Locally linear approximation for Kernel methods : the Railway Kernel

In this paper we present a new kernel, the Railway Kernel, that works properly for general (nonlinear) classification problems, with the interesting property that acts locally as a linear kernel. In this way, we avoid potential problems due to the use of a general purpose kernel, like the RBF kernel, as the high dimension of the induced feature space. As a consequence, following our methodology the number of support vectors is much lower and, therefore, the generalization capability of the proposed kernel is higher than the obtained using RBF kernels. Experimental work is shown to support the theoretical issues.Support vector machines, Kernel Methods, Classification problems

Androgen receptors beyond prostate cancer: an old marker as a new target.

Androgen receptors (ARs) play a critical role in the development of prostate cancer. Targeting ARs results in important salutary effects in this malignancy. Despite mounting evidence that ARs also participate in the pathogenesis and/or progression of diverse tumors, exploring the impact of hormonal manipulation of these receptors has not been widely pursued beyond prostate cancer. This review describes patterns of AR expression in a spectrum of cancers, and the potential to exploit this knowledge in the clinical therapeutic setting

Peons and Progressives: Race and Boosterism in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, 1904-1941

The Texas borderlands have come to be increasingly important in the historical literature and in public opinion for the way that the region shapes national thought on race, borders, and ethnicity. With this increasing importance, it is pressing to examine the history of these issues in the region so that they may be accurately and insightfully deployed. This article contributes to the existing scholarship with a close discursive analysis of race in the booster materials, 1904-1941. The booster materials forge a notion of race relations that borrows from tropes common across the West but is also informed by Jim Crow and the unique demands of the region. The booster materials forward a notion of race that is largely unique in Western boosterism, positing only two major characters, Mexicans and white Northerners. The figure of ‘the Mexican’ is drawn more as a part of nature than human society in that it shares the fundamental characteristics of the land, animals, and rivers of the region. Nature in the region is depicted as an adventitious, disorderly, and wasteful body that calls out for northern discipline. The ‘Northerners’ are figured as the ones who, through applying discipline to the natural resources of the area (land, water, and Mexicans) can bring reason, fertility, and profitable connection to the national economy. The consequences of this racial division are further explored in the article as they play out in schooling, religion, justice, beauty, leisure, and sport

The Role of the Glyoxylate Cycle in the Pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

According to the World Health Organization a third of the world\u27s population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The unparalleled success of M. tuberculosis as a pathogen reflects the bacterium\u27s extraordinary ability to persist in its host in spite of eliciting a robust immune response. Currently available treatment is inadequate and drug resistance is rapidly spreading. New antibiotics are desperately needed. The substrates and metabolic pathways utilized by pathogens during infection are largely unknown and represent an under-exploited area of investigation. Uniquely, evolution of the genus Mycobacterium has involved extensive duplication of fatty acid metabolism genes, including two homologs encoding prokaryotic- and eukaryotic-like isoforms of the glyoxylate cycle enzyme isocitrate lyase (ICL). The glyoxylate cycle is employed by cells when fatty acids are the main carbon source available. Here, we show that these enzymes are jointly required by M. tuberculosis for growth on fatty acids and for virulence in experimental infections. Although deletion of icll or icl2 had little impact on replication of M. tuberculosis in macrophages and mice, deletion of both genes abrogated intracellular growth, and resulted in rapid bacterial clearance from the lungs. A dual-specificity ICL inhibitor similarly blocked replication of M. tuberculosis on fatty acids in vitro and in macrophages. The absence of ICL orthologs in mammals, and recent findings implicating the glyoxylate pathway in the virulence of other bacterial and fungal pathogens makes this metabolic pathway an attractive novel target for drug development

Farming in the European Union: from organic to sustainable. An assessment of a legal transition based on land stewardship and participatory guarantee systems

The conventional agricultural production system is not sustainable. Organic agriculture is assumed to be sustainable from the environmental perspective, and its production and labelling has been regulated in the European Union (EU). The EU organic regime has been challenged by proponents of agroecology, a philosophy that merges agriculture and ecology and considers environmental and social aspects. Some other initiatives at the local and regional level propose different ways of producing food sustainably. In 2015, a Spanish environmental NGO called RCTCMM launched a market of products coming from land stewardship (LS) agreements certified with participatory guarantee systems (PGSs), claiming it to be a sustainable alternative to the products certified as EU organic. Using strong/weak and soft-path/hard-path sustainability frameworks I analyse the sustainability features of the EU organic regime, agroecology, LS, and PGSs from the environmental and social points of view. I also do a SWOT analysis on the implementation of RCTCMM’s project. My analysis finds: 1) the EU organic regime is not sustainable because it does not take into account important local and global environmental impacts, and leaves out of the market responsible farmers who cannot compete in the global markets, afford the cost of certification, or participate in the selection of the certification criteria; 2) agroecology is a strong sustainability, soft-path solution from both social and environmental dimensions; 3) LS and PGSs can solve some of the current EU organic regime’s sustainability issues, with multifunctional agriculture, short commercial channels, and inclusiveness and participation of farmers in the certification process; and 4) RCTCMM’s project needs to improve some organisational aspects for the successful implementation of their initiative in Spain, although there are other external risks that require changes at the EU-level to dissipate. Using transition theory, I offer three legal transitions towards a less unsustainable EU regime: A) a ‘patch’ to the current EU organic regime with an update of the current criteria and the allowance of group certification; B) a parallel alternative system of incentives for initiatives like PGSs and LS; and C) a reform of the whole EU agricultural regime conforming to agroecological principles. I suggest Option B because it is a strong sustainability alternative and it is the easiest to implement considering the transaction costs involved in the other two

The advantage of mixing examples in inductive learning:a comparison of three hypotheses

Mixing examples of different categories (interleaving) has been shown to promote inductive learning as compared with presenting examples of the same category together (massing). In three studies, we tested whether the advantage of interleaving is exclusively due to the mixing of examples from different categories or to the temporal gap introduced between presentations. In addition, we also tested the role of working memory capacity (WMC). Results showed that the mixing of examples might be the key component that determines improved induction. WMC might also be involved in the interleaving effect: participants with high spans seemed to profit more than participants with low spans from interleaved presentations. Our findings have relevant implications for education. Practice schedules should be individually customised so society as a whole can profit from differences between learners.</p

Unravelling the complexity of the extracellular vesicle landscape with advanced proteomics

Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science European Proteomics Infrastructure Consortium providing access.N

A Phase I dose-escalation study of the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib in combination with the MTOR inhibitor everolimus in subjects with advanced cancer

Vemurafenib has been approved in the United States for the treatment of relapsed or refractory BRAF mutation positive malignant melanoma and is being investigated in various other malignancies. The RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK (MAPK) pathway is critical to cell proliferation in many human cancers. The mTOR inhibitors are well known to exert profound anticancer effects across malignancies through inhibition of the PTEN/PI3K/AKT/mTOR (mTOR) pathway. We hypothesize that the toxicity profile of the combination of vemurafenib and everolimus will be well tolerated. The primary objective is to find the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and the toxicity of the combination of vemurafenib and everolimus following a standard 3 + 3 design. The most common diagnosis was melanoma in 5 out of 10 patients (50%). Male patients in 7 out of 10 patients (70%). The average age was 63.5 years. Two out of 10 patients (20%) had partial responses and an additional 2 out of 10 patients (20%) had stable disease

Tourism policy in the Canary Islands : past experiences, current trends and future plans

The Canary Islands are a well-known brand in Europe, and in 2017 the number of tourist arrivals exceeded 14 million. The heavy tourist inflow in the 1990s prompted the Government of the Canary Islands to adopt a policy to protect the environment by restricting the building of new hotels. This moratorium was abolished in 2018. The paper describes the evolution of Canary Islands tourism policy in recent years and explains how the government, in cooperation with the private sector, is planning transform the Canary archipelago into a destination with distinct features, different from its competitors.peer-reviewe

Modelling thermal fluxes at the soil surface

This paper investigates the impact that various representations of thermal fluxes at the soil surface have on the estimation of seasonal variations of temperature and stored thermal energy in the soil close to the surface. Three theoretical formulations representing; turbulent, nonturbulent and vegetation-covered soil surface conditions are considered. The influence of shading from nearby objects (e.g. vegetation) has also been investigated. Numerical predictions of soil temperature and stored thermal energy are compared with experimental results from a large scale field test (performed by others). The results of both 1D and 2D simulations are shown capable of representing specific aspects of field behaviour. Various sources of meteorological data have been used to define surface boundary conditions. In particular, simulations were performed using; i) data measured in-situ, ii) data obtained from The British Atmospheric Data Centre, and iii) data generated using analytical expressions found in the literature. It is found that the correct representation of the heat transfer processes occurring at the soil surface is of critical importance. In particular, it is shown that the use of publicly available sources of data, or mathematical/analytical expressions for meteorological data, may be adequate when in-situ measurements are not available