MIRACLE’s Naive Approach to Medical Images Annotation

One of the proposed tasks of the ImageCLEF 2005 campaign has been an Automatic Annotation Task. The objective is to provide the classification of a given set of 1,000 previously unseen medical (radiological) images according to 57 predefined categories covering different medical pathologies. 9,000 classified training images are given which can be used in any way to train a classifier. The Automatic Annotation task uses no textual information, but image-content information only. This paper describes our participation in the automatic annotation task of ImageCLEF 2005

MIRACLE Retrieval Experiments with East Asian Languages

This paper describes the participation of MIRACLE in NTCIR 2005 CLIR task. Although our group has a strong background and long expertise in Computational Linguistics and Information Retrieval applied to European languages and using Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, this was our first attempt on East Asian languages. Our main goal was to study the particularities and distinctive characteristics of Japanese, Chinese and Korean, specially focusing on the similarities and differences with European languages, and carry out research on CLIR tasks which include those languages. The basic idea behind our participation in NTCIR is to test if the same familiar linguisticbased techniques may also applicable to East Asian languages, and study the necessary adaptations

Canteras y caleras históricas de San Agustín de Guadalix

A 10 largo de los últimos años se han identificado en campo e inventariado cerca de un centenar de caleras históricas a 10 largo de la franja carbonatada del Cretácico Superior, que bordea el escalón tectónico de la Sierra madrileña, desde Patones a Quijorna, asi como en la zona de Rascafria-Pinilla, en la fosa alpina del Lozoya. Asimismo se han hallado muchas otras en relación con las calizas del Mioceno al SE de la Comunidad y alguna mas en terrenos antehercinicos, tal es el caso del skarn de Robledo de Chavela (Fig.-l). Este estudio se ha realizado en el marco de un proyecto de investigación de la Consejería de Educación y Cultura de la Comunidad de Madrid titulado: "Arqueología Industrial: Conservación del Patrimonio Minero Metalúrgico madrileño (IV)" (Planes Regionales de Investigación, Convocatoria de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales)

La aportación del ingeniero de minas Casiano de Prado (1797 – 1866) a la teoría de la “Fauna Primordial” de Joachim Barrande (1799 – 1883)

A lo largo del siglo XIX, la investigación de los primeros seres vivientes que habitaron la Tierra fue un campo de trabajo de los geólogos y paleontólogos más eminentes de la época. En este contexto, Joachim Barrande (1799-1883) desarrolló a partir de taxones hallados en Bohemia una teoría que se basaba en la premisa de que en lo que entonces se pensaba era el Sistema Siluriano se encontraban los fósiles de las primeras especies. A estas especies las llamó “Fauna Primordial”. Esta teoría gozó de una amplia difusión y aceptación entre los científicos de aquellos años. Uno de los pilares fundamentales que respaldaban a la misma fueron los hallazgos de ejemplares pertenecientes a dicha “Fauna Primordial” llevados a cabo en España por el ingeniero de minas Casiano de Prado (1797-1866) en los años 1855 y 1860. En el presente trabajo se analiza la relación científica y personal existente entre Barrande y Prado, la aportación de éste último al conocimiento de la “Fauna Primordial”, y la repercusión que tuvieron en Europa los hallazgos de ejemplares pertenecientes a dicha Fauna en España

Lattice decomposition of modules

The first aim of this work is to characterize when the lattice of all submodules of a module is a direct product of two lattices. In particular, which decompositions of a module M produce these decompositions: the lattice decompositions. In a first etage this can be done using endomorphisms of M, which produce a decomposition of the ring EndR(M) as a product of rings, i.e., they are central idempotent endomorphisms. But since not every central idempotent endomorphism produces a lattice decomposition, the classical theory is not of application. In a second step we characterize when a particular module M has a lattice decomposition; this can be done, in the commutative case in a simple way using the support, Supp(M), of M; but, in general, it is not so easy. Once we know when a module decomposes, we look for characterizing its decompositions. We show that a good framework for this study, and its generalizations, could be provided by the category sigma[M], the smallest Grothendieck subcategory of Mod - R containing M

UAV and satellite imagery applied to alien species mapping in NW Spain

Image classification stands as an essential tool for automated mapping, that is demanded by agencies and stakeholders dealing with geospatial information. Decreasing costs or UAV-based surveying and open access to high resolution satellite images such as that provided by European Union’s Copernicus programme are the basis for multi-temporal landscape analysis and monitoring. Besides that, invasive alien species are considered a risk for biodiversity and their inventory is needed for further control and eradication. In this work, a methodology for semi-automatic detection of invasive alien species through UAV surveying and Sentinel 2 satellite monitoring is presented and particularized for Acacia dealbata Link species in the province of Pontevedra, in NW Spain. We selected a scenario with notable invasion of Acaciae and performed a UAS surveying to outline feasible training areas. Such areas were used as bounds for obtaining a spectral response of the cover from Sentinel 2 images with a level of processing 2A, that was used for invasive area detection. Sparse detected areas were treated as a seed for a region growing step to obtain the final map of alien species.Deputación de Pontevedra | Ref. 17/410.1720.789.0

