Madrid Research Articles

Impact of the implementation of Madrid's low emission zone on NO2 concentration using Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI data

In recent years, several measures and policies have been introduced to safeguard healthy NO2 levels in urban areas, including the creation of low emission zones (LEZs). In November 2018, a traffic-restricted area known as the Special Protection Low Emission Zone (SPLEZ) was established in the core of the city of Madrid, embracing most of its central district. This study aims to evaluate whether the implementation of the LEZ has led to improvements in air quality by analyzing NO2 concentrations in various case scenarios. For this purpose, data from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 precursor (Sentinel-5P) were used. The pre- and post-LEZ implementation seasonal analysis (from July 2018 to May 2019) and the entirety of 2022 indicated that the epicenter of transport-related NO2 concentrations did not lie within its boundaries. However, NO2 levels within the SPLEZ peaked during winter, with heating and meteorological factors playing a significant role. Additionally, the findings from the case study of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the influence of human activities on the NO2 concentration in both the SPLEZ and the entire metropolitan area. NO2 emissions decreased during the strict lockdown period and steadily increased as activities resumed. Satellite data was compared to surface-level measurements in each case study, resulting in a linear correlation coefficient of 0.72. TROPOMI data was found to closely align with surface-level observations as pollution levels increased, contrasting with better air quality scenarios. Despite certain limitations, it can serve as a valuable tool for providing complementary information to surface-level data, particularly in characterizing changes in pollution distribution patterns.

The women who wrote in the Manicomio Nacional de Leganés after the Spanish Civil War, 1939-1952

This article uses the medical records of six women admitted to the Manicomio Nacional de Leganés, Madrid (Spain), in which, in addition to medical notes, there are letters and other personal documents. These unsent letters allow us to read about their complaints towards the institution, as well as to recover the voices of the inmates and their resistance to being treated like insane people. This analysis leads us to explore the double marginalization: being "women" and being "mentally ill"; it also brings us closer to building a story from the patient's point of view. The time frame is Franco's dictatorship, during which the implementation of a national-Catholic system undoubtedly reinforced the female hegemonic model of the regime.

PEASANT SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN CENTRAL ROMAN IBERIA: A NETWORK ANALYSIS OF MATERIAL ASSEMBLAGES

In recent decades, preventive excavations around the city of Madrid (Spain) have provided us with a unique opportunity to study rural non-elite peasant settlements in the Roman period. Based on the systematic analysis of the archaeological record of nine of these sites and the use of tools derived from network science, this work characterises the consumption patterns of these communities. By focusing on the differences between the patterns of each of the settlements, this work offers new data for interpreting the settlement patterns and how peasant communities exploited the territory in Roman times. The results obtained offer a series of differences between the consumption patterns that are compatible with a ‘distributed habitation’ type of landscape exploitation, in which households are distributed in the landscape in different settlements that exploit the territory more efficiently.

Exploring the influence of parenting competences on children’s emotional regulation and its relationship with classroom learning: A qualitative research study

Emotional regulation is closely connected to classroom learning, so the influence of the family on the child’s emotional regulation capacities is an important factor to consider. The objective of this study was to obtain working knowledge of the skills and cognition possessed by a group of parents in relation to their parental competences linked to emotional regulation of their children, and identify the strengths, weaknesses, and potentials of these parental competences. The research was carried out through a qualitative methodological design, based on the knowledge, skills, and practices that parents have on the emotional regulation of their children, considering that these practices are key to classroom learning and therefore to academic performance. As a methodological strategy of the investigation, the case study will be used, with a sample of a group of 28 fathers and mothers, with infant-age children (0–12 years) obtained through a network of parents and an Infant School in Madrid (Spain). Through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, the knowledge, skills, and practices that these parents carry out in the emotional regulation of their children were discovered. Concluding that it is necessary to reinforce some parental skills for improve the emotional regulation of their children, through courses, seminars, and family educational workshops, to put them into practice in a positive way, since this will influence learning (through motivation, communication, self-esteem, etc.).

Application of AI for Short-Term PV Generation Forecast.

The efficient use of the photovoltaic power requires a good estimation of the PV generation. That is why the use of good techniques for forecast is necessary. In this research paper, Long Short-Term Memory, Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory and the Temporal convolutional network are studied in depth to forecast the photovoltaic power, voltage and efficiency of a 1320 Wp amorphous plant installed in the Technology Support Centre in the University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid (Spain). The accuracy of these techniques are compared using experimental data along one year, applying 1 timestep or 15 min and 96 step times or 24 h, showing that TCN exhibits outstanding performance, compared with the two other techniques. For instance, it presents better results in all forecast variables and both forecast horizons, achieving an overall Mean Squared Error (MSE) of 0.0024 for 15 min forecasts and 0.0058 for 24 h forecasts. In addition, the sensitivity analyses for the TCN technique is performed and shows that the accuracy is reduced as the forecast horizon increases and that the 6 months of dataset is sufficient to obtain an adequate result with an MSE value of 0.0080 and a coefficient of determination of 0.90 in the worst scenarios (24 h of forecast).

The Body Represented

This research proposes the body as a privileged stage for creating possible worlds and the school as a metaphor for its territory. The guiding question is: How do students represent their bodies and the relationships that stem from them? In this way, the study explores the body in the classroom as a site of interaction with the lifeworld, aiming to uncover the invisible learning experiences of students as objects of communication research.
 The work attempts to understand the body as indivisible between its parts and the environment, as a contemporary axis of the notion of humanity, rooted in the core of social and human sciences. The body is seen as substance and action, the metaphor of all metaphors, cutting across various fields of knowledge.
 Currently, the body seems to be reduced to social capital, an object open to commodification. It's a body dedicated to consumption, improvement, fitness, shaving, and stretching, while time contracts it—an advertising subject, a form of advertisement in itself.
 The study seeks answers regarding young people's conceptions and interactions with their bodies by understanding the questions that arise from and about the body and the variations and processes of self-awareness that many young people undergo. This research is pursued through fieldwork on two continents, aiming to understand how these relationships can vary according to the cultural context.
 Based on this background, a questionnaire is constructed. Its primary purpose is to comprehend how students perceive their relationships with their bodies, associating them with feelings, shapes, emotions, beauty, words, and other elements. Additionally, the study attempts to grasp the order in which the body is conceived: as a whole, composed of parts, or as parts? The questionnaire proposes the idea of the multidimensionality of the body, suggesting that the body is more than just its physical form—it traverses, travels, and transforms across different dimensions.
 The questionnaire was administered to university students majoring in communication-related fields. A group of 200 students participated, with 100 from Universidad Sergio Arboleda in Bogotá, Colombia, and 100 from Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain. These universities were chosen to diversify the study's participants, encompassing private and public education, ensuring a broader spectrum of responses.
 Studying the body as an object leads to cognition, communication, and information insights. Within its totality and in each of its parts, there is a complex web of cognitive processes intertwined with practices of self-organization, self-affirmation, reproduction, and complexity.
 I have argued that cognitive science is beginning to realize that perception is not about recovering a pre-established world, but rather it is perceptually guided action in a world inseparable from our sensorimotor abilities, and that higher cognitive structures also arise from recurrent patterns of perceptually guided action. Therefore, cognition is not about representations but embodied action. (Varela, 1996, p. 9)
 This exercise encourages students to reflect on bodily experiences, exploring their imaginations and ways of representing the body using focus group methodology. It aims to consider experiences in the educational setting as performances and recognize their potential to transform students' communication skills.

Typing of Leishmania isolates from vectors and leporids of the Madrid (Spain) outbreak.

In 2009, a large outbreak of leishmaniasis, associated with environmental changes, was declared near Madrid (Spain), in which Phlebotomus perniciosus was the vector, whereas the main reservoirs were hares and rabbits. Analysis of isolates from humans, vectors and leporids from the focus identified the Leishmania infantum ITS-Lombardi genotype. However, multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE), the reference technique for Leishmania typing, and sequencing of the hsp70 gene, a commonly used marker, were not performed. In the present study, 19 isolates from P. perniciosus (n = 11), hares (n = 5) and rabbits (n = 3) from the outbreak area, all characterized as ITS-Lombardi in previous studies, were analysed by MLEE and hsp70 sequencing. The hsp70 results confirmed that all the analysed strains are L. infantum. However, by MLEE, 4 different zymodemes of L. infantum were identified based on variable mobilities of the NP1 enzyme: MON-34 (NP1100, n = 11), MON-80 (NP1130, n = 6), MON-24 (NP1140, n = 1) and MON-331 (NP1150, n = 1). The relative frequency of these zymodemes does not correspond to their usual occurrence in Spain. Moreover, MON-34 and MON-80 were found in P. perniciosus, hares and rabbits for the first time. These findings continue to provide insights into the outbreak and call for further studies with a higher number of strains.

Cognitive Patterns and Problematic Use of Video Games in Adolescents: A Cluster Analysis.

Video game playing (VGP) is an increasingly common leisure activity among children and adolescents, although in some cases, it is accompanied by problems due to misuse. A sample of 2884 children and adolescents aged between 12 and 20, representative of the Community of Madrid (Spain), were studied using a cluster analysis to explore the existence of cognitive patterns associated with engagement, attitudes, and concurrent cognitions. We also explored the relationship between these patterns and problematic VGP, using the 2173 gamers as a reference. The concurrent cognitions were not qualitatively different between the problematic users and the others. High engagement and high activation of concurrent cognitions (intensity and frequency) showed the greatest relationship with problematic VGP. The results suggest the existence of different groups of gamers and the relevance to include psycho-educational aspects in intervention programs, as well as the training of specific skills, especially those related with the control of activation. Limitations related to the sample size and potential supplementary analyses are acknowledged.

Association between Food-Specific Immunoglobulin G4 Antibodies in Adults with Self-Reported Signs and Symptoms Attributed to Adverse Reactions to Foodstuffs.

Signs and symptoms attributed to adverse reactions to foodstuffs (ARFS) need tools for research and evaluation in clinical practice. The objectives of this study were (a) to evaluate the most frequent self-reported signs and symptoms attributed to ARFS in Spanish adults, (b) to determine the prevalence of food-specific IgG4 antibody reactions (AbRs), and (c) to investigate the association between self-reported ARFS symptomatology and food-specific IgG4 AbRs. Food-specific IgG4 AbRs against 57 common food and beverages (AESKUCARE-T2FA® in vitro point-of-care test kit, Aesku.Diagnostics GmbH, Germany) were determined in capillary blood samples of 205 volunteers living in the Region of Madrid (Spain). The most frequent self-reported signs and symptoms were related to skin (43%), digestive (41%), and nervous system (NS, 33%) problems. The prevalence of food-specific IgG4 AbRs was cow's milk (73%), sheep's milk (70%), casein (66%), and goat's milk (56.10%). Positive IgG4 AbRs against tomato had a profile consisting of 3/4 of skin problems, more than half of digestive, and 2/5 of NS self-reported signs and symptoms. In conclusion, at least 1/3 of the studied sample reported skin, digestive, and NS signs and symptoms. The most frequent food-specific IgG4 AbRs were related to dairy. Skin problems were more frequent in positive tomato IgG4 AbRs.

How do emission reductions of individual national and local measures impact street-level air quality in a neighbourhood of Madrid, Spain?

