Above-ground biomass equations for Pinus radiata D. Don in Asturias

Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to develop a model for above-ground biomass estimation for Pinus radiata D. Don in Asturias. Area of study: Asturias (NE of Spain). Material and methods: Different models were fitted for the different above-ground components and weighted regression was used to correct heteroscedasticity. Finally, all the models were refitted simultaneously by use of Nonlinear Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (NSUR) to ensure the additivity of biomass equations. Research highlights: A system of four biomass equations (wood, bark, crown and total biomass) was develop, such that the sum of the estimations of the three biomass components is equal to the estimate of total biomass. Total and stem biomass equations explained more than 92% of observed variability, while crown and bark biomass equations explained 77% and 89% respectively.This study was funded by the Asturian Energy Foundation (FAEN) and the Regional Ministry of Rural Environment and Fisheries (Government of the Principality of Asturias) through the project CN-06-007 "Production of biomass in several forestry species in Asturias"S

Desarrollo de herramienta para la definición de la geometría para el análisis de sistemas de antenas reflectoras

Este Trabajo Fin de Grado tiene como objetivo el diseño de una herramienta de análisis de antenas reflectoras debido a la creciente demanda para el desarrollo de complejos sistemas de antenas que proporcionen las capacidades necesarias hoy en día para las comunicaciones por satélite. El propósito principal es proveer de un medio complementario que permita realizar de forma rápida y sencilla diseños preliminares de sistemas reflectores complejos. Realizando el análisis de diseños teóricos para realizar las pruebas pertinentes antes de llegar a su construcción física. Para llevar a cabo esta herramienta, primero se van a estudiar en detalle las principales técnicas de diseño y las típicas y novedosas geometrías existentes para las antenas de comunicación por satélite, realizando un análisis tanto teórico como del mercado actual. En este sentido también se revisan algunas de las herramientas auxiliares comerciales que se han utilizado en este trabajo. Una vez completada la revisión de las bases teóricas y del estado del arte, se definen las geometrías a ser estudiadas, definiendo los parámetros necesarios para la generación de la geometría y ejecución de las herramientas de análisis auxiliares, como el GRASP. Finalmente, se evalúan los resultados obtenidos para determinar el correcto funcionamiento y la validez de la herramienta. Por último, dado que la extensión de este trabajo ha de ser limitada tanto en tiempo como en espacio, se proponen líneas de trabajo futuro, con variantes y mejoras para esta herramienta en caso de que se desee continuar con su desarrollo

Analyzing urban mobility paths based on users' activity in social networks

[EN] This work presents an approach to model how the activity in social media of the citizens reflects the activity in the city. The proposal includes a gravitational model that deforms the surface of the city based on the intensity of the activity in different zones. The information is extracted from geolocated tweets (n = 1.48 x 10(6)). Furthermore, this activity affects how people move in a city. The path a user follows is calculated using the geolocation of the tweets that he or she publishes along the day. Several models are evaluated and compared using the Hausdorfs distance (d(H)). The combination of gravitational potential with attraction to the destination points provides the best results, with d(H) = 1176 against the Manhattan (d(H) = 1203) or the geodesic (d(H) = 1417) alternatives. Finally, the analysis is repeated with the data segmented by gender (n=2,826 paths, men=1,910, women=916). The results validate (p=0.000334) the studies that affirm that men travel longer distances (d(M) = 4.73 km, alpha(m) = 26.1 degrees) with rectilinear trajectories, whereas women have shorter and more angled paths (d(w) = 4.5 km, alpha(w) = 32.2 degrees), obtaining p values in path lengths and p=0.006 in the angles. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work is partially supported by Spanish Government Project TIN2015-65515-C4-1-R and the Post-doc grant Ref. SP20170057.Rodríguez, L.; Palanca Cámara, J.; Del Val Noguera, E.; Rebollo Pedruelo, M. (2020). Analyzing urban mobility paths based on users' activity in social networks. Future Generation Computer Systems. 102:333-346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2019.07.072S33334610

Dexamethasone nano-embedded sodium hyaluronate microparticles for treatment of COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome

Dexamethasone (DX) is a synthetic glucocorticoid employed in a wide range of diseases asimmunosuppressant. Recent studies reported that DX could be administered orally or intravenouslyfor the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome in patients with COVID-19 phase-3infection caused by an overreaction of their immune system, reducing 28-day mortality in patientsmechanically ventilated or receiving oxygen [1]. Nevertheless, the long-term systemicadministration of dexamethasone led to severe side effects, highlighting the urgent need of newstrategies for its delivery [2][3]. The aim of this work was to develop a new formulation for inhalationbased on DX-nanoparticles. High molecular weight sodium hyaluronate (HA, 750 kDa) was employedto coat DX nanoparticles to exploit HA targeting to CD44 receptors on pulmonary macrophages andits anti-inflammatory effects[4]. DX-nanoparticles were obtained by anti-solvent precipitation usingwater as anti-solvent dripped into an alcoholic solution of drug. The suspension was spray-dried toobtain a dry powder. Size distribution and morphology of microparticles were investigated by laserdiffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Nanoparticle characteristics and composition wereassessed after powder redispersion in physiological medium by dynamic light scattering and X-rayscattering techniques. Results revealed the release of quite polydisperse nanoparticles (PdI = 0.3-0.4) with size around 290 nm in water and 180 nm in phosphate buffer. SAXS results showednanoparticles with a DX-rich crystalline core stabilized in solution by the presence of a shell of HAchains partially embedded in the core. After particle redispersion in water the aerodynamicbehavior of the obtained suspension was assessed in vitro using a device for aerosol therapyobtaining a Fine Particle Fraction of 87.5 +- 0.7% while the Emitted Fraction was 26.4 +-2.9%. Thelatter figure represents a limit that may be overcome by nebulizing directly the nanosuspension inthe pipe of a ventilator.Fil: Laura Bertocchi. Università di Parma; Italia. Departamento de Alimentos y Drogas ; Universita Degli Studi Di Parma;Fil: Cámara, Candelaria Inés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico-química de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico-química de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Laura F. Cantú. Universita Degli Studi Di Milano. Dipartimento Di Beitecnologe Mediche E Medicina Traslazionale.; ItaliaFil: Elena Del Favero. Universita Degli Studi Di Milano. Dipartimento Di Beitecnologe Mediche E Medicina Traslazionale.; ItaliaFil: Ruggero Bettini. Departamento de Alimentos y Drogas ; Universita Degli Studi Di Parma;20th Advanced Course in Pharmaceutical TechnologyItaliaAssociazione Docenti e Ricercatori Italiani di Tecnologie e Legislazione Farmaceutich

Función tiroidea y mortalidad en pacientes ancianos hospitalizados

[ES]Objetivos: Se investigó la relación entre las alteraciones de las pruebas de función tiroidea y la mortalidad por todas las causas y por causa cardiovascular (CV) en ancianos hospitalizados por enfermedad aguda. Pacientes y Métodos: Estudio observacional prospectivo de 7 años de duración. Se estudiaron 404 pacientes >75años ingresados en el servicio de Geriatría del Hospital General (Segovia) durante 2005. Se cuantificaron tirotropina (TSH), tiroxina libre (T4 libre) y triiodotironina libre (T3 libre) al ingreso. Se registraron el tiempo de supervivencia, el número de muertes y la mortalidad global y CV hasta la finalización del estudio (1 de enero de 2012). Resultados: Durante el estudio fallecieron 323 pacientes (80%). El análisis de supervivencia de Kaplan-Meier mostró que la mediana del tiempo de supervivencia para la mortalidad global fue menor en los pacientes del primer tertil tanto de T3 libre, como de TSH y de T4 libre. El análisis multivariante mostró que el cáncer (HR, 1.60; 95% CI 1.12-2.27, p<0.01), la edad (1.03; 1.01-1.05, p<0.01) y las concentraciones de T3 libre (0.73; 0.64-0.84, p<0.001) fueron factores significativamente relacionados con la mortalidad por todas las causas. La causa de muerte pudo averiguarse en 202 pacientes. El 30.2% (61 pacientes) murió por enfermedad CV. Los pacientes pertenecientes al primer tertil de TSH y de T3 libre mostraron una mortalidad significativamente mayor por enfermedad CV. La concentración sérica de T3 libre fue el factor predictor más potente de mortalidad CV (0.74; 0.63-0.88, p<0.001). Conclusiones: Las alteraciones en las pruebas de función tiroidea durante la hospitalización se asocian con la mortalidad a largo plazo en pacientes ancianos. En particular, las concentraciones bajas de T3 libre se relacionan significativamente tanto con la mortalidad global como CV

FIRST (Flexible Interactive Reading Support Tool) project: developing a tool for helping autistic people by document simplification

El Trastorno de Espectro Autista (TEA) es un trastorno que impide el correcto desarrollo de funciones cognitivas, habilidades sociales y comunicativas en las personas. Un porcentaje significativo de personas con autismo presentan además dificultades en la comprensión lectora. El proyecto europeo FIRST está orientado a desarrollar una herramienta multilingüe llamada Open Book que utiliza Tecnologías del Lenguaje Humano para identificar obstáculos que dificultan la comprensión lectora de un documento. La herramienta ayuda a cuidadores y personas con autismo transformando documentos escritos a un formato más sencillo mediante la eliminación de dichos obstáculos identificados en el texto. En este artículo se presenta el proyecto FIRST así como la herramienta desarrollada Open Book.Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition that impairs the proper development of people cognitive functions, social skills, and communicative abilities. A significant percentage of autistic people has inadequate reading comprehension skills. The European project FIRST is focused on developing a multilingual tool called Open Book that applies Human Language Technologies (HLT) to identify reading comprehension obstacles in a document. The tool helps ASD people and their carers by transforming written documents into an easier format after removing the reading obstacles identified. In this paper we present the FIRST project and the developed Open Book tool.La investigación que desarrolla este producto de software ha recibido financiación del Séptimo Programa Marco de la Comunidad Europea (FP7-2007-2013), en virtud del acuerdo de subvención n° 287607. También ha sido parcialmente financiada por el gobierno español a través del proyecto ATTOS (TIN2012-38536-C03-0), el gobierno regional de la Junta de Andalucía a través del proyecto AORESCU (TIC - 07684) y la Generalitat Valenciana, mediante la acción complementaria ACOMP/2013/067

Implicación de la matriz extracelular de biofilms de Bacillus subtilis en la interacción beneficiosa con la planta

Los biofilms bacterianos están constituidos por comunidades de células unidas entre sí por una matriz extracelular polimérica. Los componentes de la matriz extracelular pueden variar dependiendo de la cepa bacteriana, pero en general se puede decir que está constituida por proteínas, exopolisacáridos y/o ácidos nucleicos. La matriz extracelular es un tejido multifuncional que contribuye a: la arquitectura final del biofilm, la regulación del flujo de nutrientes y gases dentro del biofilm, la interacción con las superficies, y la protección de las células frente a agentes tóxicos externos. Aunque son numerosos los estudios que se han centrado en el papel de la matriz en la virulencia de bacterias patógenas de humanos, este tejido polimérico puede ser igualmente importante en la interacción beneficiosa de un agente de biocontrol con la planta. Tanto para el desarrollo de la actividad de biocontrol como para la promoción del crecimiento radicular es necesaria la colonización y persistencia del microorganismo sobre la superficie de la planta, y la pregunta es hasta qué punto es importante la formación de biofilms. En este estudio trabajamos con cepas de Bacillus como agentes de control biológico (BCA) frente a enfermedades de cucurbitáceas y a su vez promotoras del crecimiento radicular (PGPR por sus siglas en inglés plant growth promoting rhizobacteria). Valiéndonos de una batería de mutantes en distintos elementos estructurales y funcionales de la matriz extracelular, estudiamos los patrones de colonización y persistencia de estas cepas en filosfera y rizosfera y evaluamos su efecto sobre la actividad PGPR. Las diferencias observadas entre algunos mutantes de matriz en cuanto a la dinámica de población y la distribución espacial en los dos nichos de estudio, así como en su actividad PGPR, apuntan a su relevancia en la ecología y funcionalidad de estos agentes de biocontrol.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Rational development of bioprocess engineering strategies for recombinant protein production in Pichia pastoris (Komagataella phaffii) using the methanol-free GAP promoter. Where do we stand?

