Small Size Dual-band Bandpass Filters with Multiconductor Transmission Lines and Shunt Open Stubs

A dual-band bandpass filter consisting of multiconductor transmission lines (MTL) and shunt stubs has been designed. The used topology, based on the interconnection of two identical MTL and a shunt open stub, has a frequency response that can be modelled by using the generalized Chebyshev functions. A prototype of a 4 fingers-MTL is manufactured and measured and a good agreement between analytical and measured results is obtained. Furthermore, it is easy to get a design criterion that enables getting good responses varying just a few parameters.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Privacy paradox in the mobile environment: The influence of the emotions

The increasing relevance of personal information has sparked a broad debate on privacy issues on the ubiquitous Internet. The so called ‘privacy paradox’ aims to explain through rational decision-making models the contradictions between stated digital privacy concerns and the actual behaviors in mobile platforms. An analysis of the emotions that arise when users know about unauthorized personal data disclosure is proposed. A survey of smartphone users was conducted shortly after the Cambridge Analytica / Facebook scandal took place, in order to analyze the nature and intensity of a user’s emotions in relation to their knowledge of privacy breaches. The results support the paradox of privacy from an emotional perspective: although the reported emotions are intense, there is no relationship between the management that users make of their privacy settings in social networks and mobile applications and the nature and intensity of the emotions reported

Development of an in vitro 3D microfluidic system for maintaining PHH over long time and its possible use for drug testing

Traditional toxicity tests are characterized by the use of in vitro and in vivo laboratory animals with the purpose of avoiding potential damage to humans. The use of animals for drug testing raises ethical questions, and involves high costs as well as a lack of reliability. However, the use of PHH as an alternative to animal testing involves two main problems: the limited access to liver tissue and the short life span of these cells. Therefore, hepatoma cell lines and hepatocyte-like cells from extra hepatic cell sources have been investigated as an alternative in toxicity assays, but their low expression of hepatocytic markers and their low metabolization capacity limit their use in drug testing. Polarization plays a key role in drug metabolism. Therefore, the hepatotoxicity in 2D and 3D (sandwich) cultures has been investigated here by using acetaminophen as a model drug. Our data have demonstrated that cell death is higher in 3D cultures than in 2D cultures as there is a higher metabolism of acetaminophen and therefore higher concentration of toxic metabolites (NAPQI) formed after treatment with acetaminophen. During these experiments, it has been observed that the protein expression of CYP2E1 and SOD1 depends on the concentration of acetaminophen. Therefore, the increase of the concentration of acetaminophen has led to a parallel increase of the expression of CYP2E1, but to a decrease of the expression of SOD1 in 3D, but not in 2D cultures. In addition, higher import/export rates have been observed for the multidrug resistance-associated protein-1 (MRP1), which is a specific transporter protein for acetaminophen metabolite transport in 3D cultures. 3D cultures exhibited better comparability of the results to the in vivo situation. However, the limited access to liver tissue and the impossibility of using sandwich culture in small culture plates restrict the use of sandwich cultures for high-throughput screening. Therefore, PHH have been re-suspended in collagen gels. In this 3D model, cell viability, glucose production, and NH4 detoxification have been preserved at a higher level over 28 days than in 2D cultures. Similar results have been observed during the measurements of the phase I and II metabolic activity. Furthermore, PHH have exhibited higher import/export rates in two transporter proteins, MRP1 and multidrug resistance protein-1 (MDR1/P-gp), located at the basolateral and apical membrane respectively. Finally, PHH have exhibited higher toxicity in 3D than in 2D cultures after being stimulated by acetaminophen and diclofenac. The culture of PHH under a continuous flow has demonstrated an improvement of the detoxifying activity of the cells. However, microfluidic systems are expensive and sophisticated devices whose use is restricted in hepatotoxicity prediction. Therefore, a simple and cheap microfluidic system has been tested in this work. The data from the live/dead staining has proven the survival of PHH in the microfluidic system. Similar results have been found during the metabolism of acetaminophen and diclofenac which correlates with the activity of CYP2E1 and CYP2C9 respectively in static and flow cultures. However, these findings could not be corroborated by the use of fluorescence and absorbance assays measured by a plate reader. In order to improve the characterization of the PHH in the µ-slide system, new approaches have to be developed, along with alternative experiments and an improvement of methods. In this thesis, the behaviour of PHH on natural collagen gels in different culture conditions has been studied. However, the liver ECM is not only composed of collagen, but also contains proteins and proteoglycans. In addition, non-parenchymal cells are involved in the inflammatory response. Therefore, future studies should focus on testing hepatotoxicity in co-cultures of PHH and non-parenchymal cells in microfluidic systems with a matrix comprising several ECM proteins in order to achieve in vitro results which are highly comparable to the in vivo situation

Analysis and design of enhanced planar devices using multiconductor transmission lines with interconnected alternate lines

Novel capabilities and applications of multiconductor transmission lines with interconnected alternate lines have been analyzed in this work. The interconnections among alternate strips broaden the operating frequency band by eliminating undesired resonances and allow the use of simplified analytical models. Phase shifters, baluns, reconfigurable systems for the characterization of balanced circuits, ultra-wideband differential bandpass filters and quasi-elliptic bandpass filters have been proposed and demonstrated. For all these circuits a systematic design procedure have been derived and validated by means of experimental work. The excellent agreement between the measurements and the predicted results validates the proposed procedures as reliable and quick design techniques

Combining dimensional analysis with model based systems engineering

The model based systems engineering (MBSE) approach describes a system using consistent views to provide a holistic model as complete as possible. MBSE methodologies end with the physical architecture of the system, but a physical model is clearly incomplete without the study of its associated physical laws and phenomena related to the whole system or its parts. However, the computational demands could be excessive even for modest projects. Dimensional analysis (DA) is common in fluid dynamics and chemical engineering, but its application to systems engineering is still limited. We describe an engineering methodological process, which incorporates DA as a powerful tool to understand the physical constraints of the system without the burden of complex analytical or numerical calculations. A detailed example describing a microantenna is presented showing the benefits of this approach. The selected example describes a problem rarely covered in modern expositions of DA in order to show the wide benefit of these techniques. The information provided by this analysis is very useful to select the best physically realizable architectures, testing design, and conduct trade-off studies. The complexity of modern systems and systems of systems demands new testing procedures in order to comply with increasingly demanding requirements and regulations. This can be accomplished through research in new DA methods. Finally, this article serves as a fairly comprehensive guide to the use of DA in the context of MBSE, detailing its strengths, limitations, and controversial issues

The inorganic part of green roof substrates impacts differently on the growth of two Mediterranean plant species

[SPA] Los sustratos para cubiertas verdes deben reunir una serie de propiedades fisicoquímicas y nutricionales para poder ser usados como base para el desarrollo vegetal. El impacto de diversas dosis de materia orgánica así como del espesor del sustrato son factores ampliamente estudiados en este tipo de cubiertas. Sin embargo, el efecto de la parte inorgánica del sustrato sobre el crecimiento vegetal en este tipo de cubiertas no ha sido ampliamente estudiado. Para ello, se diseñaron cuatro sustratos compuestos por un 10% en volumen de compost mezclado con diversos materiales inorgánicos. Estas mezclas se dispusieron en mesas de cultivo con un espesor de 10 cm. En ellos, se sembraron dos especies vegetales típicas de la zona Mediterránea: Lotus creticus L. y Asteriscus maritimus L. Con el fin de estudiar la evolución de cada sustrato, se realizó un estudio de las propiedades fisicoquímicas, y nutricionales de cada sustrato. Se observaron mayores niveles de nutrientes en las mezclas con suelo que en aquellas que no lo presentaban (CB y CsB). Los resultados sugieren que una dosis de compost del 10% es capaz de mantener un aceptable desarrollo de ambas especies, aunque su comportamiento varía en función de la composición del sustrato. [ENG] Extensive green roofs substrates should meet a list of physicochemical and nutritional requirements to be used as a basis for plant growth. In recent years, the impact of different organic matter doses and the substrate depth on plant growth have been studied although little is known about the effect of the inorganic component of these substrates on plant development in Mediterranean green roof systems. Four substrates were made by mixing the same compost, at 10% by volume, with different inorganic materials. These were placed, with a depth of 10 cm on cultivation tables. Two endemic species were sown in each substrate: Lotus creticus L. and Asteriscus maritimus L. Physicochemical and nutritional properties of the substrates as well as the plant development were evaluated. We observed high levels of C and N in the soil-containing substrates than in the soilless ones (CB and CsB mixtures). The results suggest that a compost dose of 10% was able to maintain acceptable plant growth, but a different pattern was observed depending on the inorganic composition of the substrate.We thanks the INNPACTO project (IPT-2011-1017-310000) for the financial support. Authors are grateful to the Department of “Ingeniería Agromótica y del Mar” of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena for their assistance with the RSI ENVI 4.0 software

Innovación, evaluación y Universidad

Este libro es una invitación a reflexionar sobre la evaluación de los aprendizajes en la universidad. Fruto de la reflexión de los profesores que componen el claustro de educación en la UCAM surgen las Jornadas de Buenas Prácticas Docentes que esta edición se dedica a la innovación aplicada a la evaluación. Las buenas prácticas son las experiencias educativas en materia de evaluación desarrolladas en la UCAM en las diferentes titulaciones. El objetivo es intercambiar experiencias y difundir las actuaciones que se han realizado desde los diferentes grados universitarios en la UCAM, poner a disposición de la sociedad las experiencias más destacadas. Pensar la evaluación y sus buenas prácticas, es cuestionar estereotipos, modelos, formas de hacer, planteamientos, en conclusión, revisar el modo de hacer con el estudiante, con la sociedad y lo que el profesorado plantea.Educació

Oral squamous cell carcinoma of tongue: Histological risk assessment. A pilot study

Background: More than 90% of malignant tumors diagnosed in the oral cavity are Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas (OSCC) whose preferred location is the tongue. Classically, this disease has affected men preferentially, although recent studies suggest that trends are changing and the proportion of women with OSCC is increasing. In addition, the prevalence of oral cancer is also determined by some risk factors as alcohol consumption and tobacco. Currently, the Tumor, Node, Metastasis (TNM) classification is employed to defined tumor stage and based on this guide specific treatments are established. However, 5-year-survival does not exceed 50% of cases. The objective of this study is to determine whether a histological risk pattern indicative of higher recurrence might be present in T1-T2 tumors located in the anterior two thirds of the tongue. Material and Methods: Samples from 26 patients with OSCC were analyzed and histological risk pattern of recurrent and non-recurrent tumors were compared. We have analyzed histological variables described in Anneroth and Brandwein-Gensler classifications. Additionally, we have also examined both clinical variables such as age, sex or comorbidities, as well as habits such as tobacco or alcohol consumption. Results: We found that sex (male) and keratinization degree (high or moderate) are directly related with OSCC recurrence. In fact, free illness time is lower in men and higher in those cases with minimal or no keratinization. Conclusions: Based on the variables analyzed, it has not been possible to establish a histological risk pattern that, complementary to the TNM classification, could have a predictive role in these early-stage tongue carcinoma