A Practical Example for Model-Driven Web Requirements

The number of approaches for Web environments has grown very fast in the last years: HDM, OOHDM, and WSDM were among the first, and now a large number can be found in the literature. With the definition of MDA (Model- Driven Architecture) and the acceptance of MDE (Model-Driven Engineering) techniques in this environment, some groups are working in the use of metamodels and transformations to make their approaches more powerful. UWE (UMLBased Web Engineering) or OOWS (Object-Oriented Web Solutions) are only some examples. However, there are few real experiences with Web Engineering in the enterprise environment, and very few real applications of metamodels and MDE techniques. In this chapter the practical experience of a Web Engineering approach, NDT, in a big project developed in Andalusia is presented. Besides, it shows the usability of metamodels in real environments

Ballistic Localization in Quasi-1D Waveguides with Rough Surfaces

Structure of eigenstates in a periodic quasi-1D waveguide with a rough surface is studied both analytically and numerically. We have found a large number of "regular" eigenstates for any high energy. They result in a very slow convergence to the classical limit in which the eigenstates are expected to be completely ergodic. As a consequence, localization properties of eigenstates originated from unperturbed transverse channels with low indexes, are strongly localized (delocalized) in the momentum (coordinate) representation. These eigenstates were found to have a quite unexpeted form that manifests a kind of "repulsion" from the rough surface. Our results indicate that standard statistical approaches for ballistic localization in such waveguides seem to be unappropriate.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Local and average fields inside surface-disordered waveguides: Resonances in the one-dimensional Anderson localization regime

We investigate the one-dimensional propagation of waves in the Anderson localization regime, for a single-mode, surface disordered waveguide. We make use of both an analytical formulation and rigorous numerical simulation calculations. The occurrence of anomalously large transmission coefficients for given realizations and/or frequencies is studied, revealing huge field intensity concentration inside the disordered waveguide. The analytically predicted s-like dependence of the average intensity, being in good agreement with the numerical results for moderately long systems, fails to explain the intensity distribution observed deep in the localized regime. The average contribution to the field intensity from the resonances that are above a threshold transmission coefficient $T_{c}$ is a broad distribution with a large maximum at/near mid-waveguide, depending universally (for given $T_{c}$) on the ratio of the length of the disorder segment to the localization length, $L/\xi$. The same universality is observed in the spatial distribution of the intensity inside typical (non-resonant with respect to the transmission coefficient) realizations, presenting a s-like shape similar to that of the total average intensity for $T_{c}$ close to 1, which decays faster the lower is $T_{c}$. Evidence is given of the self-averaging nature of the random quantity $\log[I(x)]/x\simeq -1/\xi$. Higher-order moments of the intensity are also shown.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Experimental and theoretical investigations on a CVD grown thin film of polymeric carbon nitride and its structure

A polymeric carbon nitride thin film has been grown using chemical vapor deposition. The characterization of the material shows that it has the same molecular composition as a formerly synthesized graphitic carbon nitride powder but both substances differ widely in their structural organization. In particular, our analyses reveal a paradoxical character in which the thin film sample exhibits simultaneously a high degree of organization in the stacking of the polymer sheets with strong inter-layer interactions, as expected from the growth technique, and a complete lack of crystallinity. A comprehensive theoretical study based on massive semi-empirical quantum chemistry computations has permitted to explain the properties of the material and to elucidate fundamental issues regarding the structural conformation of graphitic carbon nitride

Photocatalytic activity of a new composite material of Fe (III) oxide nanoparticles wrapped by a matrix of polymeric carbon nitride and amorphous carbon

Polymeric carbon nitride was synthesized from urea and doped with Cu and Fe to act as co-catalysts. The material doped with Fe was a new composite material composed of Fe(III) oxides (acting as a co-catalyst) wrapped by the polymer layers and amorphous carbon. Furthermore, the copper doped material was described in a previous report. The photocatalytic degradation of the azo dye direct blue 1 (DB) was studied using as photocatalysts: pure carbon nitride (CN), carbon nitride doped with Cu (CN-Cu) and carbon nitride doped with Fe (CN-Fe). The catalysts were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method (BET), etc. The adsorption phenomenon was studied using the Langmuir and Freundlich models. For the kinetic study, a solution of 500 mg L-1 of DB1 was treated with each catalyst, visible light and H2O2. The dye concentration was measured by spectrophotometry at the wavelength of 565 nm, and the removal of the total organic content (TOC) was quantified. BET analysis yielded surface areas of 60.029, 20.116 and 70.662 m2g-1 for CN, CN-Cu and CN-Fe, respectively. The kinetics of degradation were pseudo-first order, whose constants were 0.093, 0.039 and 0.110 min-1 for CN, CN-Cu and CN-Fe, respectively. The total organic carbon (TOC) removal reached the highest value of 14.46% with CN-Fe

Intrapericardial delivery of apa-microcapsules as promising stem cell therapy carriers in an experimental acute myocardial infarction model

The administration of cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs) after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is very promising. CDC encapsulation in alginate-poly-L-lysine-alginate (APA) could increase cell survival and adherence. The intrapericardial (IP) approach potentially achieves high concentrations of the therapeutic agent in the infarcted area. We aimed to evaluate IP therapy using a saline vehicle as a control (CON), a dose of 30 × 106 CDCs (CDCs) or APA microcapsules containing 30 × 106 CDCs (APA-CDCs) at 72 h in a porcine AMI model. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to determine the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), infarct size (IS), and indexed end diastolic and systolic volumes (EDVi; ESVi) pre-and 10 weeks post-injection. Programmed electrical stimulation (PES) was performed to test arrhythmia inducibility before euthanasia. Histopathological analysis was carried out afterwards. The IP infusion was successful in all animals. At 10 weeks, MRI revealed significantly higher LVEF in the APA-CDC group compared with CON. No significant differences were observed among groups in IS, EDVi, ESVi, PES and histopathological analyses. In conclusion, the IP injection of CDCs (microencapsulated or not) was feasible and safe 72 h post-AMI in the porcine model. Moreover, CDCs APA encapsulation could have a beneficial effect on cardiac function, reflected by a higher LVEF at 10 weeks. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Bioactivities and extract dereplication of actinomycetales isolated from marine sponges

In the beginning of the twenty-first century, humanity faces great challenges regarding diseases and health-related quality of life. A drastic rise in bacterial antibiotic resistance, in the number of cancer patients, in the obesity epidemics and in chronic diseases due to life expectation extension are some of these challenges. The discovery of novel therapeutics is fundamental and it may come from underexplored environments, like marine habitats, and microbial origin. Actinobacteria are well-known as treasure chests for the discovery of novel natural compounds. In this study, eighteen Actinomycetales isolated from marine sponges of three Erylus genera collected in Portuguese waters were tested for bioactivities with the main goal of isolating and characterizing the responsible bioactive metabolites. The screening comprehended antimicrobial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, anti-cancer and anti-obesity properties. Fermentations of the selected strains were prepared using ten different culturing media. Several bioactivities against the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus, the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and the human liver cancer cell line HepG2 were obtained in small volume cultures. Screening in higher volumes showed consistent anti-fungal activity by strain Dermacoccus sp. #91-17 and Micrococcus luteus Berg02-26. Gordonia sp. Berg02-22.2 showed anti-parasitic (Trypanosoma cruzi) and anti-cancer activity against several cell lines (melanoma A2058, liver HepG2, colon HT29, breast MCF7 and pancreatic MiaPaca). For the anti-obesity assay, Microbacterium foliorum #91-29 and #91-40 induced lipid reduction on the larvae of zebrafish (Danio rerio). Dereplication of the extracts from several bacteria showed the existence of a variety of secondary metabolites, with some undiscovered molecules. This work showed that Actinomycetales are indeed good candidates for drug discovery.This research was partially supported by the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/04423/2013 through national funds provided by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the programme PT2020, the EU H2020-TWINN-2015, BLUEandGREEN – Boosting scientific excellence and innovation capacity in biorefineries based on marine resources (Project No. 692419) and the European ERA-NET Marine Biotechnology project CYANOBESITY (ERA-MBT/0001/2015), financed by national funds through FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal). Ralph Urbatzka was supported by a FCT postdoc grant (SFRH/BPD/112287/2015). The MEDINA authors disclosed the receipt of financial support from Fundación MEDINA, a public-private partnership of Merck Sharp & Dohme de España S.A./Universidad de Granada/Junta de Andalucía. Moreover, some of the equipment used in this work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and the European Union (Grant INP-2011-0016-PCT-010000-ACT6)

Nuevos datos gravimétricos y geológicos de la Zona Axial y límite con la Zona Surpirenaica del Pirineo Central

El conocimiento de la geometría del subsuelo se basa en la integración de datos geológicos y geofísicos. En la Zona Axial del Pirineo Central y sector septentrional de la Zona Surpirenaica, la ausencia de perfiles de sísmica de reflexión dificulta esta labor y hace necesaria la búsqueda de otras técnicas, como la gravimetría, para inferir su estructura en profundidad. En este trabajo los equipos del IGME e ICGC han tomado 1164 nuevas estaciones gravimétricas en la zona de estudio, se han recopilado 2740 estaciones previas de las bases de datos de SITOPO (proyecto TopoIberia) e ICGC y se ha realizado su homogenización. Se ha obtenido un nuevo mapa de la anomalía de Bouguer caracterizado por un mínimo elongado de longitud de onda larga de más de -100 mGal asociado a la raíz cortical de los Pirineos. Cabe destacar la diferente respuesta gravimétrica que ofrecen los dos principales granitos de la zona de estudio, La Maladeta y Andorra-Mont Louis (menor densidad que las rocas Paleozoicas del encajante). Al SO del granito de La Maladeta aparece un mínimo relativo que se interpreta asociado a acumulaciones evaporíticas triásicas (menor densidad) en profundidad. Además se ha realizado: (i) un mapa de anomalía residual asumiendo una anomalía regional correspondiente a un polinomio de tercer grado para inferir la estructura más superficial y (ii) mapas de las derivadas vertical y horizontal de la anomalía gravimétrica residual para observar cómo varían espacialmente los valores de densidad de las rocas existentes. Este trabajo destaca el potencial de la gravimetría en el estudio de la estructura en profundidad de orógenos y cinturones de pliegues y cabalgamientos con presencia de rocas ígneas y/o evaporíticas con valores de densidad menores al de las rocas sedimentarias encajante