Directional picoantenna behavior of tunnel junctions formed by an atomic-scale surface defect.

Plasmonic nanoantennas have attracted much attention lately, among other reasons because of the directionality of light emitted by fluorophores coupled to their localized surface plasmon resonances. Plasmonic picocavities, i.e.

Are older teens more frustrated than younger teens by the covid-19 restrictions? The role of psychological maturity, personality traits, depression and life satisfaction.

Many studies have shown the negative impact of lockdowns on adolescents, but there is less evidence on how they are affected by other stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and, especially, whether there are any differences between early and late adolescence. The current study focuses on the frustration felt by adolescents because of the severe COVID-19 restrictions in a non-lockdown situation. We aimed to (a) assess the role of maturity and two personality traits (emotional stability and extraversion) in predicting their frustration, and (b) compare the levels of frustration, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction in older and younger adolescents.

Barriers and facilitators in the implementation of a telemedicine-based outpatient brain tumor surgery program.

Objective: Despite growing evidence on the benefits of outpatient oncological neurosurgery (OON), it is only performed in a few specialized centers and there are no previous descriptions of established OON programs in Europe. Moreover, increasing application of telemedicine strategies, especially after the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, is drastically changing neurosurgical management, particularly in the case of vulnerable populations such as neuro-oncological patients. In this context, the authors implemented an OON program in their hospital with telematic follow-up.

COmpliance with pandemic COmmands Scale (COCOS): The relationship between compliance with COVID-19 measures and sociodemographic and attitudinal variables.

Several studies in different countries have reported that part of the population does not fully comply with the measures recommended to prevent COVID-19, and therefore poses a risk to public health. For this reason, several measures have been developed to assess the level of compliance, although many of them have methodological limitations or do not include a comprehensive set of items. The main goal of the current study was to develop a new instrument with suitable psychometric properties, which includes a more complete set of items and controls the impact of acquiescence bias.

PM events and changes in the chemical composition of urban aerosols: A case study in the western Mediterranean.

More than 400 PM and 400 PM daily samples were collected in the urban center of Elche (close to the Spanish Mediterranean coast) from February 2015 to February 2018. Samples were analyzed to determine the concentrations of major and trace components with the aim of evaluating the influence of specific pollution events on the chemical composition of both PM fractions. The concentrations of crustal elements in PM significantly increased during Saharan dust outbreaks, particularly titanium, which has been identified as a good tracer of these events in the study area.

Characterization of metals in PM and PM and health risk evaluation at an urban site in the western Mediterranean.

PM and PM samples collected in the urban center of Elche during two years were analyzed by Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence in order to determine the concentrations of the following metals: K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Sr and Ba. The influence of traffic and Saharan dust intrusions on PM levels and metal content was studied in this work. The results indicate that the coarse fraction was affected more by variations in traffic intensity than the submicron fraction.

Regional and long-range transport of aerosols at Mt. Aitana, Southeastern Spain.

More than 150 particulate matter (PM) samples with aerodynamic diameters smaller than 1 and 10μm (PM and PM, respectively) were collected during an 18-month sampling campaign at Mt. Aitana (1558m a.s.

Characterization of hydrocarbons in aerosols at a Mediterranean city with a high density of palm groves.

Samples of PM1 and PM10 were collected for 1 year at an urban background station in the city of Elche (southeastern Spain) and analyzed to determine the content of n-alkanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). A few samples were also gathered at a second sampling point established at one of the several palm tree gardens of the city in order to evaluate the influence of biogenic emissions on the urban levels of n-alkanes. Diagnostic parameters obtained for aliphatic hydrocarbons (carbon maximum number (C max), carbon preference index (CPI), and wax n-alkane content (%WNA)) revealed a higher contribution of biogenic n-alkanes in PM10 than in PM1.

BTX in urban areas of eastern Spain: a focus on time variations and sources.

Seasonal and daily cycles of BTX were studied in a non-industrialized city (Alicante) and an urban area near an oil refinery plant (Castellón) in order to evaluate the influence of different sources on time variations. Lower levels were observed in summer than in winter at both locations due to higher dispersion conditions and photochemical removal of BTX during the summer season. Daily patterns showed seasonal differences and were controlled by traffic emissions and the evolution of the mixing layer height, with no influence of the petroleum refinery plant in the city of Castellón.

Particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in an urban, industrial and rural area in the western Mediterranean.

Particle-bound PAHs were measured at three sites in southeastern Spain (an urban background location, a suburban-industrial site in the vicinity of two cement plants and a rural area) in order to investigate the influence of the type of location on PAH concentrations. A clear influence of cement production on particulate PAH levels could not be established since for the urban background and suburban-industrial sites the average concentrations of total PAHs in the PM2.5 fraction were very similar (1.

Application of an automatic thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry system for the analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in airborne particulate matter.

The application of the thermal desorption (TD) method coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to the analysis of aerosol organics has been the focus of many studies in recent years. This technique overcomes the main drawbacks of the solvent extraction approach such as the use of large amounts of toxic organic solvents and long and laborious extraction processes. In this work, the application of an automatic TD-GC-MS instrument for the determination of particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is evaluated.

Genetic characterization of Cryptosporidium species from humans in Spain.

Several species of Cryptosporidium have been associated with infection. Cryptosporidium parvum and Cryptosporidium hominis are the main agents of cryptosporidiosis in humans. Stool samples from 108 Cryptosporidium-infected patients were submitted to PCR-RFLP analysis for a 553-bp fragment of Cryptosporidium oocyst wall protein (COWP) gene and an 826-864 bp fragment of the small-subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU-rRNA) gene.

3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl sulfones in the direct Julia-Kocienski olefination.

3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl (BTFP) sulfones 7 have been employed in the Julia-Kocienski olefination reaction with carbonyl compounds. Sulfones 7 are readily prepared in high yields (64-97%) from commercially available 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)thiophenol through an alkylation/oxidation two-step sequence. The stability of metalated BTFP sulfones has been studied and compared with heteroaryl benzothiazol-2-yl (BT), 1-phenyl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl (PT), and 1-tert-butyl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl (TBT) sulfones 9-11 under different reaction conditions.

Association between pterostilbene and quercetin inhibits metastatic activity of B16 melanoma.

Inhibition of cancer growth by resveratrol (trans-3,5,4'-trihydroxystilbene; RESV), a phytoalexin present in many plant species, is limited by its low bioavailability. Pterostilbene (3,5-dimethoxy-4'-hydroxystilbene; PTER) and quercetin (3,3',4',5,6-pentahydroxyflavone; QUER), two structurally related and naturally occurring small polyphenols, show longer half-life in vivo. In vitro growth of highly malignant B16 melanoma F10 cells (B16M-F10) is inhibited (56%) by short-time exposure (60 min/day) to PTER (40 microm) and QUER (20 microm) (approximate mean values of plasma concentrations measured within the first hour after intravenous administration of 20 mg/kg each polyphenol).

[Antimicrobial resistance of clinical strains of Salmonella enterica isolated in Zaragoza].

In order to identify any changes in the incidence of Salmonella enterica serotypes and their resistance to a variety of antimicrobial agents, we conducted a retrospective study of all the strains isolated from stool samples at Hospital Clínico Universitario Lozano Blesa in Zaragoza from 1997 to 2000. We observed an increase in the number of isolates of Salmonella and Campylobacter and a decrease in other enteropathogens. Enteritidis was the most frequently isolated serotype (55.

Evaluation of an immunochromatographic dip-strip test for the detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts in stool specimens.

The study presented here examined the efficacy of a commercially available qualitative immunochromatographic assay for detecting Cryptosporidium oocysts in stool samples. A total of 75 samples were tested, including 50 positive for Cryptosporidium spp. by acid-fast stain, 20 positive for other parasites ( Blastocystis hominis, Endolimax nana, Entamoeba coli, Giardia lamblia, Ascaris lumbricoides, Strongyloides stercoralis and Trichuris trichiura), and five negative samples.

Isolation of Malassezia globosa and M. sympodialis from patients with pityriasis versicolor in Spain.

Pityriasis versicolor is a superficial infection of the stratum corneum by several yeast species formerly collectively named Malasseziafurfur. The genus Malassezia has been recently enlarged with new species. With the exception of M.

The eaeA gene is not found in Hafnia alvei from patients with diarrhea in Aragón, Spain.

A total of 102 Hafnia alvei clinical strains isolated from different patients with diarrhea has been tested, using polymerase chain reaction and dot-blot hybridization, for the enteropathogenic Escherichia coli attaching and effacing A (eaeA) gene to establish their role as a causative agent of diarrhea in our environment. None of them was positive for the eaeA gene. We cannot consider the eaeA gene as the virulence-associated factor implicated in the H.

Fasciola hepatica: lithogenic capacity in experimentally infested rats and chemical determination of the main stone components.

A study was done of the possible association between the development of common bile-duct stones and the presence of worms in rats experimentally infected with Fasciola hepatica. A total of 157 rats were individually infected with 20 metacercariae, and another 40 animals served as controls. The rats were dissected at 100, 200, 300, and 400 days postinfection (p.

Visualization of hydatid elements: comparison of several techniques.

Some techniques available at our laboratory were tested for their ability to aid in the morphological diagnosis of hydatid elements (Echinococcus granulosus ["Taenia echinococcus"]) isolated from cysts in humans and sheep. Unstained, methanol-fixed hooklets were fluorescent, most starkly so under violet light (excitation filter wavelength, 405 nm; long-pass filter wavelength, 495 nm). Auramine-rhodamine and Gram procedures failed to stain hooklets.

Fuchsin fluorescence and autofluorescence in Cryptosporidium, Isospora and Cyclospora oocysts.

Cryptosporidium parvum and Isospora belli oocysts stained with carbol-fuchsin, as in a modified Ziehl Neelsen technique, fluoresce bright red under green light (546nm). Cryptosporidium oocysts tend to fluoresce more brightly the less intensely stained they appear under transmitted light; this is not the case with Isospora. Fuchsin-stained Cyclospora cayetanensis oocysts fluoresce rather dimly, but those not taking the dye retain their typical autofluorescence.