Emerging Technologies for Urban Traffic Management

Nowadays, the number of vehicles on the road and the need of transporting people grow fast. Road transportation has become the backbone of industrialized countries. Nevertheless, the road network system in cities is not sufficient to cope with the current demands due to the size of roads available. Building additional or extending existing roads do not solve the traffic congestion problem due to the high costs and the environmental and geographical limitations. As a consequence, the modern society is facing more traffic jams, higher fuel bills and high levels of CO2 emissions

In the quest of specific-domain ontology components for the semantic web

This paper describes an approach we have been using to identify specific-domain ontology components by using Self-Organizing Maps. These components are clustered together in a natural way according to their similarity. The knowledge maps, as we call them, show colored regions containing knowledge components that may be used to populate an specific-domain ontology. Later, these ontology may be used by software agents to carry out basic reasoning task on our behalf. In particular, we deal with the issue of not constructing the ontology from scratch, our approach helps us to speed up the ontology creation process

A gearbox model for processing large volumes of data by using pipeline systems encapsulated into virtual containers

Software pipelines enable organizations to chain applications for adding value to contents (e.g., confidentially, reliability, and integrity) before either sharing them with partners or sending them to the cloud. However, the pipeline components add overhead when processing large volumes of data, which can become critical in real-world scenarios. This paper presents a gearbox model for processing large volumes of data by using pipeline systems encapsulated into virtual containers. In this model, the gears represent applications, whereas gearboxes represent software pipelines. This model was implemented as a collaborative system that automatically performs Gear up (by using parallel patterns) and/or Gear down (by using in-memory storage) until all gears produce uniform data processing velocities. This model reduces delays and bottlenecks produced by the heterogeneous performance of applications included in software pipelines. The new container tool has been designed to encapsulate both the collaborative system and the software pipelines into a virtual container and deploy it on IT infrastructures. We conducted case studies to evaluate the performance of when processing medical images and PDF repositories. The incorporation of a capsule to a cloud storage service for pre-processing medical imagery was also studied. The experimental evaluation revealed the feasibility of applying the gearbox model to the deployment of software pipelines in real-world scenarios as it can significantly improve the end-user service experience when pre-processing large-scale data in comparison with state-of-the-art solutions such as Sacbe and Parsl.This work has been partially supported by the “Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad ” under the project grant TIN2016-79637-P “Towards Unification of HPC and Big Data paradigms”

Hypochlorite scavenging activity of cerium oxide nanoparticles

In this report, we provide evidence that specific synthesis of cerium oxide nanoparticles can scavenge the hypochlorite anion, which is a strong extracellular oxidant involved in the inflammatory processes. The scavenging process takes place by a surface reaction involving the evolution of oxygen and the reduction of Ce 4+ to Ce 3+This research was supported by the Ministry of Economy of Spain (CTM2013-45775-C2-1-R/2-R) and the Dirección General de Universidades e Investigación de la Comunidad de Madrid, Research Network S2013/MAE-2716

In the quest of specific-domain ontology components for the semantic web

This paper describes an approach we have been using to identify specific-domain ontology components by using Self-Organizing Maps. These components are clustered together in a natural way according to their similarity. The knowledge maps, as we call them, show colored regions containing knowledge components that may be used to populate an specific-domain ontology. Later, these ontology may be used by software agents to carry out basic reasoning task on our behalf. In particular, we deal with the issue of not constructing the ontology from scratch, our approach helps us to speed up the ontology creation process

A novel learning environment for undergraduate mathematics courses

This work presents a scaffolding design of learning objects as auxiliaries in the teaching-learning of mathematics at undergraduate level, through an electronic learning platform developed for using in formal mathematics courses. Its design is based on the results of surveying a group of mathematics teachers in the undergraduate fields of Science and Engineering in Mexico, about different aspects of their teaching practice. This survey is consistent with other national and international studies that highlight a series of problems found in the undergraduate fields of Science and Engineering. Guidelines for the development of this kind of  learning objects were established, which leads to curricular changes that will result in an adequate process of integrating the use of technology in the classroom. An important feature of these objects is flexibility as they are helpful tools in the innovative design process. A grounded model for the creation of teaching materials is proposed, including elements that facilitate their use, and thus, it is concluded that the use of these tools is a factor that can help alleviate some of the learning problems currently present in undergraduate level mathematics courses.&nbsp

