Autonomous University of Barcelona

Infection diseases are a major threat to global public health, with nosocomial infections being of particular concern. In this context, antimicrobial coatings emerge as a promising prophylactic strategy to reduce the transmission of pathogens and control infections. Here, antimicrobial door handle covers to prevent cross‐contamination are prepared by incorporating iodine‐loaded UiO‐66 microparticles into a potentially biodegradable polyurethane polymer (Baycusan eco E 1000). These covers incorporate MOF particles that serve as both storage reservoirs and delivery systems for the biocidal iodine. Under realistic touching conditions, the door handle covers completely inhibit the transmission of Gram‐positive bacterial species (Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus faecalis), Gram‐negative bacterial species (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii), and fungi (Candida albicans). The covers remain effective even after undergoing multiple contamination cycles, after being cleaned, and when tinted to improve discretion and usability. Furthermore, as the release of iodine from the door handle covers follow hindered Fickian diffusion, their antimicrobial lifetime is calculated to be as long as approximately two years. Together, these results demonstrate the potential of these antimicrobial door handle covers to prevent cross‐contamination, and underline the efficacy of integrating MOFs into innovative technologies.

Predation is an important ecological process that can significantly impact the maintenance of ecosystem services. In arctic environments, the relative ecological importance of predation is thought to be increasing due to climate change, partly because of increased productivity with rising temperatures. Therefore, understanding predator–prey interactions in arctic ecosystems is vital for the sustainable management of these northern regions. Network theory provides a framework for quantifying the structures of ecological interactions. In this study, we use dietary observations on mammalian and avian predators in a high arctic region, including isolated peninsulas on Ellesmere Island and north Greenland, to construct bipartite trophic networks. We quantify the complexity, specialization, and nested as well as modular structures of these networks and also determine if these properties varied among the peninsulas. Mammal prey remains were the dominant diet item for all predators, but there was spatial variation in diet composition among peninsulas. The predator–prey networks were less complex, had more specialized interactions, and were more nested and more modular than random expectations. However, the networks displayed only moderate levels of modularity. Predator species had less specialized interactions with prey than prey had with predators. All network properties differed among the peninsulas, which highlights that ecosystems often show complex responses to environmental characteristics. We suggest that gaining knowledge about spatial variation in the characteristics of predator–prey interactions can enhance our ability to manage ecosystems exposed to environmental perturbations, particularly in high arctic environments subject to rapid environmental change.

Kidney transplantation (KT) is the standard treatment of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), providing better outcomes in terms of quality of life and survival than dialysis. The open kidney transplantation (OKT) remains the gold standard for the treatment of ESRD. Several minimally invasive approaches have been proposed trying to reduce the morbidity and complication of open surgery as demonstrated in other fields of urologic surgery. Even when performed by an experienced laparoscopic surgeon, the mean operative time was significantly longer, with longer median rewarming time. Despite the advantages of minimally invasiveness translate in a faster recovery and better aesthetic, the laparoscopic procedure remains challenging, and the prolonged operative time could translate in a higher risk of acidosis due to the carbon dioxide reabsorption through the pneumoperitoneum and the impaired excretion due to ESRD state. Robot assisted surgery has overcame some limitations of laparoscopy through the high dexterity of robotic arms and showed similar operative time to open surgery, maintaining the advantages of minimally-invasiveness and the enhanced visualization of operative field. Few studies compared surgical and functional outcomes of robotic vs open approach, showing possible advantages of the robotic approach in selected cases, such as obese patients and multiple vessels graft. Additionally, many technological novelties have been introduced in robot assisted kidney transplantation in order to overcome its limitations.

Robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) has been proposed as an alternative to open RC (ORC) to improve perioperative outcomes, without compromising oncological results. Several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have shown the non-inferiority of the robotic approach compared to the open approach. An update of the RAZOR trial was recently published, showing a similar progression-free survival rate at 36 months between the RARC arm (68.4%) and the ORC arm (65.4%, p = 0.60). It has been speculated that RARC may be associated with a risk of cell seeding due to pneumoperitoneum, however, there is no strong evidence that RARC would be associated with a higher rate of pelvic or unusual recurrence (i.e., peritoneal carcinomatosis and port-site metastases). Most of published studies showed that RARC promoted higher ureteroenteric anastomosis stricture incidence rates compared to ORC. The risk of stricture depending on the type of urinary diversion used (intracorporeal vs. extracorporeal) remains unclear. Data on sexual-sparing RARC are immature, but there is a promise of better sexual outcomes than standard RC without compromising oncologic outcomes. Patients suitable for this technique must be carefully selected. There is high-quality evidence to suggest that the health-related quality of life outcomes after ORC and RARC are similar.

