Parametric tools for the analysis of micro-architectured thin structures

The present work is devoted to a tool for generating lattice structure geometries. A review on lattice structures is performed passing through their definition, history and actual fields of applicability. An overview of software that is currently available for lattice geometries generation and their finite elements analysis is also accomplished, including the software pros and cons in the context of the research purposes of the present work. Based on the review, a scripted tool is developed and implemented boosting user customization and future FEA integration as a software prototype. An explanation of the generalized idea, structure and organization is given. The validation of the tool has been executed through a banch of examples. The applicational potential of the tool in modelling and analysis of different lattice structures made of the different RVEs is demonstrated including the simulation of possible imperfections arising due to manufacturing defects. In addition, it is shown how the tool can help in homogenization of the artificial micro-architectural lattice materials accomplished with the aid of the gradient elasticity theory

Impacte del Nivell Socioeconòmic en Pacients amb Insuficiència Cardíaca Crònica: Anàlisi en la Població General de Catalunya en Pacients Atesos en un Programa Integral d’ Excel·lència

[cat] INTRODUCCIÓ: És per tots conegut que la Insuficiència cardíaca (ICC) és una patologia molt prevalent i una de les principals causes de necessitat de recursos sanitaris de la nostra població ja que el maneig clínic és complex i sovint el seu abordatge és difícil. És per aquesta raó que en les darreres dècades s’han buscat estratègies, dins del marc del maneig de les malalties cròniques, per tal de proporcionar a aquests pacients una atenció integral i integrada, aconseguint en aquests casos una millora dels resultats clínics, com ara la mortalitat, reingressos i reconsultes a urgències amb l’impacte conseqüent a nivell d’eficiència. Però valorar l’impacte dels determinants socials de la salut com el nivell socio-econòmic (NSE) en pacients amb Insuficiència cardíaca és un dels reptes que tenim com a sistema sanitari i és el que ens plantegem en la següent tesi doctoral. HIPÓTESI: És possible que un baix NSE impacti negativament en l'ús de recursos sanitaris i esdeveniments clínics en pacients amb ICC malgrat l’accés universal a la salut que proporcional el nostre sistema sanitari. Malgrat això, es possible que l'efectivitat dels programa d'atenció integral per a la ICC s’obtingui independentment del NSE però que estigui parcialment atenuada segons aquest factor. OBJECTIUS: En aquest projecte plantegem com a objectius principals 1) descriure l'associació entre el NSE i els esdeveniments clínics en pacients de la població general de Catalunya amb ICC, 2) avaluar l'impacte del NSE en l'efectivitat d'un programa multidisciplinari integral d'atenció transicional a pacients amb ICC . Volem conèixer l’impacte que poden tenir aquests projectes amb abast territorial que integren serveis i donen una resposta integrada i, alhora, poder avaluar si el nivell socioeconòmic (NSE) és un dels factors determinants que poden suposar que aquests programes, que són difícils d’implementar i costosos, funcionin o no, ja que es podria pensar que un nivell socioeconòmic baix sigui un factor de vulnerabilitat en aquests pacients que suposi tenir pitjors resultats i que en funció del nivell socioeconòmic de la població tractada el desplegament dels programes s’hagi d’orientar de manera diferent. Per donar resposta a aquesta qüestió de l’impacte del nivell socioeconòmic baix com a factor de vulnerabilitat i valorar l’estratègia de maneig en pacients amb insuficiència cardíaca vam plantejar aquesta tesi

La mina de sílex del Neolítico Antiguo de Casa Montero (Madrid, España), 5350-5220 cal a. C.

We present a comprehensive and interpretative overview of the evidence recovered at the mining field of Casa Montero (Madrid, Spain). We describe the technical and social aspects of flint mining in the specific historical context of central Iberia’s Early Neolithic societies. Combination of all the evidence allows us to suggest that mining at the site was probably a generational phenomenon, where the acts of gathering in order to perform a collective action served as a basis for binding new political relations beyond each individual group. Strategic, tactical, and logistic preconditions were required for those gatherings, including the ability and capacity to convene, design, and organize an orderly set of actions such as those deployed at the flint mine. As with other Neolithic mining sites in Europe, understanding these social preconditions are important if archaeologists are to move beyond describing the formal and technical variability of the mines.Presentamos una revisión de conjunto e interpretativa de las evidencias recuperadas en la mina de sílex de Casa Montero (Madrid, España). Describimos los aspectos técnicos y sociales de la minería del sílex en el contexto histórico específico de las sociedades del Neolítico Antiguo de la Península Ibérica. La combinación de todas las evidencias recuperadas nos permite sugerir que la minería en Casa Montero fue probablemente un fenómeno generacional, donde los actos de agregación de pequeños grupos para el desarrollo de acciones colectivas sirvieron de base para establecer nuevas relaciones políticas más allá de cada grupo individual. Para ello se requirieron un conjunto de precondiciones estratégicas, tácticas y logísticas, incluyendo la habilidad y capacidad para convocar, diseñar y organizar un conjunto ordenado de acciones como las que se desarrollaron en la propia mina. Proponemos que estas precondiciones sociales son clave para ir más allá de la variabilidad formal y técnica de las minas

Cabozantinib combination therapy for the treatment of solid tumors: a systematic review

Cabozantinib; Renal cell carcinoma; Solid tumorCabozantinib; Carcinoma de células renales; Tumor sólidoCabozantinib; Carcinoma de cèl·lules renals; Tumor sòlidBackground: Cabozantinib monotherapy is approved for the treatment of several types of solid tumors. Investigation into the use of cabozantinib combined with other therapies is increasing. To understand the evidence in this area, we performed a systematic review of cabozantinib combination therapy for the treatment of solid tumors in adults. Methods: This study was designed in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, and the protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020144680). On 9 October 2020, we searched for clinical trials and observational studies of cabozantinib as part of a combination therapy for solid tumors using Embase, MEDLINE, and Cochrane databases, and by screening relevant congress abstracts. Eligible studies reported clinical or safety outcomes, or biomarker data. Randomized and observational studies with a sample size of fewer than 25 and studies of cabozantinib monotherapy were excluded. For each study, quality was assessed using National Institute for Health and Care Excellence methodology, and the study characteristics were described qualitatively. This study was funded by Ipsen. Results: Of 2421 citations identified, 32 articles were included (6 with results from randomized studies, 24 with results from non-randomized phase I or II studies, and 2 with results from both). The most commonly studied tumor types were metastatic urothelial carcinoma/genitourinary tumors and castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Findings from randomized studies suggested that cabozantinib combined with other therapies may lead to better progression-free survival than some current standards of care in renal cell carcinoma, CRPC, and non-small-cell lung cancer. The most common adverse events were hypertension, diarrhea, and fatigue. Conclusion: This review demonstrates the promising efficacy outcomes of cabozantinib combined with other therapies, and a safety profile similar to cabozantinib alone. However, the findings are limited by the fact that most of the identified studies were reported as congress abstracts only. More evidence from randomized trials is needed to explore cabozantinib as a combination therapy further.This study was funded by Ipsen

Del código técnico de la edificación al estándar Passivhaus. Análisis de la envolvente de una vivienda unifamiliar

Este trabajo surge por el interés y la importancia que hoy en día tiene la eficiencia energética en todos los ámbitos y fundamentalmente en el de la construcción, el cual supone en Europa un 40% de su consumo energético total. Por esta razón, nuestra profesión tiene un papel muy importante en las estrategias de ahorro de energía.Se propone conocer el Código Técnico de la Edificación, que es la normativa de ahorro de energía vigente en España y el estándar de certificación energética internacional Passivhaus, que nace en Alemania. A través de un ejemplo práctico de un caso real, se investigan los indicadores que componen cada norma para poder hacer una comparación contrastada que nos ayude a comprender las estrategias que se están siguiendo en la actualidad.<br /

Effective dispersal and density-dependence in mesophotic macroalgal forests: Insights from the Mediterranean species Cystoseira zosteroides

Dispersal and recruitment are fundamental processes for population recovery following disturbances in sessile species. While both processes are well understood for many terrestrial species, they still remain poorly resolved for some macroalgal species. Here we experimentally investigated the effective dispersal and recruit survival of a mesophotic Mediterranean fucoid, Cystoseira zosteroides. In three isolated populations, four sets of settlement collectors were placed at increasing distances (from 0 to 10 m) and different orientations (North, South, East and West). We observed that effective dispersal was restricted to populations' vicinity, with an average of 6.43 m and not further than 13.33 m, following a Weibull distribution. During their first year of life, survival was up to 50%, but it was lower underneath the adult canopy, suggesting a negative density-dependence. To put our results in a broader context we compared the effective dispersal of other fucoid and kelp species reported in the literature, which confirmed the low dispersal ability of brown algae, in particular for fucoids, with an effective dispersal of few meters. Given the importance of recruitment for the persistence and recovery of populations after disturbances, these results underline the vulnerability of C. zosteroides and other fucoid species to escalating threats

Indicateurs espèces thermophobes: État des populations de la gorgone blanche Eunicella singularis dans le Parc national de Port-Cros.

