Improving Embryo Quality by Strictly Controlling IVF Laboratory Environment

In recent years, several changes have been made in different aspects of in vitro fertilization to improve embryo quality and ultimately the clinical outcomes in assisted reproduction technology (ART). These approaches include improvements in air quality inside the lab to ensure VOCs-free air, use of tri-gas incubator and embryo-tested devices and plastics, adequate control of pH and osmolarity of culture media, and strict quality control that allows an adequate development of the embryos until blastocyst stage. Other strategies to improve the embryo quality during in vitro culture include volume reduction of drop culture media, and individual or group culture of embryos. This work summarizes several strategies to improve embryonic quality during their in vitro culture in assisted reproduction procedures

Knockout packet loss probability analysis of SCWP optical packet switching wavelength distributed knockout architecture

The deployment of Optical Packet Switching (OPS) in Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) backbone networks is perceived as a medium term promising alternative. Scalability restrictions imply that conventional switching architectures are unfeasible in this large-scale scenario. In a previous paper, the wavelength-distributed knockout architecture was proposed as a cost-effective scaling strategy for OPS switching fabrics. In this paper, this growable architecture is applied to OPS switching fabrics able to emulate output buffering. We also propose an scheduling algorithm which provides optimum performance if knockout packet losses are made negligible. The mathematical analysis to evaluate the knockout packet loss probability of this architecture is obtained, under uniform and non-uniform traffic patterns. To complement the switch dimensioning process, an upper bound assuring 0-knockout packet losses is compared with the exact analytical results.This research has been funded by Spanish MCyT grants TEC2004-05622-C04-01/TCM (CAPITAL) and TEC2004-05622-C04-02/TCM (ARPaq) and Xunta de Galicia grant PGIDIT04TIC322003PR

Efecto del nitrógeno, sobre la eficiencia del uso de la luz de un cultivo de avena Cv. Nehuen

Resumen (Spanish, English)44 p.Se estudió la eficiencia bioquímica (eficiencia del uso de la luz), en un cultivo de Avena sativa Cv. Nehuén, en respuesta a seis dosis de fertilización nitrogenada: 0, 40, 80, 120, 160, 200 kg ha-1, aplicadas el 50% a la siembra a la forma de urea y el saldo, en plena macolla (NaNO3). Los datos originales fueron obtenidos de un estudio sobre la respuesta fisiológica de este cultivo, frente a dosis variables de nitrógeno. La eficiencia bioquímica se calculó mediante el procedimiento empleado por Bonhomme et al (1982). Durante el ciclo de crecimiento, se evaluó en 7 oportunidades la población del cultivo y la producción de biomasa y su reparto entre estructuras aéreas; el área foliar se midió en seis oportunidades, estimándose la senescencia completa del cultivo al estado de madurez fisiológica, como IAF = 0. Se concluyó que Eb global fue altamente afectada por estrés de nitrógeno, debido al efecto simultáneo de éste, sobre el sistema fotosintético, así como por un daño considerable a los receptores de asimilados. El cultivo presentó una baja respuesta a N por parte de los receptores finales de asimilados (granos); el resultado de esto fue una alta respuesta de la producción primaria y moderada respuesta por parte del rendimiento de grano. Los rangos de Eb calculados para producción primaria fluctuaron entre 1.14 y 3.62 %, para las dosis extremas (0 y 200 kg N ha-1). En cambio, dicha eficiencia para producción de grano alcanzó valores entre 0.87 y 2.27. Ello confirma que este cultivar presentó fuertes variaciones del Indice de Cosecha, por diferentes disponibilidades de N, lo que sugiere que debiera mejorarse la capacidad “sink” de granos, para evitar que los fotoasimilados de postantesis se destinen a órganos vegetativos. En este sentido, debe tenerse presente que en postantesis normalmente existe removilización de estructuras vegetativas hacia granos, hecho que no se verificó en estudio

Oleoylethanolamide, Neuroinflammation, and Alcohol Abuse

Neuroinflammation is a complex process involved in the physiopathology of many central nervous system diseases, including addiction. Alcohol abuse is characterized by induction of peripheral inflammation and neuroinflammation, which hallmark is the activation of innate immunity toll-like receptors 4 (TLR4). In the last years, lipid transmitters have generated attention as modulators of parts of the addictive process. Specifically, the bioactive lipid oleoylethanolamide (OEA), which is an endogenous acylethanolamide, has shown a beneficial profile for alcohol abuse. Preclinical studies have shown that OEA is a potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compound that exerts neuroprotective effects in alcohol abuse. Exogenous administration of OEA blocks the alcohol-induced TLR4-mediated pro-inflammatory cascade, reducing the release of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, oxidative and nitrosative stress, and ultimately, preventing the neural damage in frontal cortex of rodents. The mechanisms of action of OEA are discussed in this review, including a protective action in the intestinal barrier. Additionally, OEA blocks cue-induced reinstatement of alcohol-seeking behavior and reduces the severity of withdrawal symptoms in animals, together with the modulation of alcohol-induced depression-like behavior and other negative motivational states associated with the abstinence, such as the anhedonia. Finally, exposure to alcohol induces OEA release in blood and brain of rodents. Clinical evidences will be highlighted, including the OEA release and the correlation of plasma OEA levels with TLR4-dependent peripheral inflammatory markers in alcohol abusers. In base of these evidences we hypothesize that the endogenous release of OEA could be a homeostatic signal to counteract the toxic action of alcohol and we propose the exploration of OEA-based pharmacotherapies to treat alcohol-use disorders

Tecnologías Middleware: soluciones actuales para grandes empresas y proyectos

Este artículo presenta al lector una visión de la programación distribuida con plataformas middleware, su aplicación en el mundo real y los desarrollos llevados a cabo por grandes empresas. Se pretende con ello divulgar ideas poco conocidas de la tecnología y las ventajas competitivas que los middleware ofrecen para la empresa y profesionales del desarrollo de software. Después de una revisión de los trabajos más destacados, se incluyen brevemente los esfuerzos actuales, como punto de contacto a estas tecnologías.Escuela Técnica superior de Ingeniería de Telecomunicació

Determination of Hydroxy Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Human Urine Using Automated Microextraction by Packed Sorbent and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry

[EN]A fast methodology for the determination of monohydroxy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in human urine using a fully automated microextraction by packed sorbent coupled to a gas chromatograph–mass spectrometer is reported. Sample preparation requires simple hydrolysis, centrifugation, filtration, and dilution. The method does not require a derivatization step prior to analysis with gas chromatography and allows the measurement of up to three samples per hour after hydrolysis. Quantitation is carried out by a one-point standard addition allowing the determination of 6 analytes with good limits of detection (10.1–39.6 ng L1 in water and 0.5–19.4 g L1 in urine), accuracy (88–110%) and precision (2.1–23.4% in water and 5.1–19.0% in urine) values. This method has been successfully applied to the analysis of six urine samples (three from smoker and three from non-smoker subjects), finding significant differences between both types of samples. Results were similar to those found in the literature for similar samples, which proves the applicability of the methodology.Junta de Castilla y León (SA111P20) Fundación Samuel Solórzano (FS/1-2021

A wireless sensor networks MAC protocol for real-time applications.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are designed for data gathering and processing, with particular requirements: low hardware complexity, low energy consumption, special traffic pattern support, scalability, and in some cases, real-time operation. In this paper we present the Virtual TDMA for Sensors (VTS) MAC protocol, which intends to support the previous features, focusing particularly on real-time operation. VTS adaptively creates a TDMA arrangement with a number of timeslots equal to the actual number of nodes in range. Thus, VTS achieves an optimal throughput performance compared to TDMA protocols with fixed size of frame. The frame is set up and maintained by a distributed procedure, which allows sensors to asynchronously join and leave the frame. In addition, duty cycle is increased or decreased in order to keep latency constant below a given deadline. Therefore, a major advantage of VTS is that it guarantees a bounded latency, which allows soft real-time applications.This work has been cofunded by the Economy, Industry and Innovation Council, with the SOLIDMOVIL project (2I04SU044), supported by Fundacion Seneca, from the Region of Murcia with the ARENA Project (00546/PI/04), with the ARPaq project (TEC2004-05622-C04-02/TCM) by the Spanish Research Council and the CSI-RHET project (TEC2005-08068-C04-01/TCM)

Satellite Remote Sensing contributions to Wildland Fire Science and Management

No funding was received for this particular review, but support research was funded by the European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative Programme to Dr. Chuvieco.This paper reviews the most recent literature related to the use of remote sensing (RS) data in wildland fire management. Recent Findings Studies dealing with pre-fire assessment, active fire detection, and fire effect monitoring are reviewed in this paper. The analysis follows the different fire management categories: fire prevention, detection, and post-fire assessment. Extracting the main trends from each of these temporal sections, recent RS literature shows growing support of the combined use of different sensors, particularly optical and radar data and lidar and optical passive images. Dedicated fire sensors have been developed in the last years, but still, most fire products are derived from sensors that were designed for other purposes. Therefore, the needs of fire managers are not always met, both in terms of spatial and temporal scales, favouring global over local scales because of the spatial resolution of existing sensors. Lidar use on fuel types and post-fire regeneration is more local, and mostly not operational, but future satellite lidar systems may help to obtain operational products. Regional and global scales are also combined in the last years, emphasizing the needs of using upscaling and merging methods to reduce uncertainties of global products. Validation is indicated as a critical phase of any new RS-based product. It should be based on the independent reference information acquired from statistically derived samples. The main challenges of using RS for fire management rely on the need to improve the integration of sensors and methods to meet user requirements, uncertainty characterization of products, and greater efforts on statistical validation approaches.European Space Agenc

Characterisation of the n_TOF 20 m beam line at CERN with the new spallation target

The n_TOF facility hosts CERN's pulsed neutron source, comprising two beam lines of different flight paths and one activation station. It is based on a proton beam delivered by the PS accelerator impinging on a lead spallation target. During Long Shutdown 2 (LS2) at CERN (2019-2021), a major upgrade of the spallation target was carried out in order to optimize the performances of the neutron beam. Therefore, the characteristics of n_TOF two experimental areas were investigated in detail. In this work, the focus is on the second experimental area (EAR2), located 20 m above the spallation target. Preliminary results of the neutron energy distribution and beam line energy resolution are presented, compared to previous experimental campaigns and Monte Carlo simulations with the FLUKA code. Moreover, preliminary results of the spatial beam profile measurements are shown

A quality of service assessment technique for large-scale management of multimedia flows

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75869-3_15Proceedings of 10th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Management of Multimedia and Mobile Networks and Services, MMNS 2007, San José, USA, October 31 - November 2, 2007This paper presents the concept and preliminary experiments of a system for assessing on the Quality of Service of multimedia flows. The goal is to devise a mechanism that allows a service provider to take action whenever poor quality of service is detected in the delivery of multimedia flows. Such procedure is fully automatic since it is based on a goodness-of-fit test between source and destination packet interarrival histograms. If the null hypothesis of the test is accepted the flow is marked as in good standing, otherwise it is marked as anomalous and the network management system should take action in response. The proposed technique is analyzed in terms of hardware complexity and bandwidth consumption. The results show this technique is feasible and easily deployable at a minimum hardware and bandwidth expense.The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid to this work, under project e-Magerit (S-0505/TIC/000251)