El análisis de ciclo de vida como herramienta de sostenibilidad en los proyectos de tratamiento de aguas

El Análisis de Ciclo de Vida (ACV) es una herramienta normalizada de sostenibilidad, reconocida en numerosos foros internacionales, de aplicación en los proyectos de tratamiento de aguas pero que no se aplica habitualmente en este tipo de proyectos. El ACV debería incorporarse a los mismos puesto que permite tomar decisiones estratégicas a partir del estudio de la sostenibilidad de las distintasfases de proyecto, compara tecnologías de depuración de agua y sus fases, permite optimizar procesos y determinar el impacto global del ciclo de vida de la EDAR

Propuesta de metodología Lean Seis Sigma en empresas PyMEs: un enfoque participativo con la academia

Este trabajo surge de la necesidad de aportar nuevas alternativas para que las empresas PyMEs mexicanas sean más competitivas. Metodologías como Lean y Seis Sigma han otorgado importantes beneficios a grandes empresas, la primera a través de una reducción gradual de actividades y elementos que no aportan valor a la organización y la segunda como una forma de hacer proyectos que mejoren la calidad y reduzcan costos. Para integrar y adaptar Lean y Seis sigma al entorno de las PyMEs se ha recurrido a una revisión de las mejores prácticas de empresas en otras regiones, logrando con esto una propuesta de aplicación que se da solo con la colaboración de instituciones académicas que aportan los ingredientes del conocimiento y su visión externa para mejorar lo que se hace cotidianamente en las PyMEs. La aplicación inicial de Lean y Seis sigma se hizo en 4 PyMEs del estado Mexicano de Tamaulipas, con ello se presentan resultados cuantitativos y cualitativos que dejan ver la experiencia positiva que se tiene en la vinculación entre las empresas y la universidad

El Recalentamiento Eléctrico por Termoconducción. Una Perspectiva Fisicoquímica del Calentamiento Eléctrico

El presente artículo recopila los comportamientos reales observados luego de cinco años de investigación, experimentación y modelado, con conductores eléctricos que fallan por alta conducción térmica, con el fin de rendir un aporte que pueda sumarse a las normativas existentes para la selección del cableado de proyectos eléctricos en baja tensión. Hasta ahora, los experimentos realizados con conductores eléctricos incendiados se limitan en su mayoría a tratar de determinar si el conductor produjo arco eléctrico o fue víctima del incendio, por medio de pruebas fisicoquímicas con los restos del conductor. Cuando se consideran factores como la intensidad de corriente, el tipo de instalación, la temperatura ambiental, fuentes cercanas generadoras de calor, condiciones de sobrecarga, y la sección transversal efectiva de conducción luego de considerar el efecto piel y los giros del cable, la selección del conductor adecuado se vuelve una decisión difícil. Estos factores, se consideran separadamente en normas españolas, americanas e internacionales; y los procesos de selección de cableado, desprecian ciertas condiciones que a veces son importantes causas de falla. El modelo presentado, es el resultado de la experimentación, en conjunto con un análisis global que tomó en cuenta todos estos factores simultáneamente; luego de revisar las conclusiones de las investigaciones químicas y físicas más relevantes.El presente artículo recopila los comportamientos reales observados luego de cinco años de investigación, experimentación y modelado, con conductores eléctricos que fallan por alta conducción térmica, con el fin de rendir un aporte que pueda sumarse a las normativas existentes para la selección del cableado de proyectos eléctricos en baja tensión. Hasta ahora, los experimentos realizados con conductores eléctricos incendiados se limitan en su mayoría a tratar de determinar si el conductor produjo arco eléctrico o fue víctima del incendio, por medio de pruebas fisicoquímicas con los restos del conductor. Cuando se consideran factores como la intensidad de corriente, el tipo de instalación, la temperatura ambiental, fuentes cercanas generadoras de calor, condiciones de sobrecarga, y la sección transversal efectiva de conducción luego de considerar el efecto piel y los giros del cable, la selección del conductor adecuado se vuelve una decisión difícil. Estos factores, se consideran separadamente en normas españolas, americanas e internacionales; y los procesos de selección de cableado, desprecian ciertas condiciones que a veces son importantes causas de falla. El modelo presentado, es el resultado de la experimentación, en conjunto con un análisis global que tomó en cuenta todos estos factores simultáneamente; luego de revisar las conclusiones de las investigaciones químicas y físicas más relevantes

Evaluation of the Analgesic Efficacy of a Bioelectronic Device in Non-Specific Chronic Low Back Pain with Neuropathic Component. A Randomized Trial

