Panchromatic study of the impulsive phase of solar flares

My thesis presents a panchromatic study of a set of X-class solar flares that occurred on 2013 May 13th - 15th, using multi-band integrated and polarized radio data from Nobeyama Radio Polarimeter (NoRP) and three satellites: Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) for ultraviolet (UV), extreme ultraviolet (EUV) line spectra and the photospheric magnetic field; the GBM instrument on board of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) for the broad band observations of the x-ray emission. The analysis of time series in radio and x-ray shows that, in general, the same temporal substructures found in the x-ray thick-target bremsstrahlung emission are also present in the gyro-synchrotron radio emission and that x-ray emission leads the radio one. The interpretation of this effect is that: i) the same particles (i.e. electrons) that are responsible for the x-ray emission are also responsible for the radio emission; ii) X-rays radiation provide the time reference for the emission; the delay of the radio emission is used to derive physical properties of the environment in which the particles are moving (index of refraction of the plasma, structures that constrain the movement of the particles). The radio emission shows a sort of particular ``delay curve'' which has not been described in the literature previously and has been interpreted in this work as the effect of the refraction index of the material that lies along the line of sight, or as the fact that the streaming particles encounter different magnetic field strength in different location of the loop, causing a change in the gyrosynchrotron frequency. The the analysis of the combined spatially resolved data in x-ray and EUV confirm that Soft x-ray emission (3 - 50 keV) comes mainly from the looptop and Hard x-ray emission comes mainly from the footpoints. The flare initiation event observed by Masuda et al. (1995) has been resolved in the May 13th. The event was, by chance, a ``flare on the limb'' with soft x-ray emission at different energies coming from different locations near the looptop (the more energetic it is, the higher in the atmosphere it is emitted). I developed new IDL-based tools for the analysis of the data. For example: i) using spatially resolved data, computes the lightcurve of each resolved element of the visible surface of the Sun, following the rotation of the Sun during the observation; ii) displays a lightcurve (no matter the energy range) and let us instantly compare what is happening on the surface of the Sun (up to five different bands of emission) simply by selecting a point in time on the lightcurve. These tools uncovered another effect which has not been previously reported in the literature: the lightcurve in EUV emission coming exclusively from the loop arms shows a sort of periodic repetition of the footpoint pattern of emission, with a delay compatible with the period of the Magnetoacoustic slow mode of loop oscillation. Additionally, using the same procedures, I spatially decomposed the lightcurve from the lowest observable layer of the solar atmosphere, where it is supposed that the particle (which are accelerated in the corona) deposit all their kinetic energy. This kind of decomposition locates the emission region of the substructures present on the lightcurve (i.e. single peaks that constitute the whole lightcurve) and provide information about the accelerated particles and the environment in which the process is taking place (i.e. spectrum of accelerated particle for each peak, density of the environment, strength of the magnetic field). As a by-product of the thesis work, I also made corrections to some procedures included in the standard SolarSoft package. This package is used in solar physics to analyze the data coming from instruments designed to observe the Sun. In particular, the procedures corrected are related to the quality enhancement from Level 1.0 to Level 1.5 of the data from SDO\AIA, which is a crucial point for the analysis performed in this work. These procedures are now public and are included in the SolarSoft package

Actividad antioxidante y biodisponibilidad mineral de zumos de frutas adicionados de minerales y/o leche

En los últimos años, la industria alimentaria ha incrementado su interés en el desarrollo de alimentos funcionales, siendo el enriquecimiento de bebidas a base de zumo de frutas con vitaminas y minerales uno de los métodos empleados. Esta estrategia persigue mejorar el estado nutricional de la población, o de grupos específicos de población y/o corregir posibles deficiencias en la ingesta diaria de vitaminas o minerales, debidas a cambios en los hábitos alimentarios. No obstante, se precisa un mayor conocimiento sobre las interacciones que puedan producirse entre los compuestos bioactivos de las bebidas a base de zumo de frutas y los minerales adicionados, o viceversa. Para ello, se estudia la influencia del almacenamiento en refrigeración (2-4 ºC) y digestión gastrointestinal simulada en las muestras objeto de estudio (bebidas a base de zumo de frutas (uva-naranja-melocotón) con o sin leche y/o minerales (Fe y Zn)) sobre la capacidad antioxidante total (métodos ORAC y TEAC), polifenoles solubles totales y contenido de ácido ascórbico. Se observa que las propiedades antioxidantes de las bebidas no disminuyen durante su período de vida útil (135 días) tras el almacenamiento en refrigeración así como después de un proceso de digestión gastrointestinal in vitro. Destacar que la presencia de hierro y/o cinc y/o leche, disminuye el contenido de polifenoles solubles totales, observando, sin embargo, un efecto positivo del cinc sobre los flavan-3-oles tras la digestión gastrointestinal. Asimismo, se evalúan los efectos biológicos, en cultivos celulares, de las fracciones bioaccesibles de las bebidas objeto de estudio a través de la actividad citoprotectora frente a estrés oxidativo inducido y mediante la actividad antiproliferativa en células tumorales de cáncer de colon (Caco-2 y HT-29). Las bebidas a base de zumo de frutas que contienen cinc y cinc-leche son aquellas con mayores efectos beneficiosos, ya que ejercen un efecto citoprotector manteniendo la integridad mitocondrial y metabólica de las células, inducen la enzima GSH-Rd, ejercen una respuesta adaptativa del ciclo celular y previenen de la apoptosis caspasa-dependiente. Además, inhiben la proliferación de las células de cáncer de colon a través de un efecto citostático, debido al bloqueo en la progresión del ciclo celular en la fase S, acompañado de un descenso en la expresión de las ciclinas B1 y D1. Por otra parte, se determina la influencia del consumo de las bebidas objeto de estudio sobre el estatus antioxidante de mujeres sanas en edad fértil. Tras el estudio de intervención, no se mejora de la capacidad antioxidante total sérica por el bajo estrés oxidativo endógeno y la ausencia de cambios drásticos en los hábitos alimentarios de la población de estudio, aunque se induce la actividad de la enzima superóxido dismutasa , la cual podría ejercer un efecto protector en forma de "tolerancia" frente a un daño oxidativo posterior. Finalmente, se determina la bioaccesibilidad de hierro y cinc tras el proceso de digestión gastrointestinal simulada, junto a la biodisponibilidad de hierro en células Caco-2 utilizando la síntesis de ferritina como criterio estimador de la misma. La interacción negativa del cinc sobre la bioaccesibilidad del hierro es contrarrestada en presencia de leche, posiblemente debido a los caseinofosfopéptidos formados durante el proceso de digestión, mientras que la síntesis de ferritina es 3 veces superior en las bebidas que contienen leche y hierro, poniendo de manifiesto que la presencia de caseinofosfopéptidos mejora la captación celular de hierro.In last years food industry has focused its interest in the development of functional foods, being fortification of fruit beverages with vitamins and minerals one of the methods employed. However, more knowledge about interactions between bioactive compounds of fruit beverages and minerals is needed. To do this task, it was evaluated total antioxidant capacity (ORAC and TEAC methods), total soluble phenolic compounds and ascorbic acid content as influenced by cold storage (2-4 ºC) and an in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestion in fruit beverages supplemented with/without iron and/or zinc and/or milk. Results showed that antioxidant properties did not diminish after cold storage and the digestion process. Likewise, biological effects such as cytoprotection against H2O2-induced oxidative stress and antiproliferative activity were determined using the bioaccesible fraction of fruit beverages upon cell cultures (Caco-2 and HT-29 cells). Fruit beverages with zinc and zinc-milk conferred the biggest effects against oxidative stress maintaining the functionality of cells and showing an antiproliferative activity due to a cytostatic mode of action. On the other hand, it was evaluated the impact of fruit beverage consumption upon antioxidant status in healthy woman of fertile age. After the intervention study, serum total antioxidant capacity was not improved but increase erythrocyte superoxide dismutase activity what could imply a protective effect in the form of “tolerance” to a subsequent larger challenge. Finally, iron and zinc bioaccessibility together with iron bioavailability determined by means ferritin synthesis in Caco-2 cells was assessed. The negative interaction of zinc on iron bioaccessibility was overcome in the presence of milk probably due to caseinophosphopeptides formed during the digestion process, while ferritin synthesis was 3-fold higher in fruit beverages with iron and milk, what implies that possibly caseinophosphopeptides could improve iron cellular uptake

Analysis of the accuracy on computing nominal stress in a biaxial test for arteries

Biaxial tests are commonly used to investigate the mechanical behaviour of anisotropic soft biological tissues such as cardiovascular tissues. However, there is still no clear understanding of the influence that the biaxial test set-up conditions may have on the computing material stress of the experimental results. The aim of the present study is to further investigate the accuracy of calculated material stress from measured force during biaxial tests using finite element methods (FEM). The biaxial mechanical response of ascending aorta and pulmonary artery tissue samples was obtained by FEM simulation under two different gripping methods: (a) a system with noodle clamps and (b) a clamped system with needles which leave the specimen's edges free to expand laterally. The results show that the clamped method whose joints allow free movement in the lateral direction produces stresses closer to the universally accepted formulation of biaxial material stress in the central region. However, the system with noodle clamps, commonly used to grip the sample, produces an alteration of the measurement stresses. Our simulations show results giving an inaccurate estimation of the stress at the centre of the sample. In some cases, the stresses are overestimated and in others underestimated depending on the anisotropy of the sample. We can conclude that the clamped system with needles which leave the specimen's edges free to expand laterally should be used as an efficient methodology to other commonly used gripping methods for biological tissues with anisotropic materials

Prebióticos y nucleótidos en alimentación infantil: revisión de la evidencia

Introduction: Most of the initiation and maintenance pediatric formulas commercialized in Spain contain prebiotics and/or nucleotides aiming at achieving beneficial effects on prevention of different pathologies and immune protection, similar to human breast milk. However, according to the current legislation, its inclusion is optional since sufficient scientific evidences supporting its mandatory inclusion is lacking. Objective: To systematically review the scientific evidence from randomized clinical studies with a control group allowing determining the beneficial role for infant health derived from the inclusion of prebiotics and/or nucleotides in pediatric formulas. Methodology: We looked for and selected both original papers and reviews in Spanish and English language of placebo controlled randomized clinical studies published in the databases MEDLINE/PubMed, Scielo, Science Direct, and Scopus, until October of 2011. Results: We found 43 randomized clinical trials meeting the inclusion criteria. Conclusions: More long-term randomized studies with higher number of patients, and standardized supplemental amounts and experimental conditions are needed to establish healthy statements with stronger scientific support regarding the addition of a mixture of prebiotics (GOS/FOS) and/or nucleotides in pediatric formulas. The current trend to include them in pediatric formulas may be justified based on the currently available evidence, as well as their safety and their presence in human breast milk

A probabilistic, discriminative and distributed system for the recognition of human actions from multiple views

This paper presents a distributed system for the recognition of human actions using views of the scene grabbed by different cameras. 2D frame descriptors are extracted for each available view to capture the variability in human motion. These descriptors are projected into a lower dimensional space and fed into a probabilistic classifier to output a posterior distribution of the action performed according to the descriptor computed at each camera. Classifier fusion algorithms are then used to merge the posterior distributions into a single distribution. The generated single posterior distribution is fed into a sequence classifier to make the final decision on the performed activity. The system can instantiate different algorithms for the different tasks, as the interfaces between modules are clearly defined. Results on the classification of the actions in the IXMAS dataset are reported. The accuracy of the proposed system is similar to state-of-the-art 3D methods, even though it uses only well-known 2D pattern recognition techniques and does not need to project the data into a 3D space or require camera calibration parameters.This work was supported in part by Projects CICYT TIN 2008-06742-C02-02/TSI, CICYT TEC2008-06732-C02-02/TEC, CAM CONTEXTS (S2009/TIC1485) and DPS2008-07029-C02-02.publicad

Electrochemical analysis of gold embroidery threads from archeological textiles

[EN] A methodology for characterizing archeological gold embroidery threads based on two analytical techniques is described: Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM-EDX) and voltammetry of immobilized microparticle (VIMP) methodologies. After the analysis of the chemical composition of the metallic foil, we analyze specific voltammetric features associated with the oxidation of gold in contact with aqueous H2SO4 and HCl electrolytes. Cyclic and square wave voltammetries (VMP) have been used to get information about the elemental composition and the corrosion products of the samples. AFM, FESEM-EDX, and FESEM-FIB-EDX methodologies complete the study and bring us closer to the composition of the alloys and the embroidery manufacture techniques. This technique actualizes the VIMP data and evidences the morphological and elemental differences between them; in particular, it is confirmed that Au-Ag-Cu alloys, with notably differences in Ag content depending on the provenance, were used.Projects CTQ2014-53736-C3-1-P and CTQ2014-53736-C3-2P, which are supported with Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO), and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (ERDF) funds, as well as project CTQ2017-85317-C2-1-P supported with funds from MINECO, ERDF, and Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI), are gratefully acknowledged.Martínez, B.; Piquero-Cilla, J.; Domenech Carbo, MT.; Montoya, N.; Doménech Carbó, A. (2018). Electrochemical analysis of gold embroidery threads from archeological textiles. Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry. 22(7):2205-2215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-018-3927-xS22052215227Járó M (2003). 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Results of the scientific investigations in Endrei W, Ed. Yearbook of the Textile Museum, Budapest, pp 31−51Nord AG, Tronner K (2000) A note on the analysis of gilded metal embroidery threads. Stud Conservat 45:274–279Tronner K, Nord AG, Sjöstedt J, Hydman H (2002) Extremely thin gold layers on gilded silver threads. Stud Conservat 47:109–116Hoke E, Petrascheck-Heim I (1977) Microprobe analysis of gilded silver threads from mediaeval textiles. Stud in Conservat 22:49–62Indictor N, Koestler RJ, Blair C, Wardwell A (1988) The evaluation of metal warppings from medieval textiles using scanning electron microscoopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry. Text Hist 19(1):3–22Indictor N, Koestler RJ, Wypyski M, Wardwell AE (1989) Metal threads made of proteinaceous substrates examined by scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry. Stud Conservat 34:171–182Karatzani A (2006). Metal threads: the historical development. Proceedings ISA: 444.09−444.19Járó M, Toth A, Gondar E (1990) Determination of the manufacturing technique of a 10th century metal thread. ICOM Committee for Conservation, 9th triennial meeting, Dresden, German Democratic Republic. ICOM Committee for Conservation, pp 299−301Enguita O, Climent-Font A, García G, Montero I, Fedi ME, Chiari M, Lucarelli F (2002) Characterization of metal threads using differential PIXE analysis. Nucl Inst Methods Phys Res B 189(1-4):328–333Balta ZI, Csedreki L, Furu E, Cretu I, Huszank R, Lupu M, Torok Z, Kertesz Z, Szikszai Z (2015) Ion beam analysis of golden threads from Romanian medieval textiles. Nucl Inst Methods Phys Res B 348:285–290Pascual-Pacheco J (1992) La necrópolis islámica de l’Almoina (Valencia). Primeros resultados. III CAME, Actas 2:406−412Pascual-Pacheco J, Serrano-Marcos ML (1996) Necrópolis islámicas en la ciudad de Valencia. Saitabi 46:231–252Ferragud-Adam X, Piquero-Cilla J, Doménech-Carbó MT, Guerola Blay V, Company X, Doménech-Carbó A (2017) Electrochemical analysis of gildings in Valencia altarpieces: a cross-age study since 15th until 20th century. J Solid State Electrochem 21:1477–1487Constantinescu B, Vasilescu A, Radtke M, Reinholz U (2010) Micro-SR-XRF studies for archaeological gold identification—the case of Carpathian gold and Romanian museal objects. Appl Phys A Mater Sci Process 99(2):383–389Antonelli F, Lazzarini L, Cancellere S, Tesser E (2016) Study of the deteriortion products, gilding, and polychromy of the stones of the Scuola Grande Di San Marco’s façade in Venice. Stud Conserv 61(2):74–85Gulotta D, Goidanich S, Bertoldi M, Bortolotto S, Toniolo L (2012) Gildings and false gildings of the baroque age: characterization and conservation problems. 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Electrochemical analysis of the first Polish coins using voltammetry of immobilized particles