Eutrophication is a main threat to continental aquatic ecosystems. Prevention and amelioration actions have been taken under the assumption of a stable climate, which needs reconsideration. Here, we show that reduced precipitation can bring a lake ecosystem to a more productive regime even with a decline in nutrient external load. By analyzing time series of several decades in the largest lake of the Iberian Peninsula, we found autocorrelated changes in the variance of state variables (i.e., chlorophyll and oxygen) indicative of a transient situation towards a new ecosystem regime. Indeed, exceptional planktonic diatom blooms have occurred during the last few years, and the sediment record shows a shift in phytoplankton composition and an increase in nutrient retention. Reduced precipitation almost doubled the water residence time in the lake, enhancing the relevance of internal processes. This study demonstrates that ecological quality targets for aquatic ecosystems must be tailored to the changing climatic conditions for appropriate stewardship.

The aim of this work is to investigate the energy misperception of different sources among the “Next Generation” group. The analysis is carried out in Italy and the data were obtained through an internet-based survey, administered via Instagram to capture the Next Generation’s perception of the national energy mix. We found that younger have more misperceptions and one of the possible explanations could be that they are more negatively affected by media and social media, or public opinion in general. Another motivation could be that the younger generation considers sustainability important and therefore tends to over-perceive renewable energy sources.

Different screening methods are being developed to generate adeno-associated viral vectors (AAV) with the ability to bypass the blood-brain barrier (BBB) upon intravenous administration. Recently, the AAV9P31 stood out as the most efficient version among a library of peptide-displaying capsids selected in C57BL/6 mice using RNA-driven biopanning. In this work we have characterized in detail its biodistribution in different mouse strains (C57BL/6 and Balb/c), as well as in Sprague Dawley rats and non-human primates (Macaca fascicularis). Using GFP and NanoLuc reporter genes, we confirmed homogeneous infection and transgene expression across the CNS of mice injected intravenously with AAV9P31. A more restricted pattern was observed upon either intracerebroventricular or intraparenchymal injection. Following intravenous delivery, region- and cell-specific differential patterns of transduction were observed in the mouse brain, including a preferential transduction of astrocytes and neurons in the cerebral cortex and striatum, whereas neurons were the only transduced cell type in subcortical locations across the hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, mesencephalon, brainstem and cerebellum. Furthermore, transduced microglial cells were never found in any CNS location. Peripheral organs transduced upon intravenous administration included lung, liver, peritoneum, heart and skeletal muscle. However, a comparable performance of AAV9P31 to bypass the BBB in rats and macaques was not observed, although a more limited neuronal transduction was found in the brainstem of rats upon intravenous delivery. Finally, intracerebroventricular delivery in macaques resulted in neuronal transduction in cortical, subcortical structures and cerebellum following a patchy pattern. In conclusion, the widespread CNS transduction obtained in mice upon intravenous delivery of AAV9P31 represents a powerful tool for modeling a wide variety of neurological disorders as well as an appealing choice for the evaluation of gene therapy-based therapeutics.

Background Multimorbidity is associated with negative results and poses difficulties in clinical management. New methodological approaches are emerging based on the hypothesis that chronic conditions are non-randomly associated forming multimorbidity patterns. However, there are few longitudinal studies of these patterns, which could allow for better preventive strategies and healthcare planning. The objective of the MTOP (Multimorbidity Trajectories in Older Patients) study is to identify patterns of chronic multimorbidity in a cohort of older patients and their progression and trajectories in the previous 10 years. Methods A retrospective, observational study with a cohort of 3988 patients aged > 65 was conducted, including suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients in the reference area of Parc Taulí University Hospital. Real-world data on socio-demographic and diagnostic variables were retrieved. Multimorbidity patterns of chronic conditions were identified with fuzzy c-means cluster analysis. Trajectories of each patient were established along three time points (baseline, 5 years before, 10 years before). Descriptive statistics were performed together with a stratification by sex and age group. Results 3988 patients aged over 65 were included (58.9% females). Patients with ≥ 2 chronic conditions changed from 73.6 to 98.3% in the 10-year range of the study. Six clusters of chronic multimorbidity were identified 10 years before baseline, whereas five clusters were identified at both 5 years before and at baseline. Three clusters were consistently identified in all time points (Metabolic and vascular disease, Musculoskeletal and chronic pain syndrome, Unspecific); three clusters were only present at the earliest time point (Male-predominant diseases, Minor conditions and sensory impairment, Lipid metabolism disorders) and two clusters emerged 5 years before baseline and remained (Heart diseases and Neurocognitive). Sex and age stratification showed different distribution in cluster prevalence and trajectories. Conclusions In a cohort of older patients, we were able to identify multimorbidity patterns of chronic conditions and describe their individual trajectories in the previous 10 years. Our results suggest that taking these trajectories into consideration might improve decisions in clinical management and healthcare planning. Trial registration number NCT05717309.

Advancements in photonics technologies have significantly enhanced their capability to facilitate experiments involving quantum light, even at room temperature. Nevertheless, fully integrating photonic chips that include quantum light sources, effective manipulation and transport of light minimizing losses, and appropriate detection systems remains an ongoing challenge. Topological photonic systems have emerged as promising platforms to protect quantum light properties during propagation, beyond merely preserving light intensity. In this work, we delve into the dynamics of non-classical light traversing a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger photonic lattice with topological domain walls. Our focus centers on how topology influences the quantum properties of light as it moves across the array. By precisely adjusting the spacing between waveguides, we achieve dynamic repositioning and interaction of domain walls, facilitating effective beam-splitting operations. Our findings demonstrate high-fidelity transport of non-classical light across the lattice, replicating known results that are now safeguarded by the topology of the system. This protection is especially beneficial for quantum communication protocols with continuous variable states. Our study enhances the understanding of light dynamics in topological photonic systems and paves the way for high-fidelity, topology-protected quantum communication.

In small‐scale societies, people learn to identify plant species during childhood. Plant recognition is an important baseline knowledge, immediately useful to avoid intoxication risk due to wrong identification. Plant recognition is the basis of other ethnobotanical knowledge essential for safeguarding biocultural diversity. However, despite many studies on folk classification, we still have a narrow understanding of the criteria locally used for species identification; the gap being even larger regarding children's plant identification criteria. Here, we study the criteria used by Betsileo children and adolescents to identify wild edible plant (WEP) species using a child‐adapted method including drawings and follow‐up interviews. We worked with 80 teenagers (from 12 to 17 years old; 51 girls, and 29 boys). Our results suggest that teenagers use a large spectrum of visual criteria to identify plants and that these criteria match with botanical and ecological knowledge documented in the literature and herbarium vouchers. We found that 35% of the identification criteria used were non‐morphological (e.g. phenology, biotic interactions), suggesting deep ecological knowledge. On average, teenagers use more than nine distinct criteria per plant, which allows them to identify most plant species with a very high level of precision. The precision level of plant representation increases with age for boys, but remains constant for girls, suggesting different dynamics in plant identification knowledge acquisition. We also found that boys and girls use different identification criteria: girls focus on morphological criteria while boys also incorporate ecological criteria, such as landscape features and biotic interactions, in their spectrum of identification keys. Our results highlight the complexity of teenagers' plant knowledge and the importance of the ecological context and gender in plant identification's knowledge acquisition. This knowledge acquired very early in childhood, constitutes the foundation of future interactions with nature and should be at the heart of environmental humanities studies and knowledge co‐production projects to tackle socio‐ecological concerns. Hence, we urge further research to explore innovative methods that complement traditional ethnoecological tools and capture complex sensory aspects of folk children's taxonomy to better understand human‐plant interactions and knowledge. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

This paper contributes to the literature on how firms change their advertising strategies after a corporate scandal by providing both a theoretical model and an empirical evaluation based on the idea that advertising acts as a signal of the product quality that is modulated by the number of competing substitutes in the market. This result is new to the literature and helps to explain cases in which, possibly counter‐intuitively, a firm affected by a corporate scandal may optimally decide to reduce its advertising expenditures, rather than increase it, in an attempt to restore its reputation as quickly as possible. We find empirical support for this result in the Volkswagen Group's response to the Dieselgate scandal.

The ideal food for new-borns is human breast milk, a mixture that provides a balanced combination of nutrients and bioactive components. Seeking to emulate maternal milk more effectively, this study...

In Modern Hebrew, some, but not all, nominals exhibit obligatory /a/-syncope in open syllables if they are antepretonic in a simple (nominal) word. The same vowels optionally syncopate in any pretonic syllable in non-final members of compounds. Here we first show that syncope in compounds fills a gap in the typology of weak positions. We then propose a formal analysis in Gradient Harmonic Grammar (Smolensky and Goldrick 2016), which distinguishes between a weak /a/ and a strong /a/. Only the former undergoes syncope in both configurations; and only in non-compounds is it protected by a positional faithfulness constraint referencing the head foot of the prosodic word. Optionality in compounds is shown to follow from Base-Derivative faithfulness.

Neuroblastoma is the most common solid extracranial tumour in children. Despite major advances in available therapies, children with drug-resistant and/or recurrent neuroblastoma have a dismal outlook with 5-year survival rates of less than 20%. Therefore, tackling relapsed tumour biology by developing and characterising clinically relevant models is a priority in finding targetable vulnerability in neuroblastoma. Using matched cisplatin-sensitive KellyLuc and resistant KellyCis83Luc cell lines, we developed a cisplatin-resistant metastatic MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma model. The average number of metastases per mouse was significantly higher in the KellyCis83Luc group than in the KellyLuc group. The vast majority of sites were confirmed as having lymph node metastasis. Their stiffness characteristics of lymph node metastasis values were within the range reported for the patient samples. Targeted transcriptomic profiling of immuno-oncology genes identified tumour necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 4 (TNFRSF4) as a significantly dysregulated MYCN-independent gene. Importantly, differential TNFRSF4 expression was identified in tumour cells rather than lymphocytes. Low TNFRSF4 expression correlated with poor prognostic indicators in neuroblastoma, such as age at diagnosis, stage, and risk stratification and significantly associated with reduced probability of both event-free and overall survival in neuroblastoma. Therefore, TNFRSF4 Low expression is an independent prognostic factor of survival in neuroblastoma.

Background and Aims Small series suggest that rituximab could be effective as treatment for autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), although data are scarce. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of rituximab in different cohorts of patients with AIH. Methods Multicentre retrospective analysis of the 35 patients with AIH and its variant forms treated with rituximab and included in the ColHai registry between 2015 and 2023. Results Most patients were female (83%), 10 (29%) had cirrhosis and four (11.4%) variant forms of AIH. Indication for rituximab were as follows: 14(40%) refractory AIH, 19(54%) concomitant autoimmune or haematological disorder, 2(6%) intolerance to prior treatments. In three (9%) subjects with a concomitant disorder, rituximab was the first therapy for AIH. Overall, 31 (89%) patients achieved or maintained complete biochemical response (CBR), including the three in first‐line therapy. No difference in CBR was observed according to rituximab indication (refractory AIH 86% vs. concomitant disorders 90%, p = .824) or cirrhosis (80% vs. 92%, p = .319). Rituximab was associated with a significant reduction in corticosteroids (median dose: prior 20 vs. post 5 mg, p < .001) and the discontinuation of ≥1 immunosuppressant in 47% of patients. Flare‐free rate at 1st, 2nd and 3rd year was 86%, 73% and 62% respectively. Flares were not associated with the development of liver failure and were successfully managed with repeated doses of rituximab and/or increased corticosteroids. Three (9%) patients experienced infusion‐related adverse events (1 anaphylaxis and 2 flu‐like symptoms) and five (14%) infections. Conclusion Rituximab is safe and effective in patients with refractory AIH and those treated due to concomitant autoimmune or haematological disorders.

Substance use disorder (SUD) is a global health problem with a significant impact on individuals and society. The presentation of SUD is diverse, involving various substances, ages at onset, comorbid conditions, and disease trajectories. Current treatments for SUD struggle to address this heterogeneity, resulting in high relapse rates. SUD often co-occurs with other psychiatric and mental health-related conditions that contribute to the heterogeneity of the disorder and predispose to adverse disease trajectories. Family and genetic studies highlight the role of genetic and environmental factors in the course of SUD, and point to a shared genetic liability between SUDs and comorbid psychopathology. In this study, we aimed to disentangle SUD heterogeneity using a deeply phenotyped SUD cohort and polygenic scores (PGSs) for psychiatric disorders and related traits. We explored associations between PGSs and various SUD-related phenotypes, as well as PGS-environment interactions using information on lifetime emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse. Our results identify clusters of individuals who exhibit differences in their phenotypic profile and reveal different patterns of associations between SUD-related phenotypes and the genetic liability for mental health-related traits, which may help explain part of the heterogeneity observed in SUD. In our SUD sample, we found associations linking the genetic liability for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with lower educational attainment, the genetic liability for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with higher rates of unemployment, the genetic liability for educational attainment with lower rates of criminal records and unemployment, and the genetic liability for well-being with lower rates of outpatient treatments and fewer problems related to family and social relationships. We also found evidence of PGS-environment interactions showing that genetic liability for suicide attempts worsened the psychiatric status in SUD individuals with a history of emotional physical and/or sexual abuse. Collectively, these data contribute to a better understanding of the role of genetic liability for mental health-related conditions and adverse life experiences in SUD heterogeneity.

European Union (EU) seems to have the aim to strengthen the role of equality bodies and encourage the expansion of their scope of application, their functions and their powers. This implies that they can play an essential role in challenging discriminatory decisions made through algorithmic systems. Due to the possibility they have to access information, to issue binding decisions in individual or collective cases of discrimination or to initiate court proceedings in their own name, they seem like the best positioned to offer an effective protection against algorithmic discrimination. In this article, we study the latest regulatory proposals relating to these bodies and which functions they must carry out to help people that have been discriminated against by artificial intelligence systems. Notwithstanding we argue that equality bodies have a privileged position to deal with discriminatory automated decisions, they need independence and human, technical and financial resources to perform all its tasks and to exercise all its competences effectively, and this is not always guaranteed.