Revista de Vertebrados de la Estación Biológica de Doñana

Clave preliminar de las escamas de los peces de agua dulce de España, a nivel de familiaExito reproductor del Buitre leonado (Gyps fulvus) en NavarraAlimentación del Gavilán (Accipiter nisus) en la Isla de TenerifeEl Verdecillo (Serinus serinus): Tendencias en la estación de nidificación, en el tamaño del huevo y en la supervivencia.las batidas como método de censo en especiesde caza mayor: aplicación al caso del Jabalí (Sus scrofa L.) en la provincia de Burgos (Norte de España)La adquisición de madurez sexual en el camaleón común (Chamaeleo chamaeleon)Nuevas citas de Hemidactylus turcicus en la provincia de CáceresLa focha común (Fulica atra) en la isla de Gran Canaria: nueva especie nidificante en el archipiélago CanarioTraslado de huevos en incubación por la urraca (Pica pica)Predación de Falco peregrinus sobre Oryctolagus cuniculusCuatro nuevas especies de aves para Bolivia.Sobre la utilización de nidos de golondrina común abandonados.Parasitismo múltiple del críalo (Clamator glandarius)Predación del topo de rio (Galemys pyrenaicus, Geoffroy 1811) por parte de la lechuza común (Tyto alba, Scopoli 1769)Predación del zorro (Vulpes vulpes) sobre un pollo de buitre leonado (Gyps fulvus).Vulpes vulpes L. criando en una colonia de marmota (Marmota marmota L.) en el pirineo de LéridaObservaciones sobre la incidencia de Rattus (Fischer, 1803) en los cultivos ibéricos de caña de azúcaSituación actual de la jutiita de la tierra Capromys sanfelipensis (Rodentia, Mammalia)Notas sobre la intraducción y expansión de la ardilla común en Sierra Nevada, sureste de EspañaPeer reviewe

Extreme photometric and polarimetric variability of blazar S4 0954+65 at its maximum optical and γ-ray brightness levels

In 2022 the BL Lac object S4 0954+65 underwent a major variability phase, reaching its historical maximum brightness in the optical and γ -ray bands. We present optical photometric and polarimetric data acquired by the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) Collaboration from 2022 April 6 to July 6. Many episodes of unprecedented fast variability were detected, implying an upper limit to the size of the emitting region as low as 10−4 parsec. The WEBT data show rapid variability in both the degree and angle of polarization. We analyse different models to explain the polarization behaviour in the framework of a twisting jet model, which assumes that the long-term trend of the flux is produced by variations in the emitting region viewing angle. All the models can reproduce the average trend of the polarization degree, and can account for its general anticorrelation with the flux, but the dispersion of the data requires the presence of intrinsic mechanisms, such as turbulence, shocks, or magnetic reconnection. The WEBT optical data are compared to γ -ray data from the Fermi satellite. These are analysed with both fixed and adaptive binning procedures. We show that the strong correlation between optical and γ -ray data without measurable delay assumes different slopes in faint and high brightness states, and this is compatible with a scenario where in faint states we mainly see the imprint of the geometrical effects, while in bright states the synchrotron self-Compton process dominates

Pathway and network analysis of more than 2500 whole cancer genomes

The catalog of cancer driver mutations in protein-coding genes has greatly expanded in the past decade. However, non-coding cancer driver mutations are less well-characterized and only a handful of recurrent non-coding mutations, most notably TERT promoter mutations, have been reported. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2658 cancer across 38 tumor types, we perform multi-faceted pathway and network analyses of non-coding mutations across 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumor types compiled by the ICGC/TCGA PCAWG project that was motivated by the success of pathway and network analyses in prioritizing rare mutations in protein-coding genes. While few non-coding genomic elements are recurrently mutated in this cohort, we identify 93 genes harboring non-coding mutations that cluster into several modules of interacting proteins. Among these are promoter mutations associated with reduced mRNA expression in TP53, TLE4, and TCF4. We find that biological processes had variable proportions of coding and non-coding mutations, with chromatin remodeling and proliferation pathways altered primarily by coding mutations, while developmental pathways, including Wnt and Notch, altered by both coding and non-coding mutations. RNA splicing is primarily altered by non-coding mutations in this cohort, and samples containing non-coding mutations in well-known RNA splicing factors exhibit similar gene expression signatures as samples with coding mutations in these genes. These analyses contribute a new repertoire of possible cancer genes and mechanisms that are altered by non-coding mutations and offer insights into additional cancer vulnerabilities that can be investigated for potential therapeutic treatments