99 research outputs found

    Evolution of covalent organic frameworks: from design to real-world applications

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    Covalent Organic Frameworks are highly versatile porous materials that have attracted much attention over the last few years. This review summarizes the timeline of its development, highlighting the shifts in the targets deemed necessary to use them in real-world applications. We have collected aspects concerning COF formation and the strategies developed to gain chemical stability by using different linkages between the initial building blocks and modulating the structural characteristics of COFs. Importantly, we have also included elements concerning material processability that has been incorporated in the research field of COFs but are essential to solving many different applications of COFs. Finally, we included a summary section providing headlines of this research field to get closer to real applicationsThis work has been supported by the Spanish MICINN (PID2019- 106268GB-C32, and TED2021-129886B-C42) and through the “María de Maeztu” Programme for Units of Excellence in R&D (CEX2018- 000805-M). We also thank financial support to the Comunidad de Madrid (MAD2D-CM) and MICINN (Planes complementarios, Materiales Avanzados

    Connected system for monitoring electrical power transformers using thermal imaging

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    The stable supply of electricity is essential for the industrial activity and economic development as well as for human welfare. For this reason, electrical system devices are equipped with monitoring systems that facilitate their management and ensure an uninterrupted operation. This is the case of electrical power transformers, which usually have monitoring systems that allow early detection of anomalies in order to prevent potential malfunctions. These monitoring systems typically make use of sensors that are in physical contact with the transformer devices and can therefore be affected by transformer problems. In this work we demonstrate a monitoring system for electrical power transformers based on temperature measurements obtained by means of thermal cameras. Properly positioned, the cameras provide thermal data of the transformer, the incoming and outgoing lines and their surroundings. Subsequently, by appropriate image processing, it is possible to obtain temperature series to monitor the transformer operation. In addition, the system stores and processes thermal data in external equipment (placed in locations other than the transformers) and is equipped with a communications module that allows secure data transmission independent of the power grid. This aspect, along with the fact that there is no need to have physical contact with the transformer, make this approach safer and more reliable than standard approaches based on sensors. The proposed system has been evaluated in 14 stations belonging to the Spanish power grid, obtaining accurate and reliable temperature time seriesConsejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo (Junta de Andalucía)FEDER under B-TIC-586-UGR20P20-00525 projects and by the University of GranadaEndesa Distribución under the PASTORA (ref. EXP – 00111351/ITC-20181102)RESISTO (ref. 2021/C005/00144188) contract

    Effect of animal mixing as a stressor on biomarkers of autophagy and oxidative stress during pig muscle maturation

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    The objective of this work was to study the postmortem evolution of potential biomarkers of autophagy (Beclin 1, LC3-II/LC3-I ratio) and oxidative stress (total antioxidant activity, TAA; superoxide dismutase activity, SOD and catalase activity, CAT) in the Longissimus dorsi muscle of entire male ((Large White × Landrace) × Duroc) pigs subjected to different management treatments that may promote stress, such as mixing unfamiliar animals at the farm and/or during transport and lairage before slaughter. During the rearing period at the farm, five animals were never mixed after the initial formation of the experimental groups (unmixed group at the farm, UF), whereas 10 animals were subjected to a common routine of being mixed with unfamiliar animals (mixed group at the farm, MF). Furthermore, two different treatments were used during the transport and lairage before slaughter: 10 pigs were not mixed (unmixed group during transport and lairage, UTL), whereas five pigs were mixed with unfamiliar animals on the lorry and during lairage (mixed group during transport and lairage, MTL). These mixing treatments were then combined into three pre-slaughter treatments – namely, UF-UTL, MF-UTL and MF-MTL. The results show that MF-UTL and MF-MTL increased significantly the muscle antioxidant defense (TAA, SOD and CAT) at short postmortem times (4 and 8 h; P < 0.001), followed by an earlier depletion of the antioxidant activity at 24 h postmortem (P < 0.05). We also found that mixing unfamiliar animals, both at the farm and during transport and lairage, triggers postmortem muscle autophagy, which showed an earlier activation (higher expression of Beclin 1 and LC3-II/LC3-I ratio at 4 h postmortem followed by a decreasing pattern of this ratio along first 24 h postmortem) in the muscle tissues of animals from the MF-UTL and MF-MTL groups, as an adaptive strategy of the muscle cells for counteracting induced stress. From these results, we propose that monitoring the evolution of the main biomarkers of autophagy (Beclin 1, LC3-II/LC3-I ratio) and muscle antioxidant defense (TAA, SOD, CAT) in the muscle tissue within the first 24 h postmortem may help the detection of animal stress and its potential effect on the postmortem muscle metabolism.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Una mirada atrás

