Discussion of “clustering on dissimilarity Representations for detecting mislabelled Seismic signals at Nevado del Ruiz Volcano” by Mauricio Orozco-Alzate, and César Germán Castellanos-Domínguez

The authors are to be congratulated for a systematic investigationof the accurate and non subjective classifying approach in seismic research. The authors have conducted several clustering algorithms to the seismic event records from Volcanological and SeismologicalObservatory at Manizales. Their objective was to improve the grouping of seismic data (i.e., volcano-tectonic earthquakes, long-period earthquakes and icequakes) digitized at 100.16 Hz sampling frequency.Their study seems adding new approach to their previous work of Langer et al. (2006) who applied different classification techniques to seismic data

Electrospun PCL and PCL/Gel Microfiber Scaffolds as Prototypes for Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Regeneration and Repair

Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a polymer that has been a focus of tissue engineering due to its range of applicability for biomedical applications. Synthesis of PCL from a microwave-assisted and stannous octoate-catalyzed ring-opening reaction with ε-caprolactone was accomplished. Aligned-fiber microfiber mats were generated via electrospinning for characterization. PCL microfiber mats were characterized via FTIR and scanning electron microscopy. These PCL microfiber mats were mechanically tested to examine their applicability as tools for knee ligament repair. During tensile testing, non-fiber aligned mats lacked the sufficient elastic modulus. Fiber-aligned PCL samples both and gelatin-coated were tested and showed enhanced elastic modulus and extension at break point. Braiding gel-coated PCL samples failed due to splintering caused by drying of gelatin on scaffold surface. Biodegradation testing was carried out using phosphate buffered saline, elastase, and MMP-1 collagenase to simulate synovial fluid. Gel-coated PCL scaffolds showed consistent degradation with loss of mass no more than 22%

Circular Wilson loops in defect conformal field theory

We study a D3-D5 system dual to a conformal field theory with a codimension-one defect that separates regions where the ranks of the gauge groups differ by k. With the help of this additional parameter, as observed by Nagasaki, Tanida and Yamaguchi, one can define a double scaling limit in which the quantum corrections are organized in powers of λ/k2, which should allow to extrapolate results between weak and strong coupling regimes. In particular we consider a radius R circular Wilson loop placed at a distance L, whose internal space orientation is given by an angle χ. We compute its vacuum expectation value and show that, in the double scaling limit and for small χ and small L/R, weak coupling results can be extrapolated to the strong coupling limit.Fil: Aguilera Damia, Jeremías. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Correa, Diego Hernán. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Giraldo Rivera, Victor Ivan. International Centre For Theoretical Sciences; India. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Gopegui, Belén: El padre de Blancanieves

Review of: Gopegui, Belén. El padre de Blancanieves. Barcelona, Anagrama, 2007. 337 pp

Ansiedades de frontera en dos novelas policiales españolas sobre la inmigración

En este ensayo sostengo que la narrativa policial española que se acerca al tema de la inmigración refleja una ansiedad de frontera como una estrategia de preservación de la identidad nacional. La ansiedad de frontera es una actitud de rechazo a la presencia del inmigrante económico y se manifiesta con la marginación del mismo de los escenarios y espacios de socialización tradicionales. La ansiedad de frontera aparece con la cercanía y la proximidad del otro cultural, y reaviva una serie de miedos y temores históricos camuflados en estereotipos, reacciones xenofóbicas, incomprensión, intolerancia y violencia racial. 

Rosa Montero: Instrucciones para salvar el mundo

Review of: Rosa Montero. Instrucciones para salvar el mundo. Madrid: Alfaguara, 2008. 312 pp

Integrating stress signals at the endoplasmic reticulum: The BCL-2 protein family rheostat

AbstractThe assembling of distinct signaling protein complexes at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane controls several stress responses related to calcium homeostasis, autophagy, ER morphogenesis and protein folding. Diverse pathological conditions interfere with the function of the ER altering protein folding, a condition known as “ER stress”. Adaptation to ER stress depends on the activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) and protein degradation pathways such as autophagy. Under chronic or irreversible ER stress, cells undergo apoptosis, where the BCL-2 protein family plays a crucial role at the mitochondria to trigger cytochrome c release and apoptosome assembly. Several BCL2 family members also regulate physiological processes at the ER through dynamic interactomes. Here we provide a comprehensive view of the roles of the BCL-2 family of proteins in mediating the molecular crosstalk between the ER and mitochondria to initiate apoptosis, in addition to their emerging functions in adaptation to stress, including autophagy, UPR, calcium homeostasis and organelle morphogenesis. We envision a model where BCL-2-containing complexes may operate as stress rheostats that, beyond their known apoptosis functions at the mitochondria, determine the amplitude and kinetics of adaptive responses against ER-related injuries. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Mitochondria: the deadly organelle

COLLECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND BARRIER SYNCHRONIZATION ON NVIDIA CUDA GPU

GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) employ a multi-threaded execution model using multiple SIMD cores. Compared to use of a single SIMD engine, this architecture can scale to more processing elements. However, GPUs sacrifice the timing properties which made barrier synchronization implicit and collective communication operations fast. This thesis demonstrates efficient methods by which these aggregate functions can be implemented using unmodified NVIDIA CUDA GPUs. Although NVIDIA\u27s highest “compute capability GPUs provide atomic memory functions, they have order N execution time. In contrast, the methods proposed here take advantage of basic properties of the GPU architecture to make implementations that are both efficient and portable to all CUDA-capable GPUs. A variety of coordination operations are synthesized, and the algorithm, CUDA code, and performance of each are discussed in detail