Innovative technology through selective laser sintering in mechatronics, biomedical engineering and industry

A new technology, using new materials specially designed for complex geometries,extensively used in research-development and innovation area will be presented in this paper. Evenhighly complex geometries are created directly from 3D CAD data, fully automatically, in just a fewhours and without any tooling. It is a net-shape process, producing parts with high accuracy anddetail resolution, good surface quality and excellent mechanical properties

Simulating human sleep spindle MEG and EEG from ion channel and circuit level dynamics

Although they form a unitary phenomenon, the relationship between extracranial M/EEG and transmembrane ion flows is understood only as a general principle rather than as a well-articulated and quantified causal chain.We present an integrated multiscale model, consisting of a neural simulation of thalamus and cortex during stage N2 sleep and a biophysical model projecting cortical current densities to M/EEG fields. Sleep spindles were generated through the interactions of local and distant network connections and intrinsic currents within thalamocortical circuits. 32,652 cortical neurons were mapped onto the cortical surface reconstructed from subjects' MRI, interconnected based on geodesic distances, and scaled-up to current dipole densities based on laminar recordings in humans. MRIs were used to generate a quasi-static electromagnetic model enabling simulated cortical activity to be projected to the M/EEG sensors.The simulated M/EEG spindles were similar in amplitude and topography to empirical examples in the same subjects. Simulated spindles with more core-dominant activity were more MEG weighted.Previous models lacked either spindle-generating thalamic neural dynamics or whole head biophysical modeling; the framework presented here is the first to simultaneously capture these disparate scales.This multiscale model provides a platform for the principled quantitative integration of existing information relevant to the generation of sleep spindles, and allows the implications of future findings to be explored. It provides a proof of principle for a methodological framework allowing large-scale integrative brain oscillations to be understood in terms of their underlying channels and synapses

Management of breeding sows in a farm in Tulcea County

The study was carried out between June 2016 – May 2017 in a private unit in Tulcea County, and involved 60 sows and gilts of different ages. The animals were divided into two experimental groups: group I involved 30 F1 gilts (20 gilts LWxL and 10 gilts LWxD) aged between 7-8 months and group II had 30 F1 sows (20 sows LxLW and 10 sows LWxL) aged between 28-36 months. Gilts were checked for estrus twice daily and were artificially inseminated. For the first group the mean value of piglets born alive was beetwen 7.9±3.84 for LWxL gilts and 9.85±2.73 for LWxD gilts. In group II the data recorded were 9±3.98 piglets for LxLW and 9.6±3.20 piglets for LWxL sows. Good results in terms of weaned piglets were recorded for LWxL gilts (9.7±2.73) and LWxL sows (9.1±2.96). In group II there were 13 cases of piglet mortality. The results of our study indicate that gilts presented higher values of the fertility parameters such that age is an important index to take into consideration

Listado de especies y subespecies cavernícolas (hipogeas) consideradas como troglobias y estigobias de la península ibérica e islas Baleares

La fauna hipogea o cavernícola ibero-balear ha sido a lo largo de muchos años puesta en evidencia por numerosos zoólogos en las distintas disciplinas. Especialistas de los distintos grupos faunísticos capaces de colonizar las cuevas y las aguas subterráneas que las recorren. Hoy sabemos que esta diversidad de troglobios y estigobios alcanza un total de 1364 taxones: 1285 especies y 79 subespecies hipogeas (cavernícolas) pertenecientes a cuatro filos: Plathyhelminthes (2), Annelida (23), Mollusca (122) y Arthropoda (1217) en todo el territorio ibero-balear. Una fauna que cuenta con numerosos ejemplos de elementos relictos de especial interés paleogeográfico. De la totalidad de taxones hipogeos o cavernícolas del territorio ibero balear, 438 taxones (430 especies y 8 subespecies) son estigobios y 926 taxones (852 especies y 74 subespecies) son troglobios. En lo referente a la distribución de los taxones troglobios es el distrito Cantábrico el que posee una mayor riqueza en especies y subespecies, un total de 208, seguido del Vasco con 163 taxones, el Pirenaico con 153 y el Bético con 142. Algo menos diversos son los distritos Levantino (124 taxones) y Catalán (104 taxones), seguidos de lejos por el Lusitánico con 46 taxones, el Balear con 41 y el Central con tan sólo 19. Entre los estigobios 156 especies y subespecies pueblan las aguas subterráneas de las regiones delimitadas por las cuecas lusitánicas. Le siguen en diversidad las cuencas pirenaicas con 154 taxones estigobios, las béticas con 114 y por último las aguas del subsuelo de las cuencas baleáricas con 47 taxones estigobios, algunos de los cuales son talaso-estigobios, propios de las aguas marinas costeras

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Sex difference and intra-operative tidal volume: Insights from the LAS VEGAS study

BACKGROUND: One key element of lung-protective ventilation is the use of a low tidal volume (VT). A sex difference in use of low tidal volume ventilation (LTVV) has been described in critically ill ICU patients.OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether a sex difference in use of LTVV also exists in operating room patients, and if present what factors drive this difference.DESIGN, PATIENTS AND SETTING: This is a posthoc analysis of LAS VEGAS, a 1-week worldwide observational study in adults requiring intra-operative ventilation during general anaesthesia for surgery in 146 hospitals in 29 countries.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Women and men were compared with respect to use of LTVV, defined as VT of 8 ml kg-1 or less predicted bodyweight (PBW). A VT was deemed 'default' if the set VT was a round number. A mediation analysis assessed which factors may explain the sex difference in use of LTVV during intra-operative ventilation.RESULTS: This analysis includes 9864 patients, of whom 5425 (55%) were women. A default VT was often set, both in women and men; mode VT was 500 ml. Median [IQR] VT was higher in women than in men (8.6 [7.7 to 9.6] vs. 7.6 [6.8 to 8.4] ml kg-1 PBW, P < 0.001). Compared with men, women were twice as likely not to receive LTVV [68.8 vs. 36.0%; relative risk ratio 2.1 (95% CI 1.9 to 2.1), P < 0.001]. In the mediation analysis, patients' height and actual body weight (ABW) explained 81 and 18% of the sex difference in use of LTVV, respectively; it was not explained by the use of a default VT.CONCLUSION: In this worldwide cohort of patients receiving intra-operative ventilation during general anaesthesia for surgery, women received a higher VT than men during intra-operative ventilation. The risk for a female not to receive LTVV during surgery was double that of males. Height and ABW were the two mediators of the sex difference in use of LTVV.TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered at Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01601223