Visual Attention Mechanism for a Social Robot

This paper describes a visual perception system for a social robot. The central part of this system is an artificial attention mechanism that discriminates the most relevant information from all the visual information perceived by the robot. It is composed by three stages. At the preattentive stage, the concept of saliency is implemented based on ‘proto-objects’ [37]. From these objects, different saliency maps are generated. Then, the semiattentive stage identifies and tracks significant items according to the tasks to accomplish. This tracking process allows to implement the ‘inhibition of return’. Finally, the attentive stage fixes the field of attention to the most relevant object depending on the behaviours to carry out. Three behaviours have been implemented and tested which allow the robot to detect visual landmarks in an initially unknown environment, and to recognize and capture the upper-body motion of people interested in interact with it

Caveolin-1 Modulates Mechanotransduction Responses to Substrate Stiffness through Actin-Dependent Control of YAP

The transcriptional regulator YAP orchestrates many cellular functions, including tissue homeostasis, organ growth control, and tumorigenesis. Mechanical stimuli are a key input to YAP activity, but the mechanisms controlling this regulation remain largely uncharacterized. We show that CAV1 positively modulates the YAP mechanoresponse to substrate stiffness through actin-cytoskeleton-dependent and Hippo-kinase-independent mechanisms. RHO activity is necessary, but not sufficient, for CAV1-dependent mechanoregulation of YAP activity. Systematic quantitative interactomic studies and image-based small interfering RNA (siRNA) screens provide evidence that this actin-dependent regulation is determined by YAP interaction with the 14-3-3 protein YWHAH. Constitutive YAP activation rescued phenotypes associated with CAV1 loss, including defective extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling. CAV1-mediated control of YAP activity was validated in vivo in a model of pancreatitis-driven acinar-to-ductal metaplasia. We propose that this CAV1-YAP mechanotransduction system controls a significant share of cell programs linked to these two pivotal regulators, with potentially broad physiological and pathological implications. Moreno-Vicente et al. report that CAV1, a key component of PM mechanosensing caveolae, mediates adaptation to ECM rigidity by modulating YAP activity through the control of actin dynamics and phosphorylation-dependent interaction of YAP with the 14-3-3-domain protein YWHAH. Cav1-dependent YAP regulation drives two pathophysiological processes: ECM remodeling and pancreatic ADM. © 2018 The Author

Direct visualization of the native structure of viroid RNAs at single-molecule resolution by atomic force microscopy

