ESTIMATING THE SYSTEM ORDER BY SUBSPACE METHODS

This paper discusses how to determine the order of a state-space model. To do so, we start by revising existing approaches and find in them three basic shortcomings: i) some of them have a poor performance in short samples, ii) most of them are not robust and iii) none of them can accommodate seasonality. We tackle the first two issues by proposing new and refined criteria. The third issue is dealt with by decomposing the system into regular and seasonal sub-systems. The performance of all the procedures considered is analyzed through Monte Carlo simulations.

La Conservación del Patrimonio en la Obra Civil al inicio del Siglo XXI y sus riesgos

Una vez que la humanidad ha construido un ingente patrimonio, tanto arquitectónico como en obra civil, uno de los principales problemas que enfrenta la ingeniería para el siglo que se inicia es el de su conservación! Todas las estructuras tienden a deteriorarse con el tiempo como consecuencia de la adaptación de los materiales que las componen al entorno en que se encuentran ubicadas, y de su disposición. El mantenimiento en uso de dichas estructuras el mayor tiempo posible genera importantes costes que es preciso reducir con estrategias y técnicas racionales. Dentro de todas ellas, este documento, sin embargo, solo se centrará en aquellas que, por testimoniar nuestra memoria como colectivo, constituyen elementos de valor histórico. Para examinar los principales problemas de conservación que afectan al patrimonio histórico en obra civil, se dividirán formalmente en sus aspectos criteriológicos o doctrinales, estratégicos o metodológicos, y específicamente técnicos

Alcazaba de Mérida: Detalles de la intervención

La muralla de la Alcazaba de Mérida se construyó con granito local extraído de canteras romanas próximas. Las principales patologías se han producido por la acción del agua mediante el lavado de los finos del relleno lo que ha provocado el derrumbe parcial de algunos lienzos de los finos que ha creado sales que atacaban la piedra y arenizaban los sillares

Detectors could spot plagiarism in research proposals

Having all been involved in proposal evaluation, we believe the studies indicate that a text matching analysis of research proposals could reduce plagiarism in subsequent publications. For instance, when European Commission evaluators have met in the past to evaluate research proposals, they received printed copies which had to be returned before the panel members left, and had no computer access during deliberations. A plagiarism detector using text-mining methods could be used instead of the current security measures. Such a system could, in principle, detect similarities to previous submissions and uncited sources using advanced document segmentation. Only official agencies have access to confidential proposals and the funds to experiment with automated plagiarism-detectors. It is important that they should investigate these approaches to reducing the possibility of scientific misconduct

Estradiol activates PI3K/Akt/GSK3 pathway under chronic neurodegenerative conditions triggered by perinatal asphyxia

Perinatal asphyxia (PA) remains as one of the most important causes of short-term mortality, psychiatric and neurological disorders in children, without an effective treatment. In previous studies we have observed that the expression of different neurodegenerative markers increases in CA1 hippocampal area of 4-months-old male rats born by cesarean section and exposed for 19 min to PA. We have also shown that a late treatment with 17β estradiol (daily dose of 250 μg/kg for 3 days) was able to revert the brain alterations observed in those animals. Based on these previous results, the main aim of the present study was to explore the mechanism by which the estrogenic treatment is involved in the reversion of the chronic neurodegenerative conditions induced by PA. We demonstrated that estradiol treatment of adult PA exposed animals induced an increase in estrogen receptor (ER) a and insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-1R) protein levels, an activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt/glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta/β-catenin signaling pathway and an increase in Bcl-2/Bax ratio in the hippocampus in comparison to PA exposed animals treated with vehicle. Taking together, our data suggest that the interaction between ERa and IGF-IR, with the subsequent downstream activation, underlies the beneficial effects of estradiol observed in late treatment of PA.Fil: Saraceno, Gustavo Ezequiel. Universite de Bordeaux; Francia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Cardiológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Cardiológicas; ArgentinaFil: Bellini, Maria Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner". Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner"; ArgentinaFil: Garcia Segura, Luis Miguel. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; España. Instituto de Salud Carlos III; EspañaFil: Capani, Francisco. Universidad Autónoma de Chile; Chile. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Cardiológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Cardiológicas; Argentin

A comparative analysis between two statistical deviation–based consensus measures in group decision making problems

The mean absolute deviation and the standard deviation, two statistical measures commonly used in quantifying variability, may become an interesting tool when defining consensus measures. Two consensus indexes which obtain the level of consensus in some problems of Group Decision Making are introduced in this paper by expanding the aforementioned statistical concepts. A comparative analysis reveals that the levels of consensus derived from these indexes are close to those obtained employing distance functions when a fuzzy preference relations frame is considered, so they turn out to be a useful tool in this context. In addition, these indexes are different from each other and with the distance functions considered. Thus, they are applicable tools in the calculation of consensus in our context and are different from those commonly used

Genetic Dissection of the Seminal Root System Architecture in Mediterranean Durum Wheat Landraces by Genome-Wide Association Study

Roots are crucial for adaptation to drought stress. However, phenotyping root systems is a difficult and time-consuming task due to the special feature of the traits in the process of being analyzed. Correlations between root system architecture (RSA) at the early stages of development and in adult plants have been reported. In this study, the seminal RSA was analysed on a collection of 160 durum wheat landraces from 21 Mediterranean countries and 18 modern cultivars. The landraces showed large variability in RSA, and differences in root traits were found between previously identified genetic subpopulations. Landraces from the eastern Mediterranean region, which is the driest and warmest within the Mediterranean Basin, showed the largest seminal root size in terms of root length, surface, and volume and the widest root angle, whereas landraces from eastern Balkan countries showed the lowest values. Correlations were found between RSA and yield-related traits in a very dry environment. The identification of molecular markers linked to the traits of interest detected 233 marker-trait associations for 10 RSA traits and grouped them in 82 genome regions named marker-train association quantitative trait loci (MTA-QTLs). Our results support the use of ancient local germplasm to widen the genetic background for root traits in breeding programs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Testicular fusocellular rhabdomyosarcoma as a metastasis of elbow sclerosing rhabdomyosarcoma: A clinicopathologic, immunohistochemical and molecular study of one case

Sclerosing rhabdomyosarcoma (SRMS) is an infrequent variant of rhabdomyosarcoma characterized by extensive intercellular hyaline fibrosis. We report the case of a 37 year-old male with a 9 × 6 cm SRMS on the right elbow. Histologically, the tumor showed an abundant extracellular hyaline matrix with extratumoral vascular emboli and microscopic foci of fusocellular embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (FRMS) separated by a fibrotic band from the sclerosing areas. One year later the patient presented with a right intratesticular tumor of 1.2 × 0.8 cm, which was reported as pure FRMS. Immunohistochemically, SRMS was positive only for MyoD1 and Vimentin and negative for Myogenin and Desmin. Both the elbow emboli with the extratumoral foci of FRMS and the intratesticular tumor were positive for Myogenin, MyoD1, Vimentin and Desmin. Using fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), the SRMS and the FRMS tumor cells of the elbow and the FRMS tumor cells of the testis were found to be negative for FOXO1A translocation in chromosome 13. PCR chimeric transcriptional products PAX3-FKHR and PAX7-FKHR were not found. Six months following testicular resection, the patient died of multiple metastases in the mediastinum, lung and right thigh