Numerical study of broadband spectra caused by internal shocks in magnetized relativistic jets of blazars

The internal-shocks scenario in relativistic jets has been used to explain the variability of blazars' outflow emission. Recent simulations have shown that the magnetic field alters the dynamics of these shocks producing a whole zoo of spectral energy density patterns. However, the role played by magnetization in such high-energy emission is still not entirely understood. With the aid of \emph{Fermi}'s second LAT AGN catalog, a comparison with observations in the $\gamma$-ray band was performed, in order to identify the effects of the magnetic field.Comment: Proceedings of the meeting The Innermost Regions of Relativistic Jets and Their Magnetic Fields, June 10-14, 2013, Granada (Spain), 4 pages, 3 figure

Impact of chlorogenic acids from coffee on urine metabolome in healthy human subjects

Several studies suggest that coffee has some benefits for health; however, little is known about the specific role of the main polyphenol compounds of coffee, chlorogenic acids (CGAs), without caffeine interaction. A 1H-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H-NMR)-based metabolomics approach was used to assess the effect of CGAs from coffee on the human urine metabolome. Ten male volunteers participated in a dietary crossover randomized intervention study with a rich CGAs coffee extract beverage (CEB: 223 mg/100 ml of CGAs). The study consisted of a daily intake of CEB or a control beverage with equal caffeine dose during 28 days. Fasting urines collected at the first and last days of each period of the study were analyzed using an CGAs untargeted 1H-NMR approach. Additionally, 4-hour postpandrial urines after the first intake of each beverage were also analyzed. Uni- and multi-variate statistic approaches were used to strengthen the results. Multilevel partial least squares discriminant analysis (ML-PLS-DA) was used to paired comparisons across the crossover design. A further univariate analysis model for crossover studies was performed to assess the significant changes. Acute consumption of CEB resulted in high excretion of 2-furoylglycine, likewise endogenous compounds such as succinic, citric, 3-methyl-2-oxovaleric and isobutyric acids. Sustained consumption of CEB showed an increase of microbiota-derived compounds such as hippuric, 3-(3-Hydroxyphenyl)-3-hydroxypropionic and 3-hydroxyhippuric acids in urine. Moreover, trigonelline was found in urine after both acute and sustained intakes, as well as in the composition of the beverage exhibiting a direct excretion of this biomarker without any biotransformation, suggesting a non-interindividual variation

Non-motor symptom burden in patients with Parkinson's disease with impulse control disorders and compulsive behaviours : results from the COPPADIS cohort

The study was aimed at analysing the frequency of impulse control disorders (ICDs) and compulsive behaviours (CBs) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and in control subjects (CS) as well as the relationship between ICDs/CBs and motor, nonmotor features and dopaminergic treatment in PD patients. Data came from COPPADIS-2015, an observational, descriptive, nationwide (Spain) study. We used the validated Questionnaire for Impulsive-Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson's Disease-Rating Scale (QUIP-RS) for ICD/CB screening. The association between demographic data and ICDs/CBs was analyzed in both groups. In PD, this relationship was evaluated using clinical features and treatment-related data. As result, 613 PD patients (mean age 62.47 ± 9.09 years, 59.87% men) and 179 CS (mean age 60.84 ± 8.33 years, 47.48% men) were included. ICDs and CBs were more frequent in PD (ICDs 12.7% vs. 1.6%, p < 0.001; CBs 7.18% vs. 1.67%, p = 0.01). PD patients had more frequent previous ICDs history, premorbid impulsive personality and antidepressant treatment (p < 0.05) compared with CS. In PD, patients with ICDs/CBs presented younger age at disease onset, more frequent history of previous ICDs and premorbid personality (p < 0.05), as well as higher comorbidity with nonmotor symptoms, including depression and poor quality of life. Treatment with dopamine agonists increased the risk of ICDs/CBs, being dose dependent (p < 0.05). As conclusions, ICDs and CBs were more frequent in patients with PD than in CS. More nonmotor symptoms were present in patients with PD who had ICDs/CBs compared with those without. Dopamine agonists have a prominent effect on ICDs/CBs, which could be influenced by dose

Análisis del rendimiento y optimización de un código numérico paralelo para el cálculo de la emisión en plasmas astrofísicos

[ES] La presente memoria expone el trabajo de análisis del rendimiento y optimización de códigos numéricos paralelos, que realizan el cálculo de la emisión en plasmas astrofísicos, estudiados en el trabajo de investigación desarrollado por los miembros del Grupo de Astrofísica Relativista de la Universidad de Valencia. El trabajo optimización se ha llevado a cabo tras un intenso estudio de las necesidades de mejora en ciertos puntos claves de la ejecución de estos códigos, sobretodo nos hemos centrado en la velocidad de ejecución, el consumo de memoria, el espacio de almacenamiento y los requerimientos de ancho de banda. Para ello hemos realizado un perfilado y un muestreado estos códigos en diferentes escenarios, todos ellos tomados de casos reales, y con los resultados obtenidos de este perfil y muestreo, más numerosas pruebas de ejecuciones con diferentes combinaciones de parámetros de entrada, hemos podido tomar decisiones sobre en qué puntos implementar las mejoras en los códigos y las opciones o configuraciones de entrada que dan lugar a resultados, optimizando los aspectos de velocidad, consumo, espacio, etc., antes mencionados. Las mejoras implementadas han sido: la optimización del tiempo total de ejecución y del tamaño de los ficheros de salida, la paralelización de tareas que pueden simultanearse, optimización de del uso de memoria y optimización de la escritura paralela de los ficheros de salida. Con todas estas mejoras, se pretende conseguir unos códigos numéricos altamente eficientes que puedan correr en supercomputadoras de la Red Española de Supercomputación consumiendo el mínimo de recursos posible de estas máquinas y que puedan proporcionar resultados a los investigadores en el menor tiempo posible para que puedan realizar su labor de análisis de los mismos.[EN] The present work exposes the tasks of analysis of performance and optimization of parallel numerical codes, wich computes the emission in astrophysical plasmas, which are studied in the research work carried out by members of Relativistic Astrophysics Group at the University of Valencia. The optimization work implemented after an intensive study of the needs for improvement in certain key points of the implementation of these codes, specially we focus on execution speed, memory consumption, disk usage and bandwidth requiriments. We have done a profiling and sampling of these codes in different stages, all taken from real cases. We have combined these results obtained with extensive tests of several executions with different configurations of input parameter, in order to make decisions at which points implement improvements in codes and what is the best configuration of these input parameters to reach the best performace. The optimizations implemented were: the optimization of the total execution time, optimization of the output file sizes, optimization in parallel writing of output files and optimization in memory management. With these improvements we want to achieve a highly efficient numerical codes that can run on supercomputers of the Spanish Supercomputing Network, with a minimum possible consumption of resources of these machines and providing results to researchers in the shortest time possible so they can analyze the results.Aloy Torás, MC. (2013). Análisis del rendimiento y optimización de un código numérico paralelo para el cálculo de la emisión en plasmas astrofísicos. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/35350Archivo delegad

Numerical study of broadband spectra caused by internal shocks in magnetized relativistic jets of blazars

The internal-shocks scenario in relativistic jets has been used to explain the variability of blazars’ outflow emission. Recent simulations have shown that the magnetic field alters the dynamics of these shocks producing a whole zoo of spectral energy density patterns. However, the role played by magnetization in such high-energy emission is still not entirely understood. With the aid of Fermi’s second LAT AGN catalog, a comparison with observations in the γ-ray band was performed, in order to identify the effects of the magnetic field

Type Ib endoleak repaired with a thoracic endovascular graft inside previous visceral debranching bypass in a patient with chronic type B aortic dissection

We present the case of a patient with chronic type B aortic dissection with a previous iliac to visceral debranching graft and thoracoabdominal endograft who, because of a type Ib endoleak and aortic diameter enlargement, required a complex solution involving placement of a thoracic endovascular graft inside a Dacron graft with a 180° curved shape in three-stage surgery. At 9 months of follow-up, he had no evidence of type I endoleaks, and the aortic diameter had decreased