Análisis del desempeño mecánico de las mezclas asfálticas tipo stone mastic (sma) para aplicación como capa de rodadura en pavimentos de alto volumen de tránsito en Colombia

Trabajo de InvestigaciónEstablecer una valoración del desempeño mecánico de mezclas asfálticas tipo SMA, para así analizar inicialmente la viabilidad de su aplicación en Colombia y posterior a esto ver sus ventajas sobre las técnicas actuales, con el fin de generar especificaciones enfocadas a la utilización de mezclas de mejor desempeño como capas de rodadura en pavimentos de alto volumen de tránsito.Introducción Justificación Objetivos marco Teórico resultados metodología Análisis De Resultados Conclusiones Bibliografía AnexosEspecializaciónEspecialista en Ingeniería de Pavimento

Growth Hormone (GH) and Cardiovascular System

This review describes the positive effects of growth hormone (GH) on the cardiovascular system. We analyze why the vascular endothelium is a real internal secretion gland, whose inflammation is the first step for developing atherosclerosis, as well as the mechanisms by which GH acts on vessels improving oxidative stress imbalance and endothelial dysfunction. We also report how GH acts on coronary arterial disease and heart failure, and on peripheral arterial disease, inducing a neovascularization process that finally increases flow in ischemic tissues. We include some preliminary data from a trial in which GH or placebo is given to elderly people suffering from critical limb ischemia, showing some of the benefits of the hormone on plasma markers of inflammation, and the safety of GH administration during short periods of time, even in diabetic patients. We also analyze how Klotho is strongly related to GH, inducing, after being released from the damaged vascular endothelium, the pituitary secretion of GH, most likely to repair the injury in the ischemic tissues. We also show how GH can help during wound healing by increasing the blood flow and some neurotrophic and growth factors. In summary, we postulate that short-term GH administration could be useful to treat cardiovascular diseases

Actividad antioxidante de extractos obtenidos a partir de rizomas de Cyperus digitatus Roxb

Los miembros de la familia Cyperaceae, tales como Cyperus alopecuroides, Cyperus articulatus, Cyperus scariosus y Cyperus  rotundus poseen una cantidad significativa de estudios sobre sus actividades antioxidantes y otras propiedades. Sin embargo, la planta  Cyperus digitatus perteneciente al género Cyperus carece de estudio de cualquier tipo de actividad intrínseca. Razón por la cual se estudió  sus propiedades antioxidantes (FRAP, DPPH y blanqueamiento del β-caroteno), cuantificación de contenido fenolico y flavonoides totales  en extractos y fracciones obtenidos de los rizomas de Cyperus digitatus, y un perfil fitoquímico. De todos los extractos obtenidos, BE y AqE  mostraron el mejor potencial antioxidante, por otra parte ninguna de las fracciones obtenidas a partir del extracto EAE mostro una actividad  relevante

Sector petrolero y desarrollo humano: un análisis econométrico en el departamento del Meta de 1990 al 2015

The department of Meta has natural wealth that aroused the interest of national and transnational capital to exploit these strategic resources, such as oil. After 2008, this department was reported as the first producer of crude oil at the national level. However, there were a series of social mobilizations denouncing: precarious work, environmental impacts and human rights violations. Therefore, analyzing the contribution made by the oil sector to the human development allows deepening the discussion of whether extractive economies are a source of welfare generation. This was done through an econometric modeling of multiple regression, where the variable Human Development Index -HDI- was used as a proxy for human development, based on the Gross Domestic Product of the agricultural, oil, industrial, construction and commerce sectors, all at 2005 prices. The agricultural, industrial and commercial sectors were found to explain the improvement of the HDI in the department, while the contributions of the oil and construction sector were irrelevant. As a general conclusion of the work, the oil sector does not explain human development, so the territorial entities, by the hand of the National Government, must strengthen the economic sectors that are doing so, turning this territory into an agricultural pantry and agroindustrial.El departamento del Meta cuenta con riqueza natural que despierta el interés del capital nacional y transnacional para explotar un recurso estratégico como el petróleo. Después de 2008 este departamento se reportó como el primer productor de crudo a nivel nacional. Sin embargo, surgieron una serie de movilizaciones sociales denunciando: precarización laboral, impactos al medio ambiente y violaciones a los derechos humanos. Por lo tanto, analizar el aporte que ha realizado el sector petrolero al desarrollo humano, permite profundizar la discusión de si las economías extractivas son una fuente generadora de bienestar. Lo anterior se realizó a través de una modelación econométrica de regresión múltiple, donde se utilizó la variable Índice de Desarrollo Humano -IDH- como próxy del desarrollo humano, en función del Producto Interno Bruto de los sectores agropecuario, petrolero, industrial, construcción y comercio, todos a precios 2005. Se encontró que los sectores agropecuario, industrial y comercio son los que explican el mejoramiento del IDH en el departamento, mientras que resultaron irrelevantes los aportes del sector petrolero y de construcción. Como conclusión general del trabajo se tiene que el sector petrolero no explica el desarrollo humano, por lo cual los entes territoriales, de la mano del Gobierno Nacional, deben potenciar los sectores económicos que sí lo están haciendo, convirtiendo este territorio en una despensa agrícola y agroindustrial

Differential impairment of catecholaminergic cell maturation and survival by genetic mitochondrial complex II dysfunction

The SDHD gene (subunit D of succinate dehydrogenase) has been shown to be involved in the generation of paragangliomas and pheochromocytomas. Loss of heterozygosity of the normal allele is necessary for tumor transformation of the affected cells. As complete SdhD deletion is lethal, we have generated mouse models carrying a “floxed” SdhD allele and either an inducible (SDHD-ESR strain) or a catecholaminergic tissue-specific (TH-SDHD strain) CRE recombinase. Ablation of both SdhD alleles in adult SDHD-ESR mice did not result in generation of paragangliomas or pheochromocytomas. In contrast, carotid bodies from these animals showed smaller volume than controls. In accord with these observations, the TH-SDHD mice had decreased cell numbers in the adrenal medulla, carotid body, and superior cervical ganglion. They also manifested inhibited postnatal maturation of mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons and progressive cell loss during the first year of life. These alterations were particularly intense in the substantia nigra, the most affected neuronal population in Parkinson’s disease. Unexpectedly, TH_ neurons in the locus coeruleus and group A13, also lacking the SdhD gene, were unaltered. These data indicate that complete loss of SdhD is not sufficient to induce tumorigenesis in mice. They suggest that substantia nigra neurons are more susceptible to mitochondrial damage than other catecholaminergic cells, particularly during a critical postnatal maturation period

Fertilização específica do local no cultivo do arroz : Site-specific fertilization in rice cultivation

O objetivo desta pesquisa era avaliar o efeito da aplicação de nutrientes específicos do local no cultivo do arroz. As variedades de arroz S-FL-09, Índia e Iniap 15, com características agronômicas diferentes, foram utilizadas como material genético para a semeadura. Os tratamentos foram constituídos pelas variedades e os níveis de fertilização química como subtratamentos. O projeto experimental "parcelas divididas" foi utilizado em quatro réplicas. Para determinar a diferença estatística entre os meios das variedades, o teste Tukey foi aplicado com 95% de probabilidade. Durante o desenvolvimento do experimento, todas as práticas de lavoura e agrícolas requeridas pela cultura foram realizadas. Foram avaliadas as seguintes variáveis: número de perfilhos, panículas na colheita, altura da planta, comprimento do panículo, grãos por panículo, peso de 1000 grãos e rendimento de grãos. Através da análise dos resultados obtidos foi possível determinar que as variedades S - FL- 09 foram superiores e estatisticamente diferentes do Iniap 15 nos caracteres perfilhos e panículas na colheita, comprimento do panículo, grãos por panículo, peso de 1000 grãos e rendimento de grãos. Com o nível 200 - 60 - 90 - 44 - 36 kg/ha de N - P2O5 - K2O - S - MgO, foram obtidas as médias mais altas de panículas, grãos por panícula e 1000 gramas de peso, influenciando o rendimento do grão. O maior rendimento de grãos de 7.095 ton/ha foi obtido com o nível 200 - 60 - 90 - 44 - 36 kg/ha de N - P2O5 - K2O - S - MgO; 83,28% mais do que o programa nutricional utilizado pelos agricultores (92 - 23 - 30 kg/ha de N - P2O5 - K2). A variedade S - FL- 09 superou o rendimento do Iniap 15 em grãos em 12,27%, diferindo significativamente

QoSatAr: a cross-layer architecture for E2E QoS provisioning over DVB-S2 broadband satellite systems

This article presents QoSatAr, a cross-layer architecture developed to provide end-to-end quality of service (QoS) guarantees for Internet protocol (IP) traffic over the Digital Video Broadcasting-Second generation (DVB-S2) satellite systems. The architecture design is based on a cross-layer optimization between the physical layer and the network layer to provide QoS provisioning based on the bandwidth availability present in the DVB-S2 satellite channel. Our design is developed at the satellite-independent layers, being in compliance with the ETSI-BSM-QoS standards. The architecture is set up inside the gateway, it includes a Re-Queuing Mechanism (RQM) to enhance the goodput of the EF and AF traffic classes and an adaptive IP scheduler to guarantee the high-priority traffic classes taking into account the channel conditions affected by rain events. One of the most important aspect of the architecture design is that QoSatAr is able to guarantee the QoS requirements for specific traffic flows considering a single parameter: the bandwidth availability which is set at the physical layer (considering adaptive code and modulation adaptation) and sent to the network layer by means of a cross-layer optimization. The architecture has been evaluated using the NS-2 simulator. In this article, we present evaluation metrics, extensive simulations results and conclusions about the performance of the proposed QoSatAr when it is evaluated over a DVB-S2 satellite scenario. The key results show that the implementation of this architecture enables to keep control of the satellite system load while guaranteeing the QoS levels for the high-priority traffic classes even when bandwidth variations due to rain events are experienced. Moreover, using the RQM mechanism the user’s quality of experience is improved while keeping lower delay and jitter values for the high-priority traffic classes. In particular, the AF goodput is enhanced around 33% over the drop tail scheme (on average)

Rickettsia parkeri in Amblyomma triste from Uruguay

Our goal was to detect whether spotted fever group Rickettsia are found in the suspected vector of rickettsioses, Amblyomma triste, in Uruguay. Rickettsia parkeri was detected in A. triste, which suggests that this species could be considered a pathogenic agent responsible for human rickettsioses in Uruguay

Digital Control Implementation to Reduce the Cost and Improve the Performance of the Control Stage of an Industrial Switched-Mode Power Supply

The main objective of this work is the design and implementation of the digital control stage of a 280W AC/DC industrial power supply in a single low-cost microcontroller to replace the analog control stage. The switch-mode power supply (SMPS) consists of a PFC boost converter with fixed frequency operation and a variable frequency LLC series resonant DC/DC converter. Input voltage range is 85VRMS-550VRMS and the output voltage range is 24V-28V. A digital controller is especially suitable for this kind of SMPS to implement its multiple functionalities and to keep the efficiency and the performance high over the wide range of input voltages. Additional advantages of the digital control are reliability and size. The optimized design and implementation of the digital control stage it is presented. Experimental results show the stable operation of the controlled system and an estimation of the cost reduction achieved with the digital control stage

Differences in the Clinical Profile and Management of Atrial Fibrillation According to Gender. Results of the REgistro GallEgo Intercéntrico de Fibrilación Auricular (REGUEIFA) Trial

[Abstract] To analyze the clinical profile and therapeutic strategy in atrial fibrillation (AF) according to gender in a contemporaneous patient cohort a prospective, multicenter observational study was performed on consecutive patients diagnosed with AF and assessed by cardiology units in the region of Galicia (Spain). A total of 1007 patients were included, of which 32.3% were women. The mean age of the women was significantly greater than that of the men (71.6 versus 65.7 years; p < 0.001), with a higher prevalence of hypertension (HTN) and valve disease. Women more often reported symptoms related to arrhythmia (28.2% in EHRA class I versus 36.4% in men), with a poorer level of symptoms (EHRA classes IIb and III). Thromboembolic risk was significantly higher among women (CHA2DS2-VASc 3 ± 1.3 versus 2 ± 1.5), in the same way as bleeding risk (HAS-BLED 0.83 ± 0.78 versus 0.64 ± 0.78) (p < 0.001), and women more often received anticoagulation therapy (94.1% versus 87.6%; p = 0.001). Rhythm control strategies proved significantly less frequent in women (55.8% versus 66.6%; p = 0.001), with a lesser electrical cardioversion (ECV) rate (18.4% versus 27.3%; p = 0.002). Perceived health status was poorer in women. Women were older and presented greater comorbidity than men, with a greater thromboembolic and bleeding risk. Likewise, rhythm control strategies were less frequent than in men, despite the fact that women had poorer perceived quality of life and were more symptomatic