Time matters: genetic composition and evaluation of effective population size in temperate coastal fish species

Extensive knowledge on the genetic characterization of marine organisms has been assembled, mainly concerning the spatial distribution and structuring of populations. Temporal monitoring assesses not only the stability in genetic composition but also its trajectory over time, providing critical information for the accurate forecast of changes in genetic diversity of marine populations, particularly important for both fisheries and endangered species management. We assessed fluctuations in genetic composition among different sampling periods in the western Portuguese shore in three fish species.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Analysis of odd-mass technetium isotopes with the Alaga model

The structure of the odd-mass technetium isotopes is analyzed with the Alaga model which involves the coupling of a three-particle valence-shell cluster to the quadrupole vibrational field. The calculated energy-level sequence and decay properties are consistent with the general trend of the available experimental information although no attempt of the best fit to individual properties was pursued.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

Robobo SmartCity: An Autonomous Driving Model for Computational Intelligence Learning through Educational Robotics

© 2023 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.[Abstract]: This paper presents the Robobo SmartCity model, an educational resource to introduce students in Computational Intelligence (CI) topics using educational robotics as the core learning technology. Robobo SmartCity allows educators to train learners in Artificial Intelligence (AI) fundamentals from a feasible and practical perspective, following the recommendations of digital education plans to introduce AI at all educational levels. This resource is based on the Robobo educational robot and an autonomous driving setup. It is made up of a city mockup, simulation models, and programming libraries adapted to the students' skill level. In it, students can be trained in CI topics that support robot autonomy, as computer vision, machine learning, or human-robot interaction, while developing solutions in the motivating and challenging scope of autonomous driving. The main details of this open resource are provided with a set of possible challenges to be faced in it. They are organized in terms of the educational level and students’ skills. The resource has been mainly tested with secondary and high school students, obtaining successful learning outcomes, presented here to inspire other teachers in taking advantage of this learning technology in their classes.Xunta de Galicia; ED431G 2019/01This work has been partially funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union through grant number 2019-1-ES01-KA201-065742, and the Centro de Investigación de Galicia "CITIC", funded by Xunta de Galicia and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund- Galicia 2014-2020 Program), by grant ED431G 2019/01. In addition, the “Programa de ayudas a la etapa predoctoral” from Xunta de Galicia (Consellería de Cultura, Educación y Universidad) supported this work through Sara Guerreiro’s grant

Stacked Denoising Autoencoders and Transfer Learning for Immunogold Particles Detection and Recognition

In this paper we present a system for the detection of immunogold particles and a Transfer Learning (TL) framework for the recognition of these immunogold particles. Immunogold particles are part of a high-magnification method for the selective localization of biological molecules at the subcellular level only visible through Electron Microscopy. The number of immunogold particles in the cell walls allows the assessment of the differences in their compositions providing a tool to analise the quality of different plants. For its quantization one requires a laborious manual labeling (or annotation) of images containing hundreds of particles. The system that is proposed in this paper can leverage significantly the burden of this manual task. For particle detection we use a LoG filter coupled with a SDA. In order to improve the recognition, we also study the applicability of TL settings for immunogold recognition. TL reuses the learning model of a source problem on other datasets (target problems) containing particles of different sizes. The proposed system was developed to solve a particular problem on maize cells, namely to determine the composition of cell wall ingrowths in endosperm transfer cells. This novel dataset as well as the code for reproducing our experiments is made publicly available. We determined that the LoG detector alone attained more than 84\% of accuracy with the F-measure. Developing immunogold recognition with TL also provided superior performance when compared with the baseline models augmenting the accuracy rates by 10\%

Beta interferon restricts the inflammatory potential of CD4+ cells through the boost of the Th2 phenotype, the inhibition of Th17 response and the prevalence of naturally occurring T regulatory cells

Beta-interferon (IFN-beta) is a valuable therapy for multiple sclerosis (MS) which is also effective in the animal model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). However, the accurate mechanisms to explain its anti-inflammatory activity in the disease are not fully revealed. Available data support that T lymphocytes are among the main cell targets of IFN-beta. We have found that in vitro anti-CD3 stimulation of uncommitted murine naïve T cells under IFN-beta treatment results in skewing the T cell differentiation process towards the T2 phenotype, in a prevention from apoptosis of naturally occurring CD4+ T regulatory cells (nTreg) in correlation with an increase in Bcl-XL expression, and in a decrease of IL-17 expression. Elimination of nTreg from the primary culture of naïve CD4+ cells abolished the down-regulation of IL-17 driven by IFN-beta, what suggests the interaction between Th17 and nTreg subsets. Experiments in EAE induced in SJL mice, showed in vivo evidence for the accumulation of spleen CD4+CD25+GITR+Foxp3+ cells after IFN-beta treatment. On the other hand, treated animals showed a striking decrease of IL-17 expression by peripheral CD4+ cells (Th17) and MBP-specific spinal cord cells. Both the in vivo and in vitro results point out new targets through which IFN-beta could exert its therapeutic action.This work was supported by grants from Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (SAF2003-00189), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FIS-PI061012) and MM Foundation (MPY-1156/07). BB was supported by a grant from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, and FMMS was supported by a grant from MM Foundation.S

