The effect of holographic wristbands on body balance.

El equilibrio es una habilidad compleja esencial para la realización de cualquier tarea motriz y para la prevención de lesiones y caídas. La aparición de las pulseras holográficas, con supuestos beneficios entre los cuales se incluye la mejora del equilibrio, recibió la atención del público y los medios de comunicación por igual. Sin embargo, no hay evidencia científica de que los hologramas mejoren cualquier atributo físico. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar el efecto de las pulseras holográficas Power Balance® en el equilibrio. Siguiendo un método triple ciego, 25 estudiantes sanos y físicamente activos universitarios (14 mujeres, 11 hombres) fueron sometidos a la prueba de organización sensorial (SOT) en dos días separados mientras llevaban una pulsera con o sin hologramas (los ensayos se realizaron al azar en un orden contrabalanceado). El SOT proporciona detalles sobre el equilibrio total y la contribución relativa de los tres sistemas sensoriales principales (somatosensoriales, visuales y vestibulares) que intervienen en el equilibrio. Los resultados para el grupo como un todo revelaron que el uso de una pulsera holográfica no tiene ningún efecto significativo en cualquiera de estas variables. Sin embargo, cuando se analizaron los resultados de las mujeres de forma aislada, el uso de las pulseras holográficas se asoció con diferencias significativas en las puntuaciones de dos variables SOT: Equilibrio compuesto (86.5±3.7 con la pulsera holográfica en comparación con 85.5±4.5 sin ella; p?0.05) y la media general (93.5±2.0 en comparación con 92.8±2.4; p?0.05). Sin embargo, aunque a nivel estadístico estas diferencias fueron encontradas, la magnitud era tan pequeña que el equilibrio no se podría haber mejorado en ningún sentido práctico. En conclusión, las pulseras holográficas Power Balance® no ejercen ningún efecto significativo en el equilibrio en adultos jóvenes sanos

Activated Carbon Fiber Monoliths as Supercapacitor Electrodes

Activated carbon fibers (ACF) are interesting candidates for electrodes in electrochemical energy storage devices; however, one major drawback for practical application is their low density. In the present work, monoliths were synthesized from two different ACFs, reaching 3 times higher densities than the original ACFs’ apparent densities. The porosity of the monoliths was only slightly decreased with respect to the pristine ACFs, the employed PVDC binder developing additional porosity upon carbonization. The ACF monoliths are essentially microporous and reach BET surface areas of up to 1838 m2 g−1. SEM analysis reveals that the ACFs are well embedded into the monolith structure and that their length was significantly reduced due to the monolith preparation process. The carbonized monoliths were studied as supercapacitor electrodes in two- and three-electrode cells having 2 M H2SO4 as electrolyte. Maximum capacitances of around 200 F g−1 were reached. The results confirm that the capacitance of the bisulfate anions essentially originates from the double layer, while hydronium cations contribute with a mixture of both, double layer capacitance and pseudocapacitance.Financial support through the projects of reference MAT2014-57687-R, GV/FEDER (PROMETEOII/2014/010), and University of Alicante (VIGROB-136) is gratefully acknowledged

The PI-3-Kinase P110α Catalytic Subunit of T Lymphocytes Modulates Collagen-Induced Arthritis

The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) family of enzymes plays a determinant role in inflammation and autoimmune responses. However, the implication of the different isoforms of catalytic subunits in these processes is not clear. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic autoimmune inflammatory disease that entails innate and adaptive immune response elements in which PI3K is a potential hub for immune modulation. In a mouse transgenic model with T-cell-specific deletion of p110α catalytic chain (p110α-/-ΔT), we show the modulation of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) by this isoform of PI3K. In established arthritis, p110α-/-ΔT mice show decreased prevalence of illness than their control siblings, higher IgG1 titers and lower levels of IL-6 in serum, together with decreased ex vivo Collagen II (CII)-induced proliferation, IL-17A secretion and proportion of naive T cells in the lymph nodes. In a pre-arthritis phase, at 13 days post-Ag, T-cell-specific deletion of p110α chain induced an increased, less pathogenic IgG1/IgG2a antibodies ratio; changes in the fraction of naive and effector CD4+ subpopulations; and an increased number of CXCR5+ T cells in the draining lymph nodes of the p110α-/-ΔT mice. Strikingly, T-cell blasts in vitro obtained from non-immunized p110α-/-ΔT mice showed an increased expression of CXCR5, CD44 and ICOS surface markers and defective ICOS-induced signaling towards Akt phosphorylation. These results, plus the accumulation of cells in the lymph nodes in the early phase of the process, could explain the diminished illness incidence and prevalence in the p110α-/-ΔT mice and suggests a modulation of CIA by the p110α catalytic chain of PI3K, opening new avenues of intervention in T-cell-directed therapies to autoimmune diseases.This research was funded by Acción Estratégica en Salud Intramural (AESI) del Instituto de Salud Carlos III, grant number AESI PI16CIII/00012 to PP, and by Acción Estratégica en Salud AESI del Instituto de Salud Carlos III, grant number AES PI16/00032 to G.C.S

Cyclooctyne [60]fullerene hexakis adducts: a globular scaffold for copper-free click chemistry

The synthesis of a new highly symmetric hexakis adduct of C60 appended with 12 cyclooctyne moieties has been carried out. This compound has been used for the copper-free strain-promoted cycloaddition reaction to a series of azides with excellent yields.This strategy for the obtention of clicked adducts of [60]fullerene is of special interest for biological applications

Langerin-Heparin Interaction: Two Binding Sites for Small and Large Ligands as revealed by a combination of NMR Spectroscopy and Cross-Linking Mapping Experiments

Langerin is a C-type lectin present on Langerhans cells that mediates capture of pathogens in a carbohydrate-dependent manner, leading to subsequent internalization and elimination in the cellular organelles called Birbeck granules. This mechanism mediated by langerin was shown to constitute a natural barrier for HIV-1 particle transmission. Besides interacting specifically with high mannose and fucosylated neutral carbohydrate structures, langerin has the ability to bind sulfated carbohydrate ligands as 6-sulfated galactosides in the Ca2+ dependent binding site. Very recently langerin was demonstrated to interact with sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), in a Ca2+ independent way, resulting in the proposal of a new binding site for GAGs. Based on those results, we have conducted a structural study of the interactions of small heparin (HEP) like oligosaccharides with langerin in solution. Heparin-bead cross-linking experiments, an approach specifically designed to identify HEP/HS binding sites in proteins were first carried out and experimentally validated the previously proposed model for the interaction of Lg ECD with 6 kDa HEP. High-resolution NMR studies of a set of 8 synthetic HEP-like trisaccharides harboring different sulfation patterns demonstrated that all of them bound to langerin in a Ca2+ dependent way. The binding epitopes were determined by STD NMR and the bound conformations by transferred NOESY experiments. These experimental data were combined with docking and molecular dynamics and resulted in the proposal of a binding mode characterized by the coordination of calcium by the two equatorial hydroxyl groups OH3 and OH4 at the non-reducing end. The binding also includes the carboxylate group at the adjacent iduronate residue. Such epitope is shared by all the 8 ligands, explaining the absence of any impact on binding from their differences in substitution pattern. Finally, in contrast to the small trisaccharides, we demonstrated that a longer HEP-like hexasaccharide, bearing an additional O-sulfate group at the non-reducing end, which precludes binding to the Ca2+ site, interacts with langerin in the previously identified Ca2+ independent binding site

