Inspección y análisis científico de las torres atalaya que defendieron el último reino islámico de la Península Ibérica

The Islamic Nasrid kingdom of Granada occupied the mountainous areas of the south-eastern area of the Iberian Peninsula. The Baetic mountain range worked as a natural frontier between the Nasrid kingdom and the Christian kingdom of Castile from 1232 to 1492. An extensive network of watchtowers was built by Nasrid to control this frontier stablishing visual communication between them and the Nasrid centre at the Alhambra citadel. Many of them are still standing, disperse through the provinces of Granada, Malaga, Almeria and the eastern parts of Jaen, Cordoba and Cadiz. Even being this military architecture protected by Spanish Heritage law, many of these medieval towers and their cultural landscapes are in severe risk. There are studies of individual towers, but any global comparative study has been developed. For this reason, within the framework of the R&D project called ‘Las atalayas que defendieron el reino nazarí de Granada. Análisis y documentación científica (Nazalaya)” (HAR2016-79689-P) financed by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain, the towers are being studied as individual exemplars as well as components of the same typological group. This generates a complete documentation constituted by a homogenous and exhaustively planimetry which supplements the existing information and enabling comparative analysis. Furthermore complete architectural surveys are being carried out using techniques as photogrammetry. In addition to the analysis of construction systems, the structural safety of these towers is evaluated formulating guidelines for its restoration.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Proyecto del Plan Nacional I+D+i (Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia) entitled ‘Las atalayas que defendieron el reino nazarí de Granada. Análisis y documentación científica (Nazalaya)’ (HAR2016-79689-P) Proyecto de Investigación Precompetitivo (mod. A) del Plan Propio de la Universidad de Málaga ‘La construcción de un paisaje: arquitectura de tapial en la Alta Andalucía en el siglo XIII. Estudio y análisis del sistema de torres andalusíes en el valle de Segura de la Sierra’ X Convocatoria de Proyectos de Investigación de la Fundación Pública Andaluza Centro de Estudios Andaluces en la modalidad de proyectos individuales, PRY/259/17 ‘Torres medievales y modernas conservadas en Andalucía. Documentación gráfica, análisis científico e interrelaciones

Customer orientation of service employees in family businesses in the hotel sector

Las interactuaciones de los empleados de servicios con los clientes son cruciales para el reflejo de la calidad del servicio, y para los beneficios de la empresa. Se ha identificado un hueco sin cubrir dentro de la literatura de Customer Orientation of Service Employees(COSE) y Family Businesses (FBs), los dos conceptos nunca se han investigado juntos antes. Debido a este hecho, se presenta un artículo conceptual que desarrolla un modelo teórico basado en Hennig-Thurau (2004). Las dos principales contribuciones son: (1) electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) se propone como consecuencia de COSE, (2) se ha desarrollado un cuestionario, a raíz de importantes subescalas, para medir COSE y dos posibles consecuencias que derivan del concepto (satisfacción del cliente y eWOM). Una base de datos procedente de SABI se ha seleccionado para estudiar estas variables en el sector hotelero, lo cual se propone para en un futuro trabajo, y que se espera que le se soporte empírico a la teoría aportada.The business interactions between front-line employees and customers are crucial to evaluating service quality and for a business’ performance. A gap has been identified in the literature on both the customer orientation of service employees (COSE) and family businesses (FBs); both concepts never have been studied together before. Due to this fact, we present a concept that develops a theoretical model based on Hennig-Thurau (2004). This model drives research about the COSE and FBs in the hotel sector. The two main contributions are the following: (1) electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is proposed as a consequence of COSE within FBs and (2) a questionnaire has been developed from relevant subscales to measure COSE and two possible consequences derived from it (Customer Satisfaction and eWOM). A database from Iberic Balance Analysis System (SABI) has been selected to study these variables in the hotel sector, and it will be used in a proposed future empirical study that is expected to provide support for the theory. &nbsp

Validación del Modelo CKLS para los tipos de interés a corto plazo en España: Un enfoque paramétrico

En este trabajo se realiza un análisis no paramétrico de la dinámica en tiempo continuo de los tipos de interés a corto plazo en España en el marco de los modelos unifactoriales homogéneos. Las estimaciones obtenidas, en concordancia con otros autores, inducen a pensar que la deriva del modelo es no lineal y que la volatilidad está en consonancia con la propuesta en el modelo de Chan, Karolyi, Longsta®, y Sanders (1992) (modelo CKLS). Chapman y Pearson (2000) plantean que la no linealidad de la deriva estimada podría ser espúrea y deberse a un efecto en la frontera del procedimiento de estimación no paramétrico seguido. Así, se aplica el contraste de especificación de modelos no paramétricos investigado en Kim y Wang (2006) para validar o no la posible no linealidad de la deriva con los datos de la Economía española. Como conclusión m´ss significativa cabe destacar que el test no lleva a una evidencia contundente para rechazar la linealidad de la deriva. Además, el test lleva a aceptar la forma funcional para la volatilidad propuesta en el modelo CKLS. Por otro lado, se realiza un estudio del efecto que en la valoración de bonos cupón cero tiene la imposición de una deriva lineal y la consideración del modelo paramétrico CKLS, en comparación con el planteamiento no paramétrico más general. Encontramos que todos los modelos considerados llevan a precios muy similares para tipos de interés bajos o medios y periodo de vencimiento no superior a 3 años; en general, las diferencias aumentan con el nivel inicial de los tipos de interés y con el periodo de vencimiento

