Utilització d'eines Renesas per l'acondicionament del bus CAN a l'instrumentació oceanogràfica

El principal objectiu del projecte, ha estat l’estudi de la comunicació mitjançant el Bus CAN i la representació de dades amb la interfície gràfica LabView. CAN es un protocol de comunicacions sèrie que suporta control distribuït en temps real amb un alt nivell de seguretat i multiplexació. Orientat a la transferència de missatges, i empleat al sector automobilístic, es un sistema de comunicacions d’alta velocitat capaç de reduir considerablement el cablejat. Per realitzar el projecte hem agut de treballar tant amb Software com amb Hardware de diferents companyies, per les diferents parts del projecte. El fet esmentat ens ha dut a adquirir un mínim de coneixements requisits pel funcionament de cadascun d’ells. El Hardware empleat, a girat al voltant del microcontrolador escollit de la firma Renesas Tecnology, companyia especialitzada al sector de l’automòbil. Els passos seguits per dur a terme el projecte: 1:Placa de prova Renesas 3D Starter Kit R8C/11. - Estudi del microcontroladors Renesa R8C/11. - Familiarització amb la placa. - Introducció a la comunicació fent servir el sistema estandaritzat RS232. - Software utilitzat: IAR, KD30, HyperTerminal i LabView. 2:Placa de proves Renesa Starter Kit R8C/23 - Estudi del microcontrolador R8C/23. - Familiarització amb la placa. - Comunicació amb CAN. - Software utilitzat: HEW i LabView. 3:Centraleta CAN(Frontal SEAT Ibiza) - Verificar el funcionament de comunicació fent servir el bus CAN entre l’Starter Kit R8C/23 i la centraleta CAN. 4:Creació d’una PCB a mida que disposi de port SERIE i CAN. - Software utilitzat: Protel, Circuit Cam i Board Master

Analysis of the effect of mobile terminal speed on WLAN/3G vertical handovers

Proceedings of IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference, GLOBECOM '06, San Francisco, California, 27 november - 1 december, 2006.WLAN hot-spots are becoming widely spread. This, combined with the availability of new multi-mode terminals integrating heterogeneous technologies, opens new business opportunities for mobile operators. Scenarios in which 3G coverage is complemented by WLAN deployments are becoming available. Thus, true all-IP based networks are ready to offer a new variety of services across heterogeneous access. However, to achieve this, some aspects still need to be analyzed. In particular, the effect of the terminal speed on the detection and selection process of the preferred access network is not yet well understood. In fact, efficiency of vertical handovers depends on the appropriate configuration of mobile devices. In this paper we present a simulation study of handover performance between 3G and WLAN access networks showing the impact of mobile users’ speed. The mobile devices are based on the IEEE 802.21 cross layer architecture and use WLAN signal level thresholds as handover criteria. A novel algorithm to dynamically adjust terminals’ configuration is presented.Publicad

Multi-model forecast quality assessment of CMIP6 decadal predictions

Decadal climate predictions are a new source of climate information for inter-annual to decadal time scales (filling the gap between seasonal predictions and climate projections), which is of increasing interest to users. The external forcings (natural and anthropogenic) and the internal climate variability (natural slow variations of the climate system) provide predictability on these time scales. However, due to chaotic characteristics of the climate system, it is not possible to predict its exact evolution. Thus, decadal forecasting provides large ensembles of predictions that, besides predicting the average anomalies based on the ensemble mean, are also used to obtain probabilistic information about the likelihood of certain event types. Forecast quality assessment is essential to identify windows of opportunity (e.g., variables, regions, and lead times) with skill that can be used to develop a climate service and inform users in specific sectors. Besides, it can help to monitor improvements in current forecast systems. The forecast quality assessment needs to be carried out over a long enough period in the past (when observations are available to compare against) to achieve robust results that can be used as an estimate of how well the forecast system may perform in simulating future climatic anomalies. Thus, retrospective decadal forecasts (also known as hindcasts) are performed with the same forecast systems used to predict future climate variations. For this, the forecast systems are utilized to simulate the evolution of the climate system from our best estimate of the observed initial state, which is referred to as forecast system initialization and the predictions also incorporate information about the external forcings. The hindcasts are also used to apply calibration techniques to partially correct systematic biases of the predictions. The Decadal Climate Prediction Project (DCPP [1]) of the Coupled Model Intercom-parison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6 [2]) now provides the most comprehensive set of retrospective decadal predictions from multiple forecast systems. The increasing availability of these simulations leads to the question of how to best post-process the raw output from the forecast systems so that the most useful and reliable information is provided to users

A microtiter plate-based quantitative method to monitor the growth rate of dermatophytes and test antifungal activity

Dermatophytosis is one of the most common superficial fungal infections, which is mainly caused by filamentous fungi such as Trichophyton species. A challenging aspect in dermatophyte research is the lack of a straightforward method to measure the rate of growth, in particular when growing dermatophytes in small volumes such as in microtitre plates. However, one characteristic of dermatophytes is their ability to produce compounds such as ammonia that make the growth medium more alkaline. The objective of this study was to test whether the change in pH in a liquid medium, colourimetrically established using the indicator phenol red, was linearly and directly proportional to the growth rate for Trichophyton rubrum and Trichophyton interdigitale. The changes in the colour determined by the phenol-red based assay showed a good correlation with the amount of fungal biomass over an incubation period of 24-120 h. The functionality of the phenol red assay was also validated in experiments on the growth of T. rubrum in the presence of antifungals. The changes in colour showed a clear dose-response relationship compounds and enabled determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration. The phenol red assay is thus a simple and straightforward assay to monitor the rate of growth of Trichophyton spp. and test antifungal activit

Evaluation of an explanted porcine skin model to investigate infection with the dermatophyte Trichophyton rubrum.

Dermatophytosis is a fungal infection of skin, hair and nails, and the most frequently found causative agent is Trichophyton rubrum. The disease is very common and often recurring, and it is therefore difficult to eradicate. To develop and test novel treatments, infection models that are representative of the infection process are desirable. Several infection models have been developed, including the use of cultured cells, isolated corneocytes, explanted human skin or reconstituted human epidermis. However, these have various disadvantages, ranging from not being an accurate reflection of the site of infection, as is the case with, for example, cultured cells, to being difficult to scale up or having ethical issues (e.g., explanted human skin). We therefore sought to develop an infection model using explanted porcine skin, which is low cost and ethically neutral. We show that in our model, fungal growth is dependent on the presence of skin, and adherence of conidia is time-dependent with maximum adherence observed after ~ 2 h. Scanning electron microscopy suggested the production of fibril-like material that links conidia to each other and to skin. Prolonged incubation of infected skin leads to luxurious growth and invasion of the dermis, which is not surprising as the skin is not maintained in conditions to keep the tissue alive, and therefore is likely to lack an active immune system that would limit fungal growth. Therefore, the model developed seems useful to study the early stages of infection. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the model can be used to test novel treatment regimens for tinea infections

Les polítiques supramunicipals de barris: l’anàlisi del disseny del Programa integral de barris per a la millora de rendes de l’Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

Treballs Finals del Màster de Gestió Pública Avançada, Facultat de Dret, Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2022-2023. Tutor: Marçal Farré RibasLes polítiques de barris tenen un llarg recorregut en la nostra societat, que en el cas de Catalunya van tenir un important impacte a partir del 2004 amb la promulgació de la Llei de Barris. En els darrers anys s'ha produït un reimpuls d'aquest tipus de polítiques, especialment gràcies al Pla de Barris de Barcelona o, més recentment, amb la tramitació d’una nova llei catalana sobre la matèria, encara no desplegada. Els ens locals supramunicipals no han estat aliens a aquesta tendència, i durant aquest mandat la Diputació de Barcelona i l'Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona han impulsat els seus projectes respectius relacionats amb la matèria. L’objecte d’estudi triat per a aquest treball és el Programa integral de barris per a la millora de rendes de l’AMB, aprovat el mes d’abril de 2022, que ha posat a disposició dels ajuntaments 9,8 M€ en subvencions a executar projectes en el període comprès entre el 2022 i el 2024. L’àmbit d’actuació inclou tots els municipis metropolitans, excepte la ciutat de Barcelona, i a l’hora d’assignar els recursos es té en compte la vulnerabilitat dels barris en què es desenvolupen els projectes

The Early Cretaceous coastal lake Konservat-Lagerstätte of La Pedrera de Meià (Southern Pyrenees)

