Insulinoma : a propósito de un caso clínico

Se describe un caso de insulinoma en un perro. La presentación clínica inicial, algo oscura, permite realizar un protocolo diagnóstico diferencial primero del síndrome de debilidad, luego de hipoglucemia, y finalmente confirmar el insulinoma por las correspondientes pruebas endocrinológicas, incluido el test de la fructosamina, y visualización de nódulos característicos en páncreas gracias a la exploración ecográfica.A case of insulinoma in the dog is described. Due to the initially unclear clinical picture, a differential diagnosis of weakness is carried out at first, of hypoglycemia later, and after the endocrinologycal tests (including the fructosamine test) and ultrasonographic examination (visualizing characteristic pancreatic nodules) a final diagnosis of insulinoma is made

Context unification is in PSPACE

Contexts are terms with one `hole', i.e. a place in which we can substitute an argument. In context unification we are given an equation over terms with variables representing contexts and ask about the satisfiability of this equation. Context unification is a natural subvariant of second-order unification, which is undecidable, and a generalization of word equations, which are decidable, at the same time. It is the unique problem between those two whose decidability is uncertain (for already almost two decades). In this paper we show that the context unification is in PSPACE. The result holds under a (usual) assumption that the first-order signature is finite. This result is obtained by an extension of the recompression technique, recently developed by the author and used in particular to obtain a new PSPACE algorithm for satisfiability of word equations, to context unification. The recompression is based on performing simple compression rules (replacing pairs of neighbouring function symbols), which are (conceptually) applied on the solution of the context equation and modifying the equation in a way so that such compression steps can be in fact performed directly on the equation, without the knowledge of the actual solution.Comment: 27 pages, submitted, small notation changes and small improvements over the previous tex

Reconstruction and numerical modelling of the abdominal wall. Application to hernia surgery

Routine hernia repair surgery involves the implant of synthetic mesh. However, this proceduremay give rise to several problems causing considerable patient disability. With the aim ofimproving surgical procedures, the healthy and the herniated human abdomen are simulatedusing finite element (FE) simulations. For that purpose, a reconstruction of the physiologicalgeometry of a human abdomen was created using magnetic resonance images. Besides,following the anatomy of the abdomen, the different muscles and aponeurosis were defined.Furthermore, collagen fibres were included in each muscle layer and their passive anisotropicmechanical contribution was modelled within the framework of hyperelasticity. In the FEsimulation of the abdomen, the constraint imposed by the shoulder is applied and an internalpressure of 23 kPa was applied to the interior abdominal wall to reproduce the abdominal loadwhen standing jumping. After generating a hernia in the front of the abdomen, differentprostheses (Surgipro®, Optilene® and Infinit®), modelled using a membrane model, are placedin the defect to simulate the behaviour of the abdomen after the surgical procedure. In thehealthy abdomen, maximal principal stresses (MPS) and displacements (MD) appear in thefront of the belly. On the other hand, once the hernia is created and the mesh is placed, theMD and MPS are higher than those attained in the healthy abdomen. Thus, just after surgery,surgical repair procedure does not fully restore normal physiological conditions and the risk ofhernia recurrence by the suture is high due to the stress concentration

TAPAS: Tricks to Accelerate (encrypted) Prediction As a Service

Machine learning methods are widely used for a variety of prediction problems. \emph{Prediction as a service} is a paradigm in which service providers with technological expertise and computational resources may perform predictions for clients. However, data privacy severely restricts the applicability of such services, unless measures to keep client data private (even from the service provider) are designed. Equally important is to minimize the amount of computation and communication required between client and server. Fully homomorphic encryption offers a possible way out, whereby clients may encrypt their data, and on which the server may perform arithmetic computations. The main drawback of using fully homomorphic encryption is the amount of time required to evaluate large machine learning models on encrypted data. We combine ideas from the machine learning literature, particularly work on binarization and sparsification of neural networks, together with algorithmic tools to speed-up and parallelize computation using encrypted data.Comment: Accepted at International Conference in Machine Learning (ICML), 201

Social pharmacology: expanding horizons

In the current modern and global society, social changes are in constant evolution due to scientific progress (technology, culture, customs, and hygiene) and produce the freedom in individuals to take decisions by themselves or with their doctors toward drug consumption. In the arena of marketed drug products which includes society, individual, administration, and pharmaceutical industry, the young discipline emerged is social pharmacology or sociopharmacology. This science arises from clinical pharmacology, and deals with different parameters, which are important in creating knowledge on marketed drugs. However, the scope of “social pharmacology” is not covered by the so‑called “Phase IV” alone, but it is the science that handles the postmarketing knowledge of drugs. The social pharmacology studies the “life cycle” of any marketed pharmaceutical product in the social terrain, and evaluates the effects of the real environment under circumstances totally different in the drug development process. Therefore, there are far‑reaching horizons, plural, and shared predictions among health professionals and other, for beneficial use of a drug, toward maximizing the benefits of therapy, while minimizing negative social consequences

Social pharmacology: expanding horizons

In the current modern and global society, social changes are in constant evolution due to scientific progress (technology, culture, customs, and hygiene) and produce the freedom in individuals to take decisions by themselves or with their doctors toward drug consumption. In the arena of marketed drug products which includes society, individual, administration, and pharmaceutical industry, the young discipline emerged is social pharmacology or sociopharmacology. This science arises from clinical pharmacology, and deals with different parameters, which are important in creating knowledge on marketed drugs. However, the scope of “social pharmacology” is not covered by the so‑called “Phase IV” alone, but it is the science that handles the postmarketing knowledge of drugs. The social pharmacology studies the “life cycle” of any marketed pharmaceutical product in the social terrain, and evaluates the effects of the real environment under circumstances totally different in the drug development process. Therefore, there are far‑reaching horizons, plural, and shared predictions among health professionals and other, for beneficial use of a drug, toward maximizing the benefits of therapy, while minimizing negative social consequences

Validación del Cuestionario de Autoevaluación de la Creatividad en la Enseñanza Universitaria CACEU-2010

La creatividad es un vector formativo de la enseñanza y de las relaciones entre estudiantes y profesores en la Educación Superior. A tal fin, el Cuestionario de Autoevaluación de la Creatividad en la Enseñanza Universitaria (CACEU-2010) se ha diseñado para conocer cómo comprenden los profesores universitarios la creatividad aplicada a su enseñanza y facilitar su autoevaluación. Se estructuró como una escala de autoinforme, conformada por 44 ítemes. Se estudió la validez de contenido, realizada por jueces expertos. La fiabilidad se obtuvo con el método Alpha de Cronbach, y el parámetro obtuvo valores entre 0,70 y 0,94 para las diferentes subescalas utilizadas

Métodos de enriquecimiento de glicoproteínas bacterianas para su posterior análisis y caracterización mediante espectrometría de masas

Comunicaciones a congreso

«Cuatro varas de sangre». Patria, comunidad política y creación de identidad colectiva en el Aragón de los siglos XVI y XVII

Diversas fuentes aragonesas de época moderna mencionan la idea de patria, entendida como lugar de nacimiento, pero también como comunidad política. En el segundo caso, la noción está ligada a la existencia de un ordenamiento jurídico y un sistema institucional propios, así como a referentes simbólicos como las «cuatro varas de sangre» representadas en el escudo del reino de Aragón. Estas construcciones culturales se enmarcan en el proceso de definición de una identidad colectiva aragonesa, asunto que será objeto de análisis en el presente artículo. Para ello se atenderá a los contenidos con que trató de perfilarse dicha identidad, a los promotores de su elaboración, a los mecanismos de creación y difusión que utilizaron y a la extensión que sus formulaciones alcanzaron en la población. Y también se subrayará que el esfuerzo por definir tal identidad cultural se produjo de forma simultánea a la inclusión del reino de Aragón en una unidad política de dimensiones universales, en la que se estaban produciendo fenómenos similares. De hecho, se procurará establecer comparaciones con otros casos, como el navarro o el catalán, con los que la identidad aragonesa compartió referentes históricos e ideológicos. Diverse Early Modern Aragonese sources allude to the idea of “homeland”, both as a place of birth and a political community. In this second case, the concept is tied to the existence of legal and institutional systems, and to symbolic referents like the “four rods of blood” represented in the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Aragon. These cultural constructions are part of the process of defining an Aragonese collective identity, which this paper will analyse. For this purpose, we shall examine the contents used to shape this identity, the people who contributed to its elaboration, the mechanisms of its creation and dissemination, and the extent to which these formulations reached the general population. Also emphasised is the extent to which the effort that went into defining such a cultural identity was simultaneous to the Kingdom of Aragon''s inclusion within a political unit of universal dimensions where similar phenomena were taking place. Indeed, we seek to establish comparisons with other instances, such as the Navarrese or Catalan cases, with which the Aragonese identity shared historical and ideological referents

Thermal performance analysis of the double sided-linear switched reluctance motor

This paper presents an exhaustive study about the propulsion force and the thermal performance of the double-sided flat Linear Switched Reluctance Motor (LSRM) according to the number of phases (m) and the pole stroke (PS). The analysis is performed by means of the Finite Element Method (FEM) for electromagnetic computations and a lumped parameter for thermal model (LPT) both linked to an optimization algorithm based on the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) in order to reduce the computing time. The results show the optimal design of LSRM from the point of view of the thermo-mechanical performance for a given insulation class and a duty cycle operating conditions