Studying Neonates’ Language and Memory Capacities with Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

The measurement of newborns’ brain hemodynamic activity has improved our understanding of early cognitive processes, in particular of language acquisition. In this paper, we describe two experimental protocols adapted to study neonates’ speech-processing capacities using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS): the block design and the familiarization-recognition design. We review some of their benefits and disadvantages, and refer to research issues that can be explored by means of these protocols. We also illustrate the use of the two experimental designs through representative fNIRS studies that reveal specific patterns of activation of the newborn brain during speech perception, learning of repetition structures, and word recognition

Del complejo militar romano al monacato altomedieval : aproximación a las transformaciones del espacio interior galaico entre los siglos I y IX d. C. a partir de los asentamientos de A Cidadela (Sobrado dos Monxes, A Coruña)

Jornadas de Jóvenes en Investigación Arqueológica, JIA (3as : 5-7 de mayo 2010 : Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). Sesión 3. Indicios arqueológicos de la vertebración del territorio y su poblamiento desde época ibérica hasta la Tardoantigüedad en la Península Ibérica.A Cidadela es, a día de hoy, uno de los más emblemáticos yacimientos de la arqueología gallega. Conocido desde inicios del siglo XX, sus excavaciones modernas cumplirán el próximo año su treinta aniversario. Con todo, siguen existiendo no pocos puntos oscuros en su historia: no hemos alcanzado a comprender el porqué de un asentamiento militar romano en la región; su cronología de ocupación sigue siendo, cuanto menos, confusa; la investigación apenas se ha ocupado del entorno del yacimiento; y las fases germánica y altomedieval siguen sumidas en la penumbra. Es nuestro objetivo arrojar alguna luz sobre estas y otras problemáticas en base al trabajo de un grupo interdisciplinar.A Cidadela is, nowadays, one of the most emblematic sites of Galician archaeology. Well-known since the beginnings of XX century, the modern excavations are going to achieve next year their thirtieth anniversary. Even so, there are still several points in its history not entirely resolved: we have not got to understand the reason for a roman military settlement in the region; the chronology of its occupation is, at least, confusing; the research has barely paid attention to the environment of the site; and the Germanic and Early Medieval periods are still plunged in the half-light. It is our aim to throw light on these and other problems based on the work of an interdisciplinary group

Sedimentology and fluvial styles of the uppermost Cretaceous continental deposits of the Austral-Magallanes Basin, Patagonia, Argentina

The sedimentary infill of the Austral-Magallanes Basin since the onset of its foreland stage in the Lago Argentino region is dominated by deep-marine and coastal deposits. However, during the Late Cretaceous the basin accumulated a thick and poorly known continental sedimentary succession, which has received different lithostratigraphic names. The aim of this work is to characterize the here defined Uppermost Cretaceous Continental Deposits (UCCD) from a detailed facies and architectural analysis, as well as the resulting stacking pattern. Seven Facies Associations (FAs) were discriminated in order to define the sedimentary paleoenvironments: FA1, gravelly sheet bodies; FA2, tabular bodies of conglomerates with mud rip-up clasts; FA3, complex tabular sandy bodies; FA4, simple tabular sandy bodies; FA5, tabular bodies of structureless sandstones; FA6, heterolithic deposits; and FA7, fine-grained deposits. Three different fluvial styles were recognized: meandering systems dominated by avulsion and meander abandonment processes (fluvial style a), braided systems (fluvial style b), and meandering systems dominated by overbank flood processes (fluvial style c). The stacking pattern of the FAs allowed to divide the UCCD into two major depositional stages related to the accommodation space vs sediment supply (A/S) ratio. Stage I is characterized by the alternation of fluvial styles a and b, while the Stage II is represented by the alternation of fluvial styles c and b, and the Stage III is characterized entirely by fluvial style c deposits. Although the UCCD are considered as a whole within a framework of low A/S ratio, several high frequency variations were recognized. The Stage I records seven high frequency intervals of which four are characterized by high A/S ratio interrupted by three events of low A/S. While the stage II is represented by six high frequency periods of low A/S ratio and other five high frequency events of high A/S ratio. The Stage II is considered as deposited in a relative higher A/S context in comparison with the Stage I, based on the behavior of the moderate to high sinuosity meander fluvial systems. Finally, the Stage III is represented entirely by a high frequency low A/S ratio event.Fil: Tettamanti, Camila. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo; ArgentinaFil: Moyano Paz, Damián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas; ArgentinaFil: Varela, Augusto Nicolás. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo; Argentina. YPF - Tecnología; ArgentinaFil: Tineo, David. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas; ArgentinaFil: Gómez Peral, Lucia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas; ArgentinaFil: Poire, Daniel Gustavo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas; ArgentinaFil: Cereceda, Abril. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo; ArgentinaFil: Odino Barreto, Andrea Lorena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas; Argentin

