Service Migration from Cloud to Multi-tier Fog Nodes for Multimedia Dissemination with QoE Support.

A wide range of multimedia services is expected to be offered for mobile users via various wireless access networks. Even the integration of Cloud Computing in such networks does not support an adequate Quality of Experience (QoE) in areas with high demands for multimedia contents. Fog computing has been conceptualized to facilitate the deployment of new services that cloud computing cannot provide, particularly those demanding QoE guarantees. These services are provided using fog nodes located at the network edge, which is capable of virtualizing their functions/applications. Service migration from the cloud to fog nodes can be actuated by request patterns and the timing issues. To the best of our knowledge, existing works on fog computing focus on architecture and fog node deployment issues. In this article, we describe the operational impacts and benefits associated with service migration from the cloud to multi-tier fog computing for video distribution with QoE support. Besides that, we perform the evaluation of such service migration of video services. Finally, we present potential research challenges and trends

Clasificación de la economía colombiana entre actividades transables y no transables

En este documento se desarrolla, a partir de los bienes y servicios de las cuentas nacionales, una clasificación de la economía colombiana entre sectores transable y no transable de acuerdo con el grado de orientación a la importación o exportación y con la relación entre los movimientos de sus precios y la tasa de cambio. La metodología ofrece varias ventajas respecto a los métodos de clasificación tradicionales: (i) mayor representatividad del conjunto de bienes y servicios de la economía, (ii) mayor precisión en la estimación del tamaño de cada sector y (iii) un criterio de selección más objetivo. A partir de la clasificación de los productos entre sectores transable y no transable se construyen indicadores de precios para estos sectores (y para los bienes y servicios importados y exportados) con base en los índices de precios del productor, al consumidor y otros indicadores de precios sectoriales. Se presentan dos aplicaciones de estos índices a la economía colombiana: la construcción de un índice de términos de intercambio y de un indicador de tasa de cambio real.Transable, no transable, PIB, índices de precios.

Affective facial expressions recognition for human-robot interaction

Affective facial expression is a key feature of nonverbal behaviour and is considered as a symptom of an internal emotional state. Emotion recognition plays an important role in social communication: human-to-human and also for humanto-robot. Taking this as inspiration, this work aims at the development of a framework able to recognise human emotions through facial expression for human-robot interaction. Features based on facial landmarks distances and angles are extracted to feed a dynamic probabilistic classification framework. The public online dataset Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (KDEF) [1] is used to learn seven different emotions (e.g. angry, fearful, disgusted, happy, sad, surprised, and neutral) performed by seventy subjects. A new dataset was created in order to record stimulated affect while participants watched video sessions to awaken their emotions, different of the KDEF dataset where participants are actors (i.e. performing expressions when asked to). Offline and on-the-fly tests were carried out: leave-one-out cross validation tests on datasets and on-the-fly tests with human-robot interactions. Results show that the proposed framework can correctly recognise human facial expressions with potential to be used in human-robot interaction scenario

Indicador del mercado laboral para Colombia (LMI)