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    Treballs de l'alumnat del Grau de Comunicació Audiovisual, Facultat de Biblioteconomia i Documentació, Universitat de Barcelona, Projectes I - Grup7. Curs: 2014-2015, Tutor: Jaume VilasecaDirector: Carla Martínez; Aj. direcció: Enric Bartra ; Productor: Carla Lombardo; Guionista: Carla Lombardo; Director de fotografia: MAria Rodríguez; Camera: Sara Bernal; Aj. Camera: Enric Bartra; Il·luminador: Aina Gutiérrez; Direcció artística: Sara Bernal; Direcció de so: Maria Rodríguez; Muntatge: Sara Bernal; Música: Carla Martínez; Postproducció: Sara Bernal; Equip artístic: Personatge: Pare Gaspar, Actor/Actriu: Enric Bartra; Personatge: Milicià 1, Actor/Actriu: Aina Gutiérrez; Personatge: Milicià 2, Actor/Actriu: Carla Martínez; Personatge: Germana Gaspar, Actor/Actriu: Sara Bernal.[Vídeo] Gaspar Lombardo explica com va viure la Guerra Civil Espanyola quan tenia només 7 anys. Va patir la pèrdua del seu pare a mans de dos miliciansi va veure com propietats i terres de la seva família els hi eren expropiades.[Memòria] En primera instancia, hemos decidido tratar la experiencia que vivió la generación de nuestros abuelos durante la Guerra Civil Española. A partir de aquí, nos hemos acogido al género documental para narrar las vivencias de esos años, con la idea u objetivo principal de mostrar la historia contada en primera persona por alguien que vivió el conflicto bélico o las carencias emocionales y económicas sufridas en la posguerra. Escoger el género documental nos ha permitido expresar con mayor eficacia el hilo argumental del relato. Además, a través de la entrevista hay una conexión más cercana con el público ya que el protagonista y su narración son reales y no están interpretados por un actor. También hemos querido complementar la entrevista con fragmentos ficcionados de las palabras del protagonista, con la intención de causar mayor impacto en el espectador. Después de comparar las historias de los posibles entrevistados, hemos elegido la de Gaspar Lombardo Mata porque es la que mejor plasma la dureza de la Guerra Civil: con solo siete años sufrió la pérdida de su padre en manos de unos milicianos. Debido al contenido dramático y la temática principal, este documental va dirigido al público adulto, ya que relata un hecho muy presente en la sociedad española

    Granger Causality-based Information Fusion Applied to Electrical Measurements from Power Transformers.

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    In the immediate future, with the increasing presence of electrical vehicles and the large increase in the use of renewable energies, it will be crucial that distribution power networks are managed, supervised and exploited in a similar way as the transmission power systems were in previous decades. To achieve this, the underlying infrastructure requires automated monitoring and digitization, including smart-meters, wide-band communication systems, electronic device based-local controllers, and the Internet of Things. All of these technologies demand a huge amount of data to be curated, processed, interpreted and fused with the aim of real-time predictive control and supervision of medium/low voltage transformer substations. Wiener–Granger causality, a statistical notion of causal inference based on Information Fusion could help in the prediction of electrical behaviour arising from common causal dependencies. Originally developed in econometrics, it has successfully been applied to several fields of research such as the neurosciences and is applicable to time series data whereby cause precedes effect. In this paper, we demonstrate the potential of this methodology in the context of power measures for providing theoretical models of low/medium power transformers. Up to our knowledge, the proposed method in this context is the first attempt to build a data-driven power system model based on G-causality. In particular, we analysed directed functional connectivity of electrical measures providing a statistical description of observed responses, and identified the causal structure within data in an exploratory analysis. Pair-wise conditional G-causality of power transformers, their independent evolution in time, and the joint evolution in time and frequency are discussed and analysed in the experimental section.This work was partly supported by the MINECO/ FEDER under the RTI2018- 098913-B100 project. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of 370 CDTI (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnologico Industrial, Ministerio de Cien cia, Innovacion y Universidades and FEDER, SPAIN) under the PASTORA project (Ref.: ITC-20181102). and to thank the companies within the PAS TORA consortium: Endesa, Ayesa, Ormaz´abal and Ingelectus. We would like to thank the reviewers for their thoughtful comments and efforts towards im 375 proving our manuscript. Finally, JM Gorriz would like to thank Dr G´omez Exp´osito for his helpful advice and comments

    Different pattern of CSF glial markers between dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer's disease

