An Automatic System for Dementia Detection using Acoustic and Linguistic Features

Early diagnosis of dementia is crucial for mitigating the consequences of this disease in patients. Previous studies have demonstrated that it is possible to detect the symptoms of dementia, in some cases even years before the onset of the disease, by detecting neurodegeneration-associated characteristics in a person’s speech. This paper presents an automatic method for detecting dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease (AD) through a wide range of acoustic and linguistic features extracted from the person’s speech. Two well-known databases containing speech for patients with AD and healthy controls are used to this end: DementiaBank and ADReSS. The experimental results show that our system is able to achieve state-of-theart performance on both databases. Furthermore, our results also show that the linguistic features extracted from the speech transcription are significantly better for detecting dementia.This work was funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (SRA) under the grant PID2019-108040RBC22/ SRA/10.13039/501100011033. Jose A. Gonzalez-Lopez holds a Juan de la Cierva-Incorporation Fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (IJCI-2017-32926)

Body surface localization of left and right atrial high-frequency rotors in atrial fibrillation patients: A clinical-computational study

Background: Ablation is an effective therapy in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients in which an electrical driver can be identified. Objective: The aim of this study is to present and discuss a novel and strictly non-invasive approach to map and identify atrial regions responsible for AF perpetuation. Methods: Surface potential recordings of 14 patients with AF were recorded using a 67-lead recording system. Singularity points (SPs) were identified in surface phase maps after band-pass filtering at the highest dominant frequency (HDF). Mathematical models of combined atria and torso were constructed and used to investigate the ability of surface phase maps to estimate rotor activity in the atrial wall. Results: The simulations show that surface SPs originate at atrial SPs, but not all atrial SPs are reflected at the surface. Stable SPs were found in AF signals during 8.3±5.7% vs. 73.1±16.8% of the time in unfiltered vs. HDF-filtered patient data respectively (p<0.01). The average duration of each rotational pattern was also lower in unfiltered than in HDF-filtered AF signals (160±43 vs. 342±138 ms, p<0.01) resulting in 2.8±0.7 rotations per rotor. Band-pass filtering reduced the apparent meandering of surface HDF rotors by reducing the effect of the atrial electrical activity taking place at different frequencies. Torso surface SPs representing HDF rotors during AF were reflected at specific areas corresponding to the fastest atrial location. Conclusion: Phase analysis of surface potential signals after HDF-filtering during AF shows reentrant drivers localized to either the LA or RA, helping in localizing ablation targetsThis work was supported in part by the Spanish Society of Cardiology (Becas Investigacion Clinica 2009); the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia through its research initiative program; the Generalitat Valenciana grant (ACIF/2013/021); the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Rod RIC; the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (proyecto CNIC-13); the Coulter Foundation from the Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Michigan; the Gelman Award from the Cardiovascular Division, University of Michigan; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grants (P01411.039707, P01-1111187226, and R01-11L118304); and the Leducq Foundation. Dr Femandez-Aviles served on the advisory board of Medtronic and has received research funding from St Jude Medical Spain. Dr Berenfeld has received research support from Medtronic and St Jude Medical; he is a colbunder and scientific officer of Rhythm Solutions. None of the companies disclosed financed the research described in this article.Rodrigo Bort, M.; Guillem Sánchez, MS.; Climent, AM.; Pedrón Torrecilla, J.; Liberos Mascarell, A.; Millet Roig, J.; Fernandez-Aviles, F.... (2014). Body surface localization of left and right atrial high-frequency rotors in atrial fibrillation patients: A clinical-computational study. Heart Rhythm. 11(9):1584-1591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrthm.2014.05.013S1584159111

Influence of Short Carbon-Chain Alcohol (Ethanol and 1-Propanol)/Diesel Fuel Blends over Diesel Engine Emissions

Oxygenated fuels, in this case short carbon-chain alcohols, have been investigated as alternative fuels to power compression ignition engines. A major advantage of short-chain alcohols is that they can be produced from renewable resources, i.e., cultivated commodities or biomass-based biorefineries. However, before entering the market, the effects of short-chain alcohols on engine performance, exhaust emissions, noise and sound quality need to be understood. This work sheds light on the relationship between the physicochemical properties of the alcohol/diesel fuel blends (ethanol and 1-propanol) on engine performance, exhaust emissions and, for the first time, on noise and sound quality. It has been demonstrated that when the content of alcohol in blends increased, soot and soluble organic material emissions drastically decreased, mainly due to the increase of oxygen content in the fuel. Reduction in soot emissions combined with higher thermodynamic efficiency of alcohol fuels, with respect to diesel fuel, enable their utilization on compression ignition engines. There is also an improvement in the soot-NOx trade off, leading to large reductions on soot with a small effect on NOx emissions. The oxygen content within the fuel reduces CO and THC emissions at extra-urban driving operation conditions. However, hydrocarbons and CO emissions increased at urban driving conditions, due to the high heat of vaporization of the alcohol fuels which reduces cylinder temperature worsening fuel atomization, vaporization and mixing with air being more significant at lower cylinder temperature conditions (low engine loads and speeds). Similarly, the higher the presence of alcohol in the blend, the higher the noise emitted by the engine due to their low tendency to auto-ignition. The optimization of alcohol quantity and the calibration of engine control parameters (e.g., injection settings) which is out of the scope of this work, will be required to overcome noise emission penalty. Furthermore, under similar alcohol content in the blend (10% v/v), the use of propanol is preferred over ethanol, as it exhibits lower exhaust emissions and better sound quality than ethanol

Criterios biomecánicos de diseño de un nuevo sistema de fijación externa: Stronger®

Se presenta el desarrollo de un nuevo sistema de fijación externa basado en estudios de investigación aplicada, cuyos resultados se han plasmado en criterios de diseño clínicos y biomecánicos. Los aspectos novedosos contemplados se refieren a un aumento de la rigidez del montaje en base a la fijación y el dentado de las rótulas de articulación. Asimismo, se facilita la técnica quirúrgica mediante el taladrado y colocación de las agujas sin la utilización de plantillas y la posibilidad de corregir desplazamientos en el foco fractuario de forma independiente en los tres planos del espacio. Finalmente, se ha diseñado un sistema de monitorización, acoplable al fijador, para caracterizar mecánicamente el callo de fractura durante el período de consolidación.A new external fixation system has been designed based on previous applied research studies. The design criteria generated were focused on both clinical and biomechanical aspects. An increase in frame stiffness was obtained by means of an independent fixation system of the pins, clamp sleeves and striated hinges. Furthermore, surgical technique has been simplified by means of independent adjustment in the three space planes of movement. The use of a previous guide fixator for drilling and pin insertion was eliminated. Finally, a strain gauge monitoring system has been developed to characterize mechanical callus features during fracture healing

Analysis of the Damage Evolution in Steel Specimens under Tension by Means of XRCT

When a steel specimen is tested under tension, damage usually develops evenly all along the specimen, finally necking and leading to the typical cup-cone fracture surface. Nevertheless, some steels present an unusual fracture pattern consisting on a plane fracture surface with a dark region in the centre of the fracture zone. In this contribution, the authors analyse the evolution of the internal damage by using X-ray computed tomography (XRCT) on 3mm-diametre specimens of two steels. The specimens are tested in subsequent loading steps, after each of which it is unloaded and analysed with XRCT. This procedure helps to identify the evolution of damage developed inside each specimen at predefined strain levels. XRCT reveals a very high initial porosity in the material with the cup-cone fracture pattern and a very low initial porosity in the other. In the latter, fracture is triggered by a concentrated internal damage that can be seen as an internal notch which produces a stress concentration that leads to the eventual failure

Expression of spidroin proteins in the silk glands of golden orb-weaver spiders.

The expression of spidroins in the major ampullate, minor ampullate, flagelliform, and tubuliform silk glands of Trichonephila clavipes spiders was analyzed using proteomics analysis techniques. Spidroin peptides were identified and assigned to different gene products based on sequence concurrence when compared with the whole genome of the spider. It was found that only a relatively low proportion of the spidroin genes are expressed as proteins in any of the studied glands. In addition, the expression of spidroin genes in different glands presents a wide range of patterns, with some spidroins being found in a single gland exclusively, while others appear in the content of several glands. The combination of precise genomics, proteomics, microstructural, and mechanical data provides new insights both on the design principles of these materials and how these principles might be translated for the production of high-performance bioinspired artificial fibers.Ministerio de Innovación, Cultura y Deportes(Spain), Grant/Award Numbers: PGC2018‐097019‐B‐I00, PID2020‐116403RB‐I00;Instituto de Salud Carlos III,Grant/Award Number: CB16/11/00277;Comunidad de Madrid, Grant/Award Numbers:NEUROCENTRO‐B2017/BMD‐3760,Tec4Bio‐CM/P2018/NMT‐4443 Spiders were reared by Oscar Campos (Reptilmadrid S.L., Spain). The artwork was made by Carmen Calvo. This study was funded by Comunidad de Madrid (Spain) through grants NEUROCENTRO‐ B2017/BMD‐3760 and Tec4Bio‐CM/P2018/NMT‐4443. This study was also supported by Spanish Ministerio de Innovación, Cultura y Deportes (PGC2018‐097019‐B‐I00 and PID2020‐116403RB‐I00), and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CIBER de Enfermedades Cardiovasculares (CB16/11/00277); Plataforma de Recursos Biomoleculares PRB3 (ProteoRed; PT17/0019/0003)). The CNIC is supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and the Pro CNIC Foundation, and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV‐2015‐0505).S

Mapping quantitative trait loci controlling fatty acid composition in olive

22 Páginas; 3 Tablas; 2 FigurasFatty acids are the main components of the olive oil and their composition has a critical influence on the oil quality. However, oil quality evaluation has not been frequently included in the selection of new bred cultivars. This can be due to the difficulties in analyzing oil quality in large set of genotypes and also to the long juvenile period of olive seedlings. Therefore, the identification of molecular markers associated to olive oil quality traits could facilitate their selection in breeding programs of this species. In the present work, the identification of the first QTLs for fatty acids on olive oil is reported. They have been located in a linkage map of a ‘Picual’ × ‘Arbequina’ progeny of the olive breeding program of Córdoba. Correlations among fatty acids are in agreement with previous reports of breeding progenies. QTLs found for oleic and linoleic acids explained 41.1 and 69.7% of the total variability, respectively, and were co-localized in the same linkage groups. In the same region, QTLs for monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and oleic/linoleic ratio were also identified. In other linkage groups, three QTLs for linolenic and one for palmitoleic acid were also located explaining 15.0–28.0% of the total variability. These results could be useful to increase the efficiency of breeding programs aimed at selecting new cultivars with high oleic acid content, and, therefore, with enhanced nutritional properties and oxidative stability of the olive oil.This work was partly supported by OLEAGEN Project funded by the Fundación Genoma España, Junta de Andalucía through Instituto de Investigación y Formación Agraria y Pesquera (IFAPA) and Corporación Tecnológica de Andalucía (CTA).Peer reviewe

Thermal-Aware Compilation for System-on-Chip Processing Architectures

The development of compiler-based mechanisms to reduce the percentage of hotspots and optimize the thermal profile of large register files has become an important issue. Thermal hotspots have been known to cause severe reliability issues, while the thermal profile of the devices is also related to the leakage power consumption and the cooling cost. In this paper we propose several compilation techniques that, based on an efficient register allocation mechanism, reduce the percentage of hotspots in the register file and uniformly distribute the heat. As a result, the thermal profile and reliability of the device is clearly improved. Simulation results show that the proposed flow achieved 91% reduction of hotspots and 11% reduction of the peak temperature

Proteínas morfogenéticas óseas (BMPs): Efecto de la proteína osteogénica-1 (OP-l/BMP-7) en la condrogénesis y osteogenesis

En la actualidad, los estudios sobre biología molecular han facilitado el análisis de ciertos factores de transformación del crecimiento tipo ß(TGF-ß)I, entre los que destaca una familia de proteínas morfogenéticas óseas (BMPs). Las técnicas de ingeniería genética han permitido replicar alguno de estos factores y localizar los genes que codifican dichas proteínas. La proteína osteogenics-1 (OP-1) ha sido caracterizada y sintetizada in vitro y muestra un elevado potencial osteogénico y condrogénico tanto in vivo como in vitro. Se presenta una revisión de los últimos avances en la aplicación experimental de las BMPs, y especialmente de la OP-1, en el área de la Cirugía Ortopédica y la TraumatologíaNowadays, molecular biology studies have promoted the bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) analysis. These multifunctional proteins are structurally related to transforming growth factor-6 (TGF-6). Genetic engineering techniques have allowed to sequence some of these BMPs. It has been characterized the expression and processing of osteogenic protein-1 (OP-1), a bone morphogenetic protein of the TGF-6 family. The OP-1 shows a high osteogenic and chondrogenic potential. The aim of this paper is to review some updated advances of the BMPs experimental applications, particularly OP-1, in relation to Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatolog

Diseño de redes en chip de propósito específico con información de rutado físico

The equivalent English title: "Design of Custom Networks-on-Chip with Physical Layout Information" Abstract translated into English: Due to the growing demand of communication between processors and memory devices in Systems-on-Chip (SoCs), recently the new NoC paradigm has been proposed for SoCs. In order to enable the use of NoCs as a feasible choice for the semiconductor industry, it is required to design custom NoCs for each type of application that we want to execute in the SoCs. In this paper we present a new methodology to design custom NoCs, which takes into consideration the physical layout information for the NoC links and the location in the system of the final SoC components when the topology definition process takes place. This enables detecting and eliminating possible time violations and correctly estimating the dissipated power in the interconnection system. This new design flow defines and instantiates in a completely automated way the synthesizable VHDL code for custom NoCs, including at the same different mechanisms to avoid the different types of routing deadlocks. Our results with several complex NoC-based systems prove that the final physical design of the NoC topology can be performed in less than 4 hours, instead of weeks that used to take. Also, this methodology achieves average gainsclose to 3x in power consumption and 2x in performance (enabling working frequencies of 900 MHz) with respect to the possible manual alternatives of mesh-based NoCs, Clos, etc