Depth filtering for auto-stereoscopic mobile devices

In this work we address a scenario where 3D content is transmitted to a mobile terminal with 3D display capabilities. We consider the use of 2D plus depth format to represent the 3D content and focus on the generation of synthetic views in the terminal. We evaluate different types of smoothing filters that are applied to depth maps with the aim of reducing the disoccluded regions. The evaluation takes into account the reduction of holes in the synthetic view as well as the presence of geometrical distortion caused by the smoothing operation. The selected filter has been included within an implemented module for the VideoLan Client (VLC) software in order to render 3D content from the 2D plus depth data format

Evaluation of Q-Learning approach for HTTP adaptive streaming

We propose a Q-Learning-based algorithm for an HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) Client that maximