Search

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in cancer patients has become crucial because of their higher risk of complications and death from COVID19. We performed a prospective study to assess the immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in cancer patients treated with CDKi and compared their immune response with patients treated with chemotherapy. While a robust humoral response was observed in the CDKi patients compared with chemotherapy patients, limited T-cell immunity was achieved in both groups.

Introduction: Androgenic deprivation therapies have been linked to the development of metabolic syndrome (MS) and cardiovascular diseases, which may lead to a poorer survival in patients with metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC). We aimed to analyze whether some cardiovascular or neurological disorders, together with other medical and urological complications, may have an effect on survival outcomes, at baseline and during treatment from patients treated with androgen pathway inhibitors (API). Material and Methods: A retrospective study of a consecutive series of patients diagnosed with mCRPC between 2010 and 2018 treated with API in the first line setting in a single center. Results: Seventy-three patients met the inclusion criteria. Baseline prognostic factors associated with worse survival were diabetes mellitus (DM) with insulin needs compared to patients without DM [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.19, p = 0.025], hypertension (HTN) (HR = 0.46, p = 0.035), and a history of stroke (HR = 0.16, p Conclusions: Some comorbidities may be strongly involved in patient outcomes when receiving API for mCRPC. In this sense, collaborative networking between specialists and caregivers treating prostate cancer (PC) patients should be recommended, focusing on MS features, cardiovascular and neurological disorders in order to anticipate medical and surgical complications.

A proposal is made to employ stochastic models, based on diffusion processes, to represent the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic. Specifically, two diffusion processes are proposed whose mean functions obey multi-sigmoidal Gompertz and Weibull-type patterns. Both are constructed by introducing polynomial functions in the ordinary differential equations that originate the classical Gompertz and Weibull curves. The estimation of the parameters is approached by maximum likelihood. Various associated problems are analyzed, such as the determination of initial solutions for the necessary numerical methods in practical cases, as well as Bayesian methods to determine the degree of the polynomial. Additionally, strategies are suggested to determine the best model to fit specific data. A practical case is developed from data originating from several Spanish regions during the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. The determination of the inflection time instants, which correspond to the peaks of infection and deaths, is given special attention. To deal with this particular issue, point estimation as well as first-passage times have been considered., Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Spain, under Grant MTM2017-85568-P, FEDER, Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento de la Junta de Andalucía, Spain under Grant A-FQM-456-UGR18

Not all hospitals have interventional radiology services. This fact implies that in centers where this resource is not available, the treatment of stroke in the acute phase must be adapted and individualized. The aim of the study is to determine and compare the combined effect of thrombolysis and thrombectomy effectiveness and safety of tenecteplase versus alteplase in the acute treatment of ischemic stroke in patients who are candidates for endovascular therapy according to clinical practice guidelines. This paper details a retrospective multicenter cohort study of patients with ischemic stroke admitted in three hospitals between 2018 and 2020. The main outcome variables were the degree of recanalization and the functional outcome at 3 months; safety variables were mortality and the occurrence of intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). In total, 100 patients were included, 20 of which were treated with tenecteplase (TNK) and 80 with alteplase (rtPA). Of those treated with TNK, 75% obtained a successful recanalization compared to 83.8% in those treated with rtPA (OR 0.58; 95% CI 0.18–1.88; p = 0.56). No differences were found in obtaining an excellent functional result at 3 months (35% TNK vs. 58.8% rtPA; p = 0.38). Tenecteplase showed worse neurological results after 24 h (unfavorable result of 70% with TNK vs. 45% with rtPA; OR = 5.4; 95% CI 1.57–18.6). No significant differences were identified in mortality; 17.5% with rtPA and 20% with TNK (p = 0.79), nor in the appearance of intracranial hemorrhage ICH (15.2% with rtPA vs. 30% with TNK (p = 0.12). In our series, there were not significant differences shown regarding effectiveness and safety between tenecteplase and alteplase.

We consider a non homogeneous Gompertz diffusion process whose parameters are modified by generally time-dependent exogenous factors included in the infinitesimal moments. The proposed model is able to describe tumor dynamics under the effect of anti-proliferative and/or cell death-induced therapies. We assume that such therapies can modify also the infinitesimal variance of the diffusion process. An estimation procedure, based on a control group and two treated groups, is proposed to infer the model by estimating the constant parameters and the time-dependent terms. Moreover, several concatenated hypothesis tests are considered in order to confirm or reject the need to include time-dependent functions in the infinitesimal moments. Simulations are provided to evaluate the efficiency of the suggested procedures and to validate the testing hypothesis. Finally, an application to real data is considered.

In experimental studies on tumor growth, whenever the time evolution of the relative volume of a tumor in an untreated (control) group can be fitted by a Gompertz diffusion process there is a possibility that an antiproliferative therapy, which modifies the growth rate of the process that fits the treated group, may also affect its variability. The present paper proposes several procedures for the estimation of the time function included in the infinitesimal variance of the new process, as well as the time function affecting the growth rate (which is included in the infinitesimal mean). Also, a hypothesis testing is designed to confirm or refute the need for including such a time-dependent function in the infinitesimal variance. In order to validate and compare the proposed procedures a simulation study has been carried out. In addition, a proposal is made for a strategy aimed at finding the optimal combination of procedures for each case. A real data application concerning the effects of cisplatin on a patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tumor model showcases the advantages of this model over others that have been used in the past.

[EN] Traditional laboratory experiments are critical to the learning process across all areas and levels of study in science subjects. However, along with hands-on experiments, virtual labs have received considerable attention over the past several years due to the popularisation of ICT tools in Education, which may help teachers consider multiple learning styles to pursue meaningful learning. In this regard, studies concerning pupils’ experiences with both approaches are needed. The main aim of this study is to analyse the impact of the use of both virtual and hands-on labs in basic science subjects (BSS) in Health Sciences university degrees. For this reason, we have analysed different variables: general assessment, level of satisfaction, increase in motivation and increase in academic performance concerning BSS, as well as gender differences in the perception of both methodologies. A total of 129 undergraduate students from one Spanish university (degree in Dentistry) participated in the study. The results point out to statistically significant differences in favour of traditional labs in all the considered parameters. In conclusion, the results point out the importance of carrying out hands-on experiments to boost students’ motivation and performance, [ES] Las prácticas de laboratorio tradicionales juegan un papel protagonista en la enseñanza de las ciencias en todas las áreas y niveles. Sin embargo, en los últimos años la popularidad de los laboratorios virtuales ha aumentado significativamente, debido a que la aplicación de las herramientas TIC en educación permite atender adecuadamente a la diversidad del alumnado y fomentar el aprendizaje activo. En este sentido, resulta necesario estudiar las experiencias del alumnado con ambos enfoques. El principal objetivo de este estudio es analizar el impacto de los laboratorios virtuales y tradicionales en asignaturas de Ciencias Básicas (CCBB) en un grado de Ciencias de la Salud en el contexto universitario. Para ello se ha estudiado la valoración del alumnado, su grado de satisfacción general, su motivación y su rendimiento en las asignaturas de CCBB, así como la existencia de posibles diferencias de género. Los participantes del estudio fueron 129 estudiantes del grado en Odontología de una universidad española. Los resultados indican que existen diferencias significativas a favor de las prácticas tradicionales en todas las variables estudiadas. Como conclusión, se resalta la importancia de fomentar las prácticas tradicionales en grados de Salud para potenciar la motivación y el rendimiento del alumnado.

Several systems have been proposed to monitor wireless sensor networks (WSN). These systems may be active (causing a high degree of intrusion) or passive (low observability inside the nodes). This paper presents the implementation of an active hybrid (hardware and software) monitor with low intrusion. It is based on the addition to the sensor node of a monitor node (hardware part) which, through a standard interface, is able to receive the monitoring information sent by a piece of software executed in the sensor node. The intrusion on time, code, and energy caused in the sensor nodes by the monitor is evaluated as a function of data size and the interface used. Then different interfaces, commonly available in sensor nodes, are evaluated: serial transmission (USART), serial peripheral interface (SPI), and parallel. The proposed hybrid monitor provides highly detailed information, barely disturbed by the measurement tool (interference), about the behavior of the WSN that may be used to evaluate many properties such as performance, dependability, security, etc. Monitor nodes are self-powered and may be removed after the monitoring campaign to be reused in other campaigns and/or WSNs. No other hardware-independent monitoring platforms with such low interference have been found in the literature., This research was supported by the Valencian Regional Government under Research Project GV/2014/012, the Polytechnic University of Valencia under Research Projects VLC/Campus UPV PAID-06-12, financed by the Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte as part of the program Campus de excelencia internacional UPV SP20140730 and UPV SP20150050, and the Spanish government under projects CTM2011-29691-C02-01 and TIN2011-28435-C03-0.

We report the process of singlet exciton fission with high-yield upon photoexcitation of a quinoidal thiophene molecule. Efficient ultrafast triplet photogeneration and its yield are determined by photoinduced triplet-triplet absorption, flash photolysis triplet lifetime measurements, as well as by femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption and fluorescence methods. These experiments show that optically excited quinoidal bithiophene molecule undergoes ultrafast formation of the triplet-like state with the lifetime ∼57 μs. CASPT2 and RAS-SF calculations have been performed to support the experimental findings. To date, high singlet fission rates have been reported for crystalline and polycrystalline materials, whereas for covalently linked dimers and small oligomers it was found to be relatively small. In this contribution, we show an unprecedented quantum yield of intramolecular singlet exciton fission of ∼180% for a quinoidal bithiophene system.

Este artículo rastrea la idea del estadio de fútbol como un espacio en el cual las personas impulsivamente se refieren al "Otro", naturalizando el uso de la violencia verbal hacia los adversarios, e incluso contra los mismos jugadores de la hinchada local. Para ello, se propone describir cómo se enmarcan las prácticas y discursos racistas en este escenario deportivo a partir de la observación participativa de seis partidos del América de Cali, tres de ellos jugando de visitante y tres de local.

Version 1.2 of the fptdApprox R package implemented a general heuristic strategy for the efficient application of numerical schemes aimed at solving Volterra integral equations whose solutions are first-passage-time (f.p.t.) density functions for a diffusion process. This paper presents a new version of this package, developed with the goal of addressing interesting f.p.t. problems that cannot be solved with the previous version. More specifically, it addresses f.p.t. problems for diffusion processes defined by means of not-closed-form time expressions (which appear in application fields such as tumor growth or the evolution of economic variables), and unconditioned f.p.t. problems for diffusion processes with non-degenerate initial distributions (of great interest in the study of population growth in Biology and Ecology). Here, the functionality of this new version is described, with a focus on its numerical and computational aspects. Moreover, by means of several examples, we show how the package can be used to solve problems such as those mentioned above.

[EN] The environment in livestock buildings must be controlled to ensure the health and welfare of both workers and animals, as well as to restrict the emission of pollutants to the atmosphere. Among the pollutants generated inside these premises, carbon dioxide (CO2) is of great interest in terms of animal welfare and ventilation control. The use of inexpensive sensors means that complete systems can be designed with a number of sensors located around the building. This paper describes a study of the suitability of multipoint simultaneous CO2 sensors operating in a wireless sensor network, which was found to operate satisfactorily under laboratory conditions and was found to be the best alternative for these applications. The sensors showed a highly linear response to CO2 concentrations, ranging from 500 to 5000 ppm. However, individual sensor response was found to differ, which made it necessary to calibrate each one separately. Sensor precision ranged between 80 and 110 ppm CO2, and sensor response to register a 95% change in concentration was estimated at around 5 min. These features mean this type of sensor network can be used to monitor animal welfare and also for environmental control in poorly ventilated livestock premises. According to the tests conducted in this study, a temporal drift may occur and therefore a regular calibration of sensors would be needed., This project was supported by the Vicerrectorado de Investigacion of the UPV (Programa de Apoyo a la Investigacion y Desarrollo, PAID-06-11 Program, Project No. 2843) and the Spanish Government under Projects CTM2011-29691-C02-01 and TIN2011-28435-C03-0. The translation of this paper was funded by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain.

The authors would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their suggestions that have improved the content of the paper., The behaviour of many dynamic real phenomena shows different phases, with each one following a sigmoidal type pattern. This requires studying sigmoidal curves with more than one inflection point. In this work, a diffusion process is introduced whose mean function is a curve of this type, concretely a transformation of the well-known Gompertz model after introducing in its expression a polynomial term. The maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of the model is studied, and various criteria are provided for the selection of the degree of the polynomial when real situations are addressed. Finally, some simulated examples are presented., Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Spain, under Grant MTM2017-85568-P.

e15707 Background: Advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly lethal disease with a five-year overall survival (OS) of less than 5%. Folfirinox and Nab-Paclitaxel plus Gemcitabine (NabPacGem) are the most active treatments in the first-line (1L). The decision to use Folfirinox or NabPacGem is a matter of debate. Methods: A retrospective cohort of advanced PDAC patients treated from January 2011 to May 2018 in four Spanish institutions was analyzed. The principal objective was to compare OS among patients receiving Folfirinox versus NabPacGem in 1L. Progression-free survival (PFS) was a secondary objective. Results: Characteristics of 251 patients included: median age 66.6 years; male 54.4%; stage IV at diagnosis 66.7%; ECOG 0/1/2 18/70/12%; treated with Folfirinox 18.3% and NabPacGem 81.7%. Patients treated with Folfirinox versus NabPacGem were younger (median age 58.3 vs. 67.9; p

Light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) based on cyanine molecules were prepared. High photoluminescence quantum yields were obtained for host-guest films using two cyanine dyes, reaching 27%. Sandwiching these films in between two electrodes allows for very stable near-infrared emission with a maximum radiant flux of 1.7 W m(-2) at an external quantum efficiency of 0.44%.

In light-emitting electrochemical cells, the lifetime of the device is intrinsically linked to the stability of the phosphorescent emitter. In this study, we present a series of ionic iridium(III) emitters based on cyclometalating phenylpyridine ligands whose fluorine substituents are varied in terms of position and number. Importantly, despite these structural modifications, the emitters exhibit virtually identical electrochemical and spectroscopic properties, which allows for proper comparison in functional devices. Quantum chemical calculations support the properties measured in solution and suggest great similarities regarding the electronic structures of the emitters. In electroluminescent devices the initial luminance efficiency, and efficacy are also relatively unaffected throughout the series. However, a shorter device lifetime is obtained upon increasing the fluorine content of the emitter, which suggests drawbacks of such electron withdrawing substituents for the design of ionic iridium(III) emitters.

Network simulators are useful for researching protocol performance, appraising new hardware capabilities and evaluating real application scenarios. However, these tasks can only be achieved when using accurate models and real parameters that enable the extraction of trustworthy results and conclusions. This paper presents an underwater wireless sensor network ecosystem for the ns-3 simulator. This ecosystem is composed of a new energy-harvesting model and a low-cost, low-power underwater wake-up modem model that, alongside existing models, enables the performance of accurate simulations by providing real weather and marine conditions from the location where the real application is to be deployed., The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from CICYT (research projects CTM2011-29691-C02-01, TIN2011-28435-C03-01) and UPV (research project SP20120889).

During the last two decades Red Palm Weevil (RPW, Rynchophorus Ferrugineus) has become one of the most dangerous threats to palm trees in many parts of the World. Its early detection is difficult, since palm trees do not show visual evidence of infection until it is too late for them to recover. For this reason the development of efficient early detection mechanisms is a critical element of RPW pest management systems. One of the early detection mechanisms proposed in the literature is based on acoustic monitoring, as the activity of RPW larvae inside the palm trunk is audible for human operators under acceptable environmental noise levels (rural areas, night periods, etc.). In this work we propose the design of an autonomous bioacoustic sensor that can be installed in every palm tree under study and is able to analyze the captured audio signal during large periods of time. The results of the audio analysis would be reported wirelessly to a control station, to be subsequently processed and conveniently stored. That control station is to be accessible via the Internet. It is programmed to send warning messages when predefined alarm thresholds are reached, thereby allowing supervisors to check on-line the status and evolution of the palm tree orchards. We have developed a bioacoustic sensor prototype and performed an extensive set of experiments to measure its detection capability, achieving average detection rates over 90%., We would like to acknowledge Michel Ferry and Susi Gomez (from Estacion Phoenix at Elche, Spain) for giving us access to their large RPW sound recording corpora and offering their cooperation during the development of this work. Finally, this work has been partially funded by Spanish Ministry of Education and Science under grants CTM2011-29691-C02-01, TIN2011-28435-C03-01 and TIN2011-27543-C03-03.

Este artículo parte una revisión bibliográfica sobre el tema de la extradición, propone una visión y aporta una herramienta analítica que permite ampliar el debate alrededor de este tema, en el cual, de manera general se encuentran tres posiciones en donde se pueden ubicar a diferentes autores que han abordado esta temática. Se analizan los periodos presidenciales de Betancourt (1982-1986), Barco (1986-1990), Pastrana (1998-2002) y Uribe (2002-2010), se intentará establecer un dialogo entre los discursos que fundamenta la identidad del Estado colombiano.

Introducción: Las infecciones del tracto urinario son consideradas actualmente como una de las enfermedades infecciosas más comunes. En general se acepta que los agentes infecciosos con los cuales se asocia se encuentran presentes en la microbiota intestinal, por tal razón se ha descrito que Escherichia coli es una de las principales Enterobacterias involucradas en las manifestaciones clínicas presentes en pacientes con infecciones del tracto urinario. Las cepas de E. coli han sido clasificadas inicialmente en 4 grupos filogenéticos según Clermont y col. (2000), de este modo se conocen “cepas intestinales comensales, pertenecientes a los grupos A y B1, y cepas extra intestinales virulentas asociadas a los grupos B2 y D, para llevar a cabo dicha clasificación Clermont, diseñó herramientas moleculares como la PCR-triple, mediante la utilización de diferentes genes tales como ChuA, yjaA y TSPE4.C2”. Sin embargo debido a la complejidad estructural genética de este microorganismo, se han logrado establecer nuevos grupos filogenéticos de E. coli, A, B1, B2, C, D, E, F y un último grupo el cual no ha sido completamente identificado, por tal razón es importante conocer cuáles son los grupos filogenéticos que están presentes en nuestra región, mediante el uso de técnicas moleculares que permitan realizar la caracterización filogenética de dicho microorganismo y de esta manera lograr establecer los perfiles de resistencia y evaluar los posibles factores de virulencia asociados al proceso de infección. Objetivo: Realizar la caracterización molecular de los grupos filogenéticos de E. coli uropatógena aislada de pacientes ambulatorios que asisten a un laboratorio de tercer nivel de complejidad de la ciudad de Bucaramanga mediante el uso de PCR-multiplex. Materiales y métodos: El cálculo del tamaño muestral se realizó teniendo en cuenta la prevalencia reportada por Orduz, K y Trejos, J, (2010), se calculó el tamaño de muestra en el software estadístico STATA V.11.0, para un tamaño de 250 cepas a analizar. Se realizó la extracción de ADN de UPEC por el método de extracción de DN genómico, usando Kit comercia. Para la estandarización de la PCR multiplex se tomó como base el estudio realizado por Clermont 2000, en donde se realizaron modificaciones con el fin de poder obtener una mejor calidad de cada una de las bandas de los genes usados, mediante el análisis de sus respectivos pares de bases (ChuaA 279 pb, YjaA 211pb, TSPE4.C2 152 pb, ArpA 400 pb). La clasificación molecular de cada uno de los grupos filogenéticos de E. coli uropatógena, se realizó mediante la lectura del gel y la identificación final se determinó mediante el análisis del árbol dicotómico propuesto por Clermont 2000. Resultados: Se pudo determinar que de las 250 cepas analizadas, 114 cepas lo que equivale a un 45,6% pertenecen a los grupos filogenéticos considerados de tipo comensal. Por lo contrario las 136 cepas restantes es decir el 54.4% son consideradas cepas patógenas extraintestinales, los cuales según la literatura reportada son los que presentan los niveles más altos de distribución en la población con infecciones del tracto urinario ya que se considera que son estos grupos filogenéticos los contienen los genes que codifican factores de virulencia responsables de promover la infección en el humano, así mismo 79 cepas de UPEC presentaron multirresistencia a 3 o más familias de antibióticos. El perfil de antibiótico-resistencia demostró una alta sensibilidad a Amikacina (98%), Nitrofurantoina (94,8%) y Cefoxitina (86,8%) y resistencia a Ampicilina (80%), Amoxacilina (78,4%) y Trimetoprim/sulfametoxazole (68%). Conclusiones: Se logró determinar que de los aislados analizados la mayoría pertenecen a los grupos filogenéticos virulentos B2 y D, sin embargo teniendo en cuenta la relación con los perfiles de resistencia se pudo determinar que las cepas comensales A y B1 fueron resistentes a 16 de los 19 antibióticos analizados.

[EN] The early detection of pests is key for the maintenance of high-value masterpieces and historical buildings made of wood. In this work, we the present detailed design of an ultra-low power sensor device that permits the continuous monitoring of the presence of termites and other xylophagous insects. The operating principle of the sensor is based on the variations of reflected light induced by the presence of termites, and specific processing algorithms that deal with the behavior of the electronics and the natural ageing of components. With a typical CR2032 lithium battery, the device lasts more than nine years, and is ideal for incorporation in more complex monitoring systems where maintenance tasks should be minimized, This work was funded by the Generalitat Valenciana's project AICO/2016/058.

Proton/hydrogen-transfer processes have been broadly studied in the past 50 years to explain the photostability and the spontaneous tautomerism in the DNA base pairs. In the present study, the CASSCF/CASPT2 methodology is used to map the two-dimensional potential energy surfaces along the stretched NH reaction coordinates of the guanine–cytosine (GC) base pair. Concerted and stepwise pathways are explored initially in vacuo, and three mechanisms are studied: the stepwise double proton transfer, the stepwise double hydrogen transfer, and the concerted double proton transfer. The results are consistent with previous findings related to the photostability of the GC base pair, and a new contribution to tautomerism is provided. The C-based imino-oxo and imino-enol GC tautomers, which can be generated during the UV irradiation of the Watson–Crick base pair, have analogous radiationless energy-decay channels to those of the canonical base pair. In addition, the C-based imino-enol GC tautomer is thermally less stable. A study of the GC base pair is carried out subsequently taking into account the DNA surroundings in the biological environment. The most important stationary points are computed using the quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) approach, suggesting a similar scenario for the proton/hydrogen-transfer phenomena in vacuo and in DNA. Finally, the static model is complemented by ab initio dynamic simulations, which show that vibrations at the hydrogen bonds can indeed originate hydrogen-transfer processes in the GC base pair. The relevance of the present findings for the rationalization of the preservation of the genetic code and mutagenesis is discussed.

The extended S1/S0 conical intersection seam for the photochemical 2s + 2s, 2s + 2a and 2a + 2a cycloadditions of two ethylene molecules has been documented using the methodology described by Sicilia et al. (J. Chem. Theory Comput. 4, 257 (2008)). Two additional critical points on this prototype crossing seam were found as a result, although both lie more than 100 kcal mol−1 above the rhomboidal crossing located previously, and are not minima in the intersection space. Using VB theory, the branching space conditions for the conical intersection can be derived analytically, in fair agreement with calculated CASSCF results. Woodward–Hoffmann symmetry forbidden and allowed reactions are associated with the same extended conical intersection seam in this case.

This article presents an R package that implements a general heuristic strategy for the efficient application of numerical schemes for solving Volterra integral equations which have as solution first-passage-time density functions associated to certain stochastic processes. Such a strategy is based on the information provided by the First-Passage-Time Location (FPTL) function about the location of the first-passage-time variable, and it is valid for general situations that expand on the particular cases considered in Roman et al. (2008) [10] . Numerical applications are shown to illustrate the validity of the strategy as well as its computational advantages.

We present a set of novel low power wireless sensor nodes designed for monitoring wooden masterpieces and historical buildings, in order to perform an early detection of pests. Although our previous star-based system configuration has been in operation for more than 13 years, it does not scale well for sensorization of large buildings or when deploying hundreds of nodes. In this paper we demonstrate the feasibility of a cluster-based dynamic-tree hierarchical Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) architecture where realistic assumptions of radio frequency data transmission are applied to cluster construction, and a mix of heterogeneous nodes are used to minimize economic cost of the whole system and maximize power saving of the leaf nodes. Simulation results show that the specialization of a fraction of the nodes by providing better antennas and some energy harvesting techniques can dramatically extend the life of the entire WSN and reduce the cost of the whole system. A demonstration of the proposed architecture with a new routing protocol and applied to termite pest detection has been implemented on a set of new nodes and should last for about 10 years, but it provides better scalability, reliability and deployment properties. © 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland., The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by CICYT research project PET-2008-0011 and AIDIMA (Furniture, Wood and Packaging Technology Institute). The translation of this paper was funded by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain.

