ALBERT

Description: Pyrolysis is a feasible solution for environmental problems related to the inadequate disposal of waste tires, as it leads to the recovery of pyrolytic products such as carbon black, liquid fuels and gases. The characteristics of pyrolytic carbon black can be enhanced through chemical activation in order to produce the required properties for its application. In the search to make the waste tire pyrolysis process profitable, new applications of the pyrolytic solid products have been explored, such as for the fabrication of energy-storage devices and precursor in the synthesis of nanomaterials. In this study, waste tires powder was chemically activated using acid (H2SO4) and/or alkali (KOH) to recover pyrolytic carbon black with different characteristics. H2SO4 removed surface impurities more thoroughly, improving the carbon black’s surface area, while KOH increased its oxygen content, which improved the carbon black’s stability in water suspension. Pyrolytic carbon black was fully characterized by elemental analysis, inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption/desorption, scanning electron microscopy–energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and ζ potential measurement. In addition, the pyrolytic carbon black was used to explore its feasibility as a precursor for the synthesis of carbon dots; synthesized carbon dots were analyzed preliminarily by SEM and with a fluorescence microplate reader, revealing differences in their morphology and fluorescence intensity. The results presented in this study demonstrate the effect of the activating agent on pyrolytic carbon black from waste tires and provide evidence of the feasibility of using waste tires for the synthesis of nanomaterials such as carbon dots.

Description: Melatonin exerts oncostatic actions and sensitizes tumor cells to chemotherapeutics or radiation. In our study, we investigated the effects of docetaxel, vinorelbine, and radiation on human breast fibroblasts and its modulation by melatonin. Docetaxel or vinorelbine inhibits proliferation and stimulates the differentiation of breast preadipocytes, by increasing C/EBPα and PPARγ expression and by downregulating tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and IL-11 expression. Radiation inhibits both proliferation and differentiation through the downregulation of C/EBPα and PPARγ and by stimulating TNFα expression. In addition, docetaxel and radiation decrease aromatase activity and expression by decreasing aromatase promoter II and cyclooxygenases 1 and 2 (COX-1 and COX-2) expression. Melatonin potentiates the stimulatory effect of docetaxel and vinorelbine on differentiation and their inhibitory effects on aromatase activity and expression, by increasing the stimulatory effect on C/EBPα and PPARγ expression and the downregulation of antiadipogenic cytokines and COX expression. Melatonin also counteracts the inhibitory effect of radiation on differentiation of preadipocytes, by increasing C/EBPα and PPARγ expression and by decreasing TNFα expression. Melatonin also potentiates the inhibitory effect exerted by radiation on aromatase activity and expression by increasing the downregulation of promoter II, and COX-1 and COX-2 expression. Our findings suggest that melatonin modulates regulatory effects induced by chemotherapeutic drugs or radiation on preadipocytes, which makes it a promising adjuvant for chemotherapy and radiotherapy sensibilization.

Description: (1) Background: Both sarcopenia and disease-related malnutrition (DRM) are unfortunately underdiagnosed and undertreated in our Western hospitals, which could lead to worse clinical outcomes. Our objectives included to determine the impact of low muscle mass (MM) and strength, and also DRM and sarcopenia, on clinical outcomes (length of stay, death, readmissions at three months, and quality of life). (2) Methodology: Prospective cohort study in medical inpatients. On admission, MM and hand grip strength (HGS) were assessed. The Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) criteria were used to diagnose DRM and EWGSOP2 for sarcopenia. Assessment was repeated after one week and at discharge. Quality of life (EuroQoL-5D), length of stay (LoS), readmissions and mortality are reported. (3) Results: Two hundred medical inpatients, median 76.0 years-old and 68% with high comorbidity. 27.5% met GLIM criteria and 33% sarcopenia on admission, increasing to 38.1% and 52.3% on discharge. Both DRM and sarcopenia were associated with worse QoL. 6.5% died and 32% readmission in 3 months. The odds ratio (OR) of mortality for DRM was 4.36 and for sarcopenia 8.16. Readmissions were significantly associated with sarcopenia (OR = 2.25) but not with DRM. A higher HGS, but not MM, was related to better QoL, less readmissions (OR = 0.947) and lower mortality (OR = 0.848) after adjusting for age, sex, and comorbidity. (4) Conclusions: In medical inpatients, mostly polymorbid, both DRM but specially sarcopenia are associated with poorer quality of life, more readmissions, and higher mortality. Low HGS proved to be a stronger predictor of worse outcomes than MM.

Description: The building sector is responsible for a substantial part of the energy consumption and corresponding CO2 emissions. The European Union has consequently developed various directives, among which the updated Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2018/844/EU stands out, aiming at minimizing the energy demand in buildings, improving the energy efficiency of their facilities and integrating renewable energies. The objective of the present study was to develop an analysis on the energy performance, related CO2 emissions and operating costs of the renewable energy technologies implemented within a multipurpose near Zero Energy Building (nZEB). The target building is an existing nZEB called LUCIA, located in Valladolid (Spain). Monitoring data provides the required information on the actual needs for electricity, cooling and heating. It is equipped with solar energy photovoltaic systems, a biomass boiler and a geothermal Earth to Air Heat Exchanger (EAHX) intended for meeting the ventilation thermal loads. All systems studied show favourable performances, but depend significantly on the particular characteristics of the building, the control algorithm and the climate of the location. Hence, design of these strategies for new nZEBs must consider all these factors. The combined use of the PhotoVoltaic PV System, the biomass and the EAHX reduces the CO2 emissions up to 123 to 170 tons/year in comparison with other fuels, entailing economic savings from the system operation of up to 43,000–50,000 €/year.

Description: Background: Crown fires are often intense and fast spreading and hence can have serious impacts on soil, vegetation, and wildlife habitats. Fire managers try to prevent the initiation and spread of crown fires in forested landscapes through fuel management. The minimum fuel conditions necessary to initiate and propagate crown fires are known to be strongly influenced by four stand structural variables: surface fuel load (SFL), fuel strata gap (FSG), canopy base height (CBH), and canopy bulk density (CBD). However, there is often a lack of quantitative data about these variables, especially at the landscape scale. Methods: In this study, data from 123 sample plots established in pure, even-aged, Pinus radiata and Pinus pinaster stands in northwest Spain were analyzed. In each plot, an intensive field inventory was used to characterize surface and canopy fuels load and structure, and to estimate SFL, FSG, CBH, and CBD. Equations relating these variables to Sentinel-2A (S-2A) bands and vegetation indices were obtained using two non-parametric techniques: Random Forest (RF) and Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS). Results: According to the goodness-of-fit statistics, RF models provided the most accurate estimates, explaining more than 12%, 37%, 47%, and 31% of the observed variability in SFL, FSG, CBH, and CBD, respectively. To evaluate the performance of the four equations considered, the observed and estimated values of the four fuel variables were used separately to predict the potential type of wildfire (surface fire, passive crown fire, or active crown fire) for each plot, considering three different burning conditions (low, moderate, and extreme). The results of the confusion matrix indicated that 79.8% of the surface fires and 93.1% of the active crown fires were correctly classified; meanwhile, the highest rate of misclassification was observed for passive crown fire, with 75.6% of the samples correctly classified. Conclusions: The results highlight that the combination of medium resolution imagery and machine learning techniques may add valuable information about surface and canopy fuel variables at large scales, whereby crown fire potential and the potential type of wildfire can be classified.

