Validation of Logistic Regression Models for Landslide Susceptibility Maps

A wide range of numerical models and tools have been developed over the last decades to support the decision making process in environmental applications, ranging from physical models to a variety of statistically-based methods. In this study, a landslide susceptibility map of a part of Three Gorges Reservoir region of China was produced, employing binary logistic regression analyses. The available information includes the digital elevation model of the region, geological map and different GIS layers including land cover data obtained from satellite imagery. The landslides were observed and documented during the field studies. The validation analysis is exploited to investigate the quality of mapping.

Avaluació del consum d'energia eléctrica d'una indústria càrnia

L’objecte d’aquest treball ha estat avaluar el consum d’energia elèctrica de la industria BECSA, situada al municipi de Palol de Revardit i dedicada a l’elaboració de pernil curat preparat per a ser llescat industrialment. En primer lloc es va estudiar el procés productiu de la indústria i la maquinària, per tal de determinar les potencies activa i reactiva de cadascuna de les màquines. Amb les potències per una banda, i l’estudi dels temps de treball de les màquines per l’altra, es van determinar els consums d’energia activa i reactiva que suposava el procés. A partir de l’anàlisi de les dades obtingudes, les factures elèctriques, les tarifes i complements per destinació horària, es van proposar una sèrie de millores per a poder disminuir els costos del consum d’energia elèctrica de la indústria

Incidència del pH de la matèria primera dels nivells de sal afegit i de la temperatura sobre el grau de proteòlisi i la textura del pernil curat

Estudi de l’efecte del pH de la matèria primera, del nivell de sal afegit i de la temperatura sobre el grau de proteòlisi i sobre la textura final del pernil curat per tal de millorar els criteris que s’utilitzen per a la selecció de la matèria primera, avaluar les condiciones de procés òptimes (nivell de sal afegit i de la temperatura de curació) per l’elaboració del pernils destinats al llencat mecànic

Upregulation of hsa-miR-125b in HTLV-1 asymptomatic carriers and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis patients

The retrovirus human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) promotes spastic paraparesis, adult T cell leukaemia and other diseases. Recently, some human microRNAs (miRNAs) have been described as important factors in host-virus interactions. This study compared miRNA expression in control individuals, asymptomatic HTLV-1 carriers and HTLV-1 associated myelopathy (HAM)/tropical spastic paraparesis patients. The proviral load and Tax protein expression were measured in order to characterize the patients. hsa-miR-125b expression was significantly higher in patients than in controls (p = 0.0285) or in the HAM group (p = 0.0312). Therefore, our findings suggest that miR-125b expression can be used to elucidate the mechanisms of viral replication and pathogenic processes.

Inferences about the global scenario of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 infection using data mining of viral sequences

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is mainly associated with two diseases: tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-1-associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM) and adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma. This retrovirus infects five-10 million individuals throughout the world. Previously, we developed a database that annotates sequence data from GenBank and the present study aimed to describe the clinical, molecular and epidemiological scenarios of HTLV-1 infection through the stored sequences in this database. A total of 2,545 registered complete and partial sequences of HTLV-1 were collected and 1,967 (77.3%) of those sequences represented unique isolates. Among these isolates, 93% contained geographic origin information and only 39% were related to any clinical status. A total of 1,091 sequences contained information about the geographic origin and viral subtype and 93% of these sequences were identified as subtype “a”. Ethnicity data are very scarce. Regarding clinical status data, 29% of the sequences were generated from TSP/HAM and 67.8% from healthy carrier individuals. Although the data mining enabled some inferences about specific aspects of HTLV-1 infection to be made, due to the relative scarcity of data of available sequences, it was not possible to delineate a global scenario of HTLV-1 infection.

Automatització d'un tanc de cocció

En una empresa alimentària, hi havia la necessitat de millorar una part del procés de cocció del pernil cuit. El pernil, un cop està envasat i posat en gàbies, està a punt de ser cuit. La forma de coure’l és posar-lo en una banyera a uns 60 graus de temperatura i a mesura d’anarli introduïnt vapor, escalfen l’aigua i couen el producte. Un cop cuit s’ha de refredar abans de posar en cambres frigorífiques. La manera que ho feien, era de transportar les gàbies pesants d’una banyera freda a una altra i així anaven refredant el producte.Era objecte d’aquest projecte, optimitzar aquest procés. És pretén, per tant, dissenyar un nou tanc on tot sigui més senzill i es realitzin el menor nombre de tasques, que es millorin parts, com laseguretat, els riscos laborals, els costos de manteniment i la qualitat de producte, així com la flexibilitat del sistema.Aquest projecte inclou, la selecció de tots els mecanismes actuadors, preactivadors, de control.. Distribuïr-los en tot el tanc a fi de tenir un control i seguretats total. Inclou també el disseny d’un programa automatitzat, on es s’ha seleccionat la CPU que millor ens ha convingut i l’elecció també d’un sistema de control visual i tàctil, com és l’Scada, així com la seva programació. També inclou, tots els connexionats elèctrics

Technologies de procédé et de contrôle pour réduire la teneur en sel du jambon sec et des saucissons

Dans certains pays européens, les produits carnés élaborés peuvent représenter près de 20% de la consommation journalière de sodium. De ce fait, les industries de la viande tentent de réduire la teneur en sel dans les produits carnés pour répondre, d’une part aux attentes des consommateurs et d’autre part aux demandes des autorités sanitaires. Le système Quick‐Dry‐Slice process (QDS®), couplé avec l’utilisation de sels substituant le chlorure de sodium (NaCl), a permis de fabriquer, avec succès, des saucisses fermentées à basse teneur en sel en réduisant le cycle de fabrication et sans ajout de NaCl supplémentaire. Les technologies de mesure en ligne non destructives, comme les rayons X et l’induction électromagnétique, permettent de classifier les jambons frais suivant leur teneur en gras, un paramètre crucial pour adapter la durée de l’étape de salaison. La technologie des rayons X peut aussi être utilisée pour estimer la quantité de sel incorporée pendant la salaison. L’information relative aux teneurs en sel et en gras est importante pour optimiser le processus d’élaboration du jambon sec en réduisant la variabilité de la teneur en sel entre les lots et dans un même lot, mais aussi pour réduire la teneur en sel du produit final. D’autres technologies comme la spectroscopie en proche infrarouge (NIRS) ou spectroscopie microondes sont aussi utiles pour contrôler le processus d’élaboration et pour caractériser et classifier les produits carnés élaborés, selon leur teneur en sel. La plupart de ces technologies peuvent être facilement appliquées en ligne dans l’industrie afin de contrôler le processus de fabrication et d’obtenir ainsi des produits carnés présentant les caractéristiques recherchées.

Biblia [Vetus et Novum Testamentum].

La Bible s’ouvre par deux compositions poétiques d’Alcuin qui encadrent l’Épître de saint Jérôme à Paulinus, « Frater Ambrosius... » (ff. 1-2r : Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Poetae latinae, I, 1, p. 287, LXVIII-LXX, v. 1-200 ; ff. 4r-v : Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Poetae latinae, I, 1, p. 283-284, LXV, I-III). La fin manque: la Bible s'interrompt à la fin de l'Epître de saint Paul aux Colossiens.

Pulmonary-artery pressure and exhaled nitric oxide in Bolivian and Caucasian high altitude dwellers.

There is evidence that high altitude populations may be better protected from hypoxic pulmonary hypertension than low altitude natives, but the underlying mechanism is incompletely understood. In Tibetans, increased pulmonary respiratory NO synthesis attenuates hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. It has been speculated that this mechanism may represent a generalized high altitude adaptation pattern, but direct evidence for this speculation is lacking. We therefore measured systolic pulmonary-artery pressure (Doppler chocardiography) and exhaled nitric oxide (NO) in 34 healthy, middle-aged Bolivian high altitude natives and in 34 age- and sex-matched, well-acclimatized Caucasian low altitude natives living at high altitude (3600 m). The mean+/-SD systolic right ventricular to right atrial pressure gradient (24.3+/-5.9 vs. 24.7+/-4.9 mmHg) and exhaled NO (19.2+/-7.2 vs. 22.5+/-9.5 ppb) were similar in Bolivians and Caucasians. There was no relationship between pulmonary-artery pressure and respiratory NO in the two groups. These findings provide no evidence that Bolivian high altitude natives are better protected from hypoxic pulmonary hypertension than Caucasian low altitude natives and suggest that attenuation of pulmonary hypertension by increased respiratory NO synthesis may not represent a universal adaptation pattern in highaltitude populations.

1939: Grècia i la literatura catalana

La literatura llatina, la medieval, totes les literatures modernes, ham acudit, alguna, moltes vegades, a la litertura grega. [. . .]

Hypobaric versus normobaric hypoxia: same effects on postural stability?

AIMS: To test the hypothesis that postural stability would be more affected during acute exposure in hypobaric (HH) than in normobaric (NH) hypoxia.¦METHODS: In separate trials, 12 subjects stood on a posturographic platform for two successive 25.6 sec tests in three conditions: eyes open (EO), eyes closed (EC), and verbal dual task (DT). Ambient pressure in O(2) was matched between HH and NH at 1700 and 3000 m, respectively.¦RESULTS: Compared to NH, the length of Centre of Pression trajectory in Y-axis was increased (p<0.05) in HH for EO at 1700 m, EC at 1700 and 3000 m, and for DT at 1700 m, whereas the variance of speed of CoP was decreased (p<0.05) in EO, EC, and DT at 1700 m. Compared to normobaric normoxia (NN; 400 m), the surface of CoP trajectory was increased (p<0.05) in HH in EO and EC at 3000 m.¦CONCLUSIONS: HH deteriorated postural stability in the antero-posterior plane, for the variance of speed and the surface of CoP in 3 conditions, whereas no difference was observed between NH and NN. These results suggest that hypobaria instead of hypoxia per se plays an important role to the altered balance classically reported in altitude.

Reciprocal Translocations in Cattle: frequency estimation

Chromosomal anomalies, like Robertsonian and reciprocal translocations represent a big problem in cattle breeding as their presence induces, in the carrier subjects, a well documented fertility reduction. In cattle reciprocal translocations (RCPs, a chromosome abnormality caused by an exchange of material between nonhomologous chromosomes) are considered rare as to date only 19 reciprocal translocations have been described. In cattle it is common knowledge that the Robertsonian translocations represent the most common cytogenetic anomalies, and this is probably due to the existence of the endemic 1;29 Robertsonian translocation. However, these considerations are based on data obtained using techniques that are unable to identify all reciprocal translocations and thus their frequency is clearly underestimated. The purpose of this work is to provide a first realistic estimate of the impact of RCPs in the cattle population studied, trying to eliminate the factors which have caused an underestimation of their frequency so far. We performed this work using a mathematical as well as a simulation approach and, as biological data, we considered the cytogenetic results obtained in the last 15 years. The results obtained show that only 16% of reciprocal translocations can be detected using simple Giemsa techniques and consequently they could be present in no less than 0,14% of cattle subjects, a frequency five times higher than that shown by de novo Robertsonian translocations. This data is useful to open a debate about the need to introduce a more efficient method to identify RCP in cattle.

Stereoselective metabolism of citalopram in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid of depressive patients: relationship with 5-HIAA in CSF and clinical response.

Plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of the enantiomers of citalopram (CIT), its N-demethylated metabolite demethylcitalopram (DCIT) and its deaminated metabolite citalopram propionic acid derivative (CIT-PROP) were measured in plasma and CSF in 22 depressed patients after a 4-week treatment with 40 mg/d citalopram, which was preceded by a 1-week washout period. CSF 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) and homovanillic acid (HVA) were measured at baseline and after the 4-week CIT medication period. Patients were assessed clinically, using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (21-item HAM-D): at baseline and then at weekly intervals. CSF concentrations of S-CIT and R-CIT were 10.6 +/- 4.3 and 20.9 +/- 6 ng/mL, respectively, and their CSF/plasma ratios were 52% +/- 9% and 48% +/- 6%, respectively. The CIT treatment resulted in a significant decrease (28%) of 5-HIAA (P < 0.0001) and a significant increase (41%) of HVA in the CSF. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to identify the impact of plasma and CSF CIT enantiomers and its metabolites on CSF monoamine metabolites and clinical response. There were 10 responders as defined by a > or =50% decrease of the HAM-D score (DeltaHAM-D) after the 4-week treatment. DeltaHAM-D correlated (Spearman) significantly with CSF S-CIT (r = - 0.483, P < 0.05), CSF S-CIT-PROP (r = -0.543, P = 0.01) (a metabolite formed from CIT by monoamine oxidase [MAO]) and 5-HIAA decrease (Delta5-HIAA) (r = 0.572, P = 0.01). The demonstrated correlations between pharmacokinetic parameters and the clinical outcome as well as 5-HIAA changes indicate that monitoring of plasma S-CIT, CSF S-CIT and CSF S-CIT-PROP may be of clinical relevance.