The increasing demand for recombinant proteins for a wide range of applications, from biopharmaceutical protein complexes to industrial enzymes, is leading to important growth in this market. Among the different efficient host organism alternatives commonly used for protein production, the yeast Pichia pastoris (Komagataella phaffii) is currently considered to be one of the most effective and versatile expression platforms. The promising features of this cell factory are giving rise to interesting studies covering the different aspects that contribute to improving the bioprocess efficiency, from strain engineering to bioprocess engineering. The numerous drawbacks of using methanol in industrial processes are driving interest towards methanol-free alternatives, among which the GAP promoter-based systems stand out. The aim of this work is to present the most promising innovative developments in operational strategies based on rational approaches through bioprocess engineering tools. This rational design should be based on physiological characterization of the producing strains under bioprocess conditions and its interrelation with specific rates. This review focuses on understanding the key factors that can enhance recombinant protein production in Pichia pastoris; they are the basis for a further discussion on future industrial applications with the aim of developing scalable alternative strategies that maximize yields and productivity

Designing a goal-oriented smart-home environment

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10796-016-9670-x[EN] Nowadays, systems are growing in power and in access to more resources and services. This situation makes it necessary to provide user-centered systems that act as intelligent assistants. These systems should be able to interact in a natural way with human users and the environment and also be able to take into account user goals and environment information and changes. In this paper, we present an architecture for the design and development of a goal-oriented, self-adaptive, smart-home environment. With this architecture, users are able to interact with the system by expressing their goals which are translated into a set of agent actions in a way that is transparent to the user. This is especially appropriate for environments where ambient intelligence and automatic control are integrated for the user’s welfare. In order to validate this proposal, we designed a prototype based on the proposed architecture for smart-home scenarios. We also performed a set of experiments that shows how the proposed architecture for human-agent interaction increases the number and quality of user goals achieved.This work is partially supported by the Spanish Government through the MINECO/FEDER project TIN2015-65515-C4-1-R.Palanca Cámara, J.; Del Val Noguera, E.; García-Fornes, A.; Billhard, H.; Corchado, JM.; Julian Inglada, VJ. (2016). Designing a goal-oriented smart-home environment. Information Systems Frontiers. 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-016-9670-xS118Alam, M. R., Reaz, M. B. I., & Ali, M. A. M. (2012). A review of smart homes: Past, present, and future. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C: Applications and Reviews, 42(6), 1190–1203.Andrushevich, A., Staub, M., Kistler, R., & Klapproth, A. (2010). Towards semantic buildings: Goal-driven approach for building automation service allocation and control. In 2010 IEEE conference on emerging technologies and factory automation (ETFA) (pp. 1–6) IEEE.Ayala, I., Amor, M., & Fuentes, L. (2013). Self-configuring agents for ambient assisted living applications. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 17(6), 1159–1169.Cetina, C., Giner, P., Fons, J., & Pelechano, V. (2009). Autonomic computing through reuse of variability models at runtime: The case of smart homes. Computer, 42(10), 37–43.Cook, D. J. (2009). Multi-agent smart environments. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, 1(1), 51–55.Dalpiaz, F., Giorgini, P., & Mylopoulos, J. (2009). An architecture for requirements-driven self-reconfiguration. In Advanced information systems engineering (pp. pp 246–260). Springer.De Silva, L. C., Morikawa, C., & Petra, I. M. (2012). State of the art of smart homes. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 25(7), 1313–1321.Huhns, M., & et al. (2005). Research directions for service-oriented multiagent systems. IEEE Internet Computing, 9, 69–70.Iftikhar, M. U., & Weyns, D. (2014). Activforms: active formal models for self-adaptation. In SEAMS, (pp 125–134).Kucher, K., & Weyns, D. (2013). A self-adaptive software system to support elderly care. Modern Information Technology, MIT.Lieberman, H., & Espinosa, J. (2006). A goal-oriented interface to consumer electronics using planning and commonsense reasoning. In Proceedings of the 11th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces (pp. 226–233).Liu, H., & Singh, P. (2004). ConceptNet—a practical commonsense reasoning tool-kit. BT Technology Journal, 22(4), 211–226.Loseto, G., Scioscia, F., Ruta, M., & Di Sciascio, E. (2012). Semantic-based smart homes: a multi-agent approach. In 13th Workshop on objects and Agents (WOA 2012) (Vol. 892, pp. 49–55).Martin, D., Burstein, M., Hobbs, J., Lassila, O., McDermott, D., McIlraith, S., Narayanan, S., Paolucci, M., Parsia, B., Payne, T., & et al (2004). OWL-S: Semantic markup for web services. W3C Member Submission, 22, 2007–2004.Matthews, R. B., Gilbert, N. G., Roach, A., Polhill, J. G, & Gotts, N. M. (2007). Agent-based land-use models: a review of applications. Landscape Ecology, 22(10), 1447–1459.Molina, J. M., Corchado, J. M., & Bajo, J. (2008). Ubiquitous computing for mobile environments. In Issues in multi-agent systems (pp 33–57). Birkhäuser, Basel.Palanca, J., Navarro, M., Julian, V., & García-Fornes, A. (2012). Distributed goal-oriented computing. Journal of Systems and Software, 85(7), 1540–1557. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2012.01.045 .Rao, A., & Georgeff, M. (1995). BDI agents: From theory to practice. In Proceedings of the first international conference on multi-agent systems (ICMAS95) (pp. 312–319).Reddy, Y. (2006). Pervasive computing: implications, opportunities and challenges for the society. In 1st International symposium on pervasive computing and applications (p. 5).de Silva, L., & Padgham, L. (2005). Planning as needed in BDI systems. International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling.Singh, P. (2002). The public acquisition of commonsense knowledge. In Proceedings of AAAI Spring symposium acquiring (and using) linguistic (and world) knowledge for information access

