Novelty Accommodating Multi-Agent Planning in High Fidelity Simulated Open World

Autonomous agents acting in real-world environments often need to reason with unknown novelties interfering with their plan execution. Novelty is an unexpected phenomenon that can alter the core characteristics, composition, and dynamics of the environment. Novelty can occur at any time in any sufficiently complex environment without any prior notice or explanation. Previous studies show that novelty has catastrophic impact on agent performance. Intelligent agents reason with an internal model of the world to understand the intricacies of their environment and to successfully execute their plans. The introduction of novelty into the environment usually renders their internal model inaccurate and the generated plans no longer applicable. Novelty is particularly prevalent in the real world where domain-specific and even predicted novelty-specific approaches are used to mitigate the novelty's impact. In this work, we demonstrate that a domain-independent AI agent designed to detect, characterize, and accommodate novelty in smaller-scope physics-based games such as Angry Birds and Cartpole can be adapted to successfully perform and reason with novelty in realistic high-fidelity simulator of the military domain

El acceso a los destinos rurales: una perspectiva para la planificación territorial del turismo en una región de interior (Castilla-La Mancha)

El artículo propone una tipología de áreas de mercado turístico a partir del análisis de la accesibilidad a los principales activos turísticos de Castilla-La Mancha. El objetivo es profundizar en la búsqueda de explicaciones lógicas sobre el impacto que tiene la accesibilidad en el desarrollo turístico de los territorios. Especialmente en áreas rurales donde la dotación diferencial de infraestructuras de transporte ha generado desequilibrios notables. Su comprensión, desde la lógica estructural origen-enlace-destino que adoptan muchos de los sistemas territoriales, supone un avance en el complejo proceso de planificación territorial del turismo. Los resultados obtenidos y trasladados a la escala supramunicipal ponen de relieve potencialidades y desventajas a considerar en las estrategias de los espacios rurales. 

Synchronization of coupled single-electron circuits based on nanoparticles and tunneling junctions

We explore theoretically the synchronization properties of a device composed of coupled single-electron circuits whose building blocks are nanoparticles interconnected with tunneling junctions. Elementary nanoscillators can be achieved by a single-electron tunneling cell where the relaxation oscillation is induced by the tunneling. We develop a model to describe the synchronization of the nanoscillators and present sample calculations to demonstrate that the idea is feasible and could readily find applications. Instead of considering a particular system, we analyze the general properties of the device making use of an ideal model that emphasizes the essential characteristics of the concept. We define an order parameter for the system as a whole and demonstrate phase synchronization for sufficiently high values of the coupling [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Point-of-Care Ultrasound to Identify Rib Osteomyelitis in the Infants: a Case Report

The number of reported cases of rib osteomyelitis is very infrequent. Magnetic resonance is generally the best test in these cases, due to its high sensitivity and specifcity. However, given this technique has some drawbacks, it is usually restricted to cases of bad evolution. A relevant, easy to perform, bedside imaging test is the point of care ultrasound. We present the case of a 2-month-old infant with a rib osteomyelitis detected by point-of-care ultrasound in the context of sepsis after abdominal surgery. The thoracic ultrasound revealed a lesion adjacent to the right sixth rib and round extra-parenchymal collection in the right costophrenic sinus. Chest computed tomography confrmed the presence of a hypodense collection at the costochondral junction of the right seventh rib with pleural thickening and an increase in soft tissues, compatible with osteomyelitis. Our ultrasound fnding in the absence of specifc clinical data of rib osteomyelitis led us to a change in the duration of the antibiotic treatment already established and therefore likely led to an improvement in the patient’s prognosis. The ultrasound has gained increasing prominence due to its usefulness in diagnosis and monitoring, especially in pediatric intensive care, given the ease of use at the patient’s bedside

Estimation of Fiber Orientations Using Neighborhood Information

Data from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) can be used to reconstruct fiber tracts, for example, in muscle and white matter. Estimation of fiber orientations (FOs) is a crucial step in the reconstruction process and these estimates can be corrupted by noise. In this paper, a new method called Fiber Orientation Reconstruction using Neighborhood Information (FORNI) is described and shown to reduce the effects of noise and improve FO estimation performance by incorporating spatial consistency. FORNI uses a fixed tensor basis to model the diffusion weighted signals, which has the advantage of providing an explicit relationship between the basis vectors and the FOs. FO spatial coherence is encouraged using weighted l1-norm regularization terms, which contain the interaction of directional information between neighbor voxels. Data fidelity is encouraged using a squared error between the observed and reconstructed diffusion weighted signals. After appropriate weighting of these competing objectives, the resulting objective function is minimized using a block coordinate descent algorithm, and a straightforward parallelization strategy is used to speed up processing. Experiments were performed on a digital crossing phantom, ex vivo tongue dMRI data, and in vivo brain dMRI data for both qualitative and quantitative evaluation. The results demonstrate that FORNI improves the quality of FO estimation over other state of the art algorithms.Comment: Journal paper accepted in Medical Image Analysis. 35 pages and 16 figure

