UniNet: Next Term Course Recommendation using Deep Learning

Course enrollment recommendation is a relevant task that helps university students decide what is the best combination of courses to enroll in the next term. In particular, recommender system techniques like matrix factorization and collaborative filtering have been developed to try to solve this problem. As these techniques fail to represent the time-dependent nature of academic performance datasets we propose a deep learning approach using recurrent neural networks that aims to better represent how chronological order of course grades affects the probability of success. We have shown that it is possible to obtain a performance of 81.10% on AUC metric using only grade information and that it is possible to develop a recommender system with academic student performance prediction. This is shown to be meaningful across different student GPA levels and course difficultie

Isolation, selection, and characterization of highly ethanol-tolerant strains of Oenococcus oeni from south Catalonia

Twenty-one strains of Oenococcus oeni were isolated during the malolactic fermentation of wines from south Catalonia. Due to their high ethanol tolerance (14 %, or more), these strains may serve as promising starters. The strains were screened by assays in a wine-like medium and by their co-inoculation in wine, resulting in the selection of well-performing strains, subsequently shown not to produce the main biogenic amines and lacking the genes involved in their synthesis. The genetic diversity of the isolates was studied by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), in which seven housekeeping genes were sequenced. Although the concatenated allelic profi le of some strains was the same, the profi les obtained by random amplifi cation of polymorphic DNA together with the variable number of tandem repeats at several loci showed that none of the strains were identical. A phylogenetic tree was constructed based on MLST with the seven genes and clearly showed two phylogroups, in accordance with previous studies. The best-performing strains occurred in members of both subgroups, suggesting that the grouping of housekeeping genes is not directly related to adaptation and ethanol tolerance. [Int Microbiol 2013; 16(2):113-123]Keywords: Oenococcus oeni; malolactic fermentation; wine production; multilocus sequence typing (MLST);strain selectio

Natural coinfection between novel species of baculoviruses in spodoptera ornithogalli larvae

Spodoptera ornithogalli (Guenée) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is an important pest in different crops of economic relevance in America. For its control, strategies that include chemicals are usually used; so, the description of entomopathogens would be very useful for the formulation of biopesticides. In this regard, two different baculoviruses affecting S. ornithogalli were isolated in Colombia, with one of them being an NPV and the other a GV. Ultrastructural, molecular, and biological characterization showed that both isolates possess the 38 core genes and are novel species in Baculoviridae, named as Spodoptera ornithogalli nucleopolyhedrovirus (SporNPV) and Spodoptera ornithogalli granulovirus (SporGV). The bioassays carried out in larvae of S. ornithogalli and S. frugiperda showed infectivity in both hosts but being higher in the first. In addition, it was observed that SporGV potentiates the insecticidal action of SporNPV (maximum value in ratio 2.5:97.5). Both viruses are individually infective but coexist in nature, producing mixed infections with a synergistic effect that improves the performance of the NPV and enables the transmission of the GV, which presents a slowly killing phenotype.Fil: Barrera, Gloria Patricia. Centro de Investigación Tibaitatá. Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria; ColombiaFil: Villamizar, Laura Fernanda. Lincoln Research Centre; Estados UnidosFil: Araque, Gustavo Adolfo. Centro de Investigación Tibaitatá. Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria; ColombiaFil: Gómez, Juliana Andrea. Centro de Investigación Tibaitatá. Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria; ColombiaFil: Guevara, Elsa Judith. Centro de Investigación Tibaitatá. Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria; ColombiaFil: Cerrudo, Carolina Susana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular y Celular. Área Virus de Insectos; ArgentinaFil: Belaich, Mariano Nicolas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular y Celular. Área Virus de Insectos; Argentin

Riesgo de diabetes y prediabetes en Manizales, estudio RIDIMA

Introducción: La diabetes mellitus es una enfermedad crónica, no transmisible, cuya prevalencia ha ido en aumento en los últimos años, convirtiéndose en una pandemia y un problema de salud pública que requiere intervenciones desde la prevención y el diagnóstico temprano para poder evitar la aparición tanto de la enfermedad como de las múltiples complicaciones que acarrea. Dentro de los intentos por encontrar herramientas de tamización que permitan cumplir este objetivo está el FINDRISC, un cuestionario que estima el riesgo de padecer diabetes a futuro y ha sido validado en Colombia, asignando a la población de riesgo un puntaje mayor o igual a 13. Objetivo: Detectar, en adultos de Manizales, el riesgo de presentar diabetes mellitus tipo 2, usando la herramienta FINDRISC y realizar una descripción de esta misma población en términos de peso, índice de masa corporal (IMC), circunferencia abdominal, antecedentes familiares de diabetes, estado socioeconómico y nivel educativo. Metodología: Estudio de corte transversal, en el cual se aplicó el cuestionario FINDRISC a adultos de la ciudad de Manizales que no tuviesen diagnóstico de diabetes y a aquellos con puntaje de riesgo (> a 13 puntos) se les realizó una prueba de glucometría ocasional y se sugirió asistir a consulta médica para ampliar los estudios. Los cuestionarios se realizaron entre febrero y noviembre de 2017. Resultados: Participaron 1.000 personas con edad promedio de 43 años (±16). La prevalencia de participantes con puntaje FINDRISC ?13 fue del 14,4% y no se halló relación entre el puntaje de riesgo y el valor de glucemia ocasional; el 31,9% de las personas con puntaje de riesgo refieren que acataron la recomendación de acudir a consulta y realizarse una glucemia en ayunas, pero solo se obtuvo el resultado del 16,7% de los participantes en riesgo; de estos últimos, el 37,5% tiene resultado de glucemia alterada en ayunas y el 8,3% de diabetes. El 42,7% de la población encuestada se encontraba en sobrepeso y el 12,5% en algún grado de obesidad; el 25,6% de los encuestados tuvieron perímetro abdominal aumentado. Conclusiones: Manizales comparte la prevalencia descrita a nivel nacional de pacientes en riesgo para diabetes/prediabetes. Llamativamente, pocos pacientes acogieron la recomendación de asistir a un centro asistencial para ahondar en su riesgo. Los datos de sobrepeso y obesidad, acordes al país, siguen siendo elevados

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Clonal chromosomal mosaicism and loss of chromosome Y in elderly men increase vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) had an estimated overall case fatality ratio of 1.38% (pre-vaccination), being 53% higher in males and increasing exponentially with age. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, we found 133 cases (1.42%) with detectable clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations (mCA) and 226 males (5.08%) with acquired loss of chromosome Y (LOY). Individuals with clonal mosaic events (mCA and/or LOY) showed a 54% increase in the risk of COVID-19 lethality. LOY is associated with transcriptomic biomarkers of immune dysfunction, pro-coagulation activity and cardiovascular risk. Interferon-induced genes involved in the initial immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are also down-regulated in LOY. Thus, mCA and LOY underlie at least part of the sex-biased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in aging patients. Given its potential therapeutic and prognostic relevance, evaluation of clonal mosaicism should be implemented as biomarker of COVID-19 severity in elderly people. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, individuals with clonal mosaic events (clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations and/or loss of chromosome Y) showed an increased risk of COVID-19 lethality