Distributed multivariate regression with unknown noise covariance in the presence of outliers: an MDL approach

We consider the problem of estimating the coefficients in a multivariable linear model by means of a wireless sensor network which may be affected by anomalous measurements. The noise covariance matrices at the different sensors are assumed unknown. Treating outlying samples, and their support, as additional nuisance parameters, the Maximum Likelihood estimate is investigated, with the number of outliers being estimated according to the Minimum Description Length principle. A distributed implementation based on iterative consensus techniques is then proposed, and it is shown effective for managing outliers in the data.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Caracterización de aislamientos de Ralstonia Solanacearum Raza 2, agente causal de Moko de plátano, en el Valle del Cauca, Colombia = Characterizing Strains of Ralstonia Solanacearum Race 2, Causal Agent of Moko of Plantain, In Valle Del Cauca, Colombia

Moko is a bacterial wilt of plantain and banana, caused by Ralstonia solanacearum race 2. It is the most important disease of these crops in Colombia, affecting 125,000 families. R. solanacearum has a wide range of hosts, geographical distribution, and pathogenicity. This study aimed to isolate R. solanacearum from infected plant tissue, using SMSA medium, real-time PCR with specific TaqMan probe Mus 20P and primers Mus 20F and Mus 20RP, and duplex PCR. We then evaluated the strains pathogenicity levels. A total of 93 samples of infected plant tissue from pseudostems, rachis, and petioles of selected plantain and banana plants were obtained in Valle del Cauca. Samples were amplified with duplex PCR and real-time PCR, with specific TaqMan probe Mus 20P and specific primers Mus 20F and Mus 20RP. The strains, identified by PCR as R. solanacearum, were inoculated into plantain plants of Dominico Hartón (Musa cv. AAB). As the positive check, the pathogenic strain R. solanacearum CIAT 078 was used. An analysis of variance was carried out for the variable AUDPC with minimum significant difference (MSD; = 5%) to separate the strains into three groups of pathogenicity. Seventy-five strains were positive for real-time PCR with Ct value 25, which corresponded to the pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum. For 61 of the 75 strains obtained, the fragment was located in a gene related to chemotaxis protein, which is used to identify the strains as R. solanacearum phylotype II, measuring 500 bp, which was amplified with primers 93F/93R and 5F/5R

Mucopolysaccharidosis IVA: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Management.

Mucopolysaccharidosis type IVA (MPS IVA, or Morquio syndrome type A) is an inherited metabolic lysosomal disease caused by the deficiency of the N-acetylglucosamine-6-sulfate sulfatase enzyme. The deficiency of this enzyme accumulates the specific glycosaminoglycans (GAG), keratan sulfate, and chondroitin-6-sulfate mainly in bone, cartilage, and its extracellular matrix. GAG accumulation in these lesions leads to unique skeletal dysplasia in MPS IVA patients. Clinical, radiographic, and biochemical tests are needed to complete the diagnosis of MPS IVA since some clinical characteristics in MPS IVA are overlapped with other disorders. Early and accurate diagnosis is vital to optimizing patient management, which provides a better quality of life and prolonged life-time in MPS IVA patients. Currently, enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are available for patients with MPS IVA. However, ERT and HSCT do not have enough impact on bone and cartilage lesions in patients with MPS IVA. Penetrating the deficient enzyme into an avascular lesion remains an unmet challenge, and several innovative therapies are under development in a preclinical study. In this review article, we comprehensively describe the current diagnosis, treatment, and management for MPS IVA. We also illustrate developing future therapies focused on the improvement of skeletal dysplasia in MPS IVA

Celebrity games

We introduce Celebrity games, a new model of network creation games. In this model players have weights (W being the sum of all the player's weights) and there is a critical distance ß as well as a link cost a. The cost incurred by a player depends on the cost of establishing links to other players and on the sum of the weights of those players that remain farther than the critical distance. Intuitively, the aim of any player is to be relatively close (at a distance less than ß ) from the rest of players, mainly of those having high weights. The main features of celebrity games are that: computing the best response of a player is NP-hard if ß>1 and polynomial time solvable otherwise; they always have a pure Nash equilibrium; the family of celebrity games having a connected Nash equilibrium is characterized (the so called star celebrity games) and bounds on the diameter of the resulting equilibrium graphs are given; a special case of star celebrity games shares its set of Nash equilibrium profiles with the MaxBD games with uniform bounded distance ß introduced in Bilò et al. [6]. Moreover, we analyze the Price of Anarchy (PoA) and of Stability (PoS) of celebrity games and give several bounds. These are that: for non-star celebrity games PoA=PoS=max{1,W/a}; for star celebrity games PoS=1 and PoA=O(min{n/ß,Wa}) but if the Nash Equilibrium is a tree then the PoA is O(1); finally, when ß=1 the PoA is at most 2. The upper bounds on the PoA are complemented with some lower bounds for ß=2.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Efficient bit-level design of an on-board digital TV demultiplexer