En este documento construimos el Indicador del Mercado Laboral (LMI) con base en las similitudes entre los componentes cíclicos de 18 series de tiempo que incluyen Encuestas de hogares, industrial y de opinión entre 2001 y 2019. El LMI resume el ciclo de crecimiento del mercado laboral tal como lo define Mintz(1972) y su evolución esta relacionada con la indicadores tradicionales del ciclo de los negocios así como a la de las brechas del PIB y de la tasa de desempleo. La evolución del indicador brinda información útil a los hacedores de política dado que complementa la caracterización de las expansiones y los puntos de quiebre. De esta manera, se obtiene un análisis más completo del momentum del mercado laboral.We construct the Labor Market Indicator (LMI) focusing on the cyclical similarities of eighteen time series from household, industrial, and opinion surveys between 2001 and 2019. The LMI summarizes the growth cycle of the labor market as defined by \cite{mintz} and is connected to the evolution of the traditional business cycle indicators as well as to that of the GDP and the Unemployment rate GAP. The evolution of the indicator provide useful information to policy makers, as it complements the characterization of expansions and turning points. Thus, improving the analysis of the current momentum of the labor market.Labor Market Indicator for Colombia (LMI) Enfoque Dependiendo del origen e intensidad de las fluctuaciones económicas las variables macroeconómicas se ajustarán y es de esperar, que haya diferencias entre la respuesta de la economía en general y aquella observada en el mercado laboral. Tradicionalmente el diagnóstico del estado cíclico del mercado laboral se ha realizado por medio del análisis de la tasa de desempleo. Sin embargo, este indicador ofrece una visión limitada ya que no considera las rigideces, costos de movilidad y las asimetrías de información que obstaculizan el libre flujo de trabajo. Por lo anterior, el diagnóstico de como el mercado laboral absorbe las fluctuaciones durante el ciclo económico se debe realizar utilizando un indicador más completo que incluya otros aspectos del mercado de trabajo. Así, en este documento se construye un indicador sintético que resume el comportamiento cíclico de un amplio conjunto de series del mercado de trabajo utilizando factores dinámicos y componentes principales a partir de información de desempleo, horas, salarios, vacantes, contratación, etc. Variables obtenidas de las encuestas de hogares y sectoriales del DANE, encuestas de opinión y registros administrativos. Contribución El LMI es un indicador del ciclo de crecimiento del mercado laboral, como lo define Mintz (1972), lo que complementa el análisis de la coyuntura que se realiza con indicadores tradicionales como índices de difusión. El indicador describe si el mercado de trabajo está en una fase de alto crecimiento, en la que las condiciones cíclicas están mejorando para el mercado laboral como un todo, o si por el contrario el mercado de trabajo está en una fase de bajo crecimiento, en la que existe una tendencia al deterioro. Estas fases complementan el análisis de las fases de expansión y recesión que se obtiene de los indicadores tradicionales de los indicadores del ciclo de los negocios. Adicionalmente, el LMI es directamente comparable con las brechas del producto y de la tasa de desempleo. Por lo tanto, su evolución comparada con la de esos indicadores refleja que movimientos de la actividad económica se han transmitido al mercado laboral y en que períodos la dinámica agregada no se transmite al mercado laboral. Resultados La estimación del LMI entre 2001 y 2019 presenta diez fases, con duraciones entre 15 y 34 meses, alcanzando su máximo histórico en enero de 2008 y el mínimo en febrero de 2010. Durante este período las expectativas, el empleo industrial, la presencia de cuellos de botella, las vacantes, y las expectativas son las variables con mayor contribución a la evolución del indicador. Respecto al LMI y el ciclo económico para Colombia, entre 2002 y 2012 el LMI sigue de cerca la brecha del PIB, entre 2012 y 2015 el indicador no se recupera como lo hace la brecha del PIB y a partir de 2016 el mercado laboral tiene una mejor dinámica que la actividad económica en general. En comparación con la brecha de la tasa de desempleo, ésta última es más volátil y la evolución es también similar a la del LMI. Los hallazgos sugieren que la relación entre la LMI y los indicadores tradicionales siguen las relaciones descritas por Mintz (1972)

Low expression of estrogen receptor β in T lymphocytes and high serum levels of anti-estrogen receptor α antibodies impact disease activity in female patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