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    The role of innate immunity in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) has been little studied. We investigated the levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of glial proteinsYKL-40, soluble TREM2 (sTREM2) and progranulin in DLB and their relationship with Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers. We included patients with DLB (n = 37), prodromal DLB (prodDLB, n= 23), AD dementia (n = 50), prodromal AD (prodAD, n= 53), and cognitively normal subjects (CN, n= 44).We measured levels ofYKL-40, sTREM2, progranulin, A beta(1-42), total tau (t-tau) and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) in CSF. We stratified the group DLB according to the ratio t-tau/A beta(1-42 ) (>= 0.52, indicative of AD pathology) and the A/T classification. YKL-40, sTREM2 and progranulin levels did not differ between DLB groups and CN.YKL-40 levels were higher in AD and prodAD compared to CN and to DLB and prodDLB. Patients with DLB with a CSF profile suggestive of AD copathology had higher levels of YKL-40, but not sTREM2 or PGRN, than those without. T+ DLB patients had also higherYKL-40 levels than T-. Of these glial markers, onlyYKL-40 correlated with t-tau and p-tau in DLB and in prodDLB. In contrast, in prodAD, sTREM2 and PGRN also correlated with t-tau and p-tau. In conclusion, sTREM2 and PGRN are not increased in the CSF of DLB patients. YKL-40 is only increased in DLB patients with an AD biomarker profile, suggesting that the increase is driven by AD-related neurodegeneration. These data suggest a differential glial activation between DLB and AD

    Increased Th17-Related Cytokine Serum Levels in Patients With Multiple Polyps of Unexplained Origin

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    OBJECTIVES: Most patientswith multiple colonic polyps do not have a known genetic or hereditary origin. Our aim was to analyze the presence of inflammatory cytokines and levels of glucose, insulin, and C-reactive protein (CRP) in patients with multiple colonic polyps. METHODS: Eighty-three patients with 10 or more adenomatous or serrated polyps and 53 control people with normal colonoscopy were included. Smoking habits were registered, and glucose, CRP, and basal insulin in the serum/blood weremeasured. Quantification of IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-11, IL-17A, and IL-23 cytokine levels in the serum was performed by a high-sensitivity enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: Smoking and diabetesweremore prevalent in those with colonic polyps than in the control people (67% vs 16%, P = 0.001; 11% vs 2%, P = 0.048). In addition, the cytokine serum levels were higher, i.e., IL-2 (P = 0.001), IL-4 (P = 0.001), IL-6 (P = 0.001), IL-17A (P = 0.001), IL-23 (P = 0.014), and CRP (P = 0.003). Adjusting for sex, smoking, and diabetes in amultivariate analysis, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-17A, and IL-23 remained independently elevated in cases with multiple polyps. DISCUSSION: These results indicate that immune responses mediated by Th17 cells may be involved in the pathogenesis of multiple colonic polyps

    Soil contamination in nearby natural areas mirrors that in urban greenspaces worldwide

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    Soil contamination is one of the main threats to ecosystem health and sustainability. Yet little is known about the extent to which soil contaminants differ between urban greenspaces and natural ecosystems. Here we show that urban greenspaces and adjacent natural areas (i.e., natural/semi-natural ecosystems) shared similar levels of multiple soil contaminants (metal(loid)s, pesticides, microplastics, and antibiotic resistance genes) across the globe. We reveal that human influence explained many forms of soil contamination worldwide. Socio-economic factors were integral to explaining the occurrence of soil contaminants worldwide. We further show that increased levels of multiple soil contaminants were linked with changes in microbial traits including genes associated with environmental stress resistance, nutrient cycling, and pathogenesis. Taken together, our work demonstrates that human-driven soil contamination in nearby natural areas mirrors that in urban greenspaces globally, and highlights that soil contaminants have the potential to cause dire consequences for ecosystem sustainability and human wellbeing

    The Sant Pau Initiative on Neurodegeneration (SPIN) cohort : A data set for biomarker discovery and validation in neurodegenerative disorders

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    Altres ajuts: The SPIN cohort has received funding from CIBERNED; Instituto de Salud Carlos III; jointly funded by Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), Unión Europea, "Una manera de hacer Europa"; Generalitat de Catalunya; Fundació "La Marató TV3" Fundació Bancària Obra Social La Caixa; Fundación BBVA; Fundación Española para el Fomento de la Investigación de la Esclerosis Lateral Amiotrófica (FUNDELA); Global Brain Health Institute; Fundació Catalana Síndrome de Down; and Fundació Víctor Grífols i Lucas. These funding sources had no role in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication.The SPIN (Sant Pau Initiative on Neurodegeneration) cohort is a multimodal biomarker platform designed for neurodegenerative disease research following an integrative approach. Participants of the SPIN cohort provide informed consent to donate blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples, receive detailed neurological and neuropsychological evaluations, and undergo a structural 3T brain MRI scan. A subset also undergoes other functional or imaging studies (video-polysomnogram, 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET, amyloid PET, Tau PET). Participants are followed annually for a minimum of 4 years, with repeated cerebrospinal fluid collection and imaging studies performed every other year, and brain donation is encouraged. The integration of clinical, neuropsychological, genetic, biochemical, imaging, and neuropathological information and the harmonization of protocols under the same umbrella allows the discovery and validation of key biomarkers across several neurodegenerative diseases. We describe our particular 10-year experience and how different research projects were unified under an umbrella biomarker program, which might be of help to other research teams pursuing similar approaches
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