Cross Cultural Analysis for Training and Facilitating Latin-American Audiences

The purpose of this project is to help Creative Problem Solving (CPS) trainers and facilitators to improve the efficacy when working with Hispanic groups and individuals, either in a personal or in organizational environments. This project will guide the facilitators to use a more appropriate tools that will allow the resource group to feel more comfortable during the idea generation, creating an environment more according to the believes and behavioral habits; and the client to feel more confident to converge and make decisions accordingly to the initial goals. When training people in CPS, the project will align the methodology and material presented with the expectations of the public, taking into account their roots, culture and way of perceive the world. In order to accomplish this, the differences between the Anglo and Hispanic cultures must be understand, compare and contrast, to be able then to extrapolate them into the CPS tools and either modify some of the existent, or to design some new ones

Automated context aware composition of Advanced Telecom Services for environmental early warnings

This paper presents one of the main components of a framework for automated composition of Advanced Telecom Services for environmental early Warnings. The framework, called AUTO, is composed by three main modules: a request processing module that transforms natural language and context information into a planning instance; the automated planning module, based on PELEA, an architecture for planning and execution; and the Service Execution Environment Advance Telecom Services. This paper focuses on the description of the translation of the user request in natural language and his context into planning instances. These planning instances represent service composition tasks based on Automated Planning. The advantages of this approach, like the automatic inclusion of context and user preferences in the composition of services, will be presented. Also, the current implementation will be described and some experimentation will prove the viability of AUTO

Thrombospondin-1 serum levels do not correlate with pelvic pain in patients with ovarian endometriosis

Objetive: Thrombospondin-1 serum levels is correlate with pelvic pain in patients with ovarian endometriosis. Patients: Thrombospondin-1 serum levels were prospectively analysed in 51 patients (group A asymptomatic patients or patients presenting mild dysmenorrhea and women comprised group B severe dysmenorrhea and/or chronic pelvic pain and/or dyspareunia) who underwent surgery for cystic ovarian endometriosis to asses whether a correlation exists among thrombospondin-1 serum levels and pelvic pain. Results: From 56 patients, five cases were ultimateley excluded, because the histological diagnosis was other than cystic ovarian endometriosis (2 teratomas and 3 haemorragic cysts). The mean thrombospondin-1 serum levels in group A was 256,69 pg/ml_+37,07 and in group B was 291,41 pg/ml + 35,59. Conclusion: Pain symptoms in ovarian endometriosis is not correlated with thrombospondin-1 serum levels

Endometriosis in a postmenopausal woman without previous hormonal therapy: a case report

Introduction The prevalence of pelvic endometriosis is high, affecting approximately 6% to 10% of women of reproductive age. Although endometriosis has been associated with the occurrence of menstrual cycles, it can affect between 2% to 5% of postmenopausal women. Case presentation We present a case of ovarian endometriosis in a 62-year-old Spanish Caucasian woman with no previous use of hormonal therapy and no history of endometriosis or infertility. Conclusion Although the reported situation is rare, it is important to be aware of endometriosis after the menopause: post-menopausal endometriosis confers a risk of recurrence and malignant transformation

Towards automated composition of convergent services: a survey

A convergent service is defined as a service that exploits the convergence of communication networks and at the same time takes advantage of features of the Web. Nowadays, building up a convergent service is not trivial, because although there are significant approaches that aim to automate the service composition at different levels in the Web and Telecom domains, selecting the most appropriate approach for specific case studies is complex due to the big amount of involved information and the lack of technical considerations. Thus, in this paper, we identify the relevant phases for convergent service composition and explore the existing approaches and their associated technologies for automating each phase. For each technology, the maturity and results are analysed, as well as the elements that must be considered prior to their application in real scenarios. Furthermore, we provide research directions related to the convergent service composition phases

Microstructural and mechanical characteristics of EUROFER'97 processed by equal channel angular pressing

