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PTDC/NAN-MAT/30565/2017 D01-284/2019 (INFRAMAT) IBB BASE 2020-2023 UID/FIS/00068/2019. The ability to change the secondary electron emission properties of nitrogen-doped graphene (N-graphene) has been demonstrated. To this end, a novel microwave plasma-enabled scalable route for continuous and controllable fabrication of free-standing N-graphene sheets was developed. High-quality N-graphene with prescribed structural qualities was produced at a rate of 0.5 mg/min by tailoring the high energy density plasma environment. Up to 8% of nitrogen doping levels were achieved while keeping the oxygen content at residual amounts ( 1%). The synthesis is accomplished via a single step, at atmospheric conditions, using ethanol/methane and ammonia/methylamine as carbon and nitrogen precursors. The type and level of doping is affected by the position where the N-precursor is injected in the plasma environment and by the type of precursors used. Importantly, N atoms incorporated predominantly in pyridinic/pyrrolic functional groups alter the performance of the collective electronic oscillations, i.e. plasmons, of graphene. For the first time it has been demonstrated that the synergistic effect between the electronic structure changes and the reduction of graphene $-plasmons caused by N doping, along with the peculiar “crumpled” morphology, leads to sub-unitary (textless 1) secondary electron yields. N-graphene can be considered as a prospective low secondary electron emission and plasmonic material. publishersversion published

A main goal in the analysis of a complex system is to infer its underlying network structure from time-series observations of its behaviour. The inference process is often done by using bi-variate similarity measures, such as the cross-correlation (CC) or mutual information (MI), however, the main factors favouring or hindering its success are still puzzling. Here, we use synthetic neuron models in order to reveal the main topological properties that frustrate or facilitate inferring the underlying network from CC measurements. Specifically, we use pulse-coupled Izhikevich neurons connected as in the Caenorhabditis elegans neural networks as well as in networks with similar randomness and small-worldness. We analyse the effectiveness and robustness of the inference process under different observations and collective dynamics, contrasting the results obtained from using membrane potentials and inter-spike interval time-series. We find that overall, small-worldness favours network inference and degree heterogeneity hinders it. In particular, success rates in C. elegans networks – that combine small-world properties with degree heterogeneity – are closer to success rates in Erdös-Rényi network models rather than those in Watts-Strogatz network models. These results are relevant to understand better the relationship between topological properties and function in different neural networks.

Natural radioactivity in the environment is a field gaining more attention in last decades. This work is focused on the study of natural radioactivity complemented with elementary characterization at former non-uraniferous mining areas in Sweden. This aim is addressed through the study of mining lakes, called pit lakes, which are water bodies generated after opencast mining. Environmental matrices (water, sediments and rocks) from 32 Swedish pit lakes, commonly used for recreational purposes were radiometrically characterized via alpha (238U, 234U, 232Th, 230Th, 210Po isotopes) and gamma spectrometry (238U and 232Th series radionuclides). Additionally, ambient dose rate equivalent in the immediate surrounding of each pit lake was quantified. Physico-chemical parameters (pH, specific conductivity, dissolved oxygen, oxidation–reduction potential) and elemental composition (major and trace elements by ICP-MS) were analysed in water samples and elementary composition of sediments/rocks was measured by XRF and SEM–EDX in some specific cases. A non-negligible number of pit lakes (26%) with enhanced U levels in water was found. At some sites, rocks contained up to 4% of U in areas with high degree of interaction with local population. Concerning the elementary perspective, another popular site (due to its turquoise water) was found to have elevated dissolved heavy metal levels. Results obtained in this work prove that measurement of natural radioactivity is another component that should be included in routine analysis of characterization in mining areas, especially if restauration of post-mining sites is intended for human recreational., Work supported by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM2014-3485). The authors thank Dr. Ana Calleja at Radioisotopes Laboratory (ICP-MS measurements) and the X-Ray Laboratory staff (XRF measurements), both from CITIUS facilities at the University of Seville. Furthermore, the Applied Nuclear Physics Group at the University of Seville, is also acknowledged for its continuous technical support during the different stages of this project. Open access funding provided by University of Gothenburg.

Guided by a rigorous mathematical result, we have earlier introduced a numerical algorithm, which using as input the cumulative number of deaths caused by COVID-19, can estimate the effect of easing of the lockdown conditions. Applying this algorithm to data from Greece, we extend it to the case of two subpopulations, namely, those consisting of individuals below and above 40 years of age. After supplementing the Greek data for deaths with the data for the number of individuals reported to be infected by SARS-CoV-2, we estimated the effect on deaths and infections in the case that the easing of the lockdown measures is different for these two subpopulations. We found that if the lockdown measures are partially eased only for the young subpopulation, then the effect on deaths and infections is small. However, if the easing is substantial for the older population, this effect may be catastrophic.

Surface-emitting distributed feedback (DFB) lasers with both, resonator and active material based on solution-processable polymers, are attractive light sources for a variety of low-cost applications. Besides, the lasers should have competitive characteristics compared to devices based on high-quality inorganic resonators. Here, we report high performing all-solution-processed organic DFB lasers, consisting of water-processed photoresist layers with surface relief gratings located over the active films, whose emission properties can be finely tuned through resonator design. Their laser threshold and efficiency are simultaneously optimized by proper selection of residual resist thickness and grating depth, d. Lowest thresholds and largest efficiencies are obtained when there is no residual layer, while a trade-off between threshold and efficiency is found in relation to d, because both parameters decrease with decreasing d. This behaviour is successfully explained in terms of an overlap factor r, defined to quantify the interaction strength between the grating and the light emitted by the active film and traveling along it, via the evanescent field. It is found that optimal grating depths are in the range 100–130 nm (r ~ 0.5−0.4). Overall, this study provides comprehensive design rules towards an accurate control of the emission properties of the reported lasers.

Understanding the complex dynamics of the atmosphere is of paramount interest due to its impact in the entire climate system and in human society. Here we focus on identifying, from data, the geographical regions which have similar atmospheric properties. We study surface air temperature (SAT) time series with monthly resolution, recorded at a regular grid covering the Earth surface. We consider two datasets: NCEP CDAS1 and ERA Interim reanalysis. We show that two surprisingly simple measures are able to extract meaningful information: i) the distance between the lagged SAT and the incoming solar radiation and ii) the Shannon entropy of SAT and SAT anomalies. The distance uncovers well-defined spatial patterns formed by regions with similar SAT response to solar forcing while the entropy uncovers regions with similar degree of SAT unpredictability. The entropy analysis also allows identifying regions in which SAT has extreme values. Importantly, we uncover differences between the two datasets which are due to the presence of extreme values in one dataset but not in the other. Our results indicate that the distance and entropy measures can be valuable tools for the study of other climatological variables, for anomaly detection and for performing model inter-comparisons.

Misfit cobaltates ([Bi/Ba/Sr/Ca/CoO]nRS[CoO2]q) constitute the most promising family of thermoelectric oxides for high temperature energy harvesting. However, their complex structure and chemical composition makes extremely challenging their deposition by high-vacuum physical techniques. Therefore, many of them have not been prepared as thin films until now. Here we report the synthesis of high-quality epitaxial thin films of the most representative members of this family of compounds by a water-based chemical solution deposition method. The films show an exceptional crystalline quality, with an electrical conductivity and thermopower comparable to single crystals. These properties are linked to the epitaxial matching of the rock-salt layers of the structure to the substrate, producing clean interfaces free of amorphous phases. This is an important step forward for the integration of these materials with complementary n-type thermoelectric oxides in multilayer nanostructures This research was supported by the European Research Council (ERC StG-2DTHERMS), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain (MAT2010-16157 & MAT2013-44673-R) and Xunta de Galicia (2012-CP071). J.M.V-F acknowledges the MINECO for support with a PhD grant of the FPI program SI

This work present structural, morphological, magnetic, and electrical properties of GaSb/Mn multilayer deposited via DC magnetron sputtering at room temperature and at 423 K. The samples are characterized by forming layers of 3, 6 and 12 periods of the GaSb/Mn structure. Through XRD patterns, it was possible to stablish the formation of GaSb, Mn3Ga, and Mn2Sb2 phases. FTIR measurements present an optical interference associated with periodicity and the homogenous thickness of the layers. HR-SEM shows the multilayer architecture with columnar microstructure in the formation of layers with grain nucleation on the surface. A ferromagnetic-like behavior was observed in the multilayers at room temperature related to the domains and interlayers interaction. Additionally, the hysteresis curves present shifts attributed to the effect of exchange bias coupling. I-V curves show RESET-SET states of the multilayer system with bipolar resistive behavior, which can be modified by external magnetic fields. The resistive switching evidenced corresponds to the conductive mechanism based on the capacitive conductance and the formation of conductive filaments in multilayer structure.

Inferring the interactions between coupled oscillators is a significant open problem in complexity science, with multiple interdisciplinary applications. While the Kalman filter (KF) technique is a well-known tool, widely used for data assimilation and parameter estimation, to the best of our knowledge, it has not yet been used for inferring the connectivity of coupled chaotic oscillators. Here we demonstrate that KF allows reconstructing the interaction topology and the coupling strength of a network of mutually coupled Rössler-like chaotic oscillators. We show that the connectivity can be inferred by considering only the observed dynamics of a single variable of the three that define the phase space of each oscillator. We also show that both the coupling strength and the network architecture can be inferred even when the oscillators are close to synchronization. Simulation results are provided to show the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method. This work was supported in part by Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (PGC2018- 099443-B-I00), AGAUR FI scholarship (E.F.) and ICREA ACADEMIA (C. M.), Generalitat de Catalunya.

A halo is an intrinsically quantum object defined as a bound state of a spatial size which extends deeply into the classically forbidden region. Previously, halos have been observed in bound states of two and less frequently of three atoms. Here, we propose a realization of halo states containing as many as six atoms. We report the binding energies, pair correlation functions, spatial distributions, and sizes of few-body clusters composed by bosonic dipolar atoms in a bilayer geometry. We find two very distinct halo structures, for large interlayer separation the halo structure is roughly symmetric and we discover an unusual highly anisotropic shape of halo states close to the unbinding threshold. Our results open avenues of using ultracold gases for the experimental realization of halos with the largest number of atoms ever predicted before., 8 pages, 4 figures

While wastewater-based epidemiology has proven a useful tool for epidemiological surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic, few quantitative models comparing virus concentrations in wastewater samples and cumulative incidence have been established. In this work, a simple mathematical model relating virus concentration and cumulative incidence for full contagion waves was developed. The model was then used for short-term forecasting and compared to a local linear model. Both scenarios were tested using a dataset composed of samples from 32 wastewater treatment plants and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) incidence data covering the corresponding geographical areas during a 7-month period, including two contagion waves. A population-averaged dataset was also developed to model and predict the incidence over the full geography. Overall, the mathematical model based on wastewater data showed a good correlation with cumulative cases and allowed us to anticipate SARS-CoV-2 incidence in one week, which is of special relevance in situations where the epidemiological monitoring system cannot be fully implemented. The authors want to thank the Catalan Institute for Water Research (Institut Català de Recerca de l’Aigua, ICRA) and the Open Data initiative of the Generalitat de Catalunya for publishing the SARS-CoV-2 concentration and incidence data as open access information. The authors also want to acknowledge the funding of the INNO- 4COV-19 (European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 101016203) project City Sentinel V-Sense. Peer Reviewed Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i Benestar

Plasmonic nanoparticles are widely used in multiple scientific and industrial applications. Although many synthesis methods have been reported in the literature throughout the last decade, controlling the size and shape of large populations still remains as a challenge. As size and shape variations have a strong impact in their plasmonic properties, the need to have metrological techniques to accurately characterize their morphological features is peremptory. We present a new optical method referred as Dark-Field Single Particle Spectrophotometry which is able to measure the individual sizes of thousands of particles with nanometric accuracy in just a couple of minutes. Our method also features an easy sample preparation, a straightforward experimental setup inspired on a customized optical microscope, and a measurement protocol simple enough to be carried out by untrained technicians. As a proof of concept, thousands of spherical nanoparticles of different sizes have been measured, and after a direct comparison with metrological gold standard electron microscopy, a discrepancy of 3% has been attested. Although its feasibility has been demonstrated on spherical nanoparticles, the true strengthness of the method is that it can be generalized also to nanoparticles with arbitrary shapes and geometries, thus representing an advantageous alternative to the gold-standard electron microscopy, Tis work was supported by the grants from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (Retos Nano Prost: RTC-2016-4776-1, Retos Spectrasens: RTC-2017-6311-1-1 & Líneas Estratégicas 2021 for the Oncodeespasm Platform: PLEC2021-007892). Rodrigo Calvo acknowledges funding of his training from Dirección General de Investigación (Comunidad de Madrid) through project IND2019/IND-17155. Valerio Pini and Andreas Ton thank the Spanish State Research Agency for the Torres Quevedo grants (PTQ-16-08540 & PTQ-15-07565)

To train, evaluate, and validate the application of a deep learning framework in three-dimensional ultrasound (3D US) for the automatic segmentation of ventricular volume in preterm infants with post haemorrhagic ventricular dilatation (PHVD). We trained a 2D convolutional neural network (CNN) for automatic segmentation ventricular volume from 3D US of preterm infants with PHVD. The method was validated with the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and the intra-class coefficient (ICC) compared to manual segmentation. The mean birth weight of the included patients was 1233.1 g (SD 309.4) and mean gestational age was 28.1 weeks (SD 1.6). A total of 152 serial 3D US from 10 preterm infants with PHVD were analysed. 230 ventricles were manually segmented. Of these, 108 were used for training a 2D CNN and 122 for validating the methodology for automatic segmentation. The global agreement for manual versus automated measures in the validation data (n = 122) was excellent with an ICC of 0.944 (0.874–0.971). The Dice similarity coefficient was 0.8 (± 0.01). 3D US based ventricular volume estimation through an automatic segmentation software developed through deep learning improves the accuracy and reduces the processing time needed for manual segmentation using VOCAL. 3D US should be considered a promising tool to help deepen our current understanding of the complex evolution of PHVD.

In this study, the non-linear dynamics of Taylor-Couette flow in a very small-aspect-ratio wide-gap annulus in a counter-rotating regime under the influence of radial through-flow are investigated by solving its full three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations. Depending on the intensity of the radial flow, either an axisymmetric (pure m = 0 mode) pulsating flow structure or an axisymmetric axially propagating vortex will appear below the centrifugal instability threshold of the circular Couette flow. In contrast to earlier detected propagating vortices, these break Z2 symmetry and exist as a pair of degenerated solutions. Either pulsating or propagating solutions originate owing to the here considered small aspect ratio of the system, resulting in a constant competition between two-and one-cell states. With the variation of radial flow, a pulsating flow appears as a supercritical Hopf bifurcation from a stationary twin-pair state, persisting as the main feature. Thereafter, it undergoes period-doubling bifurcation and another Hopf bifurcation, leading to a quasi-periodic solution on a 2-torus. The propagating vortices are found to exist stably in two separate parameter regions, which feature different underlying dynamics. Although in one regime, the flow appears only as a limit cycle solution upon which saddle-node-invariant-circle bifurcation occurs, the other regime features more complex dynamics with richer Hopf bifurcation bifurcation sequences. The periods double to eventually introduce second and third incommensurate frequencies that change the flow to appear as 1-, 2-and 3-torus solutions.

Este artículo se encuentra disponible en la siguiente URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73355-y.pdf The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of high blood pressure (HBP) in adolescents of the Valencian Autonomous Community (VC) in Spain. Besides, its association with other risk factors related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) or arterial hypertension (AHT) in order to increase our knowledge of public health and to provide advice about healthy diets. We conducted a multicentre, observational, cross-sectional, epidemiological study in a sample of 4402 adolescents from 15 schools during the 2015–2016 school year. The participants were aged between 11 and 18 years, and any individuals already diagnosed with AHT were excluded. In addition to the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A), Evaluation of the Mediterranean Diet Quality Index (KIDMED), a lifestyle habits survey, the waist-to-height ratio (WtHR), and body mass index (BMI) were calculated for each participant. Informed Consent was obtained from Parents of the adolescents involved in the current study. The study received approval from the University ethics committee and all procedures were conducted in accordance with the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. Chi-squared, Student t-tests, and ANOVA statistical analyses showed that 653 (14.8%) adolescents had previously undiagnosed HBP and that was significantly associated with male sex (p < 0.001), age over 15 years (p < 0.05), and height, weight, waist circumference, WtHR, BMI, and skipping breakfast. Based on the data we obtained in this study, the modifiable factors that influence HBP in adolescents were WtHR, BMI, and skipping breakfast.

The following article appeared in Scientific Reports 10 (2020): 16039 and may be found at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73029-9, In this work we report on the characterization and biological functionalization of 2D MoS2 fakes, epitaxially grown on sapphire, to develop an optical biosensor for the breast cancer biomarker miRNA21. The MoS2 fakes were modifed with a thiolated DNA probe complementary to the target biomarker. Based on the photoluminescence of MoS2, the hybridization events were analyzed for the target (miRNA21c) and the control non-complementary sequence (miRNA21nc). A specifc redshift was observed for the hybridization with miRNA21c, but not for the control, demonstrating the biomarker recognition via PL. The homogeneity of these MoS2 platforms was verifed with microscopic maps. The detailed spectroscopic analysis of the spectra reveals changes in the trion to excitation ratio, being the redshift after the hybridization ascribed to both peaks. The results demonstrate the benefts of optical biosensors based on MoS2 monolayer for future commercial devices, The research is supported by the MINECO (CTQ2017-84309-C2-2-R, CTQ2017-84309-C2-1-R, ELECTROBIONET, RED2018-102412-T) and Comunidad de Madrid (TRANSNANOAVANSENS, P2018/NMT4349) projects. ARC acknowledges Ramón y Cajal program (under contract number RYC-2015-18047)

Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-01T15:13:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2022-12-01 Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica This study reports the synthesis of hybrid nanostructures composed of cerium dioxide and microcrystalline cellulose prepared by the microwave-assisted hydrothermal route under distinct temperature and pH values. Their structural, morphological and spectroscopic behaviors were investigated by X-Rays Diffraction, Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscopy, High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy, and Fourier-Transform Infrared, Ultraviolet–Visible, Raman and Positron Annihilation Lifetime spectroscopies to evaluate the presence of structural defects and their correlation with the underlying mechanism regarding the biocide activity of the studied material. The samples showed mean crystallite sizes around 10 nm, characterizing the formation of quantum dots unevenly distributed along the cellulose surface with a certain agglomeration degree. The samples presented the characteristic Ce–O vibration close to 450 cm−1 and a second-order mode around 1050 cm−1, which is indicative of distribution of localized energetic levels originated from defective species, essential in the scavenging of reactive oxygen species. Positron spectroscopic studies showed first and second lifetime components ranging between 202–223 ps and 360–373 ps, respectively, revealing the presence of two distinct defective oxygen species, in addition to an increment in the concentration of Ce3+-oxygen vacancy associates as a function of temperature. Therefore, we have successfully synthesized hybrid nanoceria structures with potential multifunctional therapeutic properties to be further evaluated against the COVID-19. Center for Research and Development of Functional Materials Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), SP School of Engineering São Paulo State University (UNESP), SP CIFICEN (UNCPBA-CICPBA-CONICET) and Instituto de Física de Materiales Tandil (UNCPBA), Pinto 399 National University of Mar del Plata (UNMdP) School of Engineering São Paulo State University (UNESP), SP CAPES: 001 FAPESP: 13/07296-2 FAPESP: 2018/20590-0 Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica: PICT 2015- 1832

Extracting relevant properties of empirical signals generated by nonlinear, stochastic, and high-dimensional systems is a challenge of complex systems research. Open questions are how to differentiate chaotic signals from stochastic ones, and how to quantify nonlinear and/or high-order temporal correlations. Here we propose a new technique to reliably address both problems. Our approach follows two steps: first, we train an artificial neural network (ANN) with flicker (colored) noise to predict the value of the parameter, $$\alpha$$ α , that determines the strength of the correlation of the noise. To predict $$\alpha$$ α the ANN input features are a set of probabilities that are extracted from the time series by using symbolic ordinal analysis. Then, we input to the trained ANN the probabilities extracted from the time series of interest, and analyze the ANN output. We find that the $$\alpha$$ α value returned by the ANN is informative of the temporal correlations present in the time series. To distinguish between stochastic and chaotic signals, we exploit the fact that the difference between the permutation entropy (PE) of a given time series and the PE of flicker noise with the same $$\alpha$$ α parameter is small when the time series is stochastic, but it is large when the time series is chaotic. We validate our technique by analysing synthetic and empirical time series whose nature is well established. We also demonstrate the robustness of our approach with respect to the length of the time series and to the level of noise. We expect that our algorithm, which is freely available, will be very useful to the community.

Epitaxially grown $$\hbox {SrTiO}_{{3}}$$ SrTiO 3 (STO) thin films are material enablers for a number of critical energy-conversion and information-storage technologies like electrochemical electrode coatings, solid oxide fuel cells and random access memories. Oxygen vacancies ($${\mathrm{V}_{{\mathrm{O}}}}$$ V O ), on the other hand, are key defects to understand and tailor many of the unique functionalities realized in oxide perovskite thin films. Here, we present a comprehensive and technically sound ab initio description of $${\mathrm{V}_{{\mathrm{O}}}}$$ V O in epitaxially strained (001) STO thin films. The novelty of our first-principles study lies in the incorporation of lattice thermal excitations on the formation energy and diffusion properties of $${\mathrm{V}_{{\mathrm{O}}}}$$ V O over wide epitaxial strain conditions ($$-4 \le \eta \le +4$$ - 4 ≤ η ≤ + 4 %). We found that thermal lattice excitations are necessary to obtain a satisfactory agreement between first-principles calculations and the available experimental data for the formation energy of $${\mathrm{V}_{{\mathrm{O}}}}$$ V O . Furthermore, it is shown that thermal lattice excitations noticeably affect the energy barriers for oxygen ion diffusion, which strongly depend on $$\eta $$ η and are significantly reduced (increased) under tensile (compressive) strain. The present work demonstrates that for a realistic theoretical description of oxygen vacancies in STO thin films is necessary to consider lattice thermal excitations, thus going beyond standard zero-temperature ab initio approaches.

Nowadays there is a worldwide growing interest in the Inkjet Printing technology owing to its potentially high levels of geometrical complexity, personalization and resolution. There is also social concern about usage, disposal and accumulation of plastic materials. In this work, it is shown that sugar-based biodegradable polyurethane polymers exhibit outstanding properties as polymer-matrix for gold nanoparticles composites. These materials could reach exceptional stabilization levels, and demonstrated potential as novel robust inks for Inkjet based Printing. Furthermore, a physical comparison among different polymers is discussed based on stability and printability experiments to search for the best ink candidate. The University of Seville logo was printed by employing those inks, and the presence of gold was confirmed by ToF-SIMS. This approach has the potential to open new routes and applications for fabrication of enhanced biomedical nanometallic-sensors using stabilized AuNP. Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MINECO, (Grants Nos. CTQ2016- 78703-P and MAT2016-78703-P) Junta de Andalucía (Consolidation Grant for Research Group FQM135 and 2017/FQM-386, P-2018/809) University of Seville (V y VI Plan Propio PP2016-5937)

The blue and red shrimp Aristeus antennatus is a demersal marine species harvested by bottom trawling in the Mediterranean Sea, the adjacent Atlantic Ocean (AO) waters, and the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean (IO). As it is considered to be a priority species for sustainable fishing, identification of its genetic stocks and the connectivity between them is essential. Using 12 microsatellite loci we detected at least four genetic stocks distributed in the Western Mediterranean (WM), Eastern Mediterranean (EM), AO, and IO and signals for a possible fifth stock in the Alborán Sea. We detected no additional population structuring within the WM. Thus, although the Almería-Orán Front exerts some isolating effect, high genetic homogeneity and gene flow are present within the WM Basin. The IO stock is genetically closer to the AO stock than to the others; thus, the species dispersion route is more likely via the Atlantic Ocean than via the Red Sea. Large effective population sizes suggest population sustainability, but moderate genetic diversity values indicate to proceed with caution. Our genetic results serve as a basis for species conservation to ensure long-term sustainability of this marine resource This work was supported by grants to M.I.R. by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (CTM2006–00785) and Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (CTM2014-54648-C2-2-R). Additional support to S.H by PADI foundation. L.P. benefited from a predoctoral fellowship from the University of Girona (BR2014) SI

As subwavelength nanostructures are receiving increasing attention for photonic and plasmonic applications, we grew nanostructured porous silicon (n-PS) and hybrid n-PS/Ag layers onto silicon substrates and measured their reflection and absorption characteristics as functions of the wavelength, angle of incidence, and polarization state of incident light. The experimental results show that the absorption characteristics of the hybrid n-PS/Ag layer can be controlled by selecting the appropriate combination of its thickness and porosity, together with the density of infiltrant silver nanoparticles. The observed wideband optical absorption characteristics of the hybrid n-PS/Ag layers might be useful in light-harvesting devices and photodetectors, since the overall efficiency will be increased as a result of increased field-of-view for both s- and p-polarization states of incident light, R.J.M.-P. thanks Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Spain) for funding under grant reference number PRX17/00095. P.D.M. and A.L. thank the Charles Godfrey Binder Endowment at Penn State for continued support of their research activities. R.R. thanks the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education, Missions section, for funding under Joint Supervision grant, call 2015–2016

Supplementary information accompanies this paper at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40766-5., The ability of ecological niche models (ENMs) to produce robust predictions for different time frames (i.e. temporal transferability) may be hindered by a lack of ecologically relevant predictors. Model performance may also be affected by species traits, which may reflect different responses to processes controlling species distribution. In this study, we tested four primary hypotheses involving the role of species traits and environmental predictors in ENM performance and transferability. We compared the predictive accuracy of ENMs based upon (1) climate, (2) land-use/cover (LULC) and (3) ecosystem functional attributes (EFAs), and (4) the combination of these factors for 27 bird species within and beyond the time frame of model calibration. The combination of these factors significantly increased both model performance and transferability, highlighting the need to integrate climate, LULC and EFAs to improve biodiversity projections. However, the overall model transferability was low (being only acceptable for less than 25% of species), even under a hierarchical modelling approach, which calls for great caution in the use of ENMs to predict bird distributions under global change scenarios. Our findings also indicate that positive effects of species traits on predictive accuracy within model calibration are not necessarily translated into higher temporal transferability., This research was developed as part of the project ECOPOTENTIAL, which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under agreement No. 641762. We thank everyone who contributed to the fieldwork: Xosé Pardavila, Adrián Lamosa (Sorex, Ecoloxía e Medio Ambiente SL), Marta Arenas, Alberto Toupa and Fernando Martínez-Freiría. Field surveys were funded by the project INTERREG-POCTEC (‘NATURA Xurés-Gerês’). A.R. was financially supported by the Xunta de Galicia (post-doctoral fellowship ED481B2016/084-0). Miquel Ninyerola and Meritxell Batalla (UAB) generated climate variables from data provided by the Spanish Meteorological Agency and the Spanish Ministry of Marine and Rural Environment within the MONTES-Consolider project (CSD2008-00040).

The conditions required for the emergence of supercontraction in regenerated silkworm (Bombyx mori) silk fibers are assessed through an experimental approach that combines the spinning of regenerated fibers with controlled properties and their characterization by 13C solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Both supercontracting and non-supercontracting regenerated fibers are produced using the straining flow spinning (SFS) technique from 13C labeled cocoons. The short-range microstructure of the fibers is assessed through 13C CP/MAS in air and 13C DD/MAS in water, and the main microstructural features are identified and quantified. The mechanical properties of the regenerated fibers and their microstructures are compared with those of natural silkworm silk. The combined analysis highlights two possible key elements as responsible for the emergence of supercontraction: (1) the existence of an upper and a lower limit of the amorphous phase compatible with supercontraction, and (2) the existence of two ordered phases, β-sheet A and B, which correspond to different packing arrangements of the protein chains. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MAT2016-75544- C2-1-R Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MAT2016-79832-R Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad DPI2016-78887-C3-1-R Consejería de Educación Comunidad de Madrid NEUROCENTRO-B2017/BMD-3760 Ministerio de Educación, Ciencia y Cultura JP26248050 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad DPI2016-78887-C3-1-R

Echo chambers in online social networks, whereby users’ beliefs are reinforced by interactions with like-minded peers and insulation from others’ points of view, have been decried as a cause of political polarization. Here, we investigate their role in the debate around the 2016 US elections on Reddit, a fundamental platform for the success of Donald Trump. We identify Trump vs Clinton supporters and reconstruct their political interaction network. We observe a preference for cross-cutting political interactions between the two communities rather than within-group interactions, thus contradicting the echo chamber narrative. Furthermore, these interactions are asymmetrical: Clinton supporters are particularly eager to answer comments by Trump supporters. Beside asymmetric heterophily, users show assortative behavior for activity, and disassortative, asymmetric behavior for popularity. Our findings are tested against a null model of random interactions, by using two different approaches: a network rewiring which preserves the activity of nodes, and a logit regression which takes into account possible confounding factors. Finally, we explore possible socio-demographic implications. Users show a tendency for geographical homophily and a small positive correlation between cross-interactions and voter abstention. Our findings shed light on public opinion formation on social media, calling for a better understanding of the social dynamics at play in this context.

