Acute adrenal insufficiency secondary to bilateral adrenal B-cell lymphoma: a case report and review of the literature

Primary adrenal lymphoma is an extremely rare entity which constitutes less than 1% of extranodal lymphomas. Most cases present with bilateral adrenal masses and without extraadrenal involvement, which can lead to symptoms of adrenal insufficiency. The prognosis is usually poor and chemotherapy is the first-line treatment option. We report here on a 78-year-old man admitted to our Internal Medicine Department because of constitutional symptoms and high fever spikes. He was diagnosed with adrenal insufficiency and a CT-scan revealed bilateral adrenal masses of about 6 cm in diameter. A percutaneous biopsy was performed and the histological exam was consistent with diffuse large B cell lymphoma. A review of the literature of this unusual entity was also carried out

Toughness Enhancement of Commercial Poly (Hydroxybutyrate-co-Valerate) (PHBV) by Blending with a Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU)

Poly(hydroxyl butyrate-co-valerate) (PHBV) is a biopolymer synthesized by microorganisms that is fully biodegradable with improved thermal and tensile properties with respect to some commodity plastics. However, it presents an intrinsic brittleness that limits its potential application in replacing plastics in packaging applications. Films made of blends of PHBV with different contents of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) were prepared by single screw extruder and their fracture toughness behavior was assessed by means of the essential work of fracture (EWF) Method. As the crack propagation was not always stable, a partition method has been used to compare all formulations and to relate results with the morphology of the blends. Indeed, fully characterization of the different PHBV/TPU blends showed that PHBV was incompatible with TPU. The blends showed an improvement of the toughness fracture, finding a maximum with intermediate TPU contents.Financial support for this research from Ministerio de Economía y Competitivi dad (project AGL2015-63855-C2-2-R (MINECO/FEDER) and Pla de Promoció de la Investigació de la Universitat Jaume I (PREDOC/2012/32 and E-2015-22) is gratefully acknowledged

Mejora de la termoconformabilidad del PHBV mediante mezclas biodegradables con poliuretano

Actas del Congreso publicadas por ed. Compobell. ISBN 978-84-942655-8-7Mezclas de poli (3-hidroxibutirato-co-3-hidroxivalerato) (PHBV) y poliuretano termoplástico (TPU) se obtuvieron mediante extrusión con el objetivo de mejorar la procesabilidad del PHBV. La morfología, las propiedades mecánicas y la termoconformabilidad del PHBV se han evaluado observándose un aumento en la elongación a rotura y una mejora en el termoconformado del PHBV.A number of samples of poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) were obtained through extrusion, with the aim of improving the processability of PHBV. The relevant assessment of PHBV’s morphology, mechanic properties, and thermoformability has been carried out, observing an increase in elongation at break and an improvement in the thermoforming of PHBV.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (proyecto MAT2012-38947-C02-01), Generalitat Valenciana (GV/2014/123) y Pla de Promoció de la Investigació de la Universitat Jaume I (PREDOC/2012/32)

Assessing the thermoformability of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3- hydroxyvalerate)/poly(acid lactic) blends compatibilized with diisocyanates

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) is a renewable alternative to conventional barrier packaging polymers due to its thermoplastic properties, biodegradability and gas barrier performance but its potential industrial applications are limited by its high price and difficult processability. A thorough study concerning the thermoforming ability of PHBV, and blends with poly(lactic acid) (PLA) incorporating three different diisocyanates as compatibilizers (hexamethylene diisocyanate, poly(hexamethylene) diisocyanate and 1,4-phenylene diisocyanate) is herein presented after component melt blending. A straightforward universal qualitative method is proposed to assess the thermoformability, based on a visual inspection of a thermoformed specimen and the ability to reproduce the mold shape, and the thermoforming window of the material. The results reveal a significant improvement in the thermoforming capacity and a widening of the thermoforming windows as the correct amounts of diisocyanates are incorporated. The barrier properties and the biodisintegrability of the blends was also studied, confirming a predictable slight decrease of the barrier performance when PLA is added, but without negatively affecting the disintegrability under composting conditions with respect to pristine PHBV

A transcriptomic approach highlights induction of secondary metabolism in citrus fruit in response to Penicillium digitatum infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Postharvest losses of citrus fruit due to green mold decay, caused by the fungus <it>Penicillium digitaum</it>, have a considerable economic impact. However, little is known about the molecular processes underlying the response of citrus fruit to <it>P. digitatum</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we describe the construction of a subtracted cDNA library enriched in citrus genes preferentially expressed in response to pathogen infection followed by cDNA macroarray hybridization to investigate gene expression during the early stages of colonization of the fruit's peel by <it>P. digitatum</it>. Sequence annotation of clones from the subtracted cDNA library revealed that induction of secondary and amino acid metabolisms constitutes the major response of citrus fruits to <it>P. digitatum </it>infection. Macroarray hybridization analysis was conducted with RNA from either control, wounded, ethylene treated or <it>P. digitatum </it>infected fruit. Results indicate an extensive overlap in the response triggered by the three treatments, but also demonstrated specific patterns of gene expression in response to each stimulus. Collectively our data indicate a significant presence of isoprenoid, alkaloid and phenylpropanoid biosynthetic genes in the transcriptomic response of citrus fruits to <it>P. digitatum </it>infection. About half of the genes that are up-regulated in response to pathogen infection are also induced by ethylene, but many examples of ethylene-independent gene regulation were also found. Two notable examples of this regulation pattern are the genes showing homology to a caffeine synthase and a berberine bridge enzyme, two proteins involved in alkaloid biosynthesis, which are among the most induced genes upon <it>P. digitatum </it>infection but are not responsive to ethylene.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study provided the first global picture of the gene expression changes in citrus fruit in response to <it>P. digitatum </it>infection, emphasizing differences and commonalities with those triggered by wounding or exogenous ethylene treatment. Interpretation of the differentially expressed genes revealed that metabolism is redirected to the synthesis of isoprenes, alkaloids and phenylpropanoids.</p

Caracterización de la mampostería estructural elaborada con bloques de concreto en la ciudad de Santa Marta

La mampostería estructural es un sistema de construcción relativamente nuevo en el país que ha mostrado ser uno de los más económicos y seguros en la actualidad. Ha sido utilizado en la construcción de edificaciones de uno y varios niveles, generando controversia al presentarse un evento de alto riesgo como es el caso de los movimientos telúricos. El interés por ahondar el conocimiento, conocer las características constructivas a nivel de ingeniería en las obras civiles de la ciudad y las ganas de aportar herramientas útiles para mejorar nuestras condiciones de vida fueron la inspiración de este trabajo de grado. Donde A falta de investigación que ponga de relieve la influencia de estos parámetros en la mampostería local, y considerando que muchas veces los diseños se basan en experiencia foráneas que no se asemejan a nuestras condiciones naturales, la Universidad del Magdalena consciente del problema, presta al servicio de la comunidad, intenta promover el estudio experimental de la mampostería estructural, e inicia en la consecución de sus objetivos con la elaboración del proyecto: “Caracterización de la mampostería estructural elaborada con bloques de concreto en la ciudad de Santa Marta”. Este proyecto consta de tres fases esenciales: La primera fase corresponde a la recolección de información empleando material bibliográfico, encuestas, entrevistas, medios de comunicación, etc., con el fin de conocer el estado del arte. La segunda consiste en una fase experimental en donde se realizarán una serie de ensayos básicos a piezas elementales y prismas con ciertas limitaciones en cuanto a las condiciones de carga. La fase final consiste en la interpretación de resultados. El interés por ahondar el conocimiento, conocer las características constructivas a nivel de ingeniería en las obras civiles de la ciudad y las ganas de aportar herramientas útiles para mejorar nuestras condiciones de vida fueron la inspiración de este trabajo de grado

Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate-co-3-Hydroxyvalerate)/ Purifi ed Cellulose Fiber Composites by Melt Blending: Characterization and Degradation in Composting Conditions

Novel biodegradable composites based on poly(3-hydroxybutirate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) and different contents of purifi ed alpha-cellulose fi bers (3, 10, 25 and 45%) were prepared by melt blending and characterized. The composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) experiments, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanic analysis (DMA) and Shore D hardness measurements. Disintegrability under composting conditions was studied according to the ISO 20200 standard. Morphological results showed that high dispersion of the fi bers was achieved during mixing. Good adhesion on the fi ber-matrix interface was also detected by SEM. The addition of low and medium cellulose contents did not result in lower thermal resistance with respect to the neat PHBV. A reinforcing effect of the cellulose fi bers was detected in all samples, this effect being more pronounced at high temperatures. The composting results show that the addition of the fi bers did not affect the disintegrability of the PHBV, and thus compostable “green” low-cost PHBV/cellulose composites can be obtained

