A Study on the Impacts of Slot Types and Training Data on Joint Natural Language Understanding in a Spanish Medication Management Assistant Scenario

This study evaluates the impacts of slot tagging and training data length on joint natural language understanding (NLU) models for medication management scenarios using chatbots in Spanish. In this study, we define the intents (purposes of the sentences) for medication management scenarios and two types of slot tags. For training the model, we generated four datasets, combining long/short sentences with long/short slots, while for testing, we collect the data from real interactions of users with a chatbot. For the comparative analysis, we chose six joint NLU models (SlotRefine, stack-propagation framework, SF-ID network, capsule-NLU, slot-gated modeling, and a joint SLU-LM model) from the literature. The results show that the best performance (with a sentence-level semantic accuracy of 68.6%, an F1-score of 76.4% for slot filling, and an accuracy of 79.3% for intent detection) is achieved using short sentences and short slots. Our results suggest that joint NLU models trained with short slots yield better results than those trained with long slots for the slot filling task. The results also indicate that short slots could be a better choice for the dialog system because of their simplicity. Importantly, the work demonstrates that the performance of the joint NLU models can be improved by selecting the correct slot configuration according to the usage scenario. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Glyconanoparticles for colorimetric bioassays

Carbohydrate molecules are involved in many of the cellular processes that are important for life. By combining the specific analyte targeting of carbohydrates with the multivalent structure and change of solution colour as a consequence of plasmonic interactions with the aggregation of metal nanoparticles, glyconanoparticles have been used extensively for the development of bioanalytical assays. The noble metals used to create the nanocore, the methodologies used to assemble the carbohydrates on the nanoparticle surface, the carbohydrate chosen for each specific target, the length of the tether that separates the carbohydrate from the nanocore and the density of carbohydrates on the surface all impact on the structural formation of metal based glyconanoparticles. This tutorial review highlights these key components, which directly impact on the selectivity and sensitivity of the developed bioassay, for the colorimetric detection of lectins, toxins and viruses

Experiencias de aplicación de la simulación empleando software libre y gratuito en la enseñanza de las ingenierías de la rama industrial

[ES] En este trabajo se presentan las experiencias de utilización de software libre y gratuito llevadas a cabo por el Equipo de Innovación y Calidad Educativa ASEI (Aplicación de la Simulación en la Enseñanza de la Ingeniería) en asignaturas de las áreas de Ingeniería Química, Nuclear y Estadística que requieren la utilización de software de cálculo y herramientas de simulación. El software libre puede ser utilizado como una herramienta en metodologías docentes basadas en el uso de la simulación en el aula de teoría o bien como una forma de disminuir los costes en la enseñanza y aportar nuevos valores. Adecuadamente empleadas, las metodologías basadas en el uso de programas de simulación pueden estimular la capacidad de autoaprendizaje del alumno. En esta comunicación se muestran ejemplos del amplio abanico de aplicaciones de software que se pueden utilizar sin representar coste para la Universidad y posteriormente para la empresa.Santafé Moros, MA.; Gozálvez-Zafrilla, JM.; Navarro-Laboulais, J.; Cardona, SC.; Miró Herrero, R.; García-Díaz, JC. (2014). Experiencias de aplicación de la simulación empleando software libre y gratuito en la enseñanza de las ingenierías de la rama industrial. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 324-342. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/167124S32434

The sound of geological targets on Mars from the absolute intensity of laser-induced sparks shock waves

Inspection of geological material is one of the main goals of the Perseverance rover during its journey across the landscape of the Jezero crater in Mars. NASA's rover integrates SuperCam, an instrument capable of performing standoff characterization of samples using a variety of techniques. Among those tools, SuperCam can perform laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) studies to elucidate the chemical composition of the targets of interest. Data from optical spectroscopy can be supplemented by simultaneously-produced laser-produced plasma acoustics in order to expand the information acquired from the probed rocks thanks to the SuperCam's microphone (MIC) as it can be synchronized with the LIBS laser. Herein, we report cover results from LIBS and MIC during Perseverance's first 380 sols on the Martian surface. We study the correlation between both recorded signals, considering the main intrasample and environmental sources of variation for each technique, to understand their behavior and how they can be interpreted together towards complimenting LIBS with acoustics. We find that louder and more stable acoustic signals are recorded from rock with compact surfaces, i.e., low presence loose particulate material, and harder mineral phases in their composition. Reported results constitute the first description of the evolution of the intensity in the time domain of shockwaves from laser-produced plasmas on geological targets recorded in Mars. These signals are expected contain physicochemical signatures pertaining to the inspected sampling positions. As the dependence of the acoustic signal recorded on the sample composition, provided by LIBS, is unveiled, the sound from sparks become a powerful tool for the identification of mineral phases with similar optical emission spectra.Many people helped with this project in addition to the co-authors, including hardware and operation teams, and we are most grateful for their support. This project was supported in the USA by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and in France is conducted under the authority of CNES. Research funded by projects UMA18-FEDERJA-272 from Junta de Andalucía and PID2020-119185GB-I00 from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, of Spain. P.P. is grateful to the European Union’s Next Generation EU (NGEU) plan and the Spanish Ministerio de Universidades for his Margarita Salas fellowship under the program ′′Ayudas para la Recualificacion del Sistema Universitario Español′′. RCW was funded by JPL contract 1681089. A.U was funded by NASA Mars 2020 Participating Scientist program 80NSSC21K0330. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBU

Health Services Utilization, Work Absenteeism and Costs of Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 in Spain: A Multicenter-Longitudinal Study

Background: The aim of this study was to estimate healthcare resource utilization, work absenteeism and cost per patient with pandemic influenza (H1N1)2009, from its beginning to March 2010, in Spain. We also estimated the economic impact on healthcare services. Methods and Findings: Longitudinal, descriptive,multicenter study of in- and outpatients with confirmed diagnosis of influenza A (H1N1) in Spain. Temporal distribution of cases was comparable to that in Spain. Information of healthcare and social resources used from one week before admission (inpatient) or index-medical visit (outpatient) until recovery was gathered. Unit cost was imputed to utilization frequency for the monetary valuation of use. Mean cost per patient was calculated. A sensitivity analysis was conducted, and variables correlated with cost per patient were identified. Economic impact on the healthcare system was estimated using healthcare costs per patient and both, the reported number of confirmed and clinical cases in Spain. 172 inpatients and 224 outpatients were included. Less than 10% were over 65 years old and more than 50% had previous comorbidities. 12.8% of inpatients were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. Mean length of hospital stay of patients not requiring critical care was 5 days (SD =4.4). All working-inpatients and 91.7% working-outpatients went on sick leave. On average, work absenteeism was 30.5 days (SD=20.7) for the first ones and 9 days (SD= 6.3) for the latest. Caregivers of 21.7% of inpatients and 8.5% of outpatients also had work absenteeism during 10.7 and 4.1 days on average respectively. Mean cost was J6,236/inpatient (CI95%=1,384-14,623) and J940/outpatient (CI95% =66-3,064). The healthcare economic burden of patients with confirmed influenza was J144,773,577 (IC95% 13,753,043-383,467,535). More than 86% of expenditures were a result of outpatients" utilization. Conclusion: Cost per H1N1-patient did not defer much from seasonal influenza estimates. Hospitalizations and work absenteeism represented the highest cost per patient

HE-LHC: The High-Energy Large Hadron Collider – Future Circular Collider Conceptual Design Report Volume 4

In response to the 2013 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (EPPSU), the Future Circular Collider (FCC) study was launched as a world-wide international collaboration hosted by CERN. The FCC study covered an energy-frontier hadron collider (FCC-hh), a highest-luminosity high-energy lepton collider (FCC-ee), the corresponding 100 km tunnel infrastructure, as well as the physics opportunities of these two colliders, and a high-energy LHC, based on FCC-hh technology. This document constitutes the third volume of the FCC Conceptual Design Report, devoted to the hadron collider FCC-hh. It summarizes the FCC-hh physics discovery opportunities, presents the FCC-hh accelerator design, performance reach, and staged operation plan, discusses the underlying technologies, the civil engineering and technical infrastructure, and also sketches a possible implementation. Combining ingredients from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the high-luminosity LHC upgrade and adding novel technologies and approaches, the FCC-hh design aims at significantly extending the energy frontier to 100 TeV. Its unprecedented centre-of-mass collision energy will make the FCC-hh a unique instrument to explore physics beyond the Standard Model, offering great direct sensitivity to new physics and discoveries

Uncertainty quantification and global sensitivity analysis of continuous distillation considering the interaction of parameter uncertainty with feed variability

[EN] In this work, uncertainty and sensitivity analyses were applied to study the joint effects of model parameter uncertainty and feed variability on the response of a computational code for methanol-water continuous distillation. First, model parameter uncertainty (liquid-vapour equilibrium (VLE), enthalpy and tray efficiency) was characterised using existing experimental data. Afterwards, three tower configurations working at two operational modes (fixed product composition and fixed operation conditions) were studied at three feed variability levels. Morris analysis revealed the high importance of the VLE and efficiency-related factors. Sobol sensitivity analysis determined with more precision the sensitivity of the response to the parameters and detected non-linear effects and interactions. The Monte Carlo propagation method allowed obtaining the uncertainty margins as a function of feed variability. The results showed high impact of the model parameter uncertainty and encourage the use of the methods shown to obtain robust designs and quantify simulation accuracy.Gozálvez-Zafrilla, JM.; García-Díaz, JC.; Santafé Moros, MA. (2021). Uncertainty quantification and global sensitivity analysis of continuous distillation considering the interaction of parameter uncertainty with feed variability. Chemical Engineering Science. 235:1-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2021.116509S11723

Introducing sustainability in a Software Engineering curriculum through Requirements Engineering

Congreso Universitario de Innovación Educativa En las Enseñanzas Técnicas, CUIEET (26º. 2018. Gijón