El cine / cuento animado o la ruptura del modelo clásico

El maravilloso mundo del cuento clásico que inspiró durante décadas al cine de animación, ha ido dejando paso en nuestros días a temas, personajes y estilos muy distintos. Se abre así un potencial de nuevas ideas impulsadas en muchos casos por los métodos de creación digital y la tecnología 3D. Durante años el monopolio de la Compañía Disney fue evidente ofreciendo a través de sus largometrajes una visión repleta de valores que calaron hondo en el público de diversas edades. Con el tiempo Disney se rindió a las Nuevas Tecnologías de la Imagen, y otras empresas como Dreamworks comenzaron a plantear una seria competencia en el sector a través de nuevas e imaginativas propuestas. El universo del videojuego, Internet o los Medios de Comunicación abren una ventana al mundo que implica la necesidad de “ver” y “sentir” de un modo distinto, haciéndose cada vez más necesaria una alfabetización audiovisual sólida. Todo ello provoca cambios en el espectador sobre todo en el infantil, que se mueve en el ámbito de nuevos valores y contenidos que se cuelan también en el panorama de la animación.The wonderful world of the classic tale, which inspired the animations films for decades, has given way to different topics and characters. Thus, it has been opened a potential of new ideas favoured in many cases by the digital creation and 3D-Technology. For years, the monopoly of Disney Company was clear, offering through its full-length films a vision of the world full of values that reached to the public of different ages. Disney surrended to the new technologies of the picture, and other companies like Dreamworks started to compete against it through new, imaginative proposals. The Videogame world, Internet or the Mass Media have opened a window to the world which implies the necessity of “watching” anf “feeling” in a different way, compelling to make more and more necessary a solid audiovisual culture. All this causes changes in the audience, especially in the children´s, which is moving along the new values and contents also introduced in the animation universe

Un enfoque algorítmico para enseñar “Visión por Computador” en las titulaciones de Informática

Este artículo describe el enfoque y desarrollo de un curso sobre “Visión por Computador”, impartido en el tercer curso de la titulación Ingeniería Técnica en Informática de Sistemas de la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid. El artículo refleja nuestro punto de vista y experiencia sobre cómo enseñar esta materia interdisciplinar a los alumnos de titulaciones informáticas, con vistas a una mejor comprensión de las operaciones habituales sobre imágenes así como de los algoritmos más apropiados para implementarlas. Las aplicaciones de “Tratamiento de Imágenes” y de “Visión por Computador” han adquirido una gran importancia por sus múltiples usos en entornos industriales. Al mismo tiempo, ofrecen a los estudiantes la posibilidad de utilizar sus conocimientos sobre algoritmia para abordarlas. Mostrar la relación entre lo aprendido en cursos previos sobre “Algoritmos y Estructuras de Datos” con los diversos problemas de “Visión por Computador” estudiados en esta asignatura, contribuye a que el curso resulte más interesante para los alumnos

Geoarqueología y registro geológico del último milenio en el pozo de la antigua Fábrica de Tabacos (Gijón, N España)

During the 2008-2009 archaeological excavations carried out in the ancient Fábrica de Tabacos (Gijón), a Roman well structure was discovered, covered by a sedimentary infill with archaeological remains. This work deals with the geological and depositional characterization of the sedimentary infill. Two hand drill cores of 1.45 m and 1.65m long were studied, using stratigraphic, geochemical and geochronological techniques. The evolutionary model of the sedimentary infill includes 5 phases: 1) construction and functioning as a well (prior? to 5th-6th centuries); 2) abandonment of the well and sedimentation in a restricted palustrine-like environment (5th-7th centuries); 3) a phase dominated by dumping of organic-rich landfill material (7th century); 4) re-starting of palustrine-like environment with some landfill episodes (7th-8th centuries); and 5) a final phase as a dumping site (at least during the 8th century). The sedimentary infill is an outstanding geoarchaelogical archive that provides key information to improve the knowledge of the region from the 6th to the 8th centuries.Agradecemos a la empresa Terra Arqueos S.L. su aportación en la realización de los sondeos y al Ayuntamiento de Gijón la financiación de la investigación (proyectos FUO-EM-403-10 y FUO-EM-342-09)Peer Reviewe

Modular 3-D-printed education tool for blind and visually impaired students oriented to net structures

Contribution: This article presents the design, creation, testing, and results after the use of a 3-D-printed educational tool that helped a blind student learning electric circuits theory in higher education. Background: Educational tools oriented to visually impaired and blind students in higher education are limited or even nonexistent in the STEM area. Previous developments on the field present in the literature, including other 3-D printing solutions, have been revised and compared to the proposed educational tool. Intended Outcomes: The tool was tested by a blind student in order to test the potential of the design to achieve a better understanding of the topology and performance of electric circuits. The main purpose of the tool described in this work is helping to increase the resources available in the field of teaching students with visual impairments. Application Design: 3-D technology has the potential to be used to create accessibility tools for visually impaired and blind individuals. Modular systems can be used to create complex structures using simple elements. A modular 3-D-printed tool was fabricated to help blind and visually impaired students to learn net structures. Findings: The 3-D tool has allowed the blind student to work autonomously in the study of simple electric circuits and supplies the teacher with a resource to communicate with the student in an easy and fast way. Updated design can be used to describe more complex net structures that can be applied to most electric circuits despite their complexity. The use of the modular system provided the blind student with a direct representation of the whole subject, even when it involved a great amount of graphical information and manipulation.This work was supported by the "Programa de Atención a Estudiantes con Discapacidad" from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Leishmaniasis: A new method for confirming cure and detecting asymptomatic infection in patients receiving immunosuppressive treatment for autoimmune disease.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in patients receiving immunosuppressant drugs for autoimmune disease has been on the rise. It is important—but difficult—to know when cure has been achieved in these patients since the withdrawal of immunosuppressants during antileishmania treatment is commonly required, and there is a risk of relapse when immunosuppression is restored. The prevalence of asymptomatic infection among those immunosuppressed for autoimmune disease is also uncertain. The present work describes how cytokine release assays can be used to confirm the cure of VL, and to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic infection, in such patients. After collection of blood from volunteers (n = 108), SLA-stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cell cultures and of whole blood was found to induce the production of different combinations of cytokines that served to confirm recovery from VL, and asymptomatic Leishmania infection. Indeed, cure was confirmed in 14 patients, all of whom showed a specific Th1 immune response against Leishmania, and the prevalence of asymptomatic infection was determined as 21.27%. Cytokine profiles could be used to manage VL in patients with autoimmune disease, and to identify and better protect those with asymptomatic infection who are at risk of developing this disease.post-print1034 K

Una metodología para la realización y evaluación efectiva de exámenes de programación usando el ordenador

El uso de ordenadores durante los exámenes de programación es una demanda muy habitual entre los estudiantes universitarios. En este trabajo se presenta una metodología para evaluar a los estudiantes de un curso de programación, que incorpora como novedad principal el uso del ordenador, por parte de los estudiantes, durante el examen. El trabajo comienza justificando las ventajas del uso del ordenador durante el examen y explicando los retos que introduce. Luego, se describen los diferentes procedimientos que componen la metodología propuesta: prácticas en casa, test unitarios, exámenes prácticos y exámenes tipo test. También se describen en este trabajo dos herramientas que se han desarrollado ad-hoc para complementar dicha metodología. La primera herramienta tiene por objetivo impedir el uso fraudulento del ordenador durante el examen. La segunda herramienta sirve para semiautomatizar la corrección de los exámenes. Finalmente, en este trabajo se analizan los resultados obtenidos antes y después de la aplicación de la metodología propuesta. De este análisis se deriva que el uso del ordenador durante el examen parece ofrecer una calificación más objetiva de los estudiantes.The use of computers during programming exams is a very habitual demand of the computer grade students. In this paper, a methodology for programming courses is presented, whose main innovation consists of using computers during the exams. This work begins justifying the advantages of using the computer during the exams and explaining the challenges that it introduces. Later, the procedures of the proposed methodology are described: unit tests, multiple choice questions, practical exams and home work exercises. We also describe two tools that had been developed to support these procedures. The first one avoids a fraudulent use of the computer during the exam. The second one is used to automatize the correction of the exams. In this work, we analyze the results obtained before and after the application of the proposed methodology. From this analysis, we notice that the use of computers during the exams allow us to get a more objective qualification of the student.Proyecto TIN2014-57458-R