The UV photoreactivity of different pyrimidine DNA/RNA nucleobases along the singlet manifold leading to the formation of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers has been studied by using the CASPT2 level of theory. The initially irradiated singlet state promotes the formation of excimers between pairs of properly oriented nucleobases through the overlap between the π structures of two stacked nucleobases. The system evolves then to the formation of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers via a shearing-type conical intersection activating a [2 + 2] photocycloaddition mechanism. The relative location of stable excimer conformations or alternative decay channels with respect to the reactive degeneracy region explains the differences in the photoproduction efficiency observed in the experiments for different nucleobases sequences. A comparative analysis of the main structural parameters and energetic profiles in the singlet manifold is carried out for thymine, uracil, cytosine, and 5-methylcytosine homodimers. Thymine and uracil dimers display the most favorable paths, in contrast to cytosine. Methylation of the nucleobases seems to increase the probability for dimerization.

R oad safety is a major public health problem in developed countries. Each year, around 1.2 million people die in the road traffic system (around 3000 per day) and more than 50 million are injured worldwide. About 2% of all deaths from any cause are related to traffic injuries, and about 23% of all injury deaths are caused by traffic accidents. Globally, there is a factor of around 40 between the number of injuries and the number of fatalities. The European Council of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) in Bucharest in 2002 unanimously adopted a common quantitative target for all member countries to reduce the 2000 road fatality level by 50% by 2012. Similarly, the European Commission agreed on a target of 50% reduction in the number of road fatalities by the year 2010, compared with 2001. The social and human costs of all these road crashes are about US$518 billion every year. For this reason, the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) pleads for effective and sustainable road traffic safety policies. Many countries give high priority to road traffic safety, with ambitious targets set for the upcoming years.1 Road traffic accidents in the Member States of the European Union annually claim about 43,000 lives and leave more than 1.8 million people injured, representing estimated costs of 160 billion euros.2

655 Background: Adyuvant chemotherapy is a unified therapeutic principle in colon cancer (CC). However, many prognostic factors are arising to determine who really benefits from adyuvant chemotherapy in order to avoid overtreatment. Primary tumor location of CC is emerging as an important prognostic factor owing to distinct biological features. However, there is hardly any evidence showing the benefit of treatment according to primary tumor location. Methods: We retrospectively included patients with stage II and III CC that underwent surgical resection between 2009 and 2014 HURyC. We performed a multivariable Cox model analysis to estimate the benefit of chemotherapy according to tumor location in terms of DFS and OS. The model was further adjusted by including the following confounders: ECOG-PS, number of removed nodes ( < 12 or ≥ 12), use of adyuvant chemotherapy and age. A covariate was considered a confounder factor if the difference between the adjusted and unadjusted coefficient of chemotherapy varied > 10%. Stata 13.1 was used to analyze the data. Results: 564 patients were identified (267 left sided and 297 right sided). The median follow-up of the entire cohort was 49 months. Globally, chemotherapy did not improve DFS neither in right sided or left sided CC (HR: 0.81, p: 0.58; HR 1.31, p: 0.4, respectively). As for OS, it was improved when adding chemotherapy in both sides (right sided CC HR 0.51, p: 0.061 and left sided CC HR 0.42, p: 0.009). By stages, chemotherapy did not improve DFS or OS according to tumor localization in stage II. In right sided stage III, there was a trend to improve both DFS and OS (HR: 0.54, p: 0.14; HR: 0.39, p: 0.1, respectively). In left sided stage III, there was a trend to improve DFS (HR: 0.66, p: 0.36) and there was an improvement in OS (HR: 0.23, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The multivariable analysis showed benefit of chemotherapy in both right and left sided CC in terms of OS, exhibiting more benefit those patients with left sided CC.

Quantum chemical studies using the accurate CASPT2//CASSCF procedure show that π-stacked interactions in biochromophores such as pyrimidine (Pyr) DNA/RNA nucleobases pairs yield excimer-like situations which behave as precursors of processes like charge transfer (CT) or photoreactivity and are the source of the emissive properties in DNA. Examples are the CT between adjacent DNA nucleobases in a strand of oligonucleotides and the photodimerization taking place in cytosine (C) pairs leading to cyclobutanecytosine (CBC) mutants. These processes take place through nonadiabatic photochemical mechanisms whose evolution is determined by the presence and accessibility of conical intersections (CIs) and other surface crossings between different electronic states.

