Ultimate loads and response analysis of a monopile supported offshore wind turbine using fully coupled simulation

This PhD research is funded by Lloyd’s Register Group Services Ltd., Aberdeen. Sriramula’s work within the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Centre for Safety and Reliability Engineering at the University of Aberdeen is supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation. The Foundation helps to protect life and property by supporting engineering-related education, public engagement and the application of research. We would also like to acknowledge the constant assistance provided by Jason Jonkman on using FAST.Peer reviewedPostprin

Riesgo cardiovascular y metabolismo de la glucosa: acuerdos y discrepancias entre las clasificaciones OMS-85 y ADA-97

ObjetivoConocer las diferencias entre el riesgo coronario de los sujetos con glucemia basal alterada (GBA), intolerancia oral a la glucosa (ITG) y diabetes mellitus tipo 2 según las clasificaciones diagnósticas de la OMS-85 y ADA-97 en una población adulta con un riesgo alto de presentar diabetes mellitus.DiseñoEstudio descriptivo, transversal, multicéntrico.EmplazamientoAtención primaria, 7 centros de salud.PacientesUn total de 970 sujetos considerados población de riesgo para diabetes mellitus tipo 2.MedicionesSe clasificaron los sujetos según los criterios OMS-85 (normales, ITG, diabetes) y según la ADA-97 (normales, GBA y diabetes). Se recogieron las siguientes variables: edad, sexo, consumo de tabaco, índice de masa corporal, tensión arterial sistólica, tensión arterial diastólica, glucemia basal, glucemia a las 2 horas de la PTOG, HbA1c, microalbuminuria, colesterol total, cHDL, cLDL, triglicéridos y se estimó el cálculo del riesgo coronario mediante la tabla de Wilson et al de 1998, basada en el estudio Framingham.ResultadosSe evaluó a 970 sujetos con una edad media de 58,6 ± 12,4 años, 453 varones (46,7%) y 517 mujeres (53,3%). En el análisis de la presencia de factores de riesgo cardiovascular se observa que éstos son menos frecuentes en los sujetos normales y que su prevalencia es más elevada en los diabéticos (OMS y ADA). No existen diferencias significativas entre el riesgo coronario y los diversos factores de riesgo cuando se analizan grupos homónimos OMS–ADA (normales, ITG-GBA o diabéticos). Según la clasificación de la OMS-85, el riesgo coronario en los distintos tipos de alteraciones del metabolismo de la glucosa fue un 11,3% en sujetos normales, un 14% en ITG y un 27,3% en diabéticos, y según la ADA-97 un 11,4% en sujetos normales, un 15,7% en GBA y un 29,5% en diabéticos.ConclusionesA mayor grado de patología hidrocarbonada, mayor coexistencia de factores de riesgo y mayor estimación del riesgo coronario. No hay diferencias importantes entre los estadios de las clasificaciones OMS y ADA ni en la presencia de factores de riesgo cardiovascular ni en relación al riesgo coronario.AimTo identify the differences between coronary heart disease risk in patients with altered basal glucemia (ABG), oral glucose intolerance (OGI) and type II diabetes mellitus according to the WHO-85 and ADA-97 diagnostic classifications, in an adult population at high risk for diabetes mellitus.DesignDescriptive, cross-sectional, multicenter study.SettingSeven primary health care centers in Spain.Patient970 persons considered the population at risk for type II diabetes mellitus.MeasuresParticipants were classified according to the criteria of the WHO-85 (normal, OGI, diabetes) and the ADA-97 system (normal, ABG, diabetes). The following variables were recorded: age, sex, smoking habit, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, basal glucemia, glucemia 2 h after an oral glucose tolerance test, HbA1c, microalbmuniuria, total cholesterol, HDL, LDL and triglycerides. Coronary heart disease risk was calculated with the 1998 table developed by Wilson et al. on the basis of the Framingham study.ResultsA total of 970 participants were studied. Mean age was 58.6 #+ 12.4 years; 453 were men (46.7%) and 517 were women (53.3%). Our analysis showed that cardiovascular disease risk factors were less frequent in normal subjects, and that their prevalence was higher in persons with diabetes (according to both WHO and ADA classifications). There were no significant differences in coronary heart disease risk or different risk factors between analogous groups in the two classification systems (normal, OGI/ABG or diabetes). Coronary heart disease risk in persons with different types of alterations in glucose metabolism was 11.3% in normal subjects, 14% in persons with OGI and 27.3% in persons with diabetes according to the WHO-85 system, and 11.4% in normal subjects, 15.7% in persons with ABG and 29.5% in persons with diabetes according to the ADA-97 system.ConclusionsThe greater the alteration in carbohydrate metabolism, the greater the coexistence of risk factors and the estimated risk of coronary heart disease. There were no significant differences in the presence of cardiovascular risk factors, or in the relationship between carbohydrate metabolism and coronary heart disease risk, between analogous stages identified with one classification system or the other

Use of water in the Iberoamérican dry lands: hydro-environmental and socioeconomic efficiency indicators

