Modelització i disseny d’objectes a l’ESO

Per dissenyar un objecte, el procés a seguir, anomenat “procés tecnològic” i descrit en la realització de projectes, en el portal Edu365.cat del Departament d’Ensenyament de Catalunya, és una eina clau que permet passar del concepte, de la idea, a la seva materialització física. En aquest sentit, es poden utilitzar eines de programari lliure que facilitin la presentació tan en dues dimensions (2D) com en tres dimensions (3D) d’aquests objectes ja des de primer curs de l’ensenyament secundari obligatori (ESO); aquestes eines enllacen bé amb l’atractiu que tenen per als joves tan els ordinadors com les tauletes, dispositius mòbils de tota mena i, en general, noves tecnologies. Aquests joves són etiquetats com a nadius digitals, per part de l’investigador en educació Marc Prensky o el filòsof Michel Serres, degut a l’entorn tecnològic de la nostra societat i la contínua interacció amb la tecnologia des de petits. Així, l’objectiu d’aquest treball de final de màster és l’elaboració d’un material docent que permeti digitalitzar les idees dels alumnes quan hagin de resoldre un problema qualsevol de disseny d’un objecte de qualsevol naturalesa, i anar essent progressivament conscients, seguint el procés tecnològic de disseny, del prototip real que haurien de construir en la següent fase del procés tecnològic, a l’aula de tecnologia

Inspección de la construcción de una tubería para transporte de agua sanitaria

El Projecte al que fa referència la present proposta es planteja l’objectiu de fer un seguiment de les inspeccions necessàries en el cas de la construcció d’una tuberia d’aigua per consum humà. Amb la consecució d’aquest objectiu s’aconseguirà obtenir una guia que reflecteixi fidelment els passos a seguir en el cas d’haver de portar a terme la inspecció de qualitat d’una construcció basada en l’acer, centrant-se en les atribucions concretes de la figura de l’inspector, les seves responsabilitats, i els passos que ha de seguir per realitzar la seva feina de manera organitzada i seriosa, així com les tècniques empleades per a la realització de les inspeccions i les normes a tenir en compte durant la inspecció. Donat que la inspecció és una de les sortides professionals més importants dels titulats en Enginyeria Tècnica Naval, és justificable la decisió presa al respecte del tema a tractar, donat que una guia orientativa que reculli tota la informació relativa a la citada professió és sempre una bona eina de consulta per als qui es dediquen a aquest àmbit, ajudant en certs casos a resoldre dubtes al respecte o a millorar el rendiment professional en aclarir els passos i decisions que s’han o no s’han de prendre

Building an Efficient Component for OCL Evaluation

In this paper we report on our experience developing the Eye OCL Software (EOS) evaluator, a Java component for efficient OCL evaluation. We first motivate the need for an efficient implementation of OCL in order to cope with novel usages of the language. We then discuss some aspects that, based on our experience, should be taken into account when building an OCL evaluator for medium-large scenarios. Finally, we explore various approaches for evaluating OCL expressions on really large scenarios

Transcorneal Permeation in a Corneal Device of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs in Drug Delivery Systems

This work is focused on the ex vivo study of corneal permeation of two anti-inflammatory drugs: diclofenac, and flurbiprofen (as a model of hydrophilic and lipophilic drug, respectively) loaded to cyclodextrins or polymeric nanoparticles in order to determine differences in their corneal permeation against free drug or commercial eye drops. These studies were carried out in a corneal device designed and developed in our laboratory. In this work the habitual conditions for the permeation studies were modified to reproduce the behaviour when eye drops were administered. For this reason a new tetracompartmental pharmacokinetic model was developed. The complex formation of diclofenac with cyclodextrins and the flurbiprofen loaded to polymeric nanoparticles has been shown as effective procedures to remarkably increase the bioavailability of the anti-inflammatory drugs. The efficiency of polymeric nanoparticles of Poly (D-L lactic-coglycolyc) acid and poly-ε-caprolacton as intraocular targeting of NSAIDs has also been proved, being the latter polymer more effective to increase the flurbiprofen corneal permeation. The apparent corneal permeability coefficient of samples has been calculated getting a low permeation values for free drugs

Detecció d'activitat genotòxica a l'aigua

Ha estat estudiada l'activitat genotòxica d'extrets orgànics d'aigües del riu Llobregat durant l'època primaveral. Per a aquest estudi han estat desenvolupades les condicions de treball òptimes amb soques d'Eschcrichia coli portadores de fusions entre el gen lacZ i els gens recA, sfiA i umuC del sistema SOS. Ha estat valorada, mitjançant la quantificació de l'enzim β-galactosidasa, la inducció d'aquets tres gens SOS, i hom ha pogut determinar així la capacitat genotòxica i la mutagènesi dependent del sistema SOS dels extrets orgànics d'aigües. Aixi mateix, ha estat dut a terme complementàriament l'assaig d'Ames en aquelles mostres en les quals no havia estat detectada mutagenicitat seguint 1'assaig SOS. Hom discuteix els avantatges d'emprar conjuntament ambdós mètodes així com l'aplicació a l'estudi de la genotoxicitat i de la mutagènesi ambiental.The genotoxic activity of organic extracts of Llobregat River was studied using two bacterial methods for the assay of mutagenicity. The SOS-dependent genotoxicity and mutagenesis has been determined measuring the β-galactosidase activity; a lacZ gene fusion under the control of different SOS genes (recA, sfiA and umuC) was used. The Ames' test has been also employed as a complement when the samples were negative in the induction of the SOS-dependent mutagenesis. The advantages of using both methods and their application to the study of environmental genotoxicity are discussed

Inverse association between negative symptoms and body mass index in chronic schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: We investigated whether negative symptoms, such as poor motivation or anhedonia, were associated with higher body mass index (BMI) in stable patients with schizophrenia chronically treated with antipsychotic medication. METHODS: 62 olanzapine- or clozapine-treated patients with illness duration of at least four years were selected from an international multicenter study on the characterization of negative symptoms. All participants completed the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS) and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Bivariate correlations between BMI and negative symptoms (BNSS) were explored, as well as multiple regression analyses. We further explored the association of two principal component factors of the BNSS and BMI. Subsidiary analyses re-modeled the above using the negative symptoms subscale of the PANSS and the EMSLEY factor for negative symptoms for convergent validity. RESULTS: Lower negative symptoms (BNSS score) were associated with higher BMI (r=-0.31; p=0.015). A multiple regression analysis showed that negative symptoms (BNSS score) and age were significant predictors of BMI (p=0.037). This was mostly driven by the motivation/pleasure factor of the BNSS. Within this second factor, BMI was negatively associated with anhedonia (r=-0.254; p=0.046) and asociality (r=-0.253; p=0.048), but not avolition (r=-0.169; p=0.188). EMSLEY score was positively associated with BNSS (r=0.873, p<0.001), but negatively associated with BMI (r=-0.308; p=0.015). The association between PANSS and BMI did not reach significance (r=-224, p=0.080). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that lower negative symptoms were associated with higher BMI (assessed using both the BNSS and EMSLEY) in chronic stable schizophrenia patients, mostly due to lower anhedonia and asociality levels

The effect of passive ultrasonic activation of 2% chlorhexidine or 3% sodium hypochlorite in canal wall cleaning

Objectives: the purpose of this study was to compare debris removal and open tubules effectiveness of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and chlorhexidine (CHX) applied as final irrigation in dif ferent protocols Study Design: sixty extracted premolars were divided into six groups according to the final irrigation technique: A and B 3 % NaOCl or 2 % CHX with the Miraject needle and no agitation; C and D, passive ultrasonic irrigation (PUI) with Irrisafe 20 tips and 3 % NaOCl or 2 % CHX; E and F, PUI with Irrisafe 25 tips and 3 % NaOCl or 2% CHX. The remaining dentine debris and opened tubules were evaluated by SEM at three root levels by two blinded investigators. The Kruskal Wallis and the Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare groups and levels, with a significance of p <0.05. Results: Debris elimination was significantly higher in PUI groups ( p <0.05). PUI groups showed a higher capability to open tubules, compared to groups A and B. In the coronal third, groups D to F eliminated more debris and opened more tubules than conventional irrigation ( p <0.05). In medium third, group E eliminated significantly more debris (1.60) than group A (2.60). No differences were obtained among groups in apical third. Both NaOCl and CHX applied with PUI showed no differences in debris elimination or opened tubules. Conclusions: Final PUI with Irrisafe tips was the most effective procedure for eliminating the debris and opening up dentinal tubules, independent of the irrigant solution or Irrisafe type size

Obstetric Phenotypes in the Heterogeneity of Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder with genetic and environmental components. Obstetric complications (OCs) are one of the most common environmental risk factors described. However, despite being different in timing and outcome, OCs are usually described as a homogeneous entity. In the present study, we evaluate the presence of different patterns of OCs evaluated with the Lewis-Murray Scale in chronic schizophrenia patients (n = 101) and their association with a crude marker of the intrauterine environment such as weight at birth.OCs related with abnormal fetal growth (p < 0.001) and OCs during gestation (p = 0.003) were associated with lower birth weight. However, difficulties in delivery, complications in pregnancy, and OCs all together (as a set) were not associated with weight at birth.Our results infer that OCs cannot be taken as a homogeneous group. Different patterns of OCs result in different birth weights, which is associated with specific metabolic, cognitive, and brain structure outcomes.This work was supported by the Government of Catalonia, Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Economia i Coneixement (2014SGR441), with the grants FI-DGR-2013 Contract of the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) (2015 FI_B2 00100) and from Fundació Bosch Gimpera (FBG) within the RETOS COLABORACIÓN 2015, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Competitiveness (RTC-2015-3440-1) to G. Mezquida. Dr. Bernardo has been supported by research funding from the Spanish Ministry of Health, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education, the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Competitiveness, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), by Secretaria d'Universitat i Recerca del Departament d'Economia I Coneixement (2014SGR441), Foundation European Group for Research In Schizophrenia (EGRIS), and the 7th Framework Program of the European Union. Dr. Garcia-Rizo is supported by the PI14/00753 project, integrated into the State Plan of Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013–2016 and co-financed by the ISCIII-General Evaluation Branch and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Dr. Bobes is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Health, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education, the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Competitiveness and CIBERSAM. Dr. Paz-Portilla has been also supported by the European Commission, ISCIII-General Evaluation Branch and CIBERSAM. Dr. Savulich is funded by a grant from Eton College and theWallitt Foundation. Dr. Fernanez-Egea is supported, in part, by the NIRH-Biomedical Research Center, Cambridge