Applying design for environment to a new product to reduce the impact upon the environment

This project focuses on the design of a field hockey stick based on reducing the impact upon the environment mindset. In this way, at the beginning of the work, this sport and the material needed to practice it is presented. The development of products that respect the environment is one of the main goals currently in companies and that’s because day after day more people are aware of the problem that we have been causing for many years to our planet environmentally and now that must begin to change radically. A company have eco-efficient products or services when it can offer that products or services at a competitive price in such a way that it satisfies human needs, increase the quality of their life and reduce the environmental impact of its products or services. So, the design and production of products that respect the environment is the key for companies. The most used methodologies to design products that respect the environment are Design for Environment and Life Cycle Assessment. By integrating DFE mindset into the design and development process, companies achieve to create eco-innovative and ecoresponsible products and services. Besides, Life Cycle thinking is closely related to DFE methodology as they share values and objectives. Regarding DFE methodology, the step-by-step approach is to design a product that meets requirements for quality, cost, manufacturability and consumer appeal, while at the same time minimizing environmental impacts. On the other hand, Life Cycle Assessment is a standard quantitative tool defined by the ISO 14040 series for analysing the environmental impacts of a product during all stages of its life cycle. These are the reasons why I will use these two methodologies during this project to design that new product, Design for Environment and Life Cycle Assessment and in one of the following sections they will be depth defined, more specifically in the theoretical content sectio

Efficient complementary viewpoint selection in volume rendering

A major goal of visualization is to appropriately express knowledge of scientific data. Generally, gathering visual information contained in the volume data often requires a lot of expertise from the final user to setup the parameters of the visualization. One way of alleviating this problem is to provide the position of inner structures with different viewpoint locations to enhance the perception and construction of the mental image. To this end, traditional illustrations use two or three different views of the regions of interest. Similarly, with the aim of assisting the users to easily place a good viewpoint location, this paper proposes an automatic and interactive method that locates different complementary viewpoints from a reference camera in volume datasets. Specifically, the proposed method combines the quantity of information each camera provides for each structure and the shape similarity of the projections of the remaining viewpoints based on Dynamic Time Warping. The selected complementary viewpoints allow a better understanding of the focused structure in several applications. Thus, the user interactively receives feedback based on several viewpoints that helps him to understand the visual information. A live-user evaluation on different data sets show a good convergence to useful complementary viewpoints.Postprint (published version

FixIt!

Màster en Gestió de Continguts Digitals, Facultat d'Informació i Mitjans Audiovisuals, Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2021-2022. Tutor: Dr. Rubén Alcaraz MartínezFixIt!, és un projecte amb un objectiu clar: la concepció d’una solució tecnològica per donar resposta a les dificultats que presenta trobar a un treballador que pugui solucionar un desperfecte en la llar o el mobiliari i equipaments que la conformen. Per a l’entorn de l’app s’han definit dues tipologies d’usuaris Fixers (els reparadors) i Users (la resta d’usuaris), que han permès dissenyar dues user personas i s’ha pres un enfocament centrat en l’apartat social, buscant fer senzill el contacte entre les dues parts

