Predicting performance in team games: The automatic coach

This is an electronic version of the paper presented at the 3rd International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence, held in Rome on 2011A wide range of modern videogames involves a number of players collaborating to obtain a common goal. The way the players are teamed up is usually based on a measure of performance that makes players with a similar level of performance play together. We propose a novel technique based on clustering over observed behaviour in the game that seeks to exploit the particular way of playing of every player to find other players with a gameplay such that in combination will constitute a good team, in a similar way to a human coach. This paper describes the preliminary results using these techniques for the characterization of player and team behaviours. Experiments are performed in the domain of Soccerbots.This work has been partly supported by: Spanish Ministry of Science and Education under grant TIN2009-13692-C03-03, TIN2010-19872 and Spanish Ministry of Industry under grant TSI, 020110- 2009-205

Oxidative Stress in Cystic Fibrosis

Airway infection leads to progressive damage of the lungs in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Oxidative stress has been implicated as a causative factor in the aetiology of that process. Supplementation with antioxidant micronutrients (vitamin E, vitamin C, ß-carotene and selenium), docosahexaenoic acid or glutathione might therefore be helpful in maintaining an adequate redox balance. Current literature suggests a relationship between oxidative status and lung function. In this chapter we will summarize the main pathways of oxidative stress, focusing on results of new antioxidant treatments

Flowering of taro germplasm (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) in Cuba

Research was done at the Center for Tropical Crop Research (INIVIT), to evaluate inflorescence of taro germplasm (104 accessions) in Cuba´s climatic conditions. Sampling was made every 7 days in the 2013-2014 period to evaluate inflorescence; accessions were characterized according to flowering parameters. The results showed that natural flowering by the 26-accession sample (25%), was observed to early blossom from July to October in 18 accessions (69.2%). Increased temperature and relative humidity lasted until November, when inflorescence ends

Reference standard for the uncertainty estimation of X–ray Computed Tomography measurements of complex macro-and micro-geometries

Traditionally, measuring both macro and micro geometries with a single device has been challenging in metrology. Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM) are common devices for the inspection of large features, while optical microscopes can achieve resolutions in the order of micrometers in small areas. X-Ray Computed Tomography (XCT) has become a solution not only to characterize both micro and macro geometries, but also to inspect internal features without destroying the sample. In this field, various reference standards have been developed in order to verify the capabilities of XCT systems, these artefacts include geometrical features or profiles for roughness inspection. This paper shows the design and develompent of a reference standard for XCT test which includes internal and external geometrical features and profiles for macro and micro geometrical inspection. The model is manufactured by additive manufacturing (AM), easing the process of fabrication of the artefact and allowing to test the capabilities of this technology to produce reference standards

Precipitation trends and their relationship with El Niño Oceanic Index. The case of the Mixteca Region, Mexico

[EN] The occurrence of droughts is a permanent concern in arid and semi-arid zones, especially for socially vulnerable ones such as the Mixteca Region in Mexico, a condition that can be aggravated as climate change scenarios predicts. The general circulation models do not allow forecasting precipitation conditions at regional scales, so it is necessary to study local climate behavior and trends. Determining the relationship between local climate and large-scale phenomena, such as El Niño / La Niña events, is relevant to set up prevention measures. This article analyzes the precipitation trends in the Mixteca Region of Mexico, determines the presence of a statistically significant trend in observed decrease in precipitation, and analyzes the relationship between precipitation conditions in the zone and the Ocean Niño Index. It is shown that there is a statistically significant trend of decreasing precipitation, and it is found that there is a correlation between the El Niño Oceanic Index and the conditions of extreme precipitation -humidity or drought- in the region.[ES] La ocurrencia de sequías es una preocupación constante en zonas áridas y semiáridas, especialmente cuando se trata de regiones socialmente vulnerables como es el caso de la Región Mixteca en México, condición que puede agravarse según se anticipa de los escenarios de cambio climático. Los modelos de circulación general no permiten prever las condiciones de precipitación en escalas regionales, por lo que se hace necesario el estudio de las tendencias y comportamientos climáticos locales. Determinar la relación entre el clima local y fenómenos de gran escala, como los eventos El Niño/La Niña, es de relevancia para establecer medidas de prevención. En este artículo se analiza la tendencia de la precipitación en la región Mixteca de México, se determina la presencia de una tendencia estadísticamente significativa a la disminución en la precipitación, y se analiza la relación entre las condiciones de precipitación en la zona y el Índice Oceánico El Niño. Se muestra que existe una tendencia estadísticamente significativa de disminución de la precipitación, y se encuentra que existe una correlación entre el índice Oceánico El Niño y las condiciones de precipitación extrema -humedad o sequía- en la región.Martínez-Austria, PF.; Díaz-Jiménez, D. (2018). Tendencias de la precipitación y su relación con el Índice Oceánico El Niño. El caso de la Región Mixteca, México. Ingeniería del Agua. 22(1):1-14. doi:10.4995/ia.2018.7779SWORD114221Ahmad, I., Tang, D., Wang, T.F., Wang, M., Wagan, B. 2015. Precipitation trends over time using Mann-Kendall and Spearman's Rho tests in Swat River Basin, Pakistan. Advances in Meteorology. Vol. 2015. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/431860Calahorrano, J., Manazno, M., Gualli, D., Silva, F., Audelo, M., Tingo, J. 2017. Análisis de tendencia en la precipitación anual (1964-2015) en la cuenca del Pastaza. Ecuador. Agua LAC, 9(2), Septiembre 2017, 73-84.Cerano Paredes, J Villanueva Díaz, J., Valdez Cepeda R. D., Méndez González, J., Constante V. 2011. Reconstructed droughts in the last 600 years for northeastern Mexico. Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Agrícolas, 2(2), 235-249.CONAGUA. 2017. Monitor de Sequía - SPI. Último acceso: 7 de Junio de 2017. Disponible en http://smn.cna.gob.mx/es/climatologia/monitor-de-sequia/spi.Florescano, E. 2000. Breve historia de la sequía en México. Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes.Goklany, I. M. 2009. Deaths and death rates from extreme weather events: 1900-2008. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, 14(4), 102-109.Hayes, M., Svoboda, M., Wall, N., Widhalm, M. 2011. The Lincoln declaration on drought indices. American Meterological Society, April, 485-488. https://doi.org/10.1175/2010BAMS3103.1Hoeppe, P. 2016. Trends in weather related disasters -Consequences for insurers and society. Weather and Climate Extremes, 11, 70-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2015.10.002IICA. 2016. El Niño en la agricultura de las Américas. Boletín Técnico 2016. San José de Costa Rica: Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA)-Euroclima.IMTA - SEMARNAT. 2013. Eric III . Eric III Extractor Rápido de Información Climatológica. Versión 3.2. Jiutepec, Morelos: Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua.INECC. 2016. Escenarios de cambio climático. INECC Cambio Climático. 13 de Noviembre. Último acceso: 7 de Junio de 2017. http://escenarios.inecc.gob.mx/.IPCC. 2007. Climate 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. O Perry, O. Canziani, P. Palutikof y H.C. van del Linden. (Eds.) Cambrigde: Cambridge University Press.IPCC. 2012. Gestión de los riesgos de fenómenos extremos y desastres naturales para mejorar la adaptación al cambio climático. Informe Especial, Grupo Intergubernamental de Expertos sobre el Cambio Climático. 2013. Climate Change.IPCC. 2013. The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.IPCC. 2014. Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernamental Panel on Climate Change. Geneva.Lloyd-Hughes, B., Saunders, M. A. 2002. A drought climatology for Europe. International Journal of Climatology, 22(13), 1571-1592. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.846Maca, P., Pech, P. 2016. Forecasting SPEI and SPI Drought Indices Using the Integrated Artificial Neural Networks. Computational Inteligence and Neuroscience, 17. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/3868519Martínez-Austria, P. F., Bandala E. R. 2017. Temperature and heat-related mortality trends in the Sonoran and Mojave desert region. Atmosphere, 8(53). https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos8030053Marcos Valiente, O. 2001. Sequía: definiciones, tipologías y métodos de cuantificación. Investigaciones geográficas, 26. Último acceso: 10 de enero de 2018. Disponible en http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=17602604.Nation Master. 2017. Economy, Population below poverty line. Centro masivo de datos en Internet. Consultado el 14 de diciembre de 2017. Disponible en http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Economy/Population-below-poverty-line#2010National Weather Service. 2017. Cold & Warm Episodes by Season. 5 de 6. http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/ensostuff/ensoyears_1971-2000_climo.shtml.Ortega Gaucin, D. 2013. Impacto de las sequías en Nuevo León. Ciencia UANL (Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León), 63, 8-14.Otkin, J. A., Anderson, M. C., Hain, C., Svoboda M. 2015 Using temporal changes in drought indices to generate probabilistic drought intensification forecast. Journal of Hydrometeorology (American Meteorology Society) 16, 88-105. https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-14-0064.1Peterson, Larry C., Gerald, H. H. 2005. Climate and the collapse of Maya civillization. American Scientist, 93, 322-329. https://doi.org/10.1511/2005.54.968Randall, D. A., Word, R. A. 2007. Climate models and their evaluation. En IPCC, Climate 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, 589-662. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Rojas, O., Li, Y., Cumani, R. 2014. Understanding the drought impact of El Niño on the global agricultural areas: an assessment using FAO's Agricultural Stress Index. Rome: FAO.Salinas Prieto, J. A., Colorado Ruiz, G., Maya Magaña, M. E. 2015. Escenarios de Cambio Climático para México. En Atlas de vulnerabilidad hídrica de México ante el cambio climático, 41-70. Jiutepec, Morelos, México: Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua.Soares, D., Romero, R., López, R. 2010. Índice de vulnerabilidad social. En Atlas de vulnerabilidad hídrica de México ante el cambio climático, editado por P Martínez Autria y C. Patiño Gómez, 9-38. Jiutepec, Morelos: Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua.Tian, M., Wang, P., Khan, J. 2016. Drought forecasting with vegetation temperature condition index using ARIMA models in the Guanzhong Plain. Remote sensing 8 (690). https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8090690World Meteorological Organization. 2014. Atlas of mortality and economic losses from weather, climate and water extremes (1970-2012). Geneva.Yue, S., Pilon, P., Cavadias, G. 2002. Power of Mann-Kendall and Spearman's Rho tests detecting monotonic trends in hydrological series. Journal of Hydrology, 259, 254-271. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1694(01)00594-