10th World Congress of Chemical Engineering

Wine lees are water-waste residues generated during maceration and fermentation steps of the vinification process and they constitute a source of high value compounds, such as polyphenols, mainly anthocyanins (AC). The exploitation of these dregs could contribute to the development of new wine-related products and could also lead to a sustainable growth of the wine industry due to the concentration of AC is 10 times higher in wine lees than in grape skins [1]. After the recovery of the polyphenols from wine lees, a wet solid waste remains with poor chemical potential. This residue can be recycled by a hydrolysis step. Supercritical water (SCW) has proved to be a suitable environment-friendly media for biomass hydrolysis due to its unique properties, such as a high diffusivities or low dielectric constant [2]. This hydrolysis produces a liquid product rich in sugars that can be used as feed in a fermentation step afterwards. However, the yield of this last step would be lower with wine lees than with conventional biomasses since its cellulosic fraction only constitutes 18%. The main objective of the hydrolysis of the wine lees residue is to obtain reduced sugars which are essential chemical building blocks in the so-called biorefinery cycle. A continuous pilot plant was used to carry out the hydrolysis of wine lees in SCW. This facility was based on a continuous reactor with instantaneous heating and cooling that allowed precise control of the reaction time and therefore, high recovery of sugars was achieved and avoiding sugar degradation reactions. A wine lees-water suspension (10% w/w) was continuously fed to the reactor using a pump at a flow rate of 1 kg/h and processed under 380-395ºC and 25MPa at different reaction times, between 0.056 and 0.076s. A brown liquid was obtained after the hydrolysis step, rich in hexoses (yield of 50%) such as cellobiose, glucose and fructose. It was also observed that increasing the reaction time and temperature favored the degradation of the recovered sugars into pyruvaldehyde and glycolaldehyde.Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways actions (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IAPP-612208)Junta de Castilla y Leon and FEDER 2014-2020, proyecto VA040U16Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad Spain (CTQ2015-64892-R

Speeds of sound for (CH4 + He) mixtures from p = (0.5 to 20) MPa at T = (273.16 to 375) K

Acknowledgements The authors want to thank for the support to Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad project ENE2017-88474-R and Junta de Castilla y León project VA280P18.Peer reviewedPostprin

Una Herramienta para la estimación del esfuerzo del estudiante de grado en ingeniería informática

En el marco de las nuevas titulaciones de Grado en Ingeniería Informática, resulta muy conveniente establecer algún tipo de mecanismo que nos permita recoger información sobre la dedicación real de los estudiantes a nuestras asignaturas. A nivel de asignatura, esta información puede servir al profesorado para determinar el grado de acierto de su planificación temporal inicial. A un nivel más global, los datos recogidos proporcionan a los coordinadores de curso una idea de la carga total a la que está sometido el estudiante, y contribuyen a la identificación de posibles picos (o valles) de trabajo durante el cuatrimestre. En este trabajo se describe la puesta en marcha de un sistema, basado en encuestas, para el conocimiento del esfuerzo de los estudiantes de Grado en Ingeniería Informática de la Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Informática de Albacete. También se presentan y analizan algunos de los resultados obtenidos durante el curso académico 2012/13.SUMMARY -- In the framework of new degrees in Computer Science, it is desirable to establish some mechanism to let us collect some information about our students' commitment to our courses. On the subject level, this information may be useful for the teaching staff to determine the degree of success of this initial temporary planning. In a high level point of view, the data collected provide the course coordination with an idea of the total workload of students and it contributes to identify potential peaks (or valleys) of work throughout the semester. This work presents a surveybased system to obtain and register the efforts of our Computer Engineering students from the School of Computer Engineering of Albacete. It also introduces and discusses some of the results obtained during the academic year 2012/13

The contribution of sulfate ions and protons to the specific capacitance of microporous carbon monoliths

The monoliths studied in this work show large specific surface areas (up to 1600 m2 g-1), high densities (up to 1.17 g cm-3) and high electrical conductivities (up to 9.5 S cm-1). They are microporous carbons with pore sizes up to 1.3 nm but most of them below 0.75 nm. They also show oxygen functionalities. The electrochemical behavior of the monoliths is studied in three-electrode cells with aqueous H2SO4 solution as electrolyte. This work deals with the contribution of the sulfate ions and protons to the specific capacitance of carbon monoliths having different surface areas and different contents of oxygen groups. Protons contribute with a pseudocapacitance (up to 152 F g-1) in addition to the double layer capacitance. Sulfate ions contribute with a double layer capacitance only. At the double layer, the capacitance of the sulfate ions (up to 291 F g-1) is slightly higher than that of protons (up to 251 F g-1); both capacitances increase as the surface area increases. The preference of protons to be electroadsorbed at the double layer and the broader voltage window of these ions account for their higher contribution (70 %) to the double layer capacitance.Financial support through the projects MAT2011-25198, MP 1004 and PROMETEO/2009/047 is gratefully acknowledged. V.B. thanks MINECO for R&C contract