Explicit parametric solutions of lattice structures with proper generalized decomposition (PGD): applications to the design of 3D-printed architectured materials

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00466-017-1534-9Architectured materials (or metamaterials) are constituted by a unit-cell with a complex structural design repeated periodically forming a bulk material with emergent mechanical properties. One may obtain specific macro-scale (or bulk) properties in the resulting architectured material by properly designing the unit-cell. Typically, this is stated as an optimal design problem in which the parameters describing the shape and mechanical properties of the unit-cell are selected in order to produce the desired bulk characteristics. This is especially pertinent due to the ease manufacturing of these complex structures with 3D printers. The proper generalized decomposition provides explicit parametic solutions of parametric PDEs. Here, the same ideas are used to obtain parametric solutions of the algebraic equations arising from lattice structural models. Once the explicit parametric solution is available, the optimal design problem is a simple post-process. The same strategy is applied in the numerical illustrations, first to a unit-cell (and then homogenized with periodicity conditions), and in a second phase to the complete structure of a lattice material specimen.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Atención en la agonía

La mayoría de los pacientes en situación terminal pasan por una fase de deterioro que precede en unos días a su fallecimiento y se denomina agonía. El reconocimiento de que una persona está entrando en esta fase es fundamental para adecuar el plan de cuidados del enfermo y su familia, enfatizando en el confort y los cuidados esenciales. La atención a los familiares debe ser una actividad central de la asistencia en esta fase de la enfermedad. Debemos informar claramente de la situación, tratando de anticipar la probable sintomatología que puede tener el paciente, y como y cuando se va a producir la muerte. Se debe fomentar una actitud activa de los familiares y facilitar apoyo emocional. El plan de cuidados en esta fase debe incluir las medidas ambientales y físicas y el tratamiento farmacológico necesario para controlar adecuadamente la sintomatología. El resto de los tratamientos farmacológicos deben ser retirados. Generalmente la vía de elección en la administración de fármacos es la subcutánea. La nutrición e hidratación no están generalmente indicadas en esta fase salvo consideraciones especiales. En algunas ocasiones la sintomatología del paciente en la fase agónica no puede controlarse con los tratamientos habituales y debemos recurrir a la sedación. La sedación paliativa se define como “el uso de fármacos específicamente sedantes para reducir un sufrimiento intolerable, derivado de síntomas refractarios, mediante la disminución del nivel de consciencia del paciente”. La indicación de sedación paliativa debe cumplir una serie de garantías éticas y una adecuada realización y monitorización del tratamiento.Most terminally-ill patients pass through a phase of deterioration that precedes, by a few days, their death. Making the diagnosis of dying phase is key to ensuring that the patient and his or her family receives the best possible care and eventually experiences a good death. Care of the families should be a central activity of health teams in this phase. We should inform clearly of the situation, trying to anticipate symptoms and time, as well as circumstances, to death. We should encourage an active attitude of the family and adequate emotional support. Care plan should include non-pharmacological and pharmacological approach to achieve symptom control. Usually subcutaneous route is the best route to administrate drugs in this phase. Nutrition and fluids should not be offered to imminently dying patients unless it is considered likely that the benefit will outweigh the harm. Sometimes, when is no possible to relieve symptoms in the last days of life with available drugs, we can use palliative sedation therapy. Palliative sedation is defined as the use of specific sedative medications to relieve intolerable suffering from refractory symptoms by a reduction in patient consciousness. The indication of palliative sedation should follow systematic and inclusive processes that include ethical considerations, drug selection and monitoring of patients

Evolutionary generation of fuzzy knowledge bases for diagnosing monitored railway systems

Classical approaches when building diagnosis and monitoring systems are rule-based systems, which allow the representation of existing knowledge by using rules. There are several techniques that facilitate this task, such as fuzzy logic, which allows knowledge to be modeled in an intuitive way. Nevertheless, sometimes it is not easy to define the fuzzy rule set that represents the knowledge from a certain domain. To overcome this drawback, an evolutionary system based on a grammar guided genetic programming technique for the automatic generation of fuzzy knowledge bases has been employed in diagnosing monitored railway networks. This system employs a grammar-based initialization method and both, grammar-based crossover and mutation operators, to achieve well balanced exploitation and exploration capabilities of the search space, assuring high convergence speed and low chance of getting trapped in local optima. Tests have been carried out in a real-world train monitoring domain, in which a sensor network is periodically monitoring critical train components. Results achieved show that this evolutionary system accomplishes an automatic knowledge discovery process, which is able to build a fuzzy rule base that represents the expert knowledge extracted from the domain of the detection of abnormal train conditions

AVICENA, an ontology for the design of executable clinical practice guidelines

This is an electronic version of the paper presented at the Ninth International Protégé Conference, held in Stanford on 2006Clinical practice guidelines (CPG) are increasingly more demanded as a necessary tool in the supply of health care. In spite of their continuous evolution and spreading, their usage in the context of the new information technologies is still not enough developed. There is much work to be done in the area of execution of CPG, and, consequently, it is difficult to find repositories of formal and executable CPG. The project AVICENA is a new proposal of an ontology for the modelling of executable guidelines, that (1) creates new ways for the representation of clinical knowledge and (2) allows the management of the dynamics of health-related processes

Thermophysical characterization of 1-propylpyridinium 1,1,1-trifluoromethanesulfonate, effect of alkyl chain length of the cation, and anion structure

Ionic liquids have attracted increasing attention as promising alternatives to traditional organic solvents due to their unique properties. Thermophysical properties such as density, speed of sound, refractive index, surface tension, isobaric molar heat capacity, kinematic viscosity, and electrical conductivity were measured for 1-propylpyridinium 1,1,1-trifluoromethanesulfonate over a wide temperature range and at atmospheric pressure. Volumetric properties were also determined at temperatures (283.15 - 338.15) K and at pressures up to 65.0 MPa. From these experimental data, some derived properties were calculated. Moreover, the influence of the chemical structure on these properties was investigated through comparing them with ionic liquids of common anion, ethylpyridinium 1,1,1-trifluoromethanesulfonate and 1-butylpyridinium 1,1,1-trifluoromethanesulfonate and an ionic liquid of common cation, 1-butylpyridinium tetrafluroborate

Role of stromal Caveolin-1 (CAV1) levels in breast cancer angiogenesis

Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Medicina, Departamento de Bioquímica. Fecha de lectura: 19-10-2018Tumors have been described as “wounds that never heal”; and non-tumoral surrounding cell populations involved in angiogenesis and response to injury, such as endothelial cells, immune cells and fibroblasts are actively engaged to support the aberrant growth and remodeling of the tumor mass, which conversely determine tumor architecture and behavior. These cells, along with extracellular matrix (ECM) components, define the tumor microenvironment or tumor stroma. While breast cancer progression was conceived for a long time to be largely dependent on aberrant mutations in tumor cells, stromal Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts (CAFs) have been demonstrated to modulate breast cancer growth, invasion, metastasis and therapeutic resistance. Caveolin-1 (CAV1), a prominent organizer of plasma membrane properties and function, exhibits extensive ties with many events defining tumor onset and progression. Although previous studies have shown CAV1 expression levels in CAFs to influence breast cancer growth and metastasis, the underlying driving mechanisms remain incompletely characterized. In this regard, ECM modification and metabolic reprogramming have been proposed as key aspects of a stromal CAV1-dependent role in tumor biology. This thesis research report aims to contribute to our understanding as to how CAV1 expression in stromal CAFs impact tumor angiogenesis, and thus tumor hypoxia, cancer aggressiveness and metastasis. The present work showcases evidence supporting a positive reciprocal feedback relationship between stromal CAV1 downregulation and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, which can drive exacerbated proangiogenic signaling, causative of the generation of an aberrant and dysfunctional tumor vasculature. This report proposes defective angiogenesis and consequent hypoxia as major driving causes for increased aggressiveness of breast cancer in low stromal CAV1 tumors

Tecnologías (escritas) del yo: la confesión. Método, género, sujeto

El propósito de este artículo es realizar un acercamiento al género literario de la confesión, que desde algunos lugares de la tradición filosófica occidental se ha propuesto como una forma de pensamiento no sistemático y como una escritura de experiencia subjetiva. Revisaremos algunas de las nociones que la reflexión filosófica ha dejado para este género en relación con el sujeto ―principalmente dela mano de María Zambrano (1904-1991)―; y el reconocimiento de la confesión escrita como tecnología del yo en el pensamiento de Michel Foucault (1926-1984). El objetivo es que, en cuanto a tecnología del yo, la escritura confesional pueda aportar un marco teórico-práctico en el que el arte o la actitud artística ―y eso que tan particularmente llamamos escritura en arte, como parte de las prácticas de las artes plásticas y visuales― pueda reconocerse como trabajo subjetivo y de the self que es.; The aim of this paper consists of approaching the literary genre of the confession, what some positions in the western philosophical tradition have propounded as a not systematic thought form as well as a writing on subjective experience. We will review some notions that philosophy has reflected on this genre in relation to the subject ―basically at the hands of María Zambrano (1904-1991)―; and the recognition of the written confession as technology of the self in Michel Foucault’s (1926-1984) thought. The objective is, as far as a technology of the self is concerned, that the confessional writing can contribute a theoretical-practical framework in which art or the artistic attitude ―and what so particularly we name writing in art, as part of the plastic and visual art practices― can recognised as the subjective work and the self it is

Implications for Spain of Daesh in Libya

Este trabajo analiza qué implicaciones tiene para España la filial de Daesh en Libia. Unos 133 yihadistas españoles que viajaron a Siria o Irak para unirse a grupos terroristas aún se encuentran en el extranjero y, tras la caída de Daesh en Siria, cierto número de españoles podría ser enviado a Libia para dar continuidad a la Yihad. Además, Daesh en Libia ya ha dirigido dos atentados con éxito en Europa: el de Mánchester de 2017 y el de Berlín de 2016. Se concluye que la probabilidad de que la dirección de Daesh, su filial en Libia o los yihadistas que regresen a España por su cuenta decidan atentar en territorio español es baja. No obstante, y tal como sucedió en los atentados de Manchester y Berlín, la probabilidad de que lobos solitarios o grupos independientes traten de contactar con Daesh en Libia para obtener instrucción y directrices es mayorThis paper analyses the implications for Spain of the Daesh branch in Libya. Around 133 Spanish jihadists who travelled to Syria or Iraq to join terrorist groups are still abroad. After the recent fall of Daesh in Syria, a certain number of Spaniards could be sent to Libya to give continuity to the Jihad. Moreover, Daesh in Libya has already conducted two successful attacks in Europe: the Manchester Arena Bombing in 2017 and the Berlin Truck Attack in 2016. It is concluded that the likelihood that the leadership of Daesh, its subsidiary in Libya or the jihadists who return to Spain on their own decide to attack in Spanish territory is low. However, and as happened in the Manchester and Berlin attacks, the likelihood of lone wolves or independent groups trying to contact Daesh in Libya to obtain instruction and guidelines is greate

Web 3.0 y Blockchain en la Educación Secundaria

La evolución de la Web hasta la que se considera su edición 3.0 viene definida por un cambio de mentalidad descentralizadora que defiende que los datos de los usuarios no deberían estar en manos de una sola corporación o administración central, sino que su control debe devolverse a los usuarios. Para este fin, han surgido una serie de tecnologías relacionadas a esta Web 3.0, como la tecnología blockchain. En este trabajo se define qué es la Web 3.0, la blockchain y otras tecnologías asociadas, y se estudia el estado del arte de la aplicación de estas tecnologías en el ámbito de la educación. Finalmente, y debido a la falta de bibliografía al respecto en el ámbito de la educación secundaria, en este trabajo se sugieren tres propuestas de implementación de estas tecnologías de la Web 3.0 en la etapa de educación secundaria en España.The evolution of the Web toward what’s considered its 3.0 version it’s defined by a decentralizing mindset that argues that user’s data shouldn’t be in the hands of a single corporation or centralized administration, but its control should be returned to the users. For this end, some technologies related to this Web 3.0 have arisen, such as the blockchain technology. In this work Web 3.0, blockchain and other related technologies are defined, and the state-of-the-art of the application of these technologies on the education field is studied. Finally, due to the lack of bibliography on the matter of secondary education, three proposals for the implementation of these Web 3.0 technologies in the Spanish secondary education are given.Departamento de Informática (Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadores, Ciencias de la Computación e Inteligencia Artificial, Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos)Máster en Profesor de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Enseñanzas de Idioma

Gear transmission rattle: assessment of meshing forces under hydrodynamic lubrication

The dynamic behavior of gear transmissions poses several challenges from the standpoint of design and requires the availability of more advanced models capable of simulating a wide range of operating conditions. In this paper, several formulations to represent efforts related to the lubricant in gear transmissions subjected to reduced torque levels has been assessed. Under these conditions, the lubrication regime is hydrodynamic and the dynamic behavior of the meshing contacts can happen in different scenarios depending on both the lubricant properties and operating conditions. Such problems are cumbersome in gear transmissions in which acoustic performance is a determining design factor, such as in car applications. In this regard, gear rattle is one of the subjects of concern by powertrain designers. In spite of several authors have approached this phenomena, the most recent interest is focused on the role played by the lubricant. The variety of fundamentals and aims of the developed models in this respect requires a better understanding of the effect taken into account by the different formulations in the accurate modeling of hydrodynamic lubrication in gears subjected to low torques. This is the reason why, in this work, several alternatives currently available in the literature to address the formulation of efforts in hydrodynamic regime was collected and presented. Such formulations were implemented in a transmission model previously developed by the authors which was used to simulate different operating conditions in order to assess the results obtained with each one of the considered formulations.This work has been supported by project DPI2013-44860 funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology and project PRX14/00451 funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and COST Action TU 1105