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Análisis práctico del informe: "The future of European competitiveness" de Mario Draghi: estudio de la política fiscal española aplicable a las áreas económicas clave descritas en el informe y propuestas de adaptación del sistema tributario
No full textTreball de Fi de Grau en Dret. Curs 2024-2025Tutor: Iu Pijoan FontEste Trabajo de Fin de Grado en Derecho tiene como objeto de análisis, desde una perspectiva legal, el informe publicado por Mario Draghi en septiembre de 2024; en él hace hincapié en la falta de competencia internacional de la Unión Europea en comparación con sus principales competidores, Estados Unidos y China. Su objetivo principal es, en primer lugar, analizar el informe, a fin de identificar las áreas en las que la Comunidad Europea debe trabajar y evolucionar a nivel legislativo en los próximos años, siendo estas la innovación, la descarbonización y la defensa. En segundo lugar, estudiar cómo se están regulando a nivel fiscal estas áreas en la unión actualmente, a partir del ejemplo de España, para concluir si hay margen para incentivar más las actividades clave según Mario Draghi, y finalmente evaluar hasta qué punto estas medidas se podrían armonizar a nivel europeo habida cuenta del estado actual de los tratado
Electrical conductivity of hepatic tissue and its manipulation by intraarterial infusion of glucose: preliminary in vivo experiences in rats and patients
No full textThis study explores the potential of irreversible electroporation (IRE) in the treatment of scattered liver tumors, focusing on the electrical properties of the tissue. The administration of a 5% glucose solution (GS5%) was investigated to create a differential impedance between healthy and tumor tissue, which would allow the IRE to focus on the tumor. The results showed a significant increase in tissue impedance and no observed side effects. In addition, the electrical conductivity of human liver tissue was evaluated, indicating higher conductivity values for tumor tissues. The electrical properties showed potential to distinguish between different types of tissues. These findings underscore the potential for greater precision in IRE treatments through impedance modification by GS5% infusion and offer promising avenues for improving diagnostic and treatment techniques involving electric fields.Este estudio explora el potencial de la electroporación irreversible (IRE) en el tratamiento de tumores hepáticos dispersos, centrándose en las propiedades eléctricas del tejido. Se investigó la administración de una solución de glucosa al 5% (GS5%) para crear una impedancia diferencial entre el tejido sano y el tumoral, lo que permitiría centrar la IRE en el tumor. Los resultados mostraron un aumento significativo en la impedancia del tejido y ningún efecto secundario observado. Además, se evaluó la conductividad eléctrica del tejido hepático humano, indicando valores de conductividad más altos para los tejidos tumorales. Las propiedades eléctricas mostraron potencial para distinguir entre diferentes tipos de tejidos. Estos hallazgos subrayan el potencial para una mayor precisión en los tratamientos de IRE a través de la modificación de la impedancia por infusión de GS5% y ofrecen vías prometedoras para mejorar las técnicas de diagnóstico y tratamiento que involucran campos eléctricos.Programa de Doctorat en Biomedicin
Media, memory, and the texture of nostalgia: analog aesthetics in Charlotte Wells’ aftersun
No full textTreball de fi de Màster en Cultura Digital i Mitjans Emergents (DiCEM)Supervisor: Carlos A. ScolariThis dissertation examines the use of analog aesthetics in Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun to explore memory, nostalgia, and emotional mediation in contemporary cinema. Focusing on the film’s camcorder footage, it analyzes how analog textures, such as grain, flicker, and shakiness, express fragmented, intimate memories while reflecting a wider cultural resurgence of analog media in the digital era. Drawing on film theory as well as media and cultural studies, the research shows how Aftersun uses these imperfections to evoke emotional authenticity and contrast with digital clarity. The film’s formal choices position analog aesthetics as a powerful tool for shaping personal and collective memory, emphasizing nostalgia’s tactile and affective qualities. Ultimately, I argue that Aftersun not only portrays memory but also actively shapes the viewer’s
emotional engagement, highlighting the ongoing cultural significance of analog nostalgia in a digital age
Labour monitoring and decision support: a machine-learning-based paradigm
No full textIntroduction: A machine-learning-based paradigm, combining unsupervised and supervised components, is proposed for the problem of real-time monitoring and decision support during labour, addressing the limitations of current state-of-the-art approaches, such as the partograph or purely supervised models. Methods: The proposed approach is illustrated with World Health Organisation's Better Outcomes in Labour Difficulty (BOLD) prospective cohort study data, including 9,995 women admitted for labour in 2014–2015 in thirteen major regional health care facilities across Nigeria and Uganda. Unsupervised dimensionality reduction is used to map complex labour data to a visually intuitive space. In this space, an ongoing labour trajectory can be compared to those of a historical cohort of women with similar characteristics and known outcomes—this information can be used to estimate personalised “healthy” trajectory references (and alert the healthcare provider to significant deviations), as well as draw attention to high incidences of different interventions/adverse outcomes among similar labours. To evaluate the proposed approach, the predictive value of simple risk scores quantifying deviation from normal progress and incidence of complications among similar labours is assessed in a caesarean section prediction context and compared to that of the partograph and state-of-the-art supervised machine-learning models. Results: Considering all women, our predictors yielded sensitivity and specificity of ∼0.70. It was observed that this predictive performance could increase or decrease when looking at different subgroups. Discussion: With a simple implementation, our approach outperforms the partograph and matches the performance of state-of-the-art supervised models, while offering superior flexibility and interpretability as a real-time monitoring and decision-support solution.The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Grant #OPP1084318); the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); the UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), a cosponsored program executed by the World Health Organization (WHO); the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme for Research and Innovation, under grant agreement No. 642676 (CardioFunXion); the Fundació La Marató de TV3 (No. 20154031 and 2020163031); the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the María de Maeztu Units of Excellence Program (MDM-2015-0502, CEX2021-001195-M/ AEI /10.13039/501100011033)
Harry Potter i la màgia de la marca en la creació de la identitat dels individus
No full textTutora: Maria Montserrat Lavilla RasoTreball de fi de grau en Publicitat i Relacions PúbliquesAquest treball analitza l’impacte de la marca Harry Potter en la construcció de la identitat cultural individual i col·lectiva. A través d’un estudi qualitatiu —lectura crítica de la saga literària i revisió de la seva adaptació cinematogràfica— s’identifiquen els codis identitaris que la marca transmet, especialment mitjançant els valors i l’estètica associats a les residències de Hogwarts.
Els llibres aporten una base valorativa i narrativa, mentre que les pel·lícules construeixen una identitat visual que condiciona tant l’univers representat com el marxandatge vinculat. L’anàlisi s’amplia a l’experiència dels consumidors en entorns digitals (videojocs i web oficial) i físics (parcs temàtics). Els videojocs Hogwarts Mystery i Hogwarts Legacy han superat conjuntament els 1.500 milions de dòlars en facturació. El parc temàtic The Making of Harry Potter ha incrementat la seva facturació anual en més d’un 300% des de 2012. Paral·lelament, s’analitza la creació de fanfiction- és el segon univers amb més fanfictions a AO3, plataforma situada entre les quaranta més visitades del mónper completar l'anàlisi d’interaccions que reforcen la identitat col·lectiva. L’estudi conclou que l’univers de Harry Potter continua sent rellevant a nivell
cultural i comercial, i manté un alt potencial de creixement i de construcció d’identitat, com exemplifica la nova adaptació televisiva prevista per al 2026This paper analyzes the impact of the Harry Potter brand on the construction of both individual and collective cultural identity. Through a qualitative study — including a critical reading of the literary saga and a review of its film adaptation — the brand’s identity codes are examined, particularly those expressed through the values and aesthetics associated with the Hogwarts houses.
The books provide a narrative and value-based foundation, while the films construct a visual identity that shapes both the fictional universe and the associated merchandising. The analysis also explores consumer experiences in 3 Harry Potter i la màgia de la marca en la creació de la identitat dels individus Joana Elisenda Mateo Pérez digital environments (video games and the official website) and physical spaces (theme parks). The video games Hogwarts Mystery and Hogwarts Legacy have jointly surpassed $1.5 billion in revenue. The Making of Harry Potter theme park has increased its annual turnover by more than 300% since 2012. In parallel, the study examines fanfiction as a form of participatory interaction that reinforces collective identity; the Harry Potter universe is the second most
represented fandom on AO3, one of the forty most visited websites worldwide. The study concludes that the Harry Potter universe remains culturally and commercially relevant, with strong ongoing potential for identity-building and expansion — as exemplified by the upcoming television adaptation scheduled for release in 2026
Atezolizumab monotherapy for metastatic urothelial carcinoma: final analysis from the phase II IMvigor210 trial
No full textBackground: The IMvigor210 trial demonstrated clinical benefit and manageable toxicity with atezolizumab monotherapy [anti-programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)] in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) in primary analyses. Final efficacy and safety results after long-term follow-up are reported. Patients and methods: This phase II single-arm trial of atezolizumab monotherapy in patients with advanced UC included two cohorts: untreated patients ineligible for cisplatin-based chemotherapy (cohort 1; n = 119) and those previously treated with platinum-based chemotherapy (cohort 2; n = 310). Atezolizumab was administered i.v. (1200 mg every 21 days) until progression or unacceptable toxicity. Primary endpoints were independent review facility-assessed confirmed objective response rate (ORR) per RECIST 1.1 in cohort 1 and independent review facility-assessed ORR per RECIST 1.1 and investigator-assessed modified (m)RECIST in cohort 2. Overall survival (OS), efficacy by PD-L1 status, and safety were also assessed. Results: At data cut-off (1 June 2023), the median survival follow-up was 96.4 months (range, 0.2-103.4 months) in cohort 1 and 46.2 months [0.2 (censored)-54.9 months] in cohort 2. In cohort 1, the ORR [95% confidence interval (CI)] was 23.5% (16.2% to 32.2%) in all patients and 28.1% (13.8% to 46.8%) in the PD-L1 tumor-infiltrating immune cell (IC)2/3 subgroup. Median OS (95% CI) was 16.3 months (10.4-24.5 months) overall and 12.3 months (6.0-49.8 months) in the PD-L1 IC2/3 subgroup. In cohort 2, the ORR (95% CI) was 16.5% (12.5% to 21.1%) per RECIST 1.1 and 19.7% (95% CI 15.4% to 24.6%) per mRECIST in all patients and 27.0% (18.6% to 36.8%) and 28.0% (19.5% to 37.9%), respectively, in the PD-L1 IC2/3 subgroup. Median OS (95% CI) was 7.9 months (6.7-9.3 months) in all patients and 11.9 months (9.0-22.8 months) in the IC2/3 subgroup. Treatment-related grade 3/4 adverse events occurred in 21.8% (cohort 1) and 18.7% (cohort 2); one treatment-related death occurred in cohort 1. Conclusions: With long-term follow-up, atezolizumab monotherapy demonstrated clinically meaningful efficacy with durable responses in a subset of patients with metastatic UC; there were no new safety signals
Facets of high-dimensional Gaussian polytopes
No full textWe study the number of facets of the convex hull of n independent standard Gaussian points in d-dimensional Euclidean space. In particular, we are interested in the expected number of facets when the dimension is allowed to grow with the sample size. We establish an explicit asymptotic formula that is valid whenever d/n tends to zero. We also obtain the asymptotic value when d is close to n.K. Böröczky research was supported by Hungarian Grant NKFIH 132002. G. Lugosi research was supported by the Spanish grant PID2022-138268NB-I00, financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, FSE+MTM2015-67304-P, and FEDER, EU. M. Reitzner research was supported by the German Research Foundation DFG-GRK 1916
Relevance of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) dynamics for receptor activation, signalling bias and allosteric modulation
No full textG protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are one of the major drug targets. In recent years, computational drug design for GPCRs has mainly focused on static structures obtained through X-ray crystallography, cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) or in silico modelling as a starting point for virtual screening campaigns. However, GPCRs are highly flexible entities with the ability to adopt different conformational states that elicit different physiological responses. Including this knowledge in the drug discovery pipeline can help to tailor novel conformation-specific drugs with an improved therapeutic profile. In this review, we outline our current knowledge about GPCR dynamics that is relevant for receptor activation, signalling bias and allosteric modulation. Ultimately, we highlight new technological implementations such as time-resolved X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM as well as computational algorithms that can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of receptor dynamics and its relevance for GPCR functionality
Lacrimal duct surgery: different techniques and long-term postoperative results
No full textPre-saccal obstructions of the lacrimal duct can be solved with a conjunctivodacryocystorhinostomy while saccal or post-saccal obstructions are restored with an external, endoscopic or laser dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR). The aim of the present study is to review the indications for each technique and to compare the results achieved. Retrospective review of 335 patients in whom 440 surgeries of the lacrimal duct were performed, with at least 4 months of follow-up. Outcomes in terms of symptoms and endoscopic findings during follow-up were considered. Successful results understood as resolution of symptoms were observed in 85% of cases treated with endoscopic DCR and in 62% of cases after laser DCR (p < 0.001). Among patients with recurrence of epiphora after surgery, 32% showed a visible ostium during endoscopy. Sixty-eight conjunctivodacryocystorhinostomies were performed, 68% of which required a tube replacement due to obstruction or extrusion. The mean duration of the tubes replaced was 10 months (range 3 days - 95 months). Endoscopic DCR shows better success rates than laser DCR. A considerable percentage of failures after DCR surgery present a visible ostium on endoscopic examination. This fact should lead to reconsider the initial diagnosis, ruling out functional problems or canalicular obstructions
Unravelling the molecular pathways of auditory and vestibular function: the roles of sall1a and the fgf13 genes in the zebrafish inner ear development
No full textL’oïda interna és un òrgan sensorial complex essencial per a les funcions auditiva i vestibular, que depèn de les cèl·lules ciliades per a la mecanotransducció i de les neurones sensorials per a transmetre senyals al sistema nerviós central. Mutacions en gens crítics per al desenvolupament de les cèl·lules ciliades i neurones sensorials poden provocar trastorns de l’audició i l’equilibri. No obstant això, el paper de molts gens implicats en desenvolupament i malaltia de l’oïda interna encara roman àmpliament inexplorat. Aquest és el cas dels gens sall1 i fgf13, ambdós expressats a les cèl·lules i neurones sensorials de l’oïda interna i associats a malalties humanes. Mitjançant la tecnologia CRISPR, vam generar línies transgèniques knockout en peix zebra per a aquests gens per tal d’avaluar els efectes de la seva pèrdua de funció a nivell molecular, cel·lular i conductual des de les 24 hores post-fertilització fins els 6 dies post-fertilització. Vam trobar que els mutants per a sall1a exhibien un nombre reduït de cèl·lules madures, una manca d’equilibri estacionari i una regulació a la baixa de tres gens associats a la pèrdua d’audició, entre altres gens importants per al desenvolupament de les cèl·lules ciliades. D’altra banda, els crispants de fgf13a/b presentaven desfasciculació dels axons i una forma ganglionar anormal. Sorprenentment, els mutants homozigots knockout per a fgf13a/b de la línia estable presentaven una morfologia normal del gangli estatoacústic, suggerint un possible mecanisme compensatori. En conclusió, aquest estudi suggereix que sall1a juga un paper crític en la maduració de les cèl·lules ciliades en el peix zebra, la qual cosa pot proporcionar informació respecte de la patogènesi de la pèrdua d’audició en malalties com ara la síndrome de Townes-Brocks. En relació als paralogs de fgf13, el paper d’aquests gens en el desenvolupament del gangli estatoacústic podria trobar-se esmorteït degut a mecanismes compensatoris potencials mediats per ARNm, tot i que les dades suggereixen que un dels seus papers podria estar relacionat al correcte establiment de projeccions d’axons.The inner ear is a complex sensory organ essential for auditory and vestibular functions, relying on hair cells for mechanotransduction and sensory neurons to transmit signals to the central nervous system. Mutations in genes critical for the development of hair cells and sensory neurons can lead to hearing and balance disorders. Nevertheless, the roles of many genes in inner ear development and disease remain largely unexplored. This is the case for the sall1 and fgf13 genes, both expressed in hair cells and sensory neurons of the inner ear and associated with human conditions. Using CRISPR technology, we generated zebrafish transgenic knockout lines for these genes to assess the effects of their loss-of-function at the molecular, cellular and behavioural level from 24 hours post-fertilization to 6 days post-fertilization. We found that sall1a mutants exhibited a reduced number of mature hair cells, a lack of stationary balance, and downregulation of three hearing loss-associated genes, among other genes important for hair cell development. On a different note, fgf13a/b crispants presented axonal defasciculation and an abnormal ganglionic shape. Surprisingly, homozygous mutants from the fgf13a/b stable knockout line displayed normal morphology of the statoacoustic ganglion, suggesting a possible compensatory mechanism. In conclusion, this study suggests that sall1a plays a critical role in the maturation of hair cells in zebrafish, which may provide insight into the pathogenesis of hearing loss in conditions like Townes-Brocks syndrome. Regarding fgf13 paralogues, potential mRNA-mediated compensatory mechanisms might be concealing the role of these genes in statoacoustic ganglion development, though data suggest that one of its roles could be related to the establishment of proper axonal projections.Programa de Doctorat en Biomedicin