Low energy pulsed electromagnetic signals (PEMS) therapy, in the field of bioelectronics, has been suggested as a promising analgesic therapy with special interest in treating conditions with poor response to pharmacotherapy. This study evaluated the effectiveness of PEMS therapy on the treatment of chronic low back pain patients with a neuropathic component. A group of 64 individuals with such condition was allocated to a 2-week treatment period (10 twenty-minute sessions on consecutive days) with an active PEMS therapy device or an inactive device in random order. The pain was assessed on a visual analog scale, and the functional status was assessed using the SF-12 questionnaire. The visual analog scale scores were lower after treatment than at baseline but only in the group treated with the active device. According to the DN4 score, neuropathic pain decreased in both experimental groups with respect to baseline, but this was only significant for the group treated with the active device. Similarly, an improvement in the SF-12 and Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) sleep scale components was reported. The study demonstrated that low-energy PEMS therapy was efficient in reducing pain and improving function in chronic low back pain patients with a neuropathic component

Oral vaccination with heat inactivated Mycobacterium bovis activates the complement system to protect against tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a pandemic affecting billions of people worldwide, thus stressing the need for new vaccines. Defining the correlates of vaccine protection is essential to achieve this goal. In this study, we used the wild boar model for mycobacterial infection and TB to characterize the protective mechanisms elicited by a new heat inactivated Mycobacterium bovis vaccine (IV). Oral vaccination with the IV resulted in significantly lower culture and lesion scores, particularly in the thorax, suggesting that the IV might provide a novel vaccine for TB control with special impact on the prevention of pulmonary disease, which is one of the limitations of current vaccines. Oral vaccination with the IV induced an adaptive antibody response and activation of the innate immune response including the complement component C3 and inflammasome. Mycobacterial DNA/RNA was not involved in inflammasome activation but increased C3 production by a still unknown mechanism. The results also suggested a protective mechanism mediated by the activation of IFN-γ producing CD8+ T cells by MHC I antigen presenting dendritic cells (DCs) in response to vaccination with the IV, without a clear role for Th1 CD4+ T cells. These results support a role for DCs in triggering the immune response to the IV through a mechanism similar to the phagocyte response to PAMPs with a central role for C3 in protection against mycobacterial infection. Higher C3 levels may allow increased opsonophagocytosis and effective bacterial clearance, while interfering with CR3-mediated opsonic and nonopsonic phagocytosis of mycobacteria, a process that could be enhanced by specific antibodies against mycobacterial proteins induced by vaccination with the IV. These results suggest that the IV acts through novel mechanisms to protect against TB in wild boar.This research was supported by Plan Nacional I+D+I AGL2011-30041 from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), Spain and FEDER. This is also a contribution to EU FP7 grant WildTBvac and the EU FP7 ANTIGONE project number 278976. R.C. Galindo was funded by MEC, Spain. B. Beltrán-Beck was supported by MINECO grant BES-2009-017401.Peer Reviewe

Oral vaccination with heat inactivated Mycobacterium bovis activates the complement system to protect against tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a pandemic affecting billions of people worldwide, thus stressing the need for new vaccines. Defining the correlates of vaccine protection is essential to achieve this goal. In this study, we used the wild boar model for mycobacterial infection and TB to characterize the protective mechanisms elicited by a new heat inactivated Mycobacterium bovis vaccine (IV). Oral vaccination with the IV resulted in significantly lower culture and lesion scores, particularly in the thorax, suggesting that the IV might provide a novel vaccine for TB control with special impact on the prevention of pulmonary disease, which is one of the limitations of current vaccines. Oral vaccination with the IV induced an adaptive antibody response and activation of the innate immune response including the complement component C3 and inflammasome. Mycobacterial DNA/RNA was not involved in inflammasome activation but increased C3 production by a still unknown mechanism. The results also suggested a protective mechanism mediated by the activation of IFN-γ producing CD8+ T cells by MHC I antigen presenting dendritic cells (DCs) in response to vaccination with the IV, without a clear role for Th1 CD4+ T cells. These results support a role for DCs in triggering the immune response to the IV through a mechanism similar to the phagocyte response to PAMPs with a central role for C3 in protection against mycobacterial infection. Higher C3 levels may allow increased opsonophagocytosis and effective bacterial clearance, while interfering with CR3-mediated opsonic and nonopsonic phagocytosis of mycobacteria, a process that could be enhanced by specific antibodies against mycobacterial proteins induced by vaccination with the IV. These results suggest that the IV acts through novel mechanisms to protect against TB in wild boar

Characterization of a medium size Xe/TMA TPC instrumented with microbulk Micromegas, using low-energy gamma-rays

