GAN-based Virtual Re-Staining: A Promising Solution for Whole Slide Image Analysis

Histopathological cancer diagnosis is based on visual examination of stained tissue slides. Hematoxylin and eosin (H\&E) is a standard stain routinely employed worldwide. It is easy to acquire and cost effective, but cells and tissue components show low-contrast with varying tones of dark blue and pink, which makes difficult visual assessments, digital image analysis, and quantifications. These limitations can be overcome by IHC staining of target proteins of the tissue slide. IHC provides a selective, high-contrast imaging of cells and tissue components, but their use is largely limited by a significantly more complex laboratory processing and high cost. We proposed a conditional CycleGAN (cCGAN) network to transform the H\&E stained images into IHC stained images, facilitating virtual IHC staining on the same slide. This data-driven method requires only a limited amount of labelled data but will generate pixel level segmentation results. The proposed cCGAN model improves the original network \cite{zhu_unpaired_2017} by adding category conditions and introducing two structural loss functions, which realize a multi-subdomain translation and improve the translation accuracy as well. % need to give reasons here. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms the original method in unpaired image translation with multi-subdomains. We also explore the potential of unpaired images to image translation method applied on other histology images related tasks with different staining techniques

La influencia/impacto de las tecnologías de la Web Semántica en las Redes Sociales

The paper is based on a literature review of Semantic Web technologies and evalua- tion of how these technologies can be applied in the Social Media domain, whose purpose is to underline and to understand the way how Semantic Web technologies can influence and improve Social Media, and be relevant to effective searches (for example, for companies and their human resources departments). The Semantic Web technologies allow data collecting about a certain subject from the entire Internet, and Social Media allows people to share information about them, to express their opinion and to influence others. Therefore, participation and collaboration for the selection of useful infor- mation from the Web is sought. But we found limitations for success in the high cost of apps that can serve as connecting points for these social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, etc.) and in the privacy of the shared content on these social networksEl consiguiente artículo se basa en un análisis literario de las tecnologías y evaluación de la Web Semántica sobre cómo estas se pueden aplicar en el campo de las Redes Sociales, cuyo fin es enfatizar y entender cómo estas tecnologías de la Web Semántica pueden influir y mejorar las Redes sociales, y ser relevantes para búsquedas efectivas. Por ejemplo, en búsquedas para empresas y sus departamentos de recursos humanos. Dichas tecnologías permiten reunir información sobre un tema concreto de todo Internet, y las Redes Sociales consienten a las personas compartir información sobre ellos mismos, para expresar su opinión y así influir en otras personas. Por ello, se busca una participación y colaboración a la hora de seleccionar información útil en la web. Aunque, hemos encontrado limitaciones del éxito en aplicaciones de alto coste, que pueden servir como puntos de unión para estas redes sociales (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, ect.), y en la privacidad del contenido compartido en esas mismas redes

Factores clave en el éxito de la virtualización de la docencia en las universidades españolas durante la pandemia de COVID-19

The virtualization of university teaching in Spain caused by the pandemic was a success, but the urgent nature of the transition from face-to-face teaching to online teaching meant that some peculiarities that should have been taken into account were omitted. Thus, in order to find out and analyze the factors causing the success of this virtualization and take measures to address the weak points of this process as teachers may want to maintain the use of online teaching as support for their face-to-face teaching, these factors were located through a literature review and were classified according to their level of importance in this success through a causal study carried out with the methodology of fuzzy cognitive maps. The results achieved indicated the determining factors in students, involving their attitude, aptitude and predisposition, which are factors where the work of the teacher is of main relevance (as it exerts the greatest influence on these factors). For this reason, technological attitude and aptitude, teaching style, and the creation and structuring of content should be reinforced in teachers.La virtualización de la docencia universitaria en España producida por la pandemia fue un éxito, pero el carácter urgente de la transición de la docencia presencial a la docencia online hizo que se omitieran algunas peculiaridades que debían haberse tenido en cuenta. Así, con el fin de averiguar y analizar los factores causantes del éxito de esta virtualización de la docencia en las universidades españolas y tomar medidas en los puntos débiles de este proceso por si llegado el momento el profesorado quisiera mantener el uso de la docencia online como apoyo a su docencia presencial, se localizaron estos factores a través de revisión literaria y fueron clasificados en función de su nivel de importancia en este éxito a través de un estudio causal llevado a cabo con la metodología de los mapas cognitivos difusos. Los resultados alcanzados señalaron los factores determinantes en los estudiantes, involucrando su actitud, aptitud y predisposición, las cuales son peculiaridades en las que la labor del profesorado adquiere principal relevancia (al ser el que mayor influencia ejerce sobre esos factores). Por este motivo, debería reforzarse en el profesorado la actitud y aptitud tecnológica, el estilo de enseñanza, y la creación y estructuración de contenido

La importancia de las TIC por parte de los alumnos como competencia para su futuro desempeño profesional: el caso de la Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Turismo de la Universidad de Huelva

To date, the knowledge and use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) has become an almost essential requirement when someone wants to find employment in our society. For this reason, this study aims to analyze the importance that students of the Faculty of Business Studies and Tourism of the University of Huelva (Spain) give to the acquisition of ICT skills for their future professional performance and the domain they have over them (achieved throughout their years of learning). This research is developed through a questionnaire completed by 90 students of the Faculty and concludes that in general they give these ICT skills the importance that they deserve and that their domain goes in parallel (except for some skills that show formative need), even being able to observe that in the majority of cases the dominion of these skills is tied to the importance that they give them.A día de hoy, el conocimiento y uso de las TIC (Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación) se ha convertido en un requisito casi imprescindible a la hora de encontrar empleo en nuestra sociedad. Por este motivo, este estudio tiene como objetivo analizar la importancia que los alumnos de la Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Turismo de la Universidad de Huelva (España) dan a la adquisición de competencias TIC para su futuro desempeño profesional y el dominio que tienen sobre estas (alcanzado a lo largo de sus años de aprendizaje). Esta investigación se desarrolla a través de un cuestionario realizado a 90 estudiantes de dicha Facultad y concluye que en líneas generales estos dan la importancia que se merecen a estas competencias TIC y que su dominio va en paralelo (exceptuando alguna competencia que muestra necesidad formativa), incluso pudiéndose decir que en la mayoría de las casos el dominio de estas competencias va vinculado a la importancia que ellos les dan

La auditoría informática en España: el caso de los hoteles

Este estudio surge de otro estudio realizado sobre la evolución de la auditoría informática en el sector empresarial español, “IT audit in the Spanish business sector: longitudinal analysis (2001-2011)” (Martínez-López et al., 2015). Por tal motivo, se pretende situar la evolución de dicha auditoría perteneciente a las empresas del sector hotelero español en un marco comparativo al sector empresarial español en general, definiendo la evolución de la implementación de la auditoría informática en éstas, y encuadrándola enporcentajes de realización como en profesionales que la ejecutan, y su vinculación con la importancia que estas empresas le dan a Internet y con el uso del comercio electrónico.Con el fin de promover la concienciación en la prevención de posibles problemas informáticos en las empresas a través de laejecución de estas auditorías informáticas.62 empresas encuestadas que nos han permitido observar la mayor concienciación de las empresas del sector hotelero español, a lo largo del tiempo, por las auditorías informáticas como medida preventiva a los posibles problemas en una disciplina tan importante para las empresas como es la tecnología. Ya que, en un principio, la diferencia entre este sector y las empresas españolas en general era bastante amplia en este campo.This study stems from another study about the evolution of the IT audit in the Spanish business sector, ‘IT audit in the Spanish business sector: longitudinal analysis (2001-2011)’ (Martínez-López et al., 2015). Therefore, it is intended to place the development of this audit belonging to companies of Spanish hotel sector in a comparative frame to the Spanish businesssector in general, defining the evolution of the implementation of IT audit in these ones, and framing it in percentages of implementation and professionals who make them, and its linkages to the importance that these companies give Internet and the use of electronic commerce. In order to promote awareness on the prevention of possible IT problems in companies through the implementation of these IT audits.Conducted through a survey to 62 companies that has allowed us to observe the growing awareness of Companies of Spanish hotel sector, along time, by IT audits as a preventive measure to potential problems on a discipline so important for businesses as technology. Since, initially, the difference between this sector and the Spanish business sector in general was quite extensive in this fiel

Digital Divide in Universities: Internet Use in Ecuadorian Universities

New technologies have transformed higher education whose application has implied changes at all levels. These changes have been assimilated by the university community in various ways. Subtle differences among university students have emerged; these differences determine that the resources the network offers have been used in different ways, thus creating gaps in the university population. This study seeks to determine the level of incidence of the variable of university students’ incomes on the uses and intensity of use of the Internet tools and resources. Students were classified using factor analysis complemented through cluster analysis in order to obtain user profiles; these profiles were verified by means of discriminant analysis. Finally, chi-square was applied to determine the relationship between income level and user profiles. As a result, three profiles were identified with different levels of use and intensity of use of the Internet tools and resources, and statistically the incidence of income in the creation of those profiles was proved. To conclude, we can say that the income level falls mainly on the variables that define the access possibilities; gender has a special behavior; however, since the profile of the highest level has a double proportion for men, though women have better performance in general terms

CareFall: Automatic Fall Detection through Wearable Devices and AI Methods

The aging population has led to a growing number of falls in our society, affecting global public health worldwide. This paper presents CareFall, an automatic Fall Detection System (FDS) based on wearable devices and Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods. CareFall considers the accelerometer and gyroscope time signals extracted from a smartwatch. Two different approaches are used for feature extraction and classification: i) threshold-based, and ii) machine learning-based. Experimental results on two public databases show that the machine learning-based approach, which combines accelerometer and gyroscope information, outperforms the threshold-based approach in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. This research contributes to the design of smart and user-friendly solutions to mitigate the negative consequences of falls among older people.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, 2 table

An Alternative Test Method for Determining Hardened Air Void Parameters for Concrete Pavement

This research has developed an alternative test method for determining hardened air void parameters that follows ASTM C457 Procedure C, but does not require image analysis software or the required training and skills to develop or use one. Instead, the alternative technique uses a sophisticated microscope that has on-board counting and measuring capabilities, that are easy to use and easy to repeat. The technique was developed and tested on concrete mixtures with four target air void percentages (control at 2%, low at 3 – 5%, medium at 5 – 7%, and high at >8%) and compared to ASTM C457 Procedure A and B. The concrete produced was a conventional pavement mixture, which was a straight cement mixture with a target 3” slump. The results show that the alternative technique is not only just as accurate as the other methods, but it reduces the analysis time, human judgment calls, and the development and maintenance of a sophisticated image analysis program, which are all typical issues with any of the three procedures described in ASTM C457. Additionally, the alternative technique produces all hardened air void parameters that ASTM C457 provides. This study also demonstrates new potential issues that could result in erroneous hardened air void results when following ASTM C457. Lastly, this study provides a detailed description of the equipment necessary to produce the alternative method including a very detailed list of steps required to obtained the hardened air void parameters