1,696 research outputs found
Estimación de la similitud semántica de tareas entre procesos de negocio de telecomunicaciones
As a measure to improve competitiveness in the telecommunications market, companies in the sector currently create new value-added services, in order to expand their portfolio of services and ensure either the permanence of their customers or expand the number of subscribers . These new services must be supported in the business processes defined by the Telecommunications Operator, which are composed of operation, management, maintenance and support tasks. Telco Architects usually reuse these tasks with the objective of optimizing the company's resources and guaranteeing the rapid recovery of the investment, amortizing in the shortest possible time the creation and deployment costs of the new service.Como una medida para mejorar la competitividad en el mercado de las telecomunicaciones, actualmente las empresas del sector crean nuevos servicios de valor agregado, con el fin de ampliar su portafolio de servicios y garantizar bien sea la permanencia de sus clientes o ampliar el número de suscriptores. Estos nuevos servicios deben estar soportados en los procesos de negocio definidos por el Operador Telecomunicaciones, los cuales están compuestos por tareas de operación, gestión, mantenimiento y soporte. Habitualmente los Arquitectos Telco reutilizan dichas tareas con el objetivo de optimizar los recursos de la empresa y garantizar la rápida recuperación de la inversión, amortizando en el menor tiempo posible los gastos de creación y despliegue del nuevo servicio
Different doses of adenoviral vector expressing IL-12 enhance or depress the immune response to a coadministered antigen: the role of nitric oxide
Joint immunization with two recombinant adenoviruses, one expressing hepatitis C virus (HCV) core and E1 proteins and another expressing IL-12 (RAdIL-12), strongly potentiates cellular immune response against HCV Ags in BALB/c mice when RAdIL-12 was used at doses of 1 x 105-1 x 107 plaque-forming units. However, cellular immunity against HCV Ags was abolished when higher doses (1 x 108 plaque-forming units) of RAdIL-12 were used. This immunosuppressive effect was associated with marked elevation of IFN-gamma and nitric oxide in the serum and increased cell apoptosis in the spleen. Administration of N-nitro-L -arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase, to mice that received high doses of RAdIL-12 was lethal, whereas no apparent systemic toxicity by L -NAME was observed in those immunized with lower doses of the adenovirus. Interestingly, in mice immunized with recombinant adenovirus expressing core and E1 proteins of HCV in combination with RAdIL-12 at low doses (1 x 107 plaque-forming units), L -NAME inhibited T cell proliferation and CTL activity in response to HCV Ags and also production of Abs against adenoviral proteins. In conclusion, gene transfer of IL-12 can increase or abolish cell immunity against an Ag depending of the dose of the vector expressing the cytokine. IL-12 stimulates the synthesis of NO which is needed for the immunostimulating effects of IL-12, but apoptosis of T cells and immunosuppression ensues when IFN-gamma and NO are generated at very high concentrations
Characterizing Low-Mass Binaries From Observation of Long Time-scale Caustic-crossing Gravitational Microlensing Events
Despite astrophysical importance of binary star systems, detections are
limited to those located in small ranges of separations, distances, and masses
and thus it is necessary to use a variety of observational techniques for a
complete view of stellar multiplicity across a broad range of physical
parameters. In this paper, we report the detections and measurements of 2
binaries discovered from observations of microlensing events MOA-2011-BLG-090
and OGLE-2011-BLG-0417. Determinations of the binary masses are possible by
simultaneously measuring the Einstein radius and the lens parallax. The
measured masses of the binary components are 0.43 and 0.39
for MOA-2011-BLG-090 and 0.57 and 0.17 for
OGLE-2011-BLG-0417 and thus both lens components of MOA-2011-BLG-090 and one
component of OGLE-2011-BLG-0417 are M dwarfs, demonstrating the usefulness of
microlensing in detecting binaries composed of low-mass components. From
modeling of the light curves considering full Keplerian motion of the lens, we
also measure the orbital parameters of the binaries. The blended light of
OGLE-2011-BLG-0417 comes very likely from the lens itself, making it possible
to check the microlensing orbital solution by follow-up radial-velocity
observation. For both events, the caustic-crossing parts of the light curves,
which are critical for determining the physical lens parameters, were resolved
by high-cadence survey observations and thus it is expected that the number of
microlensing binaries with measured physical parameters will increase in the
future.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 4 table
Supermassive Black Hole Binaries: The Search Continues
Gravitationally bound supermassive black hole binaries (SBHBs) are thought to
be a natural product of galactic mergers and growth of the large scale
structure in the universe. They however remain observationally elusive, thus
raising a question about characteristic observational signatures associated
with these systems. In this conference proceeding I discuss current theoretical
understanding and latest advances and prospects in observational searches for
SBHBs.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of 2014 Sant Cugat
Forum on Astrophysics. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, ed.