The ability of furocoumarins to participate in the PUVA (Psoralen + UV-A) therapy against skin disorders and some types of cancer, is analyzed on quantum chemical grounds. The efficiency of the process relies on its capability to populate its lowest triplet excited state, and then either form adducts with thymine which interfere DNA replication or transfer its energy, generating singlet molecular oxygen damaging the cell membrane in photoactivated tissues. By determining the spin–orbit couplings, shown to be the key property, in the intersystem crossing yielding the triplet state of the furocoumarin, the electronic couplings in the triplet–triplet energy transfer process producing the singlet oxygen, and the reaction rates and lifetimes, the efficiency in the phototherapeutic action of the furocoumarin family is predicted as: khellin

The mechanism of the [2 + 2] cycloaddition photoreaction of psoralen and a DNA nucleobase, thymine, cornerstone of the furocoumarin-based PUVA (psoralen + UVA radiation) phototherapy, has been studied by the quantum-chemical multiconfigurational CASPT2 method. Triplet- and singlet-mediated mono- and diadduct formations have been determined to take place via singlet-triplet crossings and conical intersections, correlated with the initially promoted triplet or singlet states in different possible reactive orientations. Pyroneside monoadducts are suggested to be formed in the triplet manifold of the system, and to be less prone to yield diadducts because of the properties of the monoadduct lowest triplet state and the minor accessibility of its excited singlet states. Furan-side monoadducts are better produced in the singlet manifold after reaching a conical intersection with the ground state of the system. From there, the absorption of a second photon would in this case trigger the formation of the diadduct. The proposed mechanisms enable rationalizing the phototherapeutic behavior of several furocoumarins.

Furocoumarins are widely used as photosensitizers in photochemical therapies against different skin disorders such as psoriasis and vitiligo. Absorption of near-UV light by the chromophore triggers a set of photoreactions related to the therapeutic properties of the technique: linkage of a furocoumarin to thymine DNA nucleobases preventing proliferation of pathogenic cells, or generation of highly reactive singlet oxygen in damaged tissues. The family of furocoumarins has been studied in depth for many years seeking a drug having the most remarkable set of properties to act as a photosensitizer. For this purpose, understanding the underlying photochemical mechanisms behind the effectiveness of this therapy is required. We have undertaken a quantum-mechanical study on the photophysics and photochemistry of several relevant furocoumarins: psoralen, 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) and 5-methoxypsoralen (5-MOP), 4,5′,8-trimethylpsoralen (TMP), 3-carbethoxypsoralen (3-CPS), and khellin, analyzing the most efficient way in which the lowest excited triplet state, as protagonist of the photosensitizing action, is populated from the initially promoted singlet states. The results point out to khellin, in particular, and 5-MOP, as the most efficient photosensitizers.

The effect of electromagnetic radiation on biological objects extends from heating to complex photochemistry, and includes DNA alteration, that properly modified in damaged cells may entail beneficial effects. In this regard, psoralen + UV-A (PUVA) therapy, in which furocoumarins, psoralen-like chromophores, are used as photosensitizers and photoreactants with DNA bases, is one of the most promising strategies against a plethora of diseases. Understanding the underlying photochemical mechanisms is crucial to design effective drugs without undesired side effects. We have undertaken a quantum-mechanical study on the photophysics and photochemistry of furocoumarins, analyzing firstly the most efficient way in which the lowest excited triplet state, as protagonist of the photosensitizing action, is populated from the initially promoted singlet states, and secondly the basics of the formation of furocoumarin–DNA photoadducts.

The population of the lowest triplet state of thymine after near-UV irradiation has been established, on the basis of CASPT2//CASSCF quantum chemical calculations, to take place via three distinct intersystem crossing mechanisms from the initially populated singlet bright 1pipi* state. Two singlet-triplet crossings have been found along the minimum-energy path for ultrafast decay of the singlet state at 4.8 and 4.0 eV, involving the lowest 3npi* and 3pipi* states, respectively. Large spin-orbit coupling elements predict efficient intersystem crossing processes in both cases. Another mechanism involving energy transfer from the lowest 1npi* state with much larger spin-orbit coupling terms can also be proposed. The wavelength dependence measured for the triplet quantum yield of pyrimidine nucleobases is explained by the location and accessibility of the singlet-triplet crossing regions.