Mechanical characterisation of hydrophobic and hydrophilic acrylates used in intraocular lenses through depth sensing indentation

In this work, the mechanical behaviour of hydrophilic and hydrophobic acrylates has been characterised by depth sensing indentation. Time-dependent behaviour has been studied using load-relaxation tests. Experiments have been simulated with a finite element software using a visco-hyperelastic material model. The parameters of this model have been determined using deep learning techniques. The developed material models have been used to mechanically simulate a standard compression test of a prototype intraocular lens

Traumatic brain injury: Failure of the intravenous route for the administration of bone marrow stromal stem cells as treatment of chronic neurological sequels

Objetivo: Estudiar el posible efecto terapéutico de la administración intravenosa de células madre estromales (CME) obtenidas de médula ósea para tratar las secuelas neurológicas en fase crónica tras una lesión cerebral traumática. Material y método: Se realizó un modelo de lesión cerebral traumática en ratas Wistar adultas y se estudió el déficit neurológico inducido en el curso de los dos meses siguientes, por medio del test mNSS y el test Smart. Tras ese tiempo, en fase de secuelas crónicamente establecidas, se administraron intravenosamente 15 x 106 CME (n:10) o suero fisiológico (n:10). En los dos meses siguientes se estudió la posible modificación de las secuelas neurológicas. Resultados: Cuando se compararon los resultados de la valoración funcional entre ambos grupos experimentales, no se observaron diferencias estadísticamente significativas. Conclusión: Nuestros resultados sugieren que el trasplante de CME por vía intravenosa, en una fase de secuelas crónicamente establecidas tras una lesión traumática cerebral grave, no tiene efecto terapéuticoObjective: We studied the possible therapeutic effect of intravenous administration (noninvasive method) of BMSCs to treat neurological sequels in a chronic stage after TBI. Material and method: A model of TBI in adult Wistar rats was performed and we studied the neurological deficit induced in the course of two months, through the mNSS and Smart tests. After this time, with established sequels, 15 x 106 BMSCs (n = 10) or saline (n = 10) were administered intravenously. Changes in the neurological deficits were studied in two months. Results: Comparison of functional changes between both experimental groups showed no statistically significant differences. Conclusions: Our results suggest that transplantation of BMSCs intravenously, at a stage of established sequels after severe TBI, has no therapeutic effectEsta investigación ha sido financiada por FUNDACIÓN MAPFR

An Expanding HI Photodissociated Region Associated with the Compact HII Region G213.880-11.837 in the GGD 14 Complex

We present high angular and spectral resolution HI 21~cm line observations toward the cometary-shaped compact HII region G213.880-11.837 in the GGD~14 complex.The kinematics and morphology of the photodissociated region, traced by the HI line emission, reveal that the neutral gas is part of an expanding flow. The kinematics of the HI gas along the major axis of G213.880-11.837 shows that the emission is very extended toward the SE direction, reaching LSR radial velocities in the tail of about 14 km/s. The ambient LSR radial velocity of the molecular gas is 11.5 km/s, which suggests a champagne flow of the HI gas. This is the second (after G111.61+0.37) cometary HII/HI region known.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal (10 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

Análisis de la Motivación, la Satisfacción y el Esfuerzo en la Implantación de un Grado Bilingüe

La internacionalización de las enseñanzas a través de la implantación de titulaciones bilingües presenta importantes retos para el alumnado, el profesorado y la institución. La identificación temprana de barreras y problemas es fundamental para lograr con éxito su implantación. Con este objetivo en mente, este trabajo presenta los resultados obtenidos de la evaluación de la implantación de un título bilingüe en un grado de Ingeniería Informática. En concreto, se han contemplado tres ejes fundamentales dentro de esta evaluación: (1) la motivación del alumnado para no elegir enseñanzas en inglés, (2) la satisfacción del alumnado con el desarrollo de las asignaturas en inglés, y (3) el esfuerzo del profesorado en la docencia en inglés. A partir de estos datos se realiza un análisis de la docencia en castellano y la docencia en inglés para el mismo conjunto de asignaturas. El objetivo último del estudio es proponer acciones para la mejora continua, así como extraer conclusiones sobre el funcionamiento del título que puedan servir como referencia para la puesta en marcha o mejora de otras iniciativas de implantación de títulos bilingües.Higher education internationalization by means of bilingual degrees presents great challenges for students, teaching staff and institutions. Early identification of burdens and issues is of utmost importance to offer such studies successfully. Within that goal, this work presents results obtained from the evaluation of a new bilingual degree (English) in Computer Science. Concretely, three main dimensions has been evaluated: (1) students’ motivation to learn in English; (2) students’ satisfaction with English teaching; and (3) perceived staff effort to teach in English. Based on the resulting data we perform an analysis about teaching in English and in Spanish the same subject set. The final goal of this study is to propose concrete actions for continuous enhancement and to derive conclusions about degree development, so that they may be useful for other initiatives of bilingual educational programs

Spectral Line Identification and Modelling (SLIM) in the MAdrid Data CUBe Analysis (MADCUBA) package: An interactive software for data cube analysis

In this paper we present the detailed formalism at the core of the Spectral Line Identification and Modelling (SLIM) within the MAdrid Data CUBe Analysis (MADCUBA) package and their main data handling functionalities. These tools have been developed to visualize, analyze and model large spectroscopic data cubes. We present the highly interactive on-the-fly visualization and modelling tools of MADCUBA and SLIM, which includes an stand-alone spectroscopic database. The parameters stored therein are used to solve the full radiative transfer equation under Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (LTE). SLIM provides tools to generate synthetic LTE model spectra based on input physical parameters of column density, excitation temperature, velocity, line width and source size. SLIM also provides an automatic fitting algorithm to obtain the physical parameters (with their associated errors) better fitting the observations. Synthetic spectra can be overlayed in the data cubes/spectra to easy the task of multi-molecular line identification and modelling.We present the Java-based MADCUBA and its internal module SLIM packages which provide all the necessary tools for manipulation and analysis of spectroscopic data cubes. We describe in detail the spectroscopic fitting equations and make use of this tool to explore the breaking conditions and implicit errors of commonly used approximations in the literature. Easy-to-use tools like MADCUBA allow the users to derive the physical information from spectroscopic data without the need of resourcing to simple approximations. SLIM allows to use the full radiative transfer equation, and to interactively explore the space of physical parameters and associated uncertainties from observational data.Comment: 18 pages, 7 Figures, Accepted for publication in A&

Professional interventions to implement guidelines to prevent hazardous alcohol consumption by patients in primary care settings (Protocol)

post-print90 K

Nustar and Chandra insight into the nature of the 3-40 kev nuclear emission in NGC 253

We present results from three nearly simultaneous Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and Chandra monitoring observations between 2012 September 2 and 2012 November 16 of the local star-forming galaxy NGC 253. The 3-40 keV intensity of the inner ~20 arcsec (~400 pc) nuclear region, as measured by NuSTAR, varied by a factor of ~2 across the three monitoring observations. The Chandra data reveal that the nuclear region contains three bright X-ray sources, including a luminous (L_(2-10) keV ~ few × 10^39 erg s^–1) point source located ~1 arcsec from the dynamical center of the galaxy (within the 3σ positional uncertainty of the dynamical center); this source drives the overall variability of the nuclear region at energies ≳3 keV. We make use of the variability to measure the spectra of this single hard X-ray source when it was in bright states. The spectra are well described by an absorbed (N_H ≈ 1.6 × 10^23 cm^–2) broken power-law model with spectral slopes and break energies that are typical of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), but not active galactic nuclei (AGNs). A previous Chandra observation in 2003 showed a hard X-ray point source of similar luminosity to the 2012 source that was also near the dynamical center (θ ≈ 0.4 arcsec); however, this source was offset from the 2012 source position by ≈1 arcsec. We show that the probability of the 2003 and 2012 hard X-ray sources being unrelated is ≫99.99% based on the Chandra spatial localizations. Interestingly, the Chandra spectrum of the 2003 source (3-8 keV) is shallower in slope than that of the 2012 hard X-ray source. Its proximity to the dynamical center and harder Chandra spectrum indicate that the 2003 source is a better AGN candidate than any of the sources detected in our 2012 campaign; however, we were unable to rule out a ULX nature for this source. Future NuSTAR and Chandra monitoring would be well equipped to break the degeneracy between the AGN and ULX nature of the 2003 source, if again caught in a high state

Probing quantum gravity using photons from a flare of the active galactic nucleus Markarian 501 observed by the MAGIC telescope

We analyze the timing of photons observed by the MAGIC telescope during a flare of the active galactic nucleus Mkn 501 for a possible correlation with energy, as suggested by some models of quantum gravity (QG), which predict a vacuum refractive index \simeq 1 + (E/M_{QGn})^n, n = 1,2. Parametrizing the delay between gamma-rays of different energies as \Delta t =\pm\tau_l E or \Delta t =\pm\tau_q E^2, we find \tau_l=(0.030\pm0.012) s/GeV at the 2.5-sigma level, and \tau_q=(3.71\pm2.57)x10^{-6} s/GeV^2, respectively. We use these results to establish lower limits M_{QG1} > 0.21x10^{18} GeV and M_{QG2} > 0.26x10^{11} GeV at the 95% C.L. Monte Carlo studies confirm the MAGIC sensitivity to propagation effects at these levels. Thermal plasma effects in the source are negligible, but we cannot exclude the importance of some other source effect.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, Phys. Lett. B, reflects published versio

Industrial, Collaborative and Mobile Robotics in Latin America: Review of Mechatronic Technologies for Advanced Automation

Mechatronics and Robotics (MaR) have recently gained importance in product development and manufacturing settings and applications. Therefore, the Center for Space Emerging Technologies (C-SET) has managed an international multi-disciplinary study to present, historically, the first Latin American general review of industrial, collaborative, and mobile robotics, with the support of North American and European researchers and institutions. The methodology is developed by considering literature extracted from Scopus, Web of Science, and Aerospace Research Central and adding reports written by companies and government organizations. This describes the state-of-the-art of MaR until the year 2023 in the 3 Sub-Regions: North America, Central America, and South America, having achieved important results related to the academy, industry, government, and entrepreneurship; thus, the statistics shown in this manuscript are unique. Also, this article explores the potential for further work and advantages described by robotic companies such as ABB, KUKA, and Mecademic and the use of the Robot Operating System (ROS) in order to promote research, development, and innovation. In addition, the integration with industry 4.0 and digital manufacturing, architecture and construction, aerospace, smart agriculture, artificial intelligence, and computational social science (human-robot interaction) is analyzed to show the promising features of these growing tech areas, considering the improvements to increase production, manufacturing, and education in the Region. Finally, regarding the information presented, Latin America is considered an important location for investments to increase production and product development, taking into account the further proposal for the creation of the LATAM Consortium for Advanced Robotics and Mechatronics, which could support and work on roboethics and education/R+D+I law and regulations in the Region. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-04-025 Full Text: PD