AbstractThis paper aims to assess the impact of individual measures for NOx emission reduction on NO2 concentrations at very high spatial resolution in an urban district of Madrid City (Spain). A methodology based on a set of Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations for 16 meteorological scenarios combined with the CHIMERE model for background pollution is used to obtain annual NO2 concentration maps. Two scenarios included in the Spanish National Air Pollution Control Programme are investigated: NOx emission reductions from the installation of more efficient boilers for domestic heating (ECOBOIL) and from the partly substitution of passenger cars with combustion engines by electric cars (EC). This analysis is extended to 9 additional scenarios of more ambitious implementation of electric vehicles in order to determine what the NOx emission reduction required for the annual mean NO2 concentration EU limit value not being exceeded is. The ECOBOIL scenario has a very weak impact on the NO2 concentrations. However, the EC scenario implies a more significant reduction of the NO2 concentrations, but not enough to fully remove NO2 limit value exceedances in the study area. A small additional (compared with the EC scenario) implementation of electric vehicles seems to fulfil that the spatially averaged NO2 concentration be lower than the EU limit value, but the area with exceedances is still very large. However, stronger traffic emission reductions (80%) corresponding to the most ambitious scenarios are needed in order to reach that at least 95% of the domain is free of EU limit value exceedances.

Emergency department evaluation of transplanted children with COVID-19

BackgroundChildren usually have an asymptomatic or mild course of SARS-CoV-2 infection, studies in immunocompromised patients have shown a different evolution. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical, laboratory, and radiologic manifestations of pediatric solid organ transplant (SOT) and hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patients testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. MethodsA multicenter retrospective, observational descriptive study was conducted in 3 tertiary hospitals in Madrid (Spain) between March 2020 and December 2022. Consecutive patients aged 0–18 attending the corresponding pediatric emergency departments with a positive result in the real-time polymerase chain reaction test or antigenic test to detect SARS-CoV-2 in the nasopharyngeal sample were included. ResultsA total of 31 children were included in the study. Sixteen (51.6%) were patients with HSCT and 15 (48.3) were patients with SOT. The median time from transplantation to COVID-19 was 1.2 years (IQR:0.5–5.1). The SOT cohort included liver (n = 4, 12.9%), kidney (n = 4, 12.9%), heart (n = 3, 9.7%), multivisceral (n = 3, 9.7%), and lung (n = 1, 3.2%). Of the 31 patients, only one was asymptomatic. The most common symptom on presentation was fever (76.7%). Abnormalities were seen on chest X-ray in 8 (66.6%) of the 12 patients. There was no significant difference in clinical manifestations, lymphopenia and radiological findings regardless of the type of transplantation or immunosuppression status. Thirteen patients (41.9%) were hospitalized. There were no patient deaths. ConclusionsIn our study, we found that the clinical course and outcome of SOT and HSCT pediatric patients with COVID-19 were generally favorable.

Video Game Playing and Internet Gaming Disorder: A Profile of Young Adolescents.

In recent times, growing concern has arisen regarding the utilization of technology, video games, and the emergence of internet gaming disorder (IGD), particularly among young adolescents. This worry arises from the ambiguity in distinguishing between "normal" and "problematic" video game behavior, despite efforts to establish clear criteria for defining both. The goal of this study is to outline distinct profiles of adolescent video game players and identify variables associated with their gaming practices that correlate with problematic gaming. The study utilizes a substantial sample of adolescents drawn from a representative cross-section of educational institutions in the city of Madrid, ranging in age from 12 to 16 years. In total, 1516 participants (75%) acknowledged engaging in video game activities. The research delves into characterizing prevailing profiles of video game participants within this cohort and scrutinizes the profile that aligns with issues of IGD. In summary, approximately three-quarters of young adolescents participate in video gaming, with males constituting the majority. Typically, participants immerse themselves in action genre games for over three days per week, with males exhibiting a higher frequency than their female counterparts. Elevated gaming frequency correlates with heightened IGD scores, particularly among females. Young adolescents show a preference for game consoles (males) and mobile phones (females) and often play alone at home. Specific factors such as the device used, online mode, company, and gaming location impact the IGD scores. These profiles aim to assist families and educators in recognizing potential risk behaviors and IGD concerns; however, it is crucial to emphasize the necessity for case-specific screening and evaluation before deliberating on such behaviors.

High frequency of endoluminal thrombus in patients with ischaemic stroke following AARS-CoV-2 infection

BackgroundIschaemic stroke may be a major complication of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Studying and characterising the different aetiological subtypes, clinical characteristics, and functional outcomes may be valuable in guiding patient selection for optimal management and treatment. MethodsData were collected retrospectively on consecutive patients with COVID-19 who developed acute focal brain ischaemia (between 1 March and 19 April 2020) at a tertiary university hospital in Madrid (Spain). ResultsDuring the study period, 1594 patients were diagnosed with COVID-19. We found 22 patients with ischaemic stroke (1.38%), 6 of whom did not meet the inclusion criteria. The remaining 16 patients were included in the study (15 cases of ischaemic stroke and one case of transient ischaemic attack).Median baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score was 9 (interquartile range: 16), and mean (standard deviation) age was 73 years (12.8). Twelve patients (75%) were men. Mean time from COVID-19 symptom onset to stroke onset was 13 days. Large vessel occlusion was identified in 12 patients (75%).We detected elevated levels of D-dimer in 87.5% of patients and C-reactive protein in 81.2%. The main aetiology was atherothrombotic stroke (9 patients, 56.3%), with the predominant subtype being endoluminal thrombus (5 patients, 31.2%), involving the internal carotid artery in 4 cases and the aortic arch in one. The mortality rate in our series was 44% (7 of 16 patients). ConclusionsIn patients with COVID-19, the most frequent stroke aetiology was atherothrombosis, with a high proportion of endoluminal thrombus (31.2% of patients). Our clinical and laboratory data support COVID-19–associated coagulopathy as a relevant pathophysiological mechanism for ischaemic stroke in these patients.

Managing Perceived Legitimacy in Uncertain Times: The Effects of Long-Covid

Uncertainty and unpredictability are the main characteristics of a crisis: the Covid-19 pandemic was definitely characterised by these two issues. During the Covid-19 pandemic, people experienced a very high level of fear that affected their behaviour in several dimensions of their lives, including their buying habits. Retailing was one of the most affected industries due to government health regulations and people’s fears and emotions. In such tumultuous times, organizational legitimacy plays a crucial role since consumers tend to interact with legitimate organizations, avoiding companies that are not fulfilling their expectations and are not aligned with the accepted social norms. The objective of this research is to understand how uncertainty and crisis may affect consumer behaviour taking into account their emotional conditioning. Specifically, we measured the impact on three different groups of people based on their relationship with the virus: those infected, those uninfected, and those with long-Covid sequelae. We conducted an empirical study in June 2022 on a sample of 515 individuals from the above groups. Our findings revealed that the effects of risk perception and legitimacy are significantly different and that these factors affect individuals purchase intention. The research findings contribute to consumer behaviour theories and offer practical insights for marketing professionals and policymakers in crisis situations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Acknowledgments: This research has been financed by the Community of Madrid with European Regional Funds under the project “Evolución, Caracterización Clínica, Molecular y Genética y Tratamiento de los Síntomas post-COVID (COVID Persistente)” ref: A467; and Young Researchers R&D Project. Ref. Proyect v1156 LEG-INCERT-ECON. Financed by Community of Madrid (Spain) and Rey Juan Carlos University

Study of the Effect of Different Atmospheric Conditions on the Temporal Evolution of the Mixing Layer over Madrid during the Year 2020 by Means of Two Different Methods: Ceilometer Signals and the ECMWF-IFS Meteorological Model