Description: Tagoro, the youngest submarine volcano of the Canary Islands, erupted in 2011 South of El Hierro Island. Pre-existing sea floor and inhabiting biological communities were buried by the newly erupted material, promoting the appearance of new habitats. The present study pursues to describe the first metazoans colonizing different new habitats formed during the eruption and to create precedent on this field. Through dredge and remote operated vehicle samplings, five main habitat types have been detected based on the substrate type and burial status after the eruption. Inside the Tagoro volcanic complex (TVC), two new habitats are located in and around the summit and main craters—hydrothermal vents with bacterial mats and sulfurous-like fields mainly colonized by small hydrozoan colonies. Two other habitats are located downslope the TVC; new hard substrate and new mixed substrate, holding the highest biodiversity of the TVC, especially at the mixed bottoms with annelids (Chloeia cf. venusta), arthropods (Monodaeus couchii and Alpheus sp.), cnidarians (Sertularella cf. tenella), and molluscs (Neopycnodonte cochlear) as the first colonizers. An impact evaluation was done comparing the communities of those habitats with the complex and well-established community described at the stable hard substrate outside the TVC, which is constituted of highly abundant hydrozoans (Aglaophenia sp.), antipatharians (Stichopates setacea and Antipathes furcata), and colonizing epibionts (e.g., Neopycnodonte cochlear). Three years after the eruption, species numbers at Tagoro were still low compared to those occurring at similar depths outside the TVC. The first dominant species at the TVC included a large proportion of common suspension feeders of the circalittoral and bathyal hard bottoms of the area, which could have exploited the uncolonized hard bottoms and the post eruptive fertilization of water masses.

Description: The formation of most fluorite deposits in northern Coahuila (NE Mexico) is explained by MVT models, and is a part of the metallogenic province of northeastern Mexico. However, fluorite skarn deposits also occur in the same region, and there is evidence for late hydrothermal manifestations with no clear origin and evolution. The latter are the main focus of this study; in particular, F–Be–U–Mo–V–P stringers in the Aguachile-Cuatro Palmas area that overprint preexisting fluorite mantos. The region experienced the emplacement of several intrusives during the Eocene and the Oligocene that are collectively grouped into the East Mexico Alkaline Province (EMAP) and postdate MVT-like deposits. Some of these intrusives have associated skarn deposits; most of them are polymetallic, but the unusual El Pilote deposit contains fluorite mineralisation that was remobilised from MVT-like deposits. The formation of the Aguachile deposit (and, collectively, part of the Cuatro Palmas deposit) has been attributed to a shallow retrograde skarn model. The Cuatro Palmas and Las Alicias fluorite deposits consist of MVT-like deposits overprinted by late hydrothermal fluorite mineralisation rich in Be–U–Mo–V–P, and the Aguachile deposit consists entirely of the latter type. The systematic fluid inclusion study of MVT-like, skarn, and late hydrothermal fluorite deposits reveals a very different distribution of temperature and salinity data that allows the discrimination of mineralising fluids for the type of deposit. MVT-like deposits were formed by fluids with temperatures of homogenisation that range between 50 °C and 152 °C and salinities between 5 and 15.5 wt.% NaCl equivalent. The El Pilote fluorite skarn was formed by fluids with temperatures of homogenisation that range between 78 °C and 394 °C and salinities between 5 and 34 wt.% NaCl equivalent, and include CaCl2-rich brines with salinities that range between 24.5 and 29.1 wt.% CaCl2. Late shallow fluorite–Be–U–Mo–V–P hydrothermal deposits were formed by fluids with temperatures of homogenisation that range between 70 °C and 180 °C and salinities between 0.9 and 3.4 wt.% NaCl equivalent; the sole exception to the above is the La Fácil deposit, with salinities that range between 7.9 and 8.8 wt.% NaCl equivalent. While temperatures of homogenisation are similar between MVT-like and late hydrothermal deposits, and both even have hydrocarbon-rich fluid inclusion associations, the salinity of late deposits is similar to that of retrograde skarn fluids, although further diluted. However, homogenisation temperatures tend to be higher in late hydrothermal than in MVT-like deposits, thus making them more similar to retrograde skarn fluids. Although this characteristic cannot solely establish a genetic link between a retrograde skarn model and late hydrothermal deposits in the study area, the characteristics of fluids associated with the latter separate these deposits from those ascribed to an MVT-like model. Assuming that mineralising fluids for late fluorite–Be–U–Mo–V–P hydrothermal deposits may correspond to a retrograde skarn (or “epithermal”) deposit, the source for fluorine may be either from (A) the dissolution of earlier formed MVT-like deposits, (B) the entrainment of remaining F-rich basinal brines, or (C) hydrothermal fluids exsolved from highly evolved magmas. Possibilities A and B are feasible due to a hypothetical situation similar to the El Pilote skarn, and due to the occurrence of hydrocarbon-rich fluid inclusions at the La Fácil deposit. Possibility C is feasible because intrusive bodies related to highly evolved magmas would have provided other highly lithophile elements like Be, U and Mo upon the exsolution of their hydrothermal fluids. Such intrusive bodies occur in both study areas, and are particularly conspicuous at the Aguachile collapse structure.

Description: In this study, the linear method of extended partial directed coherence (ePDC) was applied to establish the temporal dynamic behavior of cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory interactions during orthostatic stress at a 70° head-up tilt (HUT) test on young age-matched healthy subjects and patients with orthostatic intolerance (OI), both male and female. Twenty 5-min windows were used to analyze the minute-wise progression of interactions from 5 min in a supine position (baseline, BL) until 18 min of the orthostatic phase (OP) without including pre-syncopal phases. Gender differences in controls were present in cardiorespiratory interactions during OP without compromised autonomic regulation. However in patients, analysis by ePDC revealed considerable dynamic alterations within cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory interactions over the temporal course during the HUT test. Considering the young female patients with OI, the information flow from heart rate to systolic blood pressure (mechanical modulation) was already increased before the tilt-up, the information flow from systolic blood pressure to heart rate (neural baroreflex) increased during OP, while the information flow from respiration to heart rate (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) decreased during the complete HUT test. Findings revealed impaired cardiovascular interactions in patients with orthostatic intolerance and confirmed the usefulness of ePDC for causality analysis.

Description: Our objective was to examine the feasibility of hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) as a biomarker to predict clinical pregnancy outcomes and investigate its potential associations with perceived anxiety, resilience, and depressive symptoms. A total of 43 participants were assessed using HCC, the state trait anxiety inventory (STAI), resilience scale (RS), and the depression subscale of the symptom checklist 90-R (SCL-90-R). Participants were approached at their second consultation with the reproductive endocrinologist (T1), before scheduling their IVF cycle, and then 12 weeks after (T2), at their post-transfer visit with the study coordinators, before the human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) pregnancy test. The logistic regression model revealed that HCC at T2 predicted 46% of a positive pregnancy test [R2 = 0.46, (ß = 0.11, p 〈 0.05)]. Pregnant women had higher levels of resilience at T2 (M = 149.29; SD = 17.56) when compared with non-pregnant women at T2 (M = 119.96; SD = 21.71). Significant differences were found between both groups in depression at T2 (t = 3.13, p = 0.01) and resilience at T2 (t = −4.89, p = 0.01). HCC might be a promising biomarker to calculate the probability of pregnancy in women using assisted reproductive technologies (ART).

Description: Positioning asynchronous architectures based on time measurements are reaching growing importance in Local Positioning Systems (LPS). These architectures have special relevance in precision applications and indoor/outdoor navigation of automatic vehicles such as Automatic Ground Vehicles (AGVs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The positioning error of these systems is conditioned by the algorithms used in the position calculation, the quality of the time measurements, and the sensor deployment of the signal receivers. Once the algorithms have been defined and the method to compute the time measurements has been selected, the only design criteria of the LPS is the distribution of the sensors in the three-dimensional space. This problem has proved to be NP-hard, and therefore a heuristic solution to the problem is recommended. In this paper, a genetic algorithm with the flexibility to be adapted to different scenarios and ground modelings is proposed. This algorithm is used to determine the best node localization in order to reduce the Cramér-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) with a heteroscedastic noise consideration in each sensor of an Asynchronous Time Difference of Arrival (A-TDOA) architecture. The methodology proposed allows for the optimization of the 3D sensor deployment of a passive A-TDOA architecture, including ground modeling flexibility and heteroscedastic noise consideration with sequential iterations, and reducing the spatial discretization to achieve better results. Results show that optimization with 15% of elitism and a Tournament 3 selection strategy offers the best maximization for the algorithm.