Estudio en CFX de la distribución de temperatura en el tanque de calandria de la Central Nuclear Embalse

En este trabajo se presentan los cálculos de las distribuciones de temperatura y velocidad del fluido en el recipiente del moderador (calandria de ahora en más) de un reactor tipo CANDU-6, mediante simulaciones en estado estacionario con el software ANSYS CFX 15.0, versión académica. El recipiente de la calandria contiene 380 tubos de calandria que, a su vez, incluyen los tubos de presión y el combustible. Adicionalmente, dentro de la calandria se encuentran los internos del reactor que, para esta etapa de cálculo, no fueron tenidos en cuenta. La geometría se representó a partir de los planos correspondientes al recipiente del moderador y el de sus internos, y como condiciones decontorno se establecieron el caudal de entrada, la presión de salida, y la potencia por moderación y por conducción distribuida radial y axialmente. Finalmente, los resultados obtenidos permitieron demostrar que el modelo en CFX del tanque de calandria posibilitó identificar y representar patrones de flujo determinados experimentalmente y por otros modelos en fluidodinámica computacional (CFD por sus siglas en ingles). Además se determinó que para las condiciones de operación del reactor CANDU-6 el patrón de flujo que domina la distribución de flujo dentro del tanque de calandria es de tipo flujo mixto caracterizado por corrientes de flujo dominadas por fuerzas de momento y por fuerzas boyantes.Publicado en: Mecánica Computacional vol. XXXV no.31Facultad de Ingenierí

Reporte de un brote de infección por SARS-CoV-2 por transmisión aérea: evidencia epidemiológica y molecular

Introduction: It has been shown that the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurs mainly by air, and the risk of infection is greater in closed spaces. Objective: Describe the epidemiology, virology and molecular characterization of a COVID-19 outbreak at a closed vaccination point during the third wave of SARS-CoV-2 in Colombia. Materials and methods: Diagnostic tests, interviews, sampling, cell cultures and viral sequencing were carried out, the latter being molecular characterization and lineage identification. Results: Seven workers were positive for SARS-CoV-2; among these, 3 samples were analyzed, plus an additional sample belonging to the mother of the presumed index case; all samples were identified with lineage B.1.625, with a maximum of 2 nucleotides difference between them. Conclusions: Variant B.1.625 was identified as the cause of the COVID-19 outbreak, and a co-worker was also identified as the index case. Unexpectedly, attending a vaccination day became a risk factor for acquiring the infection.Introducción. Se ha demostrado que la transmisión de SARS-CoV-2 se da principalmente por vía aérea y el riesgo de infección es mayor en espacios cerrados con alta concentración de personas; este último factor se presentó en algunos de los puestos de vacunación de la ciudad de Medellín. Objetivo. Describir la epidemiología, virología y caracterización molecular de un brote de COVID-19 en un punto de vacunación cerrado durante la tercera ola de SARS-CoV-2 en Colombia. Materiales y métodos. Se realizaron test diagnósticos, entrevistas, toma de muestras, aislamiento viral y secuenciación genómica. Con esta última se realizó caracterización molecular e identificación de linaje. Resultados. Siete trabajadores fueron positivos para SARS-CoV-2, y de estos, tres muestras fueron secuenciadas, más una muestra adicional perteneciente a la madre del presunto caso índice. Todas las muestras fueron identificadas con el linaje B.1.625, con un máximo de 2 nucleótidos de diferencia entre ellas. Conclusiones. Se identificó la variante B.1.625 como la causante del brote de COVID-19, y también un compañero de trabajo fue identificado como el caso índice. De forma imprevista, asistir a una jornada de vacunación se convirtió en un factor de riesgo para adquirir la infección

Spatial Memory Training Counteracts Hippocampal GIRK Channel Decrease in the Transgenic APPSw,Ind J9 Alzheimer's Disease Mouse Model

This work was supported by grants BFU2017-82494-P, PID2020-115823-GB100 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and SBPLY/21/180501/000150 funded by JCCM and ERDF A way of making Europe, to LJD and JDNL; and grant PID2019-106615RB-I00 and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CIBERNED CB06/05/0042) to CAS. AC held a Margarita Salas Postdoctoral Research Fellow funded by European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR.G-protein-gated inwardly rectifying potassium (GIRK) channels are critical determinants of neuronal excitability. They have been proposed as potential targets to restore excitatory/inhibitory balance in acute amyloidosis models, where hyperexcitability is a hallmark. However, the role of GIRK signaling in transgenic mice models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is largely unknown. Here, we study whether progressive amyloid-β (Aβ) accumulation in the hippocampus during aging alters GIRK channel expression in mutant β-amyloid precursor protein (APP J9) transgenic AD mice. Additionally, we examine the impact of spatial memory training in a hippocampal-dependent task, on protein expression of GIRK subunits and Regulator of G-protein signaling 7 (RGS7) in the hippocampus of APP J9 mice. Firstly, we found a reduction in GIRK2 expression (the main neuronal GIRK channels subunit) in the hippocampus of 6-month-old APP J9 mice. Moreover, we found an aging effect on GIRK2 and GIRK3 subunits in both wild type (WT) and APP J9 mice. Finally, when 6-month-old animals were challenged to a spatial memory training, GIRK2 expression in the APP J9 mice were normalized to WT levels. Together, our results support the evidence that GIRK2 could account for the excitatory/inhibitory neurotransmission imbalance found in AD models, and training in a cognitive hippocampal dependent task may have therapeutic benefits of reversing this effect and lessen early AD deficits

Extending Qualitative Spatial Theories with Emergent Spatial Concepts: An Automated Reasoning Approach

Qualitative Spatial Reasoning is an exciting research field of the Knowledge Representation and Reasoning paradigm whose application often requires the extension, refinement or combination of existent theories (as well as the associated calculus). This paper addresses the issue of the sound spatial interpretation of formal extensions of such theories; particularly the interpretation of the extension and the desired representational features. The paper shows how to interpret certain kinds of extensions of Region Connection Calculus (RCC) theory. We also show how to rebuild the qualitative calculus of these extensions.Junta de Andalucía TIC-606