Design of a UMTS/GPRS Assisted Mesh Network (UAMN)

Wireless Mesh or multi-hop networks (WMNs) are well known thanks to its simplicity on deployment and the lack of infrastructure. These two advantages come with some drawbacks. WMNs have limitations with the support of Quality of Service (QoS), they do not assure coverage or even connectivity, and security, management and monitoring are not considered key requirements. In order to benefit of mesh networks and use them as an operator graded network, it is necessary to either improve mesh networks to fulfill all these requirements or use an alternative network that offers full availability, connectivity and security to assist the mesh network. Considering the two options, the second is the one selected making use of GPRS/UMTS as an assistant network. The document describes a set of requirements and the design of the functionalities needed to build an operator graded network using the cellular GPRS/UMTS. The aspects covered in the design are: security, quality of service, mobility, self configuration and optimization. The last point, optimization, is not directly involved with mesh networking, but it is an improvement easy to achieve when using a gateway node to access the Internet through a GPRS/UMTS connection. The design of the solution not only considers functionality, but also feasibility employing of the shelve elements. The mesh nodes and gateways are built on top of Linux operating system with the aim to reuse previous results and open source software. The final objective of the project is to build a usable system to be used as a proof of concept.Peer Reviewe

Bioequivalence Study of Clonazepam 2 mg Tablets in Colombian Healthy Volunteers

RESUMEN: Con el fin de determinar la bioequivalencia de dos formulaciones de tabletas de 2 mg de clonazepam: Sedatril®/Clonazepam MK (Tecnoquímicas S. A., Cali, Colombia) como producto de prueba y Rivotril® (Roche Químicos e Farmacéuticas S. A., Río de Janeiro, Brasil), como producto de referencia, se realizó un estudio de bioequivalencia en 26 voluntarios sanos. Los productos de prueba y de referencia se administraron en condiciones de ayuno de acuerdo con un diseño cruzado aleatorio de dosis única, con dos secuencias, dos tratamientos y un período de lavado de 28 días. Las muestras de sangre se obtuvieron desde las 0 hasta las 96 horas después de la administración del medicamento. Los niveles plasmáticos de clonazepam se determinaron con un método validado por cromatografía líquida de alta eficiencia con detección ultravioleta (HPLC/UV, siglas en inglés). Los parámetros farmacocinéticos ABC0-96, ABC0-∞, Cmax , Tmax, t1/2, and ke se determinaron de los perfiles plasmáticos concentración-tiempo por el método no compartimental. El test de bioequivalencia se realizó con los datos transformados a logaritmo natural (ln) de ABC0-∞ and Cmax. Los intervalos de confianza del 90% para la relación producto de prueba/producto de referencia fueron de 87,9% a 103,6% y 84,4% a 104,0%, respectivamente. Estos resultados estuvieron dentro de los rangos de aceptación del 80,0% al 125%, establecidos por la FDA y se concluyó que ambos productos son bioequivalentes.ABSTRACT: In order to determine the bioequivalence of two formulations of clonazepam 2 mg tablets: Sedatril® / Clonazepam MK (Tecnoquímicas S. A., Cali, Colombia) as a test product and Rivotril® (Roche Químicos e Farmacêuticas S. A., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) as a reference product, a bioavailability study was performed in 26 healthy volunteers. Test and reference products were administered under fasting conditions following a single dose, two-sequences, two treatments, crossover randomized design with a 28-day-washout period. Blood samples were obtained from 0 to 96 hours after dosing. Plasma clonazepam levels were determined by a validated high performance liquid chromatography with UV detection method (HPLC/UV). ABC0-96, ABC0-∞, Cmax, Tmax, t1/2, and ke , pharmacokinetic parameters were determined from plasma level-time profiles by a noncompartmental method. ln-trasformed ABC0-∞ and Cmax were tested for bioequivalence. 90%-confidence intervals for test/reference ratio of these parameters were 87.9% to 103.6% and 84.4% to 104.0%, respectively. These results were within the FDA acceptance range of 80% to 125% and it was concluded that both products were bioequivalent

Comparative Study of Infliximab Versus Adalimumab in Refractory Uveitis Due to Behçet's Disease: National Multicenter Study of 177 Cases

Objective: To compare the efficacy of infliximab (IFX) versus adalimumab (ADA) as a first-line biologic drug over 1 year of treatment in a large series of patients with refractory uveitis due to Behçet's disease (BD). Methods: We conducted an open-label multicenter study of IFX versus ADA for BD-related uveitis refractory to conventional nonbiologic treatment. IFX or ADA was chosen as the first-line biologic agent based on physician and patient agreement. Patients received 3-5 mg/kg intravenous IFX at 0, 2, and 6 weeks and every 4-8 weeks thereafter, or 40 mg subcutaneous ADA every other week without a loading dose. Ocular parameters were compared between the 2 groups. Results: The study included 177 patients (316 affected eyes), of whom 103 received IFX and 74 received ADA. There were no significant baseline differences between treatment groups in main demographic features, previous therapy, or ocular sign severity. After 1 year of therapy, we observed an improvement in all ocular parameters in both groups. However, patients receiving ADA had significantly better outcomes in some parameters, including improvement in anterior chamber inflammation (92.31% versus 78.18% for IFX; P = 0.06), improvement in vitritis (93.33% versus 78.95% for IFX; P = 0.04), and best-corrected visual acuity (mean ± SD 0.81 ± 0.26 versus 0.67 ± 0.34 for IFX; P = 0.001). A nonsignificant difference was seen for macular thickness (mean ± SD 250.62 ± 36.85 for ADA versus 264.89 ± 59.74 for IFX; P = 0.15), and improvement in retinal vasculitis was similar between the 2 groups (95% for ADA versus 97% for IFX; P = 0.28). The drug retention rate was higher in the ADA group (95.24% versus 84.95% for IFX; P = 0.042). Conclusion: Although both IFX and ADA are efficacious in refractory BD-related uveitis, ADA appears to be associated with better outcomes than IFX after 1 year of follow-up

Development of an activity disease score in patients with uveitis (UVEDAI)

To develop a disease activity index for patients with uveitis (UVEDAI) encompassing the relevant domains of disease activity considered important among experts in this field. The steps for designing UVEDAI were: (a) Defining the construct and establishing the domains through a formal judgment of experts, (b) A two-round Delphi study with a panel of 15 experts to determine the relevant items, (c) Selection of items: A logistic regression model was developed that set ocular inflammatory activity as the dependent variable. The construct "uveitis inflammatory activity" was defined as any intraocular inflammation that included external structures (cornea) in addition to uvea. Seven domains and 15 items were identified: best-corrected visual acuity, inflammation of the anterior chamber (anterior chamber cells, hypopyon, the presence of fibrin, active posterior keratic precipitates and iris nodules), intraocular pressure, inflammation of the vitreous cavity (vitreous haze, snowballs and snowbanks), central macular edema, inflammation of the posterior pole (the presence and number of choroidal/retinal lesions, vascular inflammation and papillitis), and global assessment from both (patient and physician). From all the variables studied in the multivariate model, anterior chamber cell grade, vitreous haze, central macular edema, inflammatory vessel sheathing, papillitis, choroidal/retinal lesions and patient evaluation were included in UVEDAI. UVEDAI is an index designed to assess the global ocular inflammatory activity in patients with uveitis. It might prove worthwhile to motorize the activity of this extraarticular manifestation of some rheumatic diseases

Cross-disease Meta-analysis of Genome-wide Association Studies for Systemic Sclerosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis Reveals IRF4 as a New Common Susceptibility Locus

Objectives: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are autoimmune diseases that share clinical and immunological characteristics. To date, several shared SSc- RA loci have been identified independently. In this study, we aimed to systematically search for new common SSc-RA loci through an inter-disease meta-GWAS strategy. Methods: We performed a meta-analysis combining GWAS datasets of SSc and RA using a strategy that allowed identification of loci with both same-direction and opposingdirection allelic effects. The top single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were followed-up in independent SSc and RA case-control cohorts. This allowed us to increase the sample size to a total of 8,830 SSc patients, 16,870 RA patients and 43,393 controls. Results: The cross-disease meta-analysis of the GWAS datasets identified several loci with nominal association signals (P-value < 5 x 10-6), which also showed evidence of association in the disease-specific GWAS scan. These loci included several genomic regions not previously reported as shared loci, besides risk factors associated with both diseases in previous studies. The follow-up of the putatively new SSc-RA loci identified IRF4 as a shared risk factor for these two diseases (Pcombined = 3.29 x 10-12). In addition, the analysis of the biological relevance of the known SSc-RA shared loci pointed to the type I interferon and the interleukin 12 signaling pathways as the main common etiopathogenic factors. Conclusions: Our study has identified a novel shared locus, IRF4, for SSc and RA and highlighted the usefulness of cross-disease GWAS meta-analysis in the identification of common risk loci

Complement component C4 structural variation and quantitative traits contribute to sex-biased vulnerability in systemic sclerosis

Altres ajuts: Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), "A way of making Europe".Copy number (CN) polymorphisms of complement C4 play distinct roles in many conditions, including immune-mediated diseases. We investigated the association of C4 CN with systemic sclerosis (SSc) risk. Imputed total C4, C4A, C4B, and HERV-K CN were analyzed in 26,633 individuals and validated in an independent cohort. Our results showed that higher C4 CN confers protection to SSc, and deviations from CN parity of C4A and C4B augmented risk. The protection contributed per copy of C4A and C4B differed by sex. Stronger protection was afforded by C4A in men and by C4B in women. C4 CN correlated well with its gene expression and serum protein levels, and less C4 was detected for both in SSc patients. Conditioned analysis suggests that C4 genetics strongly contributes to the SSc association within the major histocompatibility complex locus and highlights classical alleles and amino acid variants of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DPB1 as C4-independent signals

Innovación en las enseñanzas universitarias: experiencias presentadas en las III Jornadas de Innovación Educativa de la ULL

En este libro se recoge un conjunto de experiencias de innovación educativa desarrolladas en la ULL en el curso 2011-12. Se abordan distintos ámbitos y ramas del conocimiento, y ocupan temáticas variadas que han sido desarrolladas con rigor, y con un claro potencial para su extrapolación a efectos de la mejora educativa en el ámbito universitario. Esta publicación constituye una primera edición de una serie que irá recogiendo las experiencias de innovación educativa de la ULL. Este es un paso relevante para su impulso en nuestra institución, como lo es el de su vinculación con la investigación educativa, para potenciar su publicación en las revistas científicas en este ámbito cada vez más pujante y relevante para las universidades. Sobre todo representan el deseo y el compromiso del profesorado de la ULL para la mejora del proceso educativo mediante la investigación, la evaluación y la reflexión compartida de nuestras prácticas y planteamientos docentes

Redes de comunicaciones : de la telefonía móvil a Internet

Descripció del recurs: 2 de maig de 2012Vivimos completamente rodeados por una miríada de dispositivos electrónicos interconectados, que a su vez originan nuevos servicios y nuevas formas de entender y establecer las relaciones sociales. Nuevas palabras y conceptos acompañan inexorablemente dichos avances. Un progreso que, en muchas ocasiones, implica profundas reflexiones y ciertas dosis de incomprensión: ¿Cómo funcionan tales dispositivos? ¿Cómo es posible la conexión con las antípodas de forma tan simple? Este libro pretende dar respuestas a tales cuestiones, utilizando conceptos básicos de las telecomunicaciones y desafiando al lector a afrontar los retos tecnológicos de las comunicaciones