Atmospheric aerosols are one of the main factors that contribute to poor air quality. These aerosols are mostly concentrated within the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and mixing layer (ML). The ABL extends from ground level to the lowest level of the troposphere directly affected by surface temperature, solar irradiance, the orography and its proximity to coastal areas, causing turbulence in a daily cycle. This turbulence controls the vertical mixing of aerosols and pollutants and their dispersion in the ML. Therefore, proper characterization of these layers is of crucial importance in numerical weather forecasting and climate models; however, their estimation nowadays presents some spatial and temporal limitations. In order to deal with these limitations and to assess the influence of different meteorological conditions on the temporal evolution of the aforementioned layers, the evolution of the ML over Madrid (Spain) has been studied for the year 2020 by means of ceilometer profiles fed into the STRATfinder algorithm. This algorithm is able to give reliable estimates of the height of the ABL (ABLH) and ML (MLH). The results are compared with the ECMWF-IFS model predictions, which is able to compute the MLH under any meteorological condition. Then, the influence of the meteorology in the estimation of MLHs was established by classifying data based on the season and six different prevalent synoptic meteorological situations defined using ground-level pressure fields, as well as by splitting the days into four periods (morning, daytime, evening and nighttime). Our results show that both datasets, the STRATfinder values and the ECMWF-IFS model computations, are very sensitive to the meteorological conditions that play a main role in the MLH temporal evolution. For instance, high solar irradiance and ground radiation cause high turbulence and convection that lead to a well-developed ML. In cases in which the ML is well developed, both methods show similar results, and there are therefore better correlations between them. On the contrary, the results presented here show that the presence of high relative humidity and low temperatures hamper the growth of the ML, causing different errors in both MLH estimations and poor correlations between them. Furthermore, the ECMWF-IFS model has shown a sharp decrease, identified as an artificial behavior from 16:00 UTC, because of the influence of low solar zenith angles and the temporal interpolation. The STRATfinder algorithm also shows a sharp decrease just before the sunset because of the way the algorithm distinguishes between the ML and the residual layer. Thus, this study concludes that the MLH temporal evolution still needs to be characterized using complementary tools, since the methods presented here are strongly affected by the meteorological conditions and do not show enough reliability to work individually. However, ceilometer measurements offer great potential as a correction tool for ABL heights derived from models involved in air pollution dispersion assessments.

The Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in an Exposed Human Population Is Biased by the Immunoassay Used: Implications in Serosurveillance.

The presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was examined over 7 months in a population of essential service workers exposed during the first epidemic wave in Madrid (Spain). Results obtained with different serological assays were compared. Firstly, serum samples obtained in April 2020 were analyzed using eleven SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection methods, including seven ELISAs, two CLIAs and two LFAs. While all of the ELISA tests and the Roche eCLIA method showed good performance, it was poorer for the Abbott CLIA and LFA tests. Sera from 115 workers with serologically positive results in April were collected 2 and 7 months after the first sampling and were analyzed using five of the tests previously assessed. The results showed that while some ELISA tests consistently detected the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies even 7 months after first detection, other methods, such as the Abbott CLIA test, showed an important reduction in sensitivity for these mature antibodies. The sensitivity increased after establishing new cut-off values, calculated taking into account both recent and old infections, suggesting that an adjustment of assay parameters may improve the detection of individuals exposed to the infection.

Evaluating machine learning techniques for predicting tourist occupancy: an experiment with pre- and post-pandemic COVID-19 data

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the prediction capacity of machine learning techniques under severe demand shocks. Specifically, three methods – Naive Bayes, Random Forest and Support Vector Machine – are tested in predicting rental occupancy for tourist accommodation in the city of Madrid. We compare two different scenarios: firstly, the predictive capacity in the years prior to COVID-19 and, secondly, the ability to anticipate demand behaviour once the pandemic started. The results demonstrate first that without market disturbances, the Random Forest model exhibits the best predictive capability. Second, the COVID-19 pandemic caused such major changes that none of the three tested models are entirely reliable, although the Random Forest and Naive Bayes models outperform the SVM model. As a methodological novelty, this paper includes occupancy quantiles to resolve problems with available data and temporal biases.

Are urban mobility policies favoring the purchase of new vehicles?

This research aims to determine the extent to which citizens are uncertain about the mobility policies adopted by regulators and how the decision to purchase new vehicles may be motivated by doubts that individuals develop regarding the vehicle type to purchase. The automotive industry's technological innovations, promoted by governments, may not have the environmental impact desired in certain regions. To address this issue, a survey was conducted in the city of Madrid. An exploratory factor analysis, followed by a discriminant analysis, was used to validate the constructs and predict the decision-making. The results confirm that the policies adopted by regulators generate uncertainty among individuals regarding which vehicle to purchase. As such, the purchase of a new vehicle may be postponed. This has the opposite effect that is intended, since a delay in the decision to purchase a new vehicle increases the average age of the vehicle fleet, thus contributing to more pollution from the mobility environment. These results highlight the need for governments to work on policies that align environmental needs with the social and economic context in order to achieve the most efficient transition possible, and an global discussion on the technology and innovation applied to consolidate sustainable mobility.

Recently acquired hepatitis C: Epidemiological characteristics and treatment response in a large cohort of MSM living with HIV in Madrid

IntroductionWe analyzed epidemiological, clinical characteristics, and the response to treatment in people living with HIV (PLHIV) who recently acquired hepatitis C (RAHC) in a multicentre study in Madrid (Spain). MethodsMulticenter, ambispective, observational study of RAHC in men who have sex with men (MSM) infected with HIV. Clinical, epidemiological, and RAHC evolution were recorded prospectively in 2019 and 2020 and retrospectively in 2017 and 2018. In patients who received HCV treatment, sustained virological response (SVR) was provided 12 weeks after the end of treatment in an intention to treat analysis (ITT): all treated patients were included; and in analysis per-protocol (PP): missing patients were excluded. ResultsOverall, 133 patients were included. Median (IQR) age was 40 (34.3–46.1) years, 90.9% had at least one previous sexual transmission disease (STD), and 33.6% had previously hepatitis C. More than half of the prospective sample included patients using chemsex related drugs (57.3%), 45.7% of them intravenously. The most prevalent genotype was G1a (66.2%), followed by G4 (11.3%). Ten of 90 patients evaluated for spontaneous cure (11%) cured the infection spontaneously, and 119 had treatment after a median time of 1.8 (0.7–4.6) months: sustained virological response (SVR) was achieved in 90.7% in the ITT and 94.7% in the PP analysis, with no differences regarding the direct-acting antiviral agents (DAA) combination used. ConclusionsMSM infected by HIV with a RAHC were exposed to high-risk sexual behavior. Spontaneous cure rate was low, while SVR after treatment was achieved by more than 90%.

Performance Analysis of an R744 Supermarket Refrigeration System Integrated with an Organic Rankine Cycle

The energy and economic performance of a transcritical R744 booster supermarket refrigeration system with and without parallel compression and integrated with an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) was investigated. The results obtained were compared with those of a transcritical R744 booster supermarket refrigeration system with and without parallel compression and those of a conventional R404A direct expansion (DX) system. Nine different locations, namely Copenhagen (Denmark), Paris (France), Athens (Greece), New Delhi (India), Phoenix and Miami (US), Madrid (Spain), Bangkok (Thailand) and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), were considered. It was discovered that the ORC is effective only at ambient temperatures higher than 27 °C when operating without parallel compression and 28 °C when operating with parallel compression. By using the heat recovered from the gas cooler to fuel the ORC, the latter was found to be capable of covering between 4% and 24% of the electricity demand of the R744 system in warm and hot climates (without parallel compression). The simple payback period of the additional investment associated with the ORC was found to be between 1.4 and 2.5 years in warm climate locations, while the same was found to be less than about 0.5 years in locations experiencing hot climatic conditions.