Symbolic computations of non-linear observability

Date of Acceptance: 22/05/2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS E.B.M. and M.S.B. acknowledge the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Grant No. EP/I032608/1. This work was done during a stay of E.B.M. at CORIA (Rouen) and a stay of C.L. at ICSMB (Aberdeen).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A symbolic network-based nonlinear theory for dynamical systems observability

EBM and MSB acknowledge the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), grant Ref. EP/I032608/1. ISN acknowledges partial support from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain under project FIS2013-41057-P and from the Group of Research Excelence URJC-Banco de Santander.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Exact detection of direct links in networks of interacting dynamical units

Authors NR, EB-M, CG, and MSB acknowledge the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA). EB-M and MSB also acknowledge the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) project Ref. EP/I032 606/1. ACM and CM acknowledge the LINC project (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-ITN, grant no. 289447). ACM also aknowledges PEDECIBA and CSIC(Uruguay). CM also acknowledges grant FIS2012–37655-C02–01 from the Spanish MCI, grant 2009 SGR 1168, and the ICREA Academia programme from the Generalitat de Catalunya.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Hepatocellular carcinoma in Latin America: Diagnosis and treatment challenges

Latin America, a region with a population greater than 600000000 individuals, is well known due to its wide geographic, socio-cultural and economic heterogeneity. Access to health care remains as the main barrier that challenges routine screening, early diagnosis and proper treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Therefore, identification of population at risk, implementation of surveillance programs and access to curative treatments has been poorly obtained in the region. Different retrospective cohort studies from the region have shown flaws in the implementation process of routine surveillance and early HCC diagnosis. Furthermore, adherence to clinical practice guidelines recommendations assessed in two studies from Brazil and Argentina demonstrated that there is also room for improvement in this field, similarly than the one observed in Europe and the United States. In summary, Latin America shares difficulties in HCC decision-making processes similar to those from developed countries. However, a transversal limitation in the region is the poor access to health care with the consequent limitation to standard treatments for overall population. Specifically, universal health care access to the different World Health Organization levels is crucial, including improvement in research, education and continuous medical training in order to expand knowledge and generation of data promoting a continuous improvement in the care of HCC patients.Fil: Piñero, Federico. Educational And Awareness Network; Argentina. Hospital Universitario Austral; ArgentinaFil: Poniachik, Jaime. Hospital Clinico de la Universidad de Chile; Chile. Clinica Santa Maria; ChileFil: Ridruejo, Ezequiel. Hospital Universitario Austral; Argentina. Educational And Awareness Network; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. CEMIC-CONICET. Centro de Educaciones Médicas e Investigaciones Clínicas "Norberto Quirno". CEMIC-CONICET; ArgentinaFil: Silva, Marcelo. Hospital Universitario Austral; Argentina. Educational And Awareness Network; Argentin

Synthesis and cellular penetration properties of new phosphonium based cationic amphiphilic peptides

A new category of phosphonium based cationic amphiphilic peptides has been developed and evaluated as potential antimicrobial peptides and cell penetrating peptides. The required building blocks were conveniently accessible from cysteine and could be applied in a solid phase peptide synthesis protocol for incorporation into peptide sequences. Evaluation of the antimicrobial properties and cellular toxicity of these phosphonium based peptides showed that these “soft” cationic side-chain containing peptides have poor antimicrobial properties and most of them were virtually non toxic (on HEK cells tested at 256 and 512 μM) and non-haemolytic (on horse erythrocytes tested at 512 μM), hinting at an interesting potential application as cell penetrating peptides. This possibility was evaluated using fluorescent peptide derivatives and showed that these phosphonium based peptide derivatives were capable of entering HEK cells and depending on the sequence confined to specific cellular areas

Decoupling of Multivariable Control Systems Using Mod-ICA / Dissociação de sistemas de controle multivariável usando Mod-ICA

Sensors usage in process control systems is of vital importance for industrial plants proper operation and monitoring. In turn, process signals may have interference from other sources, and in some cases, it is not possible to observe the individual signs of the sources directly. Because of this, techniques of processing and separation of signals has been used to extract the information from the sources contained in mixed signals. The main signal separation techniques are associated with the technique ICA (Independent Component Analysis), which has undergone significant evolution since its creation in the 80’s. This growth had also received contributions from PCA technique (Principal Component Analysis), and the development of computational processing power. However, these methods have two fundamental problems, which are the deviation of amplitude, and phase change, with issues such as limiting its use in control systems. Thus, this work aims to present a solution to the amplitude problem of ICA's techniques for use in obtaining uncoupling of multivariable systems. The proposed correction, based on the stage of whitening of ICA algorithms, generating the technique MOD-ICA, has been used as an alternative to the breaking of the correlation between variables of multivariate systems, with the goal of achieving the decoupling of MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) systems. In the study case, proposed in this work, it was observed a better estimation of the parameters of decoupling models for the control system. The variables, after using the ICA modified technique, are independent and do not present the influence of disturbances arising from other variables in the process, resulting in a more robust control system for process variations. 

Optimization of bioactive peptides extraction from chlorella vulgaris

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Stopping criteria for genetic improvement software for beef-cattle mating selection

O objetivo deste trabalho foi propor um novo critério de parada para diminuir o tempo de processamento do programa de melhoramento genético PampaPlus, além de maximizar o índice de qualificação genética (GQI) da progênie, controlar a endogamia e evitar o descarte não intencional. Foram utilizados dados de dois rebanhos integrantes do PampaPlus. Cinco cenários de acasalamento foram elaborados com diferentes números de touros (9 a 37) e vacas (142 a 568). Os dados analisados foram: diferenças esperadas na progênie, informações de pedigree, máxima endogamia, número máximo e mínimo de acasalamentos por touro, e penalidades para desempenho inferior. As variáveis analisadas foram tempo de processamento e o GQI das progênies. Foram utilizados três critérios de parada: critério de parada original, fixado em 1.000 iterações; critério de parada por saturação (SSC), baseado na variância do GQI; e critério de parada de Bhandari (BSC), que inclui o parâmetro de intervalo de gerações. O SSC e o BSC reduziram o tempo de processamento em 24,43–53,64% e em 14,32–50,87%, respectivamente. O BSC atinge solução em menos tempo, sem perda da qualidade do GQI. O BSC é generalizável e efetivo em reduzir o tempo de processamento das recomendações de acasalamento.The objective of this work was to propose a new stopping criterion to shorten the computing time of the PampaPlus genetic improvement software, while maximizing the genetic qualification index (GQI) of the progeny, controlling inbreeding, and avoiding unintended culling. Data from two beef-cattle herds integrating PampaPlus were used. Five mating scenarios were built using different numbers of sires (9 to 37) and dams (142 to 568). The analyzed algorithm inputs were: expected progeny differences, pedigree information, maximum inbreeding, maximum and minimum number of matches for each sire, and penalty weights for poor performance. The analyzed response variables were computing time and the GQI of the progenies. Three stopping criteria were used: original stopping criterion fixed at 1,000 iterations; saturation stopping criterion (SSC), based on GQI variance; and Bhandari’s stopping criterion (BSC), which includes the generation interval parameter. SSC and BSC reduced processing time in 24.43–53.64% and in 14.32–50.87%, respectively. BSC reaches solution in less time, without losses in GQI quality. BSC is generalizable and effective to reduce the processing time of mating recommendations