Low cost digital fabrication approach for thumb orthoses

[EN] Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe a novel design workflow for the digital fabrication of custom- made orthoses (CMIO). It is intended to provide an easier process for clinical practitioners and orthotic technicians alike. It further functions to reduce the dependency of the operators' abilities and skills. Design/methodology/approach - The technical assessment covers low-cost three-dimensional (3D) scanning, free computer-aided design (CAD) software, and desktop 3D printing and acetone vapour finishing. To analyse its viability, a cost comparison was carried out between the proposed workflow and the traditional CMIO manufacture method. Findings - The results show that the proposed workflow is a technically feasible and cost-effective solution to improve upon the traditional process of design and manufacture of custom- made static trapeziometacarpal (TMC) orthoses. Further studies are needed for ensuring a clinically feasible approach and for estimating the efficacy of the method for the recovery process in patients. Social implications - The feasibility of the process increases the impact of the study, as the great accessibility to this type of 3D printers makes the digital fabrication method easier to be adopted by operators. Originality/value - Although some research has been conducted on digital fabrication of CMIO, few studies have investigated the use of desktop 3D printing in any systematic way. This study provides a first step in the exploration of a new design workflow using low-cost digital fabrication tools combined with non-manual finishing.Fernandez-Vicente, M.; Escario Chust, A.; Conejero Rodilla, A. (2017). Low cost digital fabrication approach for thumb orthoses. Rapid Prototyping Journal. 23(6):1020-1031. doi:10.1108/RPJ-12-2015-0187S1020103123

Bibliometric Studies on Rural Female Entrepreneurship: A Metabibliometric Review

Entrepreneurship as an important factor for economic development has also become a field of research to understand the causes, effects, successes, failures, characteristics, financing, and other aspects of entrepreneurship. One of the important aspects that studies on entrepreneurship must consider is a gender approach, from that perspective, the research aims to identify trends in research on female entrepreneurship in rural areas based on an analysis of bibliometric studies conducted in this field. A deductive, bibliographic, descriptive, and correlational method was used, and bibliometrics was used as an instrument. The data used were retrieved from three databases: Scopus, WOS, Google Scholar, to identify types, scope and trends of research and provide researchers with a scientific basis on the current situation. A total of 44 papers were considered as population and after using the PRISMA method and excluding studies not related to the research objective and duplicates with the Scopus database, a total of 30 articles were analyzed which constitute the total sample. VOSviewer and SPSS were used for the analysis. The search for documents in the three databases covered the period from 1960 to 2023. The results show, therefore, that bibliometric research on entrepreneurship has not yet addressed other topics beyond a generalization of female entrepreneurship, such as studies on entrepreneurship considering gender, rural geographic spaces, ICT, training, financing, effects, causes, successes, and failures. This allows us to detect that there is an ample scope for developing research not only at the case level, but also at the country level, because for example, in the case of Ecuador we were unable to identify bibliometric studies that analyses these different aspects with a gender focus and spatial intervention of the rural sphere on women's entrepreneurship. On the other hand, research is focused on showing results of female entrepreneurship in urban areas and very little or almost nothing in rural areas, mainly in Latin American countries. It is also observed that they have a recent trend, which would contribute to obtaining indicators and planning future research, as well as contributing to the definition of policies and knowing the discipline state and its progress

Time expansion in distributed optical fiber sensing

The work of MRFR and HFM was supported by the MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and European Union NextGenerationEU»/PRTR under grants RYC2021-032167-I and RYC2021- 035009-I. The work of MSA and VD was supported by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033 and the FSE invierte en tu futuro under grants PRE-2019- 087444 and RYC-2017-23668, respectively.Distributed optical fiber sensing (DOFS) technology has recently experienced an impressive growth in various fields including security, structural monitoring and seismology, among others. This expansion has been accompanied by a speedy development of the technology in the last couple of decades, reaching remarkable performance in terms of sensitivity, range, number of independent sensing points and affordable cost per monitored point as compared with competing technologies such as electrical or point optical sensors. Phase-sensitive Optical Time-Domain Reflectometry (ϕOTDR) is a particularly interesting DOFS technique, since it enables real-time monitoring of dynamic variations of physical parameters over a large number of sensing points. Compared to their frequency-domain counterparts (OFDR), ϕOTDR sensors typically provide higher dynamics and longer ranges but significantly worse spatial resolutions. Very recently, a novel ϕOTDR approach has been introduced, which covers an existing gap between the long range and fast response of ϕOTDR and the high spatial resolution of OFDR. This technique, termed time-expanded (TE) ϕOTDR, exploits an interferometric scheme that employs two mutually coherent optical frequency combs. In TE-ϕOTDR, a probe comb is launched into the fiber under test. The beating of the backscattered light and a suitable LO comb produces a multi-heterodyne detection process that compresses the spectrum of the probe comb, in turn expanding the detected optical traces in the time-domain. This approach has allowed sensing using ϕOTDR technology with very high resolution (in the cm scale), while requiring outstandingly low detection and acquisition bandwidths (sub-MHz). In this work, we review the fundamentals of TE-ϕOTDR technology and describe the recent developments, focusing on the attainable sensing performance, the existing trade-offs and open working lines of this novel sensing approach.Comunidad de MadridMinisterio de Ciencia e InnovaciónAgencia Estatal de InvestigaciónGeneralitat ValencianaUniversitat Jaume IEuropean Commissio

