Vehicular traffic surveillance and road lane detection using radar interferometry

Speed enforcement on public roadways is an important issue in order to guarantee road security and to reduce the number and seriousness of traffic accidents. Traditionally, this task has been partially solved using radar and/or laser technologies and, more recently, using video-camera based systems. All these systems have significant shortcomings that have yet to be overcome. The main drawback of classical Doppler radar technology is that the velocity measurement fails when several vehicles are in the radars beam. Modern radar systems are able to measure speed and range between vehicle and radar. However, this is not enough to discriminate the lane where the vehicle is driving on. The limitation of several vehicles in the beam is overcome using laser technology. However, laser systems have another important limitation: They cannot measure the speed of several vehicles simultaneously. Novel video-camera systems, based on license plate identification, solve the previous drawbacks, but they have the problem that they can only measure average speed but never top-speed. This paper studies the feasibility of using an interferometric linear frequency modulated continuous wave radar to improve top-speed enforcement on roadways. Two different systems based on down-the-road and across-the-road radar configurations are presented. The main advantage of the proposed solutions is they can simultaneously measure speed, range, and lane of several vehicles, allowing the univocal identification of the offenders. A detailed analysis about the operation and accuracy of these solutions is reported. In addition, the feasibility of the proposed techniques has been demonstrated with simulations and real experiments using a Ka-band interferometric radar developed by our research group

Contribución de los datos genómicos en la definición de la composición racial de bovinos doble propósito

Animal heterosis is key in obtaining more productive animals and better adapted to the tropics. However, inadequate genetic management leads to the obtaining of mosaics of breeds that includes the loss of the productive potential of the herd. The objective of this study was to define the breed composition of dual-purpose crossbred cattle in the piedmont plains, department of Meta-Colombia. A total of 126 crossbred (CRO) individuals from six herds were evaluated by a phenotypic (APP) and a genotypic (GBA) approach. For GBA, the control breeds associated with Bos taurus taurus and Bos taurus indicus were included, for this they were genotyped with a GeneSeek GGP-LD chip of 26K of SNP and analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA) and Bayesian probabilistic assignment of ADMIXTURE. The breed groups generated by APP varied with respect to GBA. Molecular analysis detected seven (k=7) genetic groups in the breed composition of the study animals. The three breeds with the highest participation in the breed composition of crossbred individuals were: Holstein, Gyr, Brahman with 23.4, 21.4, and 21 % respectively, while the remaining, Blanco Orejinegro, Brown Swiss, Normande and Jersey did not exceed 13 %. Unlike APP, the GBA approach effectively allowed the identification of the breed composition of crossbred cattle and provided key information for the development of mating programs that seek to improve productive indicators, and in turn tend to the adaptation of animals, an essential requirement for dual-purpose bovine systems.La heterosis animal es clave en la obtención de animales más productivos y mejor adaptados al trópico. Sin embargo, el inadecuado manejo genético conlleva a la obtención de mosaicos de razas que incluye la pérdida del potencial productivo del hato. El objetivo de este estudio fue definir la composición racial de bovinos mestizos doble propósito en el piedemonte Llanero departamento del Meta-Colombia. Un total de 126 individuos mestizos (MEZ) de seis hatos fueron evaluados por una aproximación fenotípica (APF) y una genotípica (ARG). Para ARG se incluyeron las razas control asociadas a Bos taurus taurus y Bos taurus indicus, para ello se genotiparon con un chip de GeneSeek GGP-LD de 26K de SNP y se analizaron mediante análisis de componentes principales (PCA) y asignación probabilística bayesiana de ADMIXTURE. Las agrupaciones raciales generadas por APF variaron respecto de ARG. El análisis molecular detectó siete (k= 7) grupos genéticos en la composición racial de los animales de estudio. Las tres razas con mayor participación en la composición racial de los individuos mestizos fueron: Holstein, Gyr, Brahman con 23.4, 21.4, y 21 % respectivamente, mientras que las restantes Blanco Orejinegro, Pardo Suizo, Normando y Jersey no superaron el 13 %.  A diferencia de APF, la aproximación ARG permitió de forma efectiva la identificación de la composición racial de bovinos mestizos y suministró información clave en miras de desarrollo de programas de apareamiento que buscan mejorar indicadores productivos, y a su vez propendan por la adaptación de los animales requisito indispensable para los sistemas bovino doble propósito

Comparison between discrete and continuous analysis of facial expressions, elicited by bitter‐tasting beverages in overweight and healthy‐weight individuals

The aim of the present study was to compare the information provided by a discrete and continuous data analysis of two emotions (disgust and joy), elicited by bitter‐tasting beverages (coffee, yerba mate infusion and grapefruit juice) in two groups with different Body Mass Index (BMI): overweight group (25 < BMI < 30), and healthy‐weight control group (18.5 < BMI ≤ 25). Participants (n = 66; 34 females, 32 males) evaluated a total of three consecutive sips of the same beverage (taking one sip every 20 seconds (s) and registering a continuous video for 60s. The Wilcoxon test (continuous analysis) showed some changes generated as the drinks were being consumed. The biggest difference was the expression of disgust for coffee in the high BMI group, at the first sip (0‐10s). It represented 27% compared to 2% in normal BMI. The continuous analysis allowed to observe the periods where the differences were greater (0‐10 and 40‐50s).Fil: Rocha Parra, Diego Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: León Bianchi, Luciana María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Gentico, Fernando. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Garcia Burgos, David. Universidad de Granada; EspañaFil: Zamora, María Clara. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; Argentin

How Does Food Taste in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa?: A Protocol for a Quasi-Experimental, Cross-Sectional Design to Investigate Taste Aversion or Increased Hedonic Valence of Food in Eating Disorders

Background: Despite on-going efforts to better understand dysregulated eating, the olfactory-gustatory deficits and food preferences in eating disorders (ED), and the mechanisms underlying the perception of and responses to food properties in anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) remain largely unknown; both during the course of the illness and compared to healthy populations. It is, therefore, necessary to systematically investigate the gustatory perception and hedonics of taste in patients with AN and BN. To this end, we will examine whether aversions to the taste of high-calorie food is related to the suppression of energy intake in restricting-type AN, and whether an increased hedonic valence of sweet, caloric-dense foods may be part of the mechanisms triggering binge-eating episodes in BN. In addition, the role of cognitions influencing these mechanisms will be examined. Method: In study 1, four mixtures of sweet-fat stimuli will be presented in a sensory two-alternative forced-choice test involving signal detection analysis. In study 2, a full-scale taste reactivity test will be carried out, including psychophysiological and behavioral measures to assess subtle and covert hedonic changes. We will compare the responses of currently-ill AN and BN patients to those who have recovered from AN and BN, and also to those of healthy normal-weight and underweight individuals without any eating disorder pathology. Discussion: If taste response profiles are differentially linked to ED types, then future studies should investigate whether taste responsiveness represents a useful diagnostic measure in the prevention, assessment and treatment of EDs. The expected results on cognitive mechanisms in the top-down processes of food hedonics will complement current models and contribute to the refinement of interventions to change cognitive aspects of taste aversions, to establish functional food preferences and to better manage food cravings associated with binge-eating episodes. No trial registration was required for this protocol, which was approved by the Swiss ethics committee (CER-VD, n° 2016-02150) and the Ethics Review Panel of the University of Luxembourg

Stimulus reward value interacts with training-induced plasticity in inhibitory control

