Studying the Impact of Negotiation Environments on Negotiation Teams' Performance

[EN] In this article we study the impact of the negotiation environment on the performance of several intra-team strategies (team dynamics) for agent-based negotiation teams that negotiate with an opponent. An agent-based negotiation team is a group of agents that joins together as a party because they share common interests in the negotiation at hand. It is experimentally shown how negotiation environment conditions like the deadline of both parties, the concession speed of the opponent, similarity among team members, and team size affect performance metrics like the minimum utility of team members, the average utility of team members, and the number of negotiation rounds. Our goal is identifying which intra-team strategies work better in different environmental conditions in order to provide useful knowledge for team members to select appropriate intra-team strategies according to environmental conditions.This work is supported by TIN2011-27652-C03-01, TIN2009-13839-C03-01, CSD2007-00022 of the Spanish Government, and FPU Grant AP2008-00600 awarded to Victor Sanchez-Anguix. We would also like to thank anonymous reviewers and assistants of AAMAS 2011 who helped us to improve our previous work, making this present work possible.Sanchez-Anguix, V.; Julian Inglada, VJ.; Botti, V.; García-Fornes, A. (2013). Studying the impact of negotiation environments on negotiation teams' performance. Information Sciences. 219:17-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2012.07.017S174021

Systemic transport of Alfalfa mosaic virus can be mediated by the movement proteins of several viruses assigned to five genera of the 30K family

We previously showed that the movement protein (MP) gene of Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV) is functionally exchangeable for the cell-to-cell transport of the corresponding genes of Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), Brome mosaic virus, Prunus necrotic ringspot virus, Cucumber mosaic virus and Cowpea mosaic virus. We have analysed the capacity of the heterologous MPs to systemically transport the corresponding chimeric AMV genome. All MPs were competent in systemic transport but required the fusion at their C terminus of the coat protein-interacting C-terminal 44 aa (A44) of the AMV MP. Except for the TMV MP, the presence of the hybrid virus in upper leaves correlated with the capacity to move locally. These results suggest that all the MPs assigned to the 30K superfamily should be exchangeable not only for local virus movement but also for systemic transport when the A44 fragment is present.We thank L. Corachan for her excellent technical assistance. This work was supported by the Spanish granting agency DGICYT via grant BIO2011-25018 and by the Generalitat Valenciana via grant PROMETEO 2011-003.Fajardo, TVM.; Peiró Morell, A.; Pallás Benet, V.; Sanchez Navarro, JA. (2013). Systemic transport of Alfalfa mosaic virus can be mediated by the movement proteins of several viruses assigned to five genera of the 30K family. Journal of General Virology. 94:677-681. https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.048793-0S6776819

Tolerance to highâ internalizing δ opioid receptor agonist is critically mediated by arrestin 2

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144602/1/bph14353.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144602/2/bph14353_am.pd

Embryological-origin-dependent differences in homeobox expression in adult aorta: role in regional phenotypic variability and regulation of NF-κB activity