Inteligencia sostenible y artesanía digital

[ES] Para ciertos sectores, hay una opinión sobre la artesanía, donde la relación innovación/artesanía aparece como contradictoria intrínsecamente. El desarrollo de este segundo escenario parte de las variables estudiadas sobre el producto buscando esa innovación a través de criterios sostenibles, sinónimos de artesanía. Por otro lado, la actitud del artesano será entonces la de traspasar y/o eliminar la frontera emocional y material de la relación artesanía vs tecnología, entendiendo que las TIC, la red o el software no son un enemigo sino un gran aliado. En este tercer escenario las variables analizadas se han realizado sobre el producto y la influencia de las tecnologíasEsta investigación ha contado con el apoyo de la beca 2011 convocada por la Fundación Española para la Innovación de la Artesanía (Fundesarte)Martínez Torán, MB.; Toledo, C.; Fernandez-Vicente, M. (2012). Inteligencia sostenible y artesanía digital. Deforma Cultura Online. 1-5. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/70018S1

Biweekly cetuximab in combination with FOLFOX-4 in the first-line treatment of wild-type KRASmetastatic colorectal cancer: final results of a phase II, open-label, clinical trial (OPTIMIX-ACROSS Study)

Background: This phase II study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of biweekly cetuximab in combination with oxaliplatin, leucovorin, and fluorouracil (FOLFOX-4) as first-line treatment of metastatic wild-type KRAS colorectal cancer. Methods: Previously untreated patients with wild-type KRAS tumours received biweekly cetuximab (500 mg/m2 on day 1) plus FOLFOX-4 (oxaliplatin 85 mg/m2 on day 1, leucovorin 200 mg/m2 on days 1 and 2, and fluorouracil as a 400 mg/m2 bolus followed by a 22-hour 600 mg/m2 infusion on day 1 and 2). Treatment was continued until disease progression, onset of unacceptable toxicities, metastases surgery, or discontinuation request. The primary endpoint was ORR. Results: The intention-to-treat population included 99 patients with a median age of 64.1 years (range, 34-82). The ORR was 60.6% (95% CI, 50.3% to 70.3%). The median follow-up was 17.8 months; the median OS and PFS were 20.8 and 10.1 months, respectively. Metastases from colorectal cancer were surgically resected in 26 (26.3%) patients, with complete resection achieved in 18 (69.2%) patients. Median PFS and OS in patients undergoing metastatic resection were 12.6 and 29.5 months, respectively. The most common grade 3-4 toxicities were neutropenia (32.3%), acne-like rash (15.2%) and diarrhoea (11.1%). Conclusions: The efficacy of the biweekly combination of cetuximab with FOLFOX-4 in patients with wild-type KRAS tumours supports the administration of cetuximab in a dosing regimen more convenient for patients and healthcare providers. The activity of the biweekly administration is similar to what has been reported for the weekly regimen. Reported toxicity was also consistent with the known toxicity profile of weekly cetuximab. Trial registration: EudraCT Number 20080069091

Chitosan from Marine Amphipods Inhibits the Wilt Banana Pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Cubense Tropical Race 4

In this work, we extracted chitosan from marine amphipods associated with aquaculture facilities and tested its use in crop protection. The obtained chitosan was 2.5 ± 0.3% of initial ground amphipod dry weight. The chemical nature of chitosan from amphipod extracts was confirmed via Raman scattering spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). This chitosan showed an 85.7–84.3% deacetylation degree. Chitosan from biofouling amphipods at 1 mg·mL−1 virtually arrested conidia germination (ca. sixfold reduction from controls) of the banana wilt pathogenic fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp cubense Tropical Race 4 (FocTR4). This concentration reduced (ca. twofold) the conidia germination of the biocontrol fungus Pochonia chlamydosporia (Pc123). Chitosan from amphipods at low concentrations (0.01 mg·mL−1) still reduced FocTR4 germination but did not affect Pc123. This is the first time that chitosan is obtained from biofouling amphipods. This new chitosan valorizes aquaculture residues and has potential for biomanaging the diseases of food security crops such as bananas.This project was funded by PID2020-119734RB-I00 (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation), EU H2020 MUSA no. 727624, and AIRAM (Biodiversity Foundation, Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition, and the Demographic Challenge) projects

El diseño del modelo y prototipo. Herramientas para la comunicación y evaluación

En los proyectos de diseño y desarrollo de producto los modelos y prototipos físicos sirven como símbolos accesibles del futuro producto. Facilitan la definición de metas concretas y unifican a los equipos involucrados en todo el proceso. Tanto el diseño de las características como la elección de las técnicas empleadas en la fabricación de éstos depende de los diferentes aspectos del proyecto que vayan a ser evaluados . En el presente artículo se analiza a través de la literatura existente y la experiencia recogida en casos reales los criterios necesarios para la elección de la mejor de las opciones.Conejero Rodilla, A.; Martínez Torán, MB.; Ayala López, PJ.; Fernandez-Vicente, M. (2012). El diseño del modelo y prototipo. Herramientas para la comunicación y evaluación. Deforma Cultura Online. 1-7. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/70584S1

Targeting L-type amino acid transporter 1 in innate and adaptive T cells efficiently controls skin inflammation

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is a frequent inflammatory skin disease that is mainly mediated by IL-23, IL-1β, and IL-17 cytokines. Although psoriasis is a hyperproliferative skin disorder, the possible role of amino acid transporters has remained unexplored. OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate the role of the essential amino acid transporter L-type amino acid transporter (LAT) 1 (SLC7A5) in psoriasis. METHODS: LAT1 floxed mice were crossed to Cre-expressing mouse strains under the control of keratin 5, CD4, and retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor γ. We produced models of skin inflammation induced by imiquimod (IMQ) and IL-23 and tested the effect of inhibiting LAT1 (JPH203) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR [rapamycin]). RESULTS: LAT1 expression is increased in keratinocytes and skin-infiltrating lymphocytes of psoriatic lesions in human subjects and mice. LAT1 deletion in keratinocytes does not dampen the inflammatory response or their proliferation, which could be maintained by increased expression of the alternative amino acid transporters LAT2 and LAT3. Specific deletion of LAT1 in γδ and CD4 T cells controls the inflammatory response induced by IMQ. LAT1 deletion or inhibition blocks expansion of IL-17-secreting γ4+δ4+ and CD4 T cells and dampens the release of IL-1β, IL-17, and IL-22 in the IMQ-induced model. Moreover, inhibition of LAT1 blocks expansion of human γδ T cells and IL-17 secretion by human CD4 T cells. IL-23 and IL-1β stimulation upregulates LAT1 expression and induces mTOR activation in IL-17+ γδ and TH17 cells. Deletion or inhibition of LAT1 efficiently controls IL-23- and IL-1β-induced phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT/mTOR activation independent of T-cell receptor signaling. CONCLUSION: Targeting LAT1-mediated amino acid uptake is a potentially useful immunosuppressive strategy to control skin inflammation mediated by the IL-23/IL-1β/IL-17 axis.Funding This manuscript has been funded by grants SAF 2017-82886-R (FS-M) and SAF 2013-42850-R (MF) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness; CAM (S2017/BMD-3671-INFLAMUNE-CM) from the Comunidad de Madrid (FS-M); CIBERCV, BIOIMID PIE13/041 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III and Fundación La Marató TV3 (20152330 31). The project leading to these results has also received funding from FUNDACIÓN BBVA A EQUIPOS DE INVESTIGACIÓN CIENTÍFICA 2018 and from “la Caixa” Banking Foundation under the project code HR17-00016 (FS-M), and from Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional PI17/01972 (E.D).S

Osteoarticular Expression of Musashi-1 in an Experimental Model of Arthritis

Background. Collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), a murine experimental disease model induced by immunization with type II collagen (CII), is used to evaluate novel therapeutic strategies for rheumatoid arthritis. Adult stem cell marker Musashi-1 (Msi1) plays an important role in regulating the maintenance and differentiation of stem/precursor cells. The objectives of this investigation were to perform a morphological study of the experimental CIA model, evaluate the effect of TNFα-blocker (etanercept) treatment, and determine the immunohistochemical expression of Msi1 protein. Methods. CIA was induced in 50 male DBA1/J mice for analyses of tissue and serum cytokine; clinical and morphological lesions in limbs; and immunohistochemical expression of Msi1. Results. Clinically, TNFα-blocker treatment attenuated CIA on day 32 after immunization (). Msi1 protein expression was significantly higher in joints damaged by CIA than in those with no lesions () and was related to the severity of the lesions (Spearman’s rho = 0.775, ). Conclusions. Treatment with etanercept attenuates osteoarticular lesions in the murine CIA model. Osteoarticular expression of Msi1 protein is increased in joints with CIA-induced lesion and absent in nonlesioned joints, suggesting that this protein is expressed when the lesion is produced in order to favor tissue repair.This investigation was partially supported by Research Group #CTS-138 (Junta de Andalucía, Spain)