Estimation of Housing Price Variations Using Spatio-Temporal Data

This paper proposes a hedonic regression model to estimate housing prices and the spatial variability of prices overmultiple years. Using themodel, maps are obtained that represent areas of the city where there have been positive or negative changes in housing prices. The regression-cokriging (RCK)method is used to predict housing prices. The results are compared to the cokrigingwith external drift (CKED) model, also known as universal cokriging (UCK). To apply the model, heterotopic data of homes for sale at different moments in time are used. The procedure is applied to predict the spatial variability of housing prices in multi-years and to obtain isovalue maps of these variations for the city of Granada, Spain. The research is useful for the fields of urban studies, economics, real estate, real estate valuations, urban planning, and for scholars.This work was conducted within the framework of a research project granted by CEMIX-6/16 and financed by Banco Santander

Analysing spatial interdependence among the 2011 Thailand flood-affected small and medium enterprises for reduction of disaster recovery time period

The authors would like to acknowledge the continuous support and guidance of the colleagues and family members. The author would like to acknowledge the constant support and guidance from Anila Pathak, Nupur Chaturvedi, Meleana Chaturvedi and Aaryana Pathak. ORCID: 0000-0002-2750-8483 (Shubham Pathak).Natural disasters have been a significant hurdle in the economic growth of middle-income developing countries. Thailand has also been suffering from recurring flood disasters and was most which are severely affected during the 2011 floods. This paper aims to identify the various factors that impact the speed of disaster recovery among the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) severely affected by the floods in Pathumthani province in central Thailand, and how it is related to its speed decision of neighbours SMEs. The methodology adopts a spatial econometric model, to analysis and understand each of the chosen factors' impact. The findings include the impact of disaster resilience, mitigation and planning at the SME level as well as the government level. The absence of accurate perception of actual risk, flood insurance and disaster management planning before the 2011 floods had contributed to the severity of the impacts during the 2011 floods

Genomic and toxigenic heterogeneity of bacillus cereus sensu lato Isolated from ready-to-eat foods and powdered milk in day care centers in Colombia

Bacillus cereus sensu lato (s.l.) is a group of bacteria commonly found in diverse environments, including foods, with potential to cause emesis and diarrhea. In Colombia, it is one of the main foodborne pathogens. The aim of this study was to determine the genomic and toxigenic heterogeneity of B. cereus s.l. isolated from ready-to-eat foods and powdered milk collected in day care centers of Medellin, Colombia. Of 112 B. cereus s.l. isolates obtained, 94% were beta-hemolytic. Toxigenic heterogeneity was established by the presence of nheABC, hblCDAB, cytK2, entFM, and cesB toxigenic genes. The nheABC operon and entFM gene were most frequently detected in the isolates, whereas the cesB gene was not found. According to the toxin genes content, nine toxigenic profiles were identified. A 44% of isolates had profiles with all genes for nonhemolytic enterotoxin, hemolysin BL, and enterotoxin FM production (profiles II and IV). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis indicated a high genomic heterogeneity among the B. cereus s.l., with 68 isolates grouping into 16 clusters and 33 placed separately in the dendrogram. This study provides useful information on the safety of ready-to-eat foods and powdered milk in day care centers where children, a susceptible population, are exposed and it should incentive for more studies to understand the distribution of different toxin-encoding genes among B. cereus s.l. isolates, enabling detailed risk assessment

The Role of the Tourism Network in the Coordination of Pandemic Control Measures

The emergence and spread of COVID-19 has severely impacted the tourism industry worldwide. In order to limit the effect of new pandemics or any unforeseen crisis, coordinated actions need to be adopted among tourism stakeholders. In this paper, we use an evolutionary game model to analyze the conditions that promote cooperation among different stakeholders in a tourism network to control high-risk crises. A data sample of 280 EU regions is used to define the tourism network of regions with a heterogeneous dependence on tourism. The results show that cooperation is helped by the existence of a structured tourism network. Moreover, cooperation is enhanced when coordination groups include small numbers of participants and when they are formed according to the similarity of tourism dependence.University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria COVID-19-04Spanish GovernmentAndalusian GovernmentEuropean Commission P18-TP-4475 PID2021-122916NB-I00 RYC-2016-1980

Rewarding policies in an asymmetric game for sustainable tourism

Tourism is a growing sector worldwide, but many popular destinations are facing sustain- ability problems due to excessive tourist flows and inappropriate behavior. In these areas, there is an urgent need to apply mechanisms to stimulate sustainable practices. This paper studies the most efficient strategy to incentivize sustainable tourism by using an asymmet- ric evolutionary game. We analyze the application of rewarding policies to the asymmetric game where tourists and stakeholders interact in a spatial lattice, and where tourists can also migrate. The incentives of the rewarding policies have an economic budget which can be allocated to tourists, to stakeholders, or to both sub-populations. The results show that an adaptive rewarding strategy, where the incentive budget changes over time to one or the other sub-population, is more effective than simple rewarding strategies that are exclu- sively focused on one sub-population. However, when the population density in the game decreases, rewarding just tourists becomes the most effective strateg

Nonmyocytes as electrophysiological contributors to cardiac excitation and conduction.

Although cardiac action potential (AP) generation and propagation have traditionally been attributed exclusively to cardiomyocytes (CM), other cell types in the heart are also capable of forming electrically conducting junctions. Interactions between CM and nonmyocytes (NM) enable and modulate each other's activity. This review provides an overview of the current understanding of heterocellular electrical communication in the heart. Although cardiac fibroblasts were initially thought to be electrical insulators, recent studies have demonstrated that they form functional electrical connections with CM in situ. Other NM, such as macrophages, have also been recognized as contributing to cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmogenesis. Novel experimental tools have enabled the investigation of cell-specific activity patterns in native cardiac tissue, which is expected to yield exciting new insights into the development of novel or improved diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.A.S.-C. received financial support via a “la Caixa” Foundation under ID 100010434 and PhD Fellowship LCF/BQ/DR19/11740029.S

Iterative approach to computational enzyme design

A general approach for the computational design of enzymes to catalyze arbitrary reactions is a goal at the forefront of the field of protein design. Recently, computationally designed enzymes have been produced for three chemical reactions through the synthesis and screening of a large number of variants. Here, we present an iterative approach that has led to the development of the most catalytically efficient computationally designed enzyme for the Kemp elimination to date. Previously established computational techniques were used to generate an initial design, HG-1, which was catalytically inactive. Analysis of HG-1 with molecular dynamics simulations (MD) and X-ray crystallography indicated that the inactivity might be due to bound waters and high flexibility of residues within the active site. This analysis guided changes to our design procedure, moved the design deeper into the interior of the protein, and resulted in an active Kemp eliminase, HG-2. The cocrystal structure of this enzyme with a transition state analog (TSA) revealed that the TSA was bound in the active site, interacted with the intended catalytic base in a catalytically relevant manner, but was flipped relative to the design model. MD analysis of HG-2 led to an additional point mutation, HG-3, that produced a further threefold improvement in activity. This iterative approach to computational enzyme design, including detailed MD and structural analysis of both active and inactive designs, promises a more complete understanding of the underlying principles of enzymatic catalysis and furthers progress toward reliably producing active enzymes

KINEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE SNATCH TECHNIQUE OF COLOMBIAN 62 KG DIVISION WEIGHTLIFTERS PARTICIPATING IN THE 52nd NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, "CARTAGENA 2014"

The purpose of this study was to identify the behaviour of some kinematic lineal variables during the execution of the snatch of the Colombian 62 kg division weightlifters participating in the 52nd National Championship in Cartagena in 2014, to recognize the movement patterns in this population, to identify the principal values of velocity peaks, the percentage of the height reached by the bar at its maximal point in relation to the weightlifter’s height, the relationship between the time of execution and the maximal peak of 3D velocity. All of the lifts, 100%, were analyzed of which 56% (n32) were valid

Geostatistical modelling of a coal seam for resource risk assessment

The evaluation of a coal seam for profitable extraction requires the estimation of its thickness and quality characteristics together with the spatial variability of these variables. In many cases the only data available for the estimation are from a limited number of exploration and feasibility drill holes. Spatial variability can be quantified by geostatistical modelling, which provides the basis for estimation (kriging). In cases where the spatial variability of the seam thickness and quality characteristics has a significant impact on how the coal is extracted and stored, geostatistical simulation may be preferable to geostatistical kriging methods. The aim of this paper is to present an improved approach to resource risk assessment by propagating the uncertainty in semi-variogram model parameters into the spatial variability of coal variables. We show that a more realistic assessment of risk is obtained when the uncertainty of semi-variogram model parameters is taken into account. The methodology is illustrated with a coal seam from North-western Spain. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.E. Pardo-Igúzquiza, P.A. Dowd, J.M. Baltuille, M. Chica-Olm

Functional characterization of correct and incorrect feature integration

Advance access publication date 30 April 2022Our sensory system constantly receives information from the environment and our own body. Despite our impression to the contrary, we remain largely unaware of this information and often cannot report it correctly. Although perceptual processing does not require conscious effort on the part of the observer, it is often complex, giving rise to errors such as incorrect integration of features (illusory conjunctions). In the present study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the neural bases of feature integration in a dual task that produced ~30% illusions. A distributed set of regions demonstrated increased activity for correct compared to incorrect (illusory) feature integration, with increased functional coupling between occipital and parietal regions. In contrast, incorrect feature integration (illusions) was associated with increased occipital (V1–V2) responses at early stages, reduced functional connectivity between right occipital regions and the frontal eye field at later stages, and an overall decrease in coactivation between occipital and parietal regions. These results underscore the role of parietal regions in feature integration and highlight the relevance of functional occipito-frontal interactions in perceptual processing.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation research projects PSI2017-88136 and PID2020-119033GB-I00 and the local government of Andalusia (Proyectos de I+D+i en el marco del Programa Operativo FEDER, B-SEJ-570-UGR20) to Ana B. Chica. Pedro M. Paz- Alonso was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [RYC-2014- 15440 and PGC2018-093408-B-I00], Neuroscience projects from the Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno, Basque Government [PIBA-2021-1-0003], and a grant from “la Caixa” Banking Foundation under the project code LCF/PR/HR19/52160002. BCBL acknowledges support by the Basque Government through the BERC 2022-2025 program and by the Spanish State Research Agency through BCBL Severo Ochoa excellence accreditation CEX2020-001010-S