Igualdad entre sexos en la enseñanza con TICs

Las posibilidades que hoy día ofrecen las Redes Sociales en la Educación Universitaria, siguiendo el camino abierto por las TICS, son innegables. Aunque si bien estas nuevas herramientas de contacto virtual y social ofrecen innumerables ventajas (personal, laboral, comercialmente...) suponen a su vez nuevos peligros que pueden, incluso, llegar a reproducir ciertos estereotipos sociales ligados al género. El fin último de esta comunicación es guiar al conjunto de los actores del proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje en la utilización de un espacio educativo donde se debe prestar especial atención a la igualdad de oportunidades entre ambos sexos. Para ello se prestará especial atención a las distintas iniciativas que se han llevado a cabo por parte de algunas universidades españolas que son ejemplo de cómo usar las tecnologías en un entorno globalizado en el que debe prevalecer la igualdad de sexos

En proceso constante: medios sociales para la enseñanza de Ciencias Sociales

Superado en cierta manera aquel dilema de las universidades españolas en que, sin intención de deshonrar su tradición académica, se debatían entre el protagonismo de las TIC o el de la tiza, las instituciones de enseñanza superior afrontan una nueva era entre profesores emigrantes digitales y alumnos nativos digitales. Aun aceptando que las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación pueden generar interacción y trabajo de calidad, otros son los problemas hoy: costes para generar recursos, el uso de los medios sociales y e-Learning como fuente de ingresos de unas universidades aquejadas de recortes o la definición de un nuevo clima de aula virtual entre docentes y dicentes son algunas de los cuestiones que el presente trabajo se plantea abordar

The anisotropic Ashkin-Teller model: a renormalization group study

The two-dimensional ferromagnetic anisotropic Ashkin-Teller model is investigated through a real-space renormalization-group approach. The critical frontier, separating five distinct phases, recover all the known exacts results for the square lattice. The correlation length $(\nu_T)$ and crossover $(\phi)$ critical exponents are also calculated. With the only exception of the four-state Potts critical point, the entire phase diagram belongs to the Ising universality class.Comment: 3 ps figures, accepted for publication in Physica

Demo: vrAIn proof-of-concept: a deep learning approach for virtualized RAN resource control

Proceeding of: 25th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom'19), October 21-25, 2019, Los Cabos, Mexico.While the application of the NFV paradigm into the network is proceeding full steam ahead, there is still one last milestone to be achieved in this context: the virtualization of the radio access network (vRAN). Due to the very complex dependency between the radio conditions and the computing resources needed to provide the baseband processing functionality, attaining an efficient resource control is particularly challenging. In this demonstration, we will showcase vrAIn, a vRAN dynamic resource controller that employs deep reinforcement learning to perform resource assignment decisions. vrAIn, which is implemented using an open-source LTE stack over a Linux platform, can achieve substantial savings in the used CPU resources while maintaining the target QoS for the attached terminals and maximizing throughput when there is a deficit of computational capacity.The work of University Carlos III of Madrid was supported by H2020 5G-MoNArch project (grant agreement no. 761445) and H2020 5G-TOURS project (grant agreement no. 856950). The work of NEC Laboratories Europe was supported by H2020 5G-TRANSFORMER project (grant agreement no. 761536) and 5GROWTH project (grant agreement no. 856709). The work of University of Cartagena was supported by Grant AEI/FEDER TEC2016-76465-C2-1-R (AIM) and Grant FPU14/03701

vrAIn: Deep Learning based Orchestration for Computing and Radio Resources in vRANs

In Press / En PrensaThe virtualization of radio access networks (vRAN) is the last milestone in the NFV revolution. However, the complexrelationship between computing and radio dynamics make vRAN resource control particularly daunting. We present vrAIn, a resourceorchestrator for vRANs based on deep reinforcement learning. First, we use an autoencoder to project high-dimensional context data(traffic and channel quality patterns) into a latent representation. Then, we use a deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithmbased on an actor-critic neural network structure and a classifier to map contexts into resource control decisions.We have evaluated vrAIn experimentally, using an open-source LTE stack over different platforms, and via simulations over aproduction RAN. Our results show that: (i) vrAIn provides savings in computing capacity of up to 30% over CPU-agnostic methods;(ii) it improves the probability of meeting QoS targets by 25% over static policies; (iii) upon computing capacity under-provisioning,vrAIn improves throughput by 25% over state-of-the-art schemes; and (iv) it performs close to an optimal offline oracle. To ourknowledge, this is the first work that thoroughly studies the computational behavior of vRANs and the first approach to a model-freesolution that does not need to assume any particular platform or context.This work was partially supported by the European Commission through Grant No. 856709 (5Growth) and Grant No. 856950 (5G-TOURS); by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) through Grant No. 17/CDA/4760; and AEI/FEDER through project AIM under Grant No. TEC2016-76465-C2-1-R. Furthermore, the work is closely related to the EU project DAEMON (Grant No. 101017109)

Occurrence and risk assessment of pesticides in a Mediterranean Basin with strong agricultural pressure (Guadiana Basin: Southern of Portugal)

The study aimed to assess the occurrence and the environmental risk of a group of 51 selected pesticides in the Guadiana Basin (a biodiversity hotspot, in the Mediterranean). The most abundant pesticides were bentazone and 2,4-D, while terbuthylazine together with terbutryn constituted the most ubiquitous pesticides. Eighteen out of the 38 pesticides detected are no longer approved in Europe, and 5 of them are included in the list of priority substances. The risk assessment showed that azinphos ethyl, diflufenican, irganol, imidacloprid, and oxadiazon occurred occasionally, but always in concentrations above their respective ecotoxicological threshold value. Contrary, bentazone, terbuthylazine, and terbutryn presented a high risk in most of the sampled locations and periods. The site-specific risk assessment showed a spatial and temporal pattern, with a higher risk occurring mainly in intermittent streams, in the drought period. The presence of pesticides banned from the EU market since 2009 showed the importance of improving the monitoring process, to identify the main sources of pollution and the fate of these emerging compounds. The results showed the need of implementing actions to improve the sustainable use of pesticides in agricultural areas,workingwith farmers and management entities to reduce the contamination of aquatic ecosystems. Transboundarywater governance is also required to solve potential transboundary contamination problems

Urinary cell microRNA-based prognostic classifier for nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer

Current prognostic tools for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) do not have enough discriminative capacity to predict the risk of tumour progression. This study aimed to identify urinary cell microRNAs that may be useful as non-invasive predictive biomarkers of tumour progression in NMIBC patients. To this end, 210 urine samples from NMIBC patients were included in the study. RNA was extracted from urinary cells and expression of 8 microRNAs, previously described by our group, was analysed by quantitative PCR. A tumour progression predicting model was developed by Cox regression analysis and validated by bootstrapping. Regression analysis identified miR-140-5p and miR-92a-3p as independent predictors of tumour progression. The risk score derived from the model containing these two microRNAs was able to discriminate between two groups with a highly significant different probability of tumour progression (HR, 5.204; p<0.001) which was maintained when patients were stratified according to tumour risk. The algorithm was also able to identify two groups with different cancer-specific survival (HR, 3.879; p=0.021). Although the data needs to be externally validated, miRNA analysis in urine appears to be a valuable prognostic tool in NMIBC patients

¿Suponen siempre las TIC innovación? Un análisis multidisciplinar

[SPA] En la actualidad, las enseñanzas de las Humanidades, de las Ciencias Sociales y de las Ciencias Jurídicas deben adaptarse, como todas las disciplinas, a nuevos retos y perspectivas docentes. Estas exigencias se relacionan con multiplicidad de motivos, entre los que destaca un nuevo alumnado -el de grado-, que demanda una mayor flexibilidad ante unos planes de estudio basados en una adquisición de competencias que no terminan de suceder, con unos ECTS prácticos que no son tales al fin y al cabo; así, estos nuevos alumnos, convencidos de la necesidad del aprendizaje continuo, demandan contenidos de alta calidad, con la dificultad añadida de conciliar la formación con su ejercicio profesional. Estas y otras dicotomías, así como la necesidad de financiación por parte de las instituciones de enseñanza, han hecho de las TIC y toda suerte de recursos online y telemáticos, una opción cada vez más asumida por todos los actores del proceso de aprendizaje. A través de esta presentación, los autores esbozarán rasgos y herramientas comunes a sus experiencias de enseñanza con unas nuevas tecnologías, cada vez menos novedosas y cercanas. [ENG] In this day and age, teaching Humanities, Social and Legal Sciences at University levels has been constantly asked (and indeed requires) for more, for a number of reasons. On the one hand, first-year, still at their teen years, students ask for more flexibility in study plans, those based on skill-acquiring schemes that fail to happen, flooded with practical ECTS that are not such in the end. One the other hand, we find those convinced of the necessity of lifelong learning, demanding high quality contents, with the added difficulty of concealing work, study and family life. These and other dichotomies, and the actual need for funding from educational institutions, have made Information Technology and all sorts of online and telematic tolos increasingly accepted by all actors within the learning process. Through this presentation, the authors outline common features of their teaching experiences with new technologies, actually less and less new but increasingly closer

The specialized pro-resolving lipid mediator maresin 1 protects hepatocytes from lipotoxic and hypoxia-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress.

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) are hallmarks of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is the hepatic manifestation of the metabolic syndrome associated with obesity. The specialized proresolving lipid mediator maresin 1 (MaR1) preserves tissue homeostasis by exerting cytoprotective actions, dampening inflammation, and expediting its timely resolution. Here, we explored whether MaR1 protects liver cells from lipotoxic and hypoxia-induced ER stress. Mice were rendered obese by high-fat diet feeding, and experiments were performed in primary hepatocytes, Kupffer cells, and precision-cut liver slices (PCLSs). Palmitate-induced lipotoxicity increased ER stress and altered autophagy in hepatocytes, effects that were prevented by MaR1. MaR1 protected hepatocytes against lipotoxicity-induced apoptosis by activating the UPR prosurvival mechanisms and preventing the excessive up-regulation of proapoptotic pathways. Protective MaR1 effects were also seen in hepatocytes challenged with hypoxia and TNF-α-induced cell death. High-throughput microRNA (miRNA) sequencing revealed that MaR1 actions were associated with specific miRNA signatures targeting both protein folding and apoptosis. MaR1 also prevented lipotoxic-triggered ER stress and hypoxia-induced inflammation in PCLSs and enhanced Kupffer cell phagocytic capacity. Together, these findings describe the ability of MaR1 to oppose ER stress in liver cells under conditions frequently encountered in NAFLD.-Rius, B., Duran-Güell, M., Flores-Costa, R., López-Vicario, C., Lopategi, A., Alcaraz-Quiles, J., Casulleras, M., Lozano, J. J., Titos, E., Clària, J. The specialized proresolving lipid mediator maresin 1 protects hepatocytes from lipotoxic and hypoxia-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress