Monitorización simultánea de comportamiento y señalización biológica eléctrica

La monitorización simultanea del comportamiento de un sistema biológico y el registro de las señales eléctricas que genera su sistema nervioso brinda nuevas posibilidades en el contexto de la biomedicina y en concreto en neurociencia y neuroetología. Es por ello que se ha generado la necesidad de una herramienta para monitorizar, sincronizar y caracterizar de forma simultánea señales biológicas y de comportamiento registradas con electrodos y cámaras. En este proyecto de fin de carrera se documenta el diseño y la creación de esta herramienta. Para ello se ha implementado una aplicación en C++ y que usa librerías de OpenCV y Qt para el sistema operativo Linux. Permite visualizar simultáneamente el vídeo y las señales electrofisiológicas, desplazarse de forma coordinada en la serie temporal y adaptarse a las distintas frecuencias de muestreo del vídeo y del registro. La herramienta se ha validado con registros de una neurona electrónica, registros de actividad de un pez eléctrico y con registros de video electroencefalografía.Monitoring simultaneously the behavior of a biological system and the electrical signals that its own nervous system is generating opens new possibilities on the field of biomedicine and specifically on neuroscience and neuroetology. This is why there is a need for a tool to monitor, synchronize, and characterize in a simultaneous manner biological and behavior signals recorded with electrodes and cameras. In this thesis it is explained in detail the design and creation of this tool. An desktop application in c++ has been implemented using OpenCV and Qt libraries, for the Linux operative system. It allows to visualize simultaneously video and electrophysiology signlas, navigate on a coordinated manner on the time series and adapt to the different sampling frequencies of the video and biological signal. The tool has been validated with the recording of and electronic neuron, the recording of electrical fish activity and the recording of video electroencephalography

Impact of COVID-19 lockdown in telecommunications engineering competency-based alumni ranking

[EN] Higher education, as other social and economic sectors in Spain, was disrupted on 15th March 2020 following health emergency Laws enacted related to COVID-19. Non-presential lecturing was stablished country-wide until the end of the academic year 2019-20, as society was set in lockdown. In this context, it is necessary to evaluate the impact of the mandatory changes implemented in the education paradigm in order to assess the degree of acquisition of general and specific competencies altogether the acquisition of transversal competencies, as an important factor for the alumni career. This paper reports a comprehensive study on the competencies degree of acquisition considering the lockdown scenario in Spain. The results from the last four academic years have been comparatively evaluated in the core subject `Teoría de la Comunicación¿, lectured in the fourth semester of the Telecommunications Engineering Integrated Program (Bachelor and Master) in the Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain, comprising data from 745 alumni. The results indicate that the degree of acquisition of technical competencies in this scenario has been adequate, being marginally better compared to previous academic year, probably due to new lecturing materials prepared. Nevertheless, the acquisition of the transversal competency `analysis and problem solving¿ exhibits degraded results, indicating inhomogeneous acquisition probably due to limitations in the group-based problem-solving practice. The results suggest that specific materials and remote lecturing strategies should be developed and implemented to guarantee adequate acquisition levels.The support by the 2020 Science Parks program from the Consellería de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital, Generalitat Valenciana, Spain, is acknowledged.Llorente, R.; Rodríguez-Hernández, MA.; Hernandez Franco, CA.; Sastre, J.; Carrión García, A.; Madrigal-Madrigal, J. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 lockdown in telecommunications engineering competency-based alumni ranking. IATED Academy. 9599-9607. https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2020.2139S9599960

ISG15 Regulates Peritoneal Macrophages Functionality against Viral Infection

Upon viral infection, the production of type I interferon (IFN) and the subsequent upregulation of IFN stimulated genes (ISGs) generate an antiviral state with an important role in the activation of innate and adaptive host immune responses. The ubiquitin-like protein (UBL) ISG15 is a critical IFN-induced antiviral molecule that protects against several viral infections, but the mechanism by which ISG15 exerts its antiviral function is not completely understood. Here, we report that ISG15 plays an important role in the regulation of macrophage responses. ISG152/2 macrophages display reduced activation, phagocytic capacity and programmed cell death activation in response to vaccinia virus (VACV) infection. Moreover, peritoneal macrophages from mice lacking ISG15 are neither able to phagocyte infected cells nor to block viral infection in co-culture experiments with VACV-infected murine embryonic fibroblast (MEFs). This phenotype is independent of cytokine production and secretion, but clearly correlates with impaired activation of the protein kinase AKT in ISG15 knock-out (KO) macrophages. Altogether, these results indicate an essential role of ISG15 in the cellular immune antiviral response and point out that a better understanding of the antiviral responses triggered by ISG15 may lead to the development of therapies against important human pathogensThis work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Health FIS2011-00127, Comunidad de Madrid UAM-CM-CCG10-4911 and UAM-Banco de Santander to SG. This work was also partly supported by NIAID grant U19AI083025 and by CRIP (Center for Research on Influenza Pathogenesis, HHSN266200700010C), a NIAID Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) to AGS. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscrip

Valorization of residues from refining of used vegetable oils

This study investigates the advantages of two-phase anaerobic digestion for treating a mixture (1/5 v/v) of used vegetable oils processing wastes and pig manure using two semi-continuous digesters operated at mesophilic temperature (37±1 ºC). The experiments were conducted at hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 days in the first stage (acidifier) and at HRT of 11.5, 15, 18 and 20 days in the second stage (methanizer). The results revealed that the HRT had a high influence on the soluble chemical oxygen demand (CODs) and total dissolved solids (TDS) removal. The maximum total CODs removal efficiency of 86.4% and TDS removal efficiency of 81.9% was achieved at 20 days of global HRT. The maximum biogas production of 0.65 m3 per kilogramme of volatile dissolved solids (VDS) removed (65% CH4) was also achieved at 20 days of HRT

Guía de gestión integrada de plagas: aguacate

Coordinadores: Ángel Martín Gil y Gregoria Aranda Aranda

Shorter telomere length is associated with COVID-19 hospitalization and with persistence of radiographic lung abnormalities

Background Age and comorbidity are the main determinants of COVID-19 outcome. Shorter leukocyte telomere length (TL), a hallmark of biological aging, has been associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes. We sought to determine TL in patients with severe COVID-19 requiring hospitalization to analyze whether clinical outcomes and post-COVID-19 manifestations are associated with shorter TL. Results We analyzed 251 patients with PCR-confirmed COVID-19, hospitalized in the first months of the pandemics. We determined TL in PBL at admission by quantitative-PCR (qPCR) analysis in patients. A healthy cohort from the same area with a similar age range (n = 169) was used to calculate TL Z-scores. After hospital discharge, 144 COVID-19 survivors were followed-up for persistent COVID-19 manifestations. A second TL determination was performed in a smaller group of 63 patients 1 year later and compared with baseline TL. Hospitalized COVID-19 patients had a decreased baseline age-adjusted TL Z-score compared to the reference group. No differences in Z-scores were observed in patients with different COVID-19 outcomes, classified as WHO ordinal scores. In 144 patients, followed for a median of 8 months, post-COVID manifestations were not associated to differences in TL. Persistence of lung radiographic abnormalities was associated with shorter baseline TL. In patients with a second TL determination, further telomere shortening (TS) was observed in 35% and telomere lengthening in 49%. Patients with further TS had suffered a more severe disease. Conclusion Shorter TL is associated with COVID-19 hospitalization but not with hospital clinical outcomes nor with persistent post-COVID-19 manifestations. Delayed resolution of radiographic lung abnormalities was also associated with shorter TL.This work was supported by a research grant from FOREUM Foundation for Research in Rheumatology. Authors also received financial support from Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI19/01129, COV20/00181, and RICOR RD21/0002) co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). MR.Peer reviewe

Guía de gestión integrada de plagas: mango

Coordinadores: Ángel Martín Gil y Gregoria Aranda Aranda

Immunogenicity of chimeric haemagglutinin-based, universal influenza virus vaccine candidates: interim results of a randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 1 clinical trial.

BackgroundInfluenza viruses cause substantial annual morbidity and mortality globally. Current vaccines protect against influenza only when well matched to the circulating strains. However, antigenic drift can cause considerable mismatches between vaccine and circulating strains, substantially reducing vaccine effectiveness. Moreover, current seasonal vaccines are ineffective against pandemic influenza, and production of a vaccine matched to a newly emerging virus strain takes months. Therefore, there is an unmet medical need for a broadly protective influenza virus vaccine. We aimed to test the ability of chimeric H1 haemagglutinin-based universal influenza virus vaccine candidates to induce broadly cross-reactive antibodies targeting the stalk domain of group 1 haemagglutinin-expressing influenza viruses.MethodsWe did a randomised, observer-blinded, phase 1 study in healthy adults in two centres in the USA. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three prime-boost, chimeric haemagglutinin-based vaccine regimens or one of two placebo groups. The vaccine regimens included a chimeric H8/1, intranasal, live-attenuated vaccine on day 1 followed by a non-adjuvanted, chimeric H5/1, intramuscular, inactivated vaccine on day 85; the same regimen but with the inactivated vaccine being adjuvanted with AS03; and an AS03-adjuvanted, chimeric H8/1, intramuscular, inactivated vaccine followed by an AS03-adjuvanted, chimeric H5/1, intramuscular, inactivated vaccine. In this planned interim analysis, the primary endpoints of reactogenicity and safety were assessed by blinded study group. We also assessed anti-H1 haemagglutinin stalk, anti-H2, anti-H9, and anti-H18 IgG antibody titres and plasmablast and memory B-cell responses in peripheral blood. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT03300050.FindingsBetween Oct 10, 2017, and Nov 27, 2017, 65 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned. The adjuvanted inactivated vaccine, but not the live-attenuated vaccine, induced a substantial serum IgG antibody response after the prime immunisation, with a seven times increase in anti-H1 stalk antibody titres on day 29. After boost immunisation, all vaccine regimens induced detectable anti-H1 stalk antibody (2·2-5·6 times induction over baseline), cross-reactive serum IgG antibody, and peripheral blood plasmablast responses. An unsolicited adverse event was reported for 29 (48%) of 61 participants. Solicited local adverse events were reported in 12 (48%) of 25 participants following prime vaccination with intramuscular study product or placebo, in 12 (33%) of 36 after prime immunisation with intranasal study product or placebo, and in 18 (32%) of 56 following booster doses of study product or placebo. Solicited systemic adverse events were reported in 14 (56%) of 25 after prime immunisation with intramuscular study product or placebo, in 22 (61%) of 36 after immunisation with intranasal study product or placebo, and in 21 (38%) of 56 after booster doses of study product or placebo. Disaggregated safety data were not available at the time of this interim analysis.InterpretationThe tested chimeric haemagglutinin-based, universal influenza virus vaccine regimens elicited cross-reactive serum IgG antibodies that targeted the conserved haemagglutinin stalk domain. This is the first proof-of-principle study to show that high anti-stalk titres can be induced by a rationally designed vaccine in humans and opens up avenues for further development of universal influenza virus vaccines. On the basis of the blinded study group, the vaccine regimens were tolerable and no safety concerns were observed.FundingBill & Melinda Gates Foundation