Urinary metabolic signatures detect recurrences in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

Patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) undergo lifelong monitoring based on repeated cystoscopy and urinary cytology due to the high recurrence rate of this tumor. Nevertheless, these techniques have some drawbacks, namely, low accuracy in detection of low-grade tumors, omission of pre-neoplastic lesions and carcinomas in situ (CIS), invasiveness, and high costs. This work aims to identify a urinary metabolomic signature of recurrence by proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy for the follow-up of NMIBC patients. To do this, changes in the urinary metabolome before and after transurethral resection (TUR) of tumors are analyzed and a Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) model is developed. The usefulness of this discriminant model for the detection of tumor recurrences is assessed using a cohort of patients undergoing monitoring. The trajectories of the metabolomic profile in the follow-up period provide a negative predictive value of 92.7% in the sample classification. Pathway analyses show taurine, alanine, aspartate, glutamate, and phenylalanine perturbed metabolism associated with NMIBC. These results highlight the potential of 1H NMR metabolomics to detect bladder cancer (BC) recurrences through a non-invasive approach

Control de plantas de destilación por membranas con apoyo de energía solar

La destilación por membranas es una tecnología de desalación de agua no implantada industrialmente y en la que existen numerosas incógnitas sobre su funcionamiento y producción en condiciones intermitentes de operación como las que se pueden alcanzar cuando se usa energía solar como fuente primaria de energía. Una de las pocas plantas piloto actuales está ubicada en la Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA). En este trabajo se incluye una descripción sobre la instalación y los esquemas de control que se han propuesto para conseguir unas condiciones adecuadas de flujo másico y temperatura a la entrada del sistema de destilación. En la segunda parte se expondrán resultados representativos

Integrative Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Analysis for the Study of Bladder Cancer

[EN] Metabolism reprogramming is considered a hallmark of cancer. The study of bladder cancer (BC) metabolism could be the key to developing new strategies for diagnosis and therapy. This work aimed to identify tissue and urinary metabolic signatures as biomarkers of BC and get further insight into BC tumor biology through the study of gene-metabolite networks and the integration of metabolomics and transcriptomics data. BC and control tissue samples (n = 44) from the same patients were analyzed by High-Resolution Magic Angle Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and microarrays techniques. Besides, urinary profiling study (n = 35) was performed in the same patients to identify a metabolomic profile, linked with BC tissue hallmarks, as a potential non-invasive approach for BC diagnosis. The metabolic profile allowed for the classification of BC tissue samples with a sensitivity and specificity of 100%. The most discriminant metabolites for BC tissue samples reflected alterations in amino acids, glutathione, and taurine metabolic pathways. Transcriptomic data supported metabolomic results and revealed a predominant downregulation of metabolic genes belonging to phosphorylative oxidation, tricarboxylic acid cycle, and amino acid metabolism. The urinary profiling study showed a relation with taurine and other amino acids perturbed pathways observed in BC tissue samples, and classified BC from non-tumor urine samples with good sensitivities (91%) and specificities (77%). This urinary profile could be used as a non-invasive tool for BC diagnosis and follow-up.This research was funded by FEDER cofounded MINECO grant SAF2015-66015-R, MAT2015-64139-C4-1-R, MAT2015-64139-C4-3-R, ISCIII-RETICRD12/0036/0009, PIE 15/00076, CB/16/00228, CTQ2016-79561-P; and the PROMETEO II/2014/047 and PROMETEO 2018/24 projects.Loras, A.; Suárez-Cabrera, C.; Martínez-Bisbal, M.; Quintás, G.; Paramio, JM.; Martínez-Máñez, R.; Gil Grau, S.... (2019). Integrative Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Analysis for the Study of Bladder Cancer. Cancers. 11(5):1-19. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers1105068611911

Laser-induced highly oriented pyrolytic graphite for high-performance screen-printed electrodes

Screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) are enjoying increasing popularity in different electrochemistry areas, from electroanalysis to energy storage and power generation. Highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), an ordered form of graphite, displays excellent electrochemical properties. However, its application in screen-printed electrodes has remained elusive. In this work, we present a straightforward laser-based process to selectively transform, in ambient conditions, the surface of conventional SPCEs into highly homogeneous HOPG. Energy densities between 6.8 and 7.7 mJ cm(-2) result in a binder-free, high-purity HOPG surface with very fast electron transfer rates. The electrode transformation to HOPG has been followed by SEM, Raman spectroscopy and XPS. Cyclic voltammetry of model systems ferrocyanide, ferrocenecarboxylic acid, dopamine and hydroquinone has been used to determine variations in electrode kinetics (from 50% increase for ferrocenecarboxylic acid, up to ca. 2 orders of magnitude for ferrocyanide and dopamine) and interfacial capacitance (from 40 up to 220 mu F cm(-2)). Finally, differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) has been used to demonstrate the ability of these electrodes to detect dopamine in the presence of an excess amount of ascorbic acid.The authors are grateful for the technical and human support provided by SGIker of UPV/EHU and European funding (ERDF and ESF). We acknowledge funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme for Research, ICT-02-2018 - Flexible and Wearable Electronics, Grant agreement no. 825339 - WEARPLEX. Lia Campos-Arias thanks the University of Basque Country (UPV/EHU) for doctoral grant PIFI20/04. Project number PID2020-113154RB-C22 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation is also gratefully acknowledged

PKM2 subcellular localization is involved in oxaliplatin resistance acquisition in HT29 human colorectal cancer cell lines

Ajuts: Beca bianual de la Fundació Olga Torres 2008-2009Chemoresistance is the main cause of treatment failure in advanced colorectal cancer (CRC). However, molecular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain to be elucidated. In a previous work we identified low levels of PKM2 as a putative oxaliplatin-resistance marker in HT29 CRC cell lines and also in patients. In order to assess how PKM2 influences oxaliplatin response in CRC cells, we silenced PKM2 using specific siRNAs in HT29, SW480 and HCT116 cells. MTT test demonstrated that PKM2 silencing induced resistance in HT29 and SW480 cells and sensitivity in HCT116 cells. Same experiments in isogenic HCT116 p53 null cells and double silencing of p53 and PKM2 in HT29 cells failed to show an influence of p53. By using trypan blue stain and FITC-Annexin V/PI tests we detected that PKM2 knockdown was associated with an increase in cell viability but not with a decrease in apoptosis activation in HT29 cells. Fluorescence microscopy revealed PKM2 nuclear translocation in response to oxaliplatin in HCT116 and HT29 cells but not in OXA-resistant HTOXAR3 cells. Finally, by using a qPCR Array we demonstrated that oxaliplatin and PKM2 silencing altered cell death gene expression patterns including those of BMF, which was significantly increased in HT29 cells in response to oxaliplatin, in a dose and time-dependent manner, but not in siPKM2-HT29 and HTOXAR3 cells. BMF gene silencing in HT29 cells lead to a decrease in oxaliplatin-induced cell death. In conclusion, our data report new non-glycolytic roles of PKM2 in response to genotoxic damage and proposes BMF as a possible target gene of PKM2 to be involved in oxaliplatin response and resistance in CRC cells

Interferon-alpha decreases cancer stem cell properties and modulates exosomes in malignant melanoma

Malignant melanoma (MM) can spread to other organs and is resistant in part due to the presence of cancer stem cell subpopulations (CSCs). While a controversial high dose of interferon-alpha (IFN-α) has been used to treat non-metastatic high-risk melanoma, it comes with undesirable side effects. In this study, we evaluated the effect of low and high doses of IFN-α on CSCs by analyzing ALDH activity, side population and specific surface markers in established and patient-derived primary cell lines. We also assessed the clonogenicity, migration and tumor initiation capacities of IFN-α treated CSCs. Additionally, we investigated genomic modulations related to stemness properties using microRNA sequencing and microarrays. The effect of IFN-α on CSCs-derived exosomes was also analyzed using NanoSight and liquid chromatography (LC-HRMS)-based metabolomic analysis, among others. Our results showed that even low doses of IFN-α reduced CSC formation and stemness properties, and led to a significant decrease in the ability to form tumors in mice xenotransplants. IFN-α also modulated the expression of genes and microRNAs involved in several cancer processes and metabolomics of released exosomes. Our work suggests the utility of low doses of interferon, combined with the analysis of metabolic biomarkers, as a potential clinical approach against the aggressiveness of CSCs in melanoma.This research was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MICIU, projects noº MAT2015-62644.C2.2.R and RTI2018-101309-B-C2, FEDER Funds), by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PIE16-00045), by Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad de la Junta de Andalucía and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), ref. SOMM17/6109/UGR (UCE-PP2017-3), by Consejería de Salud y Familias de la Junta de Andalucía (projects noº PEMP0205-2020 FEDER funds), and by the Chair “Doctors Galera-Requena in cancer stem cell research” (CMC-CTS963). J.L.P. (Ref. FPU15/03682) acknowledge the MICIU for providing a PhD fellowship (FPU).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio