Ecosystem Simulator - Optimising Performance

The goal of this end of degree project is to develop an ecosystem simulator that can be used to learn about how ecosystems work in an easy, visual and fun way. Studying any discipline is tough, therefore this project aims to make this learning journey more easy-going and fun. The ecosystem used in this project includes an environment with different biomes, trees, animals and food, all of which influence each other. Most similar projects use either dozens/hundreds of concurrent entities or thousands of simple entities. This project also aims to bring simulators to the next level by running them with thousands of not-simple entities at the same time with an agent-based system while keeping a decent framerate. This project tries to make a balance between a great amount of entities and an interesting entity behaviour. Due to the fact that such a simulator can take years and multiple people to develop, this specific project is a prototype that aims to show the great potential that this project has. This simulator is done with Unity Technologies, Blender and C#. On one hand, Blender has been used to build a 1x1 kilometers 3D island that is being used in the simulation. Unity and C# are used to put everything together and program all the systems and AIs. For this project, the used methodology is agile and feature-driven development, where short iterations are made. On each iteration, a new feature is added and in the case that a bug was found during the previous iteration, it is fixed during the current one

Puesta en riego por goteo de una plantacion de pistacheros en una parcela de 7,39 ha en Valmuel (Teruel)

El presente proyecto consiste en una plantación de pistacheros en una parcela de 7,39 ha en la localidad de Valmuel (Teruel), así como su transformación de riego por gravedad al sistema de riego por goteo. Para ello se ha estudiado la climatología de la zona, las características edáficas y del agua de riego empleada. Además, se han desarrollado las pautas para el correcto manejo de la plantación. Tras la realización del estudio agronómico, se ha diseñado la instalación de riego por goteo de alta frecuencia. También se han realizado los planos necesarios, el pliego de condiciones y el estudio de seguridad y salud de la obra. Para finalizar, se ha realizado un presupuesto con el correspondiente estudio de viabilidad económica

Transformación de Tejidos Urbanos Obsoletos: El caso del litoral industrial de Gijón/Xixón.

La evolución urbana de los núcleos de población ha sido constante y marcada por distintos sucesos que dejan su impronta conformando las ciudades de hoy en día. Una transformación que modificó para siempre el crecimiento de las ciudades fue la aparición del ferrocarril y la corriente de industrialización. Las infraestructuras ferroviarias han modificado y condicionado el avance urbano allí donde se ubican, creando por su naturaleza grandes brechas lineales al ser integradas por las ciudades que crecían en torno a los polos industriales. Con el aumento de la concienciación higienista en las ciudades se comprendió que, los sectores industriales no eran compatibles con el desarrollo de una calidad de vida y salud adecuadas. La industria fue migrando a las afueras de las ciudades, dejando en ellas obsoletas infraestructuras ferroviarias o grandes vacíos y por tanto grandes brechas que separaban física y socialmente a la población. Por ello y siendo algo generalizado en la mayoría de ciudades, a final del siglo XX se promulga una reconexión de áreas divididas por la infraestructura ferroviaria, aprovechando estas áreas como nuevas oportunidades urbanas para cohesionar la ciudad, crear nuevas economías o nuevos centros urbanos. El presente trabajo desarrolla la problemática ferroviaria en la ciudad española de Gijón/Xixón apoyándose en otros casos similares nacionales e internacionales de integración ferroviaria de gran relevancia y prestigio. El análisis comparado de estos casos permitirá discutir no solo sobre las causas determinantes de la integración ferroviaria, sino también sobre las estrategias utilizadas en cada caso, haciendo un ejercicio crítico y comparativo que permita identificar algunas lecciones extrapolables entre los casos de estudio seleccionados. <br /

Real-time 3D PET image with pseudoinverse reconstruction

Real-time positron emission tomography (PET) may provide information from first-shot images, enable PET-guided biopsies, and allow awake animal studies. Fully-3D iterative reconstructions yield the best images in PET, but they are too slow for real-time imaging. Analytical methods such as Fourier back projection (FBP) are very fast, but yield images of poor quality with artifacts due to noise or data incompleteness. In this work, an image reconstruction based on the pseudoinverse of the system response matrix (SRM) is presented. w. To implement the pseudoinverse method, the reconstruction problem is separated into two stages. First, the axial part of the SRM is pseudo-inverted (PINV) to rebin the 3D data into 2D datasets. Then, the resulting 2D slices can be reconstructed with analytical methods or by applying the pseudoinverse algorithm again. The proposed two-step PINV reconstruction yielded good-quality images at a rate of several frames per second, compatible with real time applications. Furthermore, extremely fast direct PINV reconstruction of projections of the 3D image collapsed along specific directions can be implemented.Part of the calculations in this work were performed in the “Clúster de Cálculo para Técnicas Físicas” funded in part by UCM and in part by UE Regional Funds. We acknowledge the support from the Spanish Government (FPA2015-65035-P, RTC-2015-3772-2, and RTI2018-095800-A-I00), Comunidad de Madrid (S2013/MIT-3024 TOPUS-CM, B2017/BMD-3888 PRONTO-CM), and European Regional Funds. This work was also supported by the EU’s H2020 under MediNet, a Networking Activity of ENSAR-2 (grant agreement 654002), and by a NIH R01 CA215700-2 grant. The CNIC is supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and the Pro CNIC Foundation, and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV-2015-0505)

PeneloPET v3.0, an improved multiplatform PET Simulator

PeneloPET is a Monte Carlo simulation tool for positron emission tomography based on PENELOPE. It was developed by the Nuclear Physics Group at University Complutense of Madrid and its initial version was released in 2009. In this work, we present PeneloPET v3.0, which is now available precompiled for Microsoft Windows, MacOS and Linux OS. This new release includes improved simulations of the positron range in different materials and an accurate description of the decay cascades for many radioactive nuclei including the most common non-pure positron emitters used in PET. This enables the simulation of PET acquisitions with positron-gamma emitters. This release also includes many different fully-working examples, of both clinical and preclinical scanners, as well as several numerical phantoms. Due to the simplicity of the input the output files, and the installation process, PeneloPET v3.0 can be perfectly used not only for research, but also as an educational tool in class

A Fast 0.5 T Prepolarizer Module for Preclinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging

We present a magnet and high power electronics for Prepolarized Magnetic Resonance Imaging (PMRI) in a home-made, special-purpose preclinical system designed for simultaneous visualization of hard and soft biological tissues. The sensitivity of MRI systems grows with field strength, but so do their costs. PMRI can boost the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in affordable low-field scanners by means of a long and strong magnetic pulse. However, this must be rapidly switched off prior to the imaging pulse sequence, in timescales shorter than the spin relaxation (or T1) time of the sample. We have operated our prepolarizer at up to 0.5 T and demonstrated enhanced magnetization, image SNR and tissue contrast with PMRI of tap water, an ex vivo mouse brain and food samples. These have T1 times ranging from hundreds of milli-seconds to single seconds, while the preliminary high-power electronics setup employed in this work can switch off the prepolarization field in tens of milli-seconds. In order to make this system suitable for solid-state matter and hard tissues, which feature T1 times as short as 10 ms, we are developing new electronics which can cut switching times to ~ 300 μs. This does not require changes in the prepolarizer module, opening the door to the first experimental demonstration of PMRI on hard biological tissues

Detailed spectroscopy of doubly magic Sn-132

The structure of the doubly magic Sn-132(50)82 has been investigated at the ISOLDE facility at CERN, populated both by the beta(-) decay of In-132 and beta(-)-delayed neutron emission of In-133. The level scheme of Sn-13(2) is greatly expanded with the addition of 68 gamma transitions and 17 levels observed for the first time in the beta decay. The information on the excited structure is completed by new gamma transitions and states populated in the beta-n decay of In-133. Improved delayed neutron emission probabilities are obtained both for In-132 and In-133. Level lifetimes are measured via the advanced time-delayed beta gamma gamma(t) fast-timing method. An interpretation of the level structure is given based on the experimental findings and the particle-hole configurations arising from core excitations both from the N = 82 and Z = 50 shells, leading to positive- and negative-parity particle-hole multiplets. The experimental information provides new data to challenge the theoretical description of Sn-132

Rapid characterisation of the extremely large landslide threatening the Rules Reservoir (Southern Spain)

When an active landslide is first identified in an artificial reservoir, a comprehensive study has to be quickly conducted to analyse the possible hazard that it may represent to such a critical infrastructure. This paper presents the case of the El Arrecife Landslide, located in a slope of the Rules Reservoir (Southern Spain), as an example of geological and motion data integration for elaborating a preliminary hazard assessment. For this purpose, a field survey was carried out to define the kinematics of the landslide: translational in favour of a specific foliation set, and rotational at the foot of the landslide. A possible failure surface has been proposed, as well as an estimation of the volume of the landslide: 14.7 million m3. At the same time, remote sensing and geophysical techniques were applied to obtain historical displacement rates. A mean subsidence rate of the landslide around 2 cm/year was obtained by means of synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data, during the last 5 and 22 years, respectively. The structure-from-motion (SfM) technique provided a rate up to 26 cm/year during the last 14 years of a slag heap located within the foot of the landslide, due to compaction of the anthropical deposits. All of this collected information will be valuable to optimise the planning of future monitoring surveys (i.e. differential global positioning systems, inclinometers, ground drilling, and InSAR) that should be applied in order to prevent further damage on the reservoir and related infrastructures.This work was mainly supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the project “RISKCOAST” (SOE3/P4/E0868) of the Interreg SUDOE Programme. The work of J.P.G., M.M-S., P.R. and J.M.A. was also supported by the “Ramón y Cajal” Programme (RYC-2017–23335) of the Spanish Ministry of Science, the project “MORPHOMED”—PID2019-107138RB-I00 / SRA (State Research Agency / https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033) and the project “RADANDALUS” (P18-RT-3632) and B-RNM-305-UGR1818 of the FEDER / Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades

Control of a hippocampal recurrent excitatory circuit by cannabinoid receptor-interacting protein Gap43

The type-1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1R) is widely expressed in excitatory and inhibitory nerve terminals, and by suppressing neurotransmitter release, its activation modulates neural circuits and brain function. While the interaction of CB1R with various intracellular proteins is thought to alter receptor signaling, the identity and role of these proteins are poorly understood.Using a highthroughput proteomic analysis complemented with an array of in vitro and in vivo approaches in the mouse brain, we report that the C-terminal, intracellular domain of CB1R interacts specifically with growth-associated protein of 43 kDa (GAP43). The CB1R-GAP43 interaction occurs selectively at mossy cell axon boutons, which establish excitatory synapses with dentate granule cells in the hippocampus. This interaction impairs CB1R-mediated suppression of mossy cell to granule cell transmission, thereby inhibiting cannabinoidmediated anti-convulsant activity inmice. Thus, GAP43 acts as a synapse typespecific regulatory partner of CB1R that hampers CB1R-mediated effects on hippocampal circuit function