Non-invasive evaluation of left ventricular afterload, part 2 : arterial pressure-flow and pressure-volume relations in humans

The mechanical load imposed by the systemic circulation to the left ventricle is an important determinant of normal and abnormal cardiovascular function. Left ventricular afterload is determined by complex time-varying phenomena, which affect pressure and flow patterns generated by the pumping ventricle. Left ventricular afterload is best described in terms of pressure-flow relations, allowing for quantification of various components of load using simplified biomechanical models of the circulation, with great potential for mechanistic understanding of the role of central hemodynamics in cardiovascular disease and the effects of therapeutic interventions. In the second part of this tutorial, we review analytic methods used to characterize left ventricular afterload, including analyses of central arterial pressure-flow relations and windkessel modeling (pressure-volume relations). Conceptual descriptions of various models and methods are emphasized over mathematical ones. Our review is aimed at helping researchers and clinicians obtain and interpret results from analyses of left ventricular afterload in clinical and epidemiological settings

Mobility and fluorescence of barium ions in xenon gas for the EXO experiment

2014 Summer.The Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) is an experiment which aims to observe the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe. The measurement of this decay would give information about the absolute neutrino mass and whether or not the neutrino is its own antiparticle. Since this is a very rare decay, the ability to reject background events by detecting the barium ion daughter from the double beta decay would be a major advantage. EXO is currently operating a detector with 200 kg of enriched liquid xenon, and there are plans to build a ton scale xenon detector. Measurements of the purity of liquid xenon in our liquid xenon test cell are reported. These results are relevant to the research on detection of single barium ions by our research group at Colorado State University. Details of the operation of the purity monitor are described. The effects of using a purifier, recirculation and laser ablation on the purity of liquid xenon are discussed. Mobility measurements of barium in xenon gas are reported for the first time. The variation of mobility with xenon gas pressure suggests that a significant fraction of molecular ions are formed when barium ions interact with xenon gas at high pressures. The measured mobility of Ba+ in Xe gas at different pressures is compared with the predicted theoretical value, and deviations are explained by a model that describes the fraction of molecular ions in Xe gas as a function of pressure. The results are useful for the analysis of experiments of fluorescence of Ba+ in xenon gas. It is also important to know the mobility of the ions in order to calculate the time they interact with an excitation laser in fluorescence experiments and in proposed 136Ba+ daughter detection schemes. This thesis presents results of detection of laser induced fluorescence of Ba+ ions in Xe gas. Measurements of the pressure broadening of the excitation spectra of Ba+ in xenon gas are presented. Nonradiative decays due to gas collisions and optical pumping affect the number of fluorescence counts detected. A model that treats the barium ion as a three level system is used to predict the total number of fluorescence counts and correct for optical pumping. A pressure broadening coefficient for Ba+ in xenon gas is extracted and limits for p-d and d-s nonradiative decay rates are extracted. Although fluorescence is reduced significantly at 5-10 atm xenon pressure, the measurements in this thesis indicate that it is still feasible to detect 136Ba+ ions directly in high pressure xenon gas, e.g. in a double beta decay detector

Diseño de un sistema de climatización para una piscina temperada ubicada en la ciudad de Lima

Publicación a texto completo no autorizada por el autorPlantea el diseño de un sistema de climatización para una piscina temperada, ubicada en la ciudad de Lima, debido a que actualmente los diferentes centros recreacionales, clubes, hoteles, spas y otros centros cuentan con piscinas climatizadas en sus ambientes se ha visto la necesidad de establecer las condiciones mínimas de calidad, dimensionamientos, capacidades y criterios básicos para las instalaciones de dichos ambientes. Previamente al desarrollo del proyecto se establecen definiciones relacionadas con los sistemas de aire acondicionado, componentes y accesorios. A su vez se mencionan normas y recomendaciones importantes a seguir para el diseño. Se han realizado los cálculos de tasa de evaporación y se ha seleccionado un equipo especial tipo split y así como el diseño de la red de ductos de distribución del aire acondicionado de este proyecto.Trabajo de suficiencia profesiona

Phylogenetic and functional analysis of Arabidopsis RCI2 genes

4 páginas, 7 figuras, 3 tablas, 4 figuras suplementarias, 3 tablas suplementarias -- PAGS nros. 4333-4336Six new Arabidopsis thaliana genes (AtRCI2C-H) have been identified that show high homology to AtRCI2A and AtRCI2B. Sequence comparisons revealed that AtRCI2-related genes are widely spread among very different organisms, including other plant species, prokaryotes, fungi, and simply organized animals, and are also organized in gene families. Most RCI2 genes show a similar exon–intron organization, which indicates that they have been structurally conserved during evolution, and encode small, highly hydrophobic proteins containing two putative transmembrane domains. Consistently, the majority of AtRCI2 proteins localize in the plasma membrane. RCI2 proteins exhibit an elevated level of sequence similarity and seem to have evolved from a common ancestor. In spite of their high similarity, conserved subcellular localization, and common origin, experimental evidence is presented suggesting that different RCI2 proteins may have distinct functional roles. Thus, as previously demonstrated for AtRCI2A and AtRCI2B, the newly identified AtRCI2 genes (AtRCI2C–H) are differentially regulated in Arabidopsis organs and in response to abiotic stresses and ABA treatment. Furthermore, only the AtRCI2 proteins that do not contain the C-terminal hydrophilic tail (i.e. AtRCI2A–C and AtRCI2H) are able to complement for the loss of the yeast AtRCI2-related gene PMP3. On the basis of these results, different aspects on the evolution and roles of RCI2 genes are discussedThis work was supported by grants BIO2004-00628 from CICYT and CPE03-006-C6-1 from INIAPeer reviewe

Creative futures: students of audiovisual communication in the design of television contents

Existen numerosos estudios que profundizan en el tipo de consumo de medios que hacen los jóvenes, cuya relación con la tecnología es habitual desde su infancia, así como el tiempo que dedican a ver televisión en los distintos terminales disponibles en la actualidad; sin embargo, sus preferencias a la hora de diseñar formatos para televisión están menos definidas. El objetivo principal de la presente investigación es determinar las tendencias de los y las estudiantes de Comunicación Audiovisual ante el proceso de creación de un formato de televisión, así como las innovaciones que podrían ofrecer en relación al uso de nuevas tecnologías en contenidos televisivos, teniendo en cuenta que los medios de comunicación, en general, y el campo concreto de la televisión, serían sus futuras áreas de trabajo. Para ello se realizó una experiencia con 688 alumnos y alumnas de la universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid, organizados libremente en grupos de trabajo a lo largo de dos cursos lectivos, que dio como resultado la obtención de 123 formatos. Los resultados pusieron de manifiesto que estos jóvenes universitarios, lejos de ofrecer formatos novedosos que integren tecnología digital y nuevas pantallas, se ven influidos por lo que consideran formatos de éxito de la televisión actual, lo que debe llevarnos a una discusión más amplia sobre la creatividad en el entorno universitario y a cuestionarnos la formación en el mundo académicoThere are numerous studies that deepen the type of consumption of media about young people whose relationship with technology is habitual since their infancy, as well as the time they devote to watching television in the different terminals available today; however, their preferences when designing TV formats are less defined. The main objective of this research is to determine the trends of Audiovisual Communication students in the process of creating a television format, As well as the innovations they could offer in relation to the use of new technologies in television content, keeping in mind that media in general, in particular the television, will be their future work area. To this end, an experience was carried out with 688 students from the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. They were organized freely in working groups throughout two academic years. This resulted in the obtention of 123 formats. The results showed that these young university students are influenced by what they consider successful formats of the current television; far from offering novel formats that integrate digital technology and new screens. This should lead to a broader discussion about the creativity in the university environment and to ask about training in the academic world

Satisfacción del cliente en base a la normativa ISO 9001:2008, en los procesos de entrada y salida en el aeropuerto internacional de Nicaragua Augusto C.Sandino en el periodo Octubre-Diciembre de 2015

El presente trabajo realizado en el aeropuerto Augusto C. Sandino está inspirado en la calidad de los servicios brindado al cliente en los procesos de entrada y salida de pasajero. No obstante esta exigencia que hace unos años se ha ido implementando en las empresas mediante un SGC dicho sistema le ha permitido desarrollar sus procesos productivo y administrativos de manera más ágil y eficaz, debido a que la empresa administradora de aeropuerto cuenta únicamente con un sistema de gestión de seguridad operacional (SMS), que trata únicamente los procesos y actividades relativa a la seguridad operacional, no así de la seguridad ocupacional, protección del medio ambiente o calidad del servicio al cliente. Por esta razón el estudio trata de explicar las posibles mejoras puesto que el mercado aeroportuario exige una calidad contrastada, lo que requerirá el apoyo para la evaluación vía norma ISO (Organización de Normalización) las que regula exclusivamente la calidad de una empresa, tomando en cuenta algunos aspecto referenciado en la norma ISO 9001:2008 publicada en escala internacional, esto le permitirá a la empresa administradora de aeropuerto incursionar en mejora del sistema de calidad innovando a posible certificaciones futura en la institución, de tal manera que con el instrumento de evaluación aplicada a la muestra obtenida de una población que estará distribuido por un cronograma específico permitirá obtener una distribución adecuada acorde a vuelos ya sea de entrada o salida de pasajeros nacionales o internacionales para el estudio en curso. De esta manera cumpliendo con los objetivos se aplicó la técnica multivariante de análisis de componente principal (ACP), técnica que es muy utilizada para reducir la dimensionalidad de un conjunto de datos que facilitó la construcción de indicadores que influyen la satisfacción de los clientes, según los análisis realizados la calidad es un factor que actúa de manera eficiente en la institución que relacionado con las perspectivas del cliente la empresa esta acta para asumir un compromiso de mayor calidad en los servicios brindado. Como parte fundamental se recomienda a dar seguimiento a esta normativa ISO y llevarla con más profundidad a todas las organización gozando en el futuro de instalaciones más amplia y de personal más competent

Towards MARTE++ : an enhanced UML-based language to Model and Analyse Real-Time and Embedded Systems for the IoT age

This paper presents requirements for an enhanced version of the UML Profile for MARTE, the current standard of the OMG for the modelling and analysis of real-time embedded systems. Since its adoption by the OMG in 2009 and after the various additions along recent years, MARTE has been essayed in a number of application domains and validation approaches. This paper makes a review of these various efforts describing extensions, additional functionality, and modeling needs that may serve as inputs for the preparation of a formal request for proposals (RFP) at the OMG. Aspects that have been found useful to have in it include modern platforms like Multi-core, Many-core and GPUs, networking for broader domains like the Internet of Things, federation of all modelling artifacts involved in the development process, including tracing mechanisms embedded in the language to link design and run-time artifacts, and more elaborated kinds of quantitative analyses and extra functional properties, like energy and memory consumption, heat dissipation, and temperature distribution. Also methodological aspects like its specification as a profile and/or as a meta-model will need to be discussed. Finally, the standard needs to be reviewed against the new executable UML related specifications; particularly to be in alignment with those semantics of state machines and composite structures.This work receives funding from the Spanish Government under grant number TIN2014-56158-C4-2-P (M2C2), and from the Electronic Component Systems for European Leadership Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 737494 (MegaM@RT2). This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and Sweden, France, Spain, Italy, Finland, Czech Republic. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their insights and proposals of improvement