Guía para la aplicación de las normas ISO 9001:2015 e ISO 14001:2015 a las empresas constructoras

Dado la publicación de las nuevas normativas de ISO 9001:2015 e ISO 14001:2015, la intención de este trabajo es elaborar guía de aplicación de ambas normativas. El presente consta de tres partes esenciales: 1) Primera: interpretación de los criterios de ISO 9001:2015 Sistema de gestión de calidad aplicando sus requisitos a empresas del sector de la construcción. Para poder acreditar la tercera lengua, esta parte está redactada en inglés 2) Segunda: interpretación de los criterios de ISO 14001:2015 Sistema de gestión de medio ambiental aplicando sus requisitos a empresas del sector de la construcción. Para que la lectura de esta guía sea más comprensible y fácil a los lectores, se ha querido introducir el texto de las normativas. El texto de estas dos guías está distribuido siguiendo el orden de los apartados que se estructura dichas normas. El trabajo que corresponde a la interpretación de las normativas, las páginas pares muestran el texto de la norma, mientras que las impares presentan la guía interpretativa de dicha norma (véase fig 1). Por tanto, la lectura de las páginas pares y de las impares debe efectuarse independiente, aunque de forma paralela. La parte restante del trabajo sigue una estructura normal de lectura. 3) Y la tercera: los anexos del trabajo. El primer Anexo I se trata de aspectos ambientales más comunes en las empresas constructoras. Anexo II. Ejemplo de aplicación de sistema de calidad a una empresa constructora y Anexo III. Ejemplo de aplicación del sistema de gestión ambiental a una empresa constructora. Son ejemplos de aplicación de los dos sistemas a una empresa de construcción (no real), que reflectarán los conocimientos adquiridos por presente trabajo. Anexo II está en inglés, por la misma causa que la guía de ISO 9001

Naringenin Modifies the Development of Lineage-Specific Effector CD4+ T Cells

Disrupted balance in the lineages of CD4+ T cell subsets, including pro-inflammatory T helper (Th) cells and anti-inflammatory regulatory T cells (Treg), is a primary pathogenic factor for developing autoimmunity. We have found that this immunomodulatory effect of naringenin on effector T cells and T-cell mediated experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). We therefore explored the effects of naringenin on the development of different effector CD4+ T cells. Naïve CD4+ T cells were differentiated under respective Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg polarizing conditions with naringenin. Percent populations of each differentiated CD4+ T cell subsets were determined and the corresponding regulating pathways were investigated as underlying mechanisms. Naringenin mainly inhibited CD4+ T cell proliferation and differentiation to Th1 and Th17, but did not affect Th2 cells. Impeded Th1 polarization was associated with inhibition of its specific regulator proteins T-bet, p-STAT1, and p-STAT4 by naringenin. Likewise, Th17 regulator proteins RORγt, p-STAT3, and Ac-STAT3 were also inhibited by naringenin. In addition, naringenin promoted Treg polarization and also prevented IL-6-induced suppression of Treg development via down-regulation of p-Smad2/3 as well as inhibition of IL-6 signaling, and the latter was further supported by the in vivo results showing lower soluble IL-6R but higher soluble gp130 levels in plasma of naringenin-fed compared to the control EAE mice. Naringenin impacts CD4+ T cell differentiation in a manner that would explain its beneficial effect in preventing/mitigating T cell-mediated autoimmunity

Phosphatidylethanolamine binding protein 1 enhances sensitivity of gastric cancer cell to 5-fluorouracil via inhibition of cell proliferation, migration and invasion

Purpose: To determine the association between phosphatidylethanolamine binding protein 1, which is an Raf kinase inhibitor protein (RKIP), and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) via analysis of the association between RKIP and clinical responses in individuals treated using fluorouracil-based chemotherapy.Methods: Human gastric cancer cell lines MGC-803 and SGC-7901 were used in this study. Cell viability was measured using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Apoptosis and migration were determined with flow cytometry and Transwell chamber assays, respectively. The mRNA and protein expressions of apoptosis-related factors were assayed using realtime polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting, respectively, while the expression of RKIP was determined by immunohistochemical staining.Results: Chemotherapeutic drug (5-FU) treatment induced low RKIP expression levels in tumorigenic GC cells, thereby sensitizing the cells to apoptosis (8.57 vs 1.25 %, p < 0.01). The highest RKIP level correlated well with initiation of apoptosis (4.20 vs 1.25 %, p < 0.01). Following in vitro downregulation of RKIP, there was increase in the viability and proliferation of RKIP-inhibited cells over time, and these changes were linked to alterations in cell cycle phases and increased optical density in MTT proliferation assay (1.55 vs 1.18, p < 0.01). In vitro Transwell assay measurement revealed an association between RKIP downregulation and enhancement of cell migration potential (652 vs 436, p < 0.01). Ectopic RKIP expression restored the apoptotic sensitivity of resistant cells (14.30 vs 1.36 %, p <0.01). This sensitization was annulled by upregulation of survival routes. Reduction of RKIP by expression of antisense and siRNA conferred resistance on cancer cells sensitive to 5-FU-mediated apoptosis (6.88 vs 2.13 %, p < 0.01).Conclusion: Thus, RKIP is a promising therapeutic strategy for improving the efficacy of clinically relevant chemotherapeutic drugs for GC. Keywords: Gastric cancer, Raf kinase inhibitor protein, Cell proliferation, Invasion, Apoptosis, Chemotherapy,  Phosphatidylethanolamine binding protein

Urinary paraquat concentration and white blood cell count as prognostic factors in paraquat poisoning

Purpose: To investigate the effect of white blood cell (WBC) and urinary paraquat (PQ) levels on prognostic factors in patients exposed to PQ intoxication using multivariate logistic regression analysis.Methods: A total of 104 subjects intoxicated with PQ between December 2015 and July 2016 were used in this retrospective study. They comprised patients who survived (n = 78), and patients who died (n = 26). Clinical features and prognostic parameters were analyzed in both groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to establish a prognostic correlation model based on results from single factor variables.Results: Comparison of demographic and clinical attributes between the two groups, survivors (n = 78) and non-survivors (n = 26), revealed that those who survived were not as old (33.3 ± 9.9 years) as nonsurvivors (41.5 ± 12.9 years). In addition, on admission, it was found that the survivors ingested lower amounts of PQ (31.6 ± 13.8 ml) than non-survivors (67.88 ± 31.2 ml). There were significant differences between the two groups with respect to WBC, neutrophils, lymphocytes, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine kinase (CK), amylase, uric acid (UA), pH, partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2), base excess (BE), lactic acid, and D-dimer levels (p < 0.05).Conclusion: WBC and urine PQ concentration have strong correlation with prognostic factors in PQ poisoning.Keywords: Paraquat intoxication, Dithionite test, Multivariate logistic analysis, Prognosis, Predictor

AB-GRU: An attention-based bidirectional GRU model for multimodal sentiment fusion and analysis

Multimodal sentiment analysis is an important area of artificial intelligence. It integrates multiple modalities such as text, audio, video and image into a compact multimodal representation and obtains sentiment information from them. In this paper, we improve two modules, i.e., feature extraction and feature fusion, to enhance multimodal sentiment analysis and finally propose an attention-based two-layer bidirectional GRU (AB-GRU, gated recurrent unit) multimodal sentiment analysis method. For the feature extraction module, we use a two-layer bidirectional GRU network and connect two layers of attention mechanisms to enhance the extraction of important information. The feature fusion part uses low-rank multimodal fusion, which can reduce the multimodal data dimensionality and improve the computational rate and accuracy. The experimental results demonstrate that the AB-GRU model can achieve 80.9% accuracy on the CMU-MOSI dataset, which exceeds the same model type by at least 2.5%. The AB-GRU model also possesses a strong generalization capability and solid robustness

Spatio-temporal variations and influencing factors of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in atmospheric bulk deposition along a plain-mountain transect in western China

Ten atmospheric bulk deposition (the sum of wet and dry deposition) samplers for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were deployed at a plain-mountain transect (namely PMT transect, from Daying to Qingping) in Chengdu Plain, West China from June 2007 to June 2008 in four consecutive seasons (about every three months). The bulk deposition fluxes of ∑15-PAHs ranged from 169.19 μg m−2 yr−1 to 978.58 μg m−2 yr−1 with geometric mean of 354.22 μg m−2 yr−1. The most prevalent PAHs were 4-ring (39.65%) and 3-ring (35.56%) PAHs. The flux values were comparable to those in rural areas. Higher fluxes of total PAHs were observed in the middle of PMT transect (SL, YX and JY, which were more urbanized than other sites). The seasonal deposition fluxes in the sampling profile indicated seasonality of the contaminant source was an important factor in controlling deposition fluxes. PAHs bulk deposition was negatively correlated with meteorological parameters (temperature, wind speed, humidity, and precipitation). No significant correlations between soil concentrations and atmospheric deposition were found along this transect. PAHs in soil samples had combined sources of coal, wood and petroleum combustion, while a simple source of coal, wood and grass combustion for bulk deposition. There were significant positive correlation relationship (p < 0.05) between annual atmospheric bulk deposition and local PAHs emission, with biomass burning as the major contribution to the total emission of PAHs. This transect acts as an important PAHs source rather than being a sink according to the ratio of deposition/emission. Mountain cold trap effect existed in this transect where the altitude was higher than 1000 m. Long-range transport had an impact on the bulk deposition in summer. And this transect was a source to Tibetan only in summer. The forward trajectory analysis showed most air masses did not undergo long-range transport due to the blocking effect of surrounding mountains. Only a few air masses (<10%) arrived at the eastern and northern region of China or farther regions via long-range transport

An Evaluation Framework for Engineering Design Projects for Gender Bias, Domain Relatedness, and Ambiguity: Development

Engineering design learning is one of the key components for an engineering degree; thus engineering design projects are commonly included in engineering curricula to help students cultivate design thinking and creative problem-solving skills. However, an engineering design project is prone to the following issues if it is not appropriately provided to engineering students. First, gender bias can occur when the design project is perceived to be more skewed to one gender in comparison to the other. Second, domain bias can occur when the discipline of the design project is not related to the chosen major and interest areas of a student. Third, ambiguity can arise from the lack of clarity on design objectives and the scope. These issues can lead to diminished engagement and self-efficacy for engineering students. In order to tackle these issues, this study performs a preliminary work to build a framework that appropriately assesses engineering design projects. The evaluation framework is based on a measurement system that helps educators to evaluate the appropriateness of the design projects through designated questionnaires. The framework for design projects proposed in this study would help engineering educators to better prepare and revise their design projects, so that the engineering design projects can improve student engagement and learning performance

Administration of Downstream ApoE Attenuates the Adverse Effect of Brain ABCA1 Deficiency on Stroke

The ATP-binding cassette transporter member A1 (ABCA1) and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) are major cholesterol transporters that play important roles in cholesterol homeostasis in the brain. Previous research demonstrated that specific deletion of brain-ABCA1 (ABCA1-B/-B) reduced brain grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) density in the ischemic brain and decreased functional outcomes after stroke. However, the downstream molecular mechanism underlying brain ABCA1-deficiency-induced deficits after stroke is not fully understood. Adult male ABCA1-B/-B and ABCA1-floxed control mice were subjected to distal middle-cerebral artery occlusion and were intraventricularly infused with artificial mouse cerebrospinal fluid as vehicle control or recombinant human ApoE2 into the ischemic brain starting 24 h after stroke for 14 days. The ApoE/apolipoprotein E receptor 2 (ApoER2)/high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels and GM/WM remodeling and functional outcome were measured. Although ApoE2 increased brain ApoE/HDL levels and GM/WM density, negligible functional improvement was observed in ABCA1-floxed-stroke mice. ApoE2-administered ABCA1-B/-Bstroke mice exhibited elevated levels of brain ApoE/ApoER2/HDL, increased GM/WM density, and neurogenesis in both the ischemic ipsilateral and contralateral brain, as well as improved neurological function compared with the vehicle-control ABCA1-B/-B stroke mice 14 days after stroke. Ischemic lesion volume was not significantly different between the two groups. In vitro supplementation of ApoE2 into primary cortical neurons and primary oligodendrocyte-progenitor cells (OPCs) significantly increased ApoER2 expression and enhanced cholesterol uptake. ApoE2 promoted neurite outgrowth after oxygen-glucose deprivation and axonal outgrowth of neurons, and increased proliferation/survival of OPCs derived from ABCA1-B/-B mice. Our data indicate that administration of ApoE2 minimizes the adverse effects of ABCA1 deficiency after stroke, at least partially by promoting cholesterol traffic/redistribution and GM/WM remodeling via increasing the ApoE/HDL/ApoER2 signaling pathway