Hyaluronic acid—dexamethasone nanoparticles for local adjunct therapy of lung inflammation

The delivery of a dexamethasone formulation directly into the lung appears as an appro-priate strategy to strengthen the systemic administration, reducing the dosage in the treatment of lung severe inflammations. For this purpose, a hyaluronic acid-dexamethasone formulation was developed, affording an inhalable reconstituted nanosuspension suitable to be aerosolized. The physico-chemical and biopharmaceutical properties of the formulation were tested: size, stability, loading of the spray-dried dry powder, reconstitution capability upon redispersion in aqueous me-dia. Detailed structural insights on nanoparticles after reconstitution were obtained by light and X-ray scattering techniques. (1) The size of the nanoparticles, around 200 nm, is in the proper range for a possible engulfment by macrophages. (2) Their structure is of the core-shell type, hosting dex-amethasone nanocrystals inside and carrying hyaluronic acid chains on the surface. This specific structure allows for nanosuspension stability and provides nanoparticles with muco-inert proper-ties. (3) The nanosuspension can be efficiently aerosolized, allowing for a high drug fraction poten-tially reaching the deep lung. Thus, this formulation represents a promising tool for the lung administration via nebulization directly in the pipe of ventilators, to be used as such or as adjunct therapy for severe lung inflammation.Fil: Cámara, Candelaria Inés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico-química de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico-química de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Bertocchi, Laura. Departamento de Alimentos y Drogas ; Universita Degli Studi Di Parma;Fil: Ricci, Caterina. Universita Degli Studi Di Milano. Dipartimento Di Beitecnologe Mediche E Medicina Traslazionale.; ItaliaFil: Bassi, Rosaria. Universita Degli Studi Di Milano. Dipartimento Di Beitecnologe Mediche E Medicina Traslazionale.; ItaliaFil: Bianchera, Annalisa. Departamento de Alimentos y Drogas ; Universita Degli Studi Di Parma;Fil: Cantú, Laura F.. Universita Degli Studi Di Milano. Dipartimento Di Beitecnologe Mediche E Medicina Traslazionale.; ItaliaFil: Ruggero, Bettini. Departamento de Alimentos y Drogas ; Universita Degli Studi Di Parma;Fil: Del Favero, Elena. Universita Degli Studi Di Milano. Dipartimento Di Beitecnologe Mediche E Medicina Traslazionale.; Itali