Aerospace Manufacturing Industry: A Simulation-Based Decision Support Framework for the Scheduling of Complex Hoist Lines

The hoist scheduling problem is a critical issue in the design and control of Automated Manufacturing Systems. To deal with the major complexities appearing in such problem, this work introduces an advanced simulation model to represent the short-term scheduling of complex hoist lines. The aim is to find the best jobs schedule that minimizing the makespan while maximizing throughput with no defective outputs. Several hard constraints are considered in the model: single shared hoist, heterogeneous recipes, eventual recycles flows, and no buffers between workstations. Different heuristic-based strategies are incorporated into the computer model in order to improve the solutions generated over time. The alternative solutions can be quickly evaluated by using a graphical user interface developed together with the simulation model.Fil: Basán, Natalia Paola. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; ArgentinaFil: Pulido, Raul. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; EspañaFil: Coccola, Mariana Evangelina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; ArgentinaFil: Mendez, Carlos Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; Argentin

Recuperación de la información en Internet: motores y otros agentes de búsqueda

Due to the enormous number of documents that Internet contains and the practical impossibility of achieving search exhaustivity throughout hyperlinks, it was necessary to design some search tools to facilitate retrieval. This article is structured in two parts. Firstly, it gives an introduction to the concept of search engines, their evolution in the recent history of Internet, their components, their procedures and a prospective classification, trying to solve the current terminological chaos. Second, their comparative advantages and disadvantages are analyzed, and some proposals for further effectivity are given. Finally, a comprehensive bibliography for further readings is suggested. (Author amended).Ante la gran cantidad de documentos existentes en Internt y la imposibilidad de realizar una búsqueda total por hiperenlaces, se diseñaron en Internet unas herramientas de búsqueda que facilitan la recuperación de documentos. El presente artículo se estructura en dos partes: por una parte intenta dar a conocer los motores de búsqueda, su evolución en la reciente historia de Internet, sus elementos componentes, la forma que tienen de trabajar y su clasificación, intentando dar así solución al caos terminológico existente actualmente. Por otra parte se analizan las ventajas e inconvenientes en el proceso de recuperación de información, planteando finalmente una serie de soluciones que el autor considera necesarias para ganar en efectividad. Finalmente, se ha intentado ofrecer una bibliografía lo más amplia posible para mantenerse actualizado en este cambiante mundo de la Red y los motores de búsqueda. (Autor

Managing daily surgery schedules in a teaching hospital: A mixed-integer optimization approach

This study examined the daily surgical scheduling problem in a teaching hospital. This problem relates to the use of multiple operating rooms and different types of surgeons in a typical surgical day with deterministic operation durations (preincision, incision, and postincision times). Teaching hospitals play a key role in the health-care system; however, existing models assume that the duration of surgery is independent of the surgeon?s skills. This problem has not been properly addressed in other studies. We analyze the case of a Spanish public hospital, in which continuous pressures and budgeting reductions entail the more efficient use of resources.Fil: Pulido, Raul. Politecnico Di Milano; Italia. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales; EspañaFil: Aguirre, Adrian Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico Para la Industria Química (i); ArgentinaFil: Ortega Mier, Miguel. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales; EspañaFil: García Sanchez, Alvaro. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales; EspañaFil: Mendez, Carlos Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico Para la Industria Química (i); Argentin

A new method for efficient three-dimensional reconstruction of outdoor environments using mobile robots

In this paper, a method for robotic exploration oriented to the automatic three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of outdoor scenes is presented. The proposed algorithm focuses on optimizing the exploration process by maximizing map quality, while reducing the number of scans required to create a good-quality 3D model of the environment. This is done by using expected information gain, expected model quality, and trajectory cost estimation as criteria for view planning. The method has been tested with an all-terrain mobile robot, which is also described in the paper. This robot is equipped with a SICK LMS 111 laser scanner attached to a spinning turret, which performs quick and complete all-around scans. Different experiments of autonomous 3D exploration show the suitable performance of the proposed exploration algorithm

Ionospheric tomographic common clock model of undifferenced uncombined GNSS measurements

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Journal of geodesy. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00190-021-01568-8In this manuscript, we introduce the Ionospheric Tomographic Common Clock (ITCC) model of undifferenced uncombined GNSS measurements. It is intended for improving the Wide Area precise positioning in a consistent and simple way in the multi-GNSS context, and without the need of external precise real-time products. This is the case, in particular, of the satellite clocks, which are estimated at the Wide Area GNSS network Central Processing Facility (CPF) referred to the reference receiver one; and the precise realtime ionospheric corrections, simultaneously computed under a voxel-based tomographic model with satellite clocks and other geodetic unknowns, from the uncombined and undifferenced pseudoranges and carrier phase measurements at the CPF from the Wide Area GNSS network area. The model, without fixing the carrier phase ambiguities for the time being (just constraining them by the simultaneous solution of both ionospheric and geometric components of the uncombined GNSS model), has been successfully applied and assessed against previous precise positioning techniques. This has been done by emulating real-time conditions for Wide Area GPS users during 2018 in Poland.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Identification of Myocardial Insulin Resistance by Using Liver Tests: A Simple Approach for Clinical Practice

Cardiovascular risk; Myocardial insulin resistance; Non-alcoholic fatty liver diseaseRiesgo cardiovascular; Resistencia a la insulina del miocardio; Enfermedad del higado graso no alcoholicoRisc cardiovascular; Resistència a la insulina del miocardi; Malaltia del fetge gras no alcohòlicBackground: We report that myocardial insulin resistance (mIR) occurs in around 60% of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and was associated with higher cardiovascular risk in comparison with patients with insulin-sensitive myocardium (mIS). These two phenotypes (mIR vs. mIS) can only be assessed using time-consuming and expensive methods. The aim of the present study is to search a simple and reliable surrogate to identify both phenotypes. Methods: Forty-seven patients with T2D underwent myocardial [18F]FDG PET/CT at baseline and after a hyperinsulinemic–euglycemic clamp (HEC) to determine mIR were prospectively recruited. Biochemical assessments were performed before and after the HEC. Baseline hepatic steatosis index and index of hepatic fibrosis (FIB-4) were calculated. Furthermore, liver stiffness measurement was performed using transient elastography. Results: The best model to predict the presence of mIR was the combination of transaminases, protein levels, FIB-4 score and HOMA (AUC = 0.95; sensibility: 0.81; specificity: 0.95). We observed significantly higher levels of fibrosis in patients with mIR than in those with mIS (p = 0.034). In addition, we found that patients with mIR presented a reduced glucose uptake by the liver in comparison with patients with mIS. Conclusions: The combination of HOMA, protein, transaminases and FIB-4 is a simple and reliable tool for identifying mIR in patients with T2D. This information will be useful to improve the stratification of cardiovascular risk in T2D.This work was supported by the Carlos III Health Institute and the European Regional Development Fund (PI16/02064, PI20/01588) and the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) of Catalonia (2017SGR1303)

Improved MSTID modelling and impact on precise GNSS processing

Peer ReviewedPreprin

Regulation of cell death receptor S-nitrosylation and apoptotic signaling by Sorafenib in hepatoblastoma cells

Nitric oxide (NO) plays a relevant role during cell death regulation in tumor cells. The overexpression of nitric oxide synthase type III (NOS-3) induces oxidative and nitrosative stress, p53 and cell death receptor expression and apoptosis in hepatoblastoma cells. S-nitrosylation of cell death receptor modulates apoptosis. Sorafenib is the unique recommended molecular-targeted drug for the treatment of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. The present study was addressed to elucidate the potential role of NO during Sorafenib-induced cell death in HepG2 cells. We determined the intra- and extracellular NO concentration, cell death receptor expression and their S-nitrosylation modifications, and apoptotic signaling in Sorafenib-treated HepG2 cells. The effect of NO donors on above parameters has also been determined. Sorafenib induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells. However, low concentration of the drug (10nM) increased cell death receptor expression, as well as caspase-8 and -9 activation, but without activation of downstream apoptotic markers. In contrast, Sorafenib (10 µM) reduced upstream apoptotic parameters but increased caspase-3 activation and DNA fragmentation in HepG2 cells. The shift of cell death signaling pathway was associated with a reduction of S-nitrosylation of cell death receptors in Sorafenib-treated cells. The administration of NO donors increased S-nitrosylation of cell death receptors and overall induction of cell death markers in control and Sorafenib-treated cells. In conclusion, Sorafenib induced alteration of cell death receptor S-nitrosylation status which may have a relevant repercussion on cell death signaling in hepatoblastoma cells.Instituto de Salud Carlos III PI13/00021Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BFU2012-32056Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo, Junta de Andalucía BIO-0216Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo, Junta de Andalucía CTS-6264Consejería de Salud, Junta de Andalucía PI13/ 0002

Direct MSTID mitigation in precise GPS processing

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Hernandez, M., Wielgosz, P., Paziewski, J., Krypiak-Gregorczyk, A., Krukowska, M., Stepniak, K., Kaplon, J., Hadas, T., Sosnica, K., Bosy, J., Orús, R., Monte, E., Yang, H., Garcia-Rigo, A., Olivares-Pulido, G. Direct MSTID mitigation in precise GPS processing. "Radio science", Març 2017, vol. 52, núm. 3, p. 321-337, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016RS006159/abstract. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-ArchivingIn this paper, the authors summarize a simple and efficient approach developed to mitigate the problem in precise GNSS positioning originated by the most frequent ionospheric wave signatures: the Medium Scale Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances (MSTIDs). The direct GNSS Ionospheric Interferometry technique (hereinafter dGII), presented in this paper, is applied for correcting MSTID effects on precise Real Time Kinematic (RTK) and tropospheric determination. It consists of the evolution of the former climatic Differential Delay Mitigation Model for MSTIDs (DMTID), for real-time conditions, using ionospheric data from a single permanent receiver only. The performance is demonstrated with networks of GNSS receivers in Poland, treated as users under real-time conditions, during two representative days in winter and summer seasons (days 353 and 168 of year 2013). In range domain, dGII typically reduces the ionospheric delay error up to 10-90% of the value when the MSTID mitigation model is not applied. The main dGII impact on precise positioning is that we can obtain reliable RTK position faster. In particular the ASR (ambiguity success rate) parameter increases, from 74% to 83%, with respect to the original uncorrected observations. The average of time to first fix is shortened from 30s to 13s. The improvement in troposphere estimaton, due to any potential impact of the MSTID mitigation model, was most difficult to demonstrate.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Effectiveness of a strategy that uses educational games to implement clinical practice guidelines among Spanish residents of family and community medicine (e-EDUCAGUIA project):A clinical trial by clusters

This study was funded by the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias FIS Grant Number PI11/0477 ISCIII.-REDISSEC Proyecto RD12/0001/0012 AND FEDER Funding.Background: Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) have been developed with the aim of helping health professionals, patients, and caregivers make decisions about their health care, using the best available evidence. In many cases, incorporation of these recommendations into clinical practice also implies a need for changes in routine clinical practice. Using educational games as a strategy for implementing recommendations among health professionals has been demonstrated to be effective in some studies; however, evidence is still scarce. The primary objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a teaching strategy for the implementation of CPGs using educational games (e-learning EDUCAGUIA) to improve knowledge and skills related to clinical decision-making by residents in family medicine. The primary objective will be evaluated at 1 and 6months after the intervention. The secondary objectives are to identify barriers and facilitators for the use of guidelines by residents of family medicine and to describe the educational strategies used by Spanish teaching units of family and community medicine to encourage implementation of CPGs. Methods/design: We propose a multicenter clinical trial with randomized allocation by clusters of family and community medicine teaching units in Spain. The sample size will be 394 residents (197 in each group), with the teaching units as the randomization unit and the residents comprising the analysis unit. For the intervention, both groups will receive an initial 1-h session on clinical practice guideline use and the usual dissemination strategy by e-mail. The intervention group (e-learning EDUCAGUIA) strategy will consist of educational games with hypothetical clinical scenarios in a virtual environment. The primary outcome will be the score obtained by the residents on evaluation questionnaires for each clinical practice guideline. Other included variables will be the sociodemographic and training variables of the residents and the teaching unit characteristics. The statistical analysis will consist of a descriptive analysis of variables and a baseline comparison of both groups. For the primary outcome analysis, an average score comparison of hypothetical scenario questionnaires between the EDUCAGUIA intervention group and the control group will be performed at 1 and 6months post-intervention, using 95% confidence intervals. A linear multilevel regression will be used to adjust the model. Discussion: The identification of effective teaching strategies will facilitate the incorporation of available knowledge into clinical practice that could eventually improve patient outcomes. The inclusion of information technologies as teaching tools permits greater learning autonomy and allows deeper instructor participation in the monitoring and supervision of residents. The long-term impact of this strategy is unknown; however, because it is aimed at professionals undergoing training and it addresses prevalent health problems, a small effect can be of great relevance. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02210442.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe