaries of the textual regions on a page and the lines of text are not standard. Sometimes there are corrections above the lines, the lines are curved, there are comments and annotations on the margins, and more. A possible solution for these challenges is having a “person in the loop.” However, manual correction brings with it another challenge—how to address disagreement between annotations (as usually several corrections are considered before a decision is taken about the correct transcription). Tikkoun-Sofrim is a system that integrates automatic handwritten text recognition with manual, crowdsourced error correction, introducing an automatic decision process about when to stop asking for additional transcription and selecting the best transcription, declaring it as the recommended agreed reading. The system was applied to several manuscripts of “Midrash Tanhuma,” a medieval Hebrew rabbinic homiletic text, achieving a high level of success.

We aimed to compare obstetric and perinatal outcomes of in vitro fertilization (IVF) pregnancies following fresh and frozen embryo transfer (FET). This was a historic cohort of deliveries between November 2008 and January 2020 at a single university hospital, in which each fresh transfer IVF pregnancy was matched to a FET pregnancy by the same woman (1:1 ratio). We included live singleton deliveries (24 weeks of gestation) and excluded pregnancies following egg donation. The primary outcome was birthweight, and secondary outcomes were small for gestational age (SGA) neonates and preterm birth (PTB). A total of 107 fresh transfer pregnancies were matched to 107 FET pregnancies, in the same women. Mean maternal age was lower in the fresh transfer group compared to the FET group (30.4 vs. 32.5 years, p0.001). A higher rate of nulliparity was noted in fresh transfer pregnancies (64.5% vs. 12.1%, p0.001). Mean birthweight was non-significant between the groups (p = 0.13), and the rates of low birthweight and small for gestational age neonates did not differ between the groups. Preterm deliveries occurred in 10.3% and 9.3% of fresh transfer and FET pregnancies respectively, p = 0.79. On multivariate linear regression analysis, the type of embryo transfer-FET or fresh-was not independently associated with birthweight, after adjustment for women's age, nulliparity, and BMI. IVF pregnancies following fresh and FET entailed the same obstetric and perinatal outcomes when compared in the same women.

PURPOSE: This systematic review aimed to identify baseline patient demographic and controlled ovarian stimulation characteristics associated with a suboptimal response to GnRHa triggering, and available options for prevention and management of suboptimal response. METHODS: PubMed, Google Scholar, Medline, and the Cochrane Library were searched for keywords related to GnRHa triggering, and peer-reviewed articles from January 2000 to September 2021 included. RESULTS: Thirty-seven studies were included in the review. A suboptimal response to GnRHa triggering was more likely following long-term or recent oral contraceptive use and with a low or high body mass index. Low basal serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and estradiol serum levels were correlated with suboptimal oocyte yield, as was a low serum LH level on the day of triggering. A prolonged stimulation period and increased gonadotropin requirements were correlated with suboptimal response to triggering. Post-trigger LH < 15 IU/L best correlated with an increased risk for empty follicle syndrome and a lower oocyte retrieval rate. Retriggering with hCG may be considered in patients with suboptimal response according to post-trigger LH, as in cases of failed aspiration. CONCLUSION: Pre-treatment assessment of patient characteristics, with pre- and post-triggering assessment of clinical and endocrine cycle characteristics, may identify cases at risk for suboptimal response to GnRHa triggering and optimize its utilization.

Over the last decade, the increasing interest in long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) has led to the discovery of these transcripts in multiple organisms. LncRNAs tend to be specifically, and often lowly, expressed in certain tissues, cell types and biological contexts. Although lncRNAs participate in the regulation of a wide variety of biological processes, including development and disease, most of their functions and mechanisms of action remain unknown. Poor conservation of the DNA sequences encoding for these transcripts makes the identification of lncRNAs orthologues among different species very challenging, especially between evolutionarily distant species such as flies and humans or mice. However, the functions of lncRNAs are unexpectedly preserved among different species supporting the idea that conservation occurs beyond DNA sequences and reinforcing the potential of characterising lncRNAs in animal models. In this review, we describe the features and roles of lncRNAs in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, focusing on genomic and functional comparisons with human and mouse lncRNAs. We also discuss the current state of advances and limitations in the study of lncRNA conservation and future perspectives. This project was funded by Grants: BFU2015-67623-P and PGC2018-099763-B100, 2017SGR1455 from AGAUR (Generalitat de Catalunya) and a Grant from the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (via an ICREA Academia award) to M.C.; as well as support from the European Community under the FP7 programme (ERC-2011-AdG-294653-RNA-MAPS), 2U41 HG007234-05G from NIH/NHGRI (USA) and the Grant PGC2018-094017-B-I00 from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades to R.G.. C.C.-R. holds a predoctoral FPI contract from the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación). R.A. is a predoctoral fellow of CONACYT, the “Becas al Extranjero” Program of Mexico.

