"De Paisano a Paisano: Mexican Migrants and the Transferrence of Political Attitudes to their Countries of Origin"

Is there a link between immigration and democratization? Can immigrants transfer democratic values to their countries of origin? If so, what are the implications for the countries in question? This dissertation looks into the theoretical construct of social remittances and tests it empirically using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitatively speaking, this gets tested using survey and aggregate data. Qualitatively speaking, field work was carried out in a number of Mexican States. This work found that migrants do play a role in local politics through the transference of political attitudes. This includes, but is not limited to political participation, the incumbent party's fortunes, the governor's party's coalition's chances for reelection, the overall electoral competitiveness, and third party's share of the vote. This grassroots impact, however is tempered and constrained by the same dynamics that led individuals to migrate in the first place

Multiagent Systems in Automotive Applications

The multiagent systems have proved to be a useful tool in the design of solutions to problems of distributed nature. In a distributed system, it is possible that the data, the control actions or even both, be distributed. The concept of agent is a suitable notion for capturing situations where the global knowledge about the status of a system is complex or even impossible to acquire in a single entity. In automotive applications, there exist a great number of scenarios of distributed nature, such as the traffic coordination, routes load balancing problems, traffic negotiation among the infrastructure and cars, to mention a few. Even more, the autonomous driving features of the new generation of cars will require the new methods of car to car communication, car to infrastructure negotiation, and even infrastructure to infrastructure communication. This chapter proposes the application of multiagent system techniques to some problems in the automotive field

A Cyber-Physical System for integrated remote control andprotection of smart grid critical infrastructures

This work proposes a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) for protecting Smart Electric Grid Critical Infrastructures (CI) using video surveillance while remotely monitoring them. Due to the critical nature of Smart Grid, it is necessary to guarantee an adequate level of safety, security and reliability. Thus, this CPS is back-boned by a Time-Sensitive Network solution (TSN) providing concurrent support for smart-video surveillance and Smart Grid control over a single communication infrastructure. To this end, TSN delivers high-bandwidth communication for video surveil-lance and deterministic Quality of Service (QoS), latency and bandwidth guarantees, required by the time-critical Smart Grid control. On the one hand, the CPS utilizes High-availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR) in the control subsystem via Remote Terminal Units (RTU) guaranteeing seamless failover against failures in Smart Grid. On the other hand, the smart video surveillance subsystem applies machine learning to monitor secured perimeters and detect people around the Smart Grid CI. Moreover, it is also able to directly interoperate with RTUs via MODBUS protocol to send alarms in case of e.g. intrusion. The work evaluates the accuracy and performance of the detection using common metrics in surveillance field. An integrated monitoring dashboard has also been developed in which all CPS information is available in real timeThis work was partially supported by the EU Project FitOptiVis [3] through the ECSEL Joint Undertaking under GA n. 783162, a Spanish National grant funded by MINECO through APCIN PCI2018-093184, and partially by the Research Network RED2018-102511-

Learning words while listening to syllables: electrophysiological correlates of statistical learning in children and adults

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.805723/full#supplementary-materialFrom an early age, exposure to a spoken language has allowed us to implicitly capture the structure underlying the succession of speech sounds in that language and to segment it into meaningful units (words). Statistical learning (SL), the ability to pick up patterns in the sensory environment without intention or reinforcement, is thus assumed to play a central role in the acquisition of the rule-governed aspects of language, including the discovery of word boundaries in the continuous acoustic stream. Although extensive evidence has been gathered from artificial languages experiments showing that children and adults are able to track the regularities embedded in the auditory input, as the probability of one syllable to follow another syllable in the speech stream, the developmental trajectory of this ability remains controversial. In this work, we have collected Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) while 5-year-old children and young adults (university students) were exposed to a speech stream made of the repetition of eight three-syllable nonsense words presenting different levels of predictability (high vs. low) to mimic closely what occurs in natural languages and to get new insights into the changes that the mechanisms underlying auditory statistical learning (aSL) might undergo through the development. The participants performed the aSL task first under implicit and, subsequently, under explicit conditions to further analyze if children take advantage of previous knowledge of the to-be-learned regularities to enhance SL, as observed with the adult participants. These findings would also contribute to extend our knowledge of the mechanisms available to assist SL at each developmental stage. Although behavioral signs of learning, even under explicit conditions, were only observed for the adult participants, ERP data showed evidence of online segmentation in the brain in both groups, as indexed by modulations in the N100 and N400 components. A detailed analysis of the neural data suggests, however, that adults andThis study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662), University of Minho, and supported by the Grant POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028212 from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds, and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement

Development and mounting of a double-pass system for measuring the quality of retinal images

En este informe técnico se describe el desarrollo y el montaje de un sistema de doble paso que permite cuantificar la calidad óptica de un ojo humano. El sistema consta de una fuente de luz puntual y coherente cuya imagen se forma en la retina del ojo medido y una cámara de alta sensibilidad que registra la imagen reflejada en la retina. Esta imagen es procesada para obtener la función de punto extendido del sistema (PSF) que muestra la forma en que el sistema óptico del ojo degrada la imagen del objeto puntual. Este doble paso cuenta con un sistema Badal para corregir las ametropías del ojo, un test de fijación diseñado para evitar la acomodación del cristalino, y una cámara para el control del tamaño pupilar. Un programa controla las variables del sistema y genera imágenes de PSF y de la función de transferencia de modulación (MTF), a partir de las cuales se pueden calcular diferentes parámetros que caracterizan a un ojo.This technical report describes the development and mounting of a double-pass system to quantify the optical quality of the human eye. The system consists of a point and coherent light source whose image is formed on the retina of the eye measured and a high-sensitivity camera that records the image reflected on the retina. This image is processed to obtain the point spread function of the system (PSF) that shows how the optical system of the eye degrades the image of the object. The system has a Badal to correct the ametropies of the eye, a fixation test designed to avoid lens accommodation, and a camera to control the pupilar size. A program controls the system variables and generates images of the PSF and of the modulation transfer function (MTF) from which several parameters characterizing an eye can be computed.Fil: de Paul Camacho, Anibal Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucuman. Instituto de Investigacion En Luz, Ambiente y Vision; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucuman. Facultad de Cs.exactas y Tecnologia. Departamento de Luminotecnia, Luz y Vision; ArgentinaFil: Sánchez, Roberto Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucuman. Instituto de Investigacion En Luz, Ambiente y Vision; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucuman. Facultad de Cs.exactas y Tecnologia. Departamento de Luminotecnia, Luz y Vision; ArgentinaFil: Corregidor Carrió, Diego Hernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucuman. Instituto de Investigacion En Luz, Ambiente y Vision; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucuman. Facultad de Cs.exactas y Tecnologia. Departamento de Luminotecnia, Luz y Vision; ArgentinaFil: Jimenez, Gustavo Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucuman. Instituto de Investigacion En Luz, Ambiente y Vision; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucuman. Facultad de Cs.exactas y Tecnologia. Departamento de Luminotecnia, Luz y Vision; ArgentinaFil: Issolio, Luis Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucuman. Instituto de Investigacion En Luz, Ambiente y Vision; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucuman. Facultad de Cs.exactas y Tecnologia. Departamento de Luminotecnia, Luz y Vision; Argentin

Semaglutide in type 2 diabetes with chronic kidney disease at high risk progression—real-world clinical practice

Albuminuria; Obesity; SemaglutideAlbuminúria; Obesitat; SemaglutidaAlbuminuria; Obesidad; SemaglutidaBackground Semaglutide [glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor-agonist (GLP-1RA)] has shown nephroprotective effects in previous cardiovascular studies. However, its efficacy and safety in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) have been rarely studied. Methods This is a multicenter, retrospective, observational study in patients with T2D and CKD with glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) of 7.5–9.5% treated with subcutaneous semaglutide for 12 months in real-world clinical practice. The main objectives were glycemic control as HbA1c 5%. Results We studied a total of 122 patients, ages 65.50 ± 11 years, 62% men, duration of T2D 12 years, baseline HbA1c 7.57% ± 1.36% and an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) 50.32 ± 19.21 mL/min/1.73 m2; 54% had a urinary albumin:creatinine ratio (UACR) of 30–300 mg/g and 20% had a UACR >300 mg/g. After 12 months of follow-up, HbA1c declined −0.73% ± 1.09% (P 5% of their body weight. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased −9.85 mmHg and −5.92 mmHg, respectively (P 300 mg/g). The mean eGFR (by the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration) remained stable. The need for basal insulin decreased 20% (P < .005). Only 7% of patients on insulin had mild hypoglycemic episodes. Semaglutide was stopped in 5.7% of patients for digestive intolerance. Conclusions In this real-world study, patients with T2D and CKD treated with subcutaneous semaglutide for 12 months significantly improved glycemic control and decreased weight. Albuminuria decreased by >50% in patients with macroalbuminuria. The administration of GLP-1RA in patients with T2D and CKD was safe and well tolerated

MELD 3.0 adequately predicts mortality and renal replacement therapy requirements in patients with alcohol-associated hepatitis

Alcoholic hepatitis; Cirrhosis; Outcome predictionHepatitis alcohòlica; Cirrosi; Predicció de resultatsHepatitis alcohólica; Cirrosis; Predicción de resultadosBackground & aims: Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score better predicts mortality in alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) but could underestimate severity in women and malnourished patients. Using a global cohort, we assessed the ability of the MELD 3.0 score to predict short-term mortality in AH. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of patients admitted to hospital with AH from 2009 to 2019. The main outcome was all-cause 30-day mortality. We compared the AUC using DeLong's method and also performed a time-dependent AUC with competing risks analysis. Results: A total of 2,124 patients were included from 28 centres from 10 countries on three continents (median age 47.2 ± 11.2 years, 29.9% women, 71.3% with underlying cirrhosis). The median MELD 3.0 score at admission was 25 (20-33), with an estimated survival of 73.7% at 30 days. The MELD 3.0 score had a better performance in predicting 30-day mortality (AUC:0.761, 95%CI:0.732-0.791) compared with MELD sodium (MELD-Na; AUC: 0.744, 95% CI: 0.713-0.775; p = 0.042) and Maddrey's discriminant function (mDF) (AUC: 0.724, 95% CI: 0.691-0.757; p = 0.013). However, MELD 3.0 did not perform better than traditional MELD (AUC: 0.753, 95% CI: 0.723-0.783; p = 0.300) and Age-Bilirubin-International Normalised Ratio-Creatinine (ABIC) (AUC:0.757, 95% CI: 0.727-0.788; p = 0.765). These results were consistent in competing-risk analysis, where MELD 3.0 (AUC: 0.757, 95% CI: 0.724-0.790) predicted better 30-day mortality compared with MELD-Na (AUC: 0.739, 95% CI: 0.708-0.770; p = 0.028) and mDF (AUC:0.717, 95% CI: 0.687-0.748; p = 0.042). The MELD 3.0 score was significantly better in predicting renal replacement therapy requirements during admission compared with the other scores (AUC: 0.844, 95% CI: 0.805-0.883). Conclusions: MELD 3.0 demonstrated better performance compared with MELD-Na and mDF in predicting 30-day and 90-day mortality, and was the best predictor of renal replacement therapy requirements during admission for AH. However, further prospective studies are needed to validate its extensive use in AH. Impact and implications: Severe AH has high short-term mortality. The establishment of treatments and liver transplantation depends on mortality prediction. We evaluated the performance of the new MELD 3.0 score to predict short-term mortality in AH in a large global cohort. MELD 3.0 performed better in predicting 30- and 90-day mortality compared with MELD-Na and mDF, but was similar to MELD and ABIC scores. MELD 3.0 was the best predictor of renal replacement therapy requirements. Thus, further prospective studies are needed to support the wide use of MELD 3.0 in AH.JPA and MA receive support from the Chilean Government through the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT 1200227 to JPA and 1191145 to MA). RB is a recipient of NIAAA U01AA021908 and U01AA020821

Taxonomy of endosymbiotic bacteria from a novel Lupinus sp. (Lupinus mariae-josephi) endemic of a limed-alkaline soil habitat in Southeastern Spain

Lupinus mariae-josephi is a recently described Lupinus species (Pascual 2004) endemic of a Southeastern area of Spain with soils singularly of high pH and active lime content where it is endangered due to the reduced size of its habitat. Ten isolates of L. mariae-josephi endosymbiotic bacteria were obtained using trap-plants and soils from five sampling points within a native plant population area in Llombai (Valencia, Spain). The microsymbionts are extra-slow (ultrabradytrophic) growing bacteria with phenotypic and symbiotic characteristics singularly different from Bradyrhizobium strains nodulating other Lupinus spp. thriving in the Iberian Peninsula and adapted to growth in acidic soils. Cross-inoculation experiments revealed that these L. mariae-josephi endosymbiotic bacteria isolates are unable to nodulate or efficiently fix nitrogen with other Lupinus spp. Their phylogenetic status was examined by a multilocus sequence analysis of four housekeeping genes (16S rDNA, glnII, recA, atpD) and the symbiotic nodC gene. The 16S rDNA phylogenetic analysis showed that L. mariae-josephi isolates are related to strains nodulating Retama spp. in northeastern Algeria (Boulila et al., 2009), Phaseolus lunatus from Peru (Ormeño-Orrillo et al., 2006), as well as to B. elkanii, B. jicamae and B. pachyrhizi species, forming a new clade (Clade I) within the Bradyrhizobium genus. All the single and concatenated glnII+recA and glnII+recA+atpD analyses consistently support the existence of Clade I, and also revealed that, within this clade, the L. mariae-josephi endosymbiotic bacteria belong to a single evolutionary lineage that also includes strains nodulating Retama spp. from northeastern Algeria. Within this new Bradyrhizobium lineage, the phylogenetic analyses performed showed essentially convergent results indicating that the tested L. mariae-josephi isolates nested in three sub-groups that might correspond to novel sister Bradyrhizobium species. Bradyrhizobium Clade I is highly differentiated from the Bradyrhizobium clade (Clade II) that includes currently named Bradyrhizobium species and well-delineated unnamed genospecies. Singularly, all the endosymbiotic bacteria from Lupinus species adapted to acid soils in the Iberian Peninsula and tested in this study are included in Clade II. They are related either to strains of the B. canariense or B. japonicum lineages. The phylogenetic analysis based on the symbiotic nodC gene showed that L. mariae-josephi endosymbiotic bacteria define a novel branch in the nodC Bradyrhizobium tree. This branch groups together with a branch that gathers isolates from recently studied legume symbiosis such as isolates from Retama spp., which suggests the existence of a common unique ancestor for the symbiotic genes of these two groups of bradyrhizobia. In contrast, the symbiotic genes of isolates from other Lupinus spp. from the Iberian Peninsula are clearly related to the B. canariense lineage. The allopatric (geographic) speciation of the L. mariae-josephi bradyrhizobia may result from the colonization of a singular habitat, such as the basic and high calcium carbonate soils of the Valencia area, by its unique legume host

Phenotypic and phylogenetic characterization of endosymbiotic bacteria from Lupinus mariae-josephi

Lupinus mariae-josephi is a Lupinus species that thrives in a Southeastern area of Spain (Valencia) in soils of singularly high pH and active lime content. It is nodulated by extra-slow growing bacteria symbiotically and phylogenetically distant to endosymbiotic strains nodulating other Lupinus sp. native of the Iberian Peninsula and adapted to growth in acid soils. Cross-inoculation experiments revealed that the L. mariae-josephi endosymbiotic bacteria are unable to nodulate or efficiently fix nitrogen with well-known Lupinus spp. Their species affiliation was examined by a multilocus sequence analysis of four housekeeping genes (16S rDNA, glnII, recA, atpD) and the symbiotic nodC gene. Single and concatenated phylogenetic analyses of these genes consistently revealed that L. mariae-josephi endosymbiotic bacteria belong to a clade, within the Bradyrhizobium genus, highly differentiated from the Bradyrhizobium clade that includes currently named Bradyrhizobium species as well as the endosymbiotic bacteria from Lupinus species tested in this study. Within this new clade the L. mariae-josephi bacteria nested in several subgroup that may correspond to novel sister species. The phylogenetic analysis based on the nodC gene showed that L. mariae-josephi endosymbiotic bacteria define a novel branch of the nodC Bradyrhizobium tree and likely have a common unique ancestor for the symbiotic genes with nodule isolates from Retama spp

Holocene distribution of woody taxa at the westernmost limit of the Circumboreal/Mediterranean boundary: evidence from wood remains

Información paleoecológica relativa a la distribución de táxones arbóreos durante el holoceno, basado en restos fósiles leñosos