Climent Terol, E. (2012). Design of new hybrid materials: Study of its application in new detection formats and in controlled release applications [Tesis doctoral]. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/17939 / Palancia

An A/B test is implemented on a SaaS rm's product page to examine the dierence in conversion rates from website visitors who are randomly assigned to two dierent product-landing pages that show dierent prices. To count as a successful conversion the visitors that view a product-landing page have to click on a \Free Trial" button. Half of the group will be assigned the treatment page, which will state higher prices and the other half will be assigned the controlled page, which will state today's current price. The only variant that will dier from the two pages will be the stated price of the product and all other factors will be kept constant. The controlled experiment is executed to get a sense of customers' price sensitivity, hence this thesis contributes to microeconomic research of the private sector, more specically to the ICT industry by using a novel approach with the help of A/B testing on prices. The results showed no statistical signicance difference between the two variations, which can be translated to accepting the null hypothesis; the demand for a particular Software-As-A-Service product will hold unchanged after the proposed price increase. At first, this could be a surprising result but when looking into the industry, which the rm participates in and their early mover advantages this result could have been assumed.

Extramedicínské (zne)užívání buprenorfinu v Gruzii a efektivní léčebná intervence MUDr. David Otiashvili Abstrakt Background Since early 2000s, the nonmedical abuse of buprenorphine (Subutex®) tablets, presumably smuggled from EU countries, has represented major phenomena of the problem drug scene in the Republic of Georgia. In a country with relatively high level of injecting drug use (estimated 40,000 persons, i.e. 1.5 % of population aged 15-64, of whom over 50% inject buprenorphine), this represent a major public health problem that needs detailed description and comprehensive set of interventions. Aim (i) To describe the extent of nonmedical buprenorphine ab/use in the Republic of Georgia, the characteristics of the nonmedical ab/users and their motivations for seeking and using the black market buprenorphine. Subsequently, (ii) to plan and pilot-test a treatment intervention that would be more specific and effective than the simple detoxification and/or harm reduction modalities available in Georgian on a routine basis. Setting Four regional centres of Georgia were included into the descriptive part of the study: the cities of Tbilisi, Gori, Zugdidi, and Batumi. The intervention (sub)study was conducted in one Tbilisi addiction treatment clinic. Participants and methods For the descriptive part of the...

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / Presplitting is a controlled-blasting technique with applications in open-pit mines. The main purpose of this technique is to prevent and control overbreaks caused by excessive vibrations due to blasting. This technique is especially effective in controlling overbreaks because it provides a separation surface between the main blasting pattern and the walls of the final slopes. The drilling mesh and loading conditions in the drill are designed in this study by considering the uncontrollable variables of the rock mass as important factors. The proposed model for the presplitting optimization process helps to optimize controlled-blasting designs. The main idea of the proposal is to develop a model that includes the most relevant processes, as well as the most suitable parameters for an efficient design. Copyright 2019.

Esta Tesis doctoral está enfocada en la síntesis de nanopartículas de platino (Pt) con forma controlada para la oxidación de amoniaco, un compuesto que puede ser utilizado como combustible para pila de combustibles y que asegura varios beneficios incluyendo cero emisiones de CO2, la posibilidad de la obtención de tecnología inspirada en el reciclaje de aguas residuales y sensores de amoniaco. Teniendo en cuenta estos beneficios, diversas investigaciones se han enfocado el estudio de los catalíticos más activos para la oxidación de amoniaco y han encontrado que las nanopartículas de Pt preferencialmente cúbicas son la que mayor actividad catalítica presentan. Sin embargo, desde un punto de vista aplicado, todavía faltan metodologías fáciles, baratas y escalables. Durante los últimos años, se ha trabajado, en esta Tesis Doctoral, la síntesis, caracterización y determinación de la actividad catalítica de las nanopartículas de Pt con formas preferenciales. La innovación en este trabajo ha sido en el método de síntesis que consiste en una microemulsión de agua en aceite, con la peculiaridad de agregar ácidos como agentes modificadores de la estructura. En este trabajo se ha propuesto hallar una alternativa que cumpla con la posibilidad de que puedan sintetizarse nanopartículas a gran escala para poder introducirlas en aplicaciones comerciales. En el primer trabajo publicado, se utilizaron distintas concentraciones de HCI en la fase acuosa de la microemulsión para estudiar el efecto modificado, de dicho compuesto. En este artículo, se reportó por primera vez, la síntesis de nanopartículas de platino preferencialmente cúbicas, utilizando el método de microemulsión de agua en aceite que, a diferencia de los métodos más conocidos, esta puede ser escalable. Este control de la forma / estructura de la superficie está determinado por la concentración de HCI en la fase acuosa de la microemulsión. Los resultados demostraron que el porcentaje óptimo de HCI fue aproximadamente 25% con la cual se logró obtener la mayor concentración de nanoestructuras de Pt preferencialmente cúbicas. Los resultados mostraron que las nanopartículas de Pt cúbicas preferenciales sintetizadas eran el mejor catalizador para la oxidación del amoniaco. El segundo artículo publicado abarca la síntesis de (100) nanopartículas de Pt de orientación preferencial, con un tamaño de partícula de aproximadamente 9 nanómetros, mediante el uso del mismo método de síntesis, pero en este caso, la estructura de las nanopartículas fue inducida con la presencia de H2SO4 en la fase acuosa de la microemulsión. Los resultados informados en este artículo mostraron como grandes cantidades de H2SO4 (hasta un 25%) conducen a la formación de nanopartículas de Pt que contienen una mayor cantidad de (100) sitios en su superficie y consecuentemente una forma preferencialmente cúbica. En la tercera publicación, también se utilizó la microemulsión de agua en aceite, pero en presencia de varios modificadores y precursores metálicos para obtener nanopartículas de Pt con orientación preferencial. Las nanopartículas cúbicas enriquecidas en sitios (100), se prepararon utilizando concentraciones específicas de HCI, HBr, H2S04 y H3PQ4. En cuanto a la utilización de ácido cítrico y oxálico como agentes modificadores, un aumento en la cantidad de (111) sitios, fue reportada. Esta faceta es más característico en nanopartículas con estructura octahedral. Las nanopartículas se caracterizaron electroquímicamente con adsorción/desorción de hidrógeno y germanio, así como por adsorción de CO. Finalmente, se evaluó la actividad electrocatalítica de las nanopartículas con el mayor porcentaje de sitios (100) para determinar la oxidación de amoniaco, lo que confirmó los resultados de la caracterización electroquímica. Las nanopartículas de Pt modificadas con HCI al 15% y sintetizadas utilizando K2PtCl4 como el precursor de Pt, mostraron Ia mayor cantidad de sitios (100) (46.7%) y obtuvieron una actividad catalítica más alta sobre la oxidación de amoníaco. De los trabajos no publicados, se han obtenido resultados interesantes incluyendo la síntesis de nanopartículas bimetálicas Pt/Rh de forma controlada utilizando el método similar al utilizado para la síntesis de las nanopartículas de Pt preferencialmente cúbicas. Las nanopartículas que se sintetizaron Pt75/Rh25 y Pt90/Rh10 con 20% de HCI en la fase acuosa, mostraron una actividad superior para la oxidación del etanol con mayor densidad de corriente y un desplazamiento del potencial de inicio a potenciales más bajos. En cuanto a la actividad catalítica presentada para la oxidación de amoníaco, las nanopartículas todas las nanopartículas Pt/Rh sintetizadas, presentaron una disminución en la actividad catalítica, sin embargo, hubo mejoras en el desplazamiento del potencial de inicio con valores menos positivos, para las muestras Pt75/Rh25 y Pt90/Rh10. La caracterización de superficie determinada por el análisis del microscopio de transmisión de electrones (TEM) y dispersión de electrones por rayo X (EDX), confirmó la modificación estructural por la presencia de los ácidos. Las imágenes TEM de las nanopartículas tenían una estructura preferencialmente cúbica. El análisis por EDX confirmó que la composición de cada uno de los metales en las de las nanoestructuras bimetálicas fue cercano a los valores con los que se prepararon las nanopartículas experimentalmente. De este trabajo se propone la realización de una nueva publicación. Finalmente, un estudio preliminar con monocristales de Pt fue realizado para explicar el efecto de los cloruros en inducir la formación de estructuras de Pt preferencialmente cúbicas en la síntesis de microemulsión agua en aceite. Para la realización de estos experimentos se tomaron los monocristales de Pt con planos de base [Pt (100), Pt (111) y Pt (110)] y Pt poliorientado [Pt(poly)]. En este estudio se pudo realizar un análisis del comportamiento electroquímico de los monocristales de Pt en concentraciones elevadas tanto de HCI como de H2S04. Sin embargo, pese a los distintos experimentos realizados, este estudio requiere de más investigación para poder llegar a conclusiones que den lugar al objetivo del estudio. Por último, en esta Tesis Doctoral se destacan varias colaboraciones, científicas realizadas con el propósito de determinar el rendimiento catalítico del material preparado. La primera colaboración ha sido con el grupo de investigación Micro-G que también es dirigido por mi director en la Universidad de Puerto Rico, el Dr. Carlos cabrera. En este proyecto, colaboramos con la preparación del catalizador para aumentar el rendimiento en las densidades de corriente de la oxidación de amoníaco en condiciones de microgravedad. Las medidas cronoamperométricas se realizaron durante 30 parábolas en el avión C9 de la NASA conocido como 'The Weightless Wonder', en enero de 2016 desde Ellington Field en Houston, Texas. Una publicación en la revista 'Microgravity Science and Technology' en 2017 fue producto de dicha colaboración. Otra colaboración realizada fue la preparación de electrodos para la determinación del rendimiento en un sistema microbiano de células en media­celda. Esta colaboración fue parte de un proyecto de investigación doctoral de la Dra. Myreisa Morales de la Universidad de Puerto Rico en Río Piedras. Este proyecto consistió en la deposición de nanopartículas de Pt preferencialmente cúbicas junto con el crecimiento de la bacteria P Vulgaris, en un electrodo de preparado con hebras de fibras de carbono, para la oxidación de amoníaco en un sistema bio-electroquímico. Esta colaboración también está en proceso de poder publicarse. Finalmente, se realizó otra colaboración con el grupo de investigación Micro-G mediante la preparación del procedimiento experimental de oxidación de amoníaco en nanocubos de Pt que sería enviado a la Estación Espacial Internacional (ISS). Se espera que el sistema sea lanzado fuera al espacio exterior en noviembre de 2019. Los resultados podrán ser comparados con los obtenidos para determinar los efectos de la gravedad cero. Se espera que la colaboración realizada logré otra publicación científica.

The building sector is responsible for approximately 40 % of the total energy usage in Sweden. In office buildings the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system can account for up to 55 % of the energy usage. In order to reduce the energy usage of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system different control methods are often used. One of these control methods is demand controlled ventilation, where the ventilation system is controlled with regard to occupancy with the help of motion and/or CO2 sensors. The aim of this thesis was to determine the energy savings potential of a heat recovery unit as well as demand controlled ventilation in an office building. The effect of longer intervals between sensor control signals to the ventilation system was also investigated. This is done by creating schedules, gathered from actual building occupancy, that are being used to control the occupancy and ventilation in a building model in the building performance simulation software IDA ICE. As a reference building, the fifth floor of the LU1 section of the natural science building at Umeå University is used. The reference building consists of 40 offices for which the occupancies are known. The average occupancy for all the offices combined throughout the investigated time period is determined to be 34.8 %. The results from the simulations indicate that an energy savings potential of 52.98 % can be achieved by a heat recovery unit with an efficiency of 80 % or 95 %, when compared to not having a heat recovery unit. When implementing demand controlled ventilation an energy savings potential of 2.8-11.0 % can be achieved, with the energy savings potential decreasing when the efficiency of the heat recovery unit increases. Finally, it is shown that longer intervals between sensor control signals to the ventilation system leads to a small increase in energy usage and poorer indoor air quality.

Advances in molecular medicine have produced a large amount of information about genes that translate to therapeutic molecules when expressed in living cells. There is an increasing interest in nonviral methods for gene delivery, to address all concerns on non-toxic, easy, and possibly efficient delivery systems. In this paper we introduced a new attractive approach for non-viral transferring of genetic materials on demand. By using lipofectin reagent (1:1 molar ratio of DOPE:DOTMA. DOPE: L-α-doleoyl posphatidylethanolamine; DOTMA: N-[1-(2,3-dideyloxy) propyl]-n,n,n-trimethylammonium chloride), the lipid/DNA complexes (lipoplexes) can be electrostatically adsorbed on the gold microelectrode surface. The resulting lipoplexes molecules can be subsequently removed from the surface by applying -1.0 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) in physiological phosphate buffer medium (pH 7.4). This electrochemically controlled-release process has been extensively examined by gel electrophoresis (GE), electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM), infrared spectroscopy (IR), and square wave voltammetry (SWV) techniques. The lipoplex composition has been addressed for efficient gene delivery protocol, based on their different charge ratios. The results from different techniques coincided, as also verified by the repetitive control experiments. This in-vitro electrically - triggered release protocol for genetic material offers the current gene delivery arsenal a new, simple, and non-viral alternative.

Objectives: To determine the subacute effects of cervicothoracic spinal thrust/non-thrust in addition to shoulder non-thrust plus exercise in patients with subacromial pathology. Methods: This was a randomized, single blinded controlled trial pilot study. This trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01753271) and reported according to Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials requirements. Patients were randomly assigned to either shoulder treatment plus cervicothoracic spinal thrust/non-thrust or shoulder treatment-only group. Primary outcomes were average pain intensity (Numeric Pain Rating Scale) and physical function (Shoulder Pain and Disability Index) at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and patient discharge. Results: 18 patients, mean age 43.1(15.8) years satisfied the eligibility criteria and were analyzed for follow-up data. Both groups showed statistically significant improvements in both pain and function at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and discharge. The between-group differences for changes in pain or physical function were not significant at any time point. Discussion: The addition of cervicothoracic spinal thrust/non-thrust to the shoulder treatment-only group did not significantly alter improvement in pain or function in patients with subacromial pathology. Both approaches appeared to provide an equally notable benefit. Both groups improved on all outcomes and met the criteria for clinical relevance for both pain and function. Level of Evidence: 2b.

The effects of controlled atmosphere storage vs conventional refrigerated storage on the metabolism of Moorpark and Large Early Montgamet apricot and Elberta peach fruits were studied. The controlled atmospheres studied were 0.0 percent CO2-5.0 percent O2; 2.5 percent CO2-5.0 percent O2; 5.0 percent CO2-2.5 percent O2; 7.5 percent CO2-5.0 percent O2; as compared to conventional refrigerated storage. Nitrogen percent was assumed to be the difference between the total CO2 and O2 content minus 100. Fruits were periodically removed from the storage and analyzed for firmness, fleshy pericarp color, total pectins, pH, titratable acidity, total and free reducing sugars, tannins, organic acids, and amino acids. Controlled atmosphere storage had both beneficial and detrimenta1 effects on stored apricot and peach fruits. The general retardation of the respiration rate and consequent delay of the climateric rise due to controlled atmosphere are important in prolonging the storage life of the fruit. Apricot fruits stored in 2.5 to 5.0 percent CO2 and 2.5 to 5.0 percent O2 maintained superior quality for 15 to 30 days longer than did conventionally refrigerated fruit. Moorpark fruit could be stored longer than Large Early Montgamet fruit, mainly because of mesocarp browning in the latter variety of fruit. The results indicated that the storage life of Elberta peach fruits were not substantially increased in controlled atmosphere storage. Apricot fruit stored in controlled atmosphere treatments ripened at a reduced rate and produced less yellow pigments of the fleshy pericarp tissue than the conventional refrigerated fruit. There was a retardation of the de-greening processes of the fruit stored in CO2 concentrations higher than atmospheric air. It appeared that high concentrations of CO2 had an inhibitory effect on chlorophyll degradation. Succinic acid coupled with high tannin concentrations, induced by CO2, apparently caused browning of the mesocarp tissue of the fruit in controlled atmosphere storage at a more rapid rate than conventional refrigerated stored fruit. The organic and amino acids of peach and apricot fruits had a variable response to control atmosphere treatment. The organic acids, particularly malic acid, were reduced in concentration, while succinic acid accumulated. Succinic acid accumulation was dependent upon the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. It was suggested that CO2 had a toxic or inhibitory effect on the succinic oxidase enzyme system which resulted in succinic acid accumulation. The accumulated succinic acid, thereby, may have had a toxic effect on the mesocarp tissue of the fruit and caused part of the browning. Aspartic acid decreased in concentration under higher CO2 treat-ments, while alanine and glutamic acid increased. Total sugar concen-tration was generally not effected by controlled atmosphere storage. The metabolism of free reducing sugars in higher CO2 treatments was markedly reduced in the apricot fruit.The beneficial aspects of controlled atmosphere on stored fruit appeared to be the increased length of the storage period for apricot fruit, as well as a reduced rate of metabolism. The storage life of apricot fruit was extended 15 to 30 days in the appropriate atmosphere. The adverse effects of controlled atmosphere storage of apricot and peach fruit appeared to be: the inhibitory or toxic effect of CO2 on certain enzyme systems; the accumulation of certain metabolites, which may have been toxic to the fruit tissue; the increased rate of tissue browning, the inhibitory effect of CO2 on the de-greening and color development mechanisms.

Lettuce heads (Cultivar "Great Lakes") were stored in different concentrations of O2 and CO2, including l percent O2 and l percent CO2, 2.5 percent O2 and 2.5 percent CO2, 5 percent O2 and 0 percent CO2, and 5 percent O2 and 5 percent CO2; temperatures of 35 and 70 F; and with or without microbe- and senescence-inhibiting chemicals and packaging. The samples were taken on the twentieth and fortieth days in the first series of experiments; and in the subsequent experiments, on the fifteenth, thirtieth, forty-fifth, sixtieth, and seventy-fifth days of storage for quality evaluation, determination of rate of respiration, and chemical analyses. The results indicated that lettuce could be stored at 35 F for at least 2 to 3 weeks. At this temperature, lettuce heads were still field fresh and bright green, without apparent sign of quality deterioration. At 70 F, none of the treatments could prolong the shelf-life of the lettuce more than l week. Lettuce heads maintained the best marketing quality when stored in atmospheres of 2.5 percent O2 and 2.5 percent CO2 at 35 F for 60 days. Microbe- and senescence-inhibiting chemicals (Captan, Phaltan, Mycostatin, and N6-benzyladenine) had detrimental effects on the quality of lettuce stored in controlled atmosphere. The reduction in russet spotting was the major benefit in controlled atmosphere storage at 35 F. In addition, the incidence of pink rib and butt discoloration was less than for those lettuce heads held in the conventional refrigerator. However, the hearts of the lettuce were sensitive to low O2 injury in controlled atmospheres consisting of 1 percent O2 and l percent CO2. Controlled atmosphere (2.5 percent O2, 2.5 percent CO2) and controlled atmosphere combined with polyethylene packaging reduced the CO2 production, degradation of chlorophyll, loss of total sugar, and starch. Phaltan (microbe inhibitor, 1,000 ppm) or Phaltan in combination with polyethylene packaging under controlled atmosphere storage had an adverse effect on the lettuce held in the conventional refrigerator. In every case, the rate of respiration was in direct correlation with the sugar retention data.