Una nueva estrategia basada en el diseño de fármacos multidiana para el tratamiento de enfermedades neurodegenerativas

La enfermedad de Alzheimer (EA) tiene una repercusión económica y social de una enorme magnitud, difícilmente cuantificable y para la que no existe una solución terapéutica eficaz. La búsqueda de nuevos tratamientos alternativos constituye un área prioritaria de investigación en todos los campos relacionados con el conocimiento de este tipo de enfermedades. En este proyecto se plantea como hipótesis una nueva estrategia, no explorada hasta la fecha, para el descubrimiento de fármacos para el tratamiento de la enfermedad de Alzheimer y se refiere al desarrollo de nuevos agonistas cannabinoides multidiana, con efecto tanto en el sistema cannabinoide como en el colinérgico. Es importante mencionar que, aunque cada una de estas dianas está siendo estudiada de manera individual como posibles blancos farmacológicos, utilizando la estrategia clásica de búsqueda de compuestos de alta selectividad y potencia, nuestro grupo de investigación ha sido el primero en proponer esta estrategia como un posible tratamiento para la EA

Greek materials and Greek interpretations in Calatrava la Vieja: black-gloss and red figure pottery, and the local interpretations

En este artículo se aborda el estudio de todas las cerámicas griegas conocidas en Calatrava la Vieja (Carrión de Calatrava, Ciudad Real) hasta la actualidad, ofreciendo una información cronocultural relevante ya que permite asegurar la vigencia del oppidum oretano que aún yace bajo los niveles medievales. Este estudio también permite asegurar el momento en el que Calatrava se integró en las redes de comercio de productos griegos con todas las implicaciones culturales que supone, como la producción local de formas y decoraciones griegas.In this paper we study all Greek pottery of Calatrava la Vieja (Carrión de Calatrava, Ciudad Real). We can know a lot of information, like the chronology or the Iberian settlement (oppidum), which it is nowadays below the medieval strata. Also we can know the moment when Calatrava was integrated in the Greek trade network. This had cultural implications, such as the local production of Greek forms and decorations

Dispositivo y procedimiento útil para el control de un automóvil, con ayuda de GPS y comunicaciones inalámbricas, que permite efectuar adelantamientos

Dispositivo y procedimiento útil para el control de un automóvil, con ayuda de GPS y comunicaciones inalámbricas, que permite efectuar adelantamientos. El dispositivo y procedimiento permite el control automático para realizar mediante un computador maniobras de adelantamiento en carretera, manejando los tres actuadores principales del vehículo, acelerador, freno y dirección sin intervención humana, basándose en información sensorial proveniente de sistemas GNSS, redes de comunicaciones inalámbricas Wi.Fi y la información de navegación del propio vehículo. La computación de control del sistema esta basada en algoritmos de lógica borrosa desarrollados por los autores.Peer reviewedConsejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España)A1 Solicitud de patentes con informe sobre el estado de la técnic

Autonomous Vehicle Based in Cooperative GPS and Intertial Systems

A system including Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and digital cartography is a good solution to carry out vehicle's guidance. However, it has inconveniences like high sensibility to multipath and interference when the GPS signal is blocked by external agents. Another system is mandatory to avoid this error. This paper presents a cooperative system based on GPS and Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) for automated vehicle position. The control system includes a decision unit to choose which value is the correct. In case GPS is working at top precision, it takes the control. On the other part, GPS signal can be lost and inertial control system guides the car in this occasion. A third possibility is contemplated: we receive the signal from GPS but the accuracy is over one meter. Now, position value is obtained by means of both systems. Experimental results analyze two situations: guidance in an urban area where GPS signal can be occluded by buildings or trees during short time intervals and the possibility of loss of the signal in long time to simulate the circulation in tunnels. Good results have been observed in tests and it demonstrates how a cooperative system improves the automated vehicle guidance

Tensile properties and failure behavior of chopped and continuous carbon fiber composites produced by additive manufacturing

The use of additive manufacturing (AM) is rapidly expanding in many industries mostly because of the flexibility to manufacture complex geometries. Recently, a family of technologies that produce fiber reinforced components has been introduced, widening the options available to designers. AM fiber reinforced composites are characterized by the fact that process related parameters such as the amount of reinforcement fiber, or printing architecture, significantly affect the tensile properties of final parts. To find optimal structures using new AM technologies, guidelines for the design of 3D printed composite parts are needed. This paper presents an evaluation of the effects that different geometric parameters have on the tensile properties of 3D printed composites manufactured by fused filament fabrication (FFF) out of continuous and chopped carbon fiber reinforcement. Parameters such as infill density and infill patterns of chopped composite material, as well as fiber volume fraction and printing architecture of continuous fiber reinforcement (CFR) composites are varied. The effect of the location of the initial deposit point of reinforcement fibers on the tensile properties of the test specimens is studied. Also, the effect that the fiber deposition pattern has on tensile performance is quantified. Considering the geometric parameters that were studied, a variation of the Rule of Mixtures (ROM) that provides a way to estimate the elastic modulus of a 3D printed composite is proposed. Findings may be used by designers to define the best construction parameters for 3D printed composite parts

Presente y Futuro en el Descubrimiento de Fármacos para la Enfermedad de Chagas

Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is caused by infection with the Trypanosoma cruzi. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) estimates that 7.7 million persons currently have T cruzi infection in the 21 endemic countries. This disease can be transmitted to humans by insect vectors that are found only in the American continent, mainly, in rural areas with unhealthy housing conditions where poverty is a general concern. Nifurtimox and benznidazole are the only drugs used against this disease however sometimes they are not available. The treatment of Chagas disease with nifurtimox or benznidazole is unsatisfactory because of their limited efficacy on the prevalent chronic stage of the disease and their toxic side effects. It is, therefore, necessary the development of new effective antichagasic drugs for the suitable treatment of this disease. The development of new drugs for Chagas disease requires a multidisciplinary approach involving diverse disciplines such as molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, bioinformatics, biochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology. This revision describes the diferents strategies used for drug discovery on chagas disease treatment. The most classic stratetis as the design of analogous, sreening or biological information as well as the methods based on chemiinformatics have been discussed in this work.La enfermedad de Chagas, también conocida como Tripanosomiasis Americana es una enfermedad parasitaria causada por el Trypanosoma cruzi. Se estima que alrededor de 7,7 millones de personas se encuentran infectadas y padecen la enfermedad de Chagas. Esta enfermedad silenciosa que esta estrechamente relacionada con la pobreza, es transmitida a los humanos por unos insectos que se encuentran exclusivamente en el continente americano, principalmente en áreas rurales con muy deficientes condiciones de salubridad. Los fármacos existentes (nifurtimox y benznidazol), no siempre disponibles, constituyen un tratamiento paliativo, pero no curan la enfermedad y no son aceptables desde un punto de vista terapéutico debido a sus efectos secundarios indeseables y a su falta de eficacia. Por tanto, es necesario el desarrollo urgente de nuevos tratamientos y por tanto, sería muy conveniente la utilización del diseño racional en todas las etapas. El diseño de fármacos es una tarea compleja que requiere la colaboración interdisciplinar de muchos especialistas en diferentes campos de la ciencia. El presente trabajo describe de manera estructurada las diferentes estrategias que se han utilizado y las que se pueden utilizar en el futuro para el descubrimiento de nuevos fármacos para la enfermedad de Chagas. Se recogen las estrategias más clásicas como el diseño de análogos, el cribado sistemático o el basado en la información biológica y los métodos más novedosos basados en lo que se conoce como quimioinformática

Sub-250 fs, 650 kW Peak Power Harmonic Mode-Locked Fiber Laser with InN-based SESAM

43rd. European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2017), Gothemburg, 17-21 Sept.We demonstrate ultrafast harmonically mode-locked fiber lasing in up to 6-km-long rings at 1.56μm with InN SESAM. Fundamental mode-locking with pulse width of 239fs, pulse energy of 155nJ and peak power of 650kW is achieved with a 1-km-long cavity.European CommissionMinisterio de Economía y CompetitividadComunidad de Madri

Novel InN/InGaN multiple quantum well structures for slow‐light generation at telecommunication wavelengths

The third order susceptibility is responsible for a variety of optical non-linear phenomena -like self focusing, phase conjugation and four-wave mixing- with applications in coherent control of optical communication. InN is particularly attractive due to its near-IR bandgap and predicted high nonlinear effects. Moreover, the synthesis of InN nanostructures makes possible to taylor the absorption edge in the telecomunication spectral range and enhance nonlinear parameters thanks to carrier confinement. In this work, we assess the nonlinear optical behavior of InN/InxGa(1-x)N (0.9 > x > 0.7) multiplequantum-well (MQW) structures grown by plasma-assisted MBE on GaN-on-sapphire templates. Low-temperature (5 K) photoluminescence measurements show near-IR emission whose intensity increases with the In content in the barriers, which is explained in terms of the existence of piezoelectric fields in the structures. The nonlinear optical absorption coefficient, α2, were measured at 1.55 μm using the Z-scan method. We observe a strong dependence of the nonlinear absorption coefficient on the In content in the barriers. Saturable absorption is observed for the sample with x = 0.9, with α2 ̃ -9x103 cm/GW. For this sample, an optically controlled reduction of the speed of light by a factor S ∼ 80 is obtained at 1.55 μm. © 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA

Autonomous vehicle control systems for safe crossroads

This article presents a cooperative manoeuvre among three dual mode cars – vehicles equipped with sensors and actuators, and that can be driven either manually or autonomously. One vehicle is driven autonomously and the other two are driven manually. The main objective is to test two decision algorithms for priority conflict resolution at intersections so that a vehicle autonomously driven can take their own decision about crossing an intersection mingling with manually driven cars without the need for infrastructure modifications. To do this, the system needs the position, speeds, and turning intentions of the rest of the cars involved in the manoeuvre. This information is acquired via communications, but other methods are also viable, such as artificial vision. The idea of the experiments was to adjust the speed of the manually driven vehicles to force a situation where all three vehicles arrive at an intersection at the same time

Visual outcomes in Cataract Surgery in patients with uveitis

Introducción: los resultados visuales de la cirugía de catarata en pacientes con uveítis son menos predecibles.Objetivo: analizar los resultados visuales de pacientes con uveítis operados de catarata en la provincia de Pinar del Río entre enero de 2018 y agosto de 2020.Métodos: se realizó un estudio observacional, analítico de cohorte en el Hospital General Docente “Abel Santamaría Cuadrado” de la provincia de Pinar del Río. El universo estuvo constituido por pacientes con uveítis que asistieron a la consulta de infecciones e inflamaciones oculares y recibieron cirugía de catarata; la muestra quedó conformada por 42 ojos de 42 pacientes. Para el análisis estadístico se empleó Chi cuadrado de independencia, probabilidad exacta de Fisher y riesgo relativo con su intervalo de confianza; se utilizó una significación estadística del 95 %.Resultados: el 83,3 % de los ojos logró una agudeza visual final superior a 0,3. El resultado visual no mostró diferencias según grupos de edades (p=0,679), sexo (p=0,690), color de la piel (p=1,000), zona de residencia (p=1,000) y agudeza visual preoperatoria (p=0,569). Hubo diferencias significativas según clasificación anatómica (p<0,001), técnica quirúrgica (p=0,011) y complicaciones intraoperatorias (p=0,002). El resultado visual y las complicaciones posoperatorias no mostraron asociación.Conclusión: la cirugía de catarata en pacientes con uveítis logra una evidente mejoría en la agudeza visual final; los resultados son favorables en casos de uveítis anterior, tratados con facoemulsificación y ausencia de complicaciones intraoperatorias. Introduction: the visual results of cataract surgery in patients with uveitis are less predictable.Objective: to analyze the visual outcomes of patients with uveitis operated on cataract in Pinar del Rio province between January 2018 and August 2020.Methods: an observational, analytical cohort study was conducted at Abel Santamaria Cuadrado General Teaching Hospital in Pinar del Rio province. The target group comprised the patients with uveitis who attended the ocular infections and inflammations consultation and who underwent cataract surgery; the sample included 42 eyes of 42 patients. For the statistical analysis we used Chi-square of independence, Fisher's exact probability and relative risk with its confidence interval; a statistical significance of 95 % was used.Results: the eyes achieved a final visual acuity higher than 0.3 (83,3 %). Visual outcome showed no differences according to age group (p=0,679), sex (p=0,690), skin color (p=1,000), area of residence (p=1,000) and preoperative visual acuity (p=0,569). There were significant differences according to anatomical classification (p<0,001), surgical technique (p=0,011) and intraoperative complications (p=0,002). Visual outcome and postoperative complications showed no association.Conclusion: cataract surgery in patients with uveitis achieves an evident improvement in final visual acuity; results are favorable in cases of anterior uveitis, treated with phacoemulsification and absence of intraoperative complications