Signalling pathways involved in antitumoral effects of VIP in human renal cell carcinoma A498 cells: VIP induction of p53 expression

Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) decreases cell proliferation through PI3K signalling and prevents tumour progression in clear renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Here we analyzed the signalling pathways that mediate such VIP effects by using human RCC A498 cells. The effects of treatment with 1 mM VIP and/or speci?c protein kinase inhibitors such as H89, Wortmannin and PD98059 were studied by cell adhesion assay, ELISA of VEGF165 and ROS production assays. Semiquantitative RT-PCR and western blot were performed to study p53 expression. VIP increased cell adhesion and ROS production, and decreased VEGF165 secretion through PI3K signalling. Moreover, VIP increased nuclear expression of tumour suppressor p53. VIP effects could be blocked by cell incubation with a speci?c p53 inhibitor, cyclin pi?thrin-a hydrobro- mide (CPFT-?H). In conclusion, this study provides a p53-dependent mechanism by which VIP regulates cell proliferation in RCC development. It supports a potential usefulness of VIP in new therapies of RCC.Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciónJunta de Comunidades de Castilla-La ManchaFundación Mutua MadrileñaFundación Jesús Serr

A collaborative filtering method for music recommendation using playing coefficients for artists and users.

The great quantity of music content available online has increased interest in music recommender systems. However, some important problems must be addressed in order to give reliable recommendations. Many approaches have been proposed to deal with cold-start and first-rater drawbacks; however, the problem of generating recommendations for gray-sheep users has been less studied. Most of the methods that address this problem are content-based, hence they require item information that is not always available. Another significant drawback is the difficulty in obtaining explicit feedback from users, necessary for inducing recommendation models, which causes the well-known sparsity problem. In this work, a recommendation method based on playing coefficients is proposed for addressing the above-mentioned shortcomings of recommender systems when little information is available. The results prove that this proposal outperforms other collaborative filtering methods, including those that make use of user attributes

Motives for exercising among young adults with a moderately positive body image

Background: People engage in exercise and sports due to several reasons, depending on factors such as age, sex and health or fitness status. These motives include enhancing health and fitness status, improving appearance and body image or enjoying in leisure time. Aims & Methods: Grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study explored motives for exercising in healthy men and women 18 to 40 years old who were regular exercisers and held a moderately positive body image. They voluntarily completed an online survey on their exercise practice, body image and motives for exercising. Results: Contrary to previous SDT-based empirical findings, appearance improvement emerged as an important motive for exercising, and it was more frequently mentioned than health&fun-related motives by the whole sample and by subsamples of men and women and younger young and older young adults. Conclusions: Given that appearance management-related motives may have both positive and undesired outcomes on exercise behaviour and personal well-being, they should be carefully reviewed with women and men in their young adulthood who are exercise intenders, beginners or regular exercisers

Endothelial damage, inflammation and immunity in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients have an accelerated atherosclerosis, increased risk of thrombotic-ischemic complications, and excessive mortality rates when compared with the general population. There is also evidence of an endothelial damage in which the proinflammatory state, the enhanced oxidative stress, or the accumulation of toxins due to their reduced renal clearance in uremia play a role. Further, there is evidence that uremic endothelial cells are both involved in and victims of the activation of the innate immunity. Uremic endothelial cells produce danger associated molecular patterns (DAMPS), which by binding to specific pattern recognition receptors expressed in multiple cells, including endothelial cells, induce the expression of adhesion molecules, the production of proinflammatory cytokines and an enhanced production of reactive oxygen species in endothelial cells, which constitute a link between immunity and inflammation. The connection between endothelial damage, inflammation and defective immunity in uremia will be reviewed here