[EN] A series of 20 denarii from Boleslaus the Brave (992-1025) and Mieszko II Lambert (1025-1034), corresponding to the beginning of the Polish state were studied using the voltammetry of immobilized particles (VIMP) methodology. VIMP experiments, applied to nanosamples of the corrosion layers of the coins in contact with aqueous acetate buffer, provided well-defined responses mainly corresponding to the corrosion products of copper and lead. Such voltammetric responses, combined with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy experiments performed on the same set of coins, and complemented by focusing ion beam-field emission scanning electron microscope (FIB-FESEM) on silver coins from the 19th century, supported the hypothesis that two different metal sources were used in the former historical period and suggested that the coins were produced in three different mints. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserve.Financial support from the MINECO Projects CTQ2014-53736-C3-1-P and CTQ2014-53736-C3-2-P which are supported with ERDF funds is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are very grateful to the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education for partly financing the work presented in this paper through a grant within the framework of the National Program for the Development of the Humanities (Decision No. 0100/NPRH3/H12/82/2014) and also wish to thank Dr. Jose Luis Moya Lopez and Mr. Manuel Planes Insausti (Microscopy Service of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia) for technical support.Doménech Carbó, A.; Del Hoyo Meléndez, JM.; Domenech Carbo, MT.; Piquero-Cilla, J. (2017). Electrochemical analysis of the first Polish coins using voltammetry of immobilized particles. Microchemical Journal. 130:47-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2016.07.020S475513

Recognizing human activities from sensors using hidden Markov models constructed by feature selection techniques

19 pages, 8 figures.-- This article belongs to the Special Issue "Sensor Algorithms".In this paper a method for selecting features for Human Activity Recognition from sensors is presented. Using a large feature set that contains features that may describe the activities to recognize, Best First Search and Genetic Algorithms are employed to select the feature subset that maximizes the accuracy of a Hidden Markov Model generated from the subset. A comparative of the proposed techniques is presented to demonstrate their performance building Hidden Markov Models to classify different human activities using video sensors.This work was supported in part by Projects CICYT TIN2008-06742-C02-02/TSI, CICYT TEC2008-06732-C02-02/TEC, SINPROB and CAM MADRINET S-0505/TIC/0255.Publicad

Effect of milk based fruit beverage enriched with plant sterols and/or galactooligosaccharides in a murine chronic colitis model

The potential anti-inflammatory effect of plant sterols (PS) enriched milk-based fruit beverages (PS, 1 g/100 mL) (MfB) with/without galactooligosaccharides (GOS, 2 g/100 mL) (MfB-G) in an experimental mice model of chronic ulcerative colitis was evaluated. Beverages were orally administered to mice every day by gavage to achieve PS and GOS doses of 35 and 90 mg/kg, respectively, and experimental colitis was induced by giving mice drinking water ad libitum containing 2% (w/v) dextran sulphate sodium (DSS) for 7 days, alternating with periods without DSS up to the end of the study (56 days). MfB beverage showed significant reduction of symptoms associated to ulcerative colitis and improved the colon shortening and mucosal colonic damage, but it was not able to reduce the increase of myeloperoxidase levels produced by DSS. MfB-G showed higher incidence of bloody feces and loss of stool consistency than MfB, as well as high levels of immune cells infiltration in colon tissue and myeloperoxidase. Therefore, PS-enriched milk-based fruit beverage could be an interesting healthy food to extend the remission periods of the diseases and the need to evaluate, in a pre-clinical model, the anti-inflammatory effect of the combination of bioactive compounds in the context of a whole food matrix