Tracking the evolution of waste recycling research using overlay maps of science

Tracking the evolution of research in waste recycling science (WRS) can be valuable for environmental agencies, as well as for recycling businesses. Maps of science are visual, easily readable representations of the cognitive structure of a branch of science, a particular area of research or the global spectrum of scientific production. They are generally built upon evidence collected from reliable sources of information, such as patent and scientific publication databases. This study uses the methodology developed by Rafols et al. (2010) to make a “double overlay map” of WRS upon a basemap reflecting the cognitive structure of all journal-published science, for the years 2005 and 2010. The analysis has taken into account the cognitive areas where WRS articles are published and the areas from where it takes its intellectual nourishing, paying special attention to the growing trends of the key areas. Interpretation of results lead to the conclusion that extraction of energy from waste will probably be an important research topic in the future, along with developments in general chemistry and chemical engineering oriented to the recovery of valuable materials from waste. Agricultural and material sciences, together with the combined economics, politics and geography field, are areas with which WRS shows a relevant and ever increasing cognitive relationship.

Molecular diagnosis of distal renal tubular acidosis in Tunisian patients: proposed algorithm for Northern Africa populations for the ATP6V1B1, ATP6V0A4 and SCL4A1 genes

Background: Primary distal renal tubular acidosis (dRTA) caused by mutations in the genes that codify for the H+ -ATPase pump subunits is a heterogeneous disease with a poor phenotype-genotype correlation. Up to now, large cohorts of dRTA Tunisian patients have not been analyzed, and molecular defects may differ from those described in other ethnicities. We aim to identify molecular defects present in the ATP6V1B1, ATP6V0A4 and SLC4A1 genes in a Tunisian cohort, according to the following algorithm: first, ATP6V1B1 gene analysis in dRTA patients with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) or unknown hearing status. Afterwards, ATP6V0A4 gene study in dRTA patients with normal hearing, and in those without any structural mutation in the ATP6V1B1 gene despite presenting SNHL. Finally, analysis of the SLC4A1 gene in those patients with a negative result for the previous studies. Methods: 25 children (19 boys) with dRTA from 20 families of Tunisian origin were studied. DNAs were extracted by the standard phenol/chloroform method. Molecular analysis was performed by PCR amplification and direct sequencing. Results: In the index cases, ATP6V1B1 gene screening resulted in a mutation detection rate of 81.25%, which increased up to 95% after ATP6V0A4 gene analysis. Three ATP6V1B1 mutations were observed: one frameshift mutation (c.1155dupC; p.Ile386fs), in exon 12; a G to C single nucleotide substitution, on the acceptor splicing site (c.175-1G > C; p.?) in intron 2, and one novel missense mutation (c. 1102G > A; p. Glu368Lys), in exon 11. We also report four mutations in the ATP6V0A4 gene: one single nucleotide deletion in exon 13 (c.1221delG; p. Met408Cysfs* 10); the nonsense c.16C > T; p.Arg6*, in exon 3; and the missense changes c.1739 T > C; p.Met580Thr, in exon 17 and c.2035G > T; p.Asp679Tyr, in exon 19. Conclusion: Molecular diagnosis of ATP6V1B1 and ATP6V0A4 genes was performed in a large Tunisian cohort with dRTA. We identified three different ATP6V1B1 and four different ATP6V0A4 mutations in 25 Tunisian children. One of them, c.1102G > A; p.Glu368Lys in the ATP6V1B1 gene, had not previously been described. Among deaf since childhood patients, 75% had the ATP6V1B1 gene c. 1155dupC mutation in homozygosis. Based on the results, we propose a new diagnostic strategy to facilitate the genetic testing in North Africans with dRTA and SNHL.

Approximate Best Proximity Points of Cyclic Self-maps in Metric Spaces and Cyclic Asymptotic Regularity

3rd International Conference on Mathematical Modeling in Physical Sciences (IC-MSQUARE) Madrid, AUG 28-31, 2014 / editado por Vagenas, EC; Vlachos, DS; Bastos, C; Hofer, T; Kominis, Y; Kosmas, O; LeLay, G; DePadova, P; Rode, B; Suraud, E; Varga, K

On contractive cyclic fuzzy maps in metric spaces and some related results on fuzzy best proximity points and fuzzy fixed points

This paper investigates some properties of cyclic fuzzy maps in metric spaces. The convergence of distances as well as that of sequences being generated as iterates defined by a class of contractive cyclic fuzzy mapping to fuzzy best proximity points of (non-necessarily intersecting adjacent subsets) of the cyclic disposal is studied. An extension is given for the case when the images of the points of a class of contractive cyclic fuzzy mappings restricted to a particular subset of the cyclic disposal are allowed to lie either in the same subset or in its next adjacent one.

Religion, emotions and social transformation along migratory processes. The cases of African church leaders in Spain and South Africa

221 p.

Convergence Properties and Fixed Points of Two General Iterative Schemes with Composed Maps in Banach Spaces with Applications to Guaranteed Global Stability

This paper investigates the boundedness and convergence properties of two general iterative processes which involve sequences of self-mappings on either complete metric or Banach spaces. The sequences of self-mappings considered in the first iterative scheme are constructed by linear combinations of a set of self-mappings, each of them being a weighted version of a certain primary self-mapping on the same space. The sequences of self-mappings of the second iterative scheme are powers of an iteration-dependent scaled version of the primary self-mapping. Some applications are also given to the important problem of global stability of a class of extended nonlinear polytopic-type parameterizations of certain dynamic systems.