Diseño de la instalación eléctrica de un centro deportivo

En el present Treball Final de Grau, es duu a terme el disseny de la instal·lació elèctrica d'un centre esportiu dedicat a la pràctica de pàdel. El centre compta amb un edifici de 766 m², 14 pistes de pàdel a l'exterior i una zona d'aparcament amb capacitat per a 63 vehicles. Es realitza una anàlisi de totes les càrregues a alimentar, així com un estudi lumínic mitjançant el programari DIALux, per a adequar-se a tota la normativa aplicable de nivell d'il·luminació i estalvi energètic. Posteriorment, es dimensionen totes les proteccions elèctriques, la posada a terra de tots els elements, i conductors a utilitzar, assegurant que compleixen els criteris de caiguda de tensió i intensitat màxima admissible, amb la finalitat de garantir la protecció de la instal·lació i dels usuaris. Mitjançant la utilització de factors d'utilització i simultaneïtat, s'arriba a la conclusió que la potència a contractar del centre esportiu és de 87 kW. L'alimentació serà realitzada a través d'un Centre de Transformació de la companyia distribuïdora, que farà arribar l'escomesa en Baixa Tensió als nous armaris a instal·lar en el límit públic-privat de la parcel·la. En el presente Trabajo Final de Grado, se lleva a cabo el diseño de la instalación eléctrica de un centro deportivo dedicado a la práctica de pádel. El centro cuenta con un edificio de 766 m2, 14 pistas de pádel en el exterior y una zona de aparcamiento con capacidad para 63 vehículos. Se realiza un análisis de todas las cargas a alimentar, así como un estudio lumínico mediante el software DIALux, para adecuarse a toda la normativa aplicable de nivel de iluminación y ahorro energético. Posteriormente, se dimensionan todas las protecciones eléctricas, la puesta a tierra de todos los elementos, y conductores a utilizar, asegurando que cumplen los criterios de caída de tensión e intensidad máxima admisible, con el fin de garantizar la protección de la instalación y de los usuarios. Mediante la utilización de factores de utilización y simultaneidad, se llega a la conclusión de que la potencia a contratar del centro deportivo es de 87 kW. La alimentación será realizada a través de un Centro de Transformación de la compañía distribuidora, que hará llegar la acometida en Baja Tensión a los nuevos armarios a instalar en el límite público-privado de la parcela.In this Final Degree Project, the design of the electrical installation of a sports centre dedicated to the practice of paddle is carried out. The centre has a 766 m2 building, 14 outdoor paddle courts and a parking area with capacity for 63 vehicles. An analysis of all the loads to be supplied is carried out, as well as a lighting study using DIALux software, in order to adapt to all the applicable lighting level and energy saving regulations. Subsequently, all the electrical protections, the earthing of all the elements and conductors to be used are dimensioned, ensuring that they comply with the criteria of voltage drop and maximum admissible intensity, in order to guarantee the protection of the installation and the users. By means of the use and simultaneity factors, it is concluded that the power to be contracted for the sports centre is 87 kW. The power supply will be provided by a Transformer Station of the distribution company, which will give the Low Voltage supply to the new cabinets to be installed on the public-private boundary of the plot

An Adaptive Cutaway with Volume Context Preservation

Knowledge expressiveness of scientific data is one of the most important visualization goals. However, current volume visualization systems require a lot of expertise from the final user. In this paper, we present a GPU-based ray casting interactive framework that computes two initial complementary camera locations and allows to select the focus interactively, on interesting structures keeping the volume’s context information with an adaptive cutaway technique. The adaptive cutaway surrounds the focused structure while preserving a depth immersive impression in the data set. Finally, we present a new brush widget to edit interactively the opening of the cutaway and to graduate the context in the final image.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Human inversions and their functional consequences

Polymorphic inversions are a type of structural variants that are difficult to analyze owing to their balanced nature and the location of breakpoints within complex repeated regions. So far, only a handful of inversions have been studied in detail in humans and current knowledge about their possible functional effects is still limited. However, inversions have been related to phenotypic changes and adaptation in multiple species. In this review, we summarize the evidences of the functional impact of inversions in the human genome. First, given that inversions have been shown to inhibit recombination in heterokaryotes, chromosomes displaying different orientation are expected to evolve independently and this may lead to distinct gene-expression patterns. Second, inversions have a role as disease-causing mutations both by directly affecting gene structure or regulation in different ways, and by predisposing to other secondary arrangements in the offspring of inversion carriers. Finally, several inversions show signals of being selected during human evolution. These findings illustrate the potential of inversions to have phenotypic consequences also in humans and emphasize the importance of their inclusion in genome-wide association studie

Time-varying volume visualization

Volume rendering is a very active research field in Computer Graphics because of its wide range of applications in various sciences, from medicine to flow mechanics. In this report, we survey a state-of-the-art on time-varying volume rendering. We state several basic concepts and then we establish several criteria to classify the studied works: IVR versus DVR, 4D versus 3D+time, compression techniques, involved architectures, use of parallelism and image-space versus object-space coherence. We also address other related problems as transfer functions and 2D cross-sections computation of time-varying volume data. All the papers reviewed are classified into several tables based on the mentioned classification and, finally, several conclusions are presented.Preprin

Yeast Dun1 Kinase Regulates Ribonucleotide Reductase Small Subunit Localization in Response to Iron Deficiency

Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) is an essential iron-dependent enzyme that catalyzes deoxyribonucleotide synthesis in eukaryotes. Living organisms have developed multiple strategies to tightly modulate RNR function to avoid inadequate or unbalanced deoxyribonucleotide pools that cause DNA damage and genome instability. Yeast cells activate RNR in response to genotoxic stress and iron deficiency by facilitating redistribution of its small heterodimeric subunit Rnr2-Rnr4 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, where it forms an active holoenzyme with large Rnr1 subunit. Dif1 protein inhibits RNR by promoting nuclear import of Rnr2-Rnr4. Upon DNA damage, Dif1 phosphorylation by the Dun1 checkpoint kinase and its subsequent degradation enhances RNR function. In this report, we demonstrate that Dun1 kinase triggers Rnr2-Rnr4 redistribution to the cytoplasm in response to iron deficiency. We show that Rnr2-Rnr4 relocalization by low iron requires Dun1 kinase activity and phosphorylation site Thr-380 in the Dun1 activation loop, but not the Dun1 forkhead-associated domain. By using different Dif1 mutant proteins, we uncover that Dun1 phosphorylates Dif1 Ser-104 and Thr-105 residues upon iron scarcity. We observe that the Dif1 phosphorylation pattern differs depending on the stimuli, which suggests different Dun1 activating pathways. Importantly, the Dif1-S104A/T105A mutant exhibits defects in nucleus-to-cytoplasm redistribution of Rnr2-Rnr4 by iron limitation. Taken together, these results reveal that, in response to iron starvation, Dun1 kinase phosphorylates Dif1 to stimulate Rnr2-Rnr4 relocalization to the cytoplasm and promote RNR function.This work has been supported by a predoctoral fellowship from “Conselleria d'Educació de la Generalitat Valenciana” (to N. S.), a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (to A. M. R.), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Grants AGL2011-29099 and BIO2014-56298-P (to S. P.), and National Institutes of Health Grant CA125574 (to M. H.). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.Peer reviewe

A novel sigma factor reveals a unique regulon controlling cell-specific recombination in Mycoplasma genitalium

The Mycoplasma genitalium MG428 protein shows homology to members of the sigma-70 family of sigma factors. Herein, we found that MG428 activates transcription of recA, ruvA and ruvB as well as several genes with unknown function. Deletion of MG_428 or some of the up-regulated unknown genes led to severe recombination defects. Single cell analyses revealed that activation of the MG428-regulon is a rare event under laboratory growth conditions. A conserved sequence with sigma-70 promoter architecture (TTGTCA-N-ATTWAT) was identified in the upstream region of all of the MG428-regulated genes or operons. Primer extension analyses demonstrated that transcription initiates immediately downstream of this sigma70-type promoter in a MG428-dependent manner. Furthermore, mutagenesis of the conserved −10 and −35 elements corroborated the requirement of these regions for promoter function. Therefore, a new mycoplasma promoter directs transcription of a unique recombination regulon. Additionally, MG428 was found to interact with the RNAP core enzyme, reinforcing the predicted role of this protein as an alternative sigma factor. Finally, our results indicate that MG428 contributes to the generation of genetic diversity in this model organism. Since recombination is an important mechanism to generate antigenic variation, MG428 emerges as a novel factor contributing to M. genitalium virulence