Presentació de la Guia per a l’avaluació de competències en l’àrea d’Enginyeria i Arquitectura, AQU Catalunya (2009)

Peer Reviewe

Bar_Code Housing System: la creación de un espacio de investigación interdisciplinar en torno al proyecto de arquitectura

BAR_CODE HOUSING SYSTEM es un proyecto de investigación sobre la vivienda colectiva construida con sistemas industrializados financiado por el Plan Nacional de I+D+i. El objetivo del proyecto es desarrollar un sistema integrado de diseño y construcción asistido por ordenador que facilite la interacción ente los agentes que participan en los procesos de diseño y construcción de viviendas (técnicos, constructores, fabricantes, administración, usuarios). La investigación abarca diversos ámbitos de la arquitectura (proyectos, construcción, estructuras, instalaciones), conjuntamente con la computación. Las tecnologías de la información y comunicación se aplican con la intención de potenciar las relaciones entre estos ámbitos. La interrelación entre las distintas disciplinas y áreas de conocimiento da lugar a un espacio de investigación de carácter transdisciplinar, aunque esencialmente arquitectónico. Esta estrategia de relaciones propicia la vinculación entre la investigación y la docencia, especialmente cuando se adopta un modelo de educación constructivista

Enhancing energy performance certificates with energy related data to support decision making for building retrofitting

The increasing availability of large-scale repositories of energy performance certificates offers the opportunity to interlink them with other data sources (cadastre, geographical data, weather data, building regulations, catalogues of refurbish?ment measures) and to derive innovative services that use the integrated data in conjunction with various tools (energy performance simulation, environmental impact). In the ENERSI project, two applications have been developed to make it easier for building owners and planners to take informed decisions to improve building energy performance in their properties and in their municipalities. These applications, named ENERHAT and ENERPAT, are based on the integration of building data from multiple sources and domains (energy performance certificates, cadastre, geographic information, and census), building refurbishment policies and assessment tools. Data integration has been performed using Semantic Web technologies. A user-friendly interface enables end-users of these on-line applications to obtain information about the current building status of properties, the measures which could be undertaken to improve them, the energy savings achieved and their respective costs.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Splicing Machinery is Dysregulated in Pituitary Neuroendocrine Tumors and is Associated with Aggressiveness Features

Pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs) constitute approximately 15% of all brain tumors, and most have a sporadic origin. Recent studies suggest that altered alternative splicing and, consequently, appearance of aberrant splicing variants, is a common feature of most tumor pathologies. Moreover, spliceosome is considered an attractive therapeutic target in tumor pathologies, and the inhibition of SF3B1 (e.g., using pladienolide-B) has been shown to exert antitumor effects. Therefore, we aimed to analyze the expression levels of selected splicing-machinery components in 261 PitNETs (somatotropinomas/non-functioning PitNETS/corticotropinomas/prolactinomas) and evaluated the direct effects of pladienolide-B in cell proliferation/viability/hormone secretion in human PitNETs cell cultures and pituitary cell lines (AtT-20/GH3). Results revealed a severe dysregulation of splicing-machinery components in all the PitNET subtypes compared to normal pituitaries and a unique fingerprint of splicing-machinery components that accurately discriminate between normal and tumor tissue in each PitNET subtype. Moreover, expression of specific components was associated with key clinical parameters. Interestingly, certain components were commonly dysregulated throughout all PitNET subtypes. Finally, pladienolide-B reduced cell proliferation/viability/hormone secretion in PitNET cell cultures and cell lines. Altogether, our data demonstrate a drastic dysregulation of the splicing-machinery in PitNETs that might be associated to their tumorigenesis, paving the way to explore the use of specific splicing-machinery components as novel diagnostic/prognostic and therapeutic targets in PitNETs

Correction to: Two years later: Is the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still having an impact on emergency surgery? An international cross-sectional survey among WSES members

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is still ongoing and a major challenge for health care services worldwide. In the first WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey, a strong negative impact on emergency surgery (ES) had been described already early in the pandemic situation. However, the knowledge is limited about current effects of the pandemic on patient flow through emergency rooms, daily routine and decision making in ES as well as their changes over time during the last two pandemic years. This second WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey investigates the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on ES during the course of the pandemic. Methods: A web survey had been distributed to medical specialists in ES during a four-week period from January 2022, investigating the impact of the pandemic on patients and septic diseases both requiring ES, structural problems due to the pandemic and time-to-intervention in ES routine. Results: 367 collaborators from 59 countries responded to the survey. The majority indicated that the pandemic still significantly impacts on treatment and outcome of surgical emergency patients (83.1% and 78.5%, respectively). As reasons, the collaborators reported decreased case load in ES (44.7%), but patients presenting with more prolonged and severe diseases, especially concerning perforated appendicitis (62.1%) and diverticulitis (57.5%). Otherwise, approximately 50% of the participants still observe a delay in time-to-intervention in ES compared with the situation before the pandemic. Relevant causes leading to enlarged time-to-intervention in ES during the pandemic are persistent problems with in-hospital logistics, lacks in medical staff as well as operating room and intensive care capacities during the pandemic. This leads not only to the need for triage or transferring of ES patients to other hospitals, reported by 64.0% and 48.8% of the collaborators, respectively, but also to paradigm shifts in treatment modalities to non-operative approaches reported by 67.3% of the participants, especially in uncomplicated appendicitis, cholecystitis and multiple-recurrent diverticulitis. Conclusions: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still significantly impacts on care and outcome of patients in ES. Well-known problems with in-hospital logistics are not sufficiently resolved by now; however, medical staff shortages and reduced capacities have been dramatically aggravated over last two pandemic years