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Although graduate academic institutions implement diverse annual review processes, their overall intent is focused on ensuring continuous improvement of program quality (National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, 2020). Through program review processes, university leaders (e.g., department chairs, program leads) analyze student performance and department procedures to inform future actions and policies. This mixed-methods case study examined an online campus's program review structure. Specifically, a description of how administrative faculty (i.e., department chairs and associate department chairs) reported their program's strengths, challenges, and future directions and the collaborative scholarly interactions that resulted from these sessions are discussed. Findings from all study participants revealed that administrative faculty perceived program review processes as beneficial and provided a unique opportunity for collaboration across diverse university programs.

Abstract Background There is currently a wide therapeutic arsenal for migraine patients, without a single first-line preventive drug and we choose the different available alternatives taking into account comorbidities, national guidelines, previous treatments and personal experiences. Our objective was to evaluate the differences in the use of migraine treatments between neurologists from different countries. Methods This is a multi-centre observational study carried out by neurologists from specialized headache units in seven countries, retrospective with consecutive inclusion of all patients presenting with a migraine diagnosis, over a period of three months. Results A total of 734 patients were recruited but only 600 were considered in the analysis in order to homogenize the patient cohorts from countries: 200 Spain (ES), 100 Italy (IT), 85 Russia (RUS), 80 Germany (DE), 60 Portugal (PT), 45 Poland (PL) and 30 Australia (AU). 85.4 % of patients were women with a mean age of 42.6 ± 11.8 years. Considering previous and current preventive treatment, the order of use was: antidepressants (69.3 %), antiepileptic drugs (54.7 %), beta-blockers and antihypertensive drugs (49.7 %), OnabotulinumtoxinA (44.0 %) and others (36.2 %). Statistically significant differences were found between all pharmacological classes: antidepressants were commonly used in all countries, with the exception of Poland (AU: 76.7 %, IT: 71.0 %, DE: 60.0 %, PL: 31.1 %, PT: 71.7 %, RUS: 70.6 %, ES: 78.5 %; p

Following the worldwide shift, partially or fully, to virtual education during the COVID-19 pandemic, online education has received renewed attention. Bal et al. (2020) noted the issues faced by higher degree students during that period in which they struggled with time management, access to resources, and balancing work and personal life. Over 61% of doctoral students writing their dissertations reported increased hardship during the transition, but not necessarily due to online education (Donohue et al., 2021). The most prominent struggles involved data collection during times of lockdown (Donohue et al., 2021), but many students also struggled with a shift to online mentorship with their chairs and committee members (Niño & Martinez, 2022). Given the changes and struggles, Atkinson et al. (2022) pondered the professional and societal value of earning a PhD, arguably due to some concerns that the partially or fully online process of doctoral education could not support students' academic outcomes and success. Therefore, perhaps the forced shift to virtual education methods elucidated a need to better understand the online doctoral education process (Mullen, 2021). Given that several online higher educational institutions developed models for providing online doctoral education prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, they may present an opportunity to understand the long-term online doctoral education experience during times of greater normalcy. Exploring how online higher education institutions support students who are writing dissertations should provide insight into best practices of supporting online students during their dissertation processes.

Abstract Digital twins represent a key technology for precision health. Medical digital twins consist of computational models that represent the health state of individual patients over time, enabling optimal therapeutics and forecasting patient prognosis. Many health conditions involve the immune system, so it is crucial to include its key features when designing medical digital twins. The immune response is complex and varies across diseases and patients, and its modelling requires the collective expertise of the clinical, immunology, and computational modelling communities. This review outlines the initial progress on immune digital twins and the various initiatives to facilitate communication between interdisciplinary communities. We also outline the crucial aspects of an immune digital twin design and the prerequisites for its implementation in the clinic. We propose some initial use cases that could serve as “proof of concept” regarding the utility of immune digital technology, focusing on diseases with a very different immune response across spatial and temporal scales (minutes, days, months, years). Lastly, we discuss the use of digital twins in drug discovery and point out emerging challenges that the scientific community needs to collectively overcome to make immune digital twins a reality.

Objetivo. Describir la metodología de la búsqueda intencionada y reclasificación de muertes maternas (BIRMM), que permite identificar y corregir la clasificación errónea y el subregistro de defunciones maternas. Métodos. Se utiliza la metodología BIRMM, desarrollada inicialmente en México en el 2003 y difundida en otros países de América Latina a partir del 2012. La BIRMM consta de cuatro componentes clave: i) reclasificación de muertes maternas confirmadas; ii) identificación e investigación de casos sospechosos de muerte materna; iii) confronta con otras fuentes de información; y iv) publicación de resultados y análisis estadístico de la mortalidad materna. Resultados. La aplicación de la BIRMM permite identificar y analizar las muertes maternas en comités de mortalidad materna, lo que ha facilitado la implementación de planes de respuesta efectivos, contribuyendo a una reducción sostenida de la mortalidad materna en los países. Conclusiones. La metodología BIRMM es una herramienta efectiva para corregir el subregistro y la mala clasificación de muertes maternas, lo que permite una mejor vigilancia y respuesta a este problema. Su adopción y ejecución rutinaria son esenciales para mejorar la calidad de la información sobre mortalidad materna y reducir las muertes maternas en la Región de las Américas. La sostenibilidad de esta metodología depende del compromiso institucional y la voluntad política en los países.

The authors explored the influence of family background and students' perceived socioeconomic status with minoritized students' acculturation and transition experiences during their first-year, first-time enrollment at a predominantly White institution in the southeastern United States. Narrative interviews and "a priori" codes from the Model of Hispanic Identity Development (MHID, Torres, 2003) were implemented to construct case studies of first-year Latina students. Although Latina students' positive and negative acculturation experiences aligned with the MHID, each participant had a unique profile and distinctly different transition experience. The authors discuss expansion of the MHID, engagement and retention implications of early extracurricular involvement, belongingness uncertainty, and student advisement for minoritized first-year students at predominantly White higher education institutions.

