A Tractable Product Channel Model for Line-of-Sight Scenarios

We present a general and tractable fading model for line-of-sight (LOS) scenarios, which is based on the product of two independent and non-identically distributed $\kappa$-$\mu$ shadowed random variables. Simple closed-form expressions for the probability density function, cumulative distribution function and moment-generating function are derived, which are as tractable as the corresponding expressions derived from a product of Nakagami-$m$ random variables. This model simplifies the challenging characterization of LOS product channels, as well as combinations of LOS channels with non-LOS ones. We leverage these results to analyze performance measures of interest in the contexts of wireless powered and backscatter communications, where both forward and reverse links are inherently of LOS nature, as well as in device-to-device communications subject to composite fading. In these contexts, the model shows a higher flexibility when fitting field measurements with respect to conventional approaches based on product distributions with deterministic LOS, together with a more complete physical interpretation of the underlying propagation characteristics.Comment: This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Arabidopsis SWC4 Binds DNA and Recruits the SWR1 Complex to Modulate Histone H2A.Z Deposition at Key Regulatory Genes

Deposition of the H2A.Z histone variant by the SWR1 complex (SWR1-C) in regulatory regions of specific loci modulates transcription. Characterization of mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana homologs of yeast SWR1-C has revealed a role for H2A.Z exchange in a variety of developmental processes. Nevertheless, the exact composition of plant SWR1-C and how it is recruited to target genes remains to be established. Here we show that SWC4, the Arabidopsis homolog of yeast SANT domain protein Swc4/Eaf2, is a DNA-binding protein that interacts with SWR1-C subunits. We demonstrate that the swc4-1 knockout mutant is embryo-lethal, while SWC4 RNAi knockdown lines display pleiotropic phenotypic alterations in vegetative and reproductive traits, including acceleration of flowering time, indicating that SWC4 controls post-embryonic processes. Transcriptomic analyses and genome-wide profiling of H2A.Z indicate that SWC4 represses transcription of a number of genes, including the floral integrator FT and key transcription factors, mainly by modulating H2A.Z deposition. Interestingly, SWC4 silencing does not affect H2A.Z deposition at the FLC locus nor expression of this gene, a master regulator of flowering previously shown to be controlled by SWR1-C. Importantly, we find that SWC4 recognizes specific AT-rich DNA elements in the chromatin regions of target genes and that SWC4 silencing impairs SWR1-C binding at FT. Collectively, our data suggest that SWC4 regulates plant growth and development by aiding SWR1-C recruitment and modulating H2A.Z deposition.This work was supported by grants BIO2010-15589, BIO2013-43098-R, and BIO2016-77559-R to J.A.J. and M.P., and grant RYC-2013-14689 to P.C. from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO/FEDER, EU), and Marie Curie FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF grant 298790 to P.C. and J.A.J. from the European Commission. The CBGP is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV-2016-0672). The CNIC is supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad and the Pro CNIC Foundation, and is also a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV-2015-0505).S

¿Cambia mucho el tamaño de grano obtenido mediante tamizado manual frente al mecánico?

Los procesos erosivos en el litoral, junto con la importancia económica del turismo (Houston, 2008), hacen que las realimentaciones periódicas de nuestras playas sean sumamente frecuentes. Y el tamaño de la arena es uno de los más importantes parámetros a la hora proyectar este tipo de obras. La media o la desviación típica del tamaño de grano son imprescindibles para comprobar si la arena de préstamo (terrestre o sumergida) es adecuada para sustituir a la transportada previamente por el mar (Pranzini et al., 2018). Además, el conocimiento de la distribución granulométrica del sedimento hace posible prever la reacción del perfil transversal ante una tormenta (Larson y Kraus, 1991), o calcular la cantidad necesaria de arena para abordar una regeneración (USACE, 2002). Por otra parte, a la hora de tomar decisiones sobre la zona de vertido de una cántara llena de arena, el gestor precisa conocer los parámetros antes mencionados de manera casi inmediata. Eso significa que los análisis del sedimento deben efectuarse a bordo de la draga, mientras se desplaza de la zona de préstamo hacia la costa a regenerar. Sin embargo, debido a la habitual escasez de espacio, a la ausencia de un laboratorio adecuado y al no siempre fiable suministro eléctrico, los tamizados deben hacerse a mano. Ya se ha estudiado la influencia del tiempo de tamizado a la hora de analizar la distribución granulométrica de una arena de playa o de duna (Roman-Sierra et al., 2013). Sin embargo, hasta este momento no se ha analizado la posible diferencia en la media y la desviación típica de una arena tamizada de manera manual a bordo de una draga frente a una tamizadora mecánica en un laboratorio en tierra. Asímismo, para ahorrar espacio y esfuerzo físico, a bordo de la draga suelen usarse tamices de 10 cm de diámetro frente a los más habituales de 20 cm en laboratorio. Para dar respuesta a estas preguntas, se aprovechó una regeneración efectuada en Cádiz en el año 2017 para efectuar una serie de pruebas a bordo de la draga Njord. Los extrapolables y más que útiles resultados, así como la influencia y consecuencias que tienen las diferencias observadas en la dirección de obras de regeneración de playas, se expondrán durante la presentación oral

