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Transparent and reliable communication of the safety of advanced and nanomaterials is an issue that has become increasingly important in recent times. The German initiative DaNa got involved in this topic at an early stage. It is running the Knowledge Base Materials, a web-based information platform on nanomaterials (www.nanoobjects.info) for more than 10 years, which is constantly being expanded. Recently, due to emerging developments in materials science, the focus has been expanded from nanomaterials to the variant-rich group of advanced materials, softening the restriction to particles below the 100 m size limit in one dimension to include larger particles with more complex composition. For the Knowledge Base Materials, this broader scope presents a challenge for science communication. In this paper, the authors describe the selection of materials, the workflow, and the quality control that was performed to provide reliable knowledge about the safety of advanced materials to humans and the environment.

Resumen Introducción: La cinetosis se relaciona con la presencia de una serie de síntomas que comúnmente son inducidos por situaciones cotidianas de viajes en medios de transporte. Una forma utilizada por décadas para determinar el grado de susceptibilidad a la cinetosis ha sido con la aplicación del cuestionario en su versión acortada Motion Sickness Suscep-tibility-short (MSSQ-short). Objetivo: Adaptar lingüística y transculturalmente al español el cuestionario MSSQ-short. Material y Método: Se llevaron a cabo cuatro etapas: Traducción directa, traducción inversa (retrotraducción), consolidación por un comité de expertos y pretest (aplicabilidad/viabilidad). En la etapa de pre-test 51 personas respondieron el cuestionario. Resultados: La discrepancias encontradas en las primeras etapas fueron resueltas por un tercer traductor, el cual concluyó en un documento final en español que fue analizado y revisado por el comité de expertos. Se determinaron los percentiles del 0 al 100, percentil 50 con 9,0 puntos, percentil 25 con 2,13 puntos y el percentil 75 con 17,4 puntos. La consistencia interna del cuestionario fue de 0,889. Conclusión: La traducción y adaptación transcultural fue aceptada por un comité de expertos y participantes con distintas características demográficas y educacionales. El cuestionario obtuvo buena consistencia interna y resultados concordantes con la versión original.

Domestic hot water (DHW) consumption in dwellings can play a key role in the development of policies that are focused on energy poverty, and in improving energy efficiency, among other aspects. There is an important variability observed with DHW among different countries due to technical, sociological, climatic, and economic factors. Most studies that deal with DHW predictions are based on stochastic models, and only a few apply time series or statistical methods. In the case of Chile, the country is undergoing a policy development process, and there is little information about DHW consumption. As a result, it is fundamental to have DHW consumption prediction models that are focused on dwelling. For this reason, the study analysed the possibility of using time series models to make future estimations about monthly domestic hot water consumption. To this end, consumption data obtained from 98 apartments between 2015 and 2021 were used, and 3 approaches were applied namely, exponential smoothing, basic structural model (BSM), and state-space model (SSM). The results showed that exponential smoothing and state-space methods allowed to obtain satisfactory results with regard to percentage error and confidence levels. Therefore, these models could be used to make future estimations of domestic hot water consumption.

Prolonging survival in good health is a fundamental societal goal. However, the leading determinants of disability-free survival in healthy older people have not been well established. Data from ASPREE, a bi-national placebo-controlled trial of aspirin with 4.7 years median follow-up, was analysed. At enrolment, participants were healthy and without prior cardiovascular events, dementia or persistent physical disability. Disability-free survival outcome was defined as absence of dementia, persistent disability or death. Selection of potential predictors from amongst 25 biomedical, psychosocial and lifestyle variables including recognized geriatric risk factors, utilizing a machine-learning approach. Separate models were developed for men and women. The selected predictors were evaluated in a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model and validated internally by bootstrapping. We included 19,114 Australian and US participants aged ≥65 years (median 74 years, IQR 71.6–77.7). Common predictors of a worse prognosis in both sexes included higher age, lower Modified Mini-Mental State Examination score, lower gait speed, lower grip strength and abnormal (low or elevated) body mass index. Additional risk factors for men included current smoking, and abnormal eGFR. In women, diabetes and depression were additional predictors. The biased-corrected areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves for the final prognostic models at 5 years were 0.72 for men and 0.75 for women. Final models showed good calibration between the observed and predicted risks. We developed a prediction model in which age, cognitive function and gait speed were the strongest predictors of disability-free survival in healthy older people. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01038583).