Phenomenology Tools on Cloud Infrastructures using OpenStack

We present a new environment for computations in particle physics phenomenology employing recent developments in cloud computing. On this environment users can create and manage "virtual" machines on which the phenomenology codes/tools can be deployed easily in an automated way. We analyze the performance of this environment based on "virtual" machines versus the utilization of "real" physical hardware. In this way we provide a qualitative result for the influence of the host operating system on the performance of a representative set of applications for phenomenology calculations.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures; information on memory usage included, as well as minor modifications. Version to appear in EPJ

La Garza Real en España. I. Población reproductora (1950-2000)

En este trabajo se analiza la evolución de la población reproductora de Garza Real, Ardea cinerea, en España durante el período 1950-2000. El territorio español se ha dividido en siete grandes zonas: Norte, Levante, y las cuencas de los cinco grandes ríos (Guadalquivir, Guadiana, Tajo, Duero y Ebro). Los datos sobre colonias y número de parejas nidificantes fueron obtenidos a partir de prospecciones de los autores, de citas bibliográficas y de comunicaciones de organismos y personas conocedoras de las colonias. Es probable que ya antes de 1950 hubiera colonias ocupadas, pero se carece de datos publicados sobre ellas. En 1950 pudo haber 168 parejas reproductoras en 4 colonias, mientras que en 2000 hubo 4790 parejas en 75 colonias. Las subpoblaciones de garza real asentadas de las cuencas del Duero y Tajo parecen estar próximas al equilibrio numérico, mientras que las del Ebro, Guadalquivir y Levante han aumentado notablemente su tamaño en la década 1990-2000. La cuenca del Guadiana contenía relativamente pocas parejas en el período de estudio y en el Norte de España la población reproductora de la garza real es aún poco significativa

Hot and repulsive traffic flow

We study a message passing model, applicable also to traffic problems. The model is implemented in a discrete lattice, where particles move towards their destination, with fluctuations around the minimal distance path. A repulsive interaction between particles is introduced in order to avoid the appearance of traffic jam. We have studied the parameter space finding regions of fluid traffic, and saturated ones, being separated by abrupt changes. The improvement of the system performance is also explored, by the introduction of a non-constant potential acting on the particles. Finally, we deal with the behavior of the system when temporary failures in the transmission occurs.Comment: 22 pages, uuencoded gzipped postscript file. 11 figures include

Predicting IR Personalization Performance using Pre-retrieval Query Predictors

Personalization generally improves the performance of queries but in a few cases it may also harms it. If we are able to predict and therefore to disable personalization for those situations, the overall performance will be higher and users will be more satisfied with personalized systems. We use some state-of-the-art pre-retrieval query performance predictors and propose some others including the user profile information for the previous purpose. We study the correlations among these predictors and the difference between the personalized and the original queries. We also use classification and regression techniques to improve the results and finally reach a bit more than one third of the maximum ideal performance. We think this is a good starting point within this research line, which certainly needs more effort and improvements.This work has been supported by the Spanish Andalusian “Consejerı́a de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa” postdoctoral phase of project P09-TIC-4526, the Spanish “Ministerio de Economı́a y Competitividad” projects TIN2013-42741-P and TIN2016-77902-C3-2-P, and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF-FEDER)

Information retrieval and machine learning methods for academic expert finding

In the context of academic expert finding, this paper investigates and compares the performance of information retrieval (IR) and machine learning (ML) methods, including deep learning, to approach the problem of identifying academic figures who are experts in different domains when a potential user requests their expertise. IR-based methods construct multifaceted textual profiles for each expert by clustering information from their scientific publications. Several methods fully tailored for this problem are presented in this paper. In contrast, ML-based methods treat expert finding as a classification task, training automatic text classifiers using publications authored by experts. By comparing these approaches, we contribute to a deeper understanding of academic-expert-finding techniques and their applicability in knowledge discovery. These methods are tested with two large datasets from the biomedical field: PMSC-UGR and CORD-19. The results show how IR techniques were, in general, more robust with both datasets and more suitable than the ML-based ones, with some exceptions showing good performance.Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. PID2019-106758GB-C31Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. PID2020-113230RB-C22FEDER/Junta de Andalucía | Ref. A-TIC-146-UGR2