This study describes the process of co-developing an operational climate forecast service for the viticulture sector. Weather and climate conditions affect grapevine development in cultivars: anticipating the atmospheric variables in the coming weeks and months is thus relevant for effectively managing vineyards, as impacts will be felt in wine production, biodiversity, and a wide range of related aspects. The operational service was co-developed with two types of users: impact modellers, who are the intermediary users incorporating climate forecast outputs in phenological and disease models, and end-users from the wine sector with vineyards in various European locations. For the operational service, sub-seasonal and seasonal climate forecasts were tailored considering their needs. The initial steps of the co-production process identified relevant decisions for which the service was essential and co-defined effective ways to deliver the climate information. Afterwards the climate forecasts outputs were integrated with impact model data. Substantial efforts were directed at the harmonisation of climate services information with the decision-making system of end-users. Because end-users need to navigate, comprehend, and select from various alternative options amidst uncertainty, significant emphasis has been placed on crafting the visual representation of the climate service, incorporating interactive elements, and cognitive considerations, thereby enhancing the overall user experience. Practical implications: Weather and climate conditions affect the development of cultivars: phenological stages, disease risk, or wine quality. This study presents the co-production process for deploying a climate service for vineyard management. The service consists of the near-real-time operational provision of sub-seasonal and seasonal climate forecasts. This service aims to help vineyard managers make decisions by anticipating the climate conditions up to three months in advance for a set of essential climate variables. The service includes the requirements of a set of intermediary users, which are disease risk and phenology researchers who feed their impact models with the provided climate forecasts. To our knowledge, it is the first time that sub-seasonal and seasonal climate forecasts have been integrated into an operational service for vineyard management.The service was developed during the VitiGEOSS project, the primary outcome of which is the VitiGEOSS platform: a single entry-point solution for wine producers aiming to boost vineyard sustainability. Three pilot plots are used for the service development: the Douro region in Portugal, the Catalonia region in Spain, and the Campania region in Italy. The co-production is seen as an iterative, interactive and collaborative process that brings together a plurality of knowledge sources to mutually define problems and develop usable products to address these problems. The process can be divided into three phases: initial co-exploration, co-design and co-development.The co-exploration phase consisted of conducting a benchmark analysis, identifying available services to viticulture and highlighting the gap that the newly developed solution could fill in. In the co-design phase, more intense engagement methods were implemented to communicate the capabilities of climate forecasts and design the product’s visualisation. Finally, the co-evaluation consisted of an ad hoc and ongoing process during the recurring meetings and a final workshop conducted with direct and potential users to obtain feedback on using the platform and potential further developments.As a result, the operational post-processing workflow of the sub-seasonal and seasonal state-of-the-art model outputs was adapted to include users’ requirements. The workflow includes the downscaling of model outputs to increase their spatial resolution, the storage of sub-seasonal climate forecasts at daily frequencies to feed phenological impact models, the provision of past climate simulations to train the impact models, the bias-adjust of climate forecasts to reduce systematic model errors, the assessment of the climate forecasts to aware users on their quality and the deployment of a server to allow access to impact modellers.The variables provided are mean, minimum and maximum temperature, accumulated precipitation and solar radiation. The final co-designed product consists of a graphic of bars. The user can select the location and variable, and the forecasts for the next four weeks or the next three months are displayed for the sub-seasonal and seasonal climate forecasts, respectively. For each week or month, three bars show the tercile probabilities of above-normal, normal or below-normal conditions for the time of the year. The limits of the tercile categories are also displayed, which helps to understand the averaged values of the variable in the selected region and the time of the year calculated with information from the past. The probabilities of extremes, i.e. exceeding (non-exceeding) the percentile 90th (10th), are displayed as extra bars for each week and month in case the prediction is skilful and they are greater than 40%.Last but not least, the results of the skill assessment are shown. This skill assessment consists of calculating a metric for each location, initialisation date and forecast time. When this metric, known as skill score, is positive (negative), the climate model forecast is better (worse) than the climatology (the climatology is a naive forecast which considers all categories equiprobable by definition). If the skill is negative, which means there is no proof of the added value of using the numerical model prediction, the bars are blurred, and the user can still be informed of the tercile category limits.The service has been provided for almost two consecutive years. During this period, we have confirmed the value of some key recommendations from literature when co-producing a climate service. Especially relevant is the need to invest time and resources to conduct a good co-production process by repeating the iterative process. We also tested the idea of providing information in the format of seasonal climate forecast outlooks to end-users before the service was operational. In this way, the climate service process would be ‘slowed down’, by which the use of climate data is incorporated more slowly and allows for place-based knowledge from the resource managers to be included too.One of the most challenging questions is the communication of the probabilistic forecasts product and their quality. The probabilistic nature of climate forecasts is sometimes understood by novice users as the incapacity to provide a deterministic forecast. Similarly, negative skill leads users to interpret the forecast fails. Overall, the perception of the service quality can be low. To avoid this perception, the co-producing process is essential to engage with users and redefine the service if possible.In this work, we have tried different ways to overcome low-quality perception. The users requested access to the climate forecasts for their vineyard plots. For that reason, the downscaling technique was applied to increase the spatial resolution, and the bar plots were designed to show the forecast for a specific location. However, to improve the perception of the forecast quality, the forecast can be contextualised by providing the forecast in the format of a map of the surrounding areas.Despite all these limitations, end-users reported on the extreme importance of climate information. Furthermore, end-users can benefit from getting the climate services integrated with the impact models to take maximum advantage of all services and make timely decisions, but also receiving this information in a clear, parsimonious and direct format that is intuitive and can be easily incorporated into the decision-making processes is key for the sustainability of their farm fields.After the operational provision of the climate forecast service, some implications of our findings have been detected: ● Combined downscaling and contextualisation. Downscaling techniques help to provide more accurate information at the location scale. Nevertheless, the spatial visualization over large regions may help to contextualize the climate forecasts, and that is also beneficial for end-user interpretation of the climate-related information. ● Skill. Efforts to provide more skilful climate forecasts are required, as well as alternative information to be used in situations where skill is lacking (e.g.: past climate information). The skill assessment is crucial to inform users about forecast reliability and accuracy. It enhances user understanding and trust in the service by generating realistic expectations. ● Operationalisation. Reducing the time for data processing or increasing the computational resources will allow the provision of climate forecasts that are closer to the date of production. Users will benefit from earlier access to the information than the current time-lapse. ● Co-production. The co-production process ensures the service is designed based on user needs and feedback which is more likely to be adopted and effectively utilized by users. This process never ends, so, it needs to be applied if future developments or requests are included in the current service. ● Support for sustainability. End-users benefit from the integration of the climate forecast along with phenological and disease risk services. Further explorations to include more climate variables in the service and in the impact models will be beneficial for end-users. For instance, the probabilities of extreme events help vineyard managers prepare for potential adverse conditions, while, safeguarding vineyards against weather impacts through proactive measures. ● Capacity building. By training users about the nature of climate forecasts, they can enhance the preparedness and resilience response to varying climate conditions. New information and products could be co-explored to co-evaluate their utility and usefulness.

