L1-L2 norms comparison in global localization of mobile robots

The global localization methods deal with the estimation of the pose of a mobile robot assuming no prior state information about the pose and a complete a priori knowledge of the environment where the mobile robot is going to be localized. Most existing algorithms are based on the minimization of an L2-norm loss function. In spite of the extended use of the L2-norm, the use of the L1-norm offers some alternative advantages. The present work compares the L1-norm and the L2-norm with the same basic optimization mechanism to determine the advantages of each norm when applied to the global localization problem. The algorithm has been tested subject to different noise levels to demonstrate the accuracy, effectiveness, robustness, and computational efficiency of both L1-norm and L2-norm approaches.This work has been supported by the CAM Project S2009/DPI-1559/ROBOCITY2030 II, developed by the research team RoboticsLab at the University Carlos III of Madrid.Publicad

The role of anionic polysaccharides in the preparation of nanomedicines with anticancer applications.

Cancer has become one of the main causes of death in developed countries, and it is expected to be declared as the disease with the highest worldwide morbidity and mortality indexes in the coming decades. Nanomedicine aims to overcome some problems related to this prevalent disease, particularly the lack of efficient diagnostic and therapeutic tools. The most recent scientific advances, which have conducted to a more personalized medicine, were focused on the production of nanocarriers involved into the transport and the delivery of drugs to targeted cells. A wide variety of nanocarriers composed by different materials have been designed for their use as drug delivery systems. Polysaccharides have emerged as very useful biopolymers among all raw materials used in the preparation of these nanoplatforms. They are highly stable, non-toxic and biodegradable molecules, and also present some chemical properties which are very difficult to reproduce using artificial polymers. Anionic polymers, such as hyaluronic acid, heparin or alginate, present some structural and chemical characteristics which make them ideal polymers to prepare nanosystems with anticancer applications. This review will focus on the description of some anionic polysaccharides and the possibilities they offer towards the preparation of nanosystems with applications in cancer treatment and diagnostics.pre-print889 K

Improved antitumor effect of paclitaxel administered in vivo as pH and glutathione-sensitive nanohydrogels.

Most antitumor drugs usually affect not only rapidly dividing cells, such as those in tumors, but also highly proliferative cells in normal tissues. This nonspecific drawback could be successfully solved by using nanocarriers as controlled drug delivery systems. In this work, pH and redox-responsive nanohydrogels (NG) based on N-isopropylacrilamide (NIPA), N-hydroxyethyl acrylamide (HEEA) 2-acrylamidoethyl carbamate (2AAECM) and N,N′-cystaminebisacrylamide (CBA) as crosslinker were evaluated as bioreducible paclitaxel (PTX) nanocarriers for improving the accumulation of the drug within the tumor tissue and avoiding its conventional side effects. A single dose of PTX solution, unloaded-NHA 80/15/5CBA NG and PTX-loaded NHA 80/15/5-CBA NG (30 mg/kg PTX equivalent) were subcutaneously injected in female athymic nude mice bearing HeLa human tumor xenografts. PTX-loaded nanohydrogels showed higher antitumor activity than free PTX, as tumor evolution and Ki67 detection demonstrated. Histological tumor images revealed a higher content of defective mitotic figures and apoptotic bodies in PTX- treated tumors than in control or unloaded NG treated tumor samples. Nanohydrogels injection did not change any biochemical blood parameters, which means no liver or kidney damage after NG injection. However, differences in antioxidant defenses in MPS systems (liver, kidney and spleen) were observed among treatments, which may indicate an oxidative stress response after PTX injection.pre-print2904 K

Una propuesta de integración del sistema de formularios de bases de datos MYSQL con etiquetado TEI: ReMetCa, Repertorio digital de la métrica medieval castellana

ReMetCa, Repertorio Métrico Digital de la Poesía Medieval Castellana (Digital Repertoire on the Metrics of the Medieval Castilian Poetry) is an online, open access metrical repertoire on Medieval Castilian poetry. ReMetCa is a born digital project that gathers poetic testimonies from the 12th century (epics, ballads, cuadernavia, etc.) up to the rich and varied poetic manifestations of the 15th-16th century Castilian Cancioneros. Although metrical studies on Spanish Medieval poetry have been developing fast over the past few years, researchers have not yet created a digital tool to undertake complex searches on the Castilian corpus as it has already been done with other medieval lyrical traditions in Romance languages, such as the Galician-Portuguese (MedDB), French (BedTrouveres, Nouveau Naetebus), Occitan (BedT), or the Medieval poetry in Latin (Pedecerto), just to name a few of them. The project is based on the integration of traditional metrical and poetic studies (rhythm, rhyme patterns, etc.) with Digital Humanities, the tagging systems TEI-XML, and the creation of a database to undertake online simultaneous searches by means of a simple interface created through MySQL. We will explain here our final decision in relation to our database, a hybrid model (relational and XML) that covers our needs when working with our poems. The possibility of adding TEI code (especially its module verse) helped us to work on free complex searches through our schemes (without considering poems or strophes as a whole), and to retrieve the poetic texts related to those metrical or rhymatic schemes.ReMetCa, Repertorio Métrico Digital de la Poesía Medieval Castellana, es el primer repertorio métrico online y de libre acceso para la poesía medieval castellana. ReMetCa es un proyecto métrico born digital que abarca los testimonios poéticos existentes en nuestra lengua desde sus primeras manifestaciones a finales del siglo XII (épica, cuaderna vía, etc.) hasta la riqueza y variedad de formas métricas presentes en la poesía cancioneril de los siglos XV y XVI. A pesar de que los estudios sobre métrica y poesía medieval han merecido cierto interés en los últimas décadas, carecemos de una herramienta de tipo práctico que permita realizar trabajos comparativos, tal y como lo hacen los repertorios métricos digitales de otros corpora poéticos como el gallego-portugués medieval (MedDB2), francés medieval (Nouveau Naetebus), occitano medieval (BedT), o mediolatino (Pedecerto), por nombrar unos pocos. El proyecto está basado en la integración de los conocimientos métricos tradicionales de nuestra poesía (esquemas rítmicos y rimáticos, etc.) con los estándares tecnológicos que se aplican hoy al campo de las Humanidades Digitales: los sistemas de etiquetado TEI-XML combinados con un sistema de formularios MySQL que permiten realizar búsquedas simultáneas online mediante una sencilla interfaz de consulta. Explicaremos la evolución que nos hizo decantarnos por esta opción mixta al no resultar suficiente el sistema de tablas relacionales para cubrir la heterogeneidad formal de nuestro sistema poético. La posibilidad de añadir etiquetado TEI (y especialmente su módulo verse) sobre el texto nos permite, en primer lugar, poder realizar búsquedas mucho más libres a través de los esquemas métricos (sin tener que considerar como unidades cerradas los poemas o las estrofas), así como recuperar los ejemplos textuales vinculados a cada uno de los esquemas métricos o rimáticos, etc

Building a metrical ontology as a model to link digital poetic repertoires

The technology of semantic web seems to be a suitable environment to offer solutions for linking poetic repertoires that belong to different European traditions and literatures (González-Blanco & Sélaf 2013)1. The problem of linking poetic repertoires is not simple, as there are not only technical issues involved, but also conceptual and terminological problems: each repertoire belongs to its own poetical tradition and each tradition has developed its own analytical terminology for years in a different and independent way. The result of this uncoordinated evolution is a bunch of varied terminologies to explain analogous metrical phenomena through the different poetic systems whose correspondences have been hardly studied

Fluorescence enhancement of fungicide thiabendazole by van der Waals interaction with transition metal dichalcogenide nanosheets for highly specific sensors

Many molecules quench their fluorescence upon adsorption on surfaces. Herein we show that the interaction of thiabendazole, a widespread used fungicide of the benzimidazole family, with nanosheets of transition metal dichalcogenides, particularly of WS2, leads to a significant increase, more than a factor of 5, of the fluorescence yield. This surprising effect is rationalized by DFT calculations and found to be related to the inhibition of the intramolecular rotation between the benzimidazole and thiazole groups due to a bonding rigidization upon interaction with the MoS2 surface. This non-covalent adsorption leads to a redistribution of the molecular LUMO that blocks the non-radiative energy dissipation channel. This unusual behaviour does not operate either for other molecules of the same benzimidazole family or for other 2D materials (graphene or graphene oxide). Moreover, we found that a linear dependence of the emission with the concentration of thiabendazole in solution, which combined with the specificity of the process, allows the development of a highly sensitive and selective method towards thiabendazole determination that can be applied to real river water samples. An excellent detection limit of 2.7 nM, comparable to the best performing reported methods, is obtained with very good accuracy (Er ≤ 6.1%) and reproducibility (RSD ≤ 4.1%) in the concentration range assayedThe authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish MINECO (MAT2017-85089-C2-1-R, MAT2017-85089-C2-2-R) and the EU via the ERC-Synergy Program (grant ERC-2013-SYG-610256 NANOCOSMOS) and Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Graphene Flagship-core2 – 785219) and the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (P2018/NMT-4349, TRANSNANOAVANSENS-CM and P2018/NMT-4367 FOTOART). J. I. M. acknowledges the support by the “Ramón y Cajal” Program of MINECO (grant RYC-2015-17730

MoS2 quantum dots for on-line fluorescence determination of the food additive allura red

[EN] This work presents an on-line fluorescence method for the allura red (AR) determination. The method is based on the fluorescence quenching of dots of MoS2 because of their interaction with the non-fluorescence dye. MoS2-dots were synthetized and characterized by spectroscopic techniques and High Resolution Transmission Electronic Microscopy (HR-TEM). The simultaneous injection of the nanomaterial and the dye in a flow injection analysis system allows the determination of allura red at 1.7 x 10(-6) M concentration level with a very good accuracy and precision (Er minor than 10% and RSD lower than 8%) and a sampling frequency of 180 samples per hour. Moreover, the interaction fluomphore-quencher results a dynamic inhibition mechanism. The proposed methodology was applied to the AR analysis in soft beverages and powders for gelatine preparation. Colourant concentrations of 63 +/- 2 mg/L (n = 3) and 0.30 +/- 0.01 mg/g (n = 3) were found, respectively. These results were validated by high performance liquid chromatography technique.The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish MICINN (MAT2017-85089-C2-2-R), the Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid (P2018/NMT-4349, TRANSNANOAVANSENS-CM).Coloma, A.; Del Pozo, M.; Martínez-Moro, R.; Blanco, E.; Atienzar Corvillo, PE.; Sánchez, L.; Petit-Domínguez, MD.... (2021). MoS2 quantum dots for on-line fluorescence determination of the food additive allura red. Food Chemistry. 345:1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.128628S1834

Early Nutrition and Later Excess Adiposity during Childhood: A Narrative Review

Background: Studies on childhood obesity mainly focus on the genetic component and on the lifestyle that may be associated with the development of obesity. However, the study of perinatal factors in their programming effect toward future obesity in children or adults is somewhat more recent, and there are still mechanisms to be disentangled. Summary: In this narrative review, a comprehensive route based on the influence of some early factors in life in the contribution to later obesity development is presented. Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain have been pointed out as independent determinants of infant later adiposity. Lifestyle interventions could have an impact on pregnant mothers through epigenetic mechanisms capable of redirecting the genetic expression of their children toward a future healthy weight and body composition and dietary-related microbiome modifications in mothers and newborns might also be related. After birth, infant feeding during the first months of life is directly associated with its body composition and nutritional status. From this point of view, all the expert committees in the world are committed to promote exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months of age and to continue at least until the first year of life together with complementary feeding based on healthy dietary patterns such as Mediterranean Diet

Adaptation and validation of the Euthanasia Attitude Scale into Spanish

Background: Considering the extensive debate that is currently taking place in Spain regarding euthanasia, it is important to examine the attitude of professionals who perform most of their duties at the bedside of these patients and their families. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to present an adaptation and validation of the Euthanasia Attitude Scale and to evaluate its psychometric properties among a sample of nursing students in Spain. Research design: A cross-sectional study design was conducted. Participants and research context: Non-probabilistic sampling was used to recruit 396 Spanish nursing students. Methods: A self-report questionnaire, including socio-demographic data and the Euthanasia Attitude Scale, were used for data collection. The psychometric properties of the Euthanasia Attitude Scale were assessed, including reliability and validity. Fit indices of the overall model were computed. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by the Hospital Ethical Committee. Students were informed of the aims and procedures and provided written informed consent prior to data collection. Results: The factorial solution comprised four domains and the scale demonstrated adequate internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha ¼ .878). For the exploratory factor analysis, the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin index of sampling adequacy was .905 and the Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was 2972.79 (p < .001). The initial factorial solution revealed four factors with eigenvalues of 6.78 for the first factor, 1.90 for the second one, 1.29 for the third, and 1.10 for the fourth factor. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between religiosity and the domains of the Euthanasia Attitude Scale. Discussion: This study obtained a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .88 which is in consonance with the findings reported by other studies whereby none of the items were removed and the initial structure based on four domains was conserved, with a factorial solution that explains 52.79% of the total variance. The displacement of some items of the domain may be explained by certain religious and/or cultural components as, in accordance with other studies, people with firm religious beliefs are more inclined to refuse euthanasia. Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, the Euthanasia Attitude Scale is a reliable and valid instrument to measure the attitudes toward euthanasia in a sample of Spanish nursing students. This Spanish adaptation will be valuable in future studies examining the attitude and implication of nurses, understanding that nurses are key figures in the euthanasia debate

La codificación informática del sistema poético medieval castellano, problemas y propuestas en la elaboración de un repertorio métrico digital: ReMetCa

El artículo es una puesta al día de los repertorios métricos elaborados desde el siglo XIX y del modo en el que las Nuevas tecnologías reformularon su uso en bases de datos online y a través del uso de metalenguajes como el XML-TEI. En esta línea de investigación, el proyecto ReMetCa tiene como objetivo la creación de un repertorio métrico digital de la poesía medieval castellana que abarcará testimonios poéticos en nuestra lengua desde sus primeras manifestaciones, a finales del siglo XII, hasta la riqueza y variedad de formas métricas de la poesía cancioneril de los siglos XV y XVI, con el límite de la primera edición del Cancionero General de Hernando del Castillo (1511). La importancia de este proyecto radica fundamentalmente en su carácter innovador y multidisciplinar. Las contribuciones que realiza son útiles tanto para el campo de la métrica medieval como para el de las Humanidades Digitales. Los objetivos principales que se pretenden cumplir con este proyecto son, por una parte, propiciar una integración total de las nuevas tecnologías en los análisis literarios y poéticos y en los instrumentos de investigación del filólogo, creando una herramienta que aumentará considerablemente las posibilidades de estudio comparativo y fomentando el libre acceso universal y la colaboración entre investigadores de diversas latitudes. Por otra se quiere también impulsar la línea de investigación de las Humanidades Digitales (que integre trabajos literarios tradicionales con investigación en nuevas tecnologías) dentro del área de la filología española y la teoría literaria.Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET