Ambulatory Extracorporeal Arterioveous CO2 Removal via Subclavian Vessels

Lung transplantation is the last recourse for patients with severe respiratory failure. However, transplantable lungs do not keep up with the demand, and 15.4% of patients die awaiting transplant. An alternative therapy is extracorporeal life support (ECLS), which uses a pump and an oxygenator to serve as a bridge to transplant. However, this technology limits ambulation and requires ICU care. This novel study implements pumpless arteriovenous (AV) ECLS technology to remove CO2 via the subclavian vessels, providing respiratory support and hypercapnia (excessive CO2 retention) sympton relief for patients while allowing ambulation

Efficiency upgrade of hybrid fuel cell vehicles' energy management strategies by online systemic management of fuel cell

This paper puts forward an approach for boosting the efficiency of energy management strategies (EMSs) in fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCHEVs) using an online systemic management of the fuel cell system (FCS). Unlike other similar works which solely determine the requested current from the FCS, this work capitalizes on simultaneous regulation of current and temperature, which have different dynamic behavior. In this regard, firstly, an online systemic management scheme is developed to guarantee the supply of the requested power from the stack with the highest efficiency. This scheme is based on an updatable 3D map which relates the requested power from the stack to its optimal temperature and current. Secondly, two different EMSs are used to distribute the power between the FCS and battery. The EMSs' constraints are constantly updated by the online model to embrace the stack performance drifts owing to degradation and operating conditions variation. Finally, the effect of integrating the developed online systemic management into the EMSs' design is experimentally scrutinized under two standard driving cycles and indicated that up to 3.7% efficiency enhancement can be reached by employing such a systemic approach. Moreover, FCS health adaptation unawareness can increase the hydrogen consumption up to 6.6%

Degron tagging for rapid protein degradation in mice

Degron tagging allows proteins of interest to be rapidly degraded, in areversible and tuneable manner, in response to a chemical stimulus.This provides numerous opportunities for understanding diseasemechanisms, modelling therapeutic interventions and constructingsynthetic gene networks. In recent years, many laboratories haveapplied degron tagging successfully in cultured mammalian cells,spurred by rapid advances in the fields of genome editing andtargeted protein degradation. In this At a Glance article, we focus onrecent efforts to apply degron tagging in mouse models, discussingthe distinct set of challenges and opportunities posed by the in vivoenvironmen

An adaptive state machine based energy management strategy for a multi-stack fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle

This paper aims at designing an online energy management strategy (EMS) for a multi-stack fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle (FCHEV) to enhance the fuel economy as well as the fuel cell stacks (FCSs) lifetime. In this respect, a two-layer strategy is proposed to share the power among four FCSs and a battery pack. The first layer (local to each FCS) is held solely responsible for constantly determining the real maximum power and efficiency of each stack since the operating conditions variation and ageing noticeably influence stacks' performance. This layer is composed of a FCS semi-empirical model and a Kalman filter. The utilized filter updates the FCS model parameters to compensate for the FCSs' performance drifts. The second layer (global management) is held accountable for splitting the power among components. This layer uses two inputs per each FCS, updated maximum power and efficiency, as well as the battery state of charge (SOC) and powertrain demanded power to perform the power sharing. The proposed EMS, called adaptive state machine strategy, employs the first two inputs to sort the FCSs out and the other inputs to do the power allocation. The ultimate results of the suggested strategy are compared with two commonly used power sharing methods, namely Daisy Chain and Equal Distribution. The results of the suggested EMS indicate promising improvement in the overall performance of the system. The performance validation is conducted on a developed test bench by means of hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) technique

KV1.5–KV 1.3 Recycling Is PKC-Dependent

KV1.5 channel function is modified by different regulatory subunits. KVβ1.3 subunits assemble with KV1.5 channels and induce a fast and incomplete inactivation. Inhibition of PKC abolishes the KVβ1.3-induced fast inactivation, decreases the amplitude of the current KV1.5–KVβ1.3 and modifies their pharmacology likely due to changes in the traffic of KV1.5–KVβ1.3 channels in a PKC-dependent manner. In order to analyze this hypothesis, HEK293 cells were transfected with KV1.5–KVβ1.3 channels, and currents were recorded by whole-cell configuration of the patch-clamp technique. The presence of KV1.5 in the membrane was analyzed by biotinylation techniques, live cell imaging and confocal microscopy approaches. PKC inhibition resulted in a decrease of 33 ± 7% of channels in the cell surface due to reduced recycling to the plasma membrane, as was confirmed by confocal microscopy. Live cell imaging indicated that PKC inhibition almost abolished the recycling of the KV1.5–KVβ1.3 channels, generating an accumulation of channels into the cytoplasm. All these results suggest that the trafficking regulation of KV1.5–KVβ1.3 channels is dependent on phosphorylation by PKC and, therefore, they could represent a clinically relevant issue, mainly in those diseases that exhibit modifications in PKC activity.This research was funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) Spain SAF2016-75021-R and PID2019-104366RB-C21 (to C.V. and T.G.), the Instituto de Salud Carlos III CIBERCV program CB/11/00222 (to C.V.), and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas grants: PIE 201820E104 and 2019AEP148 (to C.V.). The cost of this publication was paid in part by funds from the European Fund for Economic and Regional Development (FEDER). A.M. holds a postdoctoral contract at CNIC. A.d.l.C. and D.A.P. held CSIC contracts. A.d.B.-B. holds an MICINN predoctoral contract (BES-2017-080184

Characterizing the dust content of disk substructures in TW Hya

We present Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations of TW Hya at 3.1 mm with $\sim50$ milliarcsecond resolution. These new data were combined with archival high angular resolution ALMA observations at 0.87 mm, 1.3 mm, and 2.1 mm. We analyze these multi-wavelength data to infer a disk radial profile of the dust surface density, maximum particle size, and slope of the particle size distribution. Most previously known annular substructures in the disk of TW Hya are resolved at the four wavelengths. Inside the inner 3 au cavity, the 2.1 mm and 3.1 mm images show a compact source of free-free emission, likely associated with an ionized jet. Our multi-wavelength analysis of the dust emission shows that the maximum particle size in the disk of TW Hya is $>1$ mm. The inner 20 au are completely optically thick at all four bands, which results in the data tracing different disk heights at different wavelengths. Coupled with the effects of dust settling, this prevents the derivation of accurate density and grain size estimates in these regions. At $r>20$ au, we find evidence of the accumulation of large dust particle at the position of the bright rings, indicating that these are working as dust traps. The total dust mass in the disk is between 250 and 330 $M_{\oplus}$, which represents a gas-to-dust mass ratio between 50 and 70. Our mass measurement is a factor of 4.5-5.9 higher than the mass that one would estimate using the typical assumptions of large demographic surveys. Our results indicate that the ring substructures in TW Hya are ideal locations to trigger the streaming instability and form new generations of planetesimals.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in A&A. Language edited versio

Mitigando Efectos Adversos de Interrupciones del Servicio de Video-vigilancia del Hogar en Clientes WiFi inalámbricos

[ES] Actualmente los sistemas de videovigilancia en el Hogar se pueden combinar con sensores para formar un sistema de muy bajo coste y fácil manejo por parte del usuario final. Un componente importante en este sistema es el servidor de video streaming en tiempo real a clientes Web que usan Wireless Fidelity. El servidor se puede instalar en open hardware como el Raspberry Pi y se puede ayudar de sensores arduino para detectar alarmas de intrusión o condiciones domóticas adversas en el Hogar. Sin embargo, el Wireless Fidelity tiene conocidos problemas que provoca interrupciones esporádicas e impredecibles del servicio de video y de poca duración que provocan la pérdida de frames de video clave para observar el estado del hogar en un momento dado, mientras el cliente se mueve (después de recibir una alarma). Mitigar los efectos adversos de estas interrupciones es una tarea complicada que hemos trabajado durante años. La novedad es que ahora construimos u sistema de open hardware embebida y de bajo coste (con utilidad práctica a los ciudadanos), y software libre íntegramente basado en servicios Web que es interoperable y basado en ontologías (para incluir decisiones sofisticadas, smart, de reconectar el servicio interrumpido). El elevado valor de parámetros de calidad de experiencia de usuario avalan los buenos resutlados alcanzados.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness/FEDER under project TEC2015-67387- C4-4-R. Agradecer a las personas que se ofrecieron a hacer las encuestas para el MOS.Gualotuña, T.; Macias, E.; Suarez, A.; Fonseca, R.; Rivadenera, A. (2018). Mitigando Efectos Adversos de Interrupciones del Servicio de Video-vigilancia del Hogar en Clientes WiFi inalámbricos. En XIII Jornadas de Ingeniería telemática (JITEL 2017). Libro de actas. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 15-22. https://doi.org/10.4995/JITEL2017.2017.6591OCS152