Criptomonedas y tecnología blockchain. La iniciativa “Valladolid Blockchain”

En este trabajo se delimita el concepto de las criptomonedas, se determinarán las principales características de estas y se detallará el término de criptografía para una mejor comprensión del tema. También se definirá la tecnología de cadena de bloques (blockchain), que es la que sustenta el funcionamiento de las criptomonedas y las posibles aplicaciones que tiene esta tecnología en numerosos ámbitos y sectores. Posteriormente, se profundiza en los tipos de criptomonedas que mayor capitalización tienen actualmente en el mercado y se analiza la evolución en el tiempo del precio del Bitcoin desde su nacimiento en 2009, así como la aceptación social de las criptomonedas entre los consumidores. A continuación, se investigan las repercusiones que ha provocado la aparición de las criptomonedas y el uso de la propia tecnología blockchain en el sistema financiero, tanto para Bancos Centrales y gobiernos, como para la banca privada, con especial atención a la española. Por último, se examina la iniciativa “Valladolid Blockchain” por su carácter pionero en este ámbito en nuestra ciudad, con el fin de conocer sus orígenes, características y actividades, a partir de varias entrevistas a sus miembros fundadores.In this paper it will be discussed the concept of cryptocurrencies, the main characteristics of these will be determined and the term of cryptography will be detailed for a better understanding. Blockchain technology will also be defined, since it is the one that supports cryptocurrencies, and the possible applications that this technology has in numerous areas and sectors. Afterwards, it explores into the types of cryptocurrencies that have the highest capitalization in the market and analyzes the evolution in time of the price of Bitcoin since its birth in 2009. It also investigates the social acceptance of these cryptocurrencies among consumers today. Next, the repercussions caused by cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in the financial system are analyzed. After first investigating the effects on Central Banks and governments and ending with the private banking sector (focusing on Spanish banks). Finally, a series of interviews has been conducted with the "Valladolid Blockchain" initiative, in order to know its origins, characteristics and activities, from several interviews with its founding members.Departamento de Economía AplicadaGrado en Administración y Dirección de Empresa

CARPANTA eats words you don't need from e-mail

[spa] Presentamos CARPANTA, un sistema de resumen automático de correo electrónico que aplica técnicas de conocimiento intensivo para obtener resúmenes coherentes. El uso de herramientas de PLN de amplia cobertura garantiza la robusteza y portabilidad del sistema, pero también se explota conocimiento dependiente de lengua y dominio. CARPANTA ha sido evaluado por comparación con un corpus de resúmenes confeccionados por jueces humanos, con resultados satisfactorios. [eng] We present CARPANTA, an e-mail summarization system that applies a knowledge intensive approach to obtain highly coherent summaries. Robustness and portability are guaranteed by the use of general-purpose NLP, but it also exploits language- and domain-dependent knowledge. The system is evaluated against a corpus of human-judged summaries, reaching, satisfactory levels of performance

CARPANTA eats words you don't need from e-mail

Presentamos CARPANTA, un sistema de resumen automático de correo electrónico que aplica técnicas de conocimiento intensivo para obtener resúmenes coherentes. El uso de herramientas de PLN de amplia cobertura garantiza la robusteza y portabilidad del sistema, pero también se explota conocimiento dependiente de lengua y dominio. CARPANTA ha sido evaluado por comparación con un corpus de resúmenes confeccionados por jueces humanos, con resultados satisfactorios.We present CARPANTA, an e-mail summarization system that applies a knowledge intensive approach to obtain highly coherent summaries. Robustness and portability are guaranteed by the use of general-purpose NLP, but it also exploits language- and domain-dependent knowledge. The system is evaluated against a corpus of human-judged summaries, reaching, satisfactory levels of performance.This research has been conducted thanks to a grant associated to the X-TRACT project, PB98-1226 of the Spanish Research Department. It has also been partially funded by projects HERMES (TIC2000-0335-C03-02), PETRA (TIC2000-1735-C02-02) and by CLiC (Centre de Llenguatge i Computació)

KNOW: Developing Large-scale multilingual technologies for language understanding

The KNOW project aims to add meaning, knowledge and reasoning to current Natural Language Processing technologies

KNOW: Developing large-scale multilingual technologies for language understanding

El proyecto KNOW pretende añadir significado, conocimiento y razonamiento a las tecnologías actuales de Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural.Postprint (published version

Vagus nerve stimulation as a potential modulator of periictal psychotic episodes: A report of four cases

Drug resistant epilepsy (DRE) has been associated with a high incidence of psychotic disorders. Patients can develop psychosis after starting a new antiseizure medication, after undergoing resective surgery, or after implantation of a vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) system. The aim of this study was to investigate the modulation effect of VNS on psychotic episodes in DRE patients with a pre-existing history of periictal psychotic episodes (PPE). We retrospectively report the outcome of four patients from a single tertiary center with PPE prior to implantation. None of the implanted patients developed de novo PPE after VNS therapy. Regarding seizure outcome, all patients demonstrated a response to VNS with two who experienced who status epilepticus and three patients wtih a change in semiology with after VNS implantation. PPE disappeared in all the study patients, two of them at 6 months post-implantation and in the others after 2 and 3 years, respectively. 18F-FDG-PET results showed hypermetabolism in both anterior insular and medial frontal lobes which disappeared in the 18F -FDG-PET 4 years post-implantation. Based on the results of this series of cases we suggest that VNS therapy may be useful to modulatet PPE in patients with DRE, though effectiveness may be time-dependent

High-density lipoprotein remodelled in hypercholesterolaemic blood induce epigenetically driven down-regulation of endothelial HIF-1α expression in a preclinical animal model

Altres ajuts: This work was supported by the Plan Nacional de Salud (PNS) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and funds FEDER 'Una Manera de Hacer Europa'; a grant from the Spanish Society of Cardiology (Beca FEC Investigacio'n Ba'sica/2016 to G.V); the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); and CIBERCV (to L.B). We thank the support of the Generalitat of Catalunya (Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat,) and the Fundación Investigación Cardiovascular-Fundación Jesus Serra for their continuous support.High-density lipoproteins (HDLs) are circulating micelles that transport proteins, lipids, and miRNAs. HDL-transported miRNAs (HDL-miRNAs) have lately received attention but their effects on vascular cells are not fully understood. Additionally, whether cardiovascular risk factors affect HDL-miRNAs levels and miRNA transfer to recipient cells remains equally poorly known. Here, we have investigated the changes induced by hypercholesterolaemia on HDL-miRNA levels and its effect on recipient endothelial cells (ECs). Pigs were kept on a high-fat diet (HC; n = 10) or a normocholesterolaemic chow (NC; n = 10) for 10 days reaching cholesterol levels of 321.0 (229.7-378.5) mg/dL and 74.0 (62.5-80.2) mg/dL, respectively. HDL particles were isolated, purified, and quantified. HDL-miRNA profiling (n = 149 miRNAs) of HC- and NC-HDLs was performed by multipanel qPCR. Cell cultures of porcine aortic ECs were used to determine whether HDL-miRNAs were delivered to ECs. Potential target genes modulated by miRNAs were identified by bioinformatics and candidate miRNAs were validated by molecular analysis. In vivo effects in the coronary arteries of normocholesterolaemic swine administered HC- or NC-HDLs were analysed. Among the HDL-miRNAs, four were found in different amounts in HC- and NC-HDL (P < 0.05). miR-126-5p and -3p and miR-30b-5p (2.7×, 1.7×, and 1.3×, respectively) were found in higher levels and miR-103a-3p and miR-let-7g-5p (−1.6×, −1.4×, respectively) in lower levels in HC-HDL. miR-126-5p and -3p were transferred from HC-HDL to EC (2.5×; P < 0.05), but not from NC-HDL, by a SRB1-mediated mechanism. Bioinformatics revealed that HIF1α was the miR-126 target gene with the highest predictive value, which was accordingly found to be markedly reduced in HC-HDL-treated ECs and in miR126 mimic transfected ECs. In vivo validation confirmed that HIF1α was diminished in the coronary endothelial layer of NC pigs administered HC-HDL vs. those administered NC-HDL (P < 0.05). Hypercholesterolaemia induces changes in the miRNA content of HDL enhancing miR126 and its delivery to ECs with the consequent down-regulation of its target gene HIF1α

Hippocampus and insula are targets in epileptic patients with glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies

Background: Antibodies to glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD ab) have been found in patients with limbic encephalitis (LE) and chronic pharmacoresistant focal epilepsy (FE). The objectives of the study were to: (1) analyze the clinical and neuroimaging course of patients with FE+GAD ab, (2) compare these characteristics with a control group, and (3) describe the most affected cerebral areas with structural and functional imaging. Methods: Patients with FE + high titers of GAD ab and a follow-up of at least 5 years were selected. Titers of serum GAD ab exceeding 2,000 UI/ml were considered high. Evolutive clinical and radiological characteristics were studied in comparison to two different control groups: patients with bilateral or with unilateral mesial temporal sclerosis (BMTS or UMTS) of a non-autoimmune origin. Results: A group of 13 patients and 17 controls were included (8 BMTS, 9 UMTS). The most frequent focal aware seizures (FAS) reported by patients were psychic (5/13: 33%). Somatosensorial, motor, and visual FAS (4/13:32%) (p: 0.045), musicogenic reflex seizures (MRS), and a previous history of cardiac syncope were reported only patients (2/13:16% each) (p: NS). Comparing EEG characteristics between patients and controls, a more widespread distribution of interictal epileptiform discharges (IED) was observed in FE+ GAD ab patients than in controls (p:0.01). Rhythmic delta activity was observed in all controls in anterior temporal lobes while in patients this was less frequent (p: 0.001). No IED, even in 24 h cVEEG, was seen in 6 patients (46%).First MRI was normal in 4/5 (75%) patients. During the follow-up mesial temporal lobe (MTsL) sclerosis was observed in 5/8 (62%) of patients. All patients had abnormal FDG-PET study. MTL hypometabolism was observed in 10/11 (91%) patients, being bilateral in 7/11 (63%). In controls, this was observed in 16/17 (94%), and it was bilateral in 8/17 (47%) (p: NS). Insular hypometabolism was observed in 5/11 (45%) patients (P:0.002). Conclusions: Clinical, EEG, and FDG-PET findings in FE+GAD ab suggest a widespread disease not restricted to the temporal lobe. Progressive MTL sclerosis may be observed during follow-up. In comparison to what is found in patients with non-autoimmune MTL epilepsy, insular hypometabolism is observed only in patients with GAD ab, so it may be an important diagnostic clue

Novel intragenic deletion within the FXN gene in a patient with typical phenotype of Friedreich ataxia: may be more prevalent than we think?

Background Friedreich ataxia is the most common inherited ataxia in Europe and is mainly caused by biallelic pathogenic expansions of the GAA trinucleotide repeat in intron 1 of the FXN gene that lead to a decrease in frataxin protein levels. Rarely, affected individuals carry either a large intragenic deletion or whole-gene deletion of FXN on one allele and a full-penetrance expanded GAA repeat on the other allele.Case presentation We report here a patient that presented the typical clinical features of FRDA and genetic analysis of FXN intron 1 led to the assumption that the patient carried the common biallelic expansion. Subsequently, parental sample testing led to the identification of a novel intragenic deletion involving the 5'UTR upstream region and exons 1 and 2 of the FXN gene by MLPA.Conclusions With this case, we want to raise awareness about the potentially higher prevalence of intragenic deletions and underline the essential role of parental sample testing in providing accurate genetic counselling

Intermediate Repeat Expansion in the ATXN2 Gene as a Risk Factor in the ALS and FTD Spanish Population

Intermediate CAG expansions in the gene ataxin-2 (ATXN2) are a known risk factor for ALS, but little is known about their role in FTD risk. Moreover, their contribution to the risk and phenotype of patients might vary in populations with different genetic backgrounds. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship of intermediate CAG expansions in ATXN2 with the risk and phenotype of ALS and FTD in the Spanish population. Repeat-primed PCR was performed in 620 ALS and 137 FTD patients in three referral centers in Spain to determine the exact number of CAG repeats. In our cohort, >= 27 CAG repeats in ATXN2 were associated with a higher risk of developing ALS (odds ratio [OR] = 2.666 [1.471-4.882]; p = 0.0013) but not FTD (odds ratio [OR] = 1.446 [0.558-3.574]; p = 0.44). Moreover, ALS patients with >= 27 CAG repeats in ATXN2 showed a shorter survival rate compared to those with = 27 repeats in ATXN2 are associated with ALS risk but not with FTD in the Spanish population. ALS patients carrying an intermediate expansion in ATXN2 show more frequent limb onset but a worse prognosis than those without expansions. In patients carrying C9orf72 expansions, the intermediate ATXN2 expansion might increase the penetrance and modify the phenotype