Intermolecular displacement of S-bound L-methionine on platinum(II) by guanosine 5′-monophosphate: Implications for the mechanism of action of anticancer drugs

NMR investigations of the kinetics and thermodynamics of the competitive binding of L-methionine (Met), L-histidine (His), and 5′-monophosphates of guanosine (5′-GMP), adenosine (5′-AMP), thymidine (5′-TMP) and cytidine (5′-CMP) to [Pt(dien)Cl]+ (dien = 1,5-diamino-3-azapentane) in aqueous solution show that 5′-GMP selectively displaces S-bound Met, a finding which has implications for DNA platination by anticancer drugs in vivo

Prototipado rápido de sistemas de procesado de vídeo basados en el VFBC de Xilinx

El presente trabajo desarrolla módulos hardware para el prototipado rápido de sistemas de procesado de vídeo basados en el controlador de memoria para fotogramas de vídeo (VFBC) de Xilinx. Esta implementación permite el almacenamiento de los fotogramas en memoria externa al dispositivo programable, así como su correcto manejo para el diseño de sistemas de procesado espacio-temporales utilizando el flujo de diseño basado en modelos de Xilinx System Generator. Los módulos hardware son los encargados de la configuración y control de las interfaces de escritura y lectura del VFBC, además de la manipulación de las señales de sincronismo de vídeo para la interconexión de periféricos de entrada y salida. El artículo incluye además la descripción de los módulos elaborados así como el análisis de los resultados del empleo de los mismos en el desarrollo de un demostrador de procesado temporal de vídeo utilizando un detector de movimiento simple sobre una placa Spartan-6 SP605 Evaluation Platform.This paper develops hardware modules for rapid prototyping of video processing systems based on the Xilinx video frame buffer controller (VFBC). This implementation allows the storage of video frames in memory external to the programmable device, as well as its proper handle for designing spatio-temporal processing systems using the Xilinx System Generator model-based design flow. The hardware modules are responsible for the configuration and control of writing and reading VFBC interfaces, as well as the manipulation of video synchronization signals for interconnecting input and output peripherals. The article also include the description of the elaborated modules and the analysis of the results of its use for the development of a temporal video processing demonstrator using a simple motion detector on a Spartan-6 SP605 Evaluation Platform board.Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID) PCI D/024124/09, PCI D/030769/10, PCI A1/039607/1

Bioeutectic® ceramics for biomedical application obtained by laser floating zone method. In vivo evaluation

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license.In this study, the Bioeutectic® blocks were inserted into the critical size defects of eight rabbits, using both tibiae, and the physical and chemical nature of the remodeled interface between the Bioeutectic® implants and the surrounding bone were performed at four and 15 months. The results showed a new fully mineralized bone growing in direct contact with the implants. The ionic exchange, taking place at the implant interface with the body fluids was essential in the process of the implant integration through a dissolution-precipitation-transformation mechanism. The study found the interface biologically and chemically active over the 15 months implantation period. The osteoblastic cells migrated towards the interface and colonized the surface at the contact areas with the bone. The new developed apatite structure of porous morphology mimics natural bone. © 2014 by the authors.The authors wish to acknowledge funding from the European Community at the 7th Framework Program EU No. 314630-UV Marking and Generalitat Valenciana (GVA) within the Project ACOMP/2009/173.Peer Reviewe

Adaptación de los métodos de enseñanza a los métodos de aprendizaje de los alumnos

El actual proceso de adaptación al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) que estamos viviendo en la Universidad, y que tiene como objetivo favorecer la convergencia europea en materia de educación universitaria, ha destacado algunos aspectos que pueden ser cambiados por parte de los docentes en aras de mejorar el proceso de enseñanza/ aprendizaje. En el presente artículo, presentamos unas directrices que pueden ayudar a los docentes a adaptar los métodos de enseñanza, para que se adecúen al máximo a las capacidades de aprendizaje de los alumnos que cursan sus asignaturas.Peer Reviewe

Non-emergency patient transport services planning through genetic algorithms

Non-emergency Patient Transport Services (PTS) are provided by ambulance companies for patients who do not require urgent and emergency transport. These patients require transport to or from a health facility like a hospital, but due to clinical requirements are unable to use private or public transport. This task is performed nowadays mainly by human operators, spending a high amount of time and resources to obtain solutions that are suboptimal in most cases. To overcome this limitation, in this paper we present NURA (Non-Urgent transport Routing Algorithm), a novel algorithm aimed at ambulance route planning. In particular, NURA relies on a genetic algorithm to explore the solution space, and it includes a scheduling algorithm to generate detailed routes for ambulances. Experimental results show that NURA is able to outperform human experts in several real scenarios, reducing the time spent by patients in ambulances during non-emergency transportations, increasing ambulance usage, while saving time and money for ambulance companies

MoBiSea: a binary search algorithm for product clustering in Industry 4.0

Proprietary systems used to modernize Industry 4.0 usually involve high financial costs. Consequently, using low-cost devices with the same functionalities, capable of replacing these proprietary systems but at a lower cost, has become an incipient trend. However, these low-cost devices usually come with electromagnetic interference problems as they are encapsulated in electrical panels, sitting alongside electromechanical devices. In this article, we present Mode Binary Search, an algorithm specifically designed for use in a low-cost automated-industrial-productivity-data-collection system. Specifically, productivity data are obtained from the availability and sealing signals of the thermoplastic sealing machines in production lines belonging to the agri-food industry. Mode Binary Search was designed to cluster sealing signals, thus enabling us to identify which products have been made. Furthermore, the algorithm determines when the manufacturing of each product starts and ends, in other words, the exact moment a product change occurs and all this without the need for operator supervision or intervention. Finally, we compared our algorithm, based on binary search, with three clustering mechanisms: k-means, k-rms and x-means. Out of all the cases we analyzed, the maximum error committed by Mode Binary Search is limited to 2.69%, thereby outperforming all others

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for food authentication

With the globalisation of food markets, food authentication has become a significant concern worldwide to ensure food safety and to avoid origin and quality fraud. A multi-elemental fingerprint is a powerful tool for detection of adulterants and geographical origin of foods. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a promising technique that can provide a mineral fingerprint of food products. LIBS allows a rapid, high-throughput, micro-destructive and multi-elemental analysis of a wide range of samples type. It has already been demonstrated by several authors that LIBS can be successfully used for food authentication. Although LIBS shows excellent potential for at-line or portable applications, improvement in sensitivity of trace elements detection, sample preparation, data analysis and instrument miniaturisation are needed

Understanding Evolutionary Algorithms through Interactive Graphical Applications

It is very common to observe, especially in Computer Science studies that students have difficulties to correctly understand how some mechanisms based on Artificial Intelligence work. In addition, the scope and limitations of most of these mechanisms are usually presented by professors only in a theoretical way, which does not help students to understand them adequately. In this work, we focus on the problems found when teaching Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs), which imitate the principles of natural evolution, as a method to solve parameter optimization problems. Although this kind of algorithms can be very powerful to solve relatively complex problems, students often have difficulties to understand how they work, and how to apply them to solve problems in real cases. In this paper, we present two interactive graphical applications which have been specially designed with the aim of making Evolutionary Algorithms easy to be understood by students. Specifically, we present: (i) TSPS, an application able to solve the ”Traveling Salesman Problem”, and (ii) FotEvol, an application able to reconstruct a given image by using Evolution Strategies. The main objective is that students learn how these techniques can be implemented, and the great possibilities they offer

Direct analysis of calcium in liquid infant formula via laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

The present work illustrates the potential of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for the direct analysis of liquid food products. The aim of the experiment was to predict calcium content in ready-to-feed infant formula. The analysis was performed by a LIBS system coupled to a liquid sample chamber with a rotatory wheel that presents the liquid to the laser beam as a thin film. Multivariate analysis with partial least squares regression (PLSR) was performed to correlate LIBS spectral data to reference calcium contents. The obtained PLSR model exhibited a good fit and linearity, as indicated by the coefficients of determination for calibration (Rc 2) and cross-validation (Rcv 2), with values of 0.96 and 0.89, respectively. The robustness of the calibration model was assessed by external validation showing a root-mean-square error of prediction of 6.45 mg 100 mL−1. These results demonstrated the potential of LIBS for real-time analysis of liquid food products

Evaluating the impact of a novel message dissemination scheme for vehicular networks using real maps

[EN] In traffic safety applications for vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), some warning messages have to be urgently disseminated in order to increase the number of vehicles receiving the traffic warning information. In those cases, redundancy, contention, and packet collisions due to simultaneous forwarding (usually known as the broadcast storm problem) are prone to occur. In the past, several approaches have been proposed to solve the broadcast storm problem in multi-hop wireless networks such as Mobile ad hoc Networks (MANETs). Among them we can find counter-based, distance-based, locationbased, cluster-based, and probabilistic schemes, which have been mainly tested in non-realistic simulation environments. In this paper, we present the enhanced Message Dissemination based on Roadmaps (eMDR), a novel scheme specially designed to increase the percentage of informed vehicles and reduce the notification time; at the same time, it mitigates the broadcast storm problem in real urban scenarios. We evaluate the impact that our scheme has on performance when applied to VANET scenarios based on real city maps, and the results show that it outperforms previous schemes in all situations. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Spain, under Grant TIN2011-27543-C03-01, and by the Diputacion General de Aragon, under Grant "subvenciones destinadas a la formacion y contratacion de personal investigador".Fogue, M.; Garrido, P.; Martínez, FJ.; Cano Escribá, JC.; Calafate, CT.; Manzoni, P. (2012). Evaluating the impact of a novel message dissemination scheme for vehicular networks using real maps. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies. 25(80):61-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2012.04.017S6180258