C.Sopuerta (Berlin: Springer-Verlag
Chronic Melatonin Administration Reduced Oxidative Damage and Cellular Senescence in the Hippocampus of a Mouse Model of Down Syndrome
Previous studies have demonstrated that melatonin administration improves spatial learning and memory and hippocampal long-term potentiation in the adult Ts65Dn (TS) mouse, a model of Down syndrome (DS). This functional benefit of melatonin was accompanied by protection from cholinergic neurodegeneration and the attenuation of several hippocampal neuromorphological alterations in TS mice. Because oxidative stress contributes to the progression of cognitive deficits and neurodegeneration in DS, this study evaluates the antioxidant effects of melatonin in the brains of TS mice. Melatonin was administered to TS and control mice from 6 to 12 months of age and its effects on the oxidative state and levels of cellular senescence were evaluated. Melatonin treatment induced antioxidant and antiaging effects in the hippocampus of adult TS mice. Although melatonin administration did not regulate the activities of the main antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and glutathione S-transferase) in the cortex or hippocampus, melatonin decreased protein and lipid oxidative damage by reducing the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and protein carbonyls (PC) levels in the TS hippocampus due to its ability to act as a free radical scavenger. Consistent with this reduction in oxidative stress, melatonin also decreased hippocampal senescence in TS animals by normalizing the density of senescence-associated â-galactosidase positive cells in the hippocampus. These results showed that this treatment attenuated the oxidative damage and cellular senescence in the brain of TS mice and support the use of melatonin as a potential therapeutic agent for age-related cognitive deficits and neurodegeneration in adults with DS
Protective Role of the Interleukin 33 rs3939286 Gene Polymorphism in the Development of Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients
OBJECTIVES: To determine whether the interleukin-33 (IL-33)-interleukin-1 receptor like 1 (IL-1RL1) signaling pathway is implicated in the risk of subclinical atherosclerosis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: A total of 576 Spanish RA patients from Northern Spain were genotyped for 6 well-known IL33-IL1RL1 polymorphisms (IL33 rs3939286, IL33 rs7025417, IL33 rs7044343, IL1RL1 rs2058660, IL1RL1 rs2310173 and IL1RL1 rs13015714) by TaqMan genotyping assay. The presence of subclinical atherosclerosis was determined by the assessment of carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) by carotid ultrasound (US). RESULTS: RA patients carrying the TT genotype of the IL33 rs3939286 polymorphism had lower cIMT values than those homozygous for the CC genotype (mean ± standard deviation (SD): 0.71 ± 0.14 mm versus 0.76 ± 0.16 mm, respectively) while patients carrying the CT genotype had intermediate cIMT values (mean ± SD: 0.73 ± 0.17 mm). Moreover, RA patients carrying the mutant allele T of the IL33 rs3939286 polymorphism exhibited significantly lower cIMT values than those carrying the wild allele C (mean ± SD: 0.72 ± 0.16 mm versus 0.75 ± 0.18 mm respectively; p = 0.04). The association of both genotype and allele frequencies of IL33 rs3939286 and cIMT levels remained statistically significant after adjustment for sex, age at the time of US study, follow-up and center (p = 0.006 and p = 0.0023, respectively), evidencing that the potential effect conferred by IL33 rs3939286 may be independent of confounder factors. No association with other IL33-IL1RL1 genetic variants was observed. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, our results may suggest a potential protective effect of the IL33 rs3939286 allele T in the risk of subclinical atherosclerosis in patients with RA
Two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at = 2.76 TeV
The first measurement of two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb
collisions at TeV at the Large Hadron Collider is
presented. We observe a growing trend with energy now not only for the
longitudinal and the outward but also for the sideward pion source radius. The
pion homogeneity volume and the decoupling time are significantly larger than
those measured at RHIC.Comment: 17 pages, 5 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 12,
published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/388
Anisotropic flow of charged hadrons, pions and (anti-)protons measured at high transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at TeV
The elliptic, , triangular, , and quadrangular, , azimuthal
anisotropic flow coefficients are measured for unidentified charged particles,
pions and (anti-)protons in Pb-Pb collisions at TeV
with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Results obtained with the
event plane and four-particle cumulant methods are reported for the
pseudo-rapidity range at different collision centralities and as a
function of transverse momentum, , out to GeV/.
The observed non-zero elliptic and triangular flow depends only weakly on
transverse momentum for GeV/. The small dependence
of the difference between elliptic flow results obtained from the event plane
and four-particle cumulant methods suggests a common origin of flow
fluctuations up to GeV/. The magnitude of the (anti-)proton
elliptic and triangular flow is larger than that of pions out to at least
GeV/ indicating that the particle type dependence persists out
to high .Comment: 16 pages, 5 captioned figures, authors from page 11, published
version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/186
Centrality dependence of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at TeV
The inclusive transverse momentum () distributions of primary
charged particles are measured in the pseudo-rapidity range as a
function of event centrality in Pb-Pb collisions at
TeV with ALICE at the LHC. The data are presented in the range
GeV/ for nine centrality intervals from 70-80% to 0-5%.
The Pb-Pb spectra are presented in terms of the nuclear modification factor
using a pp reference spectrum measured at the same collision
energy. We observe that the suppression of high- particles strongly
depends on event centrality. In central collisions (0-5%) the yield is most
suppressed with at -7 GeV/. Above
GeV/, there is a significant rise in the nuclear modification
factor, which reaches for GeV/. In
peripheral collisions (70-80%), the suppression is weaker with almost independently of . The measured nuclear
modification factors are compared to other measurements and model calculations.Comment: 17 pages, 4 captioned figures, 2 tables, authors from page 12,
published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/284
- …