EXPLoRA-web: linkage analysis of quantitative trait loci using bulk segregant analysis

Identification of genomic regions associated with a phenotype of interest is a fundamental step toward solving questions in biology and improving industrial research. Bulk segregant analysis (BSA) combined with high-throughput sequencing is a technique to efficiently identify these genomic regions associated with a trait of interest. However, distinguishing true from spuriously linked genomic regions and accurately delineating the genomic positions of these truly linked regions requires the use of complex statistical models currently implemented in software tools that are generally difficult to operate for non-expert users. To facilitate the exploration and analysis of data generated by bulked segregant analysis, we present EXPLoRA-web, a web service wrapped around our previously published algorithm EXPLoRA, which exploits linkage disequilibrium to increase the power and accuracy of quantitative trait loci identification in BSA analysis. EXPLoRA-web provides a user friendly interface that enables easy data upload and parallel processing of different parameter configurations. Results are provided graphically and as BED file and/or text file and the input is expected in widely used formats, enabling straightforward BSA data analysis. The web server is available at http://bioinformatics.intec.ugent.be/explora-web/

How Do Induced Affective States Bias Emotional Contagion to Faces? A Three-Dimensional Model

Affective states can propagate in a group of people and influence their ability to judge others’ affective states. In the present paper, we present a simple mathematical model to describe this process in a three-dimensional affective space. We obtained data from 67 participants randomly assigned to two experimental groups. Participants watched either an upsetting or uplifting video previously calibrated for this goal. Immediately, participants reported their baseline subjective affect in three dimensions: (1) positivity, (2) negativity, and (3) arousal. In a second phase, participants rated the affect they subjectively judged from 10 target angry faces and ten target happy faces in the same three-dimensional scales. These judgments were used as an index of participant’s affective state after observing the faces. Participants’ affective responses were subsequently mapped onto a simple three-dimensional model of emotional contagion, in which the shortest distance between the baseline self-reported affect and the target judgment was calculated. The results display a double dissociation: negatively induced participants show more emotional contagion to angry than happy faces, while positively induced participants show more emotional contagion to happy than angry faces. In sum, emotional contagion exerted by the videos selectively affected judgments of the affective state of others’ faces. We discuss the directionality of emotional contagion to faces, considering whether negative emotions are more easily propagated than positive ones. Additionally, we comment on the lack of significant correlations between our model and standardized tests of empathy and emotional contagion.DFG, 414044773, Open Access Publizieren 2019 - 2020 / Technische Universität Berli

Recent activities in the Iberoamerican Cooperation of AEMET

Presentación realizada en: EMS Annual Meeting: European Conference for Applied Meteorology and Climatology celebrado del 9 al 13 de septiembre de 2017 en Copenhague, Dinamarca

The Demographic Transition in Colombia: Theory and Evidence

The demographic transition from high to low mortality and fertility rates was one of the most important structural changes during the twentieth Century in most Latin American economies. This paper uses a simple economic framework based on Galor and Weil (2000) for understanding the main forces behind this structural transition; namely, increases in the returns to human capital accumulation driven by continuous advances in productivity led families to reduce the number of offspring and increase the level of investment in their education. As a result, the economy transits from a stage of stagnation subject to Malthusian forces to a stage of sustained economic growth, where increases in productivity lead to improvements in living standards. We use available data for Colombia between 1905 and 2005 to test the main predictions of the model with time series analysis, finding empirical evidence in their favor.Economic Growth, Demographic Transition, Colombia. Classification JEL: C32; J11; N36; O40; O54.

Assessing the Link between Adolescent Fertility and Urban Crime

We use data of neighborhoods of Bogotá to assess the causal relation between their adolescent fertility and their homicide rates. We find that neighborhoods with high adolescent fertility rates, and that have low secondary enrollment and high crime rates at the moment the children of their teen mothers become teenagers, are more likely to have higher homicide rates in the future, when those children reach their peak crime ages, estimated to be between 18 to 26 years old in violent cities of Colombia. The result is robust to various specifications, and to modeling the spatial autocorrelation of homicides.Crime, Illegal Behavior, Law Enforcement, Adolescent Fertility, Spatial Econometrics. Classification JEL: K40, K42, R21, J13, C21

La tasa natural de desempleo en Colombia y sus determinantes

En este trabajo se estima una tasa natural de desempleo para Colombia en el período 1984-2006. Siguiendo el modelo de negociación de salarios de Blanchard (1991), se emplea un filtro de Kalman, para estimar un sistema de ecuaciones para la tasa natural de desempleo, el desajuste del mercado laboral, los salarios y los precios según la metodología propuesta por Salemi (1999). Los resultados de este ejercicio resaltan el papel de la participación joven en el mercado laboral y los costos laborales no salariales como principales determinantes de la tasa natural de desempleo. Asimismo, le restan importancia al papel del salario mínimo en dicha tasa natural, al tiempo que sugieren la existencia de ajustes del mercado laboral colombiano "vía precios".Tasa natural de desempleo, filtro de Kalman, Costos a la nómina, salario mínimo, mercado laboral, población en edad de trabajar Classification JEL:J23; J32; J41; J64; H20; E24; C32.

An Assessment of How Urban Crime and Victimization Affects Life Satisfaction

We assess the effect of the homicide rate, individual´s perception of security in their neighborhood of residence, and of the effect of their having been victimized, on life satisfaction. We find a negative effect of the homicide rate on life satisfaction for the subsample of individuals living in their current houses for at least 10 years or more, who had moved to that place at some point in the past. We also find a positive and robust effect of the perception of security in the households´neighborhood for the whole sample, and for different subsamples considered. Having been victim of an offense is also robustly negatively related to life satisfaction, in particular in the cases where the offense was robbery.Quality of Life, Life Satisfaction, Crime. Classification JEL: I32, K40, K42.

Comportamiento de los materiales bajo carga repetida

Este es un trabajo presentado al V Simposio Colombiano sobre Ingeniería de Pavimentos, realizado en Cúcuta en octubre de 1983

Mejoramiento del comportamiento de suelos y materiales con la incorporación de aditivos no convencionales: evaluación preliminar

Es muy poco lo que se puede hacer por conocer las características intrínsecas de los aditivos ya que se trata de productos de composición compleja sobre la cual existe reserva y no se proporciona ninguna información determinante; respecto al campo de aplicación, corre a cargo de los productores. En consecuencia la primera actividad a acometer es la evaluación y verificación de las propiedades y características de los materiales tratados. El objeto de este trabajo es el de presentar los primeros resultados de trabajos de evaluación y verificación que a manera de proyectos de grado se han realizado en el Laboratorio de Ensayo de Materiales de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá

CONTINUIDAD DE EMPRESAS FAMILIARES RURALES Y URBANAS DEL MUNICIPIO EXHENEQUENERO DE DZIDZANTÚN EN EL ESTADO DE YUCATÃN

Nowadays, more than the 90% of the companies in Mexico (IPADE 2000) are companies that belong to families; therefore, they play a dominant role in the economy. The goal of this investigation is to indicate which factors affect, in a differential way, the rural and urban family business at Dzidzantun municipality in Yucatan State. The study of four family's companies of the municipality of Dzidzantun will help to explain which factors affect the continuity in this type of companies. Among outstanding factors in the research appears the family cohesion, good communication among the family members and the lack of training. The results could let the entrepreneurs develop a new perspective about continuity in their business: a valuable family patrimony.Rural family, business family and succession., Agribusiness,