Spike-based control monitoring and analysis with Address Event Representation

Neuromorphic engineering tries to mimic biological information processing. Address-Event Representation (AER) is a neuromorphic communication protocol for spiking neurons between different chips. We present a new way to drive robotic platforms using spiking neurons. We have simulated spiking control models for DC motors, and developed a mobile robot (Eddie) controlled only by spikes. We apply AER to the robot control, monitoring and measuring the spike activity inside the robot. The mobile robot is controlled by the AER-Robot tool, and the AER information is sent to a PC using the USBAERmini2 interface.Junta de Andalucía P06-TIC-01417Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TEC2006-11730-C03-0

On the Design of Ambient Intelligent Systems in the Context of Assistive Technologies

The design of Ambient Intelligent Systems (AISs) is discussed in the context of assistive technologies. The main issues include ubiquitous communications, context awareness, natural interactions and heterogeneity, which are analyzed using some examples. A layered architecture is proposed for heterogeneous sub-systems integration with three levels of interactions that may be used as a framework to design assistive AISs.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC2001-1868-C0

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

Generating socially appropriate tutorial dialog

Analysis of student-tutor coaching dialogs suggest that good human tutors attend to and attempt to influence the motivational state of learners. Moreover, they are sensitive to the social face of the learner, and seek to mitigate the potential face threat of their comments. This paper describes a dialog generator for pedagogical agents that takes motivation and face threat factors into account. This enables the agent to interact with learners in a socially appropriate fashion, and foster intrinsic motivation on the part of the learner, which in turn may lead to more positive learner affective states

Assessing the Impact of Different Measurement Time Intervals on Observed Long-Term Wind Speed Trends

During the last two decades climate studies have reported a tendency toward a decline in measured near-surface wind speed in some regions of Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. This weakening in observed wind speed has been recently termed >global stilling>, showing a worldwide average trend of -0.140 m s -1 dec -1 during last 50-years. The precise cause of the >global stilling> remains largely uncertain and has been hypothetically attributed to several factors, mainly related to: (i) an increasing surface roughness (i.e. forest growth, land use changes, and urbanization); (ii) a slowdown in large-scale atmospheric circulation; (iii) instrumental drifts and technological improvements, maintenance, and shifts in measurements sites and calibration issues; (iv) sunlight dimming due to air pollution; and (v) astronomical changes. This study proposed a novel investigation aimed at analyzing how different measurement time intervals used to calculate a wind speed series can affect the sign and magnitude of long-term wind speed trends. For instance, National Weather Services across the globe estimate daily average wind speed using different time intervals and formulae that may affect the trend results. Here we analyzed near-surface wind speed trends recorded at 19 land-based stations across Spain comparing monthly mean wind speed series obtained from: (a) daily mean wind speed data averaged from standard 10-min mean observations at 0000, 0700, 1300 and 1800 UTC; and (b) average wind speed of 24 hourly measurements (i.e., wind run measurements) from 0000 to 2400 UTC. As a complementary analysis, in this study we also quantified the impact of anemometer drift (i.e. bearing malfunction) by presenting preliminary results (i.e. 11 months of paired measurements) from a comparison of one new anemometer sensor against one malfunctioned anemometer sensor due to old bearings.We would like to thank the AEMET for supplying wind speed data. C. A-M. received a postdoctoral fellowship # JCI-2011-10263. Research supported by projects CGL2011-27574-C02-02, CGL2011-27536/HID and CGL2011-29263-C02-01 financed by the Spanish Commission of Science and Technology.Peer Reviewe

Caveolin-1 is required for TGF-β-induced transactivation of the EGF receptor pathway in hepatocytes through the activation of the metalloprotease TACE/ADAM17

Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) plays a dual role in hepatocytes, inducing both pro- and anti-apoptotic responses, whose balance decides cell fate. Survival signals are mediated by the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway, which is activated by TGF-β in these cells. Caveolin-1 (Cav1) is a structural protein of caveolae linked to TGF-β receptors trafficking and signaling. Previous results have indicated that in hepatocytes, Cav1 is required for TGF-β-induced anti-apoptotic signals, but the molecular mechanism is not fully understood yet. In this work, we show that immortalized Cav1(-/-) hepatocytes were more sensitive to the pro-apoptotic effects induced by TGF-β, showing a higher activation of caspase-3, higher decrease in cell viability and prolonged increase through time of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). These results were coincident with attenuation of TGF-β-induced survival signals in Cav1(-/-) hepatocytes, such as AKT and ERK1/2 phosphorylation and NFκ-B activation. Transactivation of the EGFR pathway by TGF-β was impaired in Cav1(-/-) hepatocytes, which correlated with lack of activation of TACE/ADAM17, the metalloprotease responsible for the shedding of EGFR ligands. Reconstitution of Cav1 in Cav1(-/-) hepatocytes rescued wild-type phenotype features, both in terms of EGFR transactivation and TACE/ADAM17 activation. TACE/ADAM17 was localized in detergent-resistant membrane (DRM) fractions in Cav1(+/+) cells, which was not the case in Cav1(-/-) cells. Disorganization of lipid rafts after treatment with cholesterol-binding agents caused loss of TACE/ADAM17 activation after TGF-β treatment. In conclusion, in hepatocytes, Cav1 is required for TGF-β-mediated activation of the metalloprotease TACE/ADAM17 that is responsible for shedding of EGFR ligands and activation of the EGFR pathway, which counteracts the TGF-β pro-apoptotic effects. Therefore, Cav1 contributes to the pro-tumorigenic effects of TGF-β in liver cancer cells.This work was supported by grants from: (1) the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), Spain (BFU2012-35538 and ISCIII-RTICC: RD12-0036-0029 to IF; SAF2013-43713 to PM-S; BFU2012-33932 to GE; SAF2011-25047 and CSD2009-00016 to MAdP); (2) AGAUR-Generalitat de Catalunya (2009SGR-312 to IF); and (3) People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement no. PITN-GA-2012-316549 (IT LIVER) to IF JM-C and RM-V were recipients of pre-doctoral fellowships from the FPU program (Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, Spain) and the FPI program (associated to SAF201125047, MINECO, Spain), respectively. We acknowledge the review and suggestions of Dr. Christoph Meyer (University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany).S

Corneal relaxation time estimation as a function of tear oxygen tension in human cornea during contact lens wear

