Geometric Control Theoretic Formulation Applied to the Analysis of Pitching and Plunging Airfoils

The unsteady aerodynamics of a two-dimensional pitching-plunging airfoil are modeled using a state space system. This computationally inexpensive model, simpler than the current classical theories of unsteady aerodynamics, is an output-based model, providing only the dynamics of certain output variables, without reconstructing the entire flow field.Due to the simplicity of the system, it allows for the analytical study of the behavior of four outputs: lift, drag, circulation and point of separation. In order to capture the nonlinearities of the complex unsteady flow, the four outputs are analyzed using some of the tools provided by the geometric control theory. The results are then studied in a fluid dynamics framework to determine if the unsteady motion of the airfoil can provide an enhancement of the mentioned parameters

Diagnosis and perinatal therapies in an animal model of intrauterine growth restriction

[eng] This Ph.D. Thesis is structured on two projects aiming to improve the intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) perinatal survival and brain development with new more accurate tools for continuous fetal monitoring and new prenatal therapies. The first project aims to test new implantable miniaturized pH and oxygen electrochemical sensors to be applicable in IUGR fetus. For this purpose, different animal models and species have been used. Data obtained from this project resulted in four articles published in international peer-reviewed journals. The second project aims to describe the structural brain and placental changes underlying IUGR and select and test potential effective strategies acting upon these specific targets in order to overcome IUGR effects and placental changes. This project have resulted in two articles, one of them has been published and the other one has been submitted, both in an international peer- reviewed journals. The articles of each project are the following: PROJECT 1: 1. Micro-needle implantable electrochemical oxygen sensor: ex-vivo and in-vivo studies 2020, Biosensors and Bioelectronics 2. In vivo Monitoring with micro-implantable hypoxia sensor based on tissue acidosis 2020, Talanta 3. Non-invasive monitoring of pH and oxygen using miniaturized electrochemical sensors in an animal model of acute hypoxia 2021, Journal of Translational Medicine 4. Miniaturized electrochemical sensors to monitor fetal hypoxia and acidosis in a pregnant sheep model 2021, Biomedicines PROJECT 2: 5. Structural Brain Changes during the Neonatal Period in a Rabbit Model of Intrauterine Growth Restriction 2021, Developmental neuroscience 6. Docosahexaenoic acid and lactoferrin effects on the brain and placenta in a rabbit model of intrauterine growth restriction 2021, Developmental neuroscience. Submitted. The presentation of the Thesis is structured with a general introduction followed by the hypothesis and objectives. After that, the articles that take part of each project are inserted entirely. Following the articles, it will be a brief summary of the global results and subsequently a general discussion and conclusions will be exposed

Effects of hesperidin on cardiovascular disease risk biomarkers: An omics science approach approach

Les malalties cardiovasculars són la primera causa de morbimortalitat al món, i el polifenol hesperidina podria tenir efectes protectors sobre el sistema cardiovascular. L’objectiu de la present tesi doctoral és avaluar els efectes del consum d’hesperidina sobre els marcadors de risc cardiovascular i realitzar una aproximació a les ciències ómiques per conèixer els seus mecanismes d’acció. Per a aconseguir-ho, 5 projectes van ser realitzats: una revisió sistemàtica per a conèixer l’evidència científica disponible sobre el tema, un estudi d’intervenció nutricional aleatoritzat i controlat en humans (estudi CITRUS), seguit d’una anàlisi de la transcriptòmica i metabolòmica derivats de la població de l’estudi CITRUS; i finalment, un estudi experimental en rates on es va realitzar una anàlisi de la proteòmica. Els resultats de la tesi doctoral indiquen que el consum d’hesperidina té efectes beneficiosos sobre els marcadors de risc cardiovascular en humans al disminuir els nivells de pressió arterial sistòlica i la pressió del pols en subjectes amb pre- i hipertensió lleu, podent ser un tractament coadjuvant per al tractament de la hipertensió arterial. Els mecanismes d’acció de l’hesperidina poden ser explicats a través de les anàlisis de transcriptòmica i metabolòmica realitzats que demostren disminucions de gens proinflamatoris i metabòlits endògens relacionats amb la pressió arterial i l’estrès oxidatiu. A més a més, l’anàlisi de la proteòmica realitzada en rates amb síndrome metabòlic mostra la capacitat de l’hesperidina de modificar l’expressió de proteïnes del teixit de ronyó i cor exercint també un efecte protector sobre el sistema cardiovascular.Las enfermedades cardiovasculares son la primera causa de morbi-mortalidad en el mundo, y el polifenol hesperidina podría tener efectos cardioprotectores. El objetivo de la presente tesis doctoral es evaluar los efectos del consumo de hesperidina sobre marcadores de riesgo cardiovascular, y realizar una aproximación a las ciencias ómicas para conocer sus mecanismos de acción. Para ello, 5 proyectos fueron realizados: una revisión sistemática para conocer la evidencia científica disponible sobre el tema, un estudio de intervención nutricional aleatorizado y controlado en humanos (estudio CRITUS), seguido de un análisis de transcriptómica y de metabolómica derivados de la población del estudio CITRUS, y finalmente un estudio experimental con ratas donde se realizó un análisis de proteómica. Los resultados de la tesis doctoral indican que el consumo de hesperidina tiene efectos beneficiosos sobre marcadores de riesgo cardiovascular en humanos al disminuir los niveles de presión arterial sistólica y la presión de pulso de sujetos con hipertensión leve, pudiendo ser un tratamiento coadyuvante para el tratamiento de la hipertensión. Los mecanismos de acción pueden ser explicados a través de los análisis de transcriptómica y metabolómica realizados que muestran disminuciones de genes proinflamatorios y metabolitos endógenos relacionados con la presión arterial y el estrés oxidativo. Además, el análisis de proteómica realizado en ratas con síndrome metabólico muestra la capacidad de la hesperidina de modificar la expresión de proteínas en tejido de riñón y corazón relacionadas con el sistema cardiovascular ejerciendo también un efecto cardioprotectorCardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and the polyphenol hesperidin could have cardioprotective effects. The main objective is to evaluate the effects of the consumption of hesperidin on cardiovascular disease risk biomarkers, and to elucidate the possible mechanisms of action thought the application of different omics approaches. To achieve it, 5 projects were carried out: a systematic review to known the scientific evidence available on the subject, a randomized and controlled nutritional intervention study in humans (CRITUS study), followed by a transcriptomic and metabolomics analysis derived from the population of the CITRUS study, and finally an experimental study with rats where a proteomics analysis was performed. The results indicated that the consumption of hesperidin has beneficial effects on biomarkers of cardiovascular disease risk biomarkers in humans by reducing the levels of systolic blood pressure and pulse pressures in subjects with mild hypertension. Therefore, hesperidin can be a useful co-adjuvant tool for blood pressure and pulse pressure management. The mechanisms of action of hesperidin can be explained through the transcriptomics and metabolomics analyzes performed that showed decreases in pro-inflammatory genes and endogenous metabolites related to blood pressure and oxidative stress. Furthermore, the proteomic analysis carried out in rats with metabolic syndrome showed the ability of hesperidin to modify the expression of proteins in kidney and heart tissue related to the cardiovascular system, also exerting a cardioprotective effe

La integración del factor humano en el ámbito técnico de la gestión de las carreteras y la seguridad vial: Un enfoque investigativo