NEXT-MM is a general-purpose high pressure (10 bar, ~ 25 l active volume) Xenon-based TPC, read out in charge mode with an 0.8 cm × 0.8 cm-segmented 700 cm2 plane (1152 ch) of the latest microbulk-Micromegas technology. It has been recently commissioned at University of Zaragoza as part of the R&D of the NEXT 0νββ experiment, although the experiment's first stage is currently being built based on a SiPM/PMT-readout concept relying on electroluminescence. Around 2 million events were collected during the last months, stemming from the low energy γ-rays emitted by a 241Am source when interacting with the Xenon gas (Eγ = 26, 30, 59.5 keV). The localized nature of such events around atmospheric pressure, the long drift times, as well as the possibility to determine their production time from the associated α particle in coincidence, allow the extraction of primordial properties of the TPC filling gas, namely the drift velocity, diffusion and attachment coefficients. In this work we focus on the little explored combination of Xe and trimethylamine (TMA) for which, in particular, such properties are largely unknown. This gas mixture offers potential advantages over pure Xenon when aimed at Rare Event Searches, mainly due to its Penning characteristics, wave-length shifting properties and reduced diffusion, and it is being actively investigated by our collaboration. The chamber is currently operated at 2.7 bar, as an intermediate step towards the envisaged 10 bar. We report here its performance as well as a first implementation of the calibration procedures that have allowed the extension of the previously reported energy resolution to the whole readout plane (10.6% FWHM@30 keV)

COVID-19 outbreaks in a transmission control scenario: challenges posed by social and leisure activities, and for workers in vulnerable conditions, Spain, early summer 2020

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 community-wide transmission declined in Spain by early May 2020, being replaced by outbreaks and sporadic cases. From mid-June to 2 August, excluding single household outbreaks, 673 outbreaks were notified nationally, 551 active (>6,200 cases) at the time. More than half of these outbreaks and cases coincided with: (i) social (family/friends’ gatherings or leisure venues) and (ii) occupational (mainly involving workers in vulnerable conditions) settings. Control measures were accordingly applied

The evolution of the ventilatory ratio is a prognostic factor in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 ARDS patients

Background: Mortality due to COVID-19 is high, especially in patients requiring mechanical ventilation. The purpose of the study is to investigate associations between mortality and variables measured during the first three days of mechanical ventilation in patients with COVID-19 intubated at ICU admission. Methods: Multicenter, observational, cohort study includes consecutive patients with COVID-19 admitted to 44 Spanish ICUs between February 25 and July 31, 2020, who required intubation at ICU admission and mechanical ventilation for more than three days. We collected demographic and clinical data prior to admission; information about clinical evolution at days 1 and 3 of mechanical ventilation; and outcomes. Results: Of the 2,095 patients with COVID-19 admitted to the ICU, 1,118 (53.3%) were intubated at day 1 and remained under mechanical ventilation at day three. From days 1 to 3, PaO2/FiO2 increased from 115.6 [80.0-171.2] to 180.0 [135.4-227.9] mmHg and the ventilatory ratio from 1.73 [1.33-2.25] to 1.96 [1.61-2.40]. In-hospital mortality was 38.7%. A higher increase between ICU admission and day 3 in the ventilatory ratio (OR 1.04 [CI 1.01-1.07], p = 0.030) and creatinine levels (OR 1.05 [CI 1.01-1.09], p = 0.005) and a lower increase in platelet counts (OR 0.96 [CI 0.93-1.00], p = 0.037) were independently associated with a higher risk of death. No association between mortality and the PaO2/FiO2 variation was observed (OR 0.99 [CI 0.95 to 1.02], p = 0.47). Conclusions: Higher ventilatory ratio and its increase at day 3 is associated with mortality in patients with COVID-19 receiving mechanical ventilation at ICU admission. No association was found in the PaO2/FiO2 variation

Treatment with tocilizumab or corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients with hyperinflammatory state: a multicentre cohort study (SAM-COVID-19)

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the association between tocilizumab or corticosteroids and the risk of intubation or death in patients with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) with a hyperinflammatory state according to clinical and laboratory parameters. Methods: A cohort study was performed in 60 Spanish hospitals including 778 patients with COVID-19 and clinical and laboratory data indicative of a hyperinflammatory state. Treatment was mainly with tocilizumab, an intermediate-high dose of corticosteroids (IHDC), a pulse dose of corticosteroids (PDC), combination therapy, or no treatment. Primary outcome was intubation or death; follow-up was 21 days. Propensity score-adjusted estimations using Cox regression (logistic regression if needed) were calculated. Propensity scores were used as confounders, matching variables and for the inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTWs). Results: In all, 88, 117, 78 and 151 patients treated with tocilizumab, IHDC, PDC, and combination therapy, respectively, were compared with 344 untreated patients. The primary endpoint occurred in 10 (11.4%), 27 (23.1%), 12 (15.4%), 40 (25.6%) and 69 (21.1%), respectively. The IPTW-based hazard ratios (odds ratio for combination therapy) for the primary endpoint were 0.32 (95%CI 0.22-0.47; p < 0.001) for tocilizumab, 0.82 (0.71-1.30; p 0.82) for IHDC, 0.61 (0.43-0.86; p 0.006) for PDC, and 1.17 (0.86-1.58; p 0.30) for combination therapy. Other applications of the propensity score provided similar results, but were not significant for PDC. Tocilizumab was also associated with lower hazard of death alone in IPTW analysis (0.07; 0.02-0.17; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Tocilizumab might be useful in COVID-19 patients with a hyperinflammatory state and should be prioritized for randomized trials in this situatio