Closed-shell atoms scattered from a metal surface exchange energy and momentum with surface phonons mostly via the interposed surface valence electrons, i.e., via the creation of virtual electron-hole pairs. The latter can then decay into surface phonons via electron-phonon interaction, as well as into acoustic surface plasmons (ASPs). While the first channel is the basis of the current inelastic atom scattering (IAS) surface-phonon spectroscopy, no attempt to observe ASPs with IAS has been made so far. In this study we provide evidence of ASP in Ni(111) with both Ne atom scattering and He atom scattering. While the former measurements confirm and extend so far unexplained data, the latter illustrate the coupling of ASP with phonons inside the surface-projected phonon continuum, leading to a substantial reduction of the ASP velocity and possibly to avoided crossing with the optical surface phonon branches. The analysis is substantiated by a self-consistent calculation of the surface response function to atom collisions and of the first-principle surface-phonon dynamics of Ni(111). It is shown that in Ni(111) ASP originate from the majority-spin Shockley surface state and are therefore collective oscillation of surface electrons with the same spin, i.e. it represents a new kind of collective quasiparticle: a Spin Acoustic Surface Plasmon (SASP)., The work of I.V.S. is supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation for funding in framework of State Task (No. 0721-2020-0033). V.M.S. and P.M.E. acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Grant No. PID2019-105488GB-I00) and D.F. from Grant No. PID2019-109525RB-I00. E.V.C. acknowledges support from Saint Petersburg State University (project ID No. 51126254). R.M. and D.F. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the “María de Maeztu” Programme for Units of Excellence in R&D (CEX2018-000805-M). IMDEA Nanociencia acknowledges support from the ’Severo Ochoa’ Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (MINECO, Grant SEV-2016-0686). Part of the calculations was performed at the SKIF-Cyberia supercomputer at the National Research Tomsk State University (Russian Federation) and the Supercomputer Center of D.I.P.C. (Spain).

Attempts to control the epidemic spread of COVID19 in the different countries often involve imposing restrictions to the mobility of citizens. Recent examples demonstrate that the effectiveness of these policies strongly depends on the willingness of the population to adhere them. And this is a parameter that it is difficult to measure and control. We demonstrate in this manuscript a systematic way to check the mood of a society and a way to incorporate it into dynamical models of epidemic propagation. We exemplify the process considering the case of Spain although the results and methodology can be directly extrapolated to other countries., Comment: 22 pages including SI. 8 figures in the main text plus 5 additional figures in the SI

In this work, we experimentally demonstrate that a thin rectangle dielectric-metal structure can have a function of a flat focusing mirror based on photonic jet effect in reflection mode. Using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) rectangle with size length of 10 μm and wavelength-scale thickness of 1 μm on the top of a silicon wafer, we have built a flat mirror which focuses an incident beam at the focal length changing from 1.38 μm to 11.67 μm upon tuning the beam incidence angle from 30° to 75°. The focusing properties of such a mirror persist in the wavelength range of 405 nm to 671 nm. Our approach can be extended to realize other optical functionalities by properly controlling rectangle dimensions and materials. This flat focusing mirror is able to guide the incident beam in free space without perceptible diffraction at the distance equal to the photonic jet length and suitable for small-scale photonic circuits.

Precambrian cellular remains frequently have simple morphologies, micrometric dimensions and are poorly preserved, imposing severe analytical and interpretational challenges, especially for irrefutable attestations of biogenicity. The 1.88 Ga Gunflint biota is a Precambrian microfossil assemblage with different types and qualities of preservation across its numerous geological localities and provides important insights into the Proterozoic biosphere and taphonomic processes. Here we use synchrotron-based ptychographic X-ray computed tomography to investigate well-preserved carbonaceous microfossils from the Schreiber Beach locality as well as poorly-preserved, iron-replaced fossil filaments from the Mink Mountain locality, Gunflint Formation. 3D nanoscale imaging with contrast based on electron density allowed us to assess the morphology and carbonaceous composition of different specimens and identify the minerals associated with their preservation based on retrieved mass densities. In the Mink Mountain filaments, the identification of mature kerogen and maghemite rather than the ubiquitously described hematite indicates an influence from biogenic organics on the local maturation of iron oxides through diagenesis. This non-destructive 3D approach to microfossil composition at the nanoscale within their geological context represents a powerful approach to assess the taphonomy and biogenicity of challenging or poorly preserved traces of early microbial life, and may be applied effectively to extraterrestrial samples returned from upcoming space missions.

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of an aerobic training program with a strength training program on body composition and energy expenditure in overweight or obese (29.06 ± 3.49 kg/m2) young adults (21.96 ± 1.90 years). Subjects (N = 109) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a control group (CG), an aerobic training (AT) group and a strength training (ST) group. Training took place over twelve weeks comprising three sessions per week with each session lasting 60 to 90 minutes. Before and after the program, weight, height, body mass index, lean mass percentage and fat mass percentage were evaluated. In addition, The International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) was used to estimate energy expenditure. The results of both aerobic training and strength training produced statistically significant improvements in weight (AT-CG = −2.892 kg; ST-CG = −2.986 kg); BMI (AT-CG = −1.075 kg/m2; ST-CG = −1.118 kg/m2); total body fat (AT-CG = −1529.172 g; ST-CG = −763.815); and total body fat percentage (AT-CG = −1.421%; AT-ST = −0.855%). These two exercise prescription models were therefore useful in reducing overweight and obesity, which could have an impact on improving the health and quality of life of individuals with these characteristics.

Plasmonic gallium (Ga) nanoparticles (NPs) are well known to exhibit good performance in numerous applications such as surface enhanced fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy or biosensing. However, to reach the optimal optical performance, the strength of the localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) must be enhanced particularly by suitable narrowing the NP size distribution among other factors. With this purpose, our last work demonstrated the production of hexagonal ordered arrays of Ga NPs by using templates of aluminium (Al) shallow pit arrays, whose LSPRs were observed in the VIS region. The quantitative analysis of the optical properties by spectroscopic ellipsometry confirmed an outstanding improvement of the LSPR intensity and full width at half maximum (FWHM) due to the imposed ordering. Here, by engineering the template dimensions, and therefore by tuning Ga NPs size, we expand the LSPRs of the Ga NPs to cover a wider range of the electromagnetic spectrum from the UV to the IR regions. More interestingly, the factors that cause this optical performance improvement are studied with the universal plasmon ruler equation, supported with discrete dipole approximation simulations. The results allow us to conclude that the plasmonic coupling between NPs originated in the ordered systems is the main cause for the optimized optical response, The research is supported by the MINECO (CTQ2014-53334-C2-2-R, CTQ2017-84309-C2-2-R and MAT201676824-C3-1-R) and Comunidad de Madrid (P2018/NMT4349 and S2018/NMT-4321 NANOMAGCOST) projects. ARC acknowledges Ramón y Cajal program (under contract number RYC-2015-18047)

We analyze large scale (N~10000) time use surveys in United States, Spain, Italy, France and Great Britain to ascertain seasonal variations in the sleep/wake cycle and the labor cycle after daylight saving time -- summer time arrangements -- regulations have stood up for at least forty years. That is, not the usual search for short-term effects of the biannual transitions of DST but a search for how industrialized societies have responded to DST regulations. Results show that the labor cycle is equally distributed through seasons, an everyday experience which is a major outcome of DST. The sleep/wake cycle displays disturbance punctuated by solar events: sunrise, sunset and noon. Sleep onset in non-employees in a week-end -- the group more prone to free choices -- delays in summer opposing to the regulation. Yet, sleep offset in this group advances in summer, despite clock time already advanced in the spring transition. The best explanation for these findings is that size and directionality of DST regulations are close to an optimum. The role of latitude is discussed after sleep/wake cycle in Spain, Italy and United States exhibit fewer statistically significant excursions that the sleep/wake cycle in Great Britain and France, which could be indicating preference for time synchronization as latitude increases. The consequences of a seasonal regulation of clocks vs the choice of permanent summer time or permanent winter time is sketched from a previous report on human activity., Comment: RevTeX, Review Modern Physics format, longbibliography, 14 pages, 3 tables, 4 figures. Supplementary material 15 pages, 6 tables, 6 figures

In most mammals, the sleep-wake cycle is constituted by three behavioral states: wakefulness (W), non-REM (NREM) sleep, and REM sleep. These states are associated with drastic changes in cognitive capacities, mostly determined by the function of the thalamo-cortical system. The intra-cranial electroencephalogram or electocorticogram (ECoG), is an important tool for measuring the changes in the thalamo-cortical activity during W and sleep. In the present study we analyzed broad-band ECoG recordings of the rat by means of a time-series complexity measure that is easy to implement and robust to noise: the Permutation Entropy (PeEn). We found that PeEn is maximal during W and decreases during sleep. These results bring to light the different thalamo-cortical dynamics emerging during sleep-wake states, which are associated with the well-known spectral changes that occur when passing from W to sleep. Moreover, the PeEn analysis allows us to determine behavioral states independently of the electrodes’ cortical location, which points to an underlying global pattern in the signal that differs among the cycle states that is missed by classical methods. Consequently, our data suggest that PeEn analysis of a single EEG channel could allow for cheap, easy, and efficient sleep monitoring.

Consistent with their diverse pharmacology, peptides derived from venomous animals have been developed as drugs to treat disorders as diverse as hypertension, diabetes and chronic pain. Melanoma has a poor prognosis due in part to its metastatic capacity, warranting further development of novel targeted therapies. This prompted us to examine the anti-melanoma activity of the spider peptides gomesin (AgGom) and a gomesin-like homolog (HiGom). AgGom and HiGom dose-dependently reduced the viability and proliferation of melanoma cells whereas it had no deleterious effects on non-transformed neonatal foreskin fibroblasts. Concordantly, gomesin-treated melanoma cells showed a reduced G0/G1 cell population. AgGom and HiGom compromised proliferation of melanoma cells via activation of the p53/p21 cell cycle check-point axis and the Hippo signaling cascade, together with attenuation of the MAP kinase pathway. We show that both gomesin peptides exhibit antitumoral activity in melanoma AVATAR-zebrafish xenograft tumors and that HiGom also reduces tumour progression in a melanoma xenograft mouse model. Taken together, our data highlight the potential of gomesin for development as a novel melanoma-targeted therapy This work was supported by Perpetual IMPACT Grant IDIPAP2015/1585 (to J.J.M.), Discovery Grants DP1095728 (to J.J.M.) and DP130103813 (to G.F.K.) from the Australian Research Council, and by QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute crowd funding and salary support (to M.P.I.). M.P.I. is a “Marie Curie” AMAROUT Fellow. M.A.F.R. is a fellow supported by the Talent Program from the Madrid Government of Spain (Grant No. T1-BIO-1854 to M.A.F.R.). J.J.M. is supported by a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (APP1131732) and G.F.K. by a NHMRC Principal Research Fellowship (APP1136889) SI

We investigate thermal fluctuations in terms of diamagnetism and magnetotransport in superconducting NaFe1−xCo x As single crystals with different doping levels. Results show that in the case of optimal doped and lightly overdoped (x = 0.03, 0.05) crystals the analysis in the critical as well as in the Gaussian fluctuation regions is consistent with the Ginzburg-Landau 3D fluctuation theory. However, in the case of strongly overdoped samples (x ≥ 0.07) the Ullah-Dorsey scaling of the fluctuation induced magnetoconductivity in the critical region confirms that thermal fluctuations exhibit a 3D anisotropic nature only in a narrow temperature region around T c (H). This is consistent with the fact that in these samples the fluctuation effects in the Gaussian region above Tc may be described by the Lawrence-Doniach approach. Our results indicate that the anisotropy of these materials increases significantly with the doping level YSK was supported by the NRF grant funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2015M2B2A9028507, 2016R1A2B4012672). DA and YSO was partially supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (NRF-2017R1A4A1015323). DS and JM acknowledge financial support from Project No. FIS2016-79109-P (AEI/FEDER, UE). TP was supported by the NRF grant funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of Korea (No. 2012R1A3A2048816). YSO was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (NRF-2015R1C1A1A01055964) SI

East Asia has experienced strong warming since the 1960s accompanied by an increased frequency of heat waves and shrinking glaciers over the Tibetan Plateau and the Tien Shan. Here, we place the recent warmth in a long-term perspective by presenting a new spatially resolved warm-season (May-September) temperature reconstruction for the period 1–2000 CE using 59 multiproxy records from a wide range of East Asian regions. Our Bayesian Hierarchical Model (BHM) based reconstructions generally agree with earlier shorter regional temperature reconstructions but are more stable due to additional temperature sensitive proxies. We find a rather warm period during the first two centuries CE, followed by a multi-century long cooling period and again a warm interval covering the 900–1200 CE period (Medieval Climate Anomaly, MCA). The interval from 1450 to 1850 CE (Little Ice Age, LIA) was characterized by cooler conditions and the last 150 years are characterized by a continuous warming until recent times. Our results also suggest that the 1990s were likely the warmest decade in at least 1200 years. The comparison between an ensemble of climate model simulations and our summer reconstructions since 850 CE shows good agreement and an important role of internal variability and external forcing on multi-decadal time-scales., Huan Zhang, Jürg Luterbacher, Johann H. Jungclaus, Sebastian Wagner and Eduardo Zorita acknowledge support from the German Science Foundation project “Attribution of forced and internal Chinese climate variability in the common eras”. Jürg Luterbacher, Lea Schneider, Stefanie Talento, Jianglin Wang and Bao Yang acknowledge JPI-Climate/Belmont Forum collaborative Research Action “INTEGRATE, An integrated data-model study of interactions between tropical monsoons and extratropical climate variability and extremes”. Jürg Luterbacher acknowledges the Climate Science for Service Partnership China project (CSSP): Digitisation and quality control of subdaily meteorological data from Asian stations in the late 19th and early 20th century. Fidel J. González-Rouco acknowledges support from ILModelS CGL2014–59644-R. Elena García-Bustamante thanks the European Framework programm FP7 ERA-NET project “NEWA: New European Wind Atlas”, funded by the European Commission.

Vitrification of human oocytes and embryos in different stages of development is a key element of daily clinical practice of in vitro fertilization treatments. Despite the cooling and warming of the cells is ultra-fast, the procedure as a whole is time consuming. Most of the duration is employed in a long (8–15 minutes), gradual or direct exposure to a non-vitrifying cryoprotectant solution, which is followed by a short exposure to a more concentrated vitrifying solution. A reduction in the duration of the protocols is desirable to improve the workflow in the IVF setting and reduce the time of exposure to suboptimal temperature and osmolarity, as well as potentially toxic cryoprotectants. In this work it is shown that this reduction is feasible. In silico (MatLab program using two-parameter permeability model) and in vitro observations of the oocytes’ osmotic behaviour indicate that the dehydration upon exposure to standard cryoprotectant solutions occurs very fast: the point of minimum volume of the shrink-swell curve is reached within 60 seconds. At that point, intracellular water ejection is complete, which coupled with the permeation of low molecular weight cryoprotectants results in similar intracellular and extracellular solute concentrations. This shows that prolonging the exposure to the cryoprotectant solutions does not improve the cytosolic glass forming tendency and could be avoided. To test this finding, human oocytes and zygotes that were donated for research were subjected to a shortened, dehydration-based protocol, consisting of two consecutive exposures of one-minute to two standard cryoprotectant solutions, containing ethylene glycol, dimethyl sulfoxide and sucrose. At the end of this two-minute dehydration protocol, the critical intracellular solute concentration necessary for successful vitrification was attained, confirmed by the post-warming survival and ability to resume cytokinesis of the cells. Further studies of the developmental competency of oocytes and embryos would be necessary to determine the suitability of this specific dehydration protocol for clinical practice, but based on our results, short times of exposure to increasingly hypertonic solutions could be a more time-efficient strategy to prepare human oocytes and embryos for vitrification.

