A new approach for integrating teams in multidisciplinary project based learning

This paper describes the experience of collaboration among students and teachers in order to develop multidisciplinary projects, and to reproduce as closely as possible, the team's integration into a company environment. A new methodology based on student interaction and content development in a Wiki environment has been developed. Students and Teachers have participated with enthusiasm, due to the correct well-distributed work and the easiness of use of the selected platform in which only an internet connected computer is needed to create and to discuss the multidisciplinary projects. The quality of the developed projects has been dramatically improved due to the integration of the results obtained from the different teams

Integrating Teams In Multidisciplinary Project Based Learning in Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical/Industrial Engineering students at Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering (ETSII) of Technical University of Madrid (UPM) receive an in-depth knowledge of mechanical design and manufacturing processes, but the increasing interaction with other engineering branches, induces the need to integrate concepts which allow students to make an integral design of new products, and thereby facilitate their subsequent integration into multidisciplinary engineering teams in industry. Complex engineering projects are usually carried out by the assimilation of different work teams, which could even be located geographically distant. Collaborative Web environments are proven to be ideal knowledge repositories, as it has seen in Academia and in Industry. The work here presented reproduces the organization of actual engineering projects, and brings it into the classroom. This new way of developing Project Work documentation and discussion has helped students become self-directed learners who internalize specific topics from different subjects, programmes and courses with their own interests, and has been considered as an easy alternative to promote active learning, not only in this area but in other courses. Project were launched in the engineering disciplines, each offering possibilities for the application of specific skills in the following courses: TEC -Manufacturing Technology-, CAD -Computer Aided Design-, SIM -Simulation in Mechanical Engineering-, and FAB -Fabrication / Manufacturing. TEC and SIM are applied in the Mechanical Engineering programme at ETSII, while FAB is part of the Industrial Engineering programme; finally CAD is voluntarily employed by students in different semesters and programmes. The new approach is oriented towards inducing collaboration within multidisciplinary teams. This paper describes the experience of collaboration among students and teachers in order to develop multidisciplinary projects, and to reproduce as closely as possib- - le, the team's integration into a company environment. A new methodology based on student interaction and content development in a Wiki environment has been developed. The collaborative server has allowed creating an “out-of-the-classroom” active discussion forum for students of different teams /topics, and to compile an important “project work” portfolio. This experience has been very satisfactory for students and teachers, who have participated with enthusiasm due to the exit of the well-distributed work and the easiness of use of the selected platform (Wiki). The quality of the developed projects has been dramatically improved due to the integration of the results provided by the different teams

ISG15 Is a Novel Regulator of Lipid Metabolism during Vaccinia Virus Infection.

Interferon-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15) is a 15-kDa ubiquitin-like modifier that binds to target proteins in a process termed ISGylation. ISG15, first described as an antiviral molecule against many viruses, participates in numerous cellular processes, from immune modulation to the regulation of genome stability. Interestingly, the role of ISG15 as a regulator of cell metabolism has recently gained strength. We previously described ISG15 as a regulator of mitochondrial functions in bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) in the context of Vaccinia virus (VACV) infection. Here, we demonstrate that ISG15 regulates lipid metabolism in BMDMs and that ISG15 is necessary to modulate the impact of VACV infection on lipid metabolism. We show that Isg15-/- BMDMs demonstrate alterations in the levels of several key proteins of lipid metabolism that result in differences in the lipid profile compared with Isg15+/+ (wild-type [WT]) BMDMs. Specifically, Isg15-/- BMDMs present reduced levels of neutral lipids, reflected by decreased lipid droplet number. These alterations are linked to increased levels of lipases and are independent of enhanced fatty acid oxidation (FAO). Moreover, we demonstrate that VACV causes a dysregulation in the proteomes of BMDMs and alterations in the lipid content of these cells, which appear exacerbated in Isg15-/- BMDMs. Such metabolic changes are likely caused by increased expression of the metabolic regulators peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) and PPARγ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α). In summary, our results highlight that ISG15 controls BMDM lipid metabolism during viral infections, suggesting that ISG15 is an important host factor to restrain VACV impact on cell metabolism. IMPORTANCE The functions of ISG15 are continuously expanding, and growing evidence supports its role as a relevant modulator of cell metabolism. In this work, we highlight how the absence of ISG15 impacts macrophage lipid metabolism in the context of viral infections and how poxviruses modulate metabolism to ensure successful replication. Our results open the door to new advances in the comprehension of macrophage immunometabolism and the interaction between VACV and the host.We thank the expert technical assistance of Sara Sandoval. We are grateful to Miguel Sánchez-Álvarez who has kindly provided several commercial reagents. We would like to thank the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación), (Ministry of Health of Spain, State Secretary of R1D and FEDER/FSE).S