BACKGROUND: Current evidence indicates that estrogens, in particular 17β-estradiol (E2), play a crucial role in the gender bias of autoimmune diseases although the underlying molecular mechanisms have not yet been fully elucidated. Immune cells have estrogen receptors (ERs), i.e., ERα and ERβ, that play pro- and anti-inflammatory functions, respectively, and the presence of one estrogen receptor (ER) subtype over the other might change estrogen effects, promoting or dampening inflammation. In this study, we contributed to define the influences of E2 on T cells from female patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a representative autoimmune disease characterized by a higher prevalence in women than in men (female/male ratio 9:1). Particularly, our aim was to evaluate whether alterations of ERα and ERβ expression in T cells from female SLE patients may impact lymphocyte sensitivity to E2 and anti-ERα antibody (anti-ERα Ab) stimulation interfering with cell signaling and display a direct clinical effect. METHODS: Sixty-one premenopausal female patients with SLE and 40 age-matched healthy donors were recruited. Patients were divided into two groups based on the SLE Disease Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K) (i.e., <6 and ≥6). ER expression was evaluated in T lymphocytes by flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, and Western blot analyses. Serum anti-ERα Ab levels were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). ER-dependent signaling pathways were measured by a phosphoprotein detection kit. RESULTS: Intracellular ERβ expression was significantly lower in T cells from patients with SLEDAI-2K ≥6 as compared with healthy donors and patients with SLEDAI-2K <6 and negatively correlated with disease activity. The expression of intracellular and membrane-associated-ERα was similar in SLE and control T cells. ER-dependent signaling pathways were activated in T cells from SLE patients with SLEDAI-2K ≥6, but not with SLEDAI-2K <6, when both membrane and intracellular ERs were stimulated by co-treatment with E2 and anti-ERα Abs. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate an altered ER profile in SLE patients, possibly contributing to SLE pathogenesis and interfering with clinical activity, and highlight the potential exploitation of T cell-associated ERβ as a biomarker of disease activity

NECK DISSECTIONS: MISCONCEPTIONS, MALPRACTICE AND COMMON CONTROVERSIES

B a c k g ro u n d. Neck metastases are the single most important prognostic factor in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Wise approach to neck treatment is then mandatory to give a chanche for cure. Still, there are some issues about neck dissection that need to be clarified. M e t h o d s. Through a review of the literature and of everyday clinical observations, the following issues are discussed: Functional Neck Dissection, biopsies, nodal levels, Selective Neck Dissections, Spinal Accessory Nerve, neck dissection classification. R e s u l t s. Integration of historical, anatomical, clinical and surgical concepts and up-to-date knowledge can allow to understand how to behave in diverse clinical situations. Conclusions. Standardized guidelines are far to be achieved. Wise behaviour, however, may allow to avoid some mistakes. The aim of this paper is to make the above mentioned issues clear and hopefully give more diffusion to concepts that too often seem to be overlooked

Application of effect-based methods (EBMs) in a river basin: a preliminary study in Central Italy

Introduction. Effect-based methods (EBMs), i.e. in vitro and in vivo bioassays, represent innovative tools for the effect detection of environmental chemical pollutants on living organisms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the water quality of a river ecosystem implementing two in vivo bioassays on target freshwater animal species: the crustacean Daphnia magna and the small fish Danio rerio, also known as zebrafish.Materials and methods. The methods applied in this study, i.e. the Daphnia sp. Acute Immobilisation assay and the Fish Embryo Acute Toxicity (FET) test, are commonly used in water quality research and their application in short-term ecotoxicity detection is suggested by recent European projects. Two sampling sites were chosen in the urban part of the Tiber River in Rome, while a third one was chosen as a reference site in the Farfa River, a tributary upstream of the city. The sites in the Tiber River are potentially affected by different pollution sources, including urban and industrial wastewater discharges, the pesticide release, livestock waste products, and waste dumps.Results and discussion. The results of the study showed wide differences between the two applied bioassays. The FET test was generally more sensitive in detecting even low effects in all the water samples, but the strongest statistically results were observed with the D. magna Acute Immobilisation test. The results of this research confirm the effectiveness of EBMs in investigating and monitoring water chemical pollution, and stress the need for performing further studies, e.g. chemical analyses and other bioassays, to improve the knowledge of the health status of the Tiber River basin.Conclusions. Further results will aim to support the local authorities in adopting measures to reduce and to eliminate the sources of chemical pollution in the study area