Mutational Patterns Associated with the 69 Insertion Complex in Multi-drug-resistant HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase that Confer Increased Excision Activity and High-level Resistance to Zidovudine

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) strains having dipeptide insertions in the fingers subdomain and other drug resistance-related mutations scattered throughout their reverse transcriptase (RT)-coding region show high-level resistance to zidovudine (AZT) and other nucleoside analogues. Those phenotypic effects have been correlated with their increased ATP-dependent phosphorolytic activity on chain-terminated primers. Mutations T69S and T215Y and a dipeptide insertion (i.e. Ser-Ser) between positions 69 and 70 are required to achieve low-level resistance to thymidine analogues. However, additional amino acid substitutions are necessary to achieve the high-level phenotypic resistance to AZT shown by clinical HIV isolates carrying a dipeptide insertion in their RT-coding region. In order to identify those mutations that contribute to resistance in the sequence context of an insertion-containing RT derived from an HIV clinical isolate (designated as SS RT), we expressed and purified a series of chimeric enzymes containing portions of the wild-type or SS RT sequences. ATP-mediated excision activity measurements using AZT- and stavudine (d4T)-terminated primers and phenotypic assays showed that molecular determinants of high-level resistance to AZT were located in the fingers subdomain of the polymerase. Further studies, using recombinant RTs obtained by site-directed mutagenesis, revealed that M41L, A62V and in a lesser extent K70R, were the key mutations that together with T69S, T215Y and the dipeptide insertion conferred high levels of ATP-dependent phosphorolytic activity on AZT and d4T-terminated primers. Excision activity correlated well with AZT susceptibility measurements, and was consistent with phenotypic resistance to d4T. Structural analysis of the location of the implicated amino acid substitutions revealed a coordinated effect of M41L and A62V on the positioning of the β3–β4 hairpin loop, which plays a key role in the resistance mechanismThis work was supported in part by FIPSE (grant 36523/05) and Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (through “Red Temática Cooperativa de Investigación en SIDA” G03/173). In addition, work in Madrid was supported by grant BIO2003/01175 (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia) and an institutional grant from Fundación Ramón Areces. Grant BMC2003/2148 (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia) (to M. A.M.) is also acknowledgedPeer reviewe

Quality in Blended Learning in Higher Education. A proposal for an Evaluation Model.

This paper presents an analysis of different models used to assess the quality of formative actions, considering classroom learning and distance education courses. Taking as starting point one of the analyzed models, the paper sets out the necessity of developing a new model that could measure the quality of a blended formation process, by selecting the applicable indicators and proposing some new. The model is composed of seven different categories, which include a sum of thirty five indicators. They will be used to represent courses quality level in Kiviat?s diagrams. This model is currently being put into practice in a real university environment

miraQA: Initial experiments in Question Answering

We present the miraQA system that constitutes MIRACLE first experience in Question Answering for monolingual Spanish and has been developed for QA@CLEF 2004. The architecture of the system is described and details of our approach to Statistical Answer Extraction based on Hidden Markov Models are presented. One run that uses last year question set for training purposes has been submitted. The results are presented together with ideas for improvement

Genetic divergence detected by ISSR markers and characterization of microsatellite regions in "Mytilus" mussels

[Abstract] The wide distribution of microsatellites in mussels of the Mytilus edulis complex (Mytilidae) enables the analysis of inter-simple-sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. The aim of this investigation was to assess genetic differentiation in six sampling localities distributed along the European Atlantic coast to expose the potential of these markers in genetic studies requiring the detection of low polymorphism and as a source of sequences for developing microsatellite markers. We detected low genetic structuring within each member of the Mytilus edulis complex. Nei and Li distances and AMOVA clustered the individuals studied into two groups. On the basis of these results two sampling localities coming from the M. edulis × M. galloprovincialis mosaic hybrid zone in Western Europe were assigned to one species. On the other hand, mussels of a sampling locality in the Baltic Sea were not significantly different from a pure M. edulis locality supporting an extensive introgression of M. edulis in these individuals. Finally, 148 microsatellites were found in the sequences of 51 ISSR markers, and two polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed.Xunta de Galicia; PGIDT10PX110304P