Patent collateral, investor commitment, and the market for venture lending

This paper investigates the market for lending to technology startups (i.e., venture lending) and examines two mechanisms that may facilitate trade within it: (1) the ‘salability’ of patent collateral; and (2) the credible commitment of existing equity investors. We find that intensified trading in the secondary patent market is strongly related to the annual rate of startup lending, particularly for startups with more redeployable patent assets. Moreover, we show that the credibility of venture capitalist commitments to reinvest in their startups’ next round of financing can be critical for startup debt provision. Utilizing the crash of 2000 as a severe and unexpected capital supply shock for VCs, we show that lenders continue to finance startups with recently funded investors better able to credibly commit to refinance their portfolio companies, but withdraw from otherwise-promising projects that may have needed their funds the most. The findings are consistent with predictions of incomplete contracting and financial intermediation theory.Accepted manuscrip

Diseño de un convertidor elevador continua-continua para aplicaciones fotovoltaicas

Este trabajo presenta el diseño de un convertidor elevador de corriente continua a corriente continua cuyo objetivo es alimentar la etapa de potencia de un inversor fotovoltaico de dos etapas. Para elevar la tensión se diseño, simuló y posteriormente se fabricó un transformador de alta frecuencia que es gobernado por cuatro transistores IGBT conectados en la topología puente completo. La señal de alta frecuencia se genera mediante un circuito integrado que emplea la técnica de modulación por ancho de pulso. Se presentan las ecuaciones utilizadas en el proyecto y las mediciones obtenidas en laboratorio. Se concluye que el objetivo se cumplió satisfactoriamente.Fil: Serrano, V.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Salta. Instituto de Investigaciones En Energía No Convencional; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Salta; ArgentinaFil: Villena, M.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Salta. Instituto de Investigaciones En Energía No Convencional; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Salta; ArgentinaFil: Cadena, Carlos Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Salta. Instituto de Investigaciones En Energía No Convencional; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Salta; Argentin

Monoclonal Antibodies for Asthma Management

Asthma is a multifactorial and complex disease, with different degrees of risks and severity, as well as the response to treatment. Medications currently available are most effective in severe asthma; nonetheless, there is a percentage of patients that have no response to the treatment that guidelines suggest in their recommendations. In the last years, there have been new insights in inflammatory molecules that contribute to asthma physiopathology and a lot of them have been considered to be possible targets in the management of severe asthma. As a consequence of this, a few monoclonal antibodies have been developed evidencing their effectiveness in the treatment of the disease. The study of these new therapies has allowed the identification of specific inflammatory pathways. This chapter intends to offer a critical perspective of the current guidelines for the management of severe asthma, as well as to discuss current treatments and the future on new molecules. Through an adequate characterization, different phenotypes will be recognized and associated with a determinate biomarker and should be used to select the treatment that can offer the highest efficiency in these patients. In this way, the treatment will be directed to a personalized medicine

Influencia de los defectos geométricos en la superficie de contacto de un disipador de calor, orientado a la asignación de sus tolerancias de fabricación

Comunicación presentada en el XXI Congreso Nacional de Ingeniería Mecánica, celebrado en Elche en Noviembre de 2016.Las desviaciones de la geometría real en los componentes fabricados respecto de la geometría ideal tratada durante el diseño provocan la aparición de anomalías durante el funcionamiento de componentes ensamblados, siendo necesario limitar estas desviaciones mediante una apropiada síntesis de tolerancias (su especificación y la asignación de sus valores) de modo que se garantice la funcionalidad. Esta síntesis de tolerancias se deberá llevar a cabo efectuando un estudio detallado de cómo las desviaciones de fabricación afectan a la función, y asignando valores de las tolerancias atendiendo a criterios de capacidad y de costes de fabricación. Sin embargo, las relaciones entre el valor de las tolerancias y la calidad de funcionamiento no están siempre claras, por lo que las tolerancias se especifican asignando valores "habituales" o recomendados. Este proceder es frecuente y lleva a que se establezcan, con gran frecuencia, esquemas inconsistentes de tolerancias, que conducen a asignar valores para las tolerancias excesivamente estrechos. Como consecuencia de todo ello las piezas resultan caras y el propio funcionamiento del conjunto puede incluso no quedar garantizado. En este trabajo se analiza un sistema compuesto por un circuito integrado (CI) y un disipador de calor sobre él montado, estudiando cómo influyen los errores de fabricación presentes en la superficie del disipador en la capacidad de transmisión de calor en la zona de contacto entre CI y disipador, siendo el requisito funcional la transmisión de una cantidad de calor Q definida bajo unas condiciones de contorno ambientales. Como resultado se obtendrán las ecuaciones funcionales que ligan el RF con la tipología y magnitud de los errores, particularizado para el caso concreto de los defectos de rugosidad superficial en la superficie del CI

Estudio de los factores de transmisión de la variabilidad dimensional en la fabricación de baldosas cerámicas

Comunicación presentada en el XXI Congreso Nacional de Ingeniería Mecánica, celebrado en Elche en Noviembre de 2016.Uno de los principales problemas en la fabricación de pavimento en la industria cerámica es la variabilidad dimensional tras la cocción del producto cerámico que ocasiona la clasificación del producto en diferentes calibres o calidades dimensionales. A pesar del conocimiento extenso del proceso de fabricación de las baldosas cerámicas, pocos son los trabajos que buscan analizar las interacciones entre las diferentes etapas del proceso para estimar la variación dimensional final del producto. Un análisis global del proceso permitiría realizar modificaciones de puntos de operación en ciertas etapas para minimizar la variabilidad, o estudiar en detalle las etapas críticas del proceso sobre las que implementar acciones de mejora. Este trabajo muestra un estudio del proceso global de fabricación de las baldosas cerámicas y la aplicación de la metodología Stream-of-Variation para el modelado de la propagación de errores entre las diferentes etapas del proceso.Este trabajo ha sido financiado por la Generalitat Valenciana en su programa de ayudas a proyectos de I+D para grupos emergentes convocatoria 2015, proyecto GV/2015/091

Serial Changes in Plasma Levels of Cytokines in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

Roberto H Heinisch1, Carlos R Zanetti1, Fabiano Comin1, Juliano L Fernandes2, José A Ramires2, Carlos V Serrano Jr21Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil; 2Heart Institute (InCor), University of São Paulo Medical School, São Paulo, BrazilObjectives: Inflammation is known to be a major determinant of the progression of coronary artery disease (CAD). In the present study we have evaluated the plasma levels of cytokines – tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF), interleukin-1α (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interferon-γ (IFN), and interleukin-10 (IL-10) – to examine the association between these cytokines and C-reactive protein (CRP) in patients with CAD.Methods: Patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS; n = 20) were compared with patients with stable angina (SA; n = 20) and with control volunteers (C; n = 20). Blood samples were collected at the time of admission from all patients and 15 and 30 days thereafter.Results: CRP levels (20.8 ± 8.8 mg/L) (mean ± SEM) were higher at baseline in ACS than SA patients (4.1 ± 0.8 mg/L) or the control subjects (5.1 ± 1.8 mg/L) (p < 0.05). At admission, IL-6 was detected in 50% of the ACS patients and 5% of the SA patients or control subjects, while TNF was detected in 35% of the ACS and SA patients but only in 5% of control subjects. Subsequently, IL-6 levels declined and were no longer detectable, while TNF levels increased among ACS patients at all time periods tested when compared with other patients. The presence of IL-1 and IL-10 were not detectable in the blood samples examined, and IFN could only be detected in the ACS group. A significant correlation was observed between IL-6 and CRP levels (r = 0.4; p < 0.01) in all groups. There were no correlations among any of the other cytokines and CRP levels.Conclusions: Our study demonstrates raised levels of TNF, IL6, IFN, and CRP in patients with ACS and a positive correlation between IL6 and CRP but not with the other cytokines. Keywords: cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, coronary artery diseas

Postmortem diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction in patients with acute respiratory failure - demographics, etiologic and pulmonary histologic analysis

OBJECTIVES: Acute respiratory failure is present in 5% of patients with acute myocardial infarction and is responsible for 20% to 30% of the fatal post-acute myocardial infarction. The role of inflammation associated with pulmonary edema as a cause of acute respiratory failure post-acute myocardial infarction remains to be determined. We aimed to describe the demographics, etiologic data and histological pulmonary findings obtained through autopsies of patients who died during the period from 1990 to 2008 due to acute respiratory failure with no diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction during life. METHODS: This study considers 4,223 autopsies of patients who died of acute respiratory failure that was not preceded by any particular diagnosis while they were alive. The diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction was given in 218 (4.63%) patients. The age, sex and major associated diseases were recorded for each patient. Pulmonary histopathology was categorized as follows: diffuse alveolar damage, pulmonary edema, alveolar hemorrhage and lymphoplasmacytic interstitial pneumonia. The odds ratio of acute myocardial infarction associated with specific histopathology was determined by logistic regression. RESULTS: In total, 147 men were included in the study. The mean age at the time of death was 64 years. Pulmonary histopathology revealed pulmonary edema as well as the presence of diffuse alveolar damage in 72.9% of patients. Bacterial bronchopneumonia was present in 11.9% of patients, systemic arterial hypertension in 10.1% and dilated cardiomyopathy in 6.9%. A multivariate analysis demonstrated a significant positive association between acute myocardial infarction with diffuse alveolar damage and pulmonary edema. CONCLUSIONS: For the first time, we demonstrated that in autopsies of patients with acute respiratory failure as the cause of death, 5% were diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction. Pulmonary histology revealed a significant inflammatory response, which has not previously been reported

Influence of different cooling techniques on the surface roughness in milling operations of carbon steels

Comunicació presentada al 22rd International Congress on Project Management and Engineering CIDIP 2018 (Madrid, 11-13 July 2018)In machining processes the use of coolants and lubricants in the cutting zone is critical to reduce cutting forces, facilitate the chip removal and improve the surface quality of the workpiece. However, the influence of different coolant/lubricant techniques on the surface finish depends on many factors, such as the geometry of the cutting tool, material of the workpiece, cutting conditions, and so on. This paper studies the effect of different lubrication techniques such as: internal coolant, external coolant, dry cutting, air coolant and MQL lubrication (Minimum Quantity Lubrication) on the surface finish and the advantages and disadvantages of these systems for milling carbon steels. The study fundamentally analyzes the variations in roughness due to the built-up edge (BUE) and the minimum chip thickness in relation to the type of lubrication / cooling used.En los procesos de mecanizado la refrigeración / lubricación de la zona de corte es fundamental para conseguir menores fuerzas de corte, facilitar el arranque de viruta y mejorar la calidad superficial de la pieza. Sin embargo, la influencia de las diferentes técnicas en el acabado superficial depende de muchos factores, como la geometría de la herramienta de corte, material de la pieza de trabajo, condiciones de corte, etc. En esta comunicación se estudia el efecto de diferentes técnicas de lubricación como: lubricación interna, externa, en seco, con aire y con MQL (Minimum Quantity Lubrication) sobre el acabado superficial y se presentan las ventajas e inconvenientes de estos sistemas para el fresado de aceros al carbono. El estudio analiza fundamentalmente las variaciones de rugosidad debidas al efecto de filo recrecido (Built-up Edge, BUE) y del espesor mínimo de viruta en relación con el tipo de lubricación / refrigeración emplead

Association between depression and development of coronary artery disease: pathophysiologic and diagnostic implications

Depression and coronary artery disease (CAD) are both extremely prevalent diseases. In addition, compromised quality of life and life expectancy are characteristics of both situations. There are several conditions that aggravate depression and facilitate the development of CAD, as well as provoke a worse prognosis in patients with already established CAD: inferior adherence to medical orientations (medications and life style modifications), greater platelet activation and aggregation, endothelial dysfunction, and impaired autonomic dysfunction (lowered heart rate variability). Recent literature has shown that depression alone is becoming an independent risk factor for cardiac events both in primary and secondary prevention. As the diagnosis of depression in patients with heart disease is difficult, due to similarities of symptoms, the health professional should perform a careful evaluation to differentiate the clinical signs of depression from those related with general heart diseases. After a myocardial infarction, depression is an independent risk factor for mortality. Successful therapy of depression has been shown to improve patients’ quality of life and cardiovascular outcome. However, multicentric clinical trials are needed to support this inference. A practical liaison between qualified professionals is necessary for the better management of depressed patients with excess risk in developing CAD. Accordingly, pathophysiological and clinical implications between depression and CAD are discussed in this article