Training inhibitory control, the ability to suppress motor or cognitive processes, not only enhances inhibition processes, but also reduces the perceived value and behaviors toward the stimuli associated with the inhibition goals during the practice. While these findings suggest that inhibitory control training interacts with the aversive and reward systems, the underlying spatio-temporal brain mechanisms remain unclear. We used electrical neuroimaging analyses of event-related potentials to examine the plastic brain modulations induced by training healthy participants to inhibit their responses to rewarding (pleasant chocolate) versus aversive food pictures (unpleasant vegetables) with Go/NoGo tasks. Behaviorally, the training resulted in a larger improvement in the aversive than in the rewarding NoGo stimuli condition, suggesting that reward responses impede inhibitory control learning. The electrophysiological results also revealed an interaction between reward responses and inhibitory control plasticity: we observed different effects of practice on the rewarding vs. aversive NoGo stimuli at 200 ms post-stimulus onset, when the conflicts between automatic response tendency and task demands for response inhibition are processed. Electrical source analyses revealed that this effect was driven by an increase in right orbito-cingulate and a decrease in temporo-parietal activity to the rewarding NoGo stimuli and the reverse pattern to the aversive stimuli. Our collective results provide direct neurophysiological evidence for interactions between stimulus reward value and executive control training, and suggest that changes in the assessment of stimuli with repeated motoric inhibition likely follow from associative learning and behavior-stimulus conflicts reduction mechanisms

RAF1 kinase activity is dispensable for KRAS/p53 mutant lung tumor progression.

We thank Dr. Shiva Malek and her colleagues (Genentech Inc.) for sharing their results with us before publication. We also thank M. San Roman, R. Villar, M.C. Gonzalez, A. Lopez, N. Cabrera, P. Villanueva, J. Condo, O. Dominguez, and S. Ortega for excellent technical support. This work was supported by grants from the European Research Council (ERC-2015-AdG/695566, THERACAN); the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities (RTC-2017-6576-1 and RTI2018094664-B-I00) and the Autonomous Community of Madrid (B2017/BMD-3884 iLUNG-CM) to M.B., as well as by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (RTI2018-094664-B-I00) to M.B. and M.M. M.B. is a recipient of an Endowed Chair from the AXA Research Fund. M.S., P.N., and F.F.-G. were supported by FPU fellowships from the Spanish Ministry of Education. L.E.-B. was a recipient of an FPI fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. S.G.-A. is a recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from the Asociacion Espanola Contra el Cancer (AECC).S

Disentangling the Effect of Valence and Arousal on Judgments Concerning Moral Transgressions

An increasing body of research has investigated the effect of emotions on judgments concerning moral transgressions. Yet, few studies have controlled for arousal levels associated with the emotions. High arousal may affect moral processing by triggering attention to salient features of transgressions, independently of valence. Therefore previously documented differences in effects of negative and positive emotions may have been confounded by differences in arousal. We conducted two studies to shed light on this issue. In Study 1 we developed a questionnaire including vignettes selected on the basis of psychometrical properties (i.e., mean ratings of the actions and variability). This questionnaire was administered to participants in Study 2, after presenting them with selected pictures inducing different valence but equivalent levels of arousal. Negative pictures led to more severe moral judgments than neutral (p = .054, d = 0.60) and positive pictures (p = .002, d = 1.02), for vignettes that were not associated with extreme judgments. In contrast, positive pictures did not reliably affect judgments concerning such vignettes. These findings suggest that the observed effects of emotions cannot be accounted for by an increase in attention linked to the arousal which accompanies these emotion

Next Generation Mashups: Cómo Crear mis Propios Servicios en un Mundo Convergente.

Mashups have become a mainstream of the Web. Recently, several mashup platforms have introduced the usercentric paradigm, thus allowing end-users to create, share and enjoy their own services. However, these platforms still lack the advanced features that the mobile Web is able to support, other than just browsing on the mobile telephone. Advanced location features and the possibility of communicating from anywhere at anytime will leverage new business models thus providing end-users with amazing new services. This paper introduces a platform that merges user-centricity and mobile Web services with a mashup environment, and describes its main features

Multidrug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis treatment regimens and patient outcomes: an individual patient data meta-analysis of 9,153 patients.

Treatment of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is lengthy, toxic, expensive, and has generally poor outcomes. We undertook an individual patient data meta-analysis to assess the impact on outcomes of the type, number, and duration of drugs used to treat MDR-TB