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Background and Aims Tunnelled catheter-related bacteraemia (BRC) of the patient in chronic hemodialysis program results in high morbidity and mortality. Antibiotic catheter lock has been suggested to reduce the incidence of BRC in clinical trials. Aim: To demonstrate the effectiveness of universal aseptic measures in obtaining an optimal BRC rate in a long-term single-centre study. Method Design: Prospective cohort study, single-centre. Follow-up time: 11 years (2008-2018) Tunneled catheters: Optiflow, Hemostar, Hemosplit, Equistream, Hemoglide (Bard Access Systems, New Jersey, USA) and Palindrome (Covidien, - Medtronic, Mansfield, Massachusets, USA). Days / catheter analyzed: 207,320. Catheter placement: Ultrasound-guided interventional radiology equipment, with fluoroscopy and universal aseptic measures + 1 single dose of Vancomycin / cefazolin. Follow-up: Nursing and Nephrology and Infectious physicians. Universal aseptic measures. Heparin lock. BRC is considered to be the presence of a positive blood culture after discarding another focus and related to the negative catheter or blood culture with no other focus than the catheter. All available samples at the time of bacteraemia are analyzed: blood, sputum, urine, faeces, pleural fluid, peritoneal fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, exudates, smears etc, and their results. The BRC rate x 1000 days / catheter is evaluated Results Results BRC 2008 to 2018: 0.57, 0.47, 0.31, 0.1, 0.43, 0.37, 0.42, 0.16, 0.2, 0.18 and 0.04 respectively. The evaluated catheters, follow-up days, catheter-related bacteraemias, germ typing and treatment are analyzed: antibiotic vs. catheter removal in Table 1. Conclusion 1. The use of universal measures only, without the use in the antibiotics lock or anticoagulants other than heparin, can achieve a bacteraemia rate related to the optimal catheter, being cost / effective and avoiding possible resistance to antibiotics and side effects of other anticoagulant drugs. 2. Antibiotic sealing should be reserved for cases of difficult epidemiological control of BRC.

This paper presents an unsupervised flood monitoring approach developed by DARES TECHNOLOGY using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) space-borne images in order to improve disaster management and coordinate response activities in front of flood crisis events. The methodology developed combines SAR pre-processing, histogram thresholding in blocks with bi-modal behavior and unsupervised segmentation approaches. The use of interferometric parameters, such as the coherence is also employed to refine results. The challenge of this detection approach is working towards an unsupervised approach, i.e., training data is no required and, therefore, information or ground-truth about the class statistics within the area of interest are not necessary. The methodology proposed will be validated over the floods occurred in Mumbai city on August 29, 2017 produced by heavy rain events. 4 Sentinel-1 SAR images will be employed for this purpose.

Background Native arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is considered the gold standard of vascular access for hemodialysis due to its longer survival, fewer complications, lower mortality and costs. Patency is important for effective dialysis treatment and this remains a challenge in nephrology. There are no well-defined prognostic factors for early and long-term AVF survival. The aim of this study was to evaluate comorbidity, analytical and ultrasound (US) variables as prognostic factors for early failure and AVF patency. Methods A prospective single-center cohort study was conducted with 5 years of follow-up. Inclusion criteria were patients with new native AVF creation between January 2011 and December 2015 and known vascular access survival data at the end of follow-up. Comorbidity (blood pressure, severe arteriopathy, diabetes, Charlson Index), and laboratory data (hemoglobin, calcium, phosphorus, PTH, ferritin, C-reactive protein), as well as US preoperative mapping (morphology and hemodynamic), were collected. End-points were early failure and secondary patency by Kaplan-Meier. Results The study included 117 patients with native AVF. Median age was 69±18 years and mainly of male gender (N.=70, 59.8%). Hypertension, diabetes and severe vascular disease were present in 65 (86.7%), 38 (50.7%) and 31 (41.3%). In 55 patients (47.8%) the AVF was in a distal location. Early failure was 19.7% and secondary patency at 5 years was 66.7%. Elderly age (P=0.034) and vein diameter (P=0.041) had an impact on early AVF failure. Radial (P=0.006) and ulnar peak systolic velocity (PSV) (P=0.018) showed predictive value in native AVF secondary patency rate. Conclusions Predictors of early and late events are slightly different. Elderly age and vein diameter had greater impact on early AVF failure. However, distal arterial hemodynamics showed prognostic value in native AVF secondary patency rate.