A finite element-based machine learning approach for modeling the mechanical behavior of the breast tissues under compression in real-time

[EN] This work presents a data-driven method to simulate, in real-time, the biomechanical behavior of the breast tissues in some image-guided interventions such as biopsies or radiotherapy dose delivery as well as to speed up multimodal registration algorithms. Ten real breasts were used for this work. Their deformation due to the displacement of two compression plates was simulated off-line using the finite element (FE) method. Three machine learning models were trained with the data from those simulations. Then, they were used to predict in real-time the deformation of the breast tissues during the compression. The models were a decision tree and two tree-based ensemble methods (extremely randomized trees and random forest). Two different experimental setups were designed to validate and study the performance of these models under different conditions. The mean 3D Euclidean distance between nodes predicted by the models and those extracted from the FE simulations was calculated to assess the performance of the models in the validation set. The experiments proved that extremely randomized trees performed better than the other two models. The mean error committed by the three models in the prediction of the nodal displacements was under 2 man, a threshold usually set for clinical applications. The time needed for breast compression prediction is sufficiently short to allow its use in real-time (< 0.2 s).This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through research projects TIN2014-52033-R and DPI2013-40859-R with the support of European FEDER funds.Martínez Martínez, F.; Rupérez Moreno, MJ.; Martínez-Sober, M.; Solves Llorens, JA.; Lorente, D.; Serrano-Lopez, A.; Martinez-Sanchis, S.... (2017). A finite element-based machine learning approach for modeling the mechanical behavior of the breast tissues under compression in real-time. Computers in Biology and Medicine. 90:116-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2017.09.019S1161249

Análisis de Latencia de Controladores de Audio para Aplicaciones de Metrología Acústica

La adquisición y reproducción en alta definición de señales acústicas implica cumplimentar diversos requisitos en función de las características de las señales y del sistema interviniente. La fidelidad del proceso de adquisición/reproducción de sonido, la latencia, lainmunidad al ruido y la diafonía son algunos de los factores que definen la calidad de un sistema de adquisición/reproducción de señales acústicas. Por lo general, en aplicaciones de metrología acústica, estos sistemas son de elevado costo y uso privativo. En este trabajo se presenta la comparación de la medición de latencia de dos controladores de audio que operan un sistema para aplicaciones de metrología acústica de bajo costo, evidenciando diferencias significativas entre ambos para dos condiciones de ensayo. Dicho sistema está conformado por computador personal, una tarjeta de adquisición/reproducción de sonido estándar y programas de cómputo numérico. El trabajo se presenta en el marco del proyecto de diseño y desarrollo de un sistema automático de medición de dispositivos acústicos, el cual permite caracterizar dispositivos acústicos activos y pasivos.Fil: Simes, José. Centro de Investigación y Transferencia en Acústica; ArgentinaFil: Ferreyra, Sebastian Pablo. Centro de Investigación y Transferencia en Acústica; ArgentinaFil: Moreno, Ana M.. Centro de Investigación y Transferencia en Acústica; ArgentinaFil: Lopez, Juan Facundo. Centro de Investigación y Transferencia en Acústica; ArgentinaFil: Morales, Juan Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages". Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica y de Computadoras. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages"; ArgentinaFil: Rametta, Julian. Centro de Investigación y Transferencia en Acústica; ArgentinaFil: Cravero, Gabriel Agustín. Centro de Investigación y Transferencia en Acústica; ArgentinaFil: Longoni, Hugo César. Centro de Investigación y Transferencia en Acústica; ArgentinaXXIII Congreso sobre Métodos Numéricos y sus AplicacionesLa PlataArgentinaAsociacion Argentina de Mecanica computaciona

La rizobacteria Pseudomonas alcaligenes AVO110 induce la expresión de genes relacionados con formación de biofilms en respuesta a exudados de Rosellinia necatrix

La rizobacteria Pseudomonas alcaligenes AVO110 muestra antagonismo frente al hongo fitopatógeno Rosellinia necatrix. Esta cepa coloniza eficazmente las hifas de R. necatrix y es capaz de alimentarse de sus exudados. Recientemente, hemos publicado la secuencia completa del genoma de P. alcaligenes AVO110. La filogenia de todos los genomas de P. alcaligenes disponibles separa los aislados ambientales, procedentes de agua, junto a la cepa AVO110, de los obtenidos de infecciones de sangre humana y de tejidos de ostras, que agrupan con Pseudomonas otitidis. Análisis del core y del pangenoma de P. alcaligenes han revelado que las cepas de esta especie codifican conjuntos de genes altamente heterogéneos, y que el genoma de AVO110 codifica la región variable más grande y exclusiva de todos ellos (aproximadamente 1,6 Mb y 1795 genes). Los genes exclusivos de AVO110 incluyen un amplio repertorio de genes relacionados con la formación de biopelículas (biofilms), de entre los cuales destacan aquellos modulados transcripcionalmente por exudados de R. necatrix. Uno de estos genes (cmpA) codifica una proteína con dominios GGDEF/EAL específica de cepas de Pseudomonas spp. aisladas de la rizosfera de diversas plantas, de suelo y de agua. También hemos demostrado que CmpA tiene un papel en la formación de biopelículas y que la integridad de su dominio EAL está involucrada en esta función. Este trabajo contribuye a una mejor comprensión del estilo de vida y de la adaptación a nichos específicos de P. alcaligenes, incluido el comportamiento micofágico de la cepa AVO110.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Strong variability of Martian water ice clouds during dust storms revealed from ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter/NOMAD

Observations of water ice clouds and aerosols on Mars can provide important insights into the complexity of the water cycle. Recent observations have indicated an important link between dust activity and the water cycle, as intense dust activity can significantly raise the hygropause, and subsequently increase the escape of water after dissociation in the upper atmosphere. Here present observations from NOMAD/TGO that investigate the variation of water ice clouds in the perihelion season of Mars Year 34 (April 2018‐19), their diurnal and seasonal behavior, and the vertical structure and microphysical properties of water ice and dust. These observations reveal the recurrent presence of a layer of mesospheric water ice clouds subsequent to the 2018 Global Dust Storm. We show that this layer rose from 45 to 80 km in altitude on a timescale of days from heating in the lower atmosphere due to the storm. In addition, we demonstrate that there is a strong dawn dusk asymmetry in water ice abundance, related to nighttime nucleation and subsequent daytime sublimation. Water ice particle sizes are retrieved consistently and exhibit sharp vertical gradients (from 0.1 to 4.0 μm), as well as mesospheric differences between the Global Dust Storm (<0.5 μm) and the 2019 regional dust storm (1.0 μm), which suggests differing water ice nucleation efficiencies. These results form the basis to advance our understanding of mesospheric water ice clouds on Mars, and further constrain the interactions between water ice and dust in the middle atmosphere

Socio-emotional strengths against psychopathology and suicidal ideation in fear of COVID-19

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused a global health crisis. It also leads to different types of psychosocial problems in society as a result of preventive health measures and the disease itself. Among others, psychopathological symptoms and suicide behaviors have increased. The PsicorecurSOS COVID-19 online protocol was designed. At baseline, 1020 Spanish adults were assessed, during confinement, for sociodemographics, fear of COVID-19, anxious-depressive symptoms, covitality, and suicidal ideation. Reliability, descriptive, and frequency analyses were carried out, and the computer tool SPSS PROCESS was used to carry out a conditional process analysis (model 59). A total of 595 participants were included (58.30% response rate from baseline; mean age = 37.18 [SD = 13.30]; 72.44% female). Regarding suicidal ideation, 12% responded differently to “never,” 19.3% exceeded the cutoff point on the anxiety scale, and 24% on the depression scale. Moderate mediation analysis explained 27% of the variance in suicidal ideation. In addition, the indirect effect of moderate mediation was significant (b = −.004, SE = .002 with the presence of covitality; and b = .01, SE = .003 absence of covitality). Sex and age did not influence the overall outcome of the model. The data from this study can serve as a starting point for generating social and health treatment initiatives based on self-examination of anxiety-depressive symptoms and increasing socio-emotional skills in order to prevent and alleviate the psychosocial effects of the pandemic.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature

Immunological predictors of CD4+ T cell decline in antiretroviral treatment interruptions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The common response to stopping anti-HIV treatment is an increase of HIV-RNA load and decrease in CD4⁺, but not all the patients have similar responses to this therapeutic strategy. The aim was to identify predictive markers of CD4⁺cell count declines to < 350/μL in CD4-guided antiretroviral treatment interruptions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>27 HIV-infected patients participated in a prospective multicenter study in with a 24 month follow-up. Patients on stable highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), with CD4⁺count > 600/μL, and HIV-RNA < 50 copies/ml for at least 6 months were offered the option to discontinue antiretroviral therapy. The main outcome was a decline in CD4⁺cell count to < 350/μL.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After 24 months of follow-up, 16 of 27 (59%) patients (who discontinued therapy) experienced declines in CD4⁺cell count to < 350/μL. Patients with a CD4⁺nadir of < 200 cells/μL had a greater risk of restarting therapy during the follow-up (RR (CI95%): 3.37 (1.07; 10.36)). Interestingly, lymphoproliferative responses to <it>Mycobacterium tuberculosis </it>purified protein derivative (PPD) below 10000 c.p.m. at baseline (4.77 (1.07; 21.12)), IL-4 production above 100 pg/mL at baseline (5.95 (1.76; 20.07)) in PBMC cultured with PPD, and increased IL-4 production of PBMC with p24 antigen at baseline (1.25 (1.01; 1.55)) were associated to declines in CD4⁺cell count to < 350/μL.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Both the number (CD4⁺nadir) and the functional activity of CD4⁺(lymphoproliferative response to PPD) predict the CD4⁺decrease associated with discontinuation of ART in patients with controlled viremia.</p