Estudio tecnofarmacéutico de las vacunas aprobadas en España para la prevención de la COVID-19

El SARS-CoV-2, agente etiológico de la COVID-19, utiliza la proteína S como forma de entrada a la célula a través de los receptores de la ECA II. Es por ello que se utiliza esta proteína para el desarrollo de todas las vacunas. Hasta el momento, son 4 las autorizadas en un muy corto periodo de tiempo, gracias al solapamiento de las fases de aprobación y el alto número de participantes en los ensayos clínicos, además del desarrollo de la producción a gran escala de manera simultánea a estos ensayos. Las vacunas que hasta la fecha han sido autorizadas en España son elaboradas por los laboratorios Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna, AstraZeneca y Janssen, respectivamente. Las dos primeras utilizan el mecanismo de ARNm vehiculizado en nanopartículas lipídicas (NPL), mientras que las dos últimas utilizan el vector vírico como método de acceso a nuestras células, por lo que realmente son dispersiones coloidales, debido al tamaño nanométrico del principio activo. Debemos diferenciar entre liposomas y NPL, a pesar de tener formulaciones análogas. Los primeros están formados por una bicapa lipídica que contiene un núcleo hidrófilo, mientras que las segundas están formadas por una membrana lipídica conteniendo un núcleo también lipídico en estado semisólido. El estudio de sus formulaciones mostró que contienen los excipientes típicos de los sistemas inyectables, incluyendo crioprotectores, algunas porque se almacenan y distribuyen congeladas, y otras, como AstraZeneca, porque requieren este proceso durante alguna etapa de su elaboración. En cuanto a sus procesos de fabricación, claro está, registrados bajo patente, las NPL se elaboran por un método de dilución del disolvente, mientras que en las que utilizan vectores víricos, el proceso llevado a cabo es el cultivo de los virus modificados genéticamente en cultivos celulares especiales. El trabajo concluye con su estudio comparativo, para mostrar al lector de forma resumida, una serie de aspectos eminentemente prácticos.Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Farmaci

Effects of Gender and Age on Retrospective Time Judgements

This study provides additional empirical evidence for research concerning the effects of gender and age on retrospective time judgements using data obtained from a Spanish database with more than 40,000 individual observations on time estimations. Statistical analyses were performed using the Levene F-test and the t-test of variances and means, respectively. The most important results of the study are as follows: (a) differences in time estimation in relation to gender largely depend on the age groups analysed, with greater differences observed in the younger age group; and (b) although there are some differences regarding age, they are related to certain age groups, particularly the youngest age group

How is star formation fed and quenched in massive galaxies at high redshift?

Observations of the location and kinematics of the atomic gas (HI) and the continuum radio emission from high redshift galaxies would mean a huge step forward in our understanding of galaxy evolution. We now have a secure global picture of the stellar content of massive galaxies and their precursors up to z~4. But we still have to understand why star formation in these systems started early and quenched some time after, a scenario known as downsizing which, at face value, conflicts with the predictions from the current hierarchical galaxy formation paradigm. SKA will provide the missing piece to solve the puzzle: information about the amounts of gas falling into galaxies to form stars, as well as data to measure when and how the star formation turns off as the gas stops cooling due to still to be understood feedback mechanisms, such as (radio mode) obscured nuclear activity.PGP-G acknowledges support from Spanish Government MINECO AYA2012-31277 Grant. JIGS acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness AYA2011-29517-C03-02. AFS acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grants AYA2010-22111-C03-02 and AYA2013-48623-C2-2, and Generalitat Valenciana project PROMETEOII/2014/060.Peer reviewe

miraQA: Initial experiments in Question Answering

We present the miraQA system that constitutes MIRACLE first experience in Question Answering for monolingual Spanish and has been developed for QA@CLEF 2004. The architecture of the system is described and details of our approach to Statistical Answer Extraction based on Hidden Markov Models are presented. One run that uses last year question set for training purposes has been submitted. The results are presented together with ideas for improvement

Characterization of Ultra-Nonlinear SOA in a heterodyne detector configuration with remote photonic local oscillator distribution

A heterodyne receiver scheme based on electro-optical (EO) downconversion is introduced. The local oscillator (LO) and the retrieved intermediate frequency (IF) signals are remotely distributed over fiber to/from a single ultra-nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) device that acts as a highly nonlinear mixer device, enhancing the downconversion performance of the system. The photonic LO is generated modulating a DFB under gain switching (GS), eliminating the need of external elements and the polarization dependency. We evaluate the performance of the downconversion up to frequencies much higher than the bandwidth of the devices (15 GHz). Results show broadband heterodyne detection performance of the system. The presented scheme offers advantages in terms of compactness and cost efficiency and can be easily scaled to remotely reach multiple receivers in scalable detection arrays.The work by A.R. Criado has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology under the FPI Program, Grant# BES2010-030290.Publicad