Los suelos agrícolas salinos tienen altas concentraciones de sales solubles (cloruro de sodio), que afectan el crecimiento de cultivos, al disminuir la asimilación de nutrientes y la actividad microbiana. Las plantas pueden ser tolerantes a la salinidad del suelo, pero dependen de algunas propiedades como textura, conductividad eléctrica, pH, entre otros. Este trabajo evaluó un suelo agrícola erosionado por salinidad, mediante parámetros físicos y químicos, para proponer un proceso biológico de recuperación. Los resultados mostraron alto contenido de sodio (2750 ppm), pH de 8.2, conductividad eléctrica de 8.5 dS/m y 19.89 de sodio intercambiable (ESP).Por esta razón, se puede clasificar como un suelo salino-sódico, además los altos valores de pH y conductividad eléctrica infieren baja disponibilidad de algunos micronutrientes, dificultando la absorción de estos a los cultivos. Las características fisicoquímicas del suelo refieren un suelo con baja fertilidad y poca probabilidad para el desarrollo vegetal.

Introduction: Weight bias, stigma, and discrimination are common among healthcare professionals. We aimed to evaluate whether an online education module affects weight bias and knowledge about obesity in a private medical center setting. Methods: An open-label randomized controlled trial was conducted among all employees of a chain of private medical centers in Israel (n = 3,290). Employees who confirmed their consent to participate in the study were randomized into intervention or control (i.e., “no intervention”) arms. The study intervention was an online 15-min educational module that included obesity, weight bias, stigma, and discrimination information. Questionnaires on Anti-Fat Attitudes (AFA), fat-phobia scale (F-scale), and beliefs about the causes of obesity were answered at baseline (i.e., right before the intervention), 7 days, and 30 days post-intervention. Results: A total of 506, 230, and 145 employees responded to the baseline, 7-day, and 30-day post-intervention questionnaires, respectively. Mean participant age was 43.3 ± 11.6 years, 84.6% were women, and 67.4% held an academic degree. Mean F-scale scores and percentage of participants with above-average fat-phobic attitudes (≥3.6) significantly decreased only within the intervention group over time (p ≤ 0.042). However, no significant differences between groups over time were observed for AFA scores or factors beliefs to cause obesity. Conclusions: A single exposure to an online education module on weight bias and knowledge about obesity may confer only a modest short-term improvement in medical center employees’ fat-phobic attitudes toward people with obesity. Future studies should examine if reexposure to such intervention could impact weight bias, stigma, and discrimination among medical center staff in the long-term.

Research and the commercial use of exoskeletons that augment human activities are rapidly growing. However, the progress of the two is hindered by the time-consuming and costly process of designing and evaluating the exoskeleton. One of the solutions to reduce both is the use of simulations that model the users, exoskeleton, and their interaction. At the same time, most simulations focus on continuous tasks, such as walking, running, and industrial activities. The augmentation of human capability is essential in fast motion tasks (i.e., jumping, throwing), where the muscles are producing their maximum force. Thus, this study implemented a simulation of passive exoskeleton-human interactions using OpenSim and Moco software for optimal control to find muscle excitation that maximizes vertical jump height. The models include a planar human model with ankle, knee, and hip joints. The muscles were modeled as torque actuators for each joint, with a flexor and an extensor, and passive torques representing each joint's ligaments. The simulation was used to study: a) the effect of different spring stiffness at the knee, hip, and ankle joints and combinations of these joints; b) multi-joints vs. single joints; c) the effect of an elliptic pulley and different initial engagement angle for springs. The results revealed that the jump height increased as the spring became stiffer, up to a maximum point. For a single joint, the knee exoskeleton was the most effective, compared with the hip and ankle joint exoskeletons. The multi-joint exoskeleton was slightly better than the single knee joint. If maximum spring tension is a limiting factor, an elliptic pulley has an advantage relative to a round pulley. An initial angle of engagement (with equal work) other than zero up to approximately 50 degrees does not decrease the jump height.

We aimed to investigate obstetric and neonatal outcomes and placental histological findings in in vitro fertilization (IVF) pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) as compared to unassisted pregnancies.This was a retrospective cohort of deliveries at a single university affiliated center between 12/2008 and 01/2020. Included were singleton pregnancies complicated by GDM, for which placental histopathological examination was performed. Obstetric, neonatal and placental outcomes were compared between pregnancies following IVF and unassisted pregnancies. Placental lesions were categorized according to the "Amsterdam" criteria.Included were 688 deliveries with a diagnosis of GDM with placental examination - 69 IVF pregnancies (IVF group) and 619 unassisted pregnancies (control group). The IVF group was characterized by a significantly higher maternal age and higher rate of nulliparous women - 60.8% vs. 32.9%, p 0.001. There were no differences in GDM type between the study groups - about two thirds of cases were GDMA1 and on third GDMA2. A higher incidence of preeclampsia was noted in the IVF group - 17.3% vs. 9.3%, p = 0.03, with no difference in cesarean deliveries and birthweight. IVF deliveries were characterized by a significantly higher rate of adverse neonatal outcomes - 18.8% vs. 8.8%, p = 0.008, although this did not attain significance after adjustment to gestational age. No differences were noted in placental histology between the groups.GDM in IVF is associated with a significantly higher rate of adverse neonatal outcomes, as compared with non-assisted pregnancies complicated by GDM. Placental histology does not shed light on these clinical associations.

Background: Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) is an autoimmune exocrinopathy characterized by lymphocytic infiltration, glandular dysfunction and systemic manifestations. Lyp protein is a negative regulator of the T cell receptor encoded by the tyrosine phosphatase nonreceptor-type 22 (PTPN22) gene. Multiple single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the PTPN22 gene have been associated with susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. This study aimed to investigate the association of PTPN22 SNPs rs2488457 (−1123 G>C), rs33996649 (+788 G>A), rs2476601 (+1858 C>T) with pSS susceptibility in Mexican mestizo subjects. Methods: One hundred fifty pSS patients and 180 healthy controls (HCs) were included. Genotypes of PTPN22 SNPs were identified by PCR-RFLP. PTPN22 expression was evaluated through RT–PCR analysis. Serum anti-SSA/Ro and anti-SSB/La levels were measured using an ELISA kit. Results: Allele and genotype frequencies for all SNPs studied were similar in both groups (p > 0.05). pSS patients showed 17-fold higher expression of PTNP22 than HCs, and mRNA levels correlated with SSDAI score (r2 = 0.499, p = 0.008) and levels of anti-SSA/Ro and anti-SSB/La autoantibodies (r2 = 0.200, p = 0.03 and r2 = 0.175, p = 0.04, respectively). Positive anti-SSA/Ro pSS patients expressed higher PTPN22 mRNA levels (p = 0.008), with high focus scores by histopathology (p = 0.02). Moreover, PTPN22 expression had high diagnostic accuracy in pSS patients, with an AUC = 0.985. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that the PTPN22 SNPs rs2488457 (−1123 G>C), rs33996649 (+788 G>A) and rs2476601 (+1858 C>T) are not associated with the disease susceptibility in the western Mexican population. Additionally, PTPN22 expression may be helpful as a diagnostic biomarker in pSS.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-2-inq-10.1177_00469580231160374 for Integrating Patient and Expert Perspectives to Conceptualize High-Quality Palliative Cancer Care for Symptoms in the US Veterans Health Administration: A Qualitative Study by Claire E. O’Hanlon, Karleen F. Giannitrapani, Raziel C. Gamboa, Anne M. Walling, Charlotta Lindvall, Melissa Garrido, Steven M. Asch and Karl A. Lorenz in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-5-inq-10.1177_00469580231160374 for Integrating Patient and Expert Perspectives to Conceptualize High-Quality Palliative Cancer Care for Symptoms in the US Veterans Health Administration: A Qualitative Study by Claire E. O’Hanlon, Karleen F. Giannitrapani, Raziel C. Gamboa, Anne M. Walling, Charlotta Lindvall, Melissa Garrido, Steven M. Asch and Karl A. Lorenz in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-inq-10.1177_00469580231160374 for Integrating Patient and Expert Perspectives to Conceptualize High-Quality Palliative Cancer Care for Symptoms in the US Veterans Health Administration: A Qualitative Study by Claire E. O’Hanlon, Karleen F. Giannitrapani, Raziel C. Gamboa, Anne M. Walling, Charlotta Lindvall, Melissa Garrido, Steven M. Asch and Karl A. Lorenz in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

Supplemental material, sj-docx-2-inq-10.1177_00469580231160374 for Integrating Patient and Expert Perspectives to Conceptualize High-Quality Palliative Cancer Care for Symptoms in the US Veterans Health Administration: A Qualitative Study by Claire E. O’Hanlon, Karleen F. Giannitrapani, Raziel C. Gamboa, Anne M. Walling, Charlotta Lindvall, Melissa Garrido, Steven M. Asch and Karl A. Lorenz in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-4-inq-10.1177_00469580231160374 for Integrating Patient and Expert Perspectives to Conceptualize High-Quality Palliative Cancer Care for Symptoms in the US Veterans Health Administration: A Qualitative Study by Claire E. O’Hanlon, Karleen F. Giannitrapani, Raziel C. Gamboa, Anne M. Walling, Charlotta Lindvall, Melissa Garrido, Steven M. Asch and Karl A. Lorenz in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-4-inq-10.1177_00469580231160374 for Integrating Patient and Expert Perspectives to Conceptualize High-Quality Palliative Cancer Care for Symptoms in the US Veterans Health Administration: A Qualitative Study by Claire E. O’Hanlon, Karleen F. Giannitrapani, Raziel C. Gamboa, Anne M. Walling, Charlotta Lindvall, Melissa Garrido, Steven M. Asch and Karl A. Lorenz in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

The collection of all $n$-point metric spaces of diameter $\le 1$ constitutes a polytope $\mathcal{M}_n \subset \mathbb{R}^{\binom{n}{2}}$, called the \emph{Metric Polytope}. In this paper, we consider the best approximations of $\mathcal{M}_n$ by ellipsoids. We give an exact explicit description of the largest volume ellipsoid contained in $\mathcal{M}_n$. When inflated by a factor of $Θ(n)$, this ellipsoid contains $\mathcal{M}_n$. It also turns out that the least volume ellipsoid containing $\mathcal{M}_n$ is a ball. When shrunk by a factor of $Θ(n)$, the resulting ball is contained in $\mathcal{M}_n$. We note that the general theorems on such ellipsoid posit only that the pertinent inflation/shrinkage factors can be made as small as $O(n^2)$., 17 pages

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-5-inq-10.1177_00469580231160374 for Integrating Patient and Expert Perspectives to Conceptualize High-Quality Palliative Cancer Care for Symptoms in the US Veterans Health Administration: A Qualitative Study by Claire E. O’Hanlon, Karleen F. Giannitrapani, Raziel C. Gamboa, Anne M. Walling, Charlotta Lindvall, Melissa Garrido, Steven M. Asch and Karl A. Lorenz in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-3-inq-10.1177_00469580231160374 for Integrating Patient and Expert Perspectives to Conceptualize High-Quality Palliative Cancer Care for Symptoms in the US Veterans Health Administration: A Qualitative Study by Claire E. O’Hanlon, Karleen F. Giannitrapani, Raziel C. Gamboa, Anne M. Walling, Charlotta Lindvall, Melissa Garrido, Steven M. Asch and Karl A. Lorenz in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-3-inq-10.1177_00469580231160374 for Integrating Patient and Expert Perspectives to Conceptualize High-Quality Palliative Cancer Care for Symptoms in the US Veterans Health Administration: A Qualitative Study by Claire E. O’Hanlon, Karleen F. Giannitrapani, Raziel C. Gamboa, Anne M. Walling, Charlotta Lindvall, Melissa Garrido, Steven M. Asch and Karl A. Lorenz in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

El presente trabajo se realizó en la Sección 16 del Sindicato Único de Trabajadores al Servicio del Estado de Tabasco, en donde se diseña un manual de puestos para el Comité Ejecutivo, con la finalidad de estandarizar las funciones a desarrollar por cada puesto y dotarse de personal con el perfil para las funciones que se desarrollan. El objetivo es diseñar un manual de perfil de puestos para generar las condiciones adecuadas en las áreas de competencia, responsabilidades y funciones específicas que apunten una administración eficiente y garanticen el desempeño de los servidores públicos que conforman el Comité Ejecutivo Municipal de Balancán, Tabasco. La investigación es cualitativa, como fuentes primarias son la observación directa y entrevista a través de cuestionarios, el método utilizado es el mecanicista. Así́ mismo, este proyecto se relaciona directamente con el funcionamiento de las actividades administrativas cotidianas, debido a que albergan fuentes importantes de información; su adecuado funcionamiento avala la mejora administrativa, lo que proporciona que estas podrían mostrar la absoluta regularidad dando una perspectiva administrativa transparente.

Each year from 2012 to 2019, during a 12-day period in November or December, we photographed common herpetofauna on Calabash Caye, a small mangrove-dominated island on the eastern edge of Turneffe Atoll, Belize. Turneffe Atoll is home to the newest, largest, and most biodiverse marine protected area in Belize. Calabash Caye exemplifies the islands on Turneffe’s eastern edge whose elevated beach ridges enable the development of coastal strand plain and littoral forest habitats, which are among the most threatened habitats in the world. As no herpetofaunal survey has been published for Turneffe in over twenty years, and as the herpetofauna is a conspicuous indicator of the health of terrestrial ecological communities on islands, we leveraged our annual field excursions to Calabash Caye to compile a photographic record of the island’s reptiles and amphibians. In multiple years, we documented the presence of five lizards (Anolis sagrei mayensis, Aspidoscelis cozumela, Ctenosaura similis, Phyllodactylus tuberculosus, and the invasive species Hemidactylus frenatus), three snakes (Boa imperator, Leptophis mexicanus hoeversi, and Coniophanes schmidti), and one amphibian (Incilius valliceps). This represents the first report of A. cozumela, H. frenatus, C. schmidti, and I. valliceps on Calabash Caye or on any island in Turneffe Atoll; H. frenatus, C. schmidti, and I. valliceps have never been reported on any of the Belizean cayes. We did not observe four species that have previously been reported on Calabash Caye: Brown Basilisk (Basiliscus vittatus), Mesoamerican Cane Toad (Rhinella horribilis), Mayan Skink (Marisora lineola; formerly Mabuya unimarginata), or a blindsnake, provisionally identified as Indotyphlops braminus. We also include photos of Anolis allisoni, Ctenosaura similis, and Anolis sagrei mayensis obtained during four single-day excursions to Half Moon Caye on Lighthouse Atoll; this represents three of four species reported from that location during the 1990s.

Las ficobiliproteínas, como las ficocianinas que se extraen de las cianobacterias, tales como la Spirulina Plantesis son los principales pigmentos accesorios de la fotosíntesis en las cianobacterias. Se encuentran en asociación con la superficie exterior de las láminas fotosintéticas y forman parte del aparato de captación de luz del fotosistema II de luz. (Patel, A.,et al, 2005).La espectroscopia mediante resonancia magnética nuclear de proteínas (usualmente llamada RMN de proteínas) es un campo de la biología estructural en el cual se utiliza la espectroscopia RMN para obtener información sobre la estructura y dinámica de las proteínas. (Manuales MSD, 2020).

Fooji Inc. is a social media engagement platform that has created a proprietary "Just-in-time" delivery network to provide prizes to social media marketing campaign participants in real-time. In this paper, we prove the efficacy of the "Just-in-time" delivery network through a cluster analysis that extracts and presents the underlying drivers of campaign engagement. We utilize a machine learning methodology with a principal component analysis to organize Fooji campaigns across these principal components. The arrangement of data across the principal component space allows us to expose underlying trends using a $K$-means clustering technique. The most important of these trends is the demonstration of how the "Just-in-time" delivery network improves social media engagement.

Coral reefs are increasingly ecologically destabilized across the globe due to climate change. Behavioural plasticity in corallivore behaviour and short-term trophic ecology in response to bleaching events may influence the extent and severity of coral bleaching and subsequent recovery potential, yet our understanding of these interactions in situ remains unclear. Here, we investigated interactions between corallivory and coral bleaching during a severe high thermal event (10.3-degree heating weeks) in Belize. We found that parrotfish changed their grazing behaviour in response to bleaching by selectively avoiding bleached Orbicella spp. colonies regardless of bleaching severity or coral size. For bleached corals, we hypothesize that this short-term respite from corallivory may temporarily buffer coral energy budgets by not redirecting energetic resources to wound healing, and may therefore enable compensatory nutrient acquisition. However, colonies that had previously been heavily grazed were also more susceptible to bleaching, which is likely to increase mortality risk. Thus, short-term respite from corallivory during bleaching may not be sufficient to functionally rescue corals during prolonged bleaching. Such pairwise interactions and behavioural shifts in response to disturbance may appear small scale and short term, but have the potential to fundamentally alter ecological outcomes, especially in already-degraded ecosystems that are vulnerable and sensitive to change.

Biomechanical energy harvesters are designed to generate electrical energy from human locomotion (e.g., walking) with minimal or no additional effort by the users. These harvesters aim to carry out the work of the muscles during phases in locomotion where the muscles are acting as brakes. Currently, many harvesters focus on the knee joint during late swing, which is only one of three phases available during the gait cycle. For the device to be successful, there is a need to consider design components such as the motor/generator and the gear ratio. These components influence the amount of electrical energy that could be harvested, metabolic power during harvesting, and more. These various components make it challenging to achieve the optimal design. This paper presents a design of a knee harvester with a direct drive that enables harvesting both in flexion and extension using optimization. Subsequently, two knee devices were built and tested using five different harvesting levels. Results show that the 30% level was the best, harvesting approximately 5 W of electricity and redacting 8 W of metabolic energy compared to walking with the device as a dead weight. Evaluation of the models used in the optimization showed a good match to the system model but less for the metabolic power model. These results could pave the way for an energy harvester that could utilize more of the negative joint power during the gait cycle while reducing metabolic effort.

PURPOSE Seven major palliative care (PC) centers in India were mentored through the Palliative Care—Promoting Assessment and Improvement of the Cancer Experience (PC-PAICE) by US and Australian academic institutions to implement a quality improvement (QI) project to improve the accessibility and quality of PC at their respective centers. The objective was to evaluate the experiences of teams in implementing QI methods across diverse geographical settings in India. METHODS A quota sampling approach was used to elicit perspectives of local stakeholders at each site. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research informed development of a semistructured interview guide. Analysis leveraged deductive and inductive approaches. RESULTS We interviewed 44 participants (eight organizational leaders, 12 clinical leaders, and 24 team members) at seven sites and identified five themes. (1) Implementing QI methods enabled QI teams to think analytically to solve a complex problem and to identify resources. (2) Developing a problem statement by identifying specific gaps in patient care fostered team collaboration toward a common goal. (3) Making use of QI tools (eg, A3 process) systematically provided a new, straightforward QI toolkit and improved QI teams' conceptual understanding. (4) Enhancing stakeholder engagement allowed shared understanding of QI team members' roles and processes and shaped interventions tailored to the local context. (5) Designing less subjective processes for patient care such as assessment scales to identify patient's symptomatic needs positively changed work practices and culture. CONCLUSION Engaging and empowering multiple stakeholders to use QI methods facilitated the expansion and improvement of PC and cancer services in India. PC-PAICE demonstrated an efficient, effective way to apply QI methods in an international context. The impact of PC-PAICE is being magnified by developing a cadre of Indian QI leaders.

Cells in microbial communities on surfaces live and divide in close proximity, which greatly enhances the potential for social interactions. Spatiogenetic structures manifest through competitive and cooperative interactions among the same and different genotypes within a shared space, and extracellular secretions appear to function dynamically at the forefront. A previous experimental evolution study utilizing Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf0-1 colonies demonstrated that diverse mutations in the rsmE gene are repeatedly and exclusively selected through the formation of a dominant spatial structure. RsmE’s primary molecular function is translation repression, and its homologs regulate various social and virulence phenotypes. Pseudomonas spp. possess multiple paralogs of Rsm proteins, and RsmA, RsmE, and RsmI are the most prevalent. Here, we demonstrate that the production of a mucoid polymer and a biosurfactant are exclusively regulated through RsmE, contradicting the generalized notion of functional redundancy among the Rsm paralogs. Furthermore, we identify the biosurfactant as the cyclic lipopeptide gacamide A. Competition and microscopy analyses show that the mucoid polymer is solely responsible for creating a space of low cellular density, which is shared exclusively by the same genotype. Gacamide A and other RsmE-regulated products appear to establish a physical boundary that prevents the encroachment of the competing genotype into the newly created space. Although cyclic lipopeptides and other biosurfactants are best known for their antimicrobial properties and reducing surface tension to promote the spreading of cells on various surfaces, they also appear to help define spatial structure formation within a dense community.IMPORTANCEIn densely populated colonies of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf0-1, diverse mutations in the rsmE gene are naturally selected by solving the problem of overcrowding. Here, we show that RsmE-regulated secretions function together to create and protect space of low cell density. A biosurfactant generally promotes the spreading of bacterial cells on abiotic surfaces, however, it appears to function atypically within a crowded population by physically defining genotypic boundaries. Another significant finding is that these secretions are not regulated by RsmE’s paralogs that share high sequence similarity. The experimental pipeline described in this study is highly tractable and should facilitate future studies to explore additional RsmE-regulated products and address why RsmE is functionally unique from its paralogs.