A Declarative Semantics for CLP with Qualification and Proximity

Uncertainty in Logic Programming has been investigated during the last decades, dealing with various extensions of the classical LP paradigm and different applications. Existing proposals rely on different approaches, such as clause annotations based on uncertain truth values, qualification values as a generalization of uncertain truth values, and unification based on proximity relations. On the other hand, the CLP scheme has established itself as a powerful extension of LP that supports efficient computation over specialized domains while keeping a clean declarative semantics. In this paper we propose a new scheme SQCLP designed as an extension of CLP that supports qualification values and proximity relations. We show that several previous proposals can be viewed as particular cases of the new scheme, obtained by partial instantiation. We present a declarative semantics for SQCLP that is based on observables, providing fixpoint and proof-theoretical characterizations of least program models as well as an implementation-independent notion of goal solutions.Comment: 17 pages, 26th Int'l. Conference on Logic Programming (ICLP'10

Evaluación de la Estrategia Nacional sobre Drogas 2000-2008: elaboración de una propuesta metodológica

La Estrategia Nacional sobre Drogas 2000-2008 planteaba entre sus objetivos el de ser evaluada. Con este fin se presenta una propuesta metodológica sencilla y basada en los últimos avances metodológicos realizados en materia de evaluación de políticas públicas. La propuesta responde a cuestiones relevantes como quién debe realizar dicha evaluación, a qué preguntas debe responder y cuál es el diseño metodológico más apropiado para llevarla a cabo

A Transformation-based Implementation for CLP with Qualification and Proximity

Uncertainty in logic programming has been widely investigated in the last decades, leading to multiple extensions of the classical LP paradigm. However, few of these are designed as extensions of the well-established and powerful CLP scheme for Constraint Logic Programming. In a previous work we have proposed the SQCLP (proximity-based qualified constraint logic programming) scheme as a quite expressive extension of CLP with support for qualification values and proximity relations as generalizations of uncertainty values and similarity relations, respectively. In this paper we provide a transformation technique for transforming SQCLP programs and goals into semantically equivalent CLP programs and goals, and a practical Prolog-based implementation of some particularly useful instances of the SQCLP scheme. We also illustrate, by showing some simple-and working-examples, how the prototype can be effectively used as a tool for solving problems where qualification values and proximity relations play a key role. Intended use of SQCLP includes flexible information retrieval applications.Comment: 49 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, preliminary version of an article of the same title, published as Technical Report SIC-4-10, Universidad Complutense, Departamento de Sistemas Inform\'aticos y Computaci\'on, Madrid, Spai

Hypertension control: population surveys vs clinical studies

Editorial commentary on Manuscript Number: JHH-14-0356. “Blood pressure levels and control in Italy: comprehensive analysis of clinical data from 2000-2005 and 2005-2010 hypertension surveys”.This work has been partially funded by FIS grant PI13/02321, and Cátedra de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid de Epidemiología y Control del Riesgo Cardiovascular, Madrid, Spai

Etiquetado frontal Nutri-Score: el aceite de oliva y otros alimentos cuya clasificación se debería mejorar

Se estudia el etiquetado frontal Nutri-Score, la problemática, los beneficios, las diferencias con las guías alimentarias y se plantean posibles mejoras en los sistemas de etiquetado e información.N

Sitting time and mortality in older adults with disability: A national cohort study

The progressive aging of the population has increased the number of older adults with disabilities. Regular physical activity has shown to improve health among these individuals, but the effects of sedentary behavior are mostly unknown. Thus, this study examined the association between sitting time and mortality in older adults with disability. Methods Prospective cohort of 2470 people aged ≥60 years. In 2000–2011, the study participants reported their sitting time and physical activity levels and were subsequently followed up through 2011 to ascertain mortality. Results During an average follow-up of 8.7 years, 982 deaths occurred. Compared with people who spent seated <4 hours/d, the hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of mortality was 1.27 (1.07–1.51) in those seated during 4–6 hours/d and 1.55 (1.29–1.87) in those seated for >6 hours/d. Each increment of 1 hour/day in sitting time was linked to a 7% increase in mortality. Compared with active individuals who spent seated <4 hours/day, those who were inactive and spent seated >6 hours/d showed the highest mortality (hazard ratio 1.82, 95% confidence interval 1.37–2.42). Conclusions Sitting time is associated with higher mortality in older people with disability. Interventions combining the reduction of sedentary behavior with increased physical activity should be developed and evaluated in this group of populationThis work was supported by FIS grant 12/1166 (Instituto de Salud Carlos IIII and FEDER/FSE), MINECO I+D+i grant DEP2013-47786-R, FP7-HEALTH-2012-Proposal No. 305483-2 (FRAILOMIC Initiative), and by the Catedra UAM de Epidemiología y Control del Riesgo Cardiovascula

Dietary micronutrients intake and plasma fibrinogen levels in the general adult population.

Plasma fibrinogen predicts cardiovascular and nonvascular mortality. However, there is limited population-based evidence on the association between fibrinogen levels and dietary intakes of micronutrients possibly associated with inflammation status. Data were taken from the ENRICA study, conducted with 10,808 individuals representative of the population of Spain aged ≥ 18 years. Nutrient intake (vitamin A, carotenoids, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, magnesium, selenium, zinc and iron) was estimated with a validated diet history, and plasma fibrinogen was measured under appropriate quality checks. Statistical analyses were performed with linear regression and adjusted for main confounders. The geometric means of fibrinogen (g/L) across increasing quintiles of nutrient intake were 3.22, 3.22, 3.22, 3.16, and 3.19 (p-trend = 0.030) for vitamin E; 3.23, 3.22, 3.20, 3.19, and 3.19 (p-trend = 0.047) for magnesium; and 3.24, 3.22, 3.19, 3.21, and 3.19 (p-trend = 0.050) for iron. These inverse associations were more marked in participants with abdominal obesity and aged ≥ 60 years, but lost statistical significance after adjustment for other nutrients. Although dietary intakes of vitamin E, magnesium and iron were inversely associated with fibrinogen levels, clinical implications of these findings are uncertain since these results were of very small magnitude and mostly explained by intake levels of other nutrients.This work has been funded by State Secretary of R + D + I and FEDER/FSE FIS grants (F.R.A., grant 16/609 and 19/319; E.L.G., grant 16/1512); and the JPI HDHL-SALAMANDER project (F.R.A., grant APCIN 2016-145). The funders had no role in the design, analysis or writing of this workS