Do the lower body strength assessment tests in the Spanish navy really measure what they purport to measure?

The main objective of this research was to analyse the efficacy of lower body strength assessment tests in the Armed Forces Physical Assessment System. Secondly, it was to determine what relationship exists between the physical evaluation system of the Spanish Armed forces and standardized evaluation protocols (Gold standard). A total of 905 students enrolled in the military/civil bachelor’s degree (813 male and 92 female) participated in this study. The influence of the sex of the participants was studied through the student’s t-test for independent data, and the degree of association between variables was defined by Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The results present moderate correlations (r = 0.67, r = 0.66; p < 0.001) between the vertical jump test used by the Army and the power or elastic force tests commonly used in practice and in research. The results obtained reflect a moderate relationship between the gold standard tests and the tests used by the Army, which suggests that the tests currently used to assess lower body strength should be adapted to more objective measurement tools which would allow a better comparison between samples from different armed forces

Artificial Music Composer

Traditional Musical Computation Systems had to face the differences between the computational techniques and the characteristics of musical creation. Characteristics such as a high degree of subjectivity, a great irrational component, and a learning process based on the use of examples and environmental absorption, have made music difficult to be formalized through algorithmic methods or classical Artificial Intelligence methods such as Expert Systems.  We propose the creation of a cybernetic model of a human composer in a primeval stage of human musical evolution, following a paradigm of cognitive complex models creation, based on the use of the human reference, not only in a static point of view but also considering its evolution through time. Therefore, the proposed system simulates musical creation in one of the first stages of musical evolution, whose main characteristics are the percussive and choral aspects. The system is based on Genetic Algorithms, whose genetic population is integrated by several tribes. This model carries out the task of musical composition, led by the user who expresses his/her musical taste assigning a punctuation to each tribe. The GA selects the worse tribes as individuals to be eliminated. In order to select those tribes which are going to be used as parents, a random function is used, having each tribe a probality proportional to its punctuation. The new tribe is produced by crossing the parent tribes in each individual. Afterwards, mutation takes place in the created individuals. The experiments carried out with this system have proved its functionality in the composition of rhythmic patterns. It is intended to enlarge the experiment's scope by communicating the system via Internet. This would enable its use by users of different musical cultures, taking into account that the system is user-friendly, since it requires no musical knowledge

Evolutionary Computing in Visual Art and Music

This paper is an introduction to the special section of Leonardo on Genetic Algorithms in Visual Art and Music, which arose from a workshop at the 2000 Genetic and Evolutionary Computing Conference. This introduction gives a background review of the area, takes a look at some open questions provoked by the workshop, and summarizes the papers in the section

Hnf1alpha (MODY3) controls tissue-specific transcriptional programs and exerts opposed effects on cell growth in pancreatic islets and liver.

Heterozygous HNF1A mutations cause pancreatic-islet beta-cell dysfunction and monogenic diabetes (MODY3). Hnf1alpha is known to regulate numerous hepatic genes, yet knowledge of its function in pancreatic islets is more limited. We now show that Hnf1a deficiency in mice leads to highly tissue-specific changes in the expression of genes involved in key functions of both islets and liver. To gain insights into the mechanisms of tissue-specific Hnf1alpha regulation, we integrated expression studies of Hnf1a-deficient mice with identification of direct Hnf1alpha targets. We demonstrate that Hnf1alpha can bind in a tissue-selective manner to genes that are expressed only in liver or islets. We also show that Hnf1alpha is essential only for the transcription of a minor fraction of its direct-target genes. Even among genes that were expressed in both liver and islets, the subset of targets showing functional dependence on Hnf1alpha was highly tissue specific. This was partly explained by the compensatory occupancy by the paralog Hnf1beta at selected genes in Hnf1a-deficient liver. In keeping with these findings, the biological consequences of Hnf1a deficiency were markedly different in islets and liver. Notably, Hnf1a deficiency led to impaired large-T-antigen-induced growth and oncogenesis in beta cells yet enhanced proliferation in hepatocytes. Collectively, these findings show that Hnf1alpha governs broad, highly tissue-specific genetic programs in pancreatic islets and liver and reveal key consequences of Hnf1a deficiency relevant to the pathophysiology of monogenic diabetes

TEMAS (Tell-Me-A-Story) Multicultural Assessment in the New Millennium

This book provides a benchmark in the systematic study of cultural competence in the areas of assessment and intervention with ethnic minorities. Taken together, the chapters in this volume describe the extremely important developments of theory, measurement strategies, and significant findings about the long-term outcomes of research on cultural competence. The contributors to this important volume are critical architects of this area of rigorous research. The chapters present rich research contributions from different disciplines, methodologies, and perspectives. Each chapter describes a critical piece in the history and development of the field and practice of cultural competence