Neutral high-generation phosphorus dendrimers inhibit macrophage-mediated inflammatory response in vitro and in vivo

Inflammation is part of the physiological response of the organism to infectious diseases caused by organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites. Innate immunity, mediated by mono nuclear phagocytes, including monocytes and macrophages, is a first line of defense against infectious diseases and plays a key role triggering the delayed adaptive response that ensures an efficient defense against pathogens. Monocytes and macrophages stimu lation by pathogen antigens results in activation of different signaling pathways leading to the release of proinflammatory cyto kines. However, inflammation can also participate in the pathogenesis of several diseases, the autoimmune diseases that represent a relevant burden for human health. Dendrimers are branched, multivalent nanoparticles with a well-defined structure that have a high potential for biomedical applications. To explore new approaches to fight against the negative aspects of inflammation, we have used neutral high-generation phosphorus dendrimers bearing 48 (G3) or 96 (G4) bisphosphonate groups on their surface. These dendrimers show no toxicity and have good solubility and chemical stability in aqueous solutions. Here, we present data indicating that neutral phosphorus dendrimers show impressive antiinflammatory activities both in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, these dendrimers reduced the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines from mice and human monocyte derived macrophages. In addition, these molecules present efficient antiinflammatory activity in vivo in a mouse model of subchronic inflammation. Taken together, these data suggest that neutral G3- G4 phosphorus dendrimers have strong potential applications in the therapy of inflammation and, likely, of autoimmune diseases.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

MicroRNAs control the apoptotic threshold in primed Pluripotent stem cells through regulation of BIM

Mammalian primed pluripotent stem cells have been shown to be highly susceptible to cell death stimuli due to their low apoptotic threshold, but how this threshold is regulated remains largely unknown. Here we identify microRNA (miRNA)-mediated regulation as a key mechanism controlling apoptosis in the post-implantation epiblast. Moreover, we found that three miRNA families, miR-20, miR-92, and miR-302, control the mitochondrial apoptotic machinery by fine-tuning the levels of expression of the proapoptotic protein BIM. These families therefore represent an essential buffer needed to maintain cell survival in stem cells that are primed for not only differentiation but also cell death

Distinct mechanisms regulate Cdx2 expression in the blastocyst and in trophoblast stem cells

The first intercellular differences during mammalian embryogenesis arise in the blastocyst, producing the inner cell mass and the trophectoderm. The trophectoderm is the first extraembryonic tissue and does not contribute to the embryo proper, its differentiation instead forming tissues that sustain embryonic development. Crucial roles in extraembryonic differentiation have been identified for certain transcription factors, but a comprehensive picture of the regulation of this early specification is still lacking. Here, we investigated whether the regulatory mechanisms involved in Cdx2 expression in the blastocyst are also utilized in the postimplantation embryo. We analyzed an enhancer that is regulated through Hippo and Notch in the blastocyst trophectoderm, unexpectedly finding that it is inactive in the extraembryonic structures at postimplantation stages. Further analysis identified other Cdx2 regulatory elements including a stem-cell specific regulatory sequence and an element that drives reporter expression in the trophectoderm, a subset of cells in the extraembryonic region of the postimplantation embryo and in trophoblast stem cells. The cross-comparison in this study of cis-regulatory elements employed in the blastocyst, stem cell populations and the postimplantation embryo provides new insights into early mammalian development and suggests a two-step mechanism in Cdx2 regulation.We thank Barbara Pernaute for comments and suggestions; members of the Manzanares lab for comments, technical help and support; Ian Chambers and Austin Smith for the ZHBTc4 ES cell line; Tristan Rodriguez for the B1-TS cell line; Luis Miguel Criado and the CNIC Transgenesis Unit for TS cell morulae injections and support; Roisin Doohan for help with sections; and Simon Bartlett (CNIC) for English editing. This study was funded by grants from the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (grant BFU2011-23083 and BFU2014-54608-P to MM; FPU Doctoral Fellowship to TR; FPI-SO Doctoral Fellowship to SM; Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence award SEV-2015-0505 to CNIC), Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid (grant CELLDD-CM to MM), Canadian Institute of Health Research (JR), Imperial College (VA), and the MRC and Genesis Research Trust (AH). The CNIC is supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad and the Pro-CNIC Foundation.S