Efectos sobre la precitipación de jarosita por acción de potasio en drenajes ácidos de mina

47 págs.Trabajo fin de Máster dirigido por Manuel Olías y Aguasanta M. Sarmiento. La denominación Drenaje Ácido de Mina refiere a aguas con pH inferior a 7 asociadas al lavado de sulfuros expuestos en superficie por actividad minera. La precipitación de minerales secundarios, y la coprecipitación de metales asociada, es uno de los mecanismos capaz de atenuar la contaminación de estos lixiviados y puede ser estimulado artificialmente para su tratamiento. Los minerales secundarios que más comúnmente se forman a partir de los AMD son ferrihidrita, jarosita y schwermanita. La precipitación de uno u otro depende de la disponibilidad de iones, pero también de los valores de pH. Dado que la precipitación de jarosita produce menos acidez que otros compuestos, se esperaría que la solución en la que precipita requiera menores cantidades de reactivo para ser neutralizada. Sin embargo, los drenajes ácidos de las minas asociadas a la Faja Pirítica Ibérica presentan concentraciones de K muy bajas, lo que constituye una limitación para la precipitación de jarosita-K. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivos por un lado evaluar la posibilidad de reducir los agentes neutralizantes en los tratamientos de drenajes ácidos, adicionando previamente a las soluciones compuestos de K que favorezcan la precipitación de jarosita-K; y por otro lado analizar el comportamiento de los elementos traza durante los ensayos. Para ello se tomaron dos muestras reales con diferente grado de contaminación por AMD y se sometieron a ensayos de adición de K y posterior neutralización. A partir de los resultados obtenidos se realizó una modelización hidroquímica del comportamiento de las soluciones en las distintas etapas de los ensayos

Development of antibody microarrays in beads format for the validation of osteoarthritis biomarkers

Traballo fin de mestrado (UDC.CIE). Biotecnoloxía avanzada. Curso 2017/2018[Resumen] La artrosis es la enfermedad reumática con mayor prevalencia en la población adulta. Los daños causados en la articulación por esta patología, silente en sus estadios iniciales, son irreversibles. A pesar de su elevado impacto en la sociedad, en la actualidad carece de tratamiento efectivo por lo que es muy importante su diagnóstico en estadios tempranos. Una buena estrategia para un diagnóstico precoz en la práctica clínica consistiría en el desarrollo de un panel de biomarcadores proteicos asociados a la artrosis, que idealmente permitiera la monitorización precisa de la enfermedad y la evaluación de la efectividad de nuevas estrategias terapéuticas. En este trabajo se pretende desarrollar un microarray analítico de anticuerpos en formato sándwich frente a proteínas con potencial biomarcador de artrosis que han sido identificadas en estudios previos del grupo de investigación. Dicho microarray permitirá el análisis múltiple del panel de proteínas en muestras de suero de pacientes artrósicos y controles. Para este desarrollo se trabajará con la tecnología xMAP de Luminex, basada en arrays en formato esfera con propiedades magnéticas

Efficiency of the solution representations for the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with makespan objective

In this paper we address the classical hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with makespan objective. As this problem is known to be NP-hard and a very common layout in real-life manufacturing scenarios, many studies have been proposed in the literature to solve it. These contributions use different solution representations of the feasible schedules, each one with its own advantages and disadvantages. Some of them do not guarantee that all feasible semiactive schedules are represented in the space of solutions –thus limiting in principle their effectiveness– but, on the other hand, these simpler solution representations possess clear advantages in terms of having consistent neighbourhoods with well-defined neighbourhood moves. Therefore, there is a trade-off between the solution space reduction and the ability to conduct an efficient search in this reduced solution space. This trade-off is determined by two aspects, i.e. the extent of the solution space reduction, and the quality of the schedules left aside by this solution space reduction. In this paper, we analyse the efficiency of the different solution representations employed in the literature for the problem. More specifically, we first establish the size of the space of semiactive schedules achieved by the different solution representations and, secondly, we address the issue of the quality of the schedules that can be achieved by these representations using the optimal solutions given by several MILP models and complete enumeration. The results obtained may contribute to design more efficient algorithms for the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación DPI2016-80750-

