Práctica de desarrollo de interfaces hardware/software para la monitorización del estado de un PC

Este artículo presenta una práctica laboratorio impartida mediante una metodología de aprendizaje basado en proyectos (ABP) [1] para dotar de la capacidad de diseñar y desarrollar un monitor del estado de un ordenador, integrado en un sistema empotrado que se comunica con una aplicación de escritorio, a nuestros alumnos de la asignatura de Diseño de Microcontroladores (DM) en el contexto del Máster en Ingeniería de Computadores y Redes. Esta práctica abarca la comunicación Hardware/ Software entre un microcontrolador con un núcleo Cortex-M4 y una aplicación software escrita en lenguaje C# usando el entorno Visual Studio Community 2015 a través de puertos series virtuales (VCP). Esta práctica está enfocada como un proyecto que los alumnos han de ir realizando desde cero, avanzando mediante la consecución de hitos, hasta conseguir obtener un sistema final. El sistema a desarrollar se divide en dos partes, por un lado tenemos un PC con un sistema operativo de la familia Windows, en el que se construye una aplicación visual mediante Windows Forms, la cual obtiene información del sistema de forma periódica y la envía al microcontrolador mediante comandos usando el puerto serie (USB o comunicación Bluetooth). Por otro lado tenemos un microcontrolador de la familia STM32 que dispone de un display LCD ejecutando una plataforma completamente libre, .NET Micro Framework, la cual recibe a través del puerto serie la información obtenida gracias a la aplicación software del PC y la muestra en la pantalla, obteniendo así una herramienta de monitorización del PC sin tener que estar conectado físicamente a éste. El desarrollo de este tipo de proyectos se añade la dificultad de la necesidad del uso de diferentes herramientas para el desarrollo del firmware y del software en paralelo, de manera incremental, y enfocadas para ámbitos de uso muy distintos. Esta práctica ha tenido una gran acogida por parte de los alumnos, ya que les ha servido de ejemplo del desarrollo de firmware para un microcontrolador usando la plataforma .NET MF y de su comunicación con el PC por medio de una aplicación visual.This manuscript presents a practical laboratory session imparted using a project-based learning methodology (PBL) to provide the capacity of designing and developing a computer status monitoring device, integrated in an embedded system that communicates with a desktop software tool, to our students in the Computer Engineering Master’s Degree. This practice session encompasses Hardware/ Software communication between a microcontroller with a Cortex-M4 kernel and a desktop software application through virtual COM ports (VCP) written in C# using Visual Studio Community 2015. This lab session is focused as a project that students must be making from scratch by achieving and completing some milestones to obtain a final functional system. The project is divided into two different parts. First, we have a Windows PC where a visual software application that gathers information from the system and sends it periodically to the microcontroller (USB or Bluetooth) has to be built using Windows Forms. On the other hand, we have a microcontroller from the STM32 family that has a 2.4’ LCD display executing .NET Micro Framework that receives the information obtained from the PC through the serial port and displays it in the screen. This way, students create a computer status monitoring tool that does not need to be connected physically to it to receive the information. The development of this project is added to the need of using different tools for firmware and software development, focused to very different fields of use. This practice has been well received by the students, because it has served as an example of the firmware development for a microcontroller using the .NET MF platform as well as the communication between the PC and the microcontroller using a visual software application

Proteasome Dysfunction Associated to Oxidative Stress and Proteotoxicity in Adipocytes Compromises Insulin Sensitivity in Human Obesity

AIMS: Obesity is characterized by a low-grade systemic inflammatory state and adipose tissue (AT) dysfunction, which predispose individuals to the development of insulin resistance (IR) and metabolic disease. However, a subset of obese individuals, referred to as metabolically healthy obese (MHO) individuals, are protected from obesity-associated metabolic abnormalities. Here, we aim at identifying molecular factors and pathways in adipocytes that are responsible for the progression from the insulin-sensitive to the insulin-resistant, metabolically unhealthy obese (MUHO) phenotype. RESULTS: Proteomic analysis of paired samples of adipocytes from subcutaneous (SC) and omental (OM) human AT revealed that both types of cells are altered in the MUHO state. Specifically, the glutathione redox cycle and other antioxidant defense systems as well as the protein-folding machinery were dysregulated and endoplasmic reticulum stress was increased in adipocytes from IR subjects. Moreover, proteasome activity was also compromised in adipocytes of MUHO individuals, which was associated with enhanced accumulation of oxidized and ubiquitinated proteins in these cells. Proteasome activity was also impaired in adipocytes of diet-induced obese mice and in 3T3-L1 adipocytes exposed to palmitate. In line with these data, proteasome inhibition significantly impaired insulin signaling in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. INNOVATION: This study provides the first evidence of the occurrence of protein homeostasis deregulation in adipocytes in human obesity, which, together with oxidative damage, interferes with insulin signaling in these cells. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that proteasomal dysfunction and impaired proteostasis in adipocytes, resulting from protein oxidation and/or misfolding, constitute major pathogenic mechanisms in the development of IR in obesity.IMIBIC/Universidad de Córdoba-SCAI (ProteoRed, PRB2-ISCIII)MINECO/FEDERJunta de Andalucía/FEDERCIBERobn(Instituto de Salud Carlos III

Quasi-elastic processes of the 48Ca + 120Sn system and the 48Ca nuclear matter density

We present the results of a high-precision quasi-elastic excitation function measurement for the 48Ca + 120Sn system at θLAB = 160 at near-barrier energies in steps of 1.0 MeV. The corresponding quasi-elastic barrier distribution is derived. A large-scale coupled-channel calculation was performed to investigate the role of several reaction channels in the reaction mechanism. An excellent agreement between theory and data was obtained for the barrier distribution. The first quadrupole vibrations of the 48Ca and 120Sn, the 2n, and the 4He transfers have a strong influence on the reaction mechanism and are responsible for the good agreement achieved. The 1n transfer has a minor importance in the result when compared with the 2n transfer, which suggests that the pairing correlation might play an important role in the 2n-neutron transfer process. However, if the octupole vibration of the projectile is included in the coupling scheme, the agreement with the data gets worse. The comparison of the coupled-channel calculations with experimental data leads to the conclusion that the nuclear matter diffuseness of the 48Ca nucleus is 0.56 fm in agreement with most of the double-magic nuclei.European Community 26201

Magnetic vortex filament flows

We exhibit a variational approach to study the magnetic flow associated with a Killing magnetic field in dimension 3. In this context, the solutions of the Lorentz force equation are viewed as Kirchhoff elastic rods and conversely. This provides an amazing connection between two apparently unrelated physical models and, in particular, it ties the classical elastic theory with the Hall effect. Then, these magnetic flows can be regarded as vortex filament flows within the localized induction approximation. The Hasimoto transformation can be used to see the magnetic trajectories as solutions of the cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation showing the solitonic nature of those.Ministerio de Educación y CienciaFondo Europeo de Desarrollo RegionalJunta de Andalucí

The 33S(n,α)30Si cross section measurement at n-TOF-EAR2 (CERN) : From 0.01 eV to the resonance region

The 33S(n,α)30Si cross section measurement, using 10B(n,α) as reference, at the n-TOF Experimental Area 2 (EAR2) facility at CERN is presented. Data from 0.01 eV to 100 keV are provided and, for the first time, the cross section is measured in the range from 0.01 eV to 10 keV. These data may be used for a future evaluation of the cross section because present evaluations exhibit large discrepancies. The 33S(n,α)30Si reaction is of interest in medical physics because of its possible use as a cooperative target to boron in Neutron Capture Therapy (NCT)

Sonidegib as a Locally Advanced Basal Cell Carcinoma Therapy in Real-life Clinical Setting: A National Multicentre Study

Background: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most prevalent cancer. A minority of BCCs have an aggressive behaviour (laBCC) and may require hedgehog pathway inhibitors such as sonidegib as its treatment. Objective: To describe the use of sonidegib in a large number of patients and provide more data on its real-life efficacy and safety profile.Methods: We conducted a retrospective and multicentric study that included patients treated with sonidegib. Epidemiological, effectiveness and safety data were collected.Results: A total of 82 patients with a mean age of 73.9 years were included. Ten patients had Gorlin syndrome. Median treatment duration was 6 months. Median follow-up duration was 34.2 months. Globally, 81.7% of the patients showed clinical improvement (52.4% partial response and 29.3% complete response), 12.2% clinical stability and 6.1% disease progression. There was no statistically significant difference in clinical improvement between the 24 h and 48 h sonidegib posology. After 6 months of treatment, 48.8% of the patients discontinued sonidegib. Prior vismodegib treatment and recurrent primary BCC were associated with a poorer response to sonidegib. At 6 months of treatment, 68.3% of the patients experienced at least one adverse effect. Conclusion: Sonidegib shows good effectiveness and acceptable safety profile in usual clinical practice.& COPY; 2023 AEDV. Published by Elsevier Espan & SIM;a, S.L.U.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Anthropogenic noise reduces bird species richness and diversity in urban parks

Anthropogenic noise is becoming more prevalent in the world and has been shown to affect many animal species, including birds. The impact of such noise was measured in Neotropical urban parks to assess how the noise affects avifauna diversity and species richness. We sampled bird species, and concurrently measured sound pressure (noise) levels (Leq, equivalent noise levels) in eight urban green areas or parks located in a large city (Belo Horizonte) in south‐eastern Brazil over a 1‐year period. The diversity of sampled points was measured by means of total species richness, Fisher's alpha and Shannon–Wiener diversity indices. Noise levels within all parks were greater than those in natural areas. We found that an increase in noise levels and the area of open habitats surrounding sampling points were negatively related to species richness. Social factors reflecting increased urbanization, such as higher incomes, were also negatively correlated with bird species richness. However, noise was the factor that explained most of the variance. These results suggest that anthropogenic noise can have a significant negative impact on the conservation value of urban parks for bird species

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE

Measurement of the t t-bar production cross section in the dilepton channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The t t-bar production cross section (sigma[t t-bar]) is measured in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV in data collected by the CMS experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.3 inverse femtobarns. The measurement is performed in events with two leptons (electrons or muons) in the final state, at least two jets identified as jets originating from b quarks, and the presence of an imbalance in transverse momentum. The measured value of sigma[t t-bar] for a top-quark mass of 172.5 GeV is 161.9 +/- 2.5 (stat.) +5.1/-5.0 (syst.) +/- 3.6(lumi.) pb, consistent with the prediction of the standard model.Comment: Replaced with published version. Included journal reference and DO

Combined search for the quarks of a sequential fourth generation

Results are presented from a search for a fourth generation of quarks produced singly or in pairs in a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011. A novel strategy has been developed for a combined search for quarks of the up and down type in decay channels with at least one isolated muon or electron. Limits on the mass of the fourth-generation quarks and the relevant Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements are derived in the context of a simple extension of the standard model with a sequential fourth generation of fermions. The existence of mass-degenerate fourth-generation quarks with masses below 685 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level for minimal off-diagonal mixing between the third- and the fourth-generation quarks. With a mass difference of 25 GeV between the quark masses, the obtained limit on the masses of the fourth-generation quarks shifts by about +/- 20 GeV. These results significantly reduce the allowed parameter space for a fourth generation of fermions.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO