Explore the vast range of titles available.

The COVID-19 pandemic is probably the greatest health catastrophe of the modern era. Spain's health care system has been exposed to uncontrollable numbers of patients over a short period, causing the system to collapse. Given that diagnosis is not immediate, and there is no effective treatment for COVID-19, other tools have had to be developed to identify patients at the risk of severe disease complications and thus optimize material and human resources in health care. There are no tools to identify patients who have a worse prognosis than others. This study aimed to process a sample of electronic health records of patients with COVID-19 in order to develop a machine learning model to predict the severity of infection and mortality from among clinical laboratory parameters. Early patient classification can help optimize material and human resources, and analysis of the most important features of the model could provide more detailed insights into the disease. After an initial performance evaluation based on a comparison with several other well-known methods, the extreme gradient boosting algorithm was selected as the predictive method for this study. In addition, Shapley Additive Explanations was used to analyze the importance of the features of the resulting model. After data preprocessing, 1823 confirmed patients with COVID-19 and 32 predictor features were selected. On bootstrap validation, the extreme gradient boosting classifier yielded a value of 0.97 (95% CI 0.96-0.98) for the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve, 0.86 (95% CI 0.80-0.91) for the area under the precision-recall curve, 0.94 (95% CI 0.92-0.95) for accuracy, 0.77 (95% CI 0.72-0.83) for the F-score, 0.93 (95% CI 0.89-0.98) for sensitivity, and 0.91 (95% CI 0.86-0.96) for specificity. The 4 most relevant features for model prediction were lactate dehydrogenase activity, C-reactive protein levels, neutrophil counts, and urea levels. Our predictive model yielded excellent results in the differentiating among patients who died of COVID-19, primarily from among laboratory parameter values. Analysis of the resulting model identified a set of features with the most significant impact on the prediction, thus relating them to a higher risk of mortality.

Novel pectin-based, antifungal, edible coatings (ECs) were formulated by the addition of natural extracts or essential oils (EOs), and their ability to control green mold (GM), caused by Penicillium digitatum, and preserve postharvest quality of ‘Valencia’ oranges was evaluated. Satureja montana, Cinnamomum zeylanicum (CN), Commiphora myrrha (MY) EOs, eugenol (EU), geraniol (GE), vanillin, and propolis extract were selected as the most effective antifungal agents against P. digitatum in in vitro assays. Pectin-beeswax edible coatings amended with these antifungals were applied to artificially inoculated oranges to evaluate GM control. ECs containing GE (2 g/kg), EU (4 and 8 g/kg), and MY EO (15 g/kg) reduced disease incidence by up to 58% after 8 days of incubation at 20 °C, while CN (8 g/kg) effectively reduced disease severity. Moreover, ECs formulated with EU (8 g/kg) and GE (2 g/kg) were the most effective on artificially inoculated cold-stored oranges, with GM incidence reductions of 56 and 48% after 4 weeks at 5 °C. Furthermore, ECs containing EU and MY reduced weight loss and maintained sensory and physicochemical quality after 8 weeks at 5 °C followed by 7 days at 20 °C. Overall, ECs with EU were the most promising and could be a good natural, safe, and eco-friendly commercial treatment for preserving orange postharvest quality.

This commentary calls for further research into digital resignation within non-market contexts, particularly in relation to the datafied welfare state, as distinct from commercial big tech platforms. We aim to nuance the concept of digital resignation by relating it to the digitization of institutions and public services upholding the Danish welfare state, including health services, childcare, and news consumption. These cases illustrate that datafication stimulates citizens’ discomfort by registering privacy-intrusive information and setting new standards for being a good citizen, which resignation research can help us understand. We use the case examples to propose new avenues for digital resignation research and question whether organizations, institutions, and governments themselves can be digitally resigned. As such, the usefulness of digital resignation as a concept can be expanded.

The antifungal activity of natural extracts, essential oils (EOs), and pure volatiles against Monilinia fructicola, the main causal agent of brown rot of stone fruits, was evaluated in in vitro tests. Cinnamon (CI), lemongrass (LE), geraniol (GE), and myrrh (MY) EOs were the most effective antifungal agents and, hence, selected as ingredients of composite edible coatings (CECs) formulated with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and lipidic components. In in vivo curative experiments with ‘Black Gold’ plums artificially inoculated with M. fructicola and incubated for up to 10 days at 20 °C, brown rot incidence was reduced by up to 49% with CECs containing 4 g/kg LE, 2 g/kg GE, or 5 g/kg MY. These CECs were then evaluated for brown rot control and quality maintenance of ‘Angeleno’ plums stored for up to 6 weeks at 1 °C and 90% RH, followed by a shelf-life period of 4 days at 20 °C. After 3 weeks, CECs containing GE and MY reduced brown rot incidence by 45 and 70%, respectively. After 6 weeks plus shelf life, all CECs reduced brown rot severity (lesion size) by 30–50%. Regarding fruit quality, coated plums showed higher firmness than uncoated control plums, and the CEC containing GE significantly reduced weight loss after 6 weeks plus shelf life. Moreover, physicochemical quality attributes (titratable acidity, soluble solids content, and volatile compounds) and sensory properties (overall flavor, off-flavor, firmness, and external appearance) of coated plums were not negatively affected by CEC application. Furthermore, all coated plums exhibited more gloss than uncoated fruit. Overall, the CEC-GE formulation was the most effective in reducing decay and maintaining the postharvest quality of cold-stored plums, showing the best potential as a sustainable alternative for plum postharvest preservation.