[EN] Viroids are small infectious, non-protein-coding circular RNAs that replicate independently and, in some cases, incite diseases in plants. They are classified into two families: Pospiviroidae, composed of species that have a central conserved region (CCR) and replicate in the cell nucleus, and Avsunviroidae, containing species that lack a CCR and whose multimeric replicative intermediates of either polarity generated in plastids self-cleave through hammerhead ribozymes. The compact, rod-like or branched, secondary structures of viroid RNAs have been predicted by RNA folding algorithms and further examined using different in vitro and in vivo experimental techniques. However, direct data about their native tertiary structure remain scarce. Here we have applied atomic force microscopy (AFM) to image at single-molecule resolution different variant RNAs of three representative viroids: potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd, family Pospiviroidae), peach latent mosaic viroid and eggplant latent viroid (PLMVd and ELVd, family Avsunviroidae). Our results provide a direct visualization of their native, three-dimensional conformations at 0 and 4 mM Mg2+ and highlight the role that some elements of tertiary structure play in their stabilization. The AFM images show that addition of 4 mM Mg2+ to the folding buffer results in a size contraction in PSTVd and ELVd, as well as in PLMVd when the kissing-loop interaction that stabilizes its 3D structure is preserved.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) grants BIO2016-79618-R (funded by EU under the FEDER programme) to C.B. and BFU2104-56812-P to R.F., as well as by the Comunidad de Madrid grant S2018/NMT-4349 to L.V. CIBERehd is funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII).Moreno, M.; Vázquez, L.; López Carrasco, A.; Martín-Gago, JA.; Flores Pedauye, R.; Briones, C. (2019). Direct visualization of the native structure of viroid RNAs at single-molecule resolution by atomic force microscopy. RNA Biology. 16(3):295-308. https://doi.org/10.1080/15476286.2019.1572436S295308163Diener, T. O. (2003). Discovering viroids — a personal perspective. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 1(1), 75-80. doi:10.1038/nrmicro736Flores, R., Hernández, C., Alba, A. E. M. de, Daròs, J.-A., & Serio, F. D. (2005). Viroids and Viroid-Host Interactions. Annual Review of Phytopathology, 43(1), 117-139. doi:10.1146/annurev.phyto.43.040204.140243Ding, B. (2009). The Biology of Viroid-Host Interactions. Annual Review of Phytopathology, 47(1), 105-131. doi:10.1146/annurev-phyto-080508-081927Zhang, Z., Qi, S., Tang, N., Zhang, X., Chen, S., Zhu, P., … Wu, Q. (2014). 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J., Domdey, H., Lossow, C., Jank, P., Raba, M., Alberty, H., & Sänger, H. L. (1978). Nucleotide sequence and secondary structure of potato spindle tuber viroid. Nature, 273(5659), 203-208. doi:10.1038/273203a0Gast, F.-U., Kempe, D., Spieker, R. L., & Sänger, H. L. (1996). Secondary Structure Probing of Potato Spindle Tuber Viroid (PSTVd) and Sequence Comparison with Other Small Pathogenic RNA Replicons Provides Evidence for Central Non-canonical Base-pairs, Large A-rich Loops, and a Terminal Branch. Journal of Molecular Biology, 262(5), 652-670. doi:10.1006/jmbi.1996.0543Giguère, T., Raj Adkar-Purushothama, C., & Perreault, J.-P. (2014). Comprehensive Secondary Structure Elucidation of Four Genera of the Family Pospiviroidae. PLoS ONE, 9(6), e98655. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0098655López-Carrasco, A., & Flores, R. (2016). Dissecting the secondary structure of the circular RNA of a nuclear viroid in vivo: A «naked» rod-like conformation similar but not identical to that observed in vitro. RNA Biology, 14(8), 1046-1054. doi:10.1080/15476286.2016.1223005Wang, Y., Zirbel, C. L., Leontis, N. B., & Ding, B. (2018). RNA 3-dimensional structural motifs as a critical constraint of viroid RNA evolution. PLOS Pathogens, 14(2), e1006801. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1006801Zhong, X., Leontis, N., Qian, S., Itaya, A., Qi, Y., Boris-Lawrie, K., & Ding, B. (2006). Tertiary Structural and Functional Analyses of a Viroid RNA Motif by Isostericity Matrix and Mutagenesis Reveal Its Essential Role in Replication. Journal of Virology, 80(17), 8566-8581. doi:10.1128/jvi.00837-06Zhong, X., Tao, X., Stombaugh, J., Leontis, N., & Ding, B. (2007). Tertiary structure and function of an RNA motif required for plant vascular entry to initiate systemic trafficking. 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Interventions to facilitate shared decision-making using decision aids with patients in Primary Health Care: A systematic review

BACKGROUND: Shared decision making (SDM) is a process within the physician-patient relationship applicable to any clinical action, whether diagnostic, therapeutic, or preventive in nature. It has been defined as a process of mutual respect and participation between the doctor and the patient. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of decision aids (DA) in primary care based on changes in adherence to treatments, knowledge, and awareness of the disease, conflict with decisions, and patients'' and health professionals'' satisfaction with the intervention. METHODS: A systematic review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines was conducted in Medline, CINAHL, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and the NHS Economic Evaluation Database. The inclusion criteria were randomized clinical trials as study design; use of SDM with DA as an intervention; primary care as clinical context; written in English, Spanish, and Portuguese; and published between January 2007 and January 2019. The risk of bias of the included studies in this review was assessed according to the Cochrane Collaboration''s tool. RESULTS: Twenty four studies were selected out of the 201 references initially identified. With the use of DA, the use of antibiotics was reduced in cases of acute respiratory infection and decisional conflict was decreased when dealing with the treatment choice for atrial fibrillation and osteoporosis. The rate of determination of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the prostate cancer screening decreased and colorectal cancer screening increased. Both professionals and patients increased their knowledge about depression, type 2 diabetes, and the perception of risk of acute myocardial infarction at 10 years without statins and with statins. The satisfaction was greater with the use of DA in choosing the treatment for depression, in cardiovascular risk management, in the treatment of low back pain, and in the use of statin therapy in diabetes. Blinding of outcomes assessment was the most common bias. CONCLUSIONS: DA used in primary care are effective to reduce decisional conflict and improve knowledge on the disease and treatment options, awareness of risk, and satisfaction with the decisions made. More studies are needed to assess the impact of shared decision making in primary care

Unveiling the structure of the planetary nebula M 2-48: Kinematics and physical conditions

The kinematics and physical conditions of the bipolar planetary nebula M 2-48 are analysed from high and low dispersion long-slit spectra. Previous CCD narrow-band optical observations have suggested that this nebula is mainly formed by a pair of symmetric bow-shocks, an off-center semi-circular shell, and an internal bipolar structure. The bipolar outflow has a complex structure, characterised by a series of shocked regions located between the bright core and the polar tips. There is an apparent kinematic discontinuity between the bright bipolar core and the outer regions. The fragmented ring around the bright bipolar region presents a low expansion velocity and could be associated to ejection in the AGB-PN transition phase, although its nature remains unclear. The chemical abundances of the central region are derived, showing that M 2-48 is a Type I planetary nebula (PN)

Combined Constraint Matching Algorithm for Stereo Visual Odometry Based on Local Interest Points

Abstract-In this paper, we describe a new approach which uses scale-invariant image features to estimate the motion of a stereo head. These point features are matched between pairs of frames and linked into image trajectories at video rate, generating what it is called visual odometry, i.e. motion estimates from visual input alone. With respect to previously proposed approaches, the main novelty of our proposal is that the matching between sets of features associated to stereo pairs and between sets of image features associated to consecutive frames are conducted by means of a fast combined constraint matching algorithm. Besides, the efficiency of the approach is increased by using a closed-form solution to estimate the final robot displacement between consecutive acquired frames. We have tested the proposed approach for navigational purposes in a real environment. Experimental results demonstrate the performance of the proposal

Robust ASR using Support Vector Machines

The improved theoretical properties of Support Vector Machines with respect to other machine learning alternatives due to their max-margin training paradigm have led us to suggest them as a good technique for robust speech recognition. However, important shortcomings have had to be circumvented, the most important being the normalisation of the time duration of different realisations of the acoustic speech units. In this paper, we have compared two approaches in noisy environments: first, a hybrid HMM–SVM solution where a fixed number of frames is selected by means of an HMM segmentation and second, a normalisation kernel called Dynamic Time Alignment Kernel (DTAK) first introduced in Shimodaira et al. [Shimodaira, H., Noma, K., Nakai, M., Sagayama, S., 2001. Support vector machine with dynamic time-alignment kernel for speech recognition. In: Proc. Eurospeech, Aalborg, Denmark, pp. 1841–1844] and based on DTW (Dynamic Time Warping). Special attention has been paid to the adaptation of both alternatives to noisy environments, comparing two types of parameterisations and performing suitable feature normalisation operations. The results show that the DTA Kernel provides important advantages over the baseline HMM system in medium to bad noise conditions, also outperforming the results of the hybrid system.Publicad

Low-loss 3D-laser-written mid-infrared LiNbO_3 depressed-index cladding waveguides for both TE and TM polarizations

We report mid-infrared LiNbO3 depressed-index microstructured cladding waveguides fabricated by three-dimensional laser writing showing low propagation losses (~1.5 dB/cm) at 3.68 µm wavelength for both the transverse electric and magnetic polarized modes, a feature previously unachieved due to the strong anisotropic properties of this type of laser microstructured waveguides and which is of fundamental importance for many photonic applications. Using a heuristic modeling-testing iteration design approach which takes into account cladding induced stress-optic index changes, the fabricated cladding microstructure provides low-loss single mode operation for the mid-IR for both orthogonal polarizations. The dependence of the localized refractive index changes within the cladding microstructure with post-fabrication thermal annealing processes was also investigated, revealing its complex dependence of the laser induced refractive index changes on laser fabrication conditions and thermal post-processing steps. The waveguide modes properties and their dependence on thermal post-processing were numerically modeled and fitted to the experimental values by systematically varying three fundamental parameters of this type of waveguides: depressed refractive index values at sub-micron laser-written tracks, track size changes, and piezo-optic induced refractive index changes.Spanish MINECO and FEDER under project MAT2016-75716-C2-1-R, TEC2014-55948-R and FIS2013-44174-P; Catalan Government 2014SGR1358 and Junta de Castilla y León (Projects UIC016, SA046U16); European Commission (ACP2-GA-2013-314335-JEDI ACE); F. D. acknowledges additional support 2010-ICREA-02 for excellence in research; G. Martin acknowledges support from ASHRA for mid-IR astrophotonic devices development in collaboration with international groups