4,885 research outputs found
First CLADAG data mining prize : data mining for longitudinal data with different marketing campaigns
The CLAssification and Data Analysis Group (CLADAG) of the Italian
Statistical Society recently organised a competition, the 'Young Researcher Data
Mining Prize' sponsored by the SAS Institute. This paper was the winning entry
and in it we detail our approach to the problem proposed and our results. The main
methods used are linear regression, mixture models, Bayesian autoregressive and
Bayesian dynamic models
Numerical optimal control for HIV prevention with dynamic budget allocation
This paper is about numerical control of HIV propagation. The contribution of
the paper is threefold: first, a novel model of HIV propagation is proposed;
second, the methods from numerical optimal control are successfully applied to
the developed model to compute optimal control profiles; finally, the computed
results are applied to the real problem yielding important and practically
relevant results.Comment: Submitted pape
Reconstruction of the second layer of Ag on Pt(111)
The reconstruction of an Ag monolayer on Ag/Pt(111) is analyzed
theoretically, employing a vertically extended Frenkel-Kontorova model whose
parameters are derived from density functional theory. Energy minimization is
carried out using simulated quantum annealing techniques. Our results are
compatible with the STM experiments, where a striped pattern is initially found
which transforms into a triangular reconstruction upon annealing. In our model
we recognize the first structure as a metastable state, while the second one is
the true energy minimum
Análisis crítico de la controversia del uso de animales en las investigaciones científicas biomédicas
En los últimos años, se ha generado una
enconada discusión por parte de grupos
proteccionistas y entidades científicas
vigentes respecto al uso de animales en el
laboratorio. Si bien es cierto, que bajo la
perspectiva actual la historia ha mostrado
abusos y acciones denigrantes hacia los
animales en la sociedad humana, el progreso
de los conocimientos y el desarrollo de la
bioética, ha generado actitudes más
humanitarias con respecto a este tema. Los
reclamos de estos grupos defensores de los
animales han generado ideas distorsionadas
respecto al uso de ellos en la investigación
científica, en gran parte por el carácter
dogmático de sus argumentos y por una
visión limitada y en extremo estereotipada
de la actividad científica de investigación. En
la presente revisión, se consideran aspectos
históricos de la relación hombre-animal;
discusión del entorno y creencias de épocas
remotas y su posterior evolución en el
tiempo; análisis crítico de la publicación de
Rusell y Burch como hito en la investigación
científica humanizada a través de sus 3 R y la
presentación de argumentos tan
básicamente razonables que resulta hasta
innecesaria cualquier justificación sobre la
existencia de la actividad científica biológica
en la humanidad.In the past years a sustained issue has been
generated between certain activists groups
and scientific institutions regarding the use
of animals in the biological research. A
revision of the historical aspects about the
interaction of humans and animals in the
past clearly revealed abominable abuses to
animals. However, in the present times the
evolution of bioethics and the generation of
scientific information have put into evidence
a significant change in the human attitudes
to animals in biological research. However,
the activist’s claims have generated distorted
ideas regarding the use of animals in
experimental research, mainly due to the
dogmatic character of their arguments, and
the propagation of a stereotyped vision
about research procedures and researcher’s
attitudes to animals use. In the present
revision, history aspects about the
relationship of human-animal in the evolving
society; discussion about the context and
beliefs of the society at that time; critical
review about the 3 Rs of Rusell and Burch
historical landmark in the humane
experimental techniques, and presentation
of scientific arguments justifying use of
animals in biological research are
considered.Fil: Álvarez, Edgardo O..
Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MédicasFil: Ratti, Silvia.
Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médica
Análisis de conceptos básicos de memoria y aprendizaje : ¿Hasta qué punto los "dogmas" cognitivos son realmente "dogmas"?
El aprendizaje como proceso se puede considerar un avance evolutivo importante para todos los sistemas vivientes que lo adquirieron en las tempranas épocas del desarrollo de la vida. La percepción de un entorno que tiene “pasado" y “presente" permitió a los animales primitivos adquirir una visión más completa del mundo que los rodeaba. El uso cognitivo de la información que está disponible en un sistema viviente se le reconoce ahora como “aprendizaje". A pesar que han pasado muchos años y muchos investigadores han estado muy comprometidos en el estudio de la memoria y el aprendizaje, su intrincada naturaleza todavía no se comprende bien. En este trabajo se amplían muchos términos comunes en la investigación de este tema, como memoria, aprendizaje y ensayo redefiniéndose en un contexto más acotado con la intención de uniformar su comprensión. Se vuelve a discutir el modelo de aprendizaje en términos de un “circuito de aprendizaje". También se amplía el concepto unificador de “engrama de la unidad vectorial de la memoria" para el proceso de aprendizaje y el almacenamiento de la información, descrito con anterioridad. Finalmente, las implicaciones del modelo propuesto se consideran en el contexto de patologías que producen déficit de memoria, evaluándose las predicciones del modelo con la evidencia comportamental de pacientes con lesiones localizadas en ciertas partes del
cerebro.Learning can be considered a process that gave to living systems a significant
evolutionary advance in the history of life. The capacity to distinguish that events in the environment have “past" or “present" permitted the primitive evolving organisms to acquire a convenient enriched vision of the their surrounding world. The appropriate use of the information available as experience in an organism now it is known as learning. In spite of many years of intense research, the complete understanding of memory and learning still is not clear. Debate and disagreements about the intrinsic nature of this neural process in the scientific community did not help in these years to sediment a clear-cut knowledge about this important brain function. Part of these issues appears to be linked to the semantic use of some terms implying different meanings to different investigators, and the strong belief in interpretations about learning that in time has been considered dogmas. In the present work, intent to emphasize the meaning of many terms by limiting its significance and extending an alternative point of view previously presented elsewhere, about memory and learning is done.Fil: Álvarez, Edgardo O..
Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Área Farmacología.Fil: Ratti, Silvia.
Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Área Farmacología
On the improvement of the low energy neutrino factory
The low energy neutrino factory has been proposed as a very sensitive setup
for future searches for CP violation and matter effects. Here we study how its
performance is affected when the experimental specifications of the setup are
varied. Most notably, we have considered the addition of the 'platinum' nu_{mu}
-> nu_{e} channel. We find that, whilst theoretically the extra channel
provides very useful complementary information and helps to lift degeneracies,
its practical usefulness is lost when considering realistic background levels.
Conversely, an increase in statistics in the 'golden' nu_{e} -> nu_{mu} channel
and, to some extent, an improvement in the energy resolution, lead to an
important increase in the performance of the facility, given the rich energy
dependence of the 'golden' channel at these energies. We show that a low energy
neutrino factory with a baseline of 1300 km, muon energy of 4.5 GeV, and either
a 20 kton totally active scintillating detector or 100 kton liquid argon
detector, can have outstanding sensitivity to the neutrino oscillation
parameters theta13, delta and the mass hierarchy. For our estimated exposure of
2.8 x 10^{23} kton x decays per muon polarity, the low energy neutrino factory
has sensitivity to theta13 and delta for sin^{2}(2theta13) > 10^{-4} and to the
mass hierarchy for sin^{2}(2theta13) > 10^{-3}.Comment: 13 pages, 8 eps figures. Version published in PRD - experimental
section with preliminary results removed, abstract and conclusions re-written
accordingly, title changed, author list amended
Phylogenetic Relationships of the Decumbentes Group of Paspalum, Thrasya, and Thrasyopsis (Poaceae: Panicoideae: Paniceae)
Paspalum (Poaceae: Panicoideae: Paniceae) includes 330 species distributed mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of America. Due to the large number of species and convergence in many characters, an adequate infrageneric classification is still needed. Studies on Paniceae based on molecular and morphological data have suggested that Paspalum is paraphyletic, including the genus Thrasya, but none of these analyses have included a representative sample of these two genera. In this study, phylogenetic relationships among the informal group Decumbentes of Paspalum, plus subgenera and other informal groups, and the genera Thrasya and Thrasyopsis were estimated. A cladistic analysis under parsimony was performed using a matrix of 50 taxa and 77 morphological and anatomical characters. Different analytical parameters were explored, equally weighing characters and employing implied weights by varying the concavity constant, k, from 1 to 12. Almost all analyses showed that species of the Decumbentes group and Thrasya form a natural group, supported by the presence of axillary peduncles in the upper foliar sheath, the upper glume slightly shorter than the spikelet, margins of the lower lemma plicate on the upper anthecium, and the upper anthecium without simple papillae. The position of Thrasyopsis is not clear because it varies within the different analyses. The most important clades are discussed as well as diagnostic characters usually employed to distinguish the genera
Geographic distribution of the Gerridae in Argentina (Insect, Heteroptera)
Distributional data for the fourteen species of Gerridae known to occur in Argentina are given: Eurygerris fuscinervis (herein first recorded from San Juan and San Luis Provinces), Limnogonus (Limnogonus) aduncus (herein first recorded from Formosa Prov.), L. (L.) ignotus, L. (L.)profugus, L. (Neogerris) lubricus (herein first recorded from Cordoba Prov.), Brachymetra albinerva albinerva (herein first recorded from Salta Prov.), Rheumatobates (Rheumatobates) bonariensis, R. (R.)crassifemur crassifemur (herein first recorded from Santa Fe Prov.), Halobatopsis platensis, H. spiniventris (herein first recorded from Entre Rios Prov.), Metrobates plaumanni plaumanni, M. vigilis, Ovatametra gualeguay (herein first recorded from Buenos Aires Prov.), and Trepobates taylori (herein first recorded from Jujuy Prov.). In addition distributional maps are provided. The species characteristic for each main geographic area of Argentina are: E. fuscineruis and T. taylori for the Northwestern mountainous area; L. ignotus, L. lubricus, and R. crassifemur for the Chacoan plain; L. ignotus and H. platensis for the Bonarian plain; L. ignotus, R. bonariensis, H. platensis and 0 . gualeguay for the Mesopotamian plain. E. fuscinervis and T. taylori are restricted to mountain rivers and rivulets, whereas the remaining species seem to be genuine inhabitants of either rivulets in forested hilly areas (L. aduncus, L. profugus, B. albinerva, H. spiniventris, M. plaumanni and M. vigilis), or rivers, rivulets and ponds in plains (L. ignotus, L. lubricus, R. bonariensis, R. crassifemur, H. platensis, and 0 . gualeguay). L. ignotus is a pioneer species in lowlands, readily colonizing new pools. Excepting L. aduncus, L. profugus, and 0. gualeguay which are rare, the remaining species are common in Argentina (no enough data are available for B. albinerva, M. plaumanni, and M. vigilis). Gregariousness is high in E. fuscinervis, R. bonariensis, R. crassifemur, and H. platensis, and probably also in B. albinerva. The other species mentioned seem not to be gregarious, but 0 . gualeguay appears sometimes in the dense aggregations of H. platensis, suggesting some gregarious tendency
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