AI curriculum for european high schools: an embedded intelligence approach

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUGXunta de Galicia ; ED431G 2019/0

The person within: parents and professionals’ views about the practitioner’s role in a parenting program

Practitioners’ characteristics and actions influence the implementation of evidence-based programs, but little is known about the practitioner’s role in the implementation of parent-based programs. The present qualitative study is the first to explore the perceptions of parents and professionals regarding the practitioners’ characteristics and actions which influence the implementation of a parent program directed at children’s behavior problems. Using thematic analysis, data were examined from eight focus groups comprising 24 parents and 19 practitioners who have participated in the Incredible Years parent group program (IYPP). The analysis identified three groups of practitioners’ characteristics perceived to impact the implementation of the IYPP: inferred interpersonal characteristics (genuine interest; empathy and warmth; positive regard; humbleness); inferred intrapersonal characteristics (objectivity; flexibility; well-being; reflexiveness) and objective characteristics (similar age; being a parent; clinical professional background; professional experience with children and the IYPP). These personal characteristics are perceived as serving to underpin practitioners’ actions, and an integrated framework model is proposed where specific practitioners’ actions are understood in relation to personal characteristics. Inferred characteristics are perceived as determinants in the intervention process while objective characteristics are seen as facilitators of parent engagement in the earliest stages of intervention. Finally, most of the characteristics and actions perceived as relevant in this study are contemplated in the IYPP model; however, the practitioners’ intrapersonal well-being, self-reflexiveness and genuineness emerged as characteristics which may merit further consideration. The results from this study suggest that in the IYPP the person of the practitioner may indeed be worthy of more critical examination.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Metabolically Healthy Profile Is a Transient Stage When Exercise and Diet Are Not Supervised: Long-Term Effects in the EXERDIET-HTA Study

Metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO) is a regular state in people with primary hypertension (HTN), obesity, and who are physically inactive. To achieve and maintain a metabolically healthy overweight/obese (MHO) state should be a main treatment goal. The aims of the study were (1) to determine differences in metabolic profiles of overweight/obese, physically inactive individuals with HTN following a 16-week (POST) supervised aerobic exercise training (SupExT) intervention with an attentional control (AC) group, and (2) to determine whether the changes observed were maintained following six months (6 M) of unsupervised time. Participants (n = 219) were randomly assigned into AC or SupExT groups. All participants underwent a hypocaloric diet. At POST, all participants received diet and physical activity advice for the following 6 M, with no supervision. All measurements were assessed pre-intervention (PRE), POST, and after 6 M. From PRE to POST, MUO participants became MHO with improved (p < 0.05) total cholesterol (TC, ∆ = −12.1 mg/dL), alanine aminotransferase (∆ = −8.3 U/L), glucose (∆ = −5.5 mg/dL), C-reactive protein (∆ = −1.4 mg/dL), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) compared to unhealthy optimal cut-off values. However, after 6 M, TC, glucose, and SBP returned to unhealthy values (p < 0.05). In a non-physically active population with obesity and HTN, a 16-week SupExT and diet intervention significantly improves cardiometabolic profile from MUO to MHO. However, after 6 M of no supervision, participants returned to MUO. The findings of this study highlight the need for regular, systematic, and supervised diet and exercise programs to avoid subsequent declines in cardiometabolic health.P.C., A.M.A.-B., and I.G.-A. were supported by the Basque Government with predoctoral grants. This study was supported by the University of the Basque Country (EHU14/08, PPGA18/15)

Analysis of Ferroelectric Ceramic Fabricated by Binder Jetting Technology

The M-Lab system from ExOne was used to fabricate 3D structures of BaTiO3 ceramic with applications that include dielectric capacitors, sensors, and integrated circuits. For this project, layer thicknesses of 15 and 30 μm and various percentages of binder saturation were used to fabricate components from powder. An organic binding agent was utilized during the printing process and later burned out at ~600°C prior to sintering. Multiple building parameters and sintering profiles were analyzed and compared in an attempt to obtain dense parts while examining shrinkage percentage variations.Mechanical Engineerin

Contributions to the radiogenic isotopic fingerprint of Tenerife wine from land, sea and air

We present preliminary results of a study to characterise the radiogenic isotopic fingerprint of wines across the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, focussing initially upon Sr. The isotopically juvenile nature of Tenerife rocks supports a hypothesis that all biological material grown on Tenerife should be distinct from most other regions on Earth in terms of Sr isotopes, and especially so from the radiogenic Iberian Peninsula. Pilot data largely support this view, yet we also observe clear evidence for an isotopically evolved component in Tenerife wines. In this contribution, we consider that the unique geography of the Canary Islands may help rationalise these observations. The Canaries are adjacent to the most important atmospheric dust source on Earth, the Saharan Desert, which is largely composed of radiogenic sources of Sr. Along with contributions to the Tenerife terroir from atmospheric dust, we also consider the role that sea spray during storm events may play. Should natural processes fail to explain the patterns we observe, anthropogenic mixing during wine-making using components sourced outside the archipelago is a possibility that must be considered, which has implications for consumer confidence and, by extension, the economy of Tenerife.publishe