Los pequeños arreglos del IVA: la reforma de la Directiva (UE) 2018/1910

On January 1, 1993 the intra-Community trade reform of the Value Added Tax entered into force. The objective was a system based on taxation at source with the allocation of tax revenue for the Member State of arrival. The differences between the national laws of the Member States required the development of a provisional system. In 2021, twenty-eight years later, that provisional regime remains applicable. However, since 2016, the European Commission and the Council of the European Union have been working on a definitive system for intra-Community operations, which is expected to apply in 2022. Until then and with the aim of increasing legal certainty; reduce administrative burdens, facilitating intra-Community trade; and strengthen the prevention of tax fraud, the Council Directive (EU) 2018/1910 and the Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1912 have been adopted. These amendments, known as «Quick Fixes», concern chain transactions, call-off stock arrangements, VAT identification number and the proof of intra-Community transport. The goal of this paper is to analyze these reforms, from a critical point of view, in order to propose certain improvements.El 1 de enero de 1993 entró en vigor la reforma del impuesto sobre el valor añadido (IVA) en el tráfico intracomunitario. El objetivo era un sistema de tributación en origen con atribución del ingreso fiscal al Estado miembro de destino. Las diferencias entre las legislaciones nacionales de los Estados miembros obligaron a crear un sistema transitorio. En 2021, veintiocho años después, el régimen transitorio sigue vigente. No obstante, desde 2016, la Comisión Europea y el Consejo de la Unión Europea están trabajando en un sistema definitivo de las operaciones intracomunitarias, que se prevé que entre en vigor en 2022. Hasta ese momento y con la finalidad de incrementar la seguridad jurídica; reducir las cargas administrativas, facilitando el tráfico intracomunitario; y reforzar la prevención del fraude se han aprobado la Directiva (UE) 2018/1910 y el Reglamento de Ejecución (UE) 2018/1912. Estas modificaciones, conocidas como Quick Fixes (arreglos rápidos), se refieren a las ventas en cadena, acuerdos de ventas en consigna, número de identificación del IVA y prueba del transporte intracomunitario. El presente trabajo tiene como finalidad analizar estas modificaciones, señalando los aspectos críticos y posibles mejoras

MIRACLE’s hybrid approach to bilingual and monolingual Information Retrieval

The main goal of the bilingual and monolingual participation of the MIRACLE team at CLEF 2004 was testing the effect of combination approaches to information retrieval. The starting point is a set of basic components: stemming, transformation, filtering, generation of n-grams, weighting and relevance feedback. Some of these basic components are used in different combinations and order of application for document indexing and for query processing. Besides this, a second order combination is done, mainly by averaging or by selective combination of the documents retrieved by different approaches for a particular query

Enhancing the performance of electro-optical heterodyne receivers using gain switched photonic local oscillators

The performance of a Gain Switched (GS) optical source used as a Photonic Local Oscillator (PLO) in an Electro-Optical (EO) heterodyne receiver is experimentally evaluated and compared to the use of a traditional linearly modulated PLO. The EO heterodyne receiver used is based on an Ultra Nonlinear Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (XN-SOA) that provides a compact, cost effective and energy efficient receiver with a remote distribution of both PLO and Intermediate Frequency (IF) signals and a direct 50-ohms input for the Radiofrequency (RF) component. The comparison between both GS and linearly modulated PLO is made in terms of the conversion efficiency (conversion ratio); linearity (1-dB compression point) and noise (integrated RMS timing jitter). The analysis results in a significant improvement of the evaluated figures of merit when using a Gain Switched PLO.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology through the project TEC2009-14525-C02-02. The work of A. R. Criado has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology under the FPI Program, Grant # BES2010-030290

Practical Characterization of Cell-Electrode Electrical Models in Bio-Impedance Assays

This paper presents the fitting process followed to adjust the parameters of the electrical model associated to a cell-electrode system in Electrical Cell-substrate Impedance Spectroscopy (ECIS) technique, to the experimental results from cell-culture assays. A new parameter matching procedure is proposed, under the basis of both, mismatching between electrodes and time-evolution observed in the system response, as consequence of electrode fabrication processes and electrochemical performance of electrode-solution interface, respectively. The obtained results agree with experimental performance, and enable the evaluation of the cell number in a culture, by using the electrical measurements observed at the oscillation parameters in the test circuits employed.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2013-46242-C3-1-

Sensing Cell-Culture Assays with Low-Cost Circuitry

An alternative approach for cell-culture end-point protocols is proposed herein. This new technique is suitable for real-time remote sensing. It is based on Electrical Cell-substrate Impedance Spectroscopy (ECIS) and employs the Oscillation-Based Test (OBT) method. Simple and straightforward circuit blocks form the basis of the proposed measurement system. Oscillation parameters – frequency and amplitude – constitute the outcome, directly correlated with the culture status. A user can remotely track the evolution of cell cultures in real time over the complete experiment through a web tool continuously displaying the acquired data. Experiments carried out with commercial electrodes and a well-established cell line (AA8) are described, obtaining the cell number in real time from growth assays. The electrodes have been electrically characterized along the design flow in order to predict the system performance and the sensitivity curves. Curves for 1-week cell growth are reported. The obtained experimental results validate the proposed OBT for cell-culture characterization. Furthermore, the proposed electrode model provides a good approximation for the cell number and the time evolution of the studied cultures.España, Feder TEC2013-46242-C3-1-