Understanding life history variation and strategies is crucial for stock assessment and fisheries management due to the direct effects on population dynamics, effective population size, sex-ratios, levels of inbreeding, and relatedness among individuals. Aristeus antennatus (En ─ Blue and red shrimp; Fr ─ Crevette rouge; Sp ─ Gamba rosada) is one of the most exploited demersal resources in the Western Mediterranean Sea. However, information regarding the mating system and mate choice preferences remains largely unknown. Advances in molecular genetic markers and methods of inferring biological relationships among individuals have facilitated new insights into the reproductive dynamics of the species in the wild. Here, we used microsatellite markers to examine the A. antennatus mating system and putative mate choice preferences. Our results provided clear evidence of polyandry and polygyny. Relatedness analyses, together with FST and DAPC values showed females exhibited a mating bias towards unrelated males. Mating males were inferred from spermatophores and suggested males were sympatric with females and were also from other spawning grounds. Our findings provided the first description of the reproductive behavior of blue and red shrimp This work was supported by a grant from Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (CTM2014-54648-C2-2-R) to MIR. LP benefited from predoctoral fellowship from the Universitat de Girona (BR2014)

Topological Insulators are the best thermoelectric materials involving a sophisticated physics beyond their solid state and electronic structure. We show that exists a topological contribution to the thermoelectric effect that arises between topological and thermal quantum field theories applied at very low energies. This formalism provides us with a quantized topological mass proportional to the temperature T leading, through an electric potential V, to a Seebeck coefficient where we identify an anomalous contribution that can be associated to the creation of real electron-hole Schwinger’s pairs close to the topological bands. Finally, we find a general expression for the dimensionless figure of merit of these topological materials, considering only the electronic contribution, getting a value of 2.73 that is applicable to the Bi2Te3, for which it was reported a value of 2.4 after reducing its phononic contribution, using only the most basic topological numbers (0 or 1). Thanks to the CESGA, to AEMAT ED431E 2018/08 and the MAT2016-80762-R project for financial support. SI

We propose an image processing method for ordering anterior chamber optical coherence tomography (OCT) images in a fully unsupervised manner. The method consists of three steps: Firstly we preprocess the images (filtering the noise, aligning and normalizing the resolution); secondly, a distance measure between images is computed for every pair of images; thirdly we apply a machine learning algorithm that exploits the distance measure to order the images in a two-dimensional plane. The method is applied to a large (~1000) database of anterior chamber OCT images of healthy subjects and patients with angle-closure and the resulting unsupervised ordering and classification is validated by two ophthalmologists.

Capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) using a sheathless porous tip interface emerged as an attractive tool in metabolomics thanks to its numerous advantages. One of the main advantages compared to the classical co-axial sheath liquid interface is the increased sensitivity, while maintaining the inherent properties of CE, such as a high separation efficiency and low sample consumption. Specially, the ability to perform nanoliter-based injections from only a few microliters of material in the sample vial makes sheathless CE-MS a well-suited and unique approach for highly sensitive metabolic profiling of limited sample amounts. Therefore, in this work, we demonstrate the utility of sheathless CE-MS for metabolic profiling of biomass-restricted samples, namely for 20 µm-thick tissue sections of kidney from a mouse model of polycystic kidney disease (PKD). The extraction method was designed in such a way to keep a minimum sample-volume in the injection vial, thereby still allowing multiple nanoliter injections for repeatability studies. The developed strategy enabled to differentiate between different stages of PKD and as well changes in a variety of different metabolites could be annotated over experimental groups. These metabolites include carnitine, glutamine, creatine, betaine and creatinine. Overall, this study shows the utility of sheathless CE-MS for biomass-limited metabolomics studies.

Diversity, understood as the variety of different elements or configurations that an extensive system has, is a crucial property that allows maintaining the system's functionality in a changing environment, where failures, random events or malicious attacks are often unavoidable. Despite the relevance of preserving diversity in the context of ecology, biology, transport, finances, etc., the elements or configurations that more contribute to the diversity are often unknown, and thus, they can not be protected against failures or environmental crises. This is due to the fact that there is no generic framework that allows identifying which elements or configurations have crucial roles in preserving the diversity of the system. Existing methods treat the level of heterogeneity of a system as a measure of its diversity, being unsuitable when systems are composed of a large number of elements with different attributes and types of interactions. Besides, with limited resources, one needs to find the best preservation policy, i.e., one needs to solve an optimization problem. Here we aim to bridge this gap by developing a metric between labeled graphs to compute the diversity of the system, which allows identifying the most relevant components, based on their contribution to a global diversity value. The proposed framework is suitable for large multiplex structures, which are constituted by a set of elements represented as nodes, which have different types of interactions, represented as layers. The proposed method allows us to find, in a genetic network (HIV-1), the elements with the highest diversity values, while in a European airline network, we systematically identify the companies that maximize (and those that less compromise) the variety of options for routes connecting different airports., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures

Optical pattern formation is usually due either to the combination of diffraction and nonlinearity in a Kerr medium or to the temporal modulation of light in a photosensitive chemical reaction. Here, we show a different mechanism by which light spontaneously induces stripe domains between nematic states in a twisted nematic liquid crystal layer doped with azo-dyes. Thanks to the photoisomerization process of the dopants, light in the absorption band of the dopants creates spontaneous patterns without the need of temporal modulation, diffraction, Kerr or other optical nonlinearity, but based on the different scales for dopant transport processes and nematic order parameter, which identifies a genuine Turing mechanism for this instability. Theoretically, the emergence of the stripe patterns is described on the basis of a model for the dopant concentration coupled with the nematic order parameter.

This work examines whether the increased all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality associated with polypharmacy could be offset by a healthy lifestyle. We included a prospective cohort of 3,925 individuals representative of the Spanish population aged ≥60 years, who were recruited in 2000–2001 and followed up through 2014. Polypharmacy was defined as treatment with ≥5 medications. The following lifestyle behaviors were considered healthy: not smoking, eating a healthy diet, being physically active, moderate alcohol consumption, low sitting time, and adequate sleep duration. Individuals were classified into three lifestyle categories s: unfavorable (0–2), intermediate (3–4) favorable (5–6). Over a median 13.8-y follow-up, 1,822 all-cause and 675 CVD deaths occurred. Among individuals with polypharmacy, intermediate and favorable lifestyles were associated with an all-cause mortality reduction (95% confidence interval [CI]) of 47% (34–58%) and 54% (37–66%), respectively; 37% (9–56%) and 60% (33–76%) for CVD death, respectively. The theoretical adjusted hazard ratio (95%CI) associated with replacing 1 medication with 1 healthy lifestyle behavior was 0.73 (0.66–0.81) for all-cause death and 0.69 (0.59–0.82) for CVD death. The theoretical adjusted hazard ratio (95%CI) for all-cause and CVD mortality associated with simply reducing 1 medication was 0.88 (0.83–0.94) and 0.83 (0.76–0.91), respectively. Hence, adherence to a healthy lifestyle behavior can reduce mortality risk associated with polypharmacy in older adults., This work was supported by FIS grants 16/609 and 13/0288 (Instituto de Salud Carlos III, State Secretary of R + D + I and FEDER/FSE), MINECO R + D + I grant (DEP2013-47786-R), the FRAILOMIC Initiative (European Union FP7-HEALTH-2012-Proposal No. 305483-2), and the ATHLOS project (European project H2020- Project ID:635316)

This work analyzes time use surveys from 19 countries (17 European and 2 American) in the middle latitude range from 38{\deg} to 61{\deg} latitude accounting for 45% of world population in that range. Time marks for primary activities (sleeping, working and eating) are systematically contrasted against light/dark conditions related to latitude. The analysis reveals that winter sunrise is a synchronizer for labor start time below 54{\deg} where they occur within the winter civil twilight region. Winter sunset is a source of synchronization for labor end times. Winter terminator also punctuate meal times in Europe with dinner times occurring 3h after winter sunset time within a strip of 1h, which is 40% narrower than variability of dinner local times. The sleep-wake cycle of laborers in a weekday is shown to be related to winter sunrise whereas standard population's cycle appears to be irrespective of latitude. The significance of the winter terminator depends on two competing factors average daily labor time (some 7h30m) and winter daytime ---the shortest photoperiod---. Winter terminator gains significance when shortest photoperiod roughly matches to daily labor time plus a reasonable lunch break. That is within a latitude range from 38{\deg} to 54{\deg}. The significance of winter terminator as a source of synchronization is also related to contemporary year round time schedules: the shortest photoperiod represents the worst case scenario the society faces. Average daily sleep times show little trend with the shortest photoperiod slope 5min/h for a Pearson coefficient $r^2=0.242$. Average labor time may have a weak coupling with the shortest photoperiod: slope 29min/h for $r^2=0.338$., Comment: Changes: Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations added. Introduction, Results and Discussion largely modified. RevTeX4-1 27 pages, 6 figures, 13 tables. Data from Time Use Surveys, Hetus and Eurostat

info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/5876/147258/PT This work was supported by the European Research Council through the grant reference SCENT-ERC-2014-STG-639123 (2015-2020), and by the Unidade de Ciencias Biomoleculares Aplicadas-UCIBIO, which is financed by national funds from FCT/MEC (UID/Multi/04378/2013) and co-financed by the ERDF under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007728). Non-invasive and fast diagnostic tools based on volatolomics hold great promise in the control of infectious diseases. However, the tools to identify microbial volatile organic compounds (VOCs) discriminating between human pathogens are still missing. Artificial intelligence is increasingly recognised as an essential tool in health sciences. Machine learning algorithms based in support vector machines and features selection tools were here applied to find sets of microbial VOCs with pathogen-discrimination power. Studies reporting VOCs emitted by human microbial pathogens published between 1977 and 2016 were used as source data. A set of 18 VOCs is sufficient to predict the identity of 11 microbial pathogens with high accuracy (77%), and precision (62-100%). There is one set of VOCs associated with each of the 11 pathogens which can predict the presence of that pathogen in a sample with high accuracy and precision (86-90%). The implemented pathogen classification methodology supports future database updates to include new pathogen-VOC data, which will enrich the classifiers. The sets of VOCs identified potentiate the improvement of the selectivity of non-invasive infection diagnostics using artificial olfaction devices. publishersversion published

Based on the problem of quantum data compression in a lossless way, we present here an operational interpretation for the family of quantum R\'enyi entropies. In order to do this, we appeal to a very general quantum encoding scheme that satisfies a quantum version of the Kraft-McMillan inequality. Then, in the standard situation, where one is intended to minimize the usual average length of the quantum codewords, we recover the known results, namely that the von Neumann entropy of the source bounds the average length of the optimal codes. Otherwise, we show that by invoking an exponential average length, related to an exponential penalization over large codewords, the quantum R\'enyi entropies arise as the natural quantities relating the optimal encoding schemes with the source description, playing an analogous role to that of von Neumann entropy., Comment: accepted for publication in Scientific Reports (11 pages)

Extreme events represent a topic of paramount importance and a challenge for modelling investigations. Due to the need of high-resolution models, the study of severe localized convective phenomena is even more critical, especially in relation to changes in forcing factors, such as sea surface temperatures (SSTs), in future climate scenarios. Here, we analyze the effect of changes in SSTs on the intensity of a tornadic supercell in the Mediterranean through modelling investigations. We show dramatic (nonlinear) changes for updraft helicity and vertical velocity, which measure the intensity of the supercell, even for variations of SST only of + /−1 K.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells are highly dependent on microenvironment, being the BCR pathway one key player in this crosstalk. Among proteins participating, ZAP-70 enhances response to microenvironmental stimuli. MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) is overexpressed in diverse neoplasias including CLL, where it has been associated to refractoriness to fludarabine and to shorter time to progression and survival. To further elucidate the role of ZAP-70 in the biology of CLL, we studied its involvement in miR-21 regulation. MiR-21 expression was higher in CLL cells with high ZAP-70. Ectopic expression of ZAP-70 induced transcription of miR-21 via MAPK and STAT3, which subsequently induced downregulation of tumor suppressors targeted by miR-21. The co-culture of primary CLL cells mimicking the microenvironment induced ZAP-70 and miR-21 expression, as well as downregulation of miR-21 targets. Interestingly, the increase in miR-21 after co-culture was significantly impaired by ibrutinib, indicating that the BCR signaling pathway is involved in its regulation. Finally, survival of CLL cells induced by the co-culture correlated with miR-21 upregulation. In conclusion, stimuli from the microenvironment regulate miR-21 and its targeted tumor suppressor genes via a signaling pathway involving ZAP-70, thus contributing to the cytoprotection offered by the microenvironment particularly observed in CLL cells expressing ZAP-70., This work was supported by research funding from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (PI14/00055, F.B. and PI13/00279, M.C.), cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC Barcelona, M.C. and P.A.). M.C. holds a contract from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) (RYC-2012-12018). Authors thank the Cellex Foundation for providing research facilities and equipment

Detecting biomarkers from complex sample solutions is the key objective of molecular diagnostics. Being able to do so in a simple approach that does not require laborious sample preparation, sophisticated equipment and trained staff is vital for point-of-care applications. Here, we report on the specific detection of the breast cancer biomarker sHER2 directly from serum and saliva samples by a nanorod-based homogeneous biosensing approach, which is easy to operate as it only requires mixing of the samples with the nanorod probes. By careful nanorod surface engineering and homogeneous assay design, we demonstrate that the formation of a protein corona around the nanoparticles does not limit the applicability of our detection method, but on the contrary enables us to conduct in-situ reference measurements, thus further strengthening the point-of-care applicability of our method. Making use of sandwich assays on top of the nanorods, we obtain a limit of detection of 110 pM and 470 pM in 10-fold diluted spiked saliva and serum samples, respectively. In conclusion, our results open up numerous applications in direct protein biomarker quantification, specifically in point-of-care settings where resources are limited and ease-of-use is of essence This research was supported by the European Commission FP7 NAMDIATREAM project (EU NMP4-LA-2010–246479), and the German Research Foundation (DFG grant PA 794/25-1) SI