Prior to the application of any persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) technique for the monitoring of terrain displacement phenomena, an adequate pixel selection must be carried out in order to prevent the inclusion of noisy pixels in the processing. The rationale is to detect the so-called persistent scatterers, which are characterized by preserving their phase quality along the multi-temporal set of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images available. Two criteria are mainly available for the estimation of pixels' phase quality, i.e., the coherence stability and the amplitude dispersion or permanent scatterers (PS) approach. The coherence stability method allows an accurate estimation of the phase statistics, even when a reduced number of SAR acquisitions is available. Unfortunately, it requires the multi-looking of data during the coherence estimation, leading to a spatial resolution loss in the final results. In contrast, the PS approach works at full-resolution, but it demands a larger number of SAR images to be reliable, typically more than 20. There is hence a clear limitation when a full-resolution PSI processing is to be carried out and the number of acquisitions available is small. In this context, a novel pixel selection method based on exploiting the spectral properties of point-like scatterers, referred to as temporal sublook coherence (TSC), has been recently proposed. This paper seeks to demonstrate the advantages of employing PSI techniques by means of TSC on both orbital and ground-based SAR (GB-SAR) data when the number of images available is small (10 images in the work presented). The displacement maps retrieved through the proposed technique are compared, in terms of pixel density and phase quality, with traditional criteria. Two X-band datasets composed of 10 sliding spotlight TerraSAR-X images and 10 GB-SAR images, respectively, over the landslide of El Forn de Canillo (Andorran Pyrenees), are employed for this study. For both datasets, the TSC technique has showed an excellent performance compared with traditional techniques, achieving up to a four-fold increase in the number of persistent scatters detected, compared with the coherence stability approach, and a similar density compared with the PS approach, but free of outliers.

This article aims to help to up date the terms of the undervalued discussion about the legal delimitation of the temporary reproductions made during the use and enjoyment of works in the digital enviroment, as well as to study those generated during the process of sharing files over P2P networks. In this first part we will explain what are temporary reproductions, where their fixation takes place and what is the regulatory legal framework in Spain; what is P2P technology, what are the main types of P2P file-sharing aplications and the relevant rulings on each one of them. In a second part, which will be published in Dereito too, we will analyse technical, ephemeral or intermediate reproduction. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15304/dereito.24.1.2522

In this paper, a study of polarimetric optimization techniques in the frame of differential synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry (DInSAR) is considered. Historically, DInSAR techniques have been limited to the single-polarimetric case, mainly due to the unavailability of fully polarimetric data. Lately, the launch of satellites with polarimetric capabilities, such as the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS), RADARSAT-2, or TerraSAR-X, allowed merging polarimetric and interferometric techniques to improve the pixels' phase quality and, thus, the density and the reliability of the final DInSAR results. The relationship between the polarimetrically optimized coherence or amplitude dispersion maps and the final DInSAR results is carefully analyzed, using both orbital and ground-based SAR fully polarimetric data. DInSAR processing using polarimetric optimization techniques in the pixel selection process is compared with the classical single-polarimetric approach, achieving up to a threefold increase of the number of pixel candidates in the coherence case and up to a factor of seven in the amplitude dispersion case.

This paper is focused on the potential and limits of Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI), a powerful remote sensing technique used to measure deformation phenomena. It only refers to satellite-based PSI techniques, focusing on the most important sources of C-band SAR data: ERS and Envisat. In addition, it compares C- and X-band results, considering data from the high-resolution TerraSAR-X sensor. The paper begins with a description of the main characteristics of PSI. It then discusses the most important PSI products and their performances, analyzing their spatial sampling, the so-called residual topographic error and PSI geocoding, the average displacement rates, and the deformation time series. As C-band products are concerned, the paper reports some relevant PSI validation results, which come from the ESA-funded Terrafirma Validation Project. Regarding the X-band, it describes the results obtained over the City of Barcelona by processing 13 TerraSAR-X images. The last part discusses the main limits of PSI.

This article studies the current understanding of copyleft by the Spanish judicature from the analysis of the collection of judgments delivered since the first appearance of this new concept in court in 2005.Two different main issues are discussed in this article: on one hand, the attitude of Spanish courts to copyleft, on the other, their approach to copyleft and moral rights. The study of the first point is based on the review of 20 judgments concerning musical works and the characteristics and importance of two existing case law presumptions, their application by the courts, and the lessons that may be drawn from four relevant cases. The study of the second element is based on the review of the only case which connects copyleft with moral rights by contrasting court's findings with the broad frame of protection to moral rights existing in Spain.Europe has recently witnessed a first launch of judicial decisions on open content and copyleft issues. From a practical perspective, the author explains the general framework designed by case law in Spain and points out several critical issues about the exercise of some moral rights over copyleft works in one of the jurisdictions with stronger moral rights protection.

This paper aims to demonstrate that radar-based remote sensing techniques can be as effective as the conventional geotechnical ones for the detection and monitoring of well suited areas. Many of the high mountain landslides are vegetated areas that decorrelate faster at X-band. As in these scenarios the number of coherent scatterers is low and, in addition, the area of interest is usually small, the processing can be benefited of the usage of high-resolution data. This will maximize the chances of detecting persistent scatters coming from both natural targets and man-made structures. The high resolution Spotlight mode of TerraSAR-X is thus the perfect choice as it offers a fine resolution. On the other hand, its 11 days of revisit time and X-band carrier allows the monitoring of small variations in the landslide trend and deal with its variable dynamics.

In this paper, the study of polarimetric optimization techniques for Differential SAR Interferometry (DInSAR) applications is analyzed. This work has been carried out in the framework of deformation map retrieval on landslides. A large number of landslides occur on vegetated areas with a poor density of temporal coherent scatterers, which are characterized by a fast decorrelation at X-band. The objective of the techniques proposed in this paper is to increase the number of temporal coherent scatterers to improve the robustness of the DInSAR algorithms exploiting the polarimetric capabilities of data. The relationship between optimum coherences and its corresponding phase quality in terms of DInSAR application is analyzed using Ground-Based SAR zerobaseline fully-polarimetric data.

En nuestra unidad de nefrología han aumentado los pacientes en programa de hemodiálisis crónica, muchos de ellos son de edad avanzada, y esto ha implicado un aumento de trabajo organizativo y asistencial. Se ha detectado la necesidad de una organización y planificación más detallada para atender al paciente pluripatológico de forma integral, dado que actualmente no existe una línea de trabajo bien definida y esto provoca algunas deficiencias, tensión en el equipo, burocracia excesiva y/o repetida, y genera malestar en el paciente y su entorno. Con el objetivo de dar una atención integral con criterios de efectividad y eficiencia a los pacientes pluripatológicos en hemodiálisis, se ha analizado el método de trabajo actual para diseñar un plan de atención integral al paciente, utilizando la técnica Delphi. Los pacientes tratados en diálisis crónica durante el 2002 fueron 184, predominando las siguientes características: edad avanzada (69±13 años), con otras patologías asociadas como hipertensión, cardiopatías, diabetes o vasculopatías. Durante este año han fallecido 19 pacientes (14,28 %). El uso de la técnica Delphi ha sido útil para identificar las necesidades de los pacientes pluripatológicos y diseñar una buena planificación y organización para su atención, aportando una mejora de la calidad asistencial y consiguiendo una mayor satisfacción de los pacientes y de los profesionales.

“©2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. Ground-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) (GB-SAR) sensors represent an effective solution for the monitoring of ground displacement episodes. Initially, the most GB-SAR sensors were based on vector network analyzers (VNA). This type of solution, characterized by a slow scanning time comparable to the decorrelation of the troposphere medium, compromised in many cases the quality of final products for the application of persistent scatterer interferomerty (PSI) techniques. The development of GB-SAR sensors based on the use of stepped linear frequency modulated continuous wave (SLFMCW) signals has led to significant improvements during the last years. They have allowed fulfilling the need of temporal homogeneity of the troposphere during the acquisition time and, moreover, they have favored the acquisition of reliable polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) measurements without drastically increasing the scanning time. This fact has boosted the inclusion of polarimetric SAR interferometry (PolInSAR) algorithms in PSI processing chains, which are demonstrating to outperform classical single-polarimetric performances. The objective of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, a general overview of the polarimetric RiskSAR sensor, developed by the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), is put forward as an example of SLFMCW GB-SAR system implementation. On the other hand, a complete theoretical description of ground-based SAR (GB-SAR) interferometry (GB-InSAR) techniques for PSI purposes is widely discussed. The adaptation of the Coherent Pixels Technique to obtain the linear and nonlinear components of ground displacement phenomena is proposed. In the second part of this paper, the displacement maps and time series over two very different scenarios are presented in order to show the feasibility of GB-SAR sensors for terrain displacement monitoring applications.

Persistent Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) represents one of the most powerful techniques for Earth's surface deformation processes' monitoring, especially for long-term evolution phenomena. In this work, a dataset of 34 TerraSAR-X StripMap images (October 2013–October 2014) has been processed by two PSI techniques - Coherent Pixel Technique-Temporal Sublook Coherence (CPT-TSC) and Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) - in order to study the evolution of a slow-moving landslide which occurred on February 23, 2012 in the Papanice hamlet (Crotone municipality, southern Italy) and induced by a significant rainfall event (185 mm in three days). The mass movement caused structural damage (buildings' collapse), and destruction of utility lines (gas, water and electricity) and roads. The results showed analogous displacement rates (30–40 mm/yr along the Line of Sight – LOS-of the satellite) with respect to the pre-failure phase (2008–2010) analyzed in previous works. Both approaches allowed detect the landslide-affected area, however the higher density of targets identified by means of CPT-TSC enabled to analyze in detail the slope behavior in order to design possible mitigation interventions. For this aim, a slope stability analysis has been carried out, considering the comparison between groundwater oscillations and time-series of displacement. Hence, the crucial role of the interaction between rainfall and groundwater level has been inferred for the landslide triggering. In conclusion, we showed that the integration of geotechnical and remote sensing approaches can be seen as the best practice to support stakeholders to design remedial works.

This paper presents the application of Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry (DInSAR) algorithms for the precise monitoring of earth dams ground deformation. The test site selected for this study is the Conza Dam, located in the southern Apennines (Italy), very close to the epicenter of the big earthquake (M-w = 6.9) which took place on November 23th, 1980, striking the Irpinia region. Among the multiple advanced DInSAR techniques developed by the SAR community during the last decade, this work uses the so-called SUBSOFT software, developed by the Remote Sensing Laboratory (RSLab) group from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), which is based on the use of Coherent Pixels Technique (CPT) algorithm. The analysis is carried out using 51 ENVIronmental SATellite-Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ENVISAT-ASAR) images, corresponding to the period from 29th of November 2002 to the 30th of July 2010. In this framework, ground displacements recorded by a network of conventional ground-based sensors are also available for the same temporal span. Indeed, the embankment dam is well instrumented to measure internal settlements by means of cross-arms placed in six different cross-sections, and superficial displacements by means of targets for precise leveling. A statistical analysis has been performed to carry out a better comparison between the measurements obtained with the conventional field sensors and the interferometric data. The high agreement between final DInSAR displacements and in-situ instrumental data, demonstrates the reliability of such technique for the precise monitoring of civil infrastructures, and concretely, in dams with a high exposure factor and its consequent risk.