Fragilidad en ancianos descendientes de longevos: un estudio de casos y controles emparejados

INTRODUCCIÓN: La longevidad humana es un fenotipo complejo influenciado por múltiples determinantes. La fragilidad, un síndrome geriátrico consolidado cuya heredabilidad no está bien establecida, ocupa un lugar preeminente entre ellos. Estudios previos demuestran que los descendientes de progenitores con longevidad extraordinaria, 97 o más años, presentan menor mortalidad, mejor perfil en el proceso de envejecimiento y pueden ser un buen modelo de estudio. Sin embargo ningún estudio ha encontrado de forma concluyente resultados en sarcopenia y fragilidad METODOLOGÍA: Estudio de casos y controles emparejado por edad, género, lugar de nacimiento y residencia, realizado en el Departamento de Salud de La Ribera, de la Comunidad Valenciana, entre el 9 de marzo de 2015 y el 6 de febrero de 2017. Los casos debían tener un progenitor vivo de 97 o más años de edad, tener entre 65 y 80 años, residir en la comunidad, y ser natural y residente habitual en el departamento de salud. Los controles, sin el antecedente de longevidad parental, debían ser del mismo género, la misma edad (5 años) y residir en la misma localidad que el caso con el que se emparejaba. Este estudio se realizó siguiendo las recomendaciones de las guías STROBE. Se analizaron diferencias en fragilidad y sus componentes (según los criterios de Fried), sarcopenia según los criterios europeos (masa muscular medida por bioimpedancia eléctrica), comorbilidad, así como otras variables sociodemográficas, clínicas, funcionales y analíticas. Se emplearon pruebas no paramétricas para muestras relacionadas con el programa SPSS versión 21. RESULTADOS: La muestra obtenida se compuso de 176 sujetos, 88 casos y 88 controles. El 60,2% fueron mujeres. La edad media fue de 70,0 (DE 3,9) años. El antecedente de longevidad extraordinaria se asoció de forma significativa con menor fragilidad, OR= 0,27 (IC95% 0,09-0,76), mayor robustez, OR= 3,33 (IC95% 1,38-8,06). No se II encontraron diferencias significativas en sarcopenia. Los casos también presentaron de forma significativa; mejor nivel formativo, menor percepción de disnea con el esfuerzo, menor prevalencia de obesidad, menor cociente Ldl/ApoB, niveles menores de IL-6 y mayores de SHBG y menor prevalencia de síndromes geriátricos como el dolor, insomnio, polifarmacia y comorbilidad. Así como una tendencia a menor índice de Charlson y menor resistencia a la insulina que resultó significativa a partir de los 70 años. CONCLUSIONES: En nuestro estudio los ancianos con antecedentes parentales de longevidad extraordinaria fueron más robustos, menos frágiles y tuvieron menos síndromes geriátricos que sus controles de la misma edad, género y lugar de nacimiento. Sería conveniente confirmar estos resultados con estudios más amplios que ampliaran las determinaciones a marcadores genéticos y de estrés oxidativo.MedicinaCiencias de la Salu

Segmentation strategy for the efficient analysis and design of substrate integrated waveguide directly coupled cavity filters

This paper is a postprint of a paper submitted to and accepted for publication in IET Microwaves Antennas and Propagation and is subject to Institution of Engineering and Technology Copyright. The copy of record is available at IET Digital LibraryIn this study, a new segmentation strategy is presented for the full-wave analysis of directly coupled cavity filters in substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology. The whole SIW filter is enclosed inside an external fictitious rectangular waveguide, which does not affect the propagation inside the SIW assuming that the SIW is well designed and there is no significant power leakage. The external rectangular waveguide allows to easily segment the structure into building blocks that are composed of circular metallic vias inside a rectangular waveguide. The generalised scattering matrix of these building blocks is obtained with highly efficient techniques specifically suited for the analysis of H-plane rectangular waveguide devices. Some building blocks are repeated along the structure, and their scattering matrix has to be computed only once. The scattering matrices of all the building blocks are cascaded and the scattering matrix of the whole filter is obtained. A SIW filter of eight coupled cavities with a bandpass response centred at 11 GHz is analysed. Results from this analysis show that the computational time has been significantly reduced when compared with other specific SIW analysis methods or with commercial general purpose software, while maintaining a good accuracy.This work was funded by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of the Spanish Government under the project number TEC2013-47037-C5-1-R.Martínez-Zamora, JÁ.; Belenguer, Á.; Esteban González, H.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2016). Segmentation strategy for the efficient analysis and design of substrate integrated waveguide directly coupled cavity filters. IET Microwaves Antennas and Propagation. 10(3):283-287. https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-map.2015.0284S28328710

Burned area detection and mapping using Sentinel-1 backscatter coefficient and thermal anomalies

This paper presents a burned area mapping algorithm based on change detection of Sentinel-1 backscatter data guided by thermal anomalies. The algorithm self-adapts to the local scattering conditions and it is robust to variations of input data availability. The algorithm applies the Reed-Xiaoli detector (RXD) to distinguish anomalous changes of the backscatter coefficient. Such changes are linked to fire events, which are derived from thermal anomalies (hotspots) acquired during the detection period by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensors. Land cover maps were used to account for changing backscatter behaviour as the RXD is class dependent. A machine learning classifier (random forests) was used to detect burned areas where hotspots were not available. Burned area perimeters derived from optical images (Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2) were used to validate the algorithm results. The validation dataset covers 21 million hectares in 18 locations that represent the main biomes affected by fires, from boreal forests to tropical and sub-tropical forests and savannas. A mean Dice coefficient (DC) over all studied locations of 0.59±0.06 (±confidence interval, 95%) was obtained. Mean omission (OE) and commission errors (CE) were 0.43±0.08 and 0.37±0.06, respectively. Comparing results with the MODIS based MCD64A1 Version 6, our detections are quite promising, improving on average DC by 0.13 and reducing OE and CE by 0.12 and 0.06, respectively.European Space AgencyMinisterio de Educación, Cultura y Deport

Detección de cambios anómalos mediante teledetección

Este trabajo de fin de máster aborda el problema de la detección automática de cambios anómalos ocurridos en la superficie terrestre mediante imágenes satelitales de la Tierra. Dichos cambios implican cualquier variación fuera de lo típicamente esperado que se produzca en un área determinada del planeta. Su detección es muy importante dentro de las ciencias de la Tierra, ya que en el contexto actual de calentamiento global y cambio climático, presentan una importancia muy elevada en la escala global y local, permitiendo descubrir nuevos efectos generados por las actividades humanas que alteren el medio natural, y también posibles desestabilizaciones a gran escala entre los sistemas terrestres. En este trabajo se han empleado detectores de anomalías ACD (Anomaly Change Detection) basados en covarianzas, y también las respectivas versiones de contorneado elíptico (Elliptically-Countoured, EC) que extienden esta familia. Estos detectores están basados en el método Reed-Xiaoli, el cuál ha sido ampliamente utilizado en problemas de detección de cambios anómalos. La utilización de estos métodos se ha llevado a cabo en la detección de cambios anómalos reales ocurridos en diferentes lugares de la Tierra, y para la que se han utilizado imágenes multiespectrales de distintas resoluciones espaciales y espectrales (Landsat-8, MODIS, QuickBird y Sentinel-2), lográndose en la mayoría de casos detecciones con elevada precisión y baja tasa de falsas detecciones. Así, se ha confirmado que, en la mayoría de casos, existe una relación directa entre la resolución espectral de las imágenes empleadas y el acierto en las detecciones de cambios anómalos obtenidas. Además, la reducción de la componente espectral de las imágenes mediante el análisis de los componentes principales (PCA) mejora la todas las detecciones realizadas, al igual que un pos procesado basado en un filtrado espacial.This master thesis addresses the problem of the automatic detection of anomalous changes occurring on the Earth's surface using satellite imagery of the Earth. These changes imply any variation outside of what is typically expected to occur in a particular area of the planet. Their detection is very important in geo-sciences, because in the current global context of warming and climate change, they are very important on the global and local scale, allowing to discover new effects generated by human activities that modify the Earth’s systems. In this work we have used anomaly detectors based on covariances matrix, as well as the respective Elliptic-Countoured (EC) versions that extend this family. These detectors are based on the Reed-Xiaoli method, which has been widely used in problems of anomaly change detection. The use of these methods has been carried out in the detection of real anomalous changes occurring in different places of the Earth, and for which multispectral images of different spatial and spectral resolutions have been used (Landsat-8, MODIS, QuickBird and Sentinel -2), obtaining in most cases detections with high precision and low rate of false detections. Thus, it has been confirmed that, in most cases, there is a direct relationship between the spectral resolution of the images used and the accuracy in the detections of anomalous changes obtained. In addition, the reduction of the spectral component of the images by principal component analysis (PCA) improves all the detections performed, as well as a post-processing based on a spatial filtering

Fast Frequency Sweep Technique Based on Segmentation for the Acceleration of the Electromagnetic Analysis of Microwave Devices

