Petrología aplicada a la Conservación del Patrimonio

4 páginas. Ed. Miguel Ángel Rogerio Candelera y Cesáreo Sáiz Jiménez. Primera Reunión de la Red de Ciencia y Tecnología para la Conservación del Patrimonio (Madrid, 28-29 de junio de 2011).El grupo de Petrología Aplicada a la Conservación del Patrimonio (PAP) está constituido por investigadores del CSIC y de la UCM, que pertenecen al Instituto de Geociencias. Este instituto, creado en 2011, es una transformación del antiguo Instituto de Geología Económica (CSIC-UCM), del cual procede este grupo de investigación con más de 25 años de experiencia en la conservación del patrimonio cultural, principalmente del patrimonio arquitectónico y arqueológico realizado en piedra. El grupo participa en los estudios previos y en los realizados durante la fase de ejecución del proyecto de diferentes intervenciones encaminadas a la restauración y conservación del patrimonio (www.conservacionpatrimonio.es).Programas Geomateriales (S2009/MAT-1629) y CONSOLIDER-TCP (CSD2007-0058) y a la financiación de Grupo de Investigación de la UCM, "Alteración y Conservación de los Materiales Pétreos del Patrimonio" (ref. 921349).Peer reviewe

Centralized Inverted Decoupling Control

This paper presents a new methodology of multivariable centralized control based on the structure of inverted decoupling. The method is presented for general n×n processes, obtaining very simple general expressions for the controller elements with a complexity independent of the system size. The possible configurations and realizability conditions are stated. Then, the specification of performance requirements is carried out from simple open loop transfer functions for three common cases. As a particular case, it is shown that the resulting controller elements have PI structure or filtered derivative action plus a time delay when the process elements are given by first order plus time delay systems. Comparisons with other works demonstrate the effectiveness of this methodology through the use of several simulation examples and an experimental lab process

Moderate SIRT1 overexpression protects against brown adipose tissue inflammation

Objective: Metainflammation is a chronic low-grade inflammatory state induced by obesity and associated comorbidities, including peripheral insulin resistance. Brown adipose tissue (BAT), a therapeutic target against obesity, is an insulin target tissue sensitive to inflammation. Therefore, it is demanding to find strategies to protect BAT against the effects of inflammation in energy balance. In this study we have explored the impact of moderate Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) overexpression in insulin sensitivity and β-adrenergic responses in BAT and brown adipocytes (BA) under pro-inflammatory conditions. Methods: The effect of inflammation in BAT functionality was studied in obese db/db mice and lean wild-type (WT) mice or mice with moderate overexpression of SIRT1 (SIRT1Tg+) injected a low dose of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to mimic endotoxemia. We also conducted studies in differentiated BA (BA-WT and BA-SIRT1Tg+) exposed to a macrophagederived pro-inflammatory conditioned medium (CM) to evaluate the protection of SIRT1 overexpression in insulin signaling and glucose uptake, mitochondrial respiration, fatty acid oxidation (FAO), as well as norepinephrine (NE)-mediated-modulation of uncoupling protein-1 (UCP-1) expression. Results: BAT from db/db mice was susceptible to metabolic inflammation manifested by activation of pro-inflammatory signaling cascades, increased pro-inflammatory gene expression, tissue-specific insulin resistance and reduced UCP-1 expression. Impairment of insulin and noradrenergic responses were also found in lean WT mice upon LPS injection. By contrast, BAT from mice with moderate overexpression of SIRT1 (SIRT1Tg+) was protected against LPSinduced activation of pro-inflammatory signaling, insulin resistance and defective thermogenicrelated responses upon cold exposure. Importantly, the drop of triiodothyronine (T3) levels both in circulation and intra-BAT after exposure of WT mice to LPS and cold was markedly attenuated in SIRT1Tg+ mice. In vitro experiments in BA from the two genotypes revealed that upon differentiation with a T3-enriched medium and subsequent exposure to a macrophagederived pro-inflammatory CM, only BA-SIRT1Tg+ fully recovered insulin and noradrenergic responses. Conclusion: This study has unraveled the benefit of moderate overexpression of SIRT1 to confer protection against defective insulin and β-adrenergic responses caused by inflammation in BAT. Our results have potential therapeutic value proposing combinatorial therapies of BATspecific thyromimetics and SIRT1 activators to combat metainflammation in this tissue

Engineering secretory amyloids for remote and highly selective destruction of metastatic foci

Altres ajuts: to EU COST Action CA 17140Functional amyloids produced in bacteria as nanoscale inclusion bodies are intriguing but poorly explored protein materials with wide therapeutic potential. Since they release functional polypeptides under physiological conditions, these materials can be potentially tailored as mimetic of secretory granules for slow systemic delivery of smart protein drugs. To explore this possibility, bacterial inclusion bodies formed by a self-assembled, tumor-targeted Pseudomonas exotoxin (PE24) are administered subcutaneously in mouse models of human metastatic colorectal cancer, for sustained secretion of tumor-targeted therapeutic nanoparticles. These proteins are functionalized with a peptidic ligand of CXCR4, a chemokine receptor overexpressed in metastatic cancer stem cells that confers high selective cytotoxicity in vitro and in vivo. In the mouse models of human colorectal cancer, time-deferred anticancer activity is detected after the subcutaneous deposition of 500 µg of PE24-based amyloids, which promotes a dramatic arrest of tumor growth in the absence of side toxicity. In addition, long-term prevention of lymphatic, hematogenous, and peritoneal metastases is achieved. These results reveal the biomedical potential and versatility of bacterial inclusion bodies as novel tunable secretory materials usable in delivery, and they also instruct how therapeutic proteins, even with high functional and structural complexity, can be packaged in this convenient format

EMCCD calibration for astronomical imaging: Wide FastCam at the Telescopio Carlos Sánchez

The evident benefits of Electron Multiplying CCDs (EMCCDs) -speed, high sensitivity, low noise and their capability of detecting single photon events whilst maintaining high quantum efficiency- are bringing these kinds of detectors to many state-of-the-art astronomical instruments (Velasco et al. 2016; Oscoz et al. 2008). The EMCCDs are the perfect answer to the need for great sensitivity levels as they are not limited by the readout noise of the output amplifier, while conventional CCDs are, even when operated at high readout frame rates. Here we present a quantitative on-sky method to calibrate EMCCD detectors dedicated to astronomical imaging, developed during the commissioning process (Velasco et al. 2016) and first observations (Ricci et al. 2016, in prep.) with Wide FastCam (Marga et al. 2014) at Telescopio Carlos Sánchez (TCS) in the Observatorio del Teide

Petrología aplicada a la Conservación del Patrimonio

El grupo de Petrología Aplicada a la Conservación del Patrimonio (PAP) está constituido por investigadores del CSIC y de la UCM, que pertenecen al Instituto de Geociencias. Este instituto, creado en 2011, es una transformación del antiguo Instituto de Geología Económica (CSIC-UCM), del cual procede este grupo de investigación con más de 25 años de experiencia en la conservación del patrimonio cultural, principalmente del patrimonio arquitectónico y arqueológico realizado en piedra. El grupo participa en los estudios previos y en los realizados durante la fase de ejecución del proyecto de diferentes intervenciones encaminadas a la restauración y conservación del patrimonio (www.conservacionpatrimonio.es)

Comparative study of paediatric prescription drug utilization between the spanish and immigrant population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The immigrant population has increased greatly in Spain in recent years to the point where immigrants made up 12% of the infant population in 2008. There is little information available on the profile of this group with regard to prescription drug utilization in universal public health care systems such as that operating in Spain. This work studies the overall and specific differences in prescription drug utilization between the immigrant and Spanish population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Use was made of the Aragonese Health Service databases for 2006. The studied population comprises 159,908 children aged 0-14 years, 13.6% of whom are foreign nationals. Different utilization variables were calculated for each group. Prescription-drug consumption is measured in Defined Daily Doses (DDD) and DDD/1000 persons/day/(DID).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 833,223 prescriptions were studied. Utilization is lower for immigrant children than in Spanish children for both DID (66.27 v. 113.67) and average annual expense (€21.55 v. €41.14). Immigrant children consume fewer prescription drugs than Spanish children in all of the therapy groups, with the most prescribed (in DID) being: respiratory system, anti-infectives for systemic use, nervous system, sensory organs. Significant differences were observed in relation to the type of drugs and the geographical background of immigrants.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Prescription drug utilization is much greater in Spanish children than in immigrant children, particularly with reference to bronchodilators (montelukast and terbutaline) and attention-disorder hyperactivity drugs such as methylphenidate. There are important differences regarding drug type and depending on immigrants' geographical backgrounds that suggest there are social, cultural and access factors underlying these disparities.</p

Operations of and Future Plans for the Pierre Auger Observatory

Technical reports on operations and features of the Pierre Auger Observatory, including ongoing and planned enhancements and the status of the future northern hemisphere portion of the Observatory. Contributions to the 31st International Cosmic Ray Conference, Lodz, Poland, July 2009.Comment: Contributions to the 31st ICRC, Lodz, Poland, July 200

Measurement of the Depth of Maximum of Extensive Air Showers above 10^18 eV

We describe the measurement of the depth of maximum, Xmax, of the longitudinal development of air showers induced by cosmic rays. Almost four thousand events above 10^18 eV observed by the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory in coincidence with at least one surface detector station are selected for the analysis. The average shower maximum was found to evolve with energy at a rate of (106 +35/-21) g/cm^2/decade below 10^(18.24 +/- 0.05) eV and (24 +/- 3) g/cm^2/decade above this energy. The measured shower-to-shower fluctuations decrease from about 55 to 26 g/cm^2. The interpretation of these results in terms of the cosmic ray mass composition is briefly discussed.Comment: Accepted for publication by PR