A state of the art of the Barremian Konservat-Lagerstätte of la Pedrera de Meià site (Southern Pyrenees) is compiled here including the acquisition of new geological data. The relevance of this site, together with the nearby la Cabroa site, is due to its paleobiotic richness and the fact that 113 holotypes and paratypes of flora and fauna have already been defined. Since its discovery at the end of the 19th century and its exploitation as a lithographic limestone quarry, the site has been the object of paleontological interest by national and foreign research teams that are summarized here (including the catalogue of 223 publications). A survey of the existing type specimens in collections all over Europe is also provided, being France and Germany, the countries where more fossils are hosted other than Spain. The geological frame of this site is also reviewed, by revisiting unpublished geological mappings (mainly that of Krusat, 1966) and integrating it in a comprehensive map that includes 4 revisited outcrops of lithographic limestone which could be potential paleontological sites. The available stratigraphic sections did allow the precise location of paleontological data and findings and environmental proxies. The stratigraphic sections obtained have a thickness of about 50m and contain a minimum of 40.000 limestone layers, being an approximation of the years represented in the la Pedrera de Meià site, and the time expanded of the lake during the Barremian

Proposal of a System for Estimating the Assembly Time in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This paper presents the results of the development of a specialized modifiable system for estimating the assembly time in practice. The proposal is mainly intended for small and medium-sized enterprises, which require the application of sophisticated and cost-effective solutions given the arising competitiveness in the assembly sector. The ATES system, i.e., Assembly Time Estimation System, which was created in Excel, was tested in the LEANLAB laboratory. The results correspond with current trends in this area and suggest directions for further development, especially in the field of 3D CAD systems and virtual reality

The Early Cretaceous coastal lake Konservat-Lagerstätte of La Pedrera de Meià (Southern Pyrenees)

A state of the art of the Barremian Konservat-Lagerstätte of la Pedrera de Meià site (Southern Pyrenees) is compiled here including the acquisition of new geological data. The relevance of this site, together with the nearby la Cabroa site, is due to its paleobiotic richness and the fact that 113 holotypes and paratypes of flora and fauna have already been defined. Since its discovery at the end of the 19th century and its exploitation as a lithographic limestone quarry, the site has been the object of paleontological interest by national and foreign research teams that are summarized here (including the catalogue of 224 publications). A survey of the existing type specimens in collections all over Europe is also provided, being France and Germany, the countries where more fossils are hosted other than Spain.The geological frame of this site is also reviewed, by revisiting unpublished geological mappings (mainly that of Krusat, 1966) and integrating it in a comprehensive map that includes 4 revisited outcrops of lithographic limestone which could be potential paleontological sites. Previous stratigraphic sections did allow the precise framing of paleontological data and findings, that now can be allocated in new stratigraphic sections accounting for 50m and that contain a minimum of 40.000 laminae, being a minimum estimation of the years represented in the la Pedrera de Meià site

Fully automated convolutional neural network-based affine algorithm improves liver registration and lesion co-localization on hepatobiliary phase T1-weighted MR images.

BackgroundLiver alignment between series/exams is challenged by dynamic morphology or variability in patient positioning or motion. Image registration can improve image interpretation and lesion co-localization. We assessed the performance of a convolutional neural network algorithm to register cross-sectional liver imaging series and compared its performance to manual image registration.MethodsThree hundred fourteen patients, including internal and external datasets, who underwent gadoxetate disodium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging for clinical care from 2011 to 2018, were retrospectively selected. Automated registration was applied to all 2,663 within-patient series pairs derived from these datasets. Additionally, 100 within-patient series pairs from the internal dataset were independently manually registered by expert readers. Liver overlap, image correlation, and intra-observation distances for manual versus automated registrations were compared using paired t tests. Influence of patient demographics, imaging characteristics, and liver uptake function was evaluated using univariate and multivariate mixed models.ResultsCompared to the manual, automated registration produced significantly lower intra-observation distance (p < 0.001) and higher liver overlap and image correlation (p < 0.001). Intra-exam automated registration achieved 0.88 mean liver overlap and 0.44 mean image correlation for the internal dataset and 0.91 and 0.41, respectively, for the external dataset. For inter-exam registration, mean overlap was 0.81 and image correlation 0.41. Older age, female sex, greater inter-series time interval, differing uptake, and greater voxel size differences independently reduced automated registration performance (p ≤ 0.020).ConclusionA fully automated algorithm accurately registered the liver within and between examinations, yielding better liver and focal observation co-localization compared to manual registration