Impact of Local Congruences in Attribute Reduction

Local congruences are equivalence relations whose equivalence classes are convex sublattices of the original lattice. In this paper, we present a study that relates local congruences to attribute reduction in FCA. Specifically, we will analyze the impact in the context of the use of local congruences, when they are used for complementing an attribute reduction

The cooperative parallel: A discussion about run-time schedulers for nested parallelism

Nested parallelism is a well-known parallelization strategy to exploit irregular parallelism in HPC applications. This strategy also fits in critical real-time embedded systems, composed of a set of concurrent functionalities. In this case, nested parallelism can be used to further exploit the parallelism of each functionality. However, current run-time implementations of nested parallelism can produce inefficiencies and load imbalance. Moreover, in critical real-time embedded systems, it may lead to incorrect executions due to, for instance, a work non-conserving scheduler. In both cases, the reason is that the teams of OpenMP threads are a black-box for the scheduler, i.e., the scheduler that assigns OpenMP threads and tasks to the set of available computing resources is agnostic to the internal execution of each team. This paper proposes a new run-time scheduler that considers dynamic information of the OpenMP threads and tasks running within several concurrent teams, i.e., concurrent parallel regions. This information may include the existence of OpenMP threads waiting in a barrier and the priority of tasks ready to execute. By making the concurrent parallel regions to cooperate, the shared computing resources can be better controlled and a work conserving and priority driven scheduler can be guaranteed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Frecuencia de colonización por Estreptococo grupo B en embarazadas de 35 a 37 semanas en el Hospital Materno-Infantil San Pablo

La colonización del Estreptococo grupo B en la embarazada está relacionada a patologías perinatales, constituyéndose en una causa muy importante de morbi-mortalidad neonatal. De manera a reducir dicha morbi-mortalidad, el Centro de Control y Prevención de Enfermedades Infecciosas de Estados Unidos desarrolló una estrategia que consiste en realizar el cultivo de muestra tanto vaginal como ano-rectal de todas las mujeres entre 35 y 37 semanas de gestación. El objetivo de este trabajo fue determinar la frecuencia de colonización por Estreptococo β hemolítico grupo B en mujeres gestantes entre las 35-37 semanas de embarazo que concurrieron al Hospital Materno-Infantil San Pablo, Centro de Salud Nº 5, desde abril del 2010 a agosto del 2011. Se realizó un estudio con diseño observacional descriptivo de corte transverso. Las muestras fueron tomadas mediante hisopado de introito vaginal y ano-rectal, colocadas en medio de transporte Stuart y remitidas al Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud para el cultivo en agar sangre, previo enriquecimiento en caldo Todd Hewitt. La identificación bacteriana se realizó mediante pruebas bioquímicas convencionales y la confirmación mediante aglutinación con látex. La frecuencia de colonización obtenida fue relativamente alta, de 23,6%. Los resultados de este estudio permiten dimensionar la problemática en nuestro país y evidenciar la necesidad de la implementación de un programa a nivel nacional para la detección del Estreptococo grupo B de forma rutinaria en las embarazadas. De esta manera, se podrá disminuir la morbi-mortalidad perinatal y materna con la administración oportuna del tratamiento profiláctico

Understanding the dynamics of Toll-like Receptor 5 response to flagellin and its regulation by estradiol

© 2017 The Author(s). Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are major players of the innate immune system. Once activated, they trigger a signalling cascade that leads to NF-ΰ B translocation from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Single cell analysis shows that NF-ΰ B signalling dynamics are a critical determinant of transcriptional regulation. Moreover, the outcome of innate immune response is also affected by the cross-talk between TLRs and estrogen signalling. Here, we characterized the dynamics of TLR5 signalling, responsible for the recognition of flagellated bacteria, and those changes induced by estradiol in its signalling at the single cell level. TLR5 activation in MCF7 cells induced a single and sustained NF-k B translocation into the nucleus that resulted in high NF-k B transcription activity. The overall magnitude of NF-k B transcription activity was not influenced by the duration of the stimulus. No significant changes are observed in the dynamics of NF-k B translocation to the nucleus when MCF7 cells are incubated with estradiol. However, estradiol significantly decreased NF-k B transcriptional activity while increasing TLR5-mediated AP-1 transcription. The effect of estradiol on transcriptional activity was dependent on the estrogen receptor activated. This fine tuning seems to occur mainly in the nucleus at the transcription level rather than affecting the translocation of the NF-k B transcription factor

Annealing study and thermal investigation on bismuth sulfide thin films prepared by chemical bath deposition in basic medium

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Applied Physics A 124.2 (2018): 166. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-018-1584-7Bismuth sulfide thin films were prepared by chemical bath deposition using thiourea as sulfide ion source in basic medium. First, the effects of both the deposition parameters on films growth as well as the annealing effect under argon and sulfur atmosphere on as-deposited thin films were studied. The parameters were found to be influential using the Doehlert matrix experimental design methodology. Ranges for a maximum surface mass of films (3 mg cm-2) were determined. A well crystallized major phase of bismuth sulfide with stoichiometric composition was achieved at 190°C for 3 hours. The prepared thin films were characterized using Grazing Incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). Second, the band gap energy value was found to be 1.5 eV. Finally, the thermal properties have been studied for the first time by means of the electropyroelectric (EPE) technique. Indeed, the thermal conductivity varied in the range of 1.20 - 0.60 W m-1 K-1 while the thermal diffusivity values increased in terms of the annealing effect ranging from 1.8 to 3.5 10-7 m2s-1This work was financially supported by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and by the WINCOST (ENE2016-80788-C5-2-R) project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivenes

Physics of Neutron Star Crusts

The physics of neutron star crusts is vast, involving many different research fields, from nuclear and condensed matter physics to general relativity. This review summarizes the progress, which has been achieved over the last few years, in modeling neutron star crusts, both at the microscopic and macroscopic levels. The confrontation of these theoretical models with observations is also briefly discussed.Comment: 182 pages, published version available at <http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2008-10

Search for supersymmetric particles in scenarios with a gravitino LSP and stau NLSP

Sleptons, neutralinos and charginos were searched for in the context of scenarios where the lightest supersymmetric particle is the gravitino. It was assumed that the stau is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle. Data collected with the DELPHI detector at a centre-of-mass energy near 189 GeV were analysed combining the methods developed in previous searches at lower energies. No evidence for the production of these supersymmetric particles was found. Hence, limits were derived at 95% confidence level.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figure

A New Dolphin Species, the Burrunan Dolphin Tursiops australis sp. nov., Endemic to Southern Australian Coastal Waters

Small coastal dolphins endemic to south-eastern Australia have variously been assigned to described species Tursiops truncatus, T. aduncus or T. maugeanus; however the specific affinities of these animals is controversial and have recently been questioned. Historically ‘the southern Australian Tursiops’ was identified as unique and was formally named Tursiops maugeanus but was later synonymised with T. truncatus. Morphologically, these coastal dolphins share some characters with both aforementioned recognised Tursiops species, but they also possess unique characters not found in either. Recent mtDNA and microsatellite genetic evidence indicates deep evolutionary divergence between this dolphin and the two currently recognised Tursiops species. However, in accordance with the recommendations of the Workshop on Cetacean Systematics, and the Unified Species Concept the use of molecular evidence alone is inadequate for describing new species. Here we describe the macro-morphological, colouration and cranial characters of these animals, assess the available and new genetic data, and conclude that multiple lines of evidence clearly indicate a new species of dolphin. We demonstrate that the syntype material of T. maugeanus comprises two different species, one of which is the historical ‘southern form of Tursiops’ most similar to T. truncatus, and the other is representative of the new species and requires formal classification. These dolphins are here described as Tursiops australis sp. nov., with the common name of ‘Burrunan Dolphin’ following Australian aboriginal narrative. The recognition of T. australis sp. nov. is particularly significant given the endemism of this new species to a small geographic region of southern and south-eastern Australia, where only two small resident populations in close proximity to a major urban and agricultural centre are known, giving them a high conservation value and making them susceptible to numerous anthropogenic threats