This paper studies the perception of Latin American university teachers about the effectiveness of digital content creation (DCC) tools for the creation of e-learning training actions. For this purpose, the opinions of a group of 564 teachers from different universities in 16 Latin American countries have been collected and their answers have been analyzed according to different sociological and academic characteristics (gender, age, teaching experience, area of knowledge, and academic degree). The results indicate that Latin American university teachers express high levels of digital training and highly value the didactic effectiveness of DCC tools to develop e-learning training actions. This valuation is significantly higher among females than males. Gender is also revealed as the most influential characteristic in the perception of teachers about the use of digital resources in the classroom, above any other aspect.

Al igual que en otras dictaduras del Cono Sur, durante la última dictadura militar argentina (1976-1983), las mujeres detenidas fueron víctimas de distintas formas de violencia sexual. Recién en los últimos años, luego de la reapertura de los juicios por delitos de lesa humanidad y con una cantidad considerable de resistencias, se empezó a considerar la posibilidad de juzgar la violencia sexual como un delito diferenciado de los tormentos. En el presente trabajo nos proponemos dar cuenta de los principales debates jurídicos en torno a la posibilidad de juzgar estos delitos y argumentaremos en favor de la posibilidad de dicho juzgamiento.

Sour rot, caused by Geotrichum citri-aurantii, can produce significant postharvest losses of citrus fruits and, currently, cannot be effectively controlled by the postharvest fungicides registered in EU countries. Therefore, novel antifungal edible coatings (ECs) based on citrus pectin and beeswax and enriched with eugenol (EG), geraniol (GR), propolis extract (PR) or essential oils (EOs) from Satureja montana (SA), Cinnamomum zeylanicum (CI), or Commiphora myrrha (CM), were developed as alternatives to reduce sour rot and preserve the postharvest quality of ‘Valencia’ oranges. These natural agents were incorporated into the EC formulation and then applied to inoculated oranges. ECs enriched with EG (2–8 g/kg), GR (4 and 8 g/kg), PR (5–20 g/kg), and CM EO (15 g/kg) reduced disease incidence and severity by 75 to 100% compared to uncoated oranges after 20 days of incubation at 20 °C. ECs containing EG (8 g/kg), GR (4 g/kg), and PR (20 g/kg) reduced weight loss and retained firmness of oranges after 14 days of shelf life at 20 °C. Furthermore, all tested ECs maintained the fruit’s sensory and physicochemical quality. Overall, the EG-enriched pectin EC performed best, showing potential as a safe, bio-based alternative to conventional waxes containing synthetic fungicides for the management of citrus postharvest sour rot.

Aseptic prosthetic loosening (APL) and prosthetic joint infections (PJI) are frequent complications of hip and knee implants. Polymorphisms of cytokines and nitric oxide (NO), key inflammatory molecules in APL and PJI pathogenesis, could explain individual susceptibility to these complications. Three cytokines ( IL-1-a, IL-1-β, TNF-α ) and two nitric oxide synthase ( NOS2, NOS3 ) genes polymorphisms were genotyped in 77 APL and 117 PJI patients and 145 controls with aseptic hip or knee implants that were implanted for > 16 years. Plasma cytokines and nitrate-nitrite (NOx) levels also were measured. The TT genotype and T allele of (+ 3954 C/T, exon 5, rs1143634 ) IL-1β polymorphism were more frequent in APL patients compared to controls (P = 0.03 and P = 0.02, respectively). No genotypic associations in PJI patients were observed. Plasma IL-6, TNF-α and NOx were significantly different between APL and controls (P < 0.0001). Plasma IL-1β and IL-6 were significantly higher in APL T allele carriers vs. non-carriers (P < 0.03). Knee implant (HR 2.488, 95% CI 1.307–4.739, P = 0.005), male gender (HR 2.252, 95% CI 1.121–4.525, P = 0.023), carriages of the TT genotype of the (+ 3954 C/T) IL-1β polymorphism (HR 3.704, 95% CI 1.274–10.753, P = 0.016) and AA genotype of the (exon 22) NOS2 polymorphism (HR 3.509, 95% CI 1.266–9.709, P = 0.016) were independently associated with a shorter implant survival by Cox regression. No genotypic associations in PJI patients were observed. Genotyping of IL-1β (+ 3954 C/T, exon 5, rs1143634 ) and NOS2 (exon 22) polymorphisms could be useful as predictors of early hip or knee APL.

Mosaic loss of chromosome Y (mLOY) is a common ageing-related somatic event and has been previously associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, mLOY estimation from genotype microarray data only reflects the mLOY degree of subjects at the moment of DNA sampling. Therefore, mLOY phenotype associations with AD can be severely age-confounded in the context of genome-wide association studies. Here, we applied Mendelian randomisation to construct an age-independent mLOY polygenic risk score (mloy-PRS) using 114 autosomal variants. The mloy-PRS instrument was associated with an 80% increase in mLOY risk per standard deviation unit (p = 4.22 × 10−20) and was orthogonal with age. We found that a higher genetic risk for mLOY was associated with faster progression to AD in men with mild cognitive impairment (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.23, p = 0.01). Importantly, mloy-PRS had no effect on AD conversion or risk in the female group, suggesting that these associations are caused by the inherent loss of the Y chromosome. Additionally, the blood mLOY phenotype in men was associated with increased cerebrospinal fluid levels of total tau and phosphorylated tau181 in subjects with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Our results strongly suggest that mLOY is involved in AD pathogenesis.