La tesis titulada “LA INTEGRACIÓN DEL FACTOR HUMANO EN EL ÁMBITO TÉCNICO DE LA GESTIÓN DE LAS CARRETERAS Y LA SEGURIDAD VIAL: UN ENFOQUE INVESTIGATIVO” tiene por objeto realizar una primera aproximación a la integración del factor humano en el ámbito técnico de la seguridad y gestión de la carretera. La investigación tiene un alcance novedoso. Y constituye un ejemplo de la necesaria aproximación y complementariedad entre disciplinas interrelacionadas unidas en un camino común el de la seguridad vial, como son la psicología y la ingeniería civil. Se tratan una serie de materias de vital importancia como los tópicos, estudios, metodologías y medidas relativas a la seguridad vial en la gestión de la red de carreteras por las distintas administraciones y en el campo de la ingeniería civil en general. En la investigación con carácter prospectivo se realiza una primera aproximación a la integración del factor humano en el campo técnico de la seguridad y la gestión vial con un atención especial a las carreteras secundarias. Es bien sabido que, en el funcionamiento del tráfico, muchos errores operacionales frecuentemente son el resultado de una interacción directa entre las características de la carretera y las características de percepción del conductor. Actualmente, a pesar de los avances en los sectores de ingeniería de carreteras como; el diseño de carreteras, la movilidad, el tráfico y la ingeniería civil, muchas carreteras siguen mostrando zonas con alta concentración de accidentes, conocidas comúnmente como puntos negros. Primariamente en el trabajo se ha llevado a cabo una revisión bibliográfica sobre el factor humano y el diseño y gestión de la carretera. Pese a poder encontrar un gran número de fuentes sobre el objeto de investigación de la gestión de la seguridad vial y el diseño de carreteras, el conocimiento existente sobre el comportamiento del factor humano en el contexto del diseño de la vía es incompleto. Consecuentemente, raramente se desarrollan en nuestro país y otros países contramedidas específicas centradas en el factor humano. El trabajo de campo de esta investigación se centra en profesionales técnicos con responsabilidades en la gestión de la infraestructura de carreteras en España y en la evaluación de su formación, conocimiento del factor humano y prácticas. La seguridad vial es un problema global y requiere de un enfoque integral. De hecho, la variedad de campos profesionales involucrados y disciplinas académicas incluso puede dificultar la aplicación de esos conocimientos por los diseñadores de carreteras. Por otra parte, dado que la tarea de conducir es aprendida, debe entenderse fácilmente en el contexto de las carreteras auto-explicativas que satisfagan las expectativas de los conductores. En la presente tesis también se atiende al distanciamiento entre la teoría y la práctica. El conocimiento acerca del factor humano y su impacto en la seguridad es muy limitada. En correspondencia con ello y con carácter específico se han tratado las medidas y contramedidas para mejorar la seguridad vial y la eficacia real y percibida por los profesionales. La importancia de la evaluación de las medidas también ha sido también discutido.The thesis entitled “Integration of human factors in the technical field of road safety and management: A research approach” discusses a first approach to integrating human factors in the technical field of road safety and management. The scope of this research is innovative. It is an example of the necessary approach and complementarity between interrelated disciplines with a common way in road safety such as psychology and civil engineering. Very important topics are discussed such as topical studies, methodologies and measures concerning road safety in the management of road network by the various administrations and in the field of civil engineering in general. Prospectively a first approach to integrating human factors in the technical field of road safety and management with a special focus on secondary roads is carried out. It is well known that in traffic operation, many often operational mistakes result from a direct interaction between road characteristics and the driver’s perception characteristics. Currently, despite advances in road engineering sectors as road design, mobility, traffic and civil engineering, many roads still show sections with a high accident concentration, commonly known as black spots. First of all, a bibliographical review about human factors and road design and management was carried out. Although a large number of sources could be found on the research subject of road safety management and road design, the existing knowledge about performance of human factors in the context of road design is incomplete. Consequently, specific countermeasures focused on human factors are rarely developed in our country and other countries. The fieldwork of this research is focused on technical professionals with responsibilities in management of the road infrastructure in Spain and on evaluating their training, knowledge of human factors and practices. Road safety is an all-embracing problem and requires a comprehensive approach. In fact, the variety of professional fields involved and academic disciplines may even hinder the application of such knowledge by road designers. Furthermore, given that the driving task is learned, it should be easily understood in the context of self-explaining roads that meet the expectations of drivers. The gap between theory and practice is also treated in the thesis. The knowledge concerning human factors measures and their safety impact is very limited. Because of the above, another treated subject will be measures and countermeasures to improve road safety and actual and perceived effectiveness by professionals. The importance of the evaluation of the measures was also discussed

Knowledge of the concepts of 'black spot', 'grey spot' and 'high accident concentration sections' among drivers

One of the major problems related to road injuries and deaths are the presence of Black Spots. This problem has received a growing amount of attention from road managers thorough last decades, taking into account its importance for the safety of road users. In fact, knowledge about these strategic areas among drivers seems to be quite important, since this conceptualization may affect their behavior and assumed risks on the road. The main objective of this research was to assess the knowledge that drivers have on the concept of black spot and other closely related terms: 'grey spot' and 'high accident concentration sections'. For this study, it was used a random sample of 200 drivers from the province of Valencia (Spain), between 18 and 64 years of age. Through data analysis it was found that, while most of drivers does know the concept of black spot properly (87.5% of them), this trend is not stable when knowledge of related concepts is assessed. In regard to the further technical terms addressed by this study (grey spot and high accident concentration sections), there is an elevated relative percentage of drivers who have very biased misconceptions about these concepts. With respect to the 'grey spots', in which knowledge barely reached 13% of the driving population, unfamiliarity rate increased significantly. As conclusion, in regard to the concept of 'high accident concentration sections', it was found that it is a really misunderstood, relativized and biased concept among population of drivers and, furthermore, in general, unknown to most of road users. Finally, it has been suggested that the public administrations should work to increase this knowledge, as it would allow drivers to adopt more cautious behavior when confronted with this potentially dangerous sections throughout their routes

Artritis Sèptica de canyell secundària a traumatisme (segles X-XI)

En general, les anquilosis poden ser degudes a diversos processos (reumàtic, infecciós, traumàtic o per immobilització perllongada) i amb freqüència és difícil atribuirles a una causa concreta. Es presenta un cas d’un individu medieval (S. X - XI) del monestir de Sant Benet de Bages (Sant Fruitós, El Bages), que presenta una fractura obliqua del tercer metacarpià esquerre, amb signes d’osteomielitis secundària a la fractura i anquilosi del canell i de l’epífisi distal del radi. En aquest cas, la història natural del procés patològic és molt clara i pot ajudar, per la seva morfologia, a l’estudi d’altres casos d’anquilosi en que aquesta no sigui tan clara. També es fa una valoració del seguiment de les fonts clàssiques (en concret Cels i la seva obra De Medicina) sobre el tractament de les fractures en època medieval