Proceedings of : 14th International Conference on Fusion Reactor Materials (ICFRM-14), 6-11 september, 2009. Sapporo Convention Center Sapporo, Japan.EUROFER'97 was processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at 823 K for a total of 4 or 8 passes, using a die angle of 105°, and its microstructure and tensile behavior in temperature range 568 873 K investigated. A single ECAP pass developed a deformation texture {1 1 0} 〈0 1 1〉 that was practically stable during subsequent ECAP passes. The materials processed by 1 or 2 passes exhibited a fine microstructure of recovered subgrains and tensile behavior very similar to that for the tempered material in the as-received condition. The materials processed using 4 or 8 passes exhibited nearly equiaxial submicron grained structures with a high density of high-angle grain boundaries. These materials became softer than the as-received material at a testing temperature of ~8764;823 K. EUROFER ECAP processed under the present conditions exhibited hardening ratio somewhat higher than that of the as-received material.This investigation was supported by the EURATOM/CIEMAT association through Contract 09 240, by the Comunidad de Madrid (program ESTRUMAT CM S0505/MAT/0077) and by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation Contract ENE 2008 06403 C06 04.Publicad

RNA aptamers specific for transmembrane p24 trafficking protein 6 and Clusterin for the targeted delivery of imaging reagents and RNA therapeutics to human β cells

The ability to detect and target β cells in vivo can substantially refine how diabetes is studied and treated. However, the lack of specific probes still hampers a precise characterization of human β cell mass and the delivery of therapeutics in clinical settings. Here, we report the identification of two RNA aptamers that specifically and selectively recognize mouse and human β cells. The putative targets of the two aptamers are transmembrane p24 trafficking protein 6 (TMED6) and clusterin (CLUS). When given systemically in immune deficient mice, these aptamers recognize the human islet graft producing a fluorescent signal proportional to the number of human islets transplanted. These aptamers cross-react with endogenous mouse β cells and allow monitoring the rejection of mouse islet allografts. Finally, once conjugated to saRNA specific for X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP), they can efficiently transfect non-dissociated human islets, prevent early graft loss, and improve the efficacy of human islet transplantation in immunodeficient in mice

Microstructure and mechanical properties of ultrafine-grained Fe─14Cr and ODS Fe─14Cr model alloys

This study is to: The 14th International Conference on Fusion Reactor Materials (ICFRM-14) was held at the Sapporo Convention Center in Sapporo, Japan from 7 to 12 September 2009Reduced activation ferritic Fe─14 wt%Cr and Fe─14 wt%Cr─0.3 wt%Y₂O₃ alloys were produced by mechanical alloying and hot isostatic pressing followed by forging and heat treating. The alloy containing Y₂O₃ developed a submicron-grained structure with homogeneous dispersion of oxide nanoparticles that enhanced the tensile properties in comparison to the Y₂O₃ free alloy. Strengthening induced by the Y₂O₃ dispersion appears to be effective up to 873 K, at least. A uniform distribution of Cr-rich precipitates, stable upon a heat treatment at 1123 K for 2 h, was also found in both alloys.This investigation was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project No ENE 2008-06403-C06-04 and Juan de la Cierva program), the Comunidad de Madrid through the program ESTRUMAT-CM (grant S0505/MAT/0077), and the European Commission through the European Fusion Development Agreement (contract No. 09-240), the IP3 FP6 ESTEEM project (contract No. 026019) and the Fusion Energy Materials Science (FEMaS) FP7 coordination action.Publicad

Triage for surgical management of ovarian tumors in asymptomatic women: assessment of an ultrasound-based scoring system.

OBJECTIVES: To prospectively evaluate an ultrasound-based scoring system as a method for triaging asymptomatic women presenting with an adnexal mass for surgical treatment. METHODS: Two hundred and four adnexal masses in 189 asymptomatic women undergoing elective surgical treatment at our institution were included in this prospective study. Patients were evaluated by transvaginal power Doppler ultrasound imaging before surgery. Patients were classified as low risk or high risk for malignancy according to an ultrasound-based scoring system. Women with a low risk for malignancy were scheduled for laparoscopy and patients with a high risk for malignancy were scheduled for laparotomy. However, patients classified as low risk by the ultrasound scoring system, but with a tumor size >or= 10 cm or clinical suspicion of pelvic adhesions, were instead considered to be at intermediate risk and were scheduled for laparotomy. Some patients classified as high risk were scheduled for an operative laparoscopy by an expert in gynecological oncology. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-four (65.7%) masses were considered to be low risk and were treated by a laparoscopically guided procedure. All these tumors were benign. Forty-seven (23%) masses were classified as high risk, of which 39 tumors were malignant and eight benign. Twenty-three (11.3%) tumors were considered to be intermediate risk and were scheduled for primary laparotomy. In this group, 21 (91.3%) tumors proved to be benign and two (8.7%) were malignant. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound-based triage of asymptomatic women diagnosed with a persistent adnexal mass is effective for selecting the surgical approach