Uso del agua en tierras secas de Iberoamérica: indicadores de eficiencia hidro-ambiental y socio-económica. Las tierras secas comprenden una superficie sustancial de Iberoamérica (25% de América Latina y el Caribe, o más de la mitad del estado español). En este contexto, Brasil posee una porción significativa de los recursos hídricos superficiales y subterráneos. Sin embargo, en su territorio se encuentran áreas semi-áridas, con extrema escasez hídrica, que comprenden 1300 municipios (cerca del 25% del total de municipios del país), distribuidos en 9 estados, en los que viven más de 22,5 millones de habitantes. Estos se encuentran afectados directa o indirectamente por una situación de severa escasez de recursos hídricos agravada por cambios climáticos, consecuencia del calentamiento global. Resulta importante conocer el acervo de tecnologías tradicionales y no tradicionales para captar, almacenar, y utilizar el agua, adaptadas a las diferentes situaciones socio-económicas e hidro-ambientales, así como indicadores del uso eficiente del agua, validados y homologados como herramienta estratégica de gestión en políticas y programas de seguridad hídrica. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo conocer el estado de nuestro conocimiento sobre dichos indicadores y discutir el caso del semi-árido brasileño en el contexto de las tierras secas de Iberoamérica, y del Plan Nacional de Recursos Hídricos del Estado de Bahía.The dry lands cover  expressive  surface  of  Iberoamerican  (25%  of  Latin  American  and  Caribbean  and  more  than  half  of  the  Spanish  territory).  In  this context, Brazil is a country that possesses significant volume of the world superficial and underground water resources. However, more than 1300 municipal districts (about 25% of the total of municipal districts of the country), distributed in 9 states are directly or indirectly affected  by  extreme  shortage  of  water  resources  which  has  been  worsened  by  the  climatic  changes,  as  a  consequence  of  the  global warming.  More  than  22.5  million  inhabitants  live  in  the  semi-arid areas of Brazil. It is important to scrutiny all traditional and not traditional technologies  for  reception,  storage  and  use  of  the  water,  adapted  for  different  socioeconomic  and  hydro-environmental  situations  and approve and validate indicators of water use efficiency, as a management strategic tool for water security politics and programs. This work aimed to understand the state of the art on indicators and to discuss the Brazilian case of the semi-arid in the context of the Iberoamerican dry lands, based on the National Plan of Water Resources and on the State of Bahia Plan for Water Resource Management.Fil: Carneiro, A. P.. Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya; EspañaFil: da Silva, H. P.. Universidade Federal da Bahia; BrasilFil: Abraham, Elena Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas. Provincia de Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas; ArgentinaFil: Morató, J.. No especifíca;Fil: Subirana, A.. Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya; EspañaFil: Tomasoni, M.. Universidade Federal da Bahia; Brasi

Molecular basis of the exciton-phonon interactions in the PE545 light-harvesting complex

Long-lived quantum coherences observed in several photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes at low and at room temperatures have generated a heated debate over the impact that the coupling of electronic excitations to molecular vibrations of the relevant actors (pigments, proteins and solvents) has on the excitation energy transfer process. In this work, we use a combined MD and QM/MMPol strategy to investigate the exciton-phonon interactions in the PE545 light-harvesting complex by computing the spectral densities for each pigment and analyzing their consequences in the exciton dynamics. Insights into the origin of relevant peaks, as well as their differences among individual pigments, are provided by correlating them with normal modes obtained from a quasi-harmonic analysis of the motions sampled by the pigments in the complex. Our results indicate that both the protein and the solvent significantly modulate the intramolecular vibrations of the pigments thus playing an important role in promoting or suppressing certain exciton-phonon interactions. We also find that these low-frequency features are largely smoothed out when the spectral density is averaged over the complex, something difficult to avoid in experiments that underscores the need to combine theory and experiment to understand the origin of quantum coherence in photosynthetic light-harvesting

Zones lliures de transgènics a Europa : origen, desenvolupament i implantació a l'Estat Espanyol i a Catalunya

El nou moviment de les Zones Lliures de Transgènics (ZLT) sorgeix dels moviments d'oposició als OMGAs, paral·lement al debat que està tenint lloc en el sí de la UE, entorn la viabilitat de la coexistència entre l'agricultura transgènica i la convencional o ecològica. Aquest moviment que s'articula des de la dimensió local però amb un marcat simbolisme i rellevància en l'àmbit global, constitueix una important eina de desobediència civil dins el marc regulatori de la UE. Actualment, dins el context europeu, és a l'Estat Espanyol on es concentra la major superfície de blat de moro MG a escala comercial, cosa que dificulta l'establiment de ZLT. Aquest moviment, que reivindica la sobirania de les regions dins el gegant europeu, constitueix una alternativa real al model de producció, consum i dedesenvolupament actuals

VARIAN CLINAC 6 MeV Photon Spectra Unfolding using a Monte Carlo Meshed Model

[EN] Energy spectrum is the best descriptive function to determine photon beam quality of a Medical Linear Accelerator (LinAc). The use of realistic photon spectra in Monte Carlo simulations has a great importance to obtain precise dose calculations in Radiotherapy Treatment Planning (RTP). Reconstruction of photon spectra emitted by medical accelerators from measured depth dose distributions in a water cube is an important tool for commissioning a Monte Carlo treatment planning system. Regarding this, the reconstruction problem is an inverse radiation transport function which is ill conditioned and its solution may become unstable due to small perturbations in the input data. This paper presents a more stable spectral reconstruction method which can be used to provide an independent confirmation of source models for a given machine without any prior knowledge of the spectral distribution. Monte Carlo models used in this work are built with unstructured meshes to simulate with realism the linear accelerator head geometry.Ha recibido financiación de DESARROLLO E IMPLEMENTACION DE UN SISTEMA DE PLANIFICACION RADIOTERAPÉUTICA (TELETERAPIA Y BRAQUITERAPIA) BASADO EN EL MÉTODO MONTECARLO PARA EL HUPLAFE (UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA), DESARROLLO Y VALIDACION EXPERIMENTAL DE UN SISTEMA DE PLANIFICACION DE TRATAMIENTOS RADIOTERAPEUTICOS UTILIZANDO TECNICAS DE MONTE CARLO (UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA), Dosimetría in vivo en radioterapia sin filtro aplanador (FFF) (UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA), MONTE CARLO TREATMENT PLANNING SYSTEM: SOFTWARE PARA EL CALCULO DOSIMETRICO DE ALTA PRECISION EN RADIOTERAPIA. (UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA) y SISTEMA DE PLANIFICACION DE TRATAMIENTOS EN RADIOTERAPIA BASADO EN EL METODO DE MOTE CARLO Y EL PROCESADO 3D DE IMAGENES MEDICAS (GENERALITAT VALENCIANA)Morató-Rafet, S.; Juste Vidal, BJ.; Miró Herrero, R.; Verdú Martín, GJ. (2017). VARIAN CLINAC 6 MeV Photon Spectra Unfolding using a Monte Carlo Meshed Model. EPJ Web of Conferences. 153(04012):1-7. https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201715304012S171530401

GPR37 is processed in the N‐terminal ectodomain by ADAM10 and furin

GPR37 is an orphan G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) implicated in several neurological diseases and important physiological pathways in the brain. We previously reported that its long N-terminal ectodomain undergoes constitutive metalloprotease-mediated cleavage and shedding, which have been rarely described for class A GPCRs. Here, we demonstrate that the protease that cleaves GPR37 at Glu167↓Gln168 is a disintegrin and metalloprotease 10 (ADAM10). This was achieved by employing selective inhibition, RNAi-mediated downregulation, and genetic depletion of ADAM10 in cultured cells as well as in vitro cleavage of the purified receptor with recombinant ADAM10. In addition, the cleavage was restored in ADAM10 knockout cells by overexpression of the wild type but not the inactive mutant ADAM10. Finally, postnatal conditional depletion of ADAM10 in mouse neuronal cells was found to reduce cleavage of the endogenous receptor in the brain cortex and hippocampus, confirming the physiological relevance of ADAM10 as a GPR37 sheddase. Additionally, we discovered that the receptor is subject to another cleavage step in cultured cells. Using site-directed mutagenesis, the site (Arg54↓Asp55) was localized to a highly conserved region at the distal end of the ectodomain that contains a recognition site for the proprotein convertase furin. The cleavage by furin was confirmed by using furin-deficient human colon carcinoma LoVo cells and proprotein convertase inhibitors. GPR37 is thus the first multispanning membrane protein that has been validated as an ADAM10 substrate and the first GPCR that is processed by both furin and ADAM10. The unconventional N-terminal processing may represent an important regulatory element for GPR37

KHK, PNPLA3 and PPAR as Novel Targets for the Anti-Steatotic Action of Bempedoic Acid

Bempedoic acid (BemA) is an ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY) inhibitor used to treat hypercholesterolemia. We studied the anti-steatotic effect of BemA, and the mechanisms involved, in a model of fatty liver in female rats obtained through the administration of a high-fat diet supplemented with liquid fructose (HFHFr) for three months. In the third month, a group of rats was treated with BemA (30 mg/kg/day) by gavage. Plasma analytes, liver histology, adiposity, and the expression of key genes controlling fatty acid metabolism were determined, and PPAR agonism was explored by using luciferase reporter assays. Our results showed that, compared to HFHFr, BemA-treated rats exhibited lower body weight, higher liver/body weight, and reduced hepatic steatosis. In addition to ACLY inhibition, we found three novel mechanisms that could account for the anti-steatotic effect: (1) reduction of liver ketohexokinase, leading to lower fructose intake and reduced de novo lipogenesis; (2) increased expression of patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3, a protein related to the export of liver triglycerides to blood; and (3) PPARα agonist activity, leading to increased hepatic fatty acid β-oxidation. In conclusion, BemA may represent a novel approach to treat hepatic steatosis, and therefore to avoid progression to advanced stages of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease