IoT-WLAN Proximity Network for Potentiostats

© 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, 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 component of this work in other works.[EN] The implementation of potentiostats as portable and communicated devices has reached significant progress to benefit research, industry, and education. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a good opportunity to interconnect devices such as the potentiostats together with electronics, communication technologies, and chemistry into a single system. This work proposes a network for potentiostats using machine-to-machine (M2M) protocols, modifying its functioning mechanism in the broker to check the payload of the message that passes through it and synchronize the sensors depending on its content. Although one sensor can be synchronized directly to another, the broker decides which sensor to pair. This modification was made in the M2M protocol algorithm, both in the Broker and in the Client (sensor). In addition to this, the network uses an interconnection architecture of IoT smart networks of proximity with centralized management. The results of the tests carried out showed that the use of a modified M2M such as the one proposed in the architecture allows synchronization and comparison of the measurements of several sensors in real-time.González, P.; Lloret, J.; Tomás Gironés, J.; Rodríguez, O.; Hurtado, M. (2020). IoT-WLAN Proximity Network for Potentiostats. IEEE. 94-99. https://doi.org/10.1109/FMEC49853.2020.9144776S949

Muscle fitness to visceral fat ratio, metabolic syndrome and ideal cardiovascular health metrics

This study aimed to investigate the association between the muscle fitness to visceral fat level (MVF) ratio and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics among college students. A total of 1467 young adults recruited from the FUPRECOL study (Asociación de la Fuerza Prensil con Manifestaciones Tempranas de Riesgo Cardiovascular en Jóvenes y Adultos Colombianos), were categorized into four quartiles based on their MVF ratio. Muscular fitness was assessed using a digital handgrip dynamometer and visceral fat level was determined through bioelectrical impedance analysis. Ideal CVH was assessed, including lifestyle characteristics, anthropometry, blood pressure, and biochemical parameters. The body weight, waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), fat mass, fat mass index, and visceral fat level were significantly higher in subjects in Q1 (lower MVF ratio) than those in Q2, Q3, or Q4 (p less than 0.001). The muscle fitness (handgrip and normalized grip strength (NGS)) of the subjects in Q4 was significantly greater than that of those in Q1 to Q2 (p less than 0.001). Subjects with a medium-high MVF ratio (i.e., 3–4th quartiles) had an odds ratio of 2.103 of ideal CVH metrics after adjusting for age, gender, university, and alcohol intake (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.832 to 2.414; p less than 0.001). A lower MVF ratio is associated with worse CVH metrics and a higher prevalence of MetS in early adulthood, supporting the hypothesis that the MVF ratio could be used as a complementary screening tool that could help clinicians identify young adults with unfavorable levels of CVH and metabolic risk. © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

OPPL-Galaxy, a Galaxy tool for enhancing ontology exploitation as part of bioinformatics workflows

Biomedical ontologies are key elements for building up the Life Sciences Semantic Web. Reusing and building biomedical ontologies requires flexible and versatile tools to manipulate them efficiently, in particular for enriching their axiomatic content. The Ontology Pre Processor Language (OPPL) is an OWL-based language for automating the changes to be performed in an ontology. OPPL augments the ontologists’ toolbox by providing a more efficient, and less error-prone, mechanism for enriching a biomedical ontology than that obtained by a manual treatment. Results We present OPPL-Galaxy, a wrapper for using OPPL within Galaxy. The functionality delivered by OPPL (i.e. automated ontology manipulation) can be combined with the tools and workflows devised within the Galaxy framework, resulting in an enhancement of OPPL. Use cases are provided in order to demonstrate OPPL-Galaxy’s capability for enriching, modifying and querying biomedical ontologies. Conclusions Coupling OPPL-Galaxy with other bioinformatics tools of the Galaxy framework results in a system that is more than the sum of its parts. OPPL-Galaxy opens a new dimension of analyses and exploitation of biomedical ontologies, including automated reasoning, paving the way towards advanced biological data analyses

An Intelligent System-on-a-Chip for a Real-Time Assessment of Fuel Consumption to Promote Eco-Driving

Pollution that originates from automobiles is a concern in the current world, not only because of global warming, but also due to the harmful effects on people’s health and lives. Despite regulations on exhaust gas emissions being applied, minimizing unsuitable driving habits that cause elevated fuel consumption and emissions would achieve further reductions. For that reason, this work proposes a self-organized map (SOM)-based intelligent system in order to provide drivers with eco-driving-intended driving style (DS) recommendations. The development of the DS advisor uses driving data from the Uyanik instrumented car. The system classifies drivers regarding the underlying causes of non-optimal DSs from the eco-driving viewpoint. When compared with other solutions, the main advantage of this approach is the personalization of the recommendations that are provided to motorists, comprising the handling of the pedals and the gearbox, with potential improvements in both fuel consumption and emissions ranging from the 9.5% to the 31.5%, or even higher for drivers that are strongly engaged with the system. It was successfully implemented using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) device of the Xilinx ZynQ programmable system-on-a-chip (PSoC) family. This SOM-based system allows for real-time implementation, state-of-the-art timing performances, and low power consumption, which are suitable for developing advanced driving assistance systems (ADASs).This work was supported in part by the Spanish AEI and European FEDER funds under Grant TEC2016-77618-R (AEI/FEDER, UE) and by the University of the Basque Country under Grant GIU18/122

The aqueous extract of polypodium leucotomos (Fernblock®) regulates opsin 3 and prevents photooxidation of melanin precursors on skin cells exposed to blue light emitted from digital devices

The effects of sun exposure on the skin and specifically those related to pigmentation disorders are well known. It has recently been shown that blue light leads to the induction of oxidative stress and long-lasting pigmentation. The protective effect of an aqueous extract of Poly-podium leucotomos (Fernblock®) is known. Our aim was to investigate the action mechanism of Fernblock® against pigmentation induced by blue light from digital devices. Human fibroblasts (HDF) and murine melanocytes (B16-F10) were exposed to artificial blue light (a 400–500 nm LED lamp). Cell viability, mitochondrial morphology, and the expression of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) p38, known markers involved in the melanogenesis pathway, were evaluated. The activation of Opsin-3, a membrane protein sensitive to blue light that triggers the activation of the enzyme tyrosinase responsible for melanogenesis in melanocytes, was also analyzed. Our results demonstrated that pretreatment with Fernblock® prevents cell death, alteration of mitochondrial morphology, and phosphorylation of p38 in HDF exposed to blue light. In addition, Fernblock® significantly reduced the activation of Opsin-3 in melanocytes and the photo-oxidation of melanin, preventing its photodegradation. In sum, Fernblock® exerts beneficial effects against the detrimental impact of blue light from digital devices and could prevent early photoaging, while maintaining skin homeostasi

Liver Fat Content and Body Fat Distribution in Youths with Excess Adiposity

This study had two main objectives: To examine the association between body fat distribution and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and liver fat content, and to determine whether the relationship between NAFLD and regional body fat distribution, with respect to liver fat content in youths with excess adiposity, is independent of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and a healthy diet. Liver fat content (controlled attenuation parameter (CAP)), body fat distribution (body mass index (BMI) z-score, waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, fat mass/height, body fat percentage, total fat mass, android-to-gynoid fat mass ratio, visceral adipose tissue (VAT), and lean mass index, determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA)), CRF (20-m shuttle-run test), and healthy diet (adherence to the Mediterranean diet by KIDMED questionnaire) were measured in 126 adolescents (66% girls) aged between 11 and 17 years. Participants were assigned to two groups according to the presence or absence of hepatic steatosis (CAP values >225 dB/m or 30% by DXA), youths with NAFLD had higher fat distribution parameters than those without NAFLD, regardless of sex, age, puberty stage, lean mass index, CRF, and healthy diet (p 0.05), except for the case of VAT. Body fat distribution parameters were higher in youths with NAFLD compared to those without NAFLD. Additionally, body fat distribution showed a significant association with liver fat content as assessed by CAP in youths with NAFLD independent of CRF and adherence to the Mediterranean diet, supporting the notion that upper body fat distribution might play a pivotal role in the development of NAFLD in adolescents. These results may have implications for the clinical management of youths with excess adiposity given the high prevalence of NAFLD in children and young adults

Photoacoustic efect applied on model membranes and living cells: direct observation with multiphoton excitation microscopy and long-term viability analysis

The photoacoustic efect is generated when a variable light interacts with a strongly light-absorbing material. In water, it may produce hot bubbles and shock waves that could afect the integrity of nearby cellular membranes, opening transient pores (photoporation). In this study, we have evaluated the efect of pulsed laser-irradiated carbon nanoparticles (cNP) on model membranes and on Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Fluorescence lifetime measurements of calcein-loaded liposomes support the notion that the photoacoustic efect causes transient openings in membranes, allowing difusion fuxes driven by gradient concentrations. With CHO cells, we have shown that this efect can induce either intracellular delivery of calcein, or release of cellular compounds. The latter process has been recorded live with multiphoton excitation microscopy during pulsed infrared laser irradiation. Calcein loading and cell viability were assayed by fow cytometry, measuring necrotic cells as well as those in early apoptosis. To further assess long-term cell recovery after the rather harsh treatment, cells were reseeded and their behaviour recorded for 48h. These extended studies on cell viability show that pulsed laser cNP photoporation may be considered an adequate intracellular delivery technique only if employed with soft irradiation conditions (below 50mJ/cm2).Spanish Ministry of Economy FEDER MINECO PGC2018-099857-B-I00Basque Government IT1264-19 IT1270-19University of Basque Countr