Seismic structure of the Eastern European crust and upper mantle from probabilistic ambient noise tomography

Acknowledgments The present study was partially funded by the EENSANE (East European Ambient Seismic Noise) Project PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020- 2972 supported by UEFISCDI (Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding), Romania and the NUCLEU Program SOL4RISC, Project no PN23360201, L. Petrescu, F. Borleanu, E. Kästle et al. Gondwana Research 125 (2024) 390–405 supported by MCID (Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization). E.K. has received funding from the German ScienceFoundation (DFG, SPP-2017, Project KA 5371/1-1). Data from permanent stations used in this study were obtained from the Romanian National Seismic Network operated by NIEP, Main Centre for Special Monitoring of Ukraine, EIDA-ORFEUS, and IRIS seismological data archives. Most figures were made using GMT software (Wessel and Smith, 1998). We thank three anonymous reviewers for their valuable input which improved the original manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Verrucous epidermal nevus as a manifestation of a type 2 mosaic PTEN mutation in Cowden syndrome

Altres ajuts: Acord transformatiu CRUE-CSICUTP en procés de revisióLinear Cowden nevus, also known as linear PTEN nevus, is a type of epidermal nevus, first described in 2007, which is seen in patients with PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome. It is considered to be a type 2 form of segmental mosaicism, and we suggest that it has certain clinical features that distinguish it from epidermal nevi seen in similar conditions, such as Proteus syndrome. We present a case of linear Cowden nevus in a 4-year-old boy and review the literature

Reverse engineering applied to biomodelling and pathological bone manufacturing using FDM technology

[EN] Reverse engineering and medical image-based modeling technologies allow manufacturing of 3D biomodels of anatomical structures of human body. These techniques are based on anatomical information from scanning data such as CT and MRI, whose scanners are used for scanning data acquisition of the external and internal geometry of anatomical structures. These 3D biomodels have many medical applications such surgical training, preoperative planning, surgical simulation, diagnosis and treatments. 3D virtual models of human body structures based on CT are increasingly being used in clinical practice. A data processing methodology is required to obtain an accurate 3D model suitable for manufacturing using AM, and specially the FDM technologies. This study shows a step-by-step methodology to process the CT information in bounded uncertainty conditions in order to obtain the STL models of the degenerated bone components, and to manufacture the 3D biomodels for surgery analysis with optimal design and details, and with an adequate accuracy to ensure proper results by surgeons analysis.The authors wish to acknowledge the support of Ms. Jerica Risent and Mr. Joan Ortiz of Ford Motor Company for his assistance in the scanning of printed models. This work was supported by the Polisabio Funding (UPV-Fisabio 2017)Laura Piles; Miguel J. Reig; Vte. Jesús Seguí; Rafael Pla; Fernando Martínez; José Miguel Seguí (2019). Reverse engineering applied to biomodelling and pathological bone manufacturing using FDM technology. Procedia Manufacturing. 41:739-746. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2019.09.065S73974641Van Eijnatten, M., Berger, F. H., de Graaf, P., Koivisto, J., Forouzanfar, T., & Wolff, J. (2017). Influence of CT parameters on STL model accuracy. Rapid Prototyping Journal, 23(4), 678-685. doi:10.1108/rpj-07-2015-0092Lalone, E. A., Willing, R. T., Shannon, H. L., King, G. J. W., & Johnson, J. A. (2015). Accuracy assessment of 3D bone reconstructions using CT: an intro comparison. Medical Engineering & Physics, 37(8), 729-738. doi:10.1016/j.medengphy.2015.04.010Stull, K. E., Tise, M. L., Ali, Z., & Fowler, D. R. (2014). Accuracy and reliability of measurements obtained from computed tomography 3D volume rendered images. Forensic Science International, 238, 133-140. doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.03.005Van Eijnatten, M., van Dijk, R., Dobbe, J., Streekstra, G., Koivisto, J., & Wolff, J. (2018). CT image segmentation methods for bone used in medical additive manufacturing. Medical Engineering & Physics, 51, 6-16. doi:10.1016/j.medengphy.2017.10.008Javaid, M., & Haleem, A. (2018). Additive manufacturing applications in medical cases: A literature based review. Alexandria Journal of Medicine, 54(4), 411-422. doi:10.1016/j.ajme.2017.09.003D.V.C. Stoffelen, K. Eraly, P. Debeer, The use of 3D printing technology in reconstruction of a severe glenoid defect: a case report with 2.5 years of follow-up, Journal of Shoulder Elbow Surgery, 24 (2015) e218-e22