Automated testing in robotic process automation projects

Robotic process automation (RPA) has received increasing attention in recent years. It enables task automation by software components, which interact with user interfaces in a similar way to that of humans. An RPA project life cycle is closely resembling a software project one. However, in certain contexts (e.g., business process outsourcing), a testing environment is not always available. Thus, deploying the robots in the production environment entails high risk. To mitigate it, an innovative approach to automatically generate a testing environment and a test suite for an RPA project is presented. The activities of the humans whose processes are to be robotized are monitored and a UI log is confirmed. On one side, the test environment is generated as a fake application, which mimics the real environment by leveraging the UI log information. The control flow of the application is governed by an invisible control layer that decides which image to show depending on the interface actions that it receives. On the other side, the test case checks whether the robot can reproduce the behaviour of the UI log. Promising results were obtained and a number of limitations were identified such that it may be applied in more realistic domains.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-R (POLOLAS)Servinform, S.A. P114-16/E0

Short-term exposure to benzalkonium chloride in bacteria from activated sludge alters the community diversity and the antibiotic resistance profile

The continuous introduction of cleaning products containing benzalkonium chloride (BAC) from household discharges can mold the microbial communities in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in a way still poorly understood. In this study, we performed an in vitro exposure of activated sludge from a WWTP in Costa Rica to BAC, quantified the changes in intI1, sul2, and qacE/qacEΔ1 gene profiles, and determined alterations in the bacterial community composition. The analysis of the qPCR data revealed elevated charges of antibiotic resistance genes in the microbial community; after BAC’s exposure, a significant increase in the qacE/qacEΔ1 gene, which is related to ammonium quaternary resistance, was observed. The 16S rRNA gene sequences’ analysis showed pronounced variations in the structure of the bacterial communities, including reduction of the alpha diversity values and an increase of the relative abundance of Alphaproteobacteria, particularly of Rhodospseudomonas and Rhodobacter. We confirmed that the microbial communities presented high resilience to BAC at the mg/mL concentration, probably due to constant exposure to this pollutant. They also presented antibiotic resistance-related genes with similar mechanisms to tolerate this substance. These mechanisms should be explored more thoroughly, especially in the context of high use of disinfectant.Universidad de Costa Rica/[]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Instituto de Investigaciones en Salud (INISA)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Básicas::Centro de Investigaciones en Productos Naturales (CIPRONA)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales (CIET)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Básicas::Facultad de Ciencias::Escuela de Biologí

Healthcare workers hospitalized due to COVID-19 have no higher risk of death than general population. Data from the Spanish SEMI-COVID-19 Registry

Aim To determine whether healthcare workers (HCW) hospitalized in Spain due to COVID-19 have a worse prognosis than non-healthcare workers (NHCW). Methods Observational cohort study based on the SEMI-COVID-19 Registry, a nationwide registry that collects sociodemographic, clinical, laboratory, and treatment data on patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in Spain. Patients aged 20-65 years were selected. A multivariate logistic regression model was performed to identify factors associated with mortality. Results As of 22 May 2020, 4393 patients were included, of whom 419 (9.5%) were HCW. Median (interquartile range) age of HCW was 52 (15) years and 62.4% were women. Prevalence of comorbidities and severe radiological findings upon admission were less frequent in HCW. There were no difference in need of respiratory support and admission to intensive care unit, but occurrence of sepsis and in-hospital mortality was lower in HCW (1.7% vs. 3.9%; p = 0.024 and 0.7% vs. 4.8%; p<0.001 respectively). Age, male sex and comorbidity, were independently associated with higher in-hospital mortality and healthcare working with lower mortality (OR 0.211, 95%CI 0.067-0.667, p = 0.008). 30-days survival was higher in HCW (0.968 vs. 0.851 p<0.001). Conclusions Hospitalized COVID-19 HCW had fewer comorbidities and a better prognosis than NHCW. Our results suggest that professional exposure to COVID-19 in HCW does not carry more clinical severity nor mortality

Medios escritos alternativos después de la dictadura en Chile

Tesis (Licenciado en Periodismo)La presente investigación se basará en el estudio de los medios alternativos que están presentes en el Chile de hoy y que nacieron en el periodo de transición de la democracia. Los medios que investigaremos serán: The Clinic, Plan B, Rocinante y El Periodista. Cada uno de ellos será un capítulo de nuestro estudio que incluirá la información del medio en los aspectos de su historia, propietarios, personal, tiraje y financiamiento. También, haremos una reseña de sus características generales

Towards a Method for Automated Testing in Robotic Process Automation Projects

The Robotic Process Automation (RPA) paradigm has received increasing attention in recent years. It enables task automation by software components which interact with user interfaces in a similar way to that of humans. An RPA project follows a similar lifecycle as a software project. However, in certain contexts (e.g., business process outsourcing, BPO), a testing environment is not always available. Thus, deploying the robots in the production environment entails high risk. To mitigate this risk, an innovative approach to automatically generate a testing environment and a test case for an RPA project are described. The activities of the humans whose processes are to be robotized are monitorized and an UI log (i.e., a sequence of screen captures, mouse and key actions) is confirmed. On the one hand, the test environment is generated as a fake application, which mimics the real enviroment by leveraging the UI log information. To this end, the control flow of the application is governed by an invisible control layer which decides which image to show depending on the interface actions that it receives. On the other hand, the test case checks whether the robot can reproduce the behaviour of the UI log. A prototype has been constructed and tested in a controlled scenario. Promising results have been obtained and a number of limitations to be addressed have been identified such that it may be applied in more realistic domains.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-R (POLOLAS)Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI) P114-16/E0

Markers of Monocyte Activation Revealed by Lipidomic Profiling of Arachidonic Acid-Containing Phospholipids

9 páginas, 8 figuras, 1 tabla.Stimulated human monocytes undergo an intense trafficking of arachidonic acid (AA) among glycerophospholipidclasses. Using HPLC coupled to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, we have characterized changes in the levels of AA-containing phospholipid species in human monocytes. In resting cells, AA was found esterified into various molecular species of phosphatidylinositol (PI), choline glycerophospholipids (PCs), and ethanolamine glycerophospholipids (PEs). All major AA-containing PC and PI molecular species decreased in zymosan-stimulated cells; however, no PE molecular species was found to decrease. In contrast, the levels of three AA-containing species increased in zymosan-activated cells compared with resting cells: 1,2-diarachidonyl-glycero-3-phosphoinositol [PI(20:4/20:4)]; 1,2-diarachidonyl-glycero-3-phosphocholine [PC(20:4/20:4)]; and 1-palmitoleoyl-2-arachidonyl-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine [PE(16:1/20:4)]. PI(20:4/20:4) and PC(20:4/20:4), but not PE(16:1/20:4), also significantly increased when platelet-activating factor or PMA were used instead of zymosan to stimulate the monocytes. Analysis of the pathways involved in the synthesis of these three lipids suggest that PI(20:4/20:4) and PC(20:4/20:4) were produced in a deacylation/reacylation pathway via acyl-CoA synthetase–dependent reactions, whereas PE(16:1/20:4) was generated via a CoA-independent transacylation reaction. Collectively, our results define the increases in PI(20:4/20:4) and PC(20:4/20:4) as lipid metabolic markers of human monocyte activation and establish lipidomics as a powerful tool for cell typing under various experimental conditions.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Grants BFU2007-67154 and SAF2007-60055) and by the Regional Government of Castile and León (Grant CSI09-A08). D.B. was supported by predoctoral fellowships from Fundación Mario Losantos del Campo and Plan de Formación de Profesorado Universitario (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation). A.M.A. was supported by a predoctoral fellowship from the Regional Government of Castile and León.Peer reviewe

Emprendimiento e innovación para la competitividad internacional : dimensiones, factores y esquemas empíricos sobre sus causas y efectos

En las dos últimas décadas uno de los ejes centrales de investigación en la Escuela de Relaciones Internacionales ha sido el Comercio y los Negocios Internacionales. El auge de esta línea de investigación puede apreciarse en la consolidación, hace pocos años, de una nueva carrera en ese ámbito y el surgimiento de sobresalientes programas de investigación en esa línea. Dichos espacios han permitido la constitución de un grupo de académicos y una profusa discusión académica en este ámbito. Dos de las iniciativas de mayor influencia en ese transitar han sido el Programa “Comercio, tecnología e innovación” y el Proyecto “Dínamo Innovador”. El logro fundamental de ambas propuestas ha sido sistematizar de forma permanente los componentes más relevantes para comprender los fenómenos de innovación y competitividad, junto con sus consecuencias prácticas. Este proceso sigue adelante con el tercero de una serie de libros dedicados a difundir los hallazgos en la materia. Titulado “Emprendimiento e innovación para la competitividad internacional”, este volumen aborda y expone para su discusión cuatro temas de notable actualidad y relevancia: la economía del conocimiento; la relación entre innovación y comercio exterior; la relación entre comercio exterior y tecnologías; así como la innovación y la propiedad industrial. Una de las grandes virtudes que acompaña el texto es que su vinculación con casos reales. En este sentido, junto con los desarrollos teóricos necesarios, se analizan situaciones específicas, que demuestran cómo pueden ser llevados a la práctica diversos modelos de gestión. Este elemento constituye una relación fundamental entre academia y sector productivo, la cual debe ser explotada cada vez con uno de los pilares del desarrollo nacional. Adicionalmente, el trabajo no se contenta con un abordaje nacional. El texto incluye la colaboración de estudiosos de México y España, lo cual refleja el trabajo metódico del Dr. Juan Carlos Bermúdez Mora por construir redes de conocimiento en beneficio de la Universidad Nacional, en general, y de la Escuela de Relaciones Internacionales, en particular.In the last two decades one of the central axes of research in the School of Relations International has been Commerce and International Business. The rise of this line of research can be seen in the consolidation, a few years ago, of a new career in this field and the emergence of outstanding research programs in that field line. These spaces have allowed the constitution of a group of academics and a profuse academic discussion in this area. Two of the initiatives with the greatest influence in this journey have been the “Commerce, technology and innovation ”and the“ Innovative Dynamo ”Project. The fundamental achievement of both proposals has been to permanently systematize the most relevant components to understand the phenomena of innovation and competitiveness, together with their consequences practices. This process continues with the third in a series of books dedicated to disseminating the findings in the matter. Titled "Entrepreneurship and innovation for international competitiveness", This volume addresses and exposes for discussion four issues of notable relevance and relevance: the knowledge economy; the relationship between innovation and trade Exterior; the relationship between foreign trade and technologies; as well as innovation and industrial property. One of the great virtues that accompanies the text is that it is linked to real cases. In this sense, along with the necessary theoretical developments, specific situations are analyzed, that demonstrate how various management models can be put into practice. This element constitutes a fundamental relationship between academia and the productive sector, which must be exploited each time with one of the pillars of national development. Additionally, the work is not content with a national approach. Text includes collaboration of scholars from Mexico and Spain, which reflects the methodical work of Dr. Juan Carlos Bermúdez Mora for building knowledge networks for the benefit of the University National, in general, and the School of International Relations, in particular.Universidad Nacional, Costa RicaEscuela de Relaciones Internacionale