Emitter-receiver multichannel ultrasonic module development

La generación de imágenes por medio del ultrasonido, del interior de cuerpos opacos a la luz visible y en particular del cuerpo humano, es una técnica de diagnóstico médico e industrial ampliamente aceptada y de aplicación frecuente, que amplía su gama de aplicaciones en la medida que mejoran la velocidad y calidad de los sistemas de generación y recepción de ultrasonido, los algoritmos de procesamiento de señales, la investigación en el campo del ultrasonido y la interpretación de imágenes así como la calidad y precisión de los transductores utilizados. Este proyecto tiene como meta iniciar esta área en la UNLaM, investigando las características y desarrollando un sistema excitador pulsado de ultrasonidos y la electrónica de recepción, adicionando la transferencia de datos registrados a una computadora para su análisis, filtrado, conformado y armado de la imagen. En esta etapa se implementa y analiza un sistema de 8 canales de emisión e igual cantidad para la recepción, para acoplar a un transductor piezoeléctrico del mismo número de elementos. La metodología empleada consiste en utilizar módulos de evaluación de circuitos integrados comerciales para las etapas disponibles y completar los elementos faltantes con diseños propios, con el objeto de acelerar el aprendizaje de esta tecnología.Fil: Gwirc, Sergio Néstor. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial; Argentina.Fil: Márquez, Marcelo Antonio. Universidad Nacional de La Matanza; Argentina.Fil: Mariño, Néstor R. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial; Argentina.Fil: Pascoli, Horacio J. Universidad Nacional de La Matanza; Argentina.Fil: Fernández, Nicolás Gonzalo. Universidad Nacional de La Matanza; Argentina

Desarrollo de módulo emisor/receptor ultrasónico multicanal = Emitter-receiver multichannel ultrasonic module development

La generación de imágenes por medio del ultrasonido, del interior de cuerpos opacos a la luz visible y en particular del cuerpo humano, es una técnica de diagnóstico médico e industrial ampliamente aceptada y de aplicación frecuente, que amplía su gama de aplicaciones en la medida que mejoran la velocidad y calidad de los sistemas de generación y recepción de ultrasonido, los algoritmos de procesamiento de señales, la investigación en el campo del ultrasonido y la interpretación de imágenes así como la calidad y precisión de los transductores utilizados. Este proyecto tiene como meta iniciar esta área en la UNLaM, investigando las características y desarrollando un sistema excitador pulsado de ultrasonidos y la electrónica de recepción, adicionando la transferencia de datos registrados a una computadora para su análisis, filtrado, conformado y armado de la imagen. En esta etapa se implementa y analiza un sistema de 8 canales de emisión e igual cantidad para la recepción, para acoplar a un transductor piezoeléctrico del mismo número de elementos. La metodología empleada consiste en utilizar módulos de evaluación de circuitos integrados comerciales para las etapas disponibles y completar los elementos faltantes con diseños propios, con el objeto de acelerar el aprendizaje de esta tecnología.Fil: Gwirc, Sergio Néstor. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI); ArgentinaFil: Márquez, Marcelo Antonio. Universidad de San Martín (UNSaM); ArgentinaFil: Mariño, Néstor R. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI); ArgentinaFil: Pascoli, Horacio J. Universidad de San Martín (UNSaM); ArgentinaFil: Fernández, Nicolás G. Universidad de San Martín (UNSaM); Argentin

Design, development and field evaluation of a Spanish into sign language translation system

This paper describes the design, development and field evaluation of a machine translation system from Spanish to Spanish Sign Language (LSE: Lengua de Signos Española). The developed system focuses on helping Deaf people when they want to renew their Driver’s License. The system is made up of a speech recognizer (for decoding the spoken utterance into a word sequence), a natural language translator (for converting a word sequence into a sequence of signs belonging to the sign language), and a 3D avatar animation module (for playing back the signs). For the natural language translator, three technological approaches have been implemented and evaluated: an example-based strategy, a rule-based translation method and a statistical translator. For the final version, the implemented language translator combines all the alternatives into a hierarchical structure. This paper includes a detailed description of the field evaluation. This evaluation was carried out in the Local Traffic Office in Toledo involving real government employees and Deaf people. The evaluation includes objective measurements from the system and subjective information from questionnaires. The paper details the main problems found and a discussion on how to solve them (some of them specific for LSE)

Deep-sequencing reveals broad subtype-specific HCV resistance mutations associated with treatment failure

A percentage of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients fail direct acting antiviral (DAA)-based treatment regimens, often because of drug resistance-associated substitutions (RAS). The aim of this study was to characterize the resistance profile of a large cohort of patients failing DAA-based treatments, and investigate the relationship between HCV subtype and failure, as an aid to optimizing management of these patients. A new, standardized HCV-RAS testing protocol based on deep sequencing was designed and applied to 220 previously subtyped samples from patients failing DAA treatment, collected in 39 Spanish hospitals. The majority had received DAA-based interferon (IFN) a-free regimens; 79% had failed sofosbuvir-containing therapy. Genomic regions encoding the nonstructural protein (NS) 3, NS5A, and NS5B (DAA target regions) were analyzed using subtype-specific primers. Viral subtype distribution was as follows: genotype (G) 1, 62.7%; G3a, 21.4%; G4d, 12.3%; G2, 1.8%; and mixed infections 1.8%. Overall, 88.6% of patients carried at least 1 RAS, and 19% carried RAS at frequencies below 20% in the mutant spectrum. There were no differences in RAS selection between treatments with and without ribavirin. Regardless of the treatment received, each HCV subtype showed specific types of RAS. Of note, no RAS were detected in the target proteins of 18.6% of patients failing treatment, and 30.4% of patients had RAS in proteins that were not targets of the inhibitors they received. HCV patients failing DAA therapy showed a high diversity of RAS. Ribavirin use did not influence the type or number of RAS at failure. The subtype-specific pattern of RAS emergence underscores the importance of accurate HCV subtyping. The frequency of “extra-target” RAS suggests the need for RAS screening in all three DAA target regions

Evidence for Divergent Evolution of Growth Temperature Preference in Sympatric Saccharomyces Species

The genus Saccharomyces currently includes eight species in addition to the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, most of which can be consistently isolated from tree bark and soil. We recently found sympatric pairs of Saccharomyces species, composed of one cryotolerant and one thermotolerant species in oak bark samples of various geographic origins. In order to contribute to explain the occurrence in sympatry of Saccharomyces species, we screened Saccharomyces genomic data for protein divergence that might be correlated to distinct growth temperature preferences of the species, using the dN/dS ratio as a measure of protein evolution rates and pair-wise species comparisons. In addition to proteins previously implicated in growth at suboptimal temperatures, we found that glycolytic enzymes were among the proteins exhibiting higher than expected divergence when one cryotolerant and one thermotolerant species are compared. By measuring glycolytic fluxes and glycolytic enzymatic activities in different species and at different temperatures, we subsequently show that the unusual divergence of glycolytic genes may be related to divergent evolution of the glycolytic pathway aligning its performance to the growth temperature profiles of the different species. In general, our results support the view that growth temperature preference is a trait that may have undergone divergent selection in the course of ecological speciation in Saccharomyces

Four Dimensions of Journalistic Convergence: A preliminary approach to current media trends at Spain

Convergence is a very polysemous concept that has been used to describe various trends in journalism that have something in common: the blurring of the limits between different media, professional skills and roles. This paper proposes to analytically structure convergence into four dimensions: integrated production, multiskilled professionals, multiplatform delivery and active audience. This analytical grid can help in exploring convergence avoiding deterministic assumptions and allowing to map its development in different media companies as an open process with diverse outcomes. A sample of 58 Spanish cases is studied using the conceptual framework. Multiplatform delivery is the most popular convergence strategy, and in any given dimension developments tend not to radically change established professional routines and values. Integration and multiskilling dimensions seem to be closely related and mainly developed in local and regional media with small staffs. Delivery and audience strategies are more complex in national media

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

4to. Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad. Memoria académica

Este volumen acoge la memoria académica de la Cuarta edición del Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad, CITIS 2017, desarrollado entre el 29 de noviembre y el 1 de diciembre de 2017 y organizado por la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS) en su sede de Guayaquil. El Congreso ofreció un espacio para la presentación, difusión e intercambio de importantes investigaciones nacionales e internacionales ante la comunidad universitaria que se dio cita en el encuentro. El uso de herramientas tecnológicas para la gestión de los trabajos de investigación como la plataforma Open Conference Systems y la web de presentación del Congreso http://citis.blog.ups.edu.ec/, hicieron de CITIS 2017 un verdadero referente entre los congresos que se desarrollaron en el país. La preocupación de nuestra Universidad, de presentar espacios que ayuden a generar nuevos y mejores cambios en la dimensión humana y social de nuestro entorno, hace que se persiga en cada edición del evento la presentación de trabajos con calidad creciente en cuanto a su producción científica. Quienes estuvimos al frente de la organización, dejamos plasmado en estas memorias académicas el intenso y prolífico trabajo de los días de realización del Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad al alcance de todos y todas

The Helicobacter pylori Genome Project : insights into H. pylori population structure from analysis of a worldwide collection of complete genomes

Helicobacter pylori, a dominant member of the gastric microbiota, shares co-evolutionary history with humans. This has led to the development of genetically distinct H. pylori subpopulations associated with the geographic origin of the host and with differential gastric disease risk. Here, we provide insights into H. pylori population structure as a part of the Helicobacter pylori Genome Project (HpGP), a multi-disciplinary initiative aimed at elucidating H. pylori pathogenesis and identifying new therapeutic targets. We collected 1011 well-characterized clinical strains from 50 countries and generated high-quality genome sequences. We analysed core genome diversity and population structure of the HpGP dataset and 255 worldwide reference genomes to outline the ancestral contribution to Eurasian, African, and American populations. We found evidence of substantial contribution of population hpNorthAsia and subpopulation hspUral in Northern European H. pylori. The genomes of H. pylori isolated from northern and southern Indigenous Americans differed in that bacteria isolated in northern Indigenous communities were more similar to North Asian H. pylori while the southern had higher relatedness to hpEastAsia. Notably, we also found a highly clonal yet geographically dispersed North American subpopulation, which is negative for the cag pathogenicity island, and present in 7% of sequenced US genomes. We expect the HpGP dataset and the corresponding strains to become a major asset for H. pylori genomics