Globally, plastic pollution has become a major concern environmentally due to its affinity to degrade for generations. The Philippines is known to be the 3rd ranking contributor to plastic pollution in the world as around 2.7 Mt of plastics are generated yearly. A large portion of these non-biodegradable plastics enter the oceans which negatively impacts marine life and even the livelihood of vulnerable coastal communities. From this perspective, biodegradable plastics have been introduced to remedy the problem, and polylactic acid (PLA) has been known to be both biobased and biodegradable, with good mechanical qualities, biocompatibility, low toxicity, and high compostability. PLA is produced by using lactic acid as the main raw material in the process which involves 3 stages: pre-polymerization, lactide formation, and ring-opening polymerization (ROP). This study seeks to design, simulate, and establish a polylactic acid production plant in the Philippines and evaluate its economic feasibility. Using Aspen Plus v11 as a plant design simulation software, the final product has a desirable weight-average molecular weight of 261,364.22 g/mol in the form of pellets for further use. From the results of the feasibility study of this plant design, the simulation can produce about 30,000 t of PLA which will be exported to China, South Korea, Italy, and Belgium. Financial calculations for this pilot plant proposal have been proven to provide a high return of investment at 28.15 % with a short payback period of 5 y.

Zinc oxychloride cement (ZOC) is considered a promising quick-drying material for fabricating photoactive coatings composed of three components: zinc oxide (ZnO), zinc chloride (ZnCl2), and water. However, its massive application has not been implemented due to the lack of research about its stability and mechanical performance. Thus, this article aims to provide insights about the self-cleaning photoactivity of ZOC coatings incorporated with titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles to boost the photocatalytic performance. Two stoichiometries of ZnO:ZnCl:H2O (112 and 415) were studied to investigate the influence of the molar ratio of the components on the physical and chemical properties. According to these results, no significant differences were observed in the physical and chemical properties between the two stoichiometries studied; however, the mechanical properties were affected. The coatings crystallized as simonkolleite Zn5(OH)8Cl2·H2O with a laminar hexagonal morphology, show high surface area, and absorbs light in the UVA region. The self-cleaning activity was evaluated using four model pollutants: Rhodamine B, Methylene blue, Orange G, and Carbon under accelerated weathering conditions. All the ZOC coatings were photoactive to decompose the pollutants from their surface. The addition of TiO2 nanoparticles into the coatings did not significantly enhance the self-cleaning efficiency, but it improves the mechanical performance of the coatings. These results could be associated with the fact that TiO2 works as filler for voids in the coatings without affecting its settings. The stability of the coatings was confirmed after the exposure to accelerated weathering at high humidity conditions, which places them as an attractive, low-cost, and easy to apply self-cleaning material.

Estudios anteriores en estos mismos árboles de Pinus radiata con fustes levemente inclinados, demostraron que la madera de compresión leve que ellos exhibían presentaba: traqueidas más cortas, mayor densidad, mayor proporción de lignina, mayor proporción de extraíbles en etanol tolueno y menor proporción de alfa celulosa que la madera opuesta y que la madera de árboles sin madera de compresión. En el presente estudio se analiza las propiedades pulpables de la madera de compresión y la de sus respectivas maderas opuestas de los quince árboles de Pinus radiata estudiados, crecidos en suelos de arena húmeda en Chile. Se estudió separadamente la madera de compresión y la madera opuesta. Con distintas proporciones, de entre 0, 40, 70 y 100 % de madera de compresión y madera opuesta, se efectuaron pulpajes kraft para cada una de las mezclas. De estos pulpajes con y sin blanqueo se informan valores de 501 kg y 695 kg de densidad; 28 a 51 en índice de tensión, 18 a 25 en índice de rasgado, 2.2 a 4.1 en índice de explosión y rendimiento de 44 a 50.6 en las mezclas de la pulpa estudiada. En la pulpa cruda de MC, de la madera pulpable y de la madera exterior aserrable, se registró menor densidad, mayor índice de tensión, de rasgado y de explosión, en comparación con los resultados obtenidos en la pulpa cruda de MO. En el caso de las pulpas blanqueadas, la densidad y el índice de tensión resultaron mayores en la MC. En el resto de las propiedades las diferencias entre MC y MO fueron oscilantes y reducidas. El aumento de la proporción de MC en la mezcla de MC y MO, produjo una reducción de rendimiento. Los rendimiento de las mezclas de la madera pulpable indicaron para el 100 % de MO un 50.6 % y para el 100% de MC un 44 %: En los casos de las pulpas de madera exterior aserrable el 100% de MO tuvo un rendimiento de de 48.4% en cambio el 100% de la MC registró un 44.3%. Los resultados obtenidos indicaron que la MC leve, que se encuentra en árboles con inclinaciones menores, tuvo un efecto de menor magnitud que él que se produce en la MC severa sobre las características y rendimiento de la pulpa kraft.Previous studies with radiata pine trees growing slightly leaned towards one side showed that they have small amounts of compression wood with different characteristics than the opposite wood at the other side of the annual rings. These differences include shorter tracheids, higher density, higher proportion of lining, higher proportion of extractives in toluene ethanol, and a smaller amount of alpha-cellulose. The present study compares the properties of kraft pulp, with and without bleaching, for mixtures of compression and opposite wood obtained from fifteen 22-year-old radiata pine trees that grew in humid sand soils of Chile. The kraft pulp mixture was studied for different proportions of 0, 40, 70 and 100% compression wood. Considering all mixtures with and without bleaching, the study reports values between 501 and 695 kg/m³ density, 28 and 51 tension index, 18 and 25 tear index, 2,2 and 4,1 burst index, and 44% and 50,6% pulp yield. It was found that the pulp without bleaching from compression wood (for both the internal pulp and the external lumber areas) had lower density, but higher tension, tear, and burst indexes. The pulp with bleaching from compression wood had both higher density and tension index, but the other properties only show small random differences with respect to opposite wood. A higher proportion of compression wood in the mixture reduced pulp yield. The yield for the internal pulp area was 50,6 % with pure opposite wood and 44% with pure compression wood, while the yield for external lumber area was 48,4% with pure opposite wood and 44,3% with pure compression wood. I was concluded, however, that the relatively small amount of compression wood found in these trees had only a minor effect in the properties and yield of kraft pulp.

We studied: the need for environmental technology development flooded oil fields in the Ecuador; mechanism of the oil recovery; various problems ingress of water in oil wells; the distribution of water saturation.

Ten 22 year old radiata pine trees growing in two stands in Chile, one in clay and the other in humid sand soils showing some lean, were assessed for chemical composition and wood density of compression wood. Significant differences in type of wood in density (33 kg/m³), lignin (1.944 %), alpha-cellulose (-2.634 %), ethanol toluene extractives (0.567 %) and pentose (0.742 %) were found between matched sample of compression and opposite woods. Differences in juvenile and mature wood were significant for both density (-4 kg/m³) and pentose (1.628 %), and site differences were found for wood density (28 kg/m³), extractives (0.978 %) and apparent for alpha cellulose (1.223%). In comparison with other studies, our results suggested that the compression wood formed from trees with light visible lean corresponded to a mild compression class.Se analizó la madera de compresión en diez árboles de 22 años de edad de Pinus radiata D Don creciendo en dos sitios en Chile, uno en suelo de arena húmeda y el otro en suelo arcilloso. Singularidades de la madera de compresión y madera opuesta se compararon en estos árboles con inclinaciones menores a 10º y excentricidades reducidas. Diferencias significativas se registraron entre madera de compresión y opuesta en los valores registrados para la densidad básica de 33 (kg/m³), en proporción de lignina de 1.944 (%), en alfa-celulosa de -2.634 (%), en pentosanos de 0.742 (%) y en extraíbles en etanol-tolueno de 0.978 (%) y aparentemente diferente en el caso de alfa celulosa en 1.223 (%). Las diferencias entre madera juvenil y madera madura fueron significativas en los casos de la densidad de -4 (kg/m³) y en pentosanos en 1.628 (%), y diferencias entre los dos sitios para los casos de la densidad con 28 (kg/m³), en extractivos con 0.978 (%) y diferencias moderadas en alfa celulosa con 1.223 (%). Las diferencias y coincidencias de estos resultados con los de otros autores se han considerado para estimar que la madera de compresión formada por estos árboles, con inclinaciones reducidas, correspondería al tipo de madera de compresión leve.

Se caracterizó la madera de compresión en 10 árboles de Pinus radiata D.Don con inclinaciones menores a 10 º en dos sitios. Los diámetros de traqueidas de los árboles del sitio Arena húmeda resultaron estadísticamente mayores que los del sitio Arcilla; pero no resultaron diferentes al comparar madera juvenil y madura o al compara madera de compresión con madera opuesta. Diferencias significativas se determinaron en el largo de traqueida entre sitios (Arena húmeda-Arcilla), tipo de madera (madera de compresión-opuesta) y edad (madera juvenil-madura), resultados coincidentes con otros autores. Para el coarseness diferencias no significativas entre sitios, así como entre madera juvenil y madura y entre madera de compresión y opuesta coinciden y difieren de los de otros autores que comparan árboles de distintos sitios. Las discrepancias y coincidencias de estos resultados con los de otros autores se explican considerando el comportamiento diferente de las dimensiones celulares de la madera temprana y tardía y las diferencias que hay entre madera de compresión leve y la madera de compresión severaCompression wood in 10 Pinus radiata D. Don trees with lean smaller to 10º from two sites were characterized. The tracheid diameters of the trees of the humid sand site were statistically greater than those from the clay site; but they were not different when comparing juvenile wood with mature wood or to it compares compression wood with opposite wood. Significant differences were determined in the tracheid length between sites (humid sand-clay), type of wood (compression-opposite wood) and age (juvenile-mature wood), were similar results with other authors. For coarseness non significant differences between sites, as well as between juvenile and mature wood and compression and opposite and agree and different from those of other authors who compare trees of different sites. The discrepancies and coincidences of these results with those of other authors are explained considering the behavior from the cellular dimensions of the earlywood and latewood wood and the differences between severe compression and mild compression wood

La evaluación de la marcha en cinta caminadora puede resultar relevante para la toma de decisiones clínicas. No obstante, factores demográficos como la edad y el IMC pueden alterar la interpretación de los resultados. Nuestro objetivo fue obtener variables espacio- temporales, energéticas y costo de transporte durante la velocidad autoseleccionada en cinta caminadora para una muestra representativa de adultos uruguayos (n=28) y evaluar si diferentes rangos de edades e IMC pueden ser factores a tener en cuenta en pruebas clínicas donde se consideren dichas variables. Participaron 17 hombres y 11 mujeres (39,3 ± 14,8 años, 75,9 ± 12,5 kg, 1,74 ± 0,09 m, IMC 25,2 ± 4,06). Se realizó una reconstrucción 3D del movimiento en forma sincronizada con el consumo energético. Se obtuvieron valores de referencia y luego de agrupar los participantes según su IMC y rango de edad se compararon los datos mediante test de t (p≤0.05). Los resultados revelaron discrepancias significativas en las medidas espacio-temporales y energéticas de los adultos uruguayos al caminar en cinta con respecto a la literatura. La marcha difiere entre adultos jóvenes y de mediana edad en su velocidad autoseleccionada (p=0,03), longitud de zancada (p=0,01), trabajo mecánico externo (

Los semiconductores policristalinos son materiales que a menudo presentan propiedades eléctricas inusuales. En el modelo se supone que los cristales están formados por material semiconductor, el grano en sí, el cual está rodeado por material altamente desordenado y resistivo, la frontera de grano. La frontera de grano perturba la periodicidad estructural del cristal dando origen a estados electrónicos localizados en el interior de la brecha de energía prohibida. La existencia de estos estados favorece el atrapamiento de carga en las fronteras de grano y al doblamiento de las bandas de energía. Este doblamiento se caracteriza por un potencial de barrera y una zona de carga espacial, las cuales gobiernan el transporte electrónico a través de la frontera de grano. El modelo utiliza las teorías de difusión y deriva de portadores, de emisión termoiónica e incluye además, la teoría de tunelamiento cuántico de portadores a través de la barrera de potencial. Dado que la estructura de las películas delgadas de trióxido de Molibdeno (MoO3) obtenidas por atomización pirolítica es de tipo granular y de tamaño nanométrico, el modelo analítico explica el comportamiento de la característica Corriente - Voltaje (I-V) de las películas. PACS: 73.25.+i, 73.50.Gr, 73.61.Cw MSC: 74K35, 82D37, 03C90

The Zika virus, known for its potential to induce neurological conditions such as microcephaly when transmitted vertically from infected mothers to infants, has sparked widespread concerns globally. Motivated by this, we propose an optimal control problem for the prevention of vertical Zika transmission. The novelty of this study lies in its consideration of time-dependent control functions, namely, insecticide spraying and personal protective measures taken to safeguard pregnant women from infected mosquitoes. New results provide a way to minimize the number of infected pregnant women through the implementation of control strategies while simultaneously reducing both the associated costs of control measures and the mosquito population, resulting in a decline in microcephaly cases.

Actinobacteria produce many bioactive compounds currently used as antibiotics and anticancer drugs. The objective of this project was to evaluate the Gulf of California as a novel source of bioactive actinobacterial strains. A total of 235 actinobacterial strains were isolated from marine sediment collected in Concepción and los Ángeles bays (Mexico). Based on their morphology, seawater requirements, and 16S rRNA sequencing, actinobacterial strains were classified as Streptomyces, Micromonospora, and Salinispora. Sixty-nine organic and aqueous extracts were obtained using liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate; 17 showed cytotoxic activity against breast cancer cells (MCF7) and cervical cancer cells (HeLa). The highest activity values observed, expressed as survival percentage, were 20–25% against MCF7 cells (strains S-365, S-355, and S-361) and 24–25% against HeLa cells (strains S-165, S-361, and S-353). Only three aqueous extracts showed antibiotic activity towards methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, with activity values of 3% and 6% for strains S-370 and S-369, respectively. Molecular weights found by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis are reported for Micromonospora species isolated from soil, but no species specific secondary metabolite evidence was observed for Salinispora isolates. The biological activity observed in this work offers opportunities for further chemical studies to define the compounds responsible for this activity in order to contribute to the discovery of new drugs and to acknowledge the Gulf of California as a reservoir of marine bioactive actinobacteria strains that are important for human health.

Among the causes of the radiological entity known as unilateral or total hyperlucent lung is the decreased blood flow in the lungs. Unilateral and total hyperlucent lung results, among other factors, from the decreased intrapulmonary blood flow. Classically, the diagnosis and haemodynamic evaluation of these situations were usually made through invasive methods: right heart catheterism to perform angiopneumography and pressure evaluations as well as oximetry at several levels of the vascular network, thoracic aortography eventually associated with selective arteriography to detect the abnormalities of the systemic thoracic circulation. In this context, the authors propose for the diagnosis and study of this pathology, a new non-invasive methodology. In order to achieve this propose, we studied 8 patients, all of them performed clinical and laboratory evaluations, chest chi-ray, electrocardiographic and functional respiratory exams, as well angiopneumography, thoracic aortography tomodensitometry including qualitative (to study the lung arterial vasculature) and quantitative (to evaluate CT density of each lung in Hounsefield unit and two radioisotopic tests, including a ventilation/perfusion study with 133 chi e and HAM-99mTc, through an original software--four parameter histograms allowing simultaneous information of ventilation and perfusion at the pixel level and estimation of the V/Q; the other is the pulmonary gating through which it is possible to identify and quantify the arterio-arterial shunts.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)