CONSTRUCCIÓN DE MODELOS DE REQUISITOS A PARTIR DE MODELOS ORGANIZACIONALES: UNA APROXIMACIÓN BASADA EN BPMN

RESUMENNo es posible considerar la tecnología de información (TI) como algo separado de la organización empresarial a la que le da soporte, y por tanto la ingeniería de requisitos (RE) debería considerar las necesidades de negocio de una organización. Aunque se reconoce que la ingeniería de requisitos es el puente natural que conecta el mundo empresarial y el mundo TI, la mayor parte de la investigación en RE continúa siendo orientada a la solución, evitando considerar los problemas reales del mundo empresarial. Las necesidades de negocio pueden ser descritas mediante el alineamiento de la TI con la estrategia del negocio, los procesos denegocio, las infraestructuras organizacionales y las metas organizacionales. Además una de las consecuencias del alineamiento entre negocio y sistemas de TI es el “mapeado” de las metas organizacionales y los procesos a la especificación del sistema. Este trabajo presenta una aproximación que utiliza una especificación (modelo de metas) enriquecida, con la idea de preservar muchas de las características de comportamiento descritas en un modelo de proceso. Nuestro modelo de metas cubre diferentes aspectos: funcionales, asociados con los servicios que se han de proporcionar, y no funcionales, asociados con la calidad de servicio como seguridad, adecuación, eficiencia y así sucesivamente. Proporcionando un mecanismo sencillo que permite capturar las características de comportamiento, creemos que la especificación será capaz de reflejar las metas del negocio (tal como aparecen en el modelo de proceso), y por consiguiente el sistema futuro podrá instanciar de manera más cercana este aspecto de las necesidades organizacionales. PALABRAS CLAVE Modelado organizacionalProceso de negocioBPMNRequisito softwareModelado basado en metasCaso de uso ABSTRACTIt is no longer possible to consider information technology (IT) as a separate matter from the business organization which it supports, and hence requirements engineering (RE) should directly address the business needs of an organization. Even though it is recognised that requirements engineering is the natural bridge that links the business world and the IT world,most of the RE research continues to be solution-oriented and avoids addressing the real-world business problems. Business needs can be described by means of the IT alignment with business strategy, business processes, organizational infrastructures and business goals. Moreover one of the consequences of aligning business and IT systems is the mapping of business goals and processes through to system specification. This work presents an approach which uses an enhanced (goal modelling) specification, in order to preserve many of the behavioural features depicted in a process model. Our goal model covers different types of concerns: functional concerns associated with the services to be provided, and non-functional concerns associated with quality of service such as security, accuracy, performance, and so forth. By providing a simple mechanism that let capture behavioural issues, we believe that specifications will be able to reflect the business goals (as depicted in the process model), and thus the future system may more closely match this aspect of the business needs. KEYWORDSEnterprise ModelingBusiness processBPMNSoftware requirementGoal-based modelingUse case

Enhanced Parallel Sine Cosine Algorithm for Constrained and Unconstrained Optimization

The sine cosine algorithm’s main idea is the sine and cosine-based vacillation outwards or towards the best solution. The first main contribution of this paper proposes an enhanced version of the SCA algorithm called as ESCA algorithm. The supremacy of the proposed algorithm over a set of state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of solution accuracy and convergence speed will be demonstrated by experimental tests. When these algorithms are transferred to the business sector, they must meet time requirements dependent on the industrial process. If these temporal requirements are not met, an efficient solution is to speed them up by designing parallel algorithms. The second major contribution of this work is the design of several parallel algorithms for efficiently exploiting current multicore processor architectures. First, one-level synchronous and asynchronous parallel ESCA algorithms are designed. They have two favors; retain the proposed algorithm’s behavior and provide excellent parallel performance by combining coarse-grained parallelism with fine-grained parallelism. Moreover, the parallel scalability of the proposed algorithms is further improved by employing a two-level parallel strategy. Indeed, the experimental results suggest that the one-level parallel ESCA algorithms reduce the computing time, on average, by 87.4% and 90.8%, respectively, using 12 physical processing cores. The two-level parallel algorithms provide extra reductions of the computing time by 91.4%, 93.1%, and 94.5% with 16, 20, and 24 processing cores, including physical and logical cores. Comparison analysis is carried out on 30 unconstrained benchmark functions and three challenging engineering design problems. The experimental outcomes show that the proposed ESCA algorithm behaves outstandingly well in terms of exploration and exploitation behaviors, local optima avoidance, and convergence speed toward the optimum. The overall performance of the proposed algorithm is statistically validated using three non-parametric statistical tests, namely Friedman, Friedman aligned, and Quade tests.This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and the Research State Agency under Grant RTI2018-098156-B-C54 cofinanced by FEDER funds and the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Research State Agency under Grant PID2020-120213RB-I00 cofinanced by FEDER funds