Providing 3D video services: the challenge from 2D to 3DTV quality of experience

Recently, three-dimensional (3D) video has decisively burst onto the entertainment industry scene, and has arrived in households even before the standardization process has been completed. 3D television (3DTV) adoption and deployment can be seen as a major leap in television history, similar to previous transitions from black and white (B&W) to color, from analog to digital television (TV), and from standard definition to high definition. In this paper, we analyze current 3D video technology trends in order to define a taxonomy of the availability and possible introduction of 3D-based services. We also propose an audiovisual network services architecture which provides a smooth transition from two-dimensional (2D) to 3DTV in an Internet Protocol (IP)-based scenario. Based on subjective assessment tests, we also analyze those factors which will influence the quality of experience in those 3D video services, focusing on effects of both coding and transmission errors. In addition, examples of the application of the architecture and results of assessment tests are provided

A study of methods for reducing the Pareto front to a single solution applied to the extractive multi-document summarization problem

Los métodos de resumen automático son actualmente necesarios en muchos contextos diferentes. El problema de resumen extractivo multi-documento intenta cubrir el contenido principal de una colección de documentos y reducir la información redundante. La mejor manera de abordar esta tarea es mediante un enfoque de optimización multi-objetivo. El resultado de este enfoque es un conjunto de soluciones no dominadas o conjunto de Pareto. Sin embargo, dado que solo se necesita un resumen, se debe reducir el frente de Pareto a una única solución. Para ello, se han considerado varios métodos, como el mayor hipervolumen, la solución consenso, la distancia más corta al punto ideal y la distancia más corta a todos los puntos. Los métodos han sido probados utilizando conjuntos de datos de DUC, y han sido evaluados con las métricas ROUGE. Los resultados revelan que la solución consenso obtiene los mejores valores promedio.Automatic summarization methods are currently needed in many different contexts. The extractive multi-document summarization problem tries to cover the main content of a document collection and to reduce the redundant information. The best way to address this task is through a multi-objective optimization approach. The result of this approach is a set of non-dominated solutions or Pareto set. However, since only one summary is needed, the Pareto front must be reduced to a single solution. For this, several methods have been considered, such as the largest hypervolume, the consensus solution, the shortest distance to the ideal point, and the shortest distance to all points. The methods have been tested using datasets from DUC, and they have been evaluated with ROUGE metrics. The results show that consensus solution achieves the best average values.Esta investigación ha sido apoyada por la Agencia Estatal de Investigación (proyectos PID2019-107299GB-I00 y MTM2017-86875-C3-2-R), por la Junta de Extremadura (proyectos GR18090 y GR18108) y por la Unión Europea (Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional). Jesus M. Sanchez-Gomez está apoyado por un Contrato Predoctoral financiado por la Junta de Extremadura (contrato PD18057) y la Unión Europea (Fondo Social Europeo)

SHARDS: A global view of the star formation activity at z~0.84 and z~1.23

In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at intermediate redshifts (z~1). We combine the ultra-deep optical spectro-photometric data from the Survey for High-z Absorption Red and Dead Sources (SHARDS) with deep UV-to-FIR observations in the GOODS-N field. Exploiting two of the 25 SHARDS medium-band filters, F687W17 and F823W17, we select [OII] emission line galaxies at z~0.84 and z~1.23 and characterize their physical properties. Their rest-frame equivalent widths (EW$_{\mathrm{rf}}$([OII])), line fluxes, luminosities, star formation rates (SFRs) and dust attenuation properties are investigated. The evolution of the EW$_{\mathrm{rf}}$([OII]) closely follows the SFR density evolution of the universe, with a trend of EW$_{\mathrm{rf}}$([OII])$\propto$(1+z)$^3$ up to redshift z~1, followed by a possible flattening. The SF properties of the galaxies selected on the basis of their [OII] emission are compared with complementary samples of SFGs selected by their MIR and FIR emission, and also with a general mass-selected sample of galaxies at the same redshifts. We demonstrate observationally that the UVJ diagram (or, similarly, a cut in the specific SFR) is only partially able to distinguish the quiescent galaxies from the SFGs. The SFR-M$_*$ relation is investigated for the different samples, yelding a logarithmic slope ~1, in good agreement with previous results. The dust attenuations derived from different SFR indicators (UV(1600), UV(2800), [OII], IR) are compared and show clear trends with respect to both the stellar mass and total SFR, with more massive and highly star-forming galaxies being affected by stronger dust attenuation.Comment: Replaced to match the accepted version (24 pages, 1 table, 17 figures). Published in ApJ, 812, 155 (2015): http://stacks.iop.org/0004-637X/812/15

The Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test in Parkinson's Disease Mild Cognitive Impairment : Discriminative Accuracy and Neural Correlates

Altres ajuts: This work was partially supported by grants from La Marató TV3 (20142910, 2014/U/477); FIS (PI14/02058, PI15/00962); CIBERNED.Introduction: Memory alterations are common in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients but the mechanisms involved in these deficits remain poorly understood. The study aims to explore the profile of episodic memory deficits in non-demented early PD patients. Methods: We obtained neurological, cognitive and behavioral data from 114 PD patients and 41 healthy controls (HC). PD participants were grouped as normal cognition (PD-NC) and mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) according to the Level II criteria of the Movement Disorders Society Task Force (MDS-TF). We evaluate the performance amongst groups on an episodic memory task using the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT). Additionally, gray matter volume (GMV) voxel based morphometry, and mean diffusivity (MD) analyses were conducted in a subset of patients to explore the structural brain correlates of FCSRT performance. Results: Performance on all subscores of the FCSRT was significantly worse in PD-MCI than in PD-NC and HC. Delayed total recall (DTR) subscore was the best at differentiating PD-NC from PD-MCI. Using crosstabulation, DTR allowed identification of PD-MCI patients with an accuracy of 80%. Delayed free and cued recall was associated with decreased GMV and increased MD in multiple fronto-temporal and parietal areas. Conclusion: Encoding and retrieval deficits are a main characteristic of PD-MCI and are associated with structural damage in temporal, parietal and prefrontal areas

Dissecting the role of TP53 alterations in del(11q) chronic lymphocytic leukemia

© 2021 The Authors.[Background]: Several genetic alterations have been identified as driver events in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) pathogenesis and oncogenic evolution. Concurrent driver alterations usually coexist within the same tumoral clone, but how the cooperation of multiple genomic abnormalities contributes to disease progression remains poorly understood. Specifically, the biological and clinical consequences of concurrent high-risk alterations such as del(11q)/ATM-mutations and del(17p)/TP53-mutations have not been established.[Methods]: We integrated next-generation sequencing (NGS) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 techniques to characterize the in vitro and in vivo effects of concurrent monoallelic or biallelic ATM and/or TP53 alterations in CLL prognosis, clonal evolution, and therapy response.[Results]: Targeted sequencing analysis of the co-occurrence of high-risk alterations in 271 CLLs revealed that biallelic inactivation of both ATM and TP53 was mutually exclusive, whereas monoallelic del(11q) and TP53 alterations significantly co-occurred in a subset of CLL patients with a highly adverse clinical outcome. We determined the biological effects of combined del(11q), ATM and/or TP53 mutations in CRISPR/Cas9-edited CLL cell lines. Our results showed that the combination of monoallelic del(11q) and TP53 mutations in CLL cells led to a clonal advantage in vitro and in in vivo clonal competition experiments, whereas CLL cells harboring biallelic ATM and TP53 loss failed to compete in in vivo xenotransplants. Furthermore, we demonstrated that CLL cell lines harboring del(11q) and TP53 mutations show only partial responses to B cell receptor signaling inhibitors, but may potentially benefit from ATR inhibition.[Conclusions]: Our work highlights that combined monoallelic del(11q) and TP53 alterations coordinately contribute to clonal advantage and shorter overall survival in CLL.Spanish Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias, Grant/Award Numbers: PI15/01471, PI18/01500); Fundación Memoria Don Samuel Solórzano Barruso, Grant/Award Number: RD12/0036/006