TRANSPORT PROCESSES IN THE PLASMA EDGE

Eight samples of different varieties of commercial ice-creams sold in Spain were analysed for their fatty acid composition, with relevance on their trans-fatty acid profile. Saturated fatty acids occurred in the largest proportions in all samples (mean=68,1%), followed by monounsaturated (mean=21,1%) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (mean=5,2%). Trans fatty acids were detected in all samples ranging from 0,5%-19%, mean value 5,7%. Statistical analysis (cluster analysis) based on their fatty acid profile (saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated and trans fatty acids) showed three groups of samples, depending on the main source of fat employed.Ocho muestras de distintas variedades de helados comercializados en España han sido analizadas para determinar su contenido en ácidos grasos de cadena media y larga, con especial interés en el contenido en ácidos grasos trans. La fracción mayoritaria en todos los casos, está constituida por los ácidos grasos saturados, que presentan un valor medio del 68,1%, seguido de la fracción de monoinsaturados (media=21,1%) y poliinsaturados (media=5,1%). El contenido en ácidos grasos trans, detectado en todas las muestras, oscila entre 0,5%-19%, con un valor medio de 5,7%. El análisis estadístico (análisis cluster) realizado, basándonos en el contenido en ácidos grasos saturados, monoinsaturados, poliinsaturados y trans, ha permitido diferenciar tres grupos distintos de helados según la fuente de grasa mayoritaria empleada en su elaboración

Obesidad en la infancia y en la adolescencia

La obesidad se considera en la actualidad un problema de salud pública mundial debido al constante aumento de su prevalencia asociado a los cambios en los estilos de vida de la población, que incluyen la inactividad física y el incremento en el ingreso de calorías. Además, existe una baja percepción del problema por parte de las familias, sobre todo de aquellas que tienen más riesgo. La prevalencia actual en nuestro país se estima en un 14%. Determinados sujetos pueden tener una mayor predisposición genética a aumentar de peso, y los genes pueden no expresarse totalmente hasta la etapa adulta. En este artículo, se abordarán: la etiopatogenia y su clasifi cación, la elevada comorbilidad asociada, así como el abordaje diagnóstico y terapéutico. La base fundamental del tratamiento es la instauración de un programa multidisciplinar a largo plazo que asocie educación nutricional, aumento de la actividad física, restricción dietética y modifi caciones de la conducta de la población. Se debe iniciar la prevención en edades precoces; ya que, los hábitos de salud se establecen en la infancia y, posteriormente, será muy difícil modifi carlos. El pediatra tiene un gran protagonismo detectando los factores y poblaciones de riesgo, ejerciendo una acción educadora a nivel de las familias, sus hijos, la escuela y los ámbitos sociales y políticos.Obesity is now considered a global public health problem due to the constant increase in its prevalence associated with changes in the population’s lifestyles, including the reduction in physical inactivity and an increase in caloric intake. There is also a low awareness of the problem in families, especially those at higher risk. The current prevalence in Spain is estimated at 14%. Certain individuals may have a greater genetic predisposition to gain weight, and genes may not be fully expressed until adulthood. This article addresses: pathogenesis and its classifi cation, high comorbidity associated with obesity and its diagnostic and therapeutic approach. The basis of the treatment is to establish a multidisciplinary program that combines a long-term nutritional education, an increase in physical activity, a dietary restriction and certain behavioral modifi cations in the population. Prevention should be initiated at earlier ages, since health habits are established during childhood and are very complicated to change afterwards. Pediatricians play a major role in detecting factors and segments of the population at risk, ensuring the education in families, their children and in schools and other social and political environments

Chandigarh: la tradición vernácula como herramienta de sostenibilidad

Peer Reviewe

Denoising Autoencoders and LSTM-Based Artificial Neural Networks Data Processing for Its Application to Internal Model Control in Industrial Environments-The Wastewater Treatment Plant Control Case

Altres ajuts: Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya i del Fons Social Europeu (2020 FI_B2 000)The evolution of industry towards the Industry 4.0 paradigm has become a reality where different data-driven methods are adopted to support industrial processes. One of them corresponds to Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), which are able to model highly complex and non-linear processes. This motivates their adoption as part of new data-driven based control strategies. The ANN-based Internal Model Controller (ANN-based IMC) is an example which takes advantage of the ANNs characteristics by modelling the direct and inverse relationships of the process under control with them. This approach has been implemented in Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP), where results show a significant improvement on control performance metrics with respect to (w.r.t.) the WWTP default control strategy. However, this structure is very sensible to non-desired effects in the measurements-when a real scenario showing noise-corrupted data is considered, the control performance drops. To solve this, a new ANN-based IMC approach is designed with a two-fold objective, improve the control performance and denoise the noise-corrupted measurements to reduce the performance degradation. Results show that the proposed structure improves the control metrics, (the Integrated Absolute Error (IAE) and the Integrated Squared Error (ISE)), around a 21.25% and a 54.64%, respectively

Transfer learning in wastewater treatment plant control design : from conventional to long short-term memory-based controllers

In the last decade, industrial environments have been experiencing a change in their control processes. It is more frequent that control strategies adopt Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to support control operations, or even as the main control structure. Thus, control structures can be directly obtained from input and output measurements without requiring a huge knowledge of the processes under control. However, ANNs have to be designed, implemented, and trained, which can become complex and time-demanding processes. This can be alleviated by means of Transfer Learning (TL) methodologies, where the knowledge obtained from a unique ANN is transferred to the remaining nets reducing the ANN design time. From the control viewpoint, the first ANN can be easily obtained and then transferred to the remaining control loops. In this manuscript, the application of TL methodologies to design and implement the control loops of a Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) is analysed. Results show that the adoption of this TL-based methodology allows the development of new control loops without requiring a huge knowledge of the processes under control. Besides, a wide improvement in terms of the control performance with respect to conventional control structures is also obtained. For instance, results have shown that less oscillations in the tracking of desired set-points are produced by achieving improvements in the Integrated Absolute Error and Integrated Square Error which go from 40.17% to 94.29% and from 34.27% to 99.71%, respectively

Mitochondrial dysfunction in advanced liver disease: Emerging Concepts.

Mitochondria are entrusted with the challenging task of providing energy through the generation of ATP, the universal cellular currency, thereby being highly flexible to different acute and chronic nutrient demands of the cell. The fact that mitochondrial diseases (genetic disorders caused by mutations in the nuclear or mitochondrial genome) manifest through a remarkable clinical variation of symptoms in affected individuals underlines the far-reaching implications of mitochondrial dysfunction. The study of mitochondrial function in genetic or non-genetic diseases therefore requires a multi-angled approach. Taking into account that the liver is among the organs richest in mitochondria, it stands to reason that in the process of unravelling the pathogenesis of liver-related diseases, researchers give special focus to characterizing mitochondrial function. However, mitochondrial dysfunction is not a uniformly defined term. It can refer to a decline in energy production, increase in reactive oxygen species and so forth. Therefore, any study on mitochondrial dysfunction first needs to define the dysfunction to be investigated. Here, we review the alterations of mitochondrial function in liver cirrhosis with emphasis on acutely decompensated liver cirrhosis and acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF), the latter being a form of acute decompensation characterized by a generalized state of systemic hyperinflammation/immunosuppression and high mortality rate. The studies that we discuss were either carried out in liver tissue itself of these patients, or in circulating leukocytes, whose mitochondrial alterations might reflect tissue and organ mitochondrial dysfunction. In addition, we present different methodological approaches that can be of utility to address the diverse aspects of hepatocyte and leukocyte mitochondrial function in liver disease. They include assays to measure metabolic fluxes using the comparatively novel Biolog's MitoPlates in a 96-well format as well as assessment of mitochondrial respiration by high-resolution respirometry using Oroboros' O2k-technology and Agilent Seahorse XF technology

Proresolving lipid mediators and liver disease.

Inflammation is a characteristic feature of virtually all acute and chronic liver diseases. It intersects different liver pathologies from the early stages of liver injury, when the inflammatory burden is mild-to-moderate, to very advanced stages of liver disease, when the inflammatory response is very intense and drives multiple organ dysfunction and failure(s). The current review describes the most relevant features of the inflammatory process in two different clinical entities across the liver disease spectrum, namely non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF). Special emphasis is given within these two disease conditions to gather the most relevant data on the specialized pro-resolving mediators that orchestrate the resolution of inflammation, a tightly controlled process which dysregulation commonly associates with chronic inflammatory conditions

Phenylboronic Acids Probing Molecular Recognition against Class A and Class C beta-Lactamases

Worldwide dissemination of pathogens resistant to almost all available antibiotics represent a real problem preventing efficient treatment of infectious diseases. Among antimicrobial used in therapy, \u392-lactam antibiotics represent 40% thus playing a crucial role in the management of infections treatment. We report a small series of phenylboronic acids derivatives (BAs) active against class A carbapenemases KPC-2 and GES-5, and class C cephalosporinases AmpC. The inhibitory profile of our BAs against class A and C was investigated by means of molecular docking, enzyme kinetics and X-ray crystallography. We were interested in the mechanism of recognition among class A and class C to direct the design of broad serine \u392-Lactamases (SBLs) inhibitors. Molecular modeling calculations vs GES-5 and crystallographic studies vs AmpC reasoned, respectively, the ortho derivative 2 and the meta derivative 3 binding affinity. The ability of our BAs to protect \u392-lactams from BLs hydrolysis was determined in biological assays conducted against clinical strains: Fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI) tests confirmed their ability to be synergic with \u392-lactams thus restoring susceptibility to meropenem. Considering the obtained results and the lack of cytotoxicity, our derivatives represent validated probe for the design of SBLs inhibitors

LSTM-Based Wastewater Treatment Plants Operation Strategies for Effluent Quality Improvement

Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) are facilities devoted to managing and reducing the pollutant concentrations present in the urban residual waters. Some of them consist in nitrogen and phosphorus derived products which are harmful for the environment. Consequently, certain constraints are applied to pollutant concentrations in order to make sure that treated waters comply with the established regulations. In that sense, efforts have been applied to the development of control strategies that help in the pollutant reduction tasks. Furthermore, the appearance of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) has encouraged the adoption of predictive control strategies. In such a fashion, this work is mainly focused on the adoption and development of them to actuate over the pollutant concentrations only when predictions of effluents determine that violations will be produced. In that manner, the overall WWTP's operational costs can be reduced. Predictions are generated by means of an ANN-based Soft-Sensor which adopts Long-Short Term Memory cells to predict effluent pollutant levels. These are the ammonium (S-{NH,e}) and the total nitrogen (S-{Ntot,e}) which are predicted considering influent parameters such as the ammonium concentration at the entrance of the WWTP reactor tanks (S-{NH,po}), the reactors' input flow rate (Q-{po}), the WWTP recirculation rate (Q-{a}) and the environmental temperature (T-{as}). Moreover, this work presents a new multi-objective control scenario which consists in a unique control structure performing the reduction of S-{NH,e} and S-{Ntot,e} concentrations simultaneously. Performance of this new control approach is contrasted with other strategies to determine the improvement provided by the ANN-based Soft-Sensor as well as by the fact of being controlling two pollutants at the same time. Results show that some brief and small violations are still produced. Nevertheless, an improvement in the WWTPs performance w.r.t.The most common control strategies around 96.58% and 98.31% is achieved for S-{NH,e} and S-{Ntot,e}, respectively