Atenuación del rechazo inmunitario con células madre mesenquimales derivadas de tejido adiposo en un modelo experimental murino de trasplante de pulmón

El trasplante pulmonar es, en ocasiones, la única opción terapéutica disponible para las fases finales de determinadas enfermedades respiratorias, como la enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva crónica, la enfermedad pulmonar intersticial difusa, las bronquiectasias asociadas a fibrosis quística o la hipertensión pulmonar, entre otras. Pese a haber aumentado con el tiempo, la tasa de viabilidad del injerto es bastante más baja si se compara con el trasplante de otros órganos sólidos, ya que cae rápidamente en el primer año y es de aproximadamente un 50% a los 5 años. Este hecho, unido a que las terapias actuales se basan en inmunosupresores, con sus consiguientes efectos adversos, ha hecho que se estén buscando nuevas estrategias terapéuticas. Actualmente, se están realizando numerosas investigaciones y ensayos clínicos con células madre mesenquimales (MSCs) procedentes de distintos tipos de tejidos. Esto se debe a que han demostrado tener una capacidad inmunomoduladora afectando tanto a la inmunidad innata como a la adquirida lo que, unido a otras características como sus propiedades regenerativas, angiogénica o antifibróticas, las convierten en candidatas de estudio como terapias alternativas. Por otra parte, en la actualidad se está buscando una relación entre distintas enfermedades con la alteración en la expresión de micro ARNs, que intervienen en distintas vías o rutas de señalización actuando sobre determinados genes. Consisten en pequeños fragmentos de ARN no codificantes cuya modulación cuando están desregulados podrían revertir los procesos patológicos a un estado fisiológico normal, constituyendo un tratamiento novedoso..

Anatomical and functional brain approach along short abrupt changes in G-levels

To conduct experiments under abrupt changes in g-levels, a single-engine aerobatic aircraft has been used, providing 6-8 seconds of reduced gravity, preceded and followed by 5-7 seconds of hypergravity periods. Due to the specific conditions of the flight and previous findings [1], the hypothesis of the present work lies on the idea that some sensory inputs could have a notorious effect on brain final responses when gravity is altered. Therefore, this study focuses on the evaluation of such hypothesis, based on the analysis of the evolution in time of intracranial activity of limbic, visual and auditory cortices. Five subjects (N=5, age 41¿14 years) have flown in parabolic flight with their eyes both open and closed. Electroencephalogram signals were recorded with an Emotive Epoc headset, synchronized with a triaxial accelerometer. The intracranial brain bioelectric activity (standardized current density) throughout the parabola, was calculated by applying Standard Low Resolution Brain Electromagnetic Tomography, and it was analyzed for the limbic, visual and auditory cortices. Intracranial activity of the Temporal, Parietal and Occipital lobes were carried out as well in order to compare the different periods/phases of the flight. Results detected a lower brain activity during the hypogravity phase in all lobes and cortices, only in the case of open eyes. The bioelectrical brain activity along the parabola showed similar patterns in all lobes and cortices, when visual inputs are highlighted. Suppressing the sight, two major behaviors were detected in brain activity: one for temporal lobe and auditory cortex, and second one for the rest of the lobes and visual cortex. It Seemed that, flying with closed eyes, other sensory stimuli were enhanced, in this case the auditory cortex. To confirm the validity of the results two-way ANOVA (factors lobe/phases) and Fisher post hoc test have been applied on mean intracranial activity values in all cases. Spectral entropy evolution in time has been considered as a fast indicator of the sudden extracranial brain activity variation during short g-changes. For open eyes, spectral entropy values indicated a slight decrease at the onset of the hypogravity phase, whereas in case of closed eyes, this change was detected in the last seconds of the parabola, even though these fluctuations were statistically non-significant. Results suggest that some of the sensory inputs can indeed have an impact on brain final response, when gravity conditions are altered.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Theory of Weakly Exothermic Oblique Detonations

A simplified formulation, based on treating the ratio of the heat release to the postshock thermal enthalpy as a small parameter, accommodating arbitrary chemistry descriptions, is shown to reproduce computationally the same variety of phenomena as more complex formulations for oblique detonations with supersonic postshock flow. The resulting small relative variations of velocity and thermodynamic properties across the reaction region are described by linearized Euler equations written in characteristic form, supplemented by the linearized Rankine-Hugoniot jump conditions across the leading shock. The simplified formulation is used to analyze the interaction of the oblique detonation with a weak vortex sheet, for an Arrhenius irreversible reaction with an activation energy large compared with the postshock thermal enthalpy. The analysis reveals that, as ß, the product of the activation energy and the heat release divided by the square of the postshock thermal enthalpy, increases through values of order unity, decaying spatial oscillations, found for small values, are replaced by persistent nonlinear oscillations of finite amplitude for larger values. Beyond a critical value of ß the growth of the oscillation amplitude leads to the development of a singularity at the shock, an explosion, consistent with the formation of a triple point. Many related problems can be clarified with this formulation.The work of D.M.-R. and C.H. was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science through Grant No. ENE2015-65852-C2-1-R) and by the Fundación Iberdrola España through Grant No. BYNVua37crdy. The work of A.L.S. and F.A.W. was supported by the U.S. AFOSR Grant No. FA9550-16-1-0443

Interaction of Oblique Shocks and Laminar Shear Layers

This paper examines the steady interaction of a shear layer separating two uniform supersonic streams of Mach numbers M1 and M2 with an oblique shock approaching from the faster stream at an incident angle sigmai sufficiently small for the postshock flow to remain supersonic everywhere. The development begins by considering the related problem of oblique-shock impingement on a supersonic vortex sheet of infinitesimal thickness, for which the region of existence of regular shock refractions with downstream supersonic flow is delineated in the parametric space (M1,M2,sigmai). The interaction region located about the impingement point, scaling with the shear-layer thickness, is described next by integrating the Euler equations in the postshock region, formulated in characteristic form, subject to the Rankine-Hugoniot jump conditions at the shock front. The results are used to investigate the accuracy and limitations of a simplified treatment, the so-called Moeckel-Chisnell approach, commonly employed for determining the shape of the shock wave in these scenarios, which does not account for the influence of the postshock flow. It is found that, although the Moeckel-Chisnell method predicts accurately the shape of the shock front as it evolves across the shear layer, it is unable to predict the final transition to the transmitted-shock solution, which occurs beyond the edge of the shear layer. The structure of the shear layer in the far field also is addressed here for the first time, with the objective being to lay the groundwork for future studies of shock-induced ignition in supersonic fuel-air mixing layers.The work of A. L. Sánchez and F. A. Williams was supported by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant FA9550-16-1-0443, and that of D. Martínez-Ruiz and C. Huete was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science (ENE2015-65852-C2-2-R) and the Fundación Iberdrola España (BYNV-ua37crdy)

First report of Aphria latifrons (Diptera, Tachinidae, Leskiini) in the Canary Islands

The Canary Islands are an archipelago of volcanic origin, located off north-west Africa comprising eight islands. Fuerteventura and Lanzarote are the oldest (20 and 15 millon years old, respectively) and the easternmost islands. The order Diptera is one of the most relevant taxa in the Canary Islands as they constitute the second highest species richness. Within this order, the family Tachinidae is especially interesting as all species are endoparasitoids of arthropods and most species play a key role as pollinators. In the Canary Islands, the family comprises 52 species, with Fuerteventura and Lanzarote harbouring up to 20 species each.Aphria latifrons, a Palaearctic tachinid fly, is reported for the first time from the Canary Islands, where it was found on Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. Morphological examination was carried out and the first known barcode of the species is presented. Its potential distribution and source of origin are discussed

Las diez claves sobre métricas alternativas

Se presenta un resumen de los aspectos más destacados de las métricas alternativas o altmetrics. Más concretamente se desarrollan diez aspectos clave sobre estas métricas, son los siguientes:1. métricas vinculadas a la web 2.0 o web social.2. Múltiples fuentes de información y servicios3. Orientadas al artículo frente a la revista.4. Medidas del impacto social de la investigación.5. No vienen a sustituir vienen a complementar.6. Vinculadas a todo tipo de materiales académicos.7. Medición del impacto en tiempo real.8. Evanescencia e ubicuidad de las métricas.9. Pueden ser fácilmente manipulables.10. Un frente de investigación abierto

Current state of dental autotransplantation

The aim of this study is to analyse the current situation in dental autotransplantations within the different therapeutic alternatives that the dentist has available to replace a tooth in the dental arcade. For some authors this is an option headed for failure, whereas for others, it is an alternative to keep in mind. In this study we analyse the factors related to the predictability of the technique, based on an analysis of research work published in the scientific literature up to date. We also present two clinical cases performed by our team and their subsequent evaluation. In spite of the satisfactory results seen when reviewing the existing literature, we cannot say that dental autotransplantation is currently the technique of choice when a tooth is lost, given the predictability of osteointegrated implants. © Medicina Oral S. L

University students’ strategies and criteria during self-assessment: instructor’s feedback, rubrics, and year level effects.

This study explores the effects of feedback type, feedback occasion, and year level on student self-assessments in higher education. In total, 126 university students participated in this randomized experiment under three experimental conditions (i.e., rubric feedback, instructor’s written feedback, and rubric feedback plus instructor’s written feedback). Participants, after random assignment to feedback condition, were video-recorded performing a self-assessment on a writing task both before and after receiving feedback. The quality of self-assessment strategies decreased after feedback of all kinds, but the number of strategies increased for the combined feedback condition. The number of self-assessment criteria increased for rubric and combined conditions, while feedback helped shift criteria use from basic to advanced criteria. Student year level was not systematically related to changes in self-assessment after feedback. In general, the combination of rubric and instructor’s feedback produced the best effects.post-print1168 K

Multiple Mobile Agent System Framework Suitable for Pervasive Computing

In this article we present a formal framework based on the action and reaction model that allows us to cover the dynamics of multi-agent systems (MAS) made up of mobile software agents suitable for scalable networks. This model is based on the operation of the human nervous centres. At the present time, we are applying it in works related with the control of biological systems and also in those related to the network management. In the case of systems based on mobile agents, the main problem is the different vision the agents have of the world and the impossibility of being aware of and synchronizing all the influences brought by the different agents acting on it. We have compared our proposal with the conventional MAS by solving an extension of the predator-prey problem. The results show the advantages of mobility as the size of the problem grows in a distributed system