(1) Background: The ability of metal nanoparticles to carry other molecules and their electromagnetic interactions can be used for localized drug release or to heat malignant tissue, as in the case of photothermal treatments. Plasmonics can be used to calculate their absorption and electric field enhancement, which can be further used to predict the outcome of photothermal experiments. In this study, we model the nanoparticle geometry in a Finite Element Model calculus environment to calculate the effects that occur as a response to placing it in an optical, electromagnetic field, and also a model of the experimental procedure to measure the temperature rise while irradiating a suspension of nanoparticles. (2) Methods: Finite Element Method numerical models using the COMSOL interface for geometry and mesh generation and iterative solving discretized Maxwell’s equations; (3) Results: Absorption and scattering cross-section spectrums were obtained for NanoRods and NanoStars, also varying their geometry as a parameter, along with electric field enhancement in their surroundings; temperature curves were calculated and measured as an outcome of the irradiation of different concentration suspensions; (4) Conclusions: The results obtained are comparable with the bibliography and experimental measurements.

We present an autonomous system that remotely monitors the state of reinforced concrete structures. This system performs real-time follow-up of the corrosion rate of rebars (i_CORR), along with other relevant parameters such as temperature, corrosion potential (E_CORR), and electrical resistance of concrete (R_E), at many of a structure’s control points by using embedded sensors. i_CORR is obtained by applying a novel low-stress electrochemical polarization technique to corrosion sensors. The custom electronic system manages the sensor network, consisting of a measurement board per control point connected to a central single-board computer in charge of processing measurement data and uploading results to a server via 4G connection. In this work, we report the results obtained after implementing the sensor system into a reinforced concrete wall, where two well-differentiated representative areas were monitored. The obtained corrosion parameters showed consistent values. Similar conclusions are obtained with E_CORR recorded in rebars. With the i_CORR follow-up, the corrosion penetration damage diagram is built. This diagram is particularly useful for identifying critical events during the corrosion propagation period and to be able to estimate structures’ service life. Hence, the system is presented as a useful tool for the structural maintenance and service life predictions of new structures.

Optogenetics is an emerging discipline with multiple applications in neuroscience, allowing to study neuronal pathways or serving for therapeutic applications such as in the treatment of anxiety disorder, autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), or Parkinson's disease. More recently optogenetics is opening its way also to stem cell-based therapeutic applications for neuronal regeneration after stroke or spinal cord injury. The results of optogenetic stimulation are usually evaluated by immunofluorescence or flow cytometry, and the observation of transient responses after stimulation, as in cardiac electrophysiology studies, by optical microscopy. However, certain phenomena, such as the ultra-fast calcium waves acquisition upon simultaneous optogenetics, are beyond the scope of current instrumentation, since they require higher image resolution in real-time, employing for instance time-lapse confocal microscopy. Therefore, in this work, an optogenetic stimulation matrix controllable from a graphical user interface has been developed for its use with a standard 24-well plate for an inverted confocal microscope use and validated by using a photoactivable adenyl cyclase (bPAC) overexpressed in rat fetal cortical neurons and the consequent calcium waves propagation upon 100 ms pulsed blue light stimulation.

Bladder cancer (BC) is the sixth leading cause of death by cancer. Depending on the invasiveness of tumors, patients with BC will undergo surgery and surveillance lifelong, owing the high rate of recurrence and progression. In this context, the development of strategies to support non-invasive BC diagnosis is focusing attention. Voltammetric electronic tongue (VET) has been demonstrated to be of use in the analysis of biofluids. Here, we present the implementation of a VET to study 207 urines to discriminate BC and non-BC for diagnosis and surveillance to detect recurrences. Special attention has been paid to the experimental setup to improve reproducibility in the measurements. PLSDA analysis together with variable selection provided a model with high sensitivity, specificity, and area under the ROC curve AUC (0.844, 0.882, and 0.917, respectively). These results pave the way for the development of non-invasive low-cost and easy-to-use strategies to support BC diagnosis and follow-up.

The university Lecturer Training Fellowship granted by the Spanish Ministry of Education implies the participation of the PhD candidates in the practical lessons of subjects related to their specialty. For the first time, two students were assigned to the high performance group in Digital Electronics in the Industrial Electronics and Automation degree, taught in the ETSID (Polytechnic University of Valencia) [1]. Taking advantage of the PhD candidates’ easiness for comprehending the student’s point of view, they were allowed to suggest and implement methodological modifications with the aim of improving the knowledge and skill transfer in the subject field. The main result was the development of a methodology which relates the practical and theoretical parts so they are interleaved, making it easier to comprehend, assimilate the concepts, and participate actively in the practical part gaining experience in the field [2]. The subject is divided in three main parts: VHDL, microcontrollers and a final project. One of the PhD students was assigned to the VHDL part, the other one to the microcontroller part, and the final project was collaborative, with both participating in the organization and evaluation. This final project evaluates the innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship transversal skills of the students by entrusting them to develop a microcontroller code and to write the documentation about it, while participating in a car-like robot competition [3]. This year, the competition was presented as a list of requirements the robots must meet before the deadline to access the “final test”, in a way that was first implemented by the successful aerospace company SpaceX for the international Hyperloop Pod Competition series. This makes the deadlines and evaluation items very clear for both students and evaluators while leaving the door open to different ways of implementation using the knowledge acquired through the semester. This paper presents the thought process behind the methodology used during the subject and final project and the results obtained, alongside with the experience reported by both students and PhD in-training candidates.