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Background: Spain as multiple other countries has been experiencing an increasing and sustained trend in the use of psychotropic medications since the mid 90s. Recent studies show public health measures implemented to control SARS-Cov2, such as mobility restrictions and the shutdown of nonessential activities increased mental suffering, even contributing to a higher number of anxiety, depression and insomnia disorders that could lead to an increase in the consumption of psychotropics. The aims were: 1) Evaluate the temporal trend in psychotropic consumption by pharmacological subgroup, sex, and age group 2) Estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in the use of psychotropic drugs., Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study, retrieving all prescriptions of anxiolytics, hypnotics and sedatives, and antidepressants dispensed in pharmacies of Asturias (Northern Spain) for Primary Care patients for the period 2018-2021. We presented the data expressed in Daily Defined Doses (DDDs) for 1000 persons/day (DHD). To estimate changes in DHDs by year and age group we conducted two multiple linear regressions (one for males and one for females) for every pharmacological subgroup studied. Changes were considered statistically significant when the regression coefficient was p < 0.05. We used the Software R 4.1.0., Results: For the studied period, the highest DHDs are for antidepressants, although all of the subgroups experienced an increase in consumption rates. Women consumed more psychotropic drugs than men. In 2021, 372 out of every 1000 women were taking daily 1 DDD of these drugs versus 184 out of every 1000 men. Consumption rates for all psychotropic drugs progressively increases with age. Conversely, the biggest increases in consumption were among the youngest age groups (0-14 and 15-29 years) for women, while for men there is more variability. The regression models suggest an upward trend in psychotropic consumption during all the period, especially remarkable from 2020, for both genders and all age groups., Conclusions: - The consumption of psychotropic drugs has gradually increased over the last 4 years, with a significant boost starting in 2020 for both sexes, matching the start of the SARS-COV2 pandemic and the implementation of strict Public Health measures to contain it. - The increase observed on children and adolescents is a matter of concern., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Introduction Consumption of antibiotics is high in Spain, primarily in children. Excessive use of then contributes to the development of antimicrobial resistance. The aim of our study is to analyse the evolution of antibiotic consumption at the Primary Health Care in the paediatric population of Asturias, Spain, from 2014 to 2021, and to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on it.Methods Retrospective and observational study using data about antibacterial agents for systemic use dispensed for official prescriptions to children under 14 years in Primary Care. Antibiotic consumption is expressed as defined daily dose (DDD) per 1000 inhabitants per day (DID).Results The antibiotic consumption rate dropped from 13.9 DID in 2014 to 4.0 in 2021 (β = -1,42, p=0,002), with and inflection point in 2019. From 2019 to 2020 antibiotic use dropped by 47.1%. Antibiotic consumption remained very low from April 2020 to September 2021, and then moderately increased from October 2021. Prevalence of antibiotic use dropped from 39.9% in 2014 to 17.5% in 2021 (β = -3,64, p=0,006). Relative consumption of amoxicillin/clavulanic acid decreased, while those of amoxiciline and third-generation cephalosporins increased.Conclusions Paediatric antibiotic consumption collapsed in Asturias in 2020, coinciding with COVID-19 pandemic. Monitoring of antimicrobial usage indicators will allow to check if these changes are sustained over time., (© 2022 Sociedad Española de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The chemical design of polymers with target structural and/or functional properties represents a grand challenge in materials science. While data-driven design approaches are promising, success with polymers has been limited, largely due to limitations in data availability. Here, we demonstrate the targeted sequence design of single-chain structure in polymers by combining coarse-grained modeling, machine learning, and model optimization. Nearly 2000 unique coarse-grained polymers are simulated to construct and analyze machine learning models. We find that deep neural networks inexpensively and reliably predict structural properties with limited sequence information as input. By coupling trained ML models with sequential model-based optimization, polymer sequences are proposed to exhibit globular, swollen, or rod-like behaviors, which are verified by explicit simulations. This work highlights the promising integration of coarse-grained modeling with data-driven design and represents a necessary and crucial step toward more complex polymer design efforts., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).)

Triboelectric charging - which children see when they rub balloons on their hair - has important consequences in many industries and natural phenomena. Despite its importance, the identity of the charge carriers that lead to triboelectric charging is uncertain. For polymers, previous X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies definitively show that bonds break during triboelectric charging. Others have argued that a pair of co-located bond breaks release a charged fragment that acts as the charge carrier for triboelectric charging. We describe an alternative process based on density functional theory results showing that charged fragments, in the presence of water, will react to form neutral fragments and H + or OH - ions. These results show that a single bond break, which is more likely than a pair of co-located bond breaks, can then create tethered polymer fragments that in humidity will generate mobile H + or OH - charge carriers for triboelectric charging.

Single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) brushes, in which ssDNA oligomers are tethered to surfaces in dense monolayers, are being investigated for potential biosensing applications. The structure of the brush can affect the selectivity and the hybridization efficiency of the device. The structure is commonly thought to result from the balance of intramolecular interactions, intermolecular interactions within the monolayer, and molecule-surface interactions. Here, we test the hypothesis that ssDNA oligomer brush structure is dominated by intramolecular interactions. We use AFM to measure the height of an ssDNA brush and molecular dynamics to simulate the end-to-end distance, both as a function of ionic strength of the surrounding solution. The brush height and the molecule end-to-end distance match quantitatively, providing evidence that the brush structure is dominated by intramolecular interactions (mediated by ions). The physical basis of the intramolecular interactions is elucidated by the simulations.

Here we study the relationship between a surfactant's molecular shape and its tendency to partition to the interface in ethanol-water mixtures. In general, finding surfactants that are effective in alcohol-water mixtures is more challenging than finding ones that are effective in pure water. This is because the solvophobic effect that partitions surfactants from bulk solution to the interface becomes weaker as ethanol concentration increases. We use experiments and molecular dynamics to observe the effects of increasing surfactant tail length or width. The results show that increasing surfactant tail length causes the surfactant to partition to the surface better in low ethanol concentrations, but not at high ethanol concentrations. In comparison, increasing surfactant tail width causes the surfactant to partition to the surface better at higher concentrations of ethanol. We examine the liquid structure to elucidate the mechanisms that weaken the partitioning effect as ethanol concentration increases. Ethanol-water mixtures are nanoscopically heterogeneous with protic and aprotic regions in the bulk solution. We see that the surfactant tail is most likely to be solvated in the aprotic regions where it perturbs fewer hydrogen bonds.

Aim: To structure the rate of intraoperative complications that requires an intraoperative or perioperative resolution., Methods: We perform a literature review of Medline database. The research was focused on intraoperative laparoscopic procedures inside the field of urological oncology. General rate of perioperative complications in laparoscopic urologic surgery is described to be around 12.4%. Most of the manuscripts published do not make differences between pure intraoperative, intraoperative with postoperative consequences and postoperative complications., Results: We expose a narrative statement of complications, possible solutions and possible preventions for most frequent retroperitoneal and pelvic laparoscopic surgery. We expose the results with the following order: retroperitoneal laparoscopic surgery (radical nephrectomy, partial nephrectomy, nephroureterectomy and adrenalectomy) and pelvic laparoscopic surgery (radical prostatectomy and radical cystectomy)., Conclusion: Intraoperative complications vary from different series. More scheduled reports should be done in order to better understand the real rates of complications.

The surface activity of a typical surfactant, octanoic acid (OA), in ethanol-water solutions is investigated with a combined experimental and molecular simulation approach. The experiments show that OA reduces the surface tension of ethanol-water solutions at low ethanol concentration, but the effectiveness decreases with increasing ethanol concentration and vanishes for ethanol concentrations above 60%. Molecular dynamics simulations are used to obtain free energy landscapes for OA as a function of the distance from the surface. The free energy driving force pushing OA to the surface decreases with increasing ethanol concentration, and becomes insignificant (i.e., less than kT) for ethanol concentrations above 70%. Thus, the decrease in the effectiveness of OA in reducing the surface tension at higher ethanol concentrations can be attributed to the decrease in the free energy driving force keeping OA at the surface. We expect these results to apply generally to hydrocarbon-based surfactants.