A bit-level description of the signal processing stage of an on-board integrated VLSI multi-carrier demodulator is presented in this paper, along with a description of the optimization procedure that has been developed for the signal processing functions1. The demultiplexer is capable of handling a varying number of carriers in a 36 MHz bandwidth on the satellite up-link. Its architecture has been optimized at bit-level in a way dependent on the known input signal statistics and carrier distributions allowed by the frequency plan.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Controlling eutrophication by means of water recirculation: an optimal control perspective

In this work, the artificial recirculation of water is presented and analyzed, from the perspective of the optimal control of partial differential equations, as a tool to prevent eutrophication effects in large waterbodies. A novel formulation of the environmental problem, based on the coupling of nonlinear models for hydrodynamics, water temperature and concentrations of the different species involved in the eutrophication processes, is introduced. After a complete and rigorous analysis of the existence of optimal solutions, a full numerical algorithm for their computation is proposed. Finally, some numerical results for a realistic scenario are shown, in order to prove the efficiency of our approach.Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431C 2019/02Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. MTM2016-75140-

Multiresistant bacteria: invisible enemies of freshwater mussels

Freshwater mussels are among the most endangered groups of fauna anywhere in world. The indiscriminate use of antibiotics has led to the emergence of resistant strains. These antibiotic-resistant bacteria play a key role in increasing the risk allied with the use of surface water and in spread of resistance genes. Two endangered freshwater mussel species, Margaritifera margaritifera and Potomida littoralis, were sampled at 4 sampling sites along a 50 km stretch of River Tua. Water samples were taken at same sites. Of the total of 135 isolates, 64.44% (39.26% from water and 25.19% from mussels) were coliform bacteria. Site T1, with the lowest concentration of coliform bacteria, and site T2 were the only ones where M. margaritifera was found. No E. coli isolates were found in this species and the pattern between water and mussels was similar. P. littoralis, which was present at T3/T4 sites, is the one that faces the highest concentration of bacterial toxins, which are found in treated wastewater effluents and around population centers. Sites T3/T4 have the isolates (water and mussels) with the highest resistance pattern, mainly to β-lactams. Water and P. littoralis isolates (T3/T4) showed resistance to penicillins and their combination with clavulanic acid, and to cephalosporins, precisely to a fourth generation of cephalosporin antibiotics. The analysis provides important information on the risk to water systems, as well as the need to investigate possible management measures. It is suggested that future studies on the health status of freshwater bivalves should incorporate measures to indicate bacteriological water quality.This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Operational Competitiveness Programme (COMPETE), under projects UIDB/04033/2020 and UIDP/04033/2020 (CITAB-Inov4Agro-UTAD). This research was also funded by the Conselleira de Educación, Universidade e Formación Profesional, Xunta de Galicia, Spain, under project R815 131H 64502 (Xana Álvarez). Funding for open access charge was from the Universidade de Vigo/CISUG.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy for the in vivo study of microtubule dynamics in the zebrafish embryo

During its first hours of development, the zebrafish embryo presents a large microtubule array in the yolk region, essential for its development. Despite of its size and dynamic behavior, this network has been studied only in limited field of views or in fixed samples. We designed and implemented different strategies in Light Sheet Fluorescence microscopy for imaging the entire yolk microtubule (MT) network in vivo. These have allowed us to develop a novel image analysis from which we clearly observe a cyclical re-arrangement of the entire MT network in synchrony with blastoderm mitotic waves. These dynamics also affect a previously unreported microtubule array deep within the yolk, here described. These findings provide a new vision of the zebrafish yolk microtubules arrangement, and offers novel insights in the interaction between mitotic events and microtubules reorganization.Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (Marie Sklodowska-Curie 721537); Laserlab-Europe (871124); Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (RYC-2015-17935); Generalitat de Catalunya (CERCA Program); Fundación Cellex (Fundación Mir-Puig); Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CEX2019-000910-S).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Harvesting Energy in ILUPACK via Slack Elimination

Ponència presentada al 2nd Workshop on Power-Aware Computing (PACO 2017) Ringberg Castle, Germany, July, 5-8 2017We develop a new energy-aware methodology to improve the energy consumption of a task-parallel preconditioned Conjugate Gradient iter- ative solver on a Haswell-EP Intel Xeon. This technique leverages the power-saving modes of the processor and the frequency range of the userspace Linux governor, modifying the CPU frequency for some oper- ations. We demonstrate that its application during the main operations of the PCG solver can reduce its energy consumption

Mathematical analysis and numerical resolution of a heat transfer problem arising in water recirculation

This work is devoted to the analysis and resolution of a well-posed mathematical model for several processes involved in the artificial circulation of water in a large waterbody. This novel formulation couples the convective heat transfer equation with the modified Navier–Stokes system following a Smagorinsky turbulence model, completed with a suitable set of mixed, nonhomogeneous boundary conditions of diffusive, convective and radiative type. We prove several theoretical results related to existence of solution, and propose a full algorithm for its computation, illustrated with some realistic numerical examples.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. MTM2015-65570-PXunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431D 2017/1