Global transcriptome analysis of Lactococcus garvieae strains in response to temperature

Lactococcus garvieae is an important fish and an opportunistic human pathogen. The genomic sequences of several L. garvieae strains have been recently published, opening the possibility of global studies on the biology of this pathogen. In this study, a whole genome DNA microarray of two strains of L. garvieae was designed and validated. This DNA microarray was used to investigate the effects of growth temperature (18°C and 37°C) on the transcriptome of two clinical strains of L. garvieae that were isolated from fish (Lg8831) and from a human case of septicemia (Lg21881). The transcriptome profiles evidenced a strain-specific response to temperature, which was more evident at 18°C. Among the most significant findings, Lg8831 was found to up-regulate at 18°C several genes encoding different cold-shock and cold-induced proteins involved in an efficient adaptive response of this strain to low-temperature conditions. Another relevant result was the description, for the first time, of respiratory metabolism in L. garvieae, whose gene expression regulation was temperature-dependent in Lg21881. This study provides new insights about how environmental factors such as temperature can affect L. garvieae gene expression. These data could improve our understanding of the regulatory networks and adaptive biology of this important pathogen

The U(1)-Higgs Model: Critical Behaviour in the Confinig-Higgs region

We study numerically the critical properties of the U(1)-Higgs lattice model, with fixed Higgs modulus, in the region of small gauge coupling where the Higgs and Confining phases merge. We find evidence of a first order transition line that ends in a second order point. By means of a rotation in parameter space we introduce thermodynamic magnitudes and critical exponents in close resemblance with simple models that show analogous critical behaviour. The measured data allow us to fit the critical exponents finding values in agreement with the mean field prediction. The location of the critical point and the slope of the first order line are accurately given.Comment: 21 text pages. 12 postscript figures available on reques

Analysis of the genome content of Lactococcus garvieae by genomic interspecies microarray hybridization

BACKGROUND: Lactococcus garvieae is a bacterial pathogen that affects different animal species in addition to humans. Despite the widespread distribution and emerging clinical significance of L. garvieae in both veterinary and human medicine, there is almost a complete lack of knowledge about the genetic content of this microorganism. In the present study, the genomic content of L. garvieae CECT 4531 was analysed using bioinformatics tools and microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) experiments. Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis IL1403 and Streptococcus pneumoniae TIGR4 were used as reference microorganisms. RESULTS: The combination and integration of in silico analyses and in vitro CGH experiments, performed in comparison with the reference microorganisms, allowed establishment of an inter-species hybridization framework with a detection threshold based on a sequence similarity of >or= 70%. With this threshold value, 267 genes were identified as having an analogue in L. garvieae, most of which (n = 258) have been documented for the first time in this pathogen. Most of the genes are related to ribosomal, sugar metabolism or energy conversion systems. Some of the identified genes, such as als and mycA, could be involved in the pathogenesis of L. garvieae infections. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we identified 267 genes that were potentially present in L. garvieae CECT 4531. Some of the identified genes could be involved in the pathogenesis of L. garvieae infections. These results provide the first insight into the genome content of L. garvieae.This work was supported partially by projects AGL2005-04775 and AGL2009-12447 of the Ministerio Español de Ciencia e Innovación. M. Aguado-Urda was a recipient of a grant from Centro de Vigilancia Sanitaria Veterinaria (VISAVET), and a PhD grant from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The work of Dr. López-Campos and Dr. Martín-Sanchez was partially funded by the COMBIOMED Network and ONTOMINEBASE reseach project (Ministerio Español de Ciencia e Innovación). The authors thank M.P. Gaya for providing the Lactococcus lactis subsp lactis IL1403 strain.S

Is trivial the antiferromagnetic RP(2) model in four dimensions?

We study the antiferromagnetic RP(2) model in four dimensions. We find a second order transition with two order parameters, one ferromagnetic and the other antiferromagnetic. The antiferromagnetic sector has mean-field critical exponents and a renormalized coupling which goes to zero in the continuum limit. The exponents of the ferromagnetic channel are not the mean-field ones, but the difference can be interpreted as logarithmic corrections. We perform a detailed analysis of these corrections and conclude the triviality of the continuum limit of this model.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX2