Desarrollo de Materiales para Aplicaciones Marítimas, Fluviales y Militares

A platform to design composite materials of a polymeric matrix, that are specifically for military applications on fluvial and naval navigation, has been developed using energy dissipation and storage mechanisms. Our composites are designed to generate synergy between the dissipation capacities of ceramics and high-performance fibers, which are used as the reinforced material in the lightweight laminates. The composite design is combined with processing tools and advanced characterization techniques that result in laminates with reliability, traceability and quality. The platform begins with the identification of energy dissipation mechanisms and the detailed characterization of the polymeric resin. It includes the Time – Temperature – Transformation Diagram (TTT- Diagram) that supplies the optimal processing conditions. Our designs open new paths for military applications including a wide spectrum of protective systems together with geometric versatility, high mechanical resistance and reliabilityUtilizando los múltiples mecanismos de disipación de la energía de impacto a alta velocidad, hemos desarrollado una plataforma de diseño de materiales compuestos de matriz polimérica, especiales para aplicaciones militares en navegación fluvial y marítima.  Nuestros compuestos pretenden hacer sinergia entre las capacidades de disipación de cerámicos y fibras de alto desempeño, los cuales son utilizados como los elementos de refuerzo en los laminados de bajo peso.  El diseño del material es combinado con herramientas de procesamiento y técnicas avanzadas de caracterización que resultan en laminados consistentes de alta repetibilidad, trazabilidad y alta calidad.  La plataforma parte de la identificación de los mecanismos de disipación y de una caracterización detallada de la resina polimérica, el cual incluye un diagrama de Tiempo-Temperatura-Transformación que provee las condiciones óptimas de procesamiento.  Nuestros diseños abren rutas novedosas para aplicaciones militares, los cuales incluyen amplios portafolios de protección, versatilidad geométrica, resistencia mecánica y confiabilida

Mathematical Modeling and Pilot Test Validation of Nanoparticles Injection in Heavy Hydrocarbon Reservoirs

Heavy-oil mobility in reservoir rocks can be improved, using nanotechnology, by reducing the viscosity of the oil and improving the rock wettability to a water-wet condition. Previous pilot studies in Colombian heavy oil fields reported that nanoparticles dispersed in an oleic carrier fluid (diesel) increased oil production rates between 120–150% higher than before the interventions. However, to optimally deploy a massive nanofluid intervention campaign in heavy oil fields, it is valuable to implement simulation tools that can help to understand the role of operational parameters, to design the operations and to monitor the performance. The simulator must account for nanoparticle transport, transfer, and retention dynamics, as well as their impact on viscosity reduction and wettability restoration. In this paper, we developed and solved, numerically, a 3D mathematical model describing the multiphase flow and interaction of the nanoparticles with oil, brine, and rock surface, leading to viscosity reduction and wettability restoration. The model is based on a multiphase pseudo-compositional formulation, coupled with mass balance equations, of nanoparticles dispersed in water, nanoparticles dispersed in oil, and nanoparticles retained on the rock surface. We simulated a pilot test study of a nanofluid stimulation done in a Colombian heavy oil field. The injection, soaking, and production stages were simulated using a 3D single-well formulation of the mathematical model. The comparison of simulation results with the pilot test results shows that the model reproduced the field observations before and after the stimulation. Simulations showed that viscosity reduction during the post-stimulation period is strongly related to the detachment rate of nanoparticles. Simulation indicates that the recovery mechanism of the nanofluid stimulation is initially governed by viscosity reduction and wettability alteration. At latter times, wettability alteration is the main recovery mechanism. The nanoparticles transferred to the residual water promote the wettability alteration to a water wet condition. The model can be used to design field deployments of nanofluid interventions in heavy oil reservoirs

Transcriptional dissection of pancreatic tumors engrafted in mice.

BACKGROUND: Engraftment of primary pancreas ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) in mice to generate patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models is a promising platform for biological and therapeutic studies in this disease. However, these models are still incompletely characterized. Here, we measured the impact of the murine tumor environment on the gene expression of the engrafted human tumoral cells. METHODS: We have analyzed gene expression profiles from 35 new PDX models and compared them with previously published microarray data of 18 PDX models, 53 primary tumors and 41 cell lines from PDAC. The results obtained in the PDAC system were further compared with public available microarray data from 42 PDX models, 108 primary tumors and 32 cell lines from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We developed a robust analysis protocol to explore the gene expression space. In addition, we completed the analysis with a functional characterization of PDX models, including if changes were caused by murine environment or by serial passing. RESULTS: Our results showed that PDX models derived from PDAC, or HCC, were clearly different to the cell lines derived from the same cancer tissues. Indeed, PDAC- and HCC-derived cell lines are indistinguishable from each other based on their gene expression profiles. In contrast, the transcriptomes of PDAC and HCC PDX models can be separated into two different groups that share some partial similarity with their corresponding original primary tumors. Our results point to the lack of human stromal involvement in PDXs as a major factor contributing to their differences from the original primary tumors. The main functional differences between pancreatic PDX models and human PDAC are the lower expression of genes involved in pathways related to extracellular matrix and hemostasis and the up- regulation of cell cycle genes. Importantly, most of these differences are detected in the first passages after the tumor engraftment. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that PDX models of PDAC and HCC retain, to some extent, a gene expression memory of the original primary tumors, while this pattern is not detected in conventional cancer cell lines. Expression changes in PDXs are mainly related to pathways reflecting the lack of human infiltrating cells and the adaptation to a new environment. We also provide evidence of the stability of gene expression patterns over subsequent passages, indicating early phases of the adaptation process