[EN] The purpose is to estimate the oxygen diffusion coefficient and the relaxation time of the cornea with respect to the oxygen tension at the cornea-tears interface. Both findings are discussed. From the experimental data provided by Bonanno et al., the oxygen tension measurements in vivo for human cornea-tears-contact lens (CL), the relaxation time of the cornea, and their oxygen diffusion coefficient were obtained by numerical calculation using the Monod-kinetic model. Our results, considering the relaxation time of the cornea, observe a different behavior. At the time less than 8 s, the oxygen diffusivity process is upper-diffusive, and for the relaxation time greater than 8 s, the oxygen diffusivity process is lower-diffusive. Both cases depend on the partial pressure of oxygen at the entrance of the cornea. The oxygen tension distribution in the cornea-tears interface is separated into two different zones: one for conventional hydrogels, which is located between 6 and 75 mmHg, with a relaxation time included between 8 and 19 s, and the other zone for silicone hydrogel CLs, which is located at high oxygen tension, between 95 and 140 mmHg, with a relaxation time in the interval of 1.5-8 s. It is found that in each zone, the diffusion coefficient varies linearly with the oxygen concentration, presenting a discontinuity in the transition of 8 s. This could be interpreted as an aerobic-to-anaerobic transition. We attribute this behavior to the coupling formalism between oxygen diffusion and biochemical reactions to produce adenosine triphosphate.Contract grant sponsor: Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; contract grant number: UNAM-DGAPA-PAPIIT projects IG 100618 and IN-114818 Contract grant sponsor: Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación; contract grant number: ENE/2015-69203-RDel Castillo, LF.; Ramírez-Calderón, JG.; Del Castillo, RM.; Aguilella-Arzo, M.; Compañ Moreno, V. (2020). Corneal relaxation time estimation as a function of tear oxygen tension in human cornea during contact lens wear. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B Applied Biomaterials. 108(1):14-21. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm.b.34360S14211081Freeman, R. D. (1972). Oxygen consumption by the component layers of the cornea. The Journal of Physiology, 225(1), 15-32. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1972.sp009927CHALMERS, R. L., McNALLY, J. J., SCHEIN, O. D., KATZ, J., TIELSCH, J. M., ALFONSO, E., … SHOVLIN, J. (2007). Risk Factors for Corneal Infiltrates with Continuous Wear of Contact Lenses. Optometry and Vision Science, 84(7), 573-579. doi:10.1097/opx.0b013e3180dc9a12Schein, O. D., McNally, J. J., Katz, J., Chalmers, R. L., Tielsch, J. M., Alfonso, E., … Shovlin, J. (2005). The Incidence of Microbial Keratitis among Wearers of a 30-Day Silicone Hydrogel Extended-Wear Contact Lens. Ophthalmology, 112(12), 2172-2179. doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2005.09.014Sweeney, D. F. (2003). Clinical Signs of Hypoxia with High-Dk Soft Lens Extended Wear: Is the Cornea Convinced? Eye & Contact Lens: Science & Clinical Practice, S22-S25. doi:10.1097/00140068-200301001-00007HARVITT, D. M., & BONANNO, J. A. (1999). Re-Evaluation of the Oxygen Diffusion Model for Predicting Minimum Contact Lens Dk/t Values Needed to Avoid Corneal Anoxia. Optometry and Vision Science, 76(10), 712-719. doi:10.1097/00006324-199910000-00023Polse, K. A., & Mandell, R. B. (1970). Critical Oxygen Tension at the Corneal Surface. Archives of Ophthalmology, 84(4), 505-508. doi:10.1001/archopht.1970.00990040507021Giasson, C., & Bonanno, J. A. (1995). Acidification of rabbit corneal endothelium during contact lens wearin vitro. Current Eye Research, 14(4), 311-318. doi:10.3109/02713689509033531Riley, M. V. (1969). Glucose and oxygen utilization by the rabbit cornea. Experimental Eye Research, 8(2), 193-200. doi:10.1016/s0014-4835(69)80031-xFrahm, B., Lane, P., M�rkl, H., & P�rtner, R. (2003). Improvement of a mammalian cell culture process by adaptive, model-based dialysis fed-batch cultivation and suppression of apoptosis. Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering, 26(1), 1-10. doi:10.1007/s00449-003-0335-zCompañ, V., Aguilella-Arzo, M., Del Castillo, L. F., Hernández, S. I., & Gonzalez-Meijome, J. M. (2016). Analysis of the application of the generalized monod kinetics model to describe the human corneal oxygen-consumption rate during soft contact lens wear. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials, 105(8), 2269-2281. doi:10.1002/jbm.b.33764Bonanno, J. A., Clark, C., Pruitt, J., & Alvord, L. (2009). Tear Oxygen Under Hydrogel and Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lenses in Humans. Optometry and Vision Science, 86(8), E936-E942. doi:10.1097/opx.0b013e3181b2f582Chhabra, M., Prausnitz, J. M., & Radke, C. J. (2008). Diffusion and Monod kinetics to determine in vivo human corneal oxygen-consumption rate during soft contact-lens wear. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials, 90B(1), 202-209. doi:10.1002/jbm.b.31274Chhabra, M., Prausnitz, J. M., & Radke, C. J. (2009). Modeling Corneal Metabolism and Oxygen Transport During Contact Lens Wear. Optometry and Vision Science, 86(5), 454-466. doi:10.1097/opx.0b013e31819f9e70Larrea, X., & Bu¨chler, P. (2009). A Transient Diffusion Model of the Cornea for the Assessment of Oxygen Diffusivity and Consumption. Investigative Opthalmology & Visual Science, 50(3), 1076. doi:10.1167/iovs.08-2479Alvord, L. A., Hall, W. J., Keyes, L. D., Morgan, C. F., & Winterton, L. C. (2007). Corneal Oxygen Distribution With Contact Lens Wear. Cornea, 26(6), 654-664. doi:10.1097/ico.0b013e31804f5a22Del Castillo, L. F., da Silva, A. R. F., Hernández, S. I., Aguilella, M., Andrio, A., Mollá, S., & Compañ, V. (2015). Diffusion and Monod kinetics model to determine in vivo human corneal oxygen-consumption rate during soft contact lens wear. Journal of Optometry, 8(1), 12-18. doi:10.1016/j.optom.2014.06.002Chandel, N. S., Budinger, G. R. S., Choe, S. H., & Schumacker, P. T. (1997). Cellular Respiration during Hypoxia. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 272(30), 18808-18816. doi:10.1074/jbc.272.30.18808Leung, B. K., Bonanno, J. A., & Radke, C. J. (2011). Oxygen-deficient metabolism and corneal edema. Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, 30(6), 471-492. doi:10.1016/j.preteyeres.2011.07.001Chhabra, M., Prausnitz, J. M., & Radke, C. J. (2008). Polarographic Method for Measuring Oxygen Diffusivity and Solubility in Water-Saturated Polymer Films:  Application to Hypertransmissible Soft Contact Lenses. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 47(10), 3540-3550. doi:10.1021/ie071071aCompañ, V., Andrio, A., López-Alemany, A., Riande, E., & Refojo, M. F. (2002). Oxygen permeability of hydrogel contact lenses with organosilicon moieties. Biomaterials, 23(13), 2767-2772. doi:10.1016/s0142-9612(02)00012-1Gonzalez-Meijome, J. M., Compañ-Moreno, V., & Riande, E. (2008). Determination of Oxygen Permeability in Soft Contact Lenses Using a Polarographic Method:  Estimation of Relevant Physiological Parameters. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 47(10), 3619-3629. doi:10.1021/ie071403bCompa�, V., L�pez, M. L., Andrio, A., L�pez-Alemany, A., & Refojo, M. F. (1999). 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(2003). Thickness of the Pre- and Post–Contact Lens Tear Film Measured In Vivo by Interferometry. Investigative Opthalmology & Visual Science, 44(1), 68. doi:10.1167/iovs.02-0377Compañ, V., Aguilella-Arzo, M., Edrington, T. B., & Weissman, B. A. (2016). Modeling Corneal Oxygen with Scleral Gas Permeable Lens Wear. Optometry and Vision Science, 93(11), 1339-1348. doi:10.1097/opx.0000000000000988Compañ, V., Aguilella-Arzo, M., & Weissman, B. A. (2017). Corneal Equilibrium Flux as a Function of Corneal Surface Oxygen Tension. Optometry and Vision Science, 94(6), 672-679. doi:10.1097/opx.0000000000001083Papas, E. B., & Sweeney, D. F. (2016). Interpreting the corneal response to oxygen: Is there a basis for re-evaluating data from gas-goggle studies? Experimental Eye Research, 151, 222-226. doi:10.1016/j.exer.2016.08.019Alentiev, A. Y., Shantarovich, V. P., Merkel, T. C., Bondar, V. I., Freeman, B. D., & Yampolskii, Y. P. (2002). 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Caveolin-1 is required for TGF-β-induced transactivation of the EGF receptor pathway in hepatocytes through the activation of the metalloprotease TACE/ADAM17

Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) plays a dual role in hepatocytes, inducing both pro- and anti-apoptotic responses, whose balance decides cell fate. Survival signals are mediated by the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway, which is activated by TGF-β in these cells. Caveolin-1 (Cav1) is a structural protein of caveolae linked to TGF-β receptors trafficking and signaling. Previous results have indicated that in hepatocytes, Cav1 is required for TGF-β-induced anti-apoptotic signals, but the molecular mechanism is not fully understood yet. In this work, we show that immortalized Cav1−/− hepatocytes were more sensitive to the pro-apoptotic effects induced by TGF-β, showing a higher activation of caspase-3, higher decrease in cell viability and prolonged increase through time of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). These results were coincident with attenuation of TGF-β-induced survival signals in Cav1−/− hepatocytes, such as AKT and ERK1/2 phosphorylation and NFκ-B activation. Transactivation of the EGFR pathway by TGF-β was impaired in Cav1−/− hepatocytes, which correlated with lack of activation of TACE/ADAM17, the metalloprotease responsible for the shedding of EGFR ligands. Reconstitution of Cav1 in Cav1−/− hepatocytes rescued wild-type phenotype features, both in terms of EGFR transactivation and TACE/ADAM17 activation. TACE/ADAM17 was localized in detergent-resistant membrane (DRM) fractions in Cav1+/+ cells, which was not the case in Cav1−/− cells. Disorganization of lipid rafts after treatment with cholesterol-binding agents caused loss of TACE/ADAM17 activation after TGF-β treatment. In conclusion, in hepatocytes, Cav1 is required for TGF-β-mediated activation of the metalloprotease TACE/ADAM17 that is responsible for shedding of EGFR ligands and activation of the EGFR pathway, which counteracts the TGF-β pro-apoptotic effects. Therefore, Cav1 contributes to the pro-tumorigenic effects of TGF-β in liver cancer cells

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