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In 1947, the first electron microscope in Spain was installed at the Instituto de Óptica Daza de Valdés (IO-CSIC): an EMU-2A model from the U.S. company RCA. That instrument became what has been called a "frontier instrument, inventor of disciplines"; in this case, electron microscopy. This article analyses the activities of the IO around the microscope, between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the 1960s. During this time, the Instituto de Óptica was the institution, not the exclusive, but the main promoter of creating a new epistemic community in Spain dedicated to electron microscopy. In this paper, we will focus on analyzing the actors of this development: who they were, how they were formed, and their main motivations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of a wearable device and a phone application for measuring spatiotemporal parameters and their relationship with running economy (RE) by comparing them with photocell data in runners of different abilities. Twenty-three male runners were divided into well-trained and recreational groups and performed a 4-min running bout at 17 and 13 km·h−1 respectively. During the bout, were measured the spatiotemporal parameters with three devices (Stryd, Runmatic, and Optojump) and RE with a gas analyser. Pearson correlation showed perfect relationships for stride frequency (SF) and stride length (SL) between the devices, and moderate for flight time (FT) and contact time (CT). There were no correlations between the spatiotemporal parameters and RE measurements. Coefficient of variation was ~ 5% in all devices for CT, SF, and SL, and higher for FT (15–24%). CT was underestimated (15–16% with Runmatic and Stryd, respectively) and FT was overestimated (36–40%) compared to Optojump. Bland-Altman plots revealed that Runmatic could be a more accurate system than Stryd. In conclusion, both devices were valid tools for measuring spatiotemporal parameters during running at RE speed. Runmatic was more valid and reliable in comparison with Stryd. In addition, at lower running speeds the devices showed less reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annali di Igiene, Medicina Preventiva e di Comunità is the property of Societa Editrice Universo s.r.l. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Spanish Optical Society was founded in 1968. Its constitution is the culmination of a long process whose foundations emerged in the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century and whose immediate predecessor was the creation of the Spanish Committee of Optics (CEO) in 1950. An international institution, the International Commission of Optics (ICO), served as a guide and reference; and a national institution, the Institute of Optics "Daza de Valdés", was the state promoter who led the process from the re-foundation of the Spanish Committee of Optics in 1958. The most singular aspect of this development is that international integration set the pace of national construction. However, contrary to what happened in other branches of Spanish science at that time, the Spanish optical community did not act as a mere periphery but actively shaped the international community of the ICO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Sport & Health Research is the property of Journal of Sport & Health Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The diopter power and magnification matrices characterize the first-order properties of ophthalmic lenses for different gaze directions. Therefore an efficient method to compute them is highly valuable in ophthalmic lens design and optical performance simulations. I present a novel method to numerically compute these matrices in ophthalmic lenses comprising any set of arbitrary surfaces. The method is based on computing one base ray, along the gaze direction, and two rays close to it. These two rays are obtained varying a small parameter that indicates their separation from the base ray. The method was validated comparing the results with a single refractive surface where exact solutions are directly obtained.

The Principle of Optics is definitely the most used optical book in the last sixty years and one of the great books of science of the twentieth century. It is, in fact, a reworking and extension of a book in German (Optik) previously written by Max Born. In this article, we intend to explain how the genesis of the Optik was and its subsequent transformation into the Principle of Optics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development and implementation of a real-time flood forecasting system in the context of the Piemonte Region's hydro-meteorological operational alert procedure is described. The area of interest is the Upper Po River basin (north-west Italy) of approximately 37 000 km² and its river network of about 3000 km and three big lakes. FloodWatch, a GIS-based decision support system for real-time flood forecasting, has been developed and used operationally at the Piemonte Region's Room for the Situation of Natural Hazards in Torino, Italy, since January 2000. The system is linked directly to the telemetric gauges system, uses daily quantitative precipitation and temperature forecasts issued by the Regional Meteorological Service and automatically supplies operational forecasts of water-level and discharge at about 30 locations for up to 48 hours. Strengths and limits of the system and its link with operational flood alert and management are discussed. The case study presented is the October 2000 flood event, when the north-west of Italy experienced one of the largest floods on record. Results highlight how the uncertainty linked to the use of meteorological forecasts greatly influences the quality of the hydrological forecasts. The proposed alert procedure, based on coded risk levels, can help effectively in facing forecast uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemokines represent key factors in the outburst of the immune response, by activating and directing the leukocyte traffic, both in lymphopoiesis and in immune surveillance. Neurobiologists took little interest in chemokines for many years, until their link to acquired immune deficiency syndromeassociated dementia became established, and thus their importance in this field has been neglected. Nevertheless, the body of data on their expression and role in the CNS has grown in the past few years, along with a new vision of brain as an immunologically competent and active organ. A large number of chemokines and chemokine receptors are expressed in neurons, astrocytes, microglia and oligodendrocytes, either constitutively or induced by inflammatory mediators. They are involved in many neuropathological processes in which an inflammatory state persists, as well as in brain tumor progression and metastasis. Moreover, there is evidence for a crucial role of CNS chemokines under physiological conditions, similar to well known functions in the immune system, such as proliferation and developmental patterning, but also peculiar to the CNS, such as regulation of neural transmission, plasticity and survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluated an agar disc diffusion test for the detection of high-level (> or = 2000 mg/L) and moderately high-level resistance to gentamicin (MIC, > or = 128- < or = 1024 mg/L) and streptomycin (MIC, > or = 256- < or = 1024 micrograms/ml) with 70 clinical isolates of Enterococcus faecium. Results obtained using disks containing 120 micrograms gentamicin and 300 micrograms streptomycin were compared with MICs determined by an agar dilution method. Based on the scattergrams, the closest zone diameter correlations with MIC breakpoints were as follows: susceptible, > or = 16 mm; and resistant, < or = 10 mm, for both streptomycin and gentamicin. No major or very major errors were found with either aminoglycoside using these values. We conclude that agar disk diffusion test can be used to accurately detect high-level or moderately high-level gentamicin and streptomycin resistance in E. faecium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]