[EN] The characterization of communication devices in a certain frequency band can be accelerated if a fast frequency sweep technique is used instead of a discrete frequency sweep. Existing fast frequency sweep techniques are either complex or specific for a certain electromagnetic solver. In this work, a new fast frequency sweep method is proposed that consists in segmenting the device under analysis into simple building blocks. Each building block is characterized with a generalized (multimode) circuital matrix whose elements present a simple and flat frequency response that is interpolated using natural cubic splines with very few points. In this way, the response of each block along the whole frequency band is obtained efficiently and accurately with as many frequency points as desired. Then, the circuital matrices of all the blocks are cascaded and the circuital matrix of the whole device in obtained. The new fast frequency sweep was successfully applied to the analysis of different types of devices (all metallic rectangular waveguide filter, dielectric loaded rectangular waveguide filter, and substrate integrated waveguide filter). The computational times were reduced to 15% or 19%, depending on the device, when compared with a discrete frequency sweep using the same electromagnetic solver.This research was funded by Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad, Spanish Government, under Research Projects TEC2016-75934-C4-3-R and TEC2016-75934-C4-1-R.Martínez-Zamora, JÁ.; Belenguer Martínez, A.; Esteban González, H. (2019). Fast Frequency Sweep Technique Based on Segmentation for the Acceleration of the Electromagnetic Analysis of Microwave Devices. Applied Sciences. 9(6):1-16. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9061118S11696Erdemli, Y. E., Reddy, C. J., & Volakis, J. L. (1999). Awe Technique in Frequency Domain Electromagnetics. Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, 13(3), 359-378. doi:10.1163/156939399x00961Reddy, C. J., Deshpande, M. D., Cockrell, C. R., & Beck, F. B. (1998). Fast RCS computation over a frequency band using method of moments in conjunction with asymptotic waveform evaluation technique. IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 46(8), 1229-1233. doi:10.1109/8.718579Polstyanko, S. V., Dyezij-Edlinger, R., & Jin-Fa Lee. (1997). Fast frequency sweep technique for the efficient analysis of dielectric waveguides. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 45(7), 1118-1126. doi:10.1109/22.598450Chiprout, E., & Nakhla, M. S. (1995). Analysis of interconnect networks using complex frequency hopping (CFH). IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 14(2), 186-200. doi:10.1109/43.370425Gustavsen, B., & Semlyen, A. (1999). Rational approximation of frequency domain responses by vector fitting. IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, 14(3), 1052-1061. doi:10.1109/61.772353Bandler, J. W., Biernacki, R. M., Shao Hua Chen, & Ya Fei Huang. (1997). Design optimization of interdigital filters using aggressive space mapping and decomposition. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 45(5), 761-769. doi:10.1109/22.575598Ros, J. V. M., Pacheco, P. S., Gonzalez, H. E., Esbert, V. E. B., Martin, C. B., Calduch, M. T., … Martinez, B. G. (2005). Fast automated design of waveguide filters using aggressive space mapping with a new segmentation strategy and a hybrid optimization algorithm. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 53(4), 1130-1142. doi:10.1109/tmtt.2005.845685Alos, J. T., & Guglielmi, M. (1997). Simple and effective EM-based optimization procedure for microwave filters. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 45(5), 856-858. doi:10.1109/22.575610Bachiller, C., Gonzalez, H. E., Boria Esbert, V. E., Belenguer Martinez, A., & Morro, J. V. (2007). Efficient Technique for the Cascade Connection of Multiple Two-Port Scattering Matrices. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 55(9), 1880-1886. doi:10.1109/tmtt.2007.904076Interpolación de Splineshttps://www.uv.es/diaz/mn/node40.htmlBachiller, C., Esteban, H., Mata, H., Valdes, M. Á., Boria, V. E., Belenguer, Á., & Morro, J. V. (2010). Hybrid Mode Matching Method for the Efficient Analysis of Metal and Dielectric Rods in H Plane Rectangular Waveguide Devices. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. doi:10.1109/tmtt.2010.208395

Novel empty substrate integrated waveguide for high performance microwave integrated circuits

"(c) 20xx IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works."Abstract Over the last years, a great number of substrate integrated circuits has been developed. These new circuits are a compromise between the advantages of classical waveguide technologies, such as high quality factor and low losses, and the advantages of planar circuits, such as low cost and easy compact integration. Although their quality factor and losses are better than for planar circuits, these characteristics are worse than in the case of waveguides, mainly due to the presence of the dielectric substrate. In order to improve the performance of the integrated circuits, a new methodology for manufacturing empty waveguides, without a dielectric substrate, but at the same time completely integrated in a planar substrate, is proposed in this work. A wideband transition with return losses greater than 20 dB in the whole bandwith of the waveguide allows the integration of the empty waveguide into the planar substrate so that the waveguide can be directly accessed with a microstrip line. Therefore, a microwave circuit integrated in a planar substrate, but at the same time with a very high quality factor (measured quality factor is 4.5 times higher than for the same filter in the substrate integrated waveguide), and very low losses is successfully achieved.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Spanish Goverment, under Research Project TEC2010-21520-C04-03 and Research Project EC2010-21520-C04-01, and by the Autonomous Government of Castilla-La Mancha under Research Project PPII10-0047-0220.Belenguer Martínez, Á.; Esteban González, H.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2014). Novel empty substrate integrated waveguide for high performance microwave integrated circuits. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. 62(4):832-839. https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2014.2309637S83283962

GEMA2:Geometrical matching analytical algorithm for fast mobile robots global self-localization

[EN] This paper presents a new algorithm for fast mobile robot self-localization in structured indoor environments based on geometrical and analytical matching, GEMA(2). The proposed method takes advantage of the available structural information to perform a geometrical matching with the environment information provided by measurements collected by a laser range finder. In contrast to other global self-localization algorithms like Monte Carlo or SLAM, GEMA(2) provides a linear cost with respect the number of measures collected, making it suitable for resource-constrained embedded systems. The proposed approach has been implemented and tested in a mobile robot with limited computational resources showing a fast converge from global self-localization. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work has been partially funded by FEDER-CICYT projects with references DPI2011-28507-C02-01 and HAR2012-38391-C02-02 financed by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion and Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain).Sánchez Belenguer, C.; Soriano Vigueras, Á.; Vallés Miquel, M.; Vendrell Vidal, E.; Valera Fernández, Á. (2014). GEMA2:Geometrical matching analytical algorithm for fast mobile robots global self-localization. Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 62(6):855-863. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2014.01.009S85586362

Cross-guide Moreno directional coupler in empty substrate integrated waveguide

[EN] Substrate integrated waveguides (SIWs) combine the advantages of rectangular waveguides (low losses) and planar circuits (low cost and low profile). Empty substrate integrated waveguide (ESIW) has been proposed as a novel configuration in SIWs recently. This technology significantly reduces the losses of conventional SIW by removing its inner dielectric. The cross-guide directional coupler is a well-known low-profile design for having a broadband waveguide coupler. In this paper a cross-guide coupler with ESIW technique is proposed. In such a manner, the device can be integrated with microwave circuits and other printed circuit board components. It is the first time that a cross-guide coupler is implemented in ESIW technology. The designed, fabricated, and measured device presents good results as a matter of insertion loss of 1 dB (including transitions), reflection under 20 dB, coupling between 19.5 and 21.5 dB, and directivity higher than 15 dB over targeted frequency range from 12.4 GHz to 18 GHz. The coupler implemented in ESIW improves the directivity when compared to similar solutions in other empty substrate integrated waveguide solutions.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spanish Goverment, under research projects TEC2013-47037-C5-3-R and TEC2013-47037-C5-1-R. All the data related with this work can be requested from H. Esteban ([email protected]).Miralles-Navarro, E.; Belenguer, Á.; Esteban González, H.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2017). Cross-guide Moreno directional coupler in empty substrate integrated waveguide. Radio Science. 52(5):597-603. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017RS006244S597603525Ball, J. A. R., & Sulda, T. M. (2000). Small aperture crossed waveguide broad wall directional couplers. IEE Proceedings - Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation, 147(4), 249. doi:10.1049/ip-map:20000570Belenguer, A., Esteban, H., & Boria, V. E. (2014). Novel Empty Substrate Integrated Waveguide for High-Performance Microwave Integrated Circuits. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 62(4), 832-839. doi:10.1109/tmtt.2014.2309637Chen , J. 1998 Cross-guide coupler modeling and design TDA Prog. Tech. Rep. Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol. Pasadena, CalifXiao-Ping Chen, Ke Wu, & Drolet, D. (2009). Substrate Integrated Waveguide Filter With Improved Stopband Performance for Satellite Ground Terminal. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 57(3), 674-683. doi:10.1109/tmtt.2009.2013316Cheng, Y. J., & Fan, Y. (2012). Compact substrate-integrated waveguide bandpass rat-race coupler and its microwave applications. IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, 6(9), 1000. doi:10.1049/iet-map.2012.0011Dong, Y., & Itoh, T. (2011). Composite Right/Left-Handed Substrate Integrated Waveguide and Half Mode Substrate Integrated Waveguide Leaky-Wave Structures. IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 59(3), 767-775. doi:10.1109/tap.2010.2103025Farzami, F., Forooraghi, K., & Norooziarab, M. (2011). Design and Modeling of a Miniaturized Substrate Integrated Waveguide Using Embedded SRRs. IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, 10, 713-716. doi:10.1109/lawp.2011.2161860Farzami, F., & Norooziarab, M. (2013). Experimental Realization of Tunable Transmission Lines Based on Single-Layer SIWs Loaded by Embedded SRRs. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 61(8), 2848-2857. doi:10.1109/tmtt.2013.2271759Fernandez, M. D., Ballesteros, J. A., & Belenguer, A. (2015). Design of a Hybrid Directional Coupler in Empty Substrate Integrated Waveguide (ESIW). IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, 25(12), 796-798. doi:10.1109/lmwc.2015.2496803Moreno , A. 1946 A new directional coupler for waveguide Sperry Gyroscope Eng. Rep., Sperry Gyroscope Co. BrooklynRambabu, K., Thiart, H. A., & Bornemann, J. (2005). Simplified analysis for the initial design of rectangular waveguide cross-slot couplers. IEE Proceedings - Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation, 152(4), 226. doi:10.1049/ip-map:20045056Rautschke, F., Maassen, D., Konc, O., & Boeck, G. (2016). Comparison of conventional and substrate integrated waveguide filters for satellite communication. 2016 IEEE MTT-S International Wireless Symposium (IWS). doi:10.1109/ieee-iws.2016.7585467Zhang, Y., Wang, Q., & Ding, J. (2013). A Cross-Guide Waveguide Directional Coupler With High Directivity and Broad Bandwidth. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, 23(11), 581-583. doi:10.1109/lmwc.2013.228140

Integration of a Very High Quality Factor Filter in Empty Substrate Integrated Waveguide at Q-band

© 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permissíon from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertisíng or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.[EN] Recently, new methodologies for manufacturing empty waveguides completely integrated in a planar substrate have been proposed in order to improve the performance of substrate-integrated devices. One of these alternatives is the so-called empty substrate-integrated waveguide (ESIW). The height of high-frequency substrates, where ESIW devices are integrated, is very small. Then, the capacity of storing energy of ESIW resonators is drastically reduced, and as a result, their quality factor is not as high as it could be with a higher ESIW. In order to overcome this restriction, a novel integrated structure is proposed to embed very high-quality factor filters based on the ESIW with an increased height. As a result, we show, in this letter, for the first time, the successful integration of an increased-height ESIW filter in a printed circuit board of 0.305 mm height at Q-band, achieving a quality factor above 1000, which is a remarkable result for a completely substrate-integrated device operating in this frequency band. When compared with the same filter manufactured with an ESIW with the same height as the substrate, the novel filter shows a measured quality factor 85% higher.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spanish Government, under Project TEC2016-75934-C4-3-R and Project TEC2016-75934-C4-1-R.Martínez-Zamora, JÁ.; De Dios, JJ.; Belenguer Martínez, Á.; Esteban González, H.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2018). Integration of a Very High Quality Factor Filter in Empty Substrate Integrated Waveguide at Q-band. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters. 28(6):503-505. https://doi.org/10.1109/LMWC.2018.2833214S50350528

High-Performance Coplanar Waveguide to Empty Substrate Integrated Coaxial Line Transition

Recently, a new empty coaxial structure, entirely built with printed circuit boards, has been proposed. The resulting coaxial line has low radiation, low losses, high-quality factor, and is nondispersive. Up to now, this coaxial line has not been completely integrated in a planar substrate, since a working transition to a traditional planar line has not been defined yet. Therefore, in this paper, a high-quality transition from coplanar waveguide to this new empty coaxial line is proposed. With this transition, the coaxial line is completely integrated in a planar circuit board, so that it truly becomes an empty substrate-integrated coaxial line. The proposed transition has been fabricated. Both full-wave simulated and measured results show an excellent agreement. Therefore, the proposed transition is suitable to develop completely substrate-integrated components for applications in wideband communication systems that require very high quality responses and protection from external interferences. To show this fact, this new transition has been applied to integrate a high-performance empty coaxial filter in a planar substrate. The measured response of this filter is excellent, and proves the goodness of the proposed transition that has enabled, for the first time, the complete integration of an empty coaxial line in a planar substrate.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spanish Goverment under Research Projects TEC2013-47037-C5-3-R and TEC2013-47037-C5-1-R.Belenguer Martínez, Á.; Borja, A.; Esteban González, H.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2015). High-Performance Coplanar Waveguide to Empty Substrate Integrated Coaxial Line Transition. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. 63(12):4027-4034. doi:10.1109/TMTT.2015.2496271S40274034631