Error de inclinación paleomagnética en materiales aluviales del Oligoceno superior del sector Suroriental de la Cuenca del Ebro (Región Surpirenaica, NE de España)

Alluvial red-beds of two Oligocene succesions in the Southeastem Ebro Basin (Southem Pyrenean foreland, NE Spain) show inclination shallowing, taking into account the reference Oligocene palaeolatitude expected for this region. This fact is interpreted to reflect an inclination error due to either these factors: hydrodynamic control of magnetic particles in the depositional environment, differential compaction of sediment during burial and tectonic deformation. The studied lithofacies are split into five groups: gray sandstones, red sandstones, red siltstones, red mudstones and limestones. A strong positive correlation between the relative amount of phyllosilicates and the magnitude of the inclination error has been established. Lithofacies with low percentage of phyllosilicates (limestones and gray sandstones) display a statistically not significant error of 5" with respect to the magnetic palaeofield inclination, whereas the sediments with a higher phyllosilicate content (siltstones and mudstones) show significant errors of up to 25". This observation has not a major consequence for the interpretation of the magnetic polarity but is crucial for palaeogeographic and palinspastic reconstmctions based on palaeolatitudinal data. The obtained results in this study highlight that the interpretation of paleolatitude based on paleomagnetic data is sometimes not straightfonvard and it requires a detailed evaluation of the rock magnetic parameters (AMS in particular) to reveal the presence of such inclination deflection

Simulación de procesos con controladores lógico-programables (PLC’s)

La realización de prácticas en el laboratorio de control de procesos presenta como mayor dificultad el coste asociado al funcionamiento del proceso, debido al consumo de reactivos, de energía o a la generación de residuos. Por tanto se propone trabajar con un proceso simulado en un controlador lógico- programable o PLC, con lo que se realiza una práctica de bajo coste y más cercana a la realidad que la pura simulación numérica

Intradermal and virosomal influenza vaccines for preventing influenza hospitalization in the elderly during the 2011–2012 influenza season: A comparative effectiveness study using the Valencia health care information system

AbstractBackgroundThe use of intradermal vaccination or virosomal vaccines could increase protection against influenza among the vulnerable population of older adults. Studies assessing the comparative effectiveness of these two influenza vaccine types in this age group are lacking.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study to estimate the comparative effectiveness of intradermal seasonal trivalent-influenza vaccine (TIV) delivered by a microneedle injection system and a virosomal-TIV intramuscularly delivered for prevention of influenza hospitalization in non-institutionalized adults aged ≥65 years. We obtained administrative data on immunization status and influenza hospitalization for the 2011–2012 influenza season, and used Cox regression models to assess comparative effectiveness. We estimated crude and adjusted (age, sex, comorbidity, pharmaceutical claims, recent pneumococcal vaccination and number of hospitalizations for all causes other than influenza between the previous and current influenza seasons) hazard ratios (HR).ResultsOverall, 164,021 vaccinated subjects were evaluated. There were 127 hospitalizations for influenza among 62,058 subjects, contributing 914,740 person-weeks at risk in the virosomal-TIV group, and 133 hospitalizations for influenza among 101,963 subjects, contributing 1,504,570 person-weeks at risk in the intradermal-TIV group. The crude HR of intradermal-TIV relative to virosomal-TIV was 0.64 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.50–0.81), and the adjusted Cox estimated HR was 0.67 (95% CI: 0.52–0.85).ConclusionsDuring the 2011–2012 influenza season the risk of hospitalization for influenza was reduced by 33% in non-institutionalized elderly adults who were vaccinated with intradermal-TIV compared with virosomal-TIV

Evaluation of landsat-8 thermal bands to monitor land surface temperature

Ponencia presentada en: IX Congreso de la Asociación Española de Climatología celebrado en Almería entre el 28 y el 30 de octubre de 2014.[ES]El nuevo Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) a bordo del Landsat-8 (L8) dispone de dos bandas térmicas, 10 (11.60-11.19 μm) y 11 (11.50-12.51 μm), con una resolución espacial de 100m, con el fin de proporcionar temperaturas de la superficie terrestre (LST) de una manera más precisa que su predecesor Landsat-7 ETM+. El L8 fue lanzado en febrero de 2013, comenzando su adquisición operativa a mediados de abril. Los primeros estudios realizados por el equipo de calibración de L8 mostraron errores sistemáticos significativos para el TIRS, y en febrero de 2014 el archivo de imágenes L8 TIRS fue reprocesado para corregir dichos errores. En este estudio, con el fin de comprobar la calibración del L8 TIRS, realizamos medidas de campo en una zona llana y térmicamente homogénea dedicada al cultivo del arroz. A partir de estas medidas de LST simulamos las radiancias y temperaturas de brillo a nivel del satélite y las comparamos con los datos TIRS. Tal y como apuntaba el equipo de L8, nuestros resultados muestran una sobreestimación para la banda 11. Sin embargo, el recalibrado aplicado por dicho equipo para ambas bandas ha resultado no ser satisfactorio en nuestra zona experimental, ya que proponen sustraer errores sistemáticos mayores a los requeridos.[EN]The new Landsat-8 (L8) Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) has two thermal bands, 10 (11.60- 11.19 μm) and 11 (11.50-12.51 μm) at 100-m spatial resolution, aimed to provide more accurate Land Surface Temperatures (LST) than Landsat-7 ETM+. L8 was launched on February 2013, and operational acquisitions started in middle April 2013. The first studies by the L8 Calibration Team showed significant TIRS temperature offsets, and in February 2014 the L8 TIRS archive was reprocessed to remove these offsets. In this study, ground LST measurements were performed in a flat and thermally homogeneous area of rice-crop fields for checking the calibration of the L8 TIRS bands. At-sensor radiances and brightness temperatures were simulated from ground-measured LSTs and compared with TIRS values. A significant overestimation was observed for band 11, in agreement with the L8 Calibration Team results. However, their recalibration was shown unsatisfactory in our test site for both bands, since they proposed subtracting higher offsets than required.This study was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (projects CGL2010-16364, CGL2010-17577/CLI, CGL2011-13579-E, CGL2011-30433 and GRACCIE Consolider-Ingenio 2010; and Dr. Niclòs "Ramón y Cajal" Research Contract) and Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2009/006 and PROMETEO/2009/086 projects)

DVD Fuentes de energía. Aspectos técnicos, medioambientales y legislativos

En este artículo se describe básicamente la planificación, metodología, ejecución, así como los resultados obtenidos en la elaboración del DVD sobre fuentes de energía convencionales y alternativas. El proyecto ha sido dirigido y coordinado por el profesor Ramón Mª Mujal (ETSEIT Terrassa), y en el cual han colaborado un grupo de profesores de los departamentos de ingeniería eléctrica, ingeniería mecánica e ingeniería química de la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Industrial de Terrassa (UPC). Para llevar a cabo el mismo, se ha contado con la valiosa ayuda de alumnos becados y técnicos en multimedia de la misma universidad pertenecientes al servicio de multimedia “La Factoría” de la Biblioteca del Campus de Terrassa. En principio, el DVD pretende ser un entorno virtual de aprendizaje para los alumnos de carreras semipresenciales, que no disponen de tantas horas de clase teóricas como los alumnos presenciales, aunque es ampliable a otro tipo de usuarios y niveles docentes

Line-Up Elections: Parallel Voting with Shared Candidate Pool

We introduce the model of line-up elections which captures parallel or sequential single-winner elections with a shared candidate pool. The goal of a line-up election is to find a high-quality assignment of a set of candidates to a set of positions such that each position is filled by exactly one candidate and each candidate fills at most one position. A score for each candidate-position pair is given as part of the input, which expresses the qualification of the candidate to fill the position. We propose several voting rules for line-up elections and analyze them from an axiomatic and an empirical perspective using real-world data from the popular video game FIFA.Comment: Accepted to SAGT 202

The Inflammatory Profile of CTEPH-Derived Endothelial Cells Is a Possible Driver of Disease Progression

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is a form of pulmonary hypertension characterized by the presence of fibrotic intraluminal thrombi and causing obliteration of the pulmonary arteries. Although both endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction and inflammation are linked to CTEPH pathogenesis, regulation of the basal inflammatory response of ECs in CTEPH is not fully understood. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the role of the nuclear factor (NF)-κB pro-inflammatory signaling pathway in ECs in CTEPH under basal conditions. Basal mRNA levels of interleukin (IL)-8, IL-1β, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), C-C motif chemokine ligand 5 (CCL5), and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) were upregulated in CTEPH-ECs compared to the control cells. To assess the involvement of NF-κB signaling in basal inflammatory activation, CTEPH-ECs were incubated with the NF-κB inhibitor Bay 11-7085. The increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines was abolished when cells were incubated with the NF-κB inhibitor. To determine if NF-κB was indeed activated, we stained pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA) specimens from CTEPH patients and ECs isolated from PEA specimens for phospho-NF-κB-P65 and found that especially the vessels within the thrombus and CTEPH-ECs are positive for phospho-NF-κB-P65. In summary, we show that CTEPH-ECs have a pro-inflammatory status under basal conditions, and blocking NF-κB signaling reduces the production of inflammatory factors in CTEPH-ECs. Therefore, our results show that the increased basal pro-inflammatory status of CTEPH-ECs is, at least partially, regulated through activation of NF-κB signaling and potentially contributes to the pathophysiology and progression of CTEPH