OBJECTIVE: Different vascular beds show differing susceptibility to the development of atherosclerosis, but the molecular mechanisms underlying these differences are incompletely understood. This study aims to identify factors that contribute to the phenotypic heterogeneity of distinct regions of the adult vasculature. APPROACH AND RESULTS: High-throughput mRNA profiling in adult mice reveals higher expression of the homeobox paralogous genes 6 to 10 (Hox6-10) in the athero-resistant thoracic aorta (TA) than in the athero-susceptible aortic arch (AA). Higher homeobox gene expression also occurs in rat and porcine TA, and is maintained in primary smooth muscle cells isolated from TA (TA-SMCs) compared with cells from AA (AA-SMCs). This region-specific homeobox gene expression pattern is also observed in human embryonic stem cells differentiated into neuroectoderm-SMCs and paraxial mesoderm-SMCs, which give rise to AA-SMCs and TA-SMCs, respectively. We also find that, compared with AA and AA-SMCs, TA and TA-SMCs have lower activity of the proinflammatory and proatherogenic nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and lower expression of NF-κB target genes, at least in part attributable to HOXA9-dependent inhibition. Conversely, NF-κB inhibits HOXA9 promoter activity and mRNA expression in SMCs. CONCLUSION: Our findings support a model of Hox6-10-specified positional identity in the adult vasculature that is established by embryonic cues independently of environmental factors and is conserved in different mammalian species. Differential homeobox gene expression contributes to maintaining phenotypic differences between SMCs from athero-resistant and athero-susceptible regions, at least in part through feedback regulatory mechanisms involving inflammatory mediators, for example, reciprocal inhibition between HOXA9 and NF-κB.The authors’ laboratories Sources of Funding supported are by grants from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO; SAF201016044), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII; RD/06/0014/0021, RD12/0042/0028), the Belgian Society of Cardiology (Dr. Léon Dumont Prize 2010), the European Commission (Liphos-317916), the Wellcome Trust (WT078390MA), and the Cambridge Biomedical Research Center. C. Cheung was sponsored by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (Singapore). J.M. GonzálezGranado and P. Fernández received salary support from the ISCIII (CP11/00145 and CD07/00021, respectively). The CNIC is supported by MINECO and Pro-CNIC Foundation.S

Power absorption measurements during NMR experiments

The heating produced by the absorption of radiofrequency (RF) has been considered a secondary undesirable effect during MRI procedures. In this work, we have measured the power absorbed by distilled water, glycerol and egg-albumin during NMR and non-NMR experiments. The samples are dielectric and examples of different biological materials. The samples were irradiated using the same RF pulse sequence, whilst the magnetic field strength was the variable to be changed in the experiments. The measurements show a smooth increase of the thermal power as the magnetic field grows due to the magnetoresistive effect in the copper antenna, a coil around the probe, which is directly heating the sample. However, in the cases when the magnetic field was the adequate for the NMR to take place, some anomalies in the expected thermal powers were observed: the thermal power was higher in the cases of water and glycerol, and lower in the case of albumin. An ANOVA test demonstrated that the observed differences between the measured power and the expected power are significant

Modelo prolab: “Flor de Campo, una propuesta sostenible para mejorar la calidad de vida de los floricultores de Ancash”

El negocio de las flores es una actividad sacrificada, pues demanda de mucha paciencia y tiempo para lograr ver que las producciones de flores den sus frutos. Así mismo, se sabe que existen muchos intermediarios en esta actividad económica y eso afecta directamente a los floricultores, pues no logran una retribución económica acorde a su esfuerzo, lo que no genera sostenibilidad al negocio, siendo muchas veces abandonados por ellos. El problema radica en que no logran llegar al consumidor final, ya que no cuentan con la capacidad logística, visión estratégica e igualdad de oportunidades para alcanzar mercados en las principales ciudades del país. Para esta problemática identificada, Flor de Campo trabajará de la mano con el floricultor y brindará el camino para llegar al cliente final de las principales ciudades del país, a través de su plataforma web, que logrará conectar a los clientes finales al realizar sus pedidos, generando mayor rentabilidad a sus productos y brindando un mejor precio sin intermediarios, así como también, lograr minimizar sus pérdidas al ofrecer una alternativa de uso de sus mermas, ya que se producirá productos derivados de las flores, generando economía circular. En el proceso para encontrar la solución que logre satisfacer al usuario y al cliente, se utilizó diversas metodologías agiles e hipótesis para identificar y comprender el problema de los usuarios, y a partir de ello, elaborar una propuesta de solución y validar la deseabilidad y factibilidad del negocio para posteriormente implementar la idea de solución. Asimismo, se ha orientado y alineado con las ODS 1,8 y 10, tomando en cuenta la problemática social alineada al negocio tomando en cuenta el impacto social deseado. Por último, se validó la viabilidad del plan de negocio donde se obtuvo un VAN económico de 4,422,899 soles con una TIR de 338%, generando un VAN social de 25,995,365 soles, haciendo del negocio una propuesta viable y sostenible para los inversionistas.Flower business trading is a hard and demanding economic activity due to the patience and time to analyze that floral productions give their results. It is known that there are many intermediaries in this market, and it directly affects to the flower growers because they do not obtain an economic retribution according to their work, which does not generate sustainability to the business and in numerous times abandoned by them. The problem involves the fact that they do not manage to reach their final consumer, since they do not have the logistic capacity, strategic vision and equal opportunities to reach the markets of the main cities of the country. For this identified problem, Flor de Campo will work directly with the flower grower and provide the opportunity to reach the final customer in the main cities of the country through its website. This digital portal will connect final customers to place their orders, generating greater profitability to their products and providing a better price without intermediaries, furthermore it will be minimizing their losses by offering an alternative use of their waste, as it will produce products derived from flowers, generating a circular economy. In the process of working a solution that satisfies the user and the client, numerous agile methodologies and hypotheses have been used to identify and understand the user's problem and in consequence it develops a solution proposal and validates the convenience and viability of the business that subsequently implements the solution idea. Likewise, it has been oriented and aligned with SDGs 1,8 and 10, taking social issues into consideration aligned to the business desired social impact. Finally, the feasibility of the business plan was validated where an economic NPV of 4,422,899 soles was obtained with an IRR of 338%, generating a social NPV of 25,995,365 soles, making the business a viable and sustainable proposal for investors

Die Rattenfänger von Balingen : wie die Bundeswehr mit Musik neuen Nachwuchs sucht

<div><p>Nuclear lamins are important structural and functional proteins in mammalian cells, but little is known about the mechanisms and cofactors that regulate their traffic into the nucleus. Here, we demonstrate that trafficking of lamin A, but not lamin B1, and its assembly into the nuclear envelope are regulated by sorting nexin 6 (SNX6), a major component of the retromer that targets proteins and other molecules to specific subcellular locations. SNX6 interacts with lamin A <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i> and links it to the outer surface of the endoplasmic reticulum in human and mouse cells. SNX6 transports its lamin A cargo to the nuclear envelope in a process that takes several hours. Lamin A protein levels in the nucleus augment or decrease, respectively, upon gain or loss of SNX6 function. We further show that SNX6-dependent lamin A nuclear import occurs across the nuclear pore complex via a RAN-GTP-dependent mechanism. These results identify SNX6 as a key regulator of lamin A synthesis and incorporation into the nuclear envelope.</p></div

Epigenetics in schizophrenia: a pilot study of global DNA methylation in different brain regions associated with higher cognitive functions

Attempts to discover genes that are involved in the pathogenesis of major psychiatric disorders have been frustrating and often fruitless. Concern is building about the need to understand the complex ways in which nature and nurture interact to produce mental illness. We analyze the epigenome in several brain regions from schizophrenic patients with severe cognitive impairment using high-resolution (450K) DNA methylation array. We identified 139 differentially methylated CpG sites included in known and novel candidate genes sequences as well as in and intergenic sequences which functions remain unknown. We found that altered DNA methylation is not restricted to a particular region, but includes others such as CpG shelves and gene bodies, indicating the presence of different DNA methylation signatures depending on the brain area analyzed. Our findings suggest that epimutations are not relatables between different tissues or even between tissues' regions, highlighting the need to adequately study brain samples to obtain reliable data concerning the epigenetics of schizophrenia

Optimizing subject design, timing, and focus in a diversity of engineering courses through the use of a low-cost Arduino shield

This paper describes the design, implementation and evaluation of a novel circuitry that extends the popular Arduino UNO microcontroller board to facilitate multiple educational activities in engineering courses. In particular, the aim of this board, the UMA-AEB, is to minimize the overhead that is usually imposed on the students before they can conduct the actual exercises, yet retain the valuable experiences that could otherwise not be acquired with simulated experiments or inflexible electronic training-benches.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. This work has been supported by the University of Málaga (Spain) through the educational innovation project PIE-15-093 “Innovación en el trabajo en laboratorio de una diversidad de asignaturas de ingeniería mediante el diseño y aplicación de una extensión de la plataforma de hardware abierto Arduino”