Using real-time information to reschedule jobs in a flowshop with variable processing times

Versión revisada. Embargo 36 mesesIn a time where detailed, instantaneous and accurate information on shop-floor status is becoming available in many manufacturing companies due to Information Technologies initiatives such as Smart Factory or Industry 4.0, a question arises regarding when and how this data can be used to improve scheduling decisions. While it is acknowledged that a continuous rescheduling based on the updated information may be beneficial as it serves to adapt the schedule to unplanned events, this rather general intuition has not been supported by a thorough experimentation, particularly for multi-stage manufacturing systems where such continuous rescheduling may introduce a high degree of nervousness in the system and deteriorates its performance. In order to study this research problem, in this paper we investigate how real-time information on the completion times of the jobs in a flowshop with variable processing times can be used to reschedule the jobs. In an exhaustive computational experience, we show that rescheduling policies pay off as long as the variability of the processing times is not very high, and only if the initially generated schedule is of good quality. Furthermore, we propose several rescheduling policies to improve the performance of continuous rescheduling while greatly reducing the frequency of rescheduling. One of these policies, based on the concept of critical path of a flowshop, outperforms the rest of policies for a wide range of scenarios.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación DPI2016-80750-

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Sin resume

Effectiveness of a new one-hour blood pressure monitoring method to diagnose hypertension: a diagnostic accuracy clinical trial protocol

Introduction 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is the gold standard diagnostic method for hypertension, but has some shortcomings in clinical practice while clinical settings often lack sufficient devices to accommodate all patients with suspected hypertension. Home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) and office blood pressure monitoring (OBPM) also have shortcomings, such as the white coat effect or a lack of accuracy. This study aims to study the validity of a new method of diagnosing hypertension consisting of monitoring blood pressure (BP) for 1 hour and comparing it with OBPM and HBPM and examining the sensitivity and specificity of this method compared with 24-hour ABPM. The patient experience will be examined in each method. Methods and analysis A minimum sample of 214 patients requiring a diagnostic test for hypertension from three urban primary healthcare centres will be included. Participants will undergo 24-hour ABPM, 1-hour BP measurement (1-BPM), OBPM for three consecutive weeks and HBPM. Patients will follow a random sequence to first receive 24-hour ABPM or 1-hour ABPM. Daytime 24-hour ABPM records will be compared with the other monitoring methods using the correlation coefficient and Bland Altman plots. The kappa concordance index and the sensitivity and specificity of the methods will be calculated. The patient’s experience will be studied, with selected indicators of efficiency and satisfaction calculated using parametric tests. Ethics and dissemination The protocol has been authorised by the research ethics committee of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona (Ref. HCB/2014/0615): protocol details and amendments will be recorded and reported to ClinicalTrials.com. The results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed literature, and to policy makers and healthcare partners.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Análise da variabilidade espacial do rendimento de culturas e de propriedades do solo em pequenas parcelas agrícolas

[Abstract] The objective of this study was to assess spatial variability of soil properties and crop yield under no tillage as a function of time, in two soil/climate conditions in São Paulo State, Brazil. The two sites measured approximately one hectare each and were cultivated with crop sequences which included corn, soybean, cotton, oats, black oats, wheat, rye, rice and green manure. Soil fertility, soil physical properties and crop yield were measured in a 10-m grid. The soils were a Dusky Red Latossol (Oxisol) and a Red Yellow Latossol (Ultisol). Soil sampling was performed in each field every two years after harvesting of the summer crop. Crop yield was measured at the end of each crop cycle, in 2 x 2.5 m sub plots. Data were analysed using semivariogram analysis and kriging interpolation for contour map generation. Yield maps were constructed in order to visually compare the variability of yields, the variability of the yield components and related soil properties. The results show that the factors affecting the variability of crop yield varies from one crop to another. The changes in yield from one year to another suggest that the causes of variability may change with time. The changes with time for the cross semivariogram between phosphorus in leaves and soybean yield is another evidence of this result