L'Espunyola i el forn de Cal Pius

treball de recerca que sintetitza els fets més importants de la història de l'Espunyola i l'evolució del forn de cal Pius des de la seva creació fins avui en di

Resolució de la correferència usant aprenentatge discriminatiu amb estructures latents

Projecte orientat a la recerca en el qual s'implementa un sistema d'anàlisi automàtica de la coreferència amb tècniques d'aprenentatge automàtic supervisat (a partir d'un corpus d'exemples)

Real-life translation quality estimation for MT system selection

Research on translation quality annotation and estimation usually makes use of standard language, sometimes related to a specific language genre or domain. However, real-life machine translation (MT), performed for instance by on-line translation services, has to cope with some extra dif- ficulties related to the usage of open, non-standard and noisy language. In this paper we study the learning of quality estimation (QE) models able to rank translations from real-life input according to their goodness without the need of translation references. For that, we work with a corpus collected from the 24/7 Reverso.net MT service, translated by 5 different MT systems, and manually annotated with quality scores. We define several families of features and train QE predictors in the form of regressors or direct rankers. The predictors show a remarkable correlation with gold standard rankings and prove to be useful in a system combination scenario, obtaining better results than any individual translation system.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Substitutions in conserved regions preceding and within the linker affect activity and flexibility of tRNase ZL, the long form of tRNase Z

The enzyme tRNase Z, a member of the metallo-β-lactamase family, endonucleolytically removes 3\u27 trailers from precursor tRNAs, preparing them for CCA addition and aminoacylation. The short form of tRNase Z, tRNase ZS, functions as a homodimer and is found in all prokaryotes and some eukaryotes. The long form, tRNase ZL, related to tRNase ZS through tandem duplication and found only in eukaryotes, possesses ~2,000-fold greater catalytic efficiency than tRNase ZS. tRNase ZL consists of related but diverged amino and carboxy domains connected by a flexible linker (also referred to as a flexible tether) and functions as a monomer. The amino domain retains the flexible arm responsible for substrate recognition and binding while the carboxy domain retains the active site. The linker region was explored by Ala-scanning through two conserved regions of D. melanogaster tRNase Z: NdomTprox, located at the carboxy end of the amino domain proximal to the linker, and Tflex, a flexible site in the linker. Periodic substitutions in a hydrophobic patch (F329 and L332) at the carboxy end of NdomTprox show 2,700 and 670-fold impairment relative to wild type, respectively, accompanied by reduced linker flexibility at N-T inside the Ndom- linker boundary. The Ala substitution for N378 in the Tflex region has 10-fold higher catalytic efficiency than wild type and locally decreased flexibility, while the Ala substitution at R382 reduces catalytic efficiency ~50-fold. These changes in pre-tRNA processing kinetics and protein flexibility are interpreted in light of a recent crystal structure for S. cerevisiae tRNase Z, suggesting transmission of local changes in hydrophobicity into the skeleton of the amino domain

Activism, affect, identification: trans documentary in France and Spain and its reception

This article explores the documentation of trans activism in France and Spain since the 2000s. The first part addresses questions surrounding the place of affect and narrative in documentary film, particularly in relation to trans issues. The second part o f the article analyses an audience case study from a screening at the International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in Barcelona of Valérie Mitteaux's Girl or Boy, My Sex is not my Gender (2011), considering how different viewers respond to the representatio n of trans identities. The article builds on qualitative research whilst extending the exploration of sexuality and gender in previous audience studies to a consideration of documentary film, seeking to provide a more nuanced understanding of what audience claims for identification in politicised contexts mean

Landscape transformation under global environmental change in Mediterranean Mountains : Agrarian lands as a guarantee for maintaining their multifunctionality

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552The analysis of past and present patterns of agrarian mountain areas allows researchers to characterize the influence of landscape heterogeneity on biodiversity, cultural heritage, and forest fire hazard. This process was mapped, quantified, and described through the use of digital mapping (GIS) and landscape indexes in a protected area in Alta Garrotxa (Catalonia, Spain). These areas require urgent management and modelling to provide alternative management scenarios, in order to maintain and recover habitats. A set of different scenarios have been designed using a multi-criteria evaluation and geospatial information available for the study area to identify the key areas for management action and to predict the potential effects on agricultural lands by prioritizing one or another management objective: biodiversity, landscape structure and perception, cultural heritage, fire hazard, and management cost. The observed progressive land abandonment of open areas with a small size and greater isolation will have a large impact on biodiversity and cultural heritage, and increase fire risk. Sustainable development will require planning objectives compatible with the conservation of biodiversity and the preservation of Mediterranean features with support for agricultural activities. This methodology can contribute to and be easily implemented by land managers, which could help to strengthen the link between managers and stakeholders

The G1/S Specific Cyclin D2 Is a Regulator of HIV-1 Restriction in Non-proliferating Cells

Macrophages are a heterogeneous cell population strongly influenced by differentiation stimuli that become susceptible to HIV-1 infection after inactivation of the restriction factor SAMHD1 by cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK). Here, we have used primary human monocyte-derived macrophages differentiated through different stimuli to evaluate macrophage heterogeneity on cell activation and proliferation and susceptibility to HIV-1 infection. Stimulation of monocytes with GM-CSF induces a non-proliferating macrophage population highly restrictive to HIV-1 infection, characterized by the upregulation of the G1/S-specific cyclin D2, known to control early steps of cell cycle progression. Knockdown of cyclin D2, enhances HIV-1 replication in GM-CSF macrophages through inactivation of SAMHD1 restriction factor by phosphorylation. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments show that cyclin D2 forms a complex with CDK4 and p21, a factor known to restrict HIV-1 replication by affecting the function of the downstream cascade that leads to SAMHD1 deactivation. Thus, we demonstrate that cyclin D2 acts as regulator of cell cycle proteins affecting SAMHD1-mediated HIV-1 restriction in non-proliferating macrophage

Pharmacological modulation of SAMHD1 activity by CDK4/6 inhibitors improves anticancer therapy

Funding: This research was funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS) PI16/00103, PI17/00624 and CP14/00016 cofinanced by FEDER. EB is a research fellow from ISCIII-FIS (CP14/00016). EGV, MP, LG are research fellows from Generalitat de Catalunya AGAUR. RB is a research fellow from PERIS, Generalitat de Catalunya (PERIS SLT002/16/00059). IE is a research fellow from la Caixa Bank Foundation (LCF/BQ/IN18/11660017) cofunded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 713673.Sterile alpha motif and histidine-aspartic acid domain-containing protein 1 (SAMHD1) is a dNTP triphosphohydrolase involved in the regulation of the intracellular dNTP pool, linked to viral restriction, cancer development and autoimmune disorders. SAMHD1 function is regulated by phosphorylation through a mechanism controlled by cyclin-dependent kinases and tightly linked to cell cycle progression. Recently, SAMHD1 has been shown to decrease the efficacy of nucleotide analogs used as chemotherapeutic drugs. Here, we demonstrate that SAMHD1 can enhance or decrease the efficacy of various classes of anticancer drug, including nucleotide analogues, but also anti-folate drugs and CDK inhibitors. Importantly, we show that selective CDK4/6 inhibitors are pharmacological activators of SAMHD1 that act by inhibiting its inactivation by phosphorylation. Combinations of a CDK4/6 inhibitor with nucleoside or folate antimetabolites potently enhanced drug efficacy, resulting in highly synergic drug combinations (CI < 0.04). Mechanistic analyses reveal that cell cycle-controlled modulation of SAMHD1 function is the central process explaining changes in anticancer drug efficacy, therefore providing functional proof of the potential of CDK4/6 inhibitors as a new class of adjuvants to boost chemotherapeutic regimens. The evaluation of SAMHD1 expression in cancer tissues allowed for the identification of cancer types that would benefit from the pharmacological modulation of SAMHD1 function. In conclusion, these results indicate that the modulation of SAMHD1 function may represent a promising strategy for the improvement of current antimetabolite-based treatment