Étude réalisée par l’Universitat de Barcelona, dans le cadre d’un Partenariat Scientifique avec le Parc National de Port-Cros Contrat n° : 13-030 - 83400 PCLes gorgones sont des composantes courantes des communautés coralligènes et elles jouent un rôle très important dans certains écosystèmes méditerranéens de fond dur car il s’agit d’espèces ingénieures qui modèlent l’habitat. Cependant, ces espèces sont parmi les plus menacées par le réchauffement climatique, mais des informations sur leur démographie et leur distribution, aspect crucial pour la conservation et la gestion durable, sont encore rares. Par conséquent, nous avons caractérisé les populations de Eunicella singularis dans le Parc national de Port-Cros tout en examinant leur distribution spatiale et en profondeur, ainsi que la structure de tailles de ces populations et l’affectation des perturbations. Cette espèce est présente principalement dans la partie sud des îles, sur des sites exposés à des courants et à une profondeur allant de 9,5 à 38 m, mais montrant une grande variabilité dans les limites de distribution supérieures et inférieures entre les sites. Les valeurs de la densité, la taille et la mortalité des populations étudiées ont été très semblables aux études précédentes menées dans d'autres endroits de la Méditerranée. La plupart des populations étudiées ont été dominées par des colonies de taille moyenne, ont montré une faible proportion de colonies fortement endommagées, et les colonies les plus blessées avaient des épibiontes, suggérant que la plupart d'entre elles n'ont pas été exposées à de fortes perturbations récentes. Dans un seul site, Le Petit Sarranier, les populations de E. singularis montrent un pourcentage élevé de la surface endommagée, principalement sans épibiose, ainsi que des colonies mortes et une forte dominance de petites colonies. Ça semble indiquer que cette population, celle de moindre profondeur parmi les populations examinées, est exposée à des perturbations naturelles. Nos résultats montrent que les populations les moins profondes (moins de 15 m) présentent des signaux de mortalité récente avec une forte proportion de blessures par rapport aux populations les plus profondes. Ainsi, il semble que la température de l’eau, avec une formation d'une thermocline saisonnière, pourrait être le principal facteur qui affecte les populations peu profondes de E. singularis dans le Parc national de Port-Cros, bien que d'autres facteurs que la température pourraient avoir un rôle important dans le façonnement des tendances observées. Cette étude a fourni une base pour de futures études sur cette espèce dans le Parc, ce qui sera essentiel pour améliorer notre compréhension de la dynamique de cette espèce sur des échelles de temps plus grandes et de leurs tendances futures dans le cadre du scénario global de changement environnemental

Symptom-Based Predictive Model of COVID-19 Disease in Children

COVID-19; Microbiology; PaediatricsCOVID-19; Microbiología; PediatríaCOVID-19; Microbiologia; PediatriaBackground: Testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is neither always accessible nor easy to perform in children. We aimed to propose a machine learning model to assess the need for a SARS-CoV-2 test in children (<16 years old), depending on their clinical symptoms. Methods: Epidemiological and clinical data were obtained from the REDCap® registry. Overall, 4434 SARS-CoV-2 tests were performed in symptomatic children between 1 November 2020 and 31 March 2021, 784 were positive (17.68%). We pre-processed the data to be suitable for a machine learning (ML) algorithm, balancing the positive-negative rate and preparing subsets of data by age. We trained several models and chose those with the best performance for each subset. Results: The use of ML demonstrated an AUROC of 0.65 to predict a COVID-19 diagnosis in children. The absence of high-grade fever was the major predictor of COVID-19 in younger children, whereas loss of taste or smell was the most determinant symptom in older children. Conclusions: Although the accuracy of the models was lower than expected, they can be used to provide a diagnosis when epidemiological data on the risk of exposure to COVID-19 is unknown.This research has received external funding from the Fundació la Marató tv3 after being awarded in the COVID-19 research call with the expedient number 202134-30-31

Randomized phase II trial of FOLFIRI-panitumumab compared with FOLFIRI alone in patients with RAS wild-type circulating tumor DNA metastatic colorectal cancer beyond progression to first-line FOLFOX-panitumumab: the BEYOND study (GEMCAD 17-01)

Colorectal cancer; Metastatic disease; Liquid biopsyCáncer colorrectal; Enfermedad metastásica; Biopsia líquidaCàncer colorectal; Malaltia metastàtica; Biòpsia líquidaPurpose Panitumumab plus FOLFOX (P-FOLFOX) is standard first-line treatment for RAS wild-type (WT) metastatic colorectal cancer. The value of panitumumab rechallenge is currently unknown. We assessed addition of panitumumab to FOLFIRI (P-FOLFIRI) beyond progression to P-FOLFOX in patients with no RAS mutations in liquid biopsy (LB). Methods In this randomized phase II trial, patients were assigned (3:2 ratio) to second-line P-FOLFIRI (arm A) or FOLFIRI alone (arm B). LB for circulating tumor DNA analysis was collected at study entry and at disease progression. Primary endpoint was 6-month progression-free survival. Two-stage Simon design required 85 patients to be included (EudraCT 2017-004519-38). Results Between February 2019 and November 2020, 49 patients were screened (16 RAS mutations in LB detected) and 31 included (18 assigned to arm A and 13 to arm B). The study was prematurely closed due to inadequate recruitment. Serious adverse events were more frequent in arm A (44% vs. 23%). Overall response rate was 33% (arm A) vs. 7.7% (arm B). Six-month progression-free survival rate was 66.7% (arm A) and 38.5% (arm B). Median progression-free survival was 11.0 months (arm A) and 4.0 months (arm B) (hazard ratio, 0.58). At disease progression, RAS or BRAF mutations in LB were found in 4/11 patients (36%) in arm A and 2/10 (20%) in arm B. Conclusions The BEYOND study suggests a meaningful benefit of P-FOLFIRI beyond progression to P-FOLFOX in metastatic colorectal cancer patients with WT RAS status selected by LB. This strategy deserves further investigation.This work was supported by AMGEN S.A