Ciclopéptidos b-lactámicos de tipo rgd: síntesis, estudio conformacional, actividad biológica y análisis génico

284 p. : graf.

Influence of nutrient intake on antioxidant capacity, muscle damage and white blood cell count in female soccer players

11 p.

ANÁLISIS DEL EFECTO DEL CAMBIO DE LA DISTRIBUCIÓN DE CLASES MEDIANTE MÉTODOS DE REMUESTREO INTELIGENTE EN ÁRBOLES DE CLASIFICACIÓN SIMPLES Y CONSOLIDADOS

En los trabajos expuestos en esta memoria de tesis, hemos analizado elefecto que tienen sobre la capacidad de aprendizaje de diferentes algoritmosde clasificación los cambios en la distribución de clases, teniendo encuenta para ello, diferentes métodos de remuestreo de datos.En concreto se ha analizado este efecto en el conocido algoritmo deconstrucción de árboles de clasificación propuesto por Quinlan, el algoritmoC4.5, y en el algoritmo de construcción de árboles consolidados, elalgoritmo CTC, propuesto por el grupo de investigación ALDAPA de laUniversidad del País Vasco que, basado en el mismo C4.5, obtiene un árbol declasificación pero basado en un conjunto de muestras.Así mismo, planteamos cómo encontrar la distribución de clases más adecuadapara un algoritmo de clasificación y método de remuestreo concretos.

FTY720 attenuates excitotoxicity and neuroinflammation

Background: FTY720 (fingolimod, Gilenya(TM)), a structural analog of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), is the first oral drug approved for treatment the relapsing-remitting form of multiple sclerosis (MS), and its efficacy has been related to induced lymphopenia and consequent immunosuppression via modulation of S1P(1) receptors (S1P(1)R). However, due to its lipophilic nature, FTY720 crosses the blood brain barrier (BBB) and could act directly on neural cells. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of FTY720 as a neuroprotective agent using in vitro and in vivo models of excitotoxic neuronal death and examined if FTY720 exerts a direct action on neurons, or/and an indirect modulation of inflammation-mediated neurodegeneration as a possible mechanism of neuroprotection. Methods: Primary neuronal and organotypic cortical cultures were treated with N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) to induce excitotoxic cell death (measured by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay or propidium iodide uptake, respectively). The effects of FTY720 treatment (10, 100 and 1,000 nM) on neuronal survival were examined. As an in vivo model of neuronal death and inflammation, we used intracerebroventricular (icv) administration of kainic acid (KA; 0.5 mu g/2 mu l) in Sprague-Dawley rats. FTY720 was applied icv (1 mu g/2 mu l), together with KA, plus intraperitoneally (ip; 1 mg/kg) 24 h before, and daily, until sacrifice 3 days after icv. Rats were evaluated for neurological score, neuronal loss in CA3 hippocampal region and activation of microglia at the lesion site. In addition, we tested FTY720 as a modulator of microglia responses using microglial cell cultures activated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and its effects in stress signalling pathways using western blotting for p38 and JNK1/2 mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs). Results: FTY720 was able to reduce excitotoxic neuronal death in vitro. Moreover, in vivo repeated FTY720 administration attenuated KA-induced neurodegeneration and microgliosis at the CA3 lesion site. Furthermore, FTY720 negatively modulates p38 MAPK in LPS-activated microglia, whereas it had no effect on JNK1/2 activation. Conclusions: These data support a role for FTY720 as a neuroprotective agent against excitotoxin-induced neuronal death and as a negative modulator of neuroinflammation by targeting the p38 MAPK stress signalling pathway in microglia.

Approximate Best Proximity Points of Cyclic Self-maps in Metric Spaces and Cyclic Asymptotic Regularity

3rd International Conference on Mathematical Modeling in Physical Sciences (IC-MSQUARE) Madrid, AUG 28-31, 2014 / editado por Vagenas, EC; Vlachos, DS; Bastos, C; Hofer, T; Kominis, Y; Kosmas, O; LeLay, G; DePadova, P; Rode, B; Suraud, E; Varga, K

A chemically inert Rashba split interface electronic structure of C-60, FeOEP and PTCDA on BiAg2/Ag(111) substrates

The fields of organic electronics and spintronics have the potential to revolutionize the electronics industry. Finding the right materials that can retain their electrical and spin properties when combined is a technological and fundamental challenge. We carry out the study of three archetypal organic molecules in intimate contact with the BiAg2 surface alloy. We show that the BiAg2 alloy is an especially suited substrate due to its inertness as support for molecular films, exhibiting an almost complete absence of substrate-molecular interactions. This is inferred from the persistence of a completely unaltered giant spin-orbit split surface state of the BiAg2 substrate, and from the absence of significant metallic screening of charged molecular levels in the organic layer. Spin-orbit split states in BiAg2 turn out to be far more robust to organic overlayers than previously thought.

An update of the J48Consolidated WEKA’s class: CTC algorithm enhanced with the notion of coverage

This document aims to describe an update of the implementation of the J48Consolidated class within WEKA platform. The J48Consolidated class implements the CTC algorithm [2][3] which builds a unique decision tree based on a set of samples. The J48Consolidated class extends WEKA’s J48 class which implements the well-known C4.5 algorithm. This implementation was described in the technical report "J48Consolidated: An implementation of CTC algorithm for WEKA". The main, but not only, change in this update is the integration of the notion of coverage in order to determine the number of samples to be generated to build a consolidated tree. We define coverage as the percentage of examples of the training sample present in –or covered by– the set of generated subsamples. So, depending on the type of samples that we use, we will need more or less samples in order to achieve a specific value of coverage.

J48Consolidated: an implementation of CTC algorithm for WEKA

The CTC algorithm, Consolidated Tree Construction algorithm, is a machine learning paradigm that was designed to solve a class imbalance problem, a fraud detection problem in the area of car insurance [1] where, besides, an explanation about the classification made was required. The algorithm is based on a decision tree construction algorithm, in this case the well-known C4.5, but it extracts knowledge from data using a set of samples instead of a single one as C4.5 does. In contrast to other methodologies based on several samples to build a classifier, such as bagging, the CTC builds a single tree and as a consequence, it obtains comprehensible classifiers. The main motivation of this implementation is to make public and available an implementation of the CTC algorithm. With this purpose we have implemented the algorithm within the well-known WEKA data mining environment http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/ml/weka/). WEKA is an open source project that contains a collection of machine learning algorithms written in Java for data mining tasks. J48 is the implementation of C4.5 algorithm within the WEKA package. We called J48Consolidated to the implementation of CTC algorithm based on the J48 Java class.

Computational study of the vortex path variation with the VG height

An extensive range of conventional, vane-type, passive vortex generators (VGs) are in use for successful applications of flow separation control. In most cases, the VG height is designed with the same thickness as the local boundary layer at the VG position. However, in some applications, these conventional VGs may produce excess residual drag. The so-called low-profile VGs can reduce the parasitic drag associated to this kind of passive control devices. As suggested by many authors, low-profile VGs can provide enough momentum transfer over a region several times their own height for effective flow-separation control with much lower drag. The main objective of this work is to study the variation of the path and the development of the primary vortex generated by a rectangular VG mounted on a flat plate with five different device heights h = delta, h(1) = 0.8 delta, h(2) = 0.6 delta, h(3) = 0.4 delta and h(4) = 0.2 delta, where delta is the local boundary layer thickness. For this purpose, computational simulations have been carried out at Reynolds number Re = 1350 based on the height of the conventional VG h = 0.25m with the angle of attack of the vane to the oncoming flow beta = 18.5 degrees. The results show that the VG scaling significantly affects the vortex trajectory and the peak vorticity generated by the primary vortex.

Energy and momentum transfer in one-dimensional trapped gases by stimulated light scattering

In ultracold atoms settings, inelastic light scattering is a preeminent technique to reveal static and dynamic properties at nonzero momentum. In this work, we investigate an array of one-dimensional trapped Bose gases, by measuring both the energy and the momentum imparted to the system via light scattering experiments. The measurements are performed in the weak perturbation regime, where these two quantities-the energy and momentum transferred-are expected to be related to the dynamic structure factor of the system. We discuss this relation, with special attention to the role of in-trap dynamics on the transferred momentum.

Serological and Genetic Evidence for Altered Complement System Functionality in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Findings of the GAPAID Consortium

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic autoimmune disease with multifactorial ethiopathogenesis. The complement system is involved in both the early and late stages of disease development and organ damage. To better understand autoantibody mediated complement consumption we examined ex vivo immune complex formation on autoantigen arrays. We recruited patients with SLE (n = 211), with other systemic autoimmune diseases (n = 65) and non-autoimmune control subjects (n = 149). Standard clinical and laboratory data were collected and serum complement levels were determined. The genotype of SNP rs1143679 in the ITGAM gene was also determined. Ex vivo formation of immune complexes, with respect to IgM, IgG, complement C4 and C3 binding, was examined using a functional immunoassay on autoantigen microarray comprising nucleic acids, proteins and lipids. Complement consumption of nucleic acids increased upon binding of IgM and IgG even when serum complement levels were decreased due to consumption in SLE patients. A negative correlation between serum complement levels and ex vivo complement deposition on nucleic acid autoantigens is demonstrated. On the contrary, complement deposition on tested protein and lipid autoantigens showed positive correlation with C4 levels. Genetic analysis revealed that the non-synonymous variant rs1143679 in complement receptor type 3 is associated with an increased production of anti-dsDNA IgG antibodies. Notwithstanding, homozygous carriers of the previously reported susceptible allele (AA) had lower levels of dsDNA specific IgM among SLE patients. Both the non-synonymous variant rs1143679 and the high ratio of nucleic acid specific IgG/IgM were associated with multiple organ involvement. In summary, secondary complement deficiency in SLE does not impair opsonization of nucleic-acid-containing autoantigens but does affect other antigens and potentially other complement dependent processes. Dysfunction of the receptor recognizing complement opsonized immune complexes promotes the development of class-switched autoantibodies targeting nucleic acids.