Brain regions and functional interactions supporting early word recognition in the face of input variability

Perception and cognition in infants have been traditionally investigated using habituation paradigms, assuming that babies' memories in laboratory contexts are best constructed after numerous repetitions of the very same stimulus in the absence of interference. A crucial, yet open, question regards how babies deal with stimuli experienced in a fashion similar to everyday learning situations-namely, in the presence of interfering stimuli. To address this question, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to test 40 healthy newborns on their ability to encode words presented in concomitance with other words. The results evidenced a habituation-like hemodynamic response during encoding in the left-frontal region, which was associated with a progressive decrement of the functional connections between this region and the left-temporal, right-temporal, and right-parietal regions. In a recognition test phase, a characteristic neural signature of recognition recruited first the right-frontal region and subsequently the right-parietal ones. Connections originating from the right-temporal regions to these areas emerged when newborns listened to the familiar word in the test phase. These findings suggest a neural specialization at birth characterized by the lateralization of memory functions: the interplay between temporal and left-frontal regions during encoding and between temporo-parietal and right-frontal regions during recognition of speech sounds. Most critically, the results show that newborns are capable of retaining the sound of specific words despite hearing other stimuli during encoding. Thus, habituation designs that include various items may be as effective for studying early memory as repeated presentation of a single word.European Research Council under European Union 269502 CONICYT-Chile Program PIA/BASAL FB0003 "Progetto strategico NEURAT" from the University of Padua CONICYT-Chile Program PAI/Academia 7913002

Prediction of Loss of Position during Dynamic Positioning Drilling Operations Using Binary Logistic Regression Modeling

The prediction of loss of position in the offshore industry would allow optimization of dynamic positioning drilling operations, reducing the number and severity of potential accidents. In this paper, the probability of an excursion is determined by developing binary logistic regression models based on a database of 42 incidents which took place between 2011 and 2015. For each case, variables describing the configuration of the dynamic positioning system, weather conditions, and water depth are considered. We demonstrate that loss of position is significantly more likely to occur when there is a higher usage of generators, and the drilling takes place in shallower waters along with adverse weather conditions; this model has very good results when applied to the sample. The same method is then applied for obtaining a binary regression model for incidents not attributable to human error, showing that it is a function of the percentage of generators in use, wind force, and wave height. Applying these results to the risk management of drilling operations may help focus our attention on the factors that most strongly affect loss of position, thereby improving safety during these operations

Determining the likelihood of incidents caused by human error during dynamic positioning drilling operations

[EN] The probability of a human-caused incident occurring during dynamic positioning (DP) drilling operations is determined in this paper using binary logistic regression models built with data on 42 incidents that took place during the period 2011–2015. For each case, a range of variables characterising the configuration of the DP system, weather conditions and water depth are taken into account. These variables are taken into account to develop a logistic regression model that shows the likelihood of an incident being caused by human error. The results obtained show that human-based incidents are significantly more likely to occur when there is a lower usage of thrusters. These results are useful for focusing our attention on variables that may be associated with incidents attributable to human error, as well as for setting operational limits that could help to prevent these incidents and improve safety during these operations.This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors

Accurate EMC engineering on realistic platforms using an integral equation domain decomposition approach

This article investigates the efficiency, accuracy and versatility of a surface integral equation (SIE) multisolver scheme to address very complex and large-scale radiation problems including multiple scale features, in the context of realistic electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)/electromagnetic interference (EMI) studies. The tear-and-interconnect domain decomposition (DD) method is applied to properly decompose the problem into multiple subdomains attending to their material, geometrical, and scale properties, while different materials and arbitrarily shaped connections between them can be combined by using the so-called multiregion vector basis functions. The SIE-DD approach has been widely reported in the literature, mainly applied to scattering problems or small radiation problems. Complementarily, in this article, the focus is placed on realistic radiation problems, involving tens of antennas and sensors and including multiscale ingredients and multiple materials. Such kind of problems are very demanding in terms of both convergence and computational resources. Throughout two realistic case studies, the proposed SIE-DD approach is shown to be a powerful electromagnetic modeling tool to provide the accurate and fast solution which is indispensable to rigorously accomplish real-life EMC/EMI studies.Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. TEC2017-85376-C2-1-RAgencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. TEC2017-85376-C2-2-

Process Mining to Unleash Variability Management: Discovering Configuration Workflows Using Logs

Variability models are used to build configurators. Configurators are programs that guide users through the configuration process to reach a desired configuration that fulfils user requirements. The same variability model can be used to design different configura tors employing different techniques. One of the elements that can change in a configurator is the configuration workflow, i.e., the order and sequence in which the different configuration elements are presented to the configuration stakeholders. When developing a configurator, a challenge is to decide the configuration workflow that better suites stakeholders according to previous configurations. For example, when configuring a Linux distribution, the configura tion process start by choosing the network or the graphic card, and then other packages with respect to a given sequence. In this paper, we present COnfiguration workfLOw proceSS mIning (COLOSSI), an automated technique that given a set of logs of previous configu rations and a variability model can automatically assist to determine the configuration workflow that better fits the configuration logs generated by user activities. The technique is based on process discovery, commonly used in the process mining area, with an adaptation to configuration contexts. Our proposal is validated us ing existing data from an ERP configuration environment showing its feasibility. Furthermore, we open the door to new applications of process mining techniques in different areas of software product line engineering.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología RTI2018-094283-B-C3

Thermodynamic Stability of Mn(II) Complexes with Aminocarboxylate Ligands Analyzed Using Structural Descriptors

[Abstract] We present a quantitative analysis of the thermodynamic stabilities of Mn(II) complexes, defined by the equilibrium constants (log KMnL values) and the values of pMn obtained as −log[Mn]free for total metal and ligand concentrations of 1 and 10 μM, respectively. We used structural descriptors to analyze the contributions to complex stability of different structural motifs in a quantitative way. The experimental log KMnL and pMn values can be predicted to a good accuracy by adding the contributions of the different motifs present in the ligand structure. This allowed for the identification of features that provide larger contributions to complex stability, which will be very helpful for the design of efficient chelators for Mn(II) complexation. This issue is particularly important to develop Mn(II) complexes for medical applications, for instance, as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. The analysis performed here also indicates that coordination number eight is more common for Mn(II) than is generally assumed, with the highest log KMnL values generally observed for hepta- and octadentate ligands. The X-ray crystal structure of [Mn2(DOTA)(H2O)2], in which eight-coordinate [Mn(DOTA)]2– units are bridged by six-coordinate exocyclic Mn(II) ions, is also reported.C.P.-I. and D.E.-G. (PID2019-104626GB-I00) and A.R.-R. (Grant PID2019-108352RJ-I00) thank Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and Xunta de Galicia (Grant ED431B 2020/52) for generous financial support. R.U.-V. thanks the Xunta de Galicia (Grant ED481A-2018/314) for funding her Ph.D. contract. L.V is indebted to CACTI (Universidade de Vigo) for X-Ray measurements. P.C. acknowledges funding from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK121789)Xunta de Galicia; ED431B 2020/52Xunta de Galicia; ED481A-2018/314Estados Unidos de América. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; R01DK12178

Significación del duelo en víctimas de desaparición forzada.

Comprender la significación del duelo que tienen las víctimas de desaparición forzadaEl presente trabajo tiene como objetivo comprender la significación del duelo que tienen los familiares víctimas de desaparición forzada que pertenecen a la Asociación Caminos de Esperanza Madres de la Candelaria de la ciudad de Medellín, Antioquia. Mediante una metodología cualitativa y utilizando como instrumento los grupos focales para la recolección de datos, obteniendo como resultado que para esta comunidad es importante tener el cuerpo de su familiar para poder realizar su duelo, además, la esperanza termina siendo la significación que estas personas hacen frente a su proceso de duelo; Por último se concluye que la vinculación a un grupo de apoyo (en este casi la Asociación Caminos de Esperanza Madres de la Candelaria) permite significar y resignificar el duelo por los parientes desaparecidos