Selección de características 2D en representaciones tiempo frecuencia para la detección de soplos cardíacos

En el presente trabajo se propone una metodología para la reducción de dimensión en representaciones tiempo frecuencia (TFRs) enfocada a la clasificación de bioseñales no estacionarias, que trata directamente su cantidad de datos irrelevantes y redundantes, combinando una etapa de selección de características con una etapa de reducción de dimensión por medio de métodos de descomposición lineal extendidos a datos bidimensionales. La metodología se prueba sobre un conjunto de TFRs paramétricas calculadas sobre una base de datos de señales fonocardiográficas (FCG) para la detección de soplos cardiacos. Los resultados muestran una mejora comparados con otras metodologías que no tienen en cuenta la presencia de datos irrelevantes y redundantes en las representaciones, además, el uso de las metodologías de descomposición lineal bidimensionales reducen adecuadamente la redundancia de las TFRs, obteniendo un nuevo conjunto de características 2D de menor dimensión que el conjunto inicial.In this paper is proposed a methodology for dimensionality reduction of time-frequency representations (TFRs) aimed to nonstationary biosignal classification that deals directly with large quantity of irrelevant and redundant data, combining a stage of feature selection with a stage of dimensionality reduction by linear decomposition methods extended to bidimensional data. The methodology is tested on a set of parametric TFRs computed from a phonocardiographic signal database (PCG) for detection of heart murmurs. Results show an improvement compared with other methodologies that do not account for irrelevant and redundant data in these representations and demonstrate that the use of bidimensional linear decomposition methods adequately reduce redundancy on TFRs, obtaining a new feature set of lower dimension than the original dataset

Plan de exportación de tequila a España, Colombia, Japón y China para Tequila Derechito

Durante este proyecto se realizó un plan de exportación de tequila a 4 distintos países, Japón, España, China y Colombia. Primeramente se realizó la investigación de mercado de todos los países en donde se indagó en temas como tamaño de mercado, competencia, canales de distribución, precios de venta y por último, protocolos de negociación. Principalmente la metodología que se utilizó fue reuniones diarias en donde todos los miembros del equipo comparaban y discutían sobre lo recabado para así determinar la información importante y como sería presentada. La mayor parte de la información recabada fue extraída de Passport Euromonitor, esta es una herramienta muy valiosa con costo la cual pudimos extraer bastante información de investigaciones de mercado de bebidas espirituosas en cada uno de los países, así como hojas de Excel con información sumamente valiosa sobre valores de productos y canales de distribución. Posteriormente se investigó las regulaciones arancelarias y no arancelarias únicamente de Japón, Colombia y China. La metodología para esta sección fue básicamente la misma, reuniones grupales en donde se discutirá y analizará la información recabada. Tanto para las regulaciones arancelarias y no arancelarias, se decidió visitar al CRT (Consejo Regulador del Tequila) para poder obtener mayor información de los requerimientos arancelarios y no arancelarios en origen como en destino. Principalmente los mercados más viables para la exportación de tequila son Japón y Colombia principalmente, ya que tanto en la investigación de mercado y ventajas en regulaciones arancelarias fueron los países donde se encontraron mayores ventajas e indicadores favorables para poder asignar un lugar a cada uno de ellos.ITESO, A.C

EcID. A database for the inference of functional interactions in E. coli

The EcID database (Escherichia coli Interaction Database) provides a framework for the integration of information on functional interactions extracted from the following sources: EcoCyc (metabolic pathways, protein complexes and regulatory information), KEGG (metabolic pathways), MINT and IntAct (protein interactions). It also includes information on protein complexes from the two E. coli high-throughput pull-down experiments and potential interactions extracted from the literature using the web services associated to the iHOP text-mining system. Additionally, EcID incorporates results of various prediction methods, including two protein interaction prediction methods based on genomic information (Phylogenetic Profiles and Gene Neighbourhoods) and three methods based on the analysis of co-evolution (Mirror Tree, In Silico 2 Hybrid and Context Mirror). EcID associates to each prediction a specifically developed confidence score. The two main features that make EcID different from other systems are the combination of co-evolution-based predictions with the experimental data, and the introduction of E. coli-specific information, such as gene regulation information from EcoCyc. The possibilities offered by the combination of the EcID database information are illustrated with a prediction of potential functions for a group of poorly characterized genes related to yeaG. EcID is available online at http://ecid.bioinfo.cnio.es

Evaluación del cocimiento de diferentes biovariedades de Caesalpinia spinosa (tara) frente a cepas de Staphylococcus aureus sensibles y resistentes a oxacilina

Objetivos: Comprobar la actividad antimicrobiana de tres biovariedades de tara frente a cepas de Staphylococcus aureus sensibles y resistentes a oxacilina. Diseño: Es un estudio descriptivo prospectivo analítico. institución: Instituto de Medicina Tropical Daniel A. Carrión, Facultad de Medicina, UNMSM. Material biológico: Se evaluó 31 cepas S. aureus oxacilina sensibles y 29 resistentes, aisladas de muestras clínicas, frente a tres cocimientos de tara de las zonas de Huamanga, Huarochirí y Tarma. Intervenciones: Se preparó el cocimiento de tara y se impregnó discos en blanco para utilizarlos como un antibiograma por disco difusión. Principales medidas de resultados: Diámetro de los halos de inhibición. Resultados: Los tres cocimientos presentaron actividad antimicrobiana frente a las cepas de Staphylococcus aureus; el cocimiento de Huamanga tuvo mayor halo de inhibición frente a cepas sensibles y resistentes. El cocimiento de Huarochirí mostró mayor halo de inhibición en cepas oxacilino resistentes que las sensibles; la diferencia fue significativa. El cocimiento de Huarochiri presentó una actividad menor y significativa frente a los cocimientos de Huamanga y Tarma. Conclusiones: El cocimiento de Huarochirí presentó menor actividad que los de Huamanga y Tarma

EcID. A database for the inference of functional interactions in E. coli

The EcID database (Escherichia coli Interaction Database) provides a framework for the integration of information on functional interactions extracted from the following sources: EcoCyc (metabolic pathways, protein complexes and regulatory information), KEGG (metabolic pathways), MINT and IntAct (protein interactions). It also includes information on protein complexes from the two E. coli high-throughput pull-down experiments and potential interactions extracted from the literature using the web services associated to the iHOP text-mining system. Additionally, EcID incorporates results of various prediction methods, including two protein interaction prediction methods based on genomic information (Phylogenetic Profiles and Gene Neighbourhoods) and three methods based on the analysis of co-evolution (Mirror Tree, In Silico 2 Hybrid and Context Mirror). EcID associates to each prediction a specifically developed confidence score. The two main features that make EcID different from other systems are the combination of co-evolution-based predictions with the experimental data, and the introduction of E. coli-specific information, such as gene regulation information from EcoCyc. The possibilities offered by the combination of the EcID database information are illustrated with a prediction of potential functions for a group of poorly characterized genes related to yeaG. EcID is available online at http://ecid.bioinfo.cnio.es

Understanding the complex geomorphology of a deep sea area affected by continental tectonic indentation: the case of the Gulf of Vera (Western Mediterranean)

We present a multidisciplinary study of morphology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, tectonic structure, and physical oceanography to report that the complex geomorphology of the Palomares continental margin and adjacent Algerian abyssal plain (i.e., Gulf of Vera, Western Mediterranean), is the result of the sedimentary response to the Aguilas Arc continental tectonic indentation in the Eurasian–Africa plate collision. The inden tation is imprinted on the basement of the margin with elongated metamorphic antiforms that are pierced by igneous bodies, and synforms that accommodate the deformation and create a complex physiography. The basement is partially covered by Upper Miocene deposits sealed by the regional Messinian Erosive Surface characterized by palaeocanyons that carve the modern margin. These deposits and outcropping basement highs are then covered and shaped by Plio-Quaternary contourites formed under the action of the Light Intermediate and Dense Deep Mediterranean bottom currents. Even though bottom currents are responsible for the primary sedimentation that shapes the margin, 97% of this region's seafloor is affected by mass-movements that modified contourite sediments by eroding, deforming, faulting, sliding, and depositing sediments. Mass-movement processes have resulted in the formation of recurrent mass-flow deposits, an enlargement of the submarine canyons and gully incisions, and basin-scale gravitational slides spreading above the Messinian Salinity Crisis salt layer. The Polopo, Aguilas and Gata slides are characterized by an extensional upslope domain that shapes the continental margin, and by a downslope contractional domain that shapes the abyssal plain with diapirs piercing (hemi)pelagites/sheet-like turbidites creating a seafloor dotted by numerous crests. The mass movements were mostly triggered by the interplay of the continental tectonic indentation of the Aguilas Arc with sedimentological factors over time. The indentation, which involves the progressively southeastward tectonic tilting of the whole land-sea region, likely generated a quasi-continuous oversteepening of the entire margin, thus reducing the stability of the contourites. In addition, tectonic tilting and subsidence of the abyssal plain favoured the flow of the underlying Messinian Salinity Crisis salt layer, contributing to the gravitational instability of the overlying sediments over large areas of the margin and abyssal plain