Human oocytes and zygotes are ready for ultra-fast vitrification after 2 minutes of exposure to standard CPA solutions

Vitrification of human oocytes and embryos in different stages of development is a key element of daily clinical practice of in vitro fertilization treatments. Despite the cooling and warming of the cells is ultra-fast, the procedure as a whole is time consuming. Most of the duration is employed in a long (8–15 minutes), gradual or direct exposure to a non-vitrifying cryoprotectant solution, which is followed by a short exposure to a more concentrated vitrifying solution. A reduction in the duration of the protocols is desirable to improve the workflow in the IVF setting and reduce the time of exposure to suboptimal temperature and osmolarity, as well as potentially toxic cryoprotectants. In this work it is shown that this reduction is feasible. In silico (MatLab program using two-parameter permeability model) and in vitro observations of the oocytes’ osmotic behaviour indicate that the dehydration upon exposure to standard cryoprotectant solutions occurs very fast: the point of minimum volume of the shrink-swell curve is reached within 60 seconds. At that point, intracellular water ejection is complete, which coupled with the permeation of low molecular weight cryoprotectants results in similar intracellular and extracellular solute concentrations. This shows that prolonging the exposure to the cryoprotectant solutions does not improve the cytosolic glass forming tendency and could be avoided. To test this finding, human oocytes and zygotes that were donated for research were subjected to a shortened, dehydration-based protocol, consisting of two consecutive exposures of one-minute to two standard cryoprotectant solutions, containing ethylene glycol, dimethyl sulfoxide and sucrose. At the end of this two-minute dehydration protocol, the critical intracellular solute concentration necessary for successful vitrification was attained, confirmed by the post-warming survival and ability to resume cytokinesis of the cells. Further studies of the developmental competency of oocytes and embryos would be necessary to determine the suitability of this specific dehydration protocol for clinical practice, but based on our results, short times of exposure to increasingly hypertonic solutions could be a more time-efficient strategy to prepare human oocytes and embryos for vitrification

Aplicación del derecho privado a las transmisiones de derechos sobre los resultados de la actividad investigadora

Estudio realizado en el marco del Proyecto de investigación DER2013-43967-R, sobre “Propiedad intelectual en las Universidades públicas: Titularidad, gestión y transferencia”, financiado por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO

Aplicación clínica de las vesículas extracelulares en la esclerosis múltiple

244 p.En esta tesis se ha investigado la biología de las vesículas extracelulares en relación a la esclerosis múltiple, una enfermedad del sistema nervioso central, desmielinizante y con un claro componente autoinmune como base patogénica. Hemos encontrado variaciones en la concentración y el contenido molecular de las VE según el estadio clínico de la EM, así como tras el empleo habitual de terapias inmunoloduladoras. Hemos analizado también la función reguladora del sistema inmune que poseen estas VE. Con la intención de aplicar en un entorno clínico hospitalario el estudio de VE como biomarcadores, hemos comparado distintos métodos de aislamiento y análisis de VE y proponemos un protocolo idóneo para su aplicación en la rutina de un hospital

El color en el cartel de finales del siglo XIX

En el siglo XIX el cartel fue el medio publicitario por excelencia. En este trabajo se verá la importancia que tuvo el uso del color en estos carteles y cómo gracias a él adquirió tanta fama y reconocimiento. Para ello, se hará un breve recorrido por su historia y se analizará brevemente el uso del color en este tipo de publicidad. Centrándose especialmente en el uso que dan al color en sus obras tres emblemáticos artistas: Chéret, Toulouse-Lautrec y Cappiello; se realizará un análisis de seis de sus carteles y una comparación entre sí para llegar a conclusiones de si realmente el color es uno de los factores del éxito que obtuvieron.Grado en Publicidad y Relaciones Pública

La protección de los datos personales como excepción a la obligación de reutilización de la información del sector público

proyecto de investigación “Propiedad intelectual y Open Data en la Universidad: intersección entre propiedad intelectual, reutilización de la información del sector público y la protección de datos” DER2016-75709-R (MINECO/FEDER/UE) del que es investigadora principal Raquel de Romá

Results of a major ambulatory oral surgery program using general inhalational anesthesia on disabled patients

Objectives: To assess the demographic characteristics and comorbidities of the group to be studied, as well as various quality indicators of a Major Ambulatory Surgery (MAS) program. Quantification of the surgical-anesthetic incidents. Study design: We aimed to perform a retrospective and descriptive analysis of disabled patients who had received oral ambulatory surgery under general anesthesia. Data obtained from the clinical history and telephone interview included the demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, previous dental history, cause of the mental disability, degree of mental retardation, comorbidity measured according to the scale of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), anesthesia or preoperative surgical treatments, level of analgesia, length of stay, incidents in the Resuscitation Ward, the rate of substitution, suspensions, patients admitted, complications and the degree of patient satisfaction. Results: We included 112 oral surgery procedures performed on disabled patients who were treated under general inhalational anesthesia as part of MAS during the years 2006-2007. During this period, 577 restorations, 413 extractions, 179 sealants, 102 pulpectomies, 22 root canal treatments, 17 gingivectomies and 3 frenectomies were performed. A total of 75% (78 cases) of the patients had coexisting medical pathology. The average surgery time per patient was 72.69 ±29.78 minutes. The rate of replacement was 100%. The rate of suspension was 1.92%. The percentage of patients readmitted was 1.92%,due to significant bleeding in the mouth, which did not require treatment and the patients were discharged from hospital 24 hours after being admitted. The rate of patients who required re-hospitalization was 3.84%. Conclusions: The MAS performed in this group, despite being on patients with high comorbidity resulted in only a low number of medical incidents reporte

Landscape laboratory of the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage : actions and achievements for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention

Andalusia is an Autonomous Community situated in the south of Spain with an area of 87,268 sq.km, divided into eight provinces. It has a regional government, the Junta de Andalucía, the responsibilities of which are split between thirteen Ministries, the Ministry of Culture being the one responsible for managing Andalusian cultural heritage. The Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage (IAPH) is a government-run entity belonging to the Ministry of Culture, authorised as a research institute, the purposes of which include the monitoring, research and innovation, documentation, communication and development of historical heritage. This Landscape Laboratory is the IAPH Department responsible for guiding the implementation of the European Landscape Convention in the plans, programmes and actions carried out by the Andalusian government in the area of historical heritage. It was created in the year 2000, thanks to a project of the European Culture 2000 programme, led by the IAPH, which established operating criteria for the landscape of large archaeological sites: Baelo Claudia (Spain), Cortona (Italy), Miróbriga (Portugal) and Thessalonica (Greece). Since then, the Laboratory has executed numerous multidisciplinary projects and actions, in collaboration with other national, international and regional institutions, which have progressed in the implementation of the specific measures of the European Landscape Convention associated with the promotion of awareness, training and education, identification and evaluation, landscape quality goals and implementation

Experimental evaluation of a passive fuel cell/ battery hybrid power system for an unmanned ground vehicle

Unmanned vehicles are increasing the performance of monitoring and surveillance in several applications. Endurance is a key issue in these systems, in particular in electric vehicles, powered at present mainly by batteries. Hybrid power systems based on batteries and fuel cells have the potential to achieve high energy density and specific energy, increasing also the life time and safe operating conditions of the power system. The objective of this research is to analyze the performance of a passive hybrid power system, designed and developed to be integrated into an existing Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV). The proposed solution is based on six LiPo cells, connected in series, and a 200 W PEM fuel cell stack, directly connected in parallel to the battery without any limitation to its charge. The paper presents the characterization of the system behavior, and shows the main results in terms of performance and energy management.The authors would like to acknowledge the NATO Science for Peace and Security Program for partially funding this work through the project “Improving efficiency and operational range in low-power unmanned vehicles through the use of hybrid fuel-cell power systems” (IUFCV), Ref. 985079

Identification of ncRNAs as Potential Therapeutic Targets in Multiple Sclerosis Through Differential ncRNA – mRNA Network Analysis

Background: Several studies have revealed a potential role for both small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) in the physiopathology of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). This potential implication has been mainly described through differential expression studies. However, it has been suggested that, in order to extract additional information from large-scale expression experiments, differential expression studies must be complemented with differential network studies. Thus, the present work is aimed at the identification of potential therapeutic ncRNA targets for RRMS through differential network analysis of ncRNA - mRNA coexpression networks. ncRNA - mRNA coexpression networks have been constructed from both selected ncRNA (specifically miRNAs, snoRNAs and sdRNAs) and mRNA large-scale expression data obtained from 22 patients in relapse, the same 22 patients in remission and 22 healthy controls. Condition-specific (relapse, remission and healthy) networks have been built and compared to identify the parts of the system most affected by perturbation and aid the identification of potential therapeutic targets among the ncRNAs. Results: All the coexpression networks we built present a scale-free topology and many snoRNAs are shown to have a prominent role in their architecture. The differential network analysis (relapse vs. remission vs. controls' networks) has revealed that, although both network topology and the majority of the genes are maintained, few ncRNA - mRNA links appear in more than one network. We have selected as potential therapeutic targets the ncRNAs that appear in the disease-specific network and were found to be differentially expressed in a previous study. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the diseased state of RRMS has a strong impact on the ncRNA - mRNA network of peripheral blood leukocytes, as a massive rewiring of the network happens between conditions. Our findings also indicate that the role snoRNAs have in targeted gene silencing is a widespread phenomenon. Finally, among the potential therapeutic target ncRNAs, SNORA40 seems to be the most promising candidate.This work has been supported partially by Fondo de investigacion Sanitaria from Instituto Carlos III through the project FIS PS09/02105, by SAIOTEK (SAIO11-PC11BN003) and by the Spanish Net of Multiple Sclerosis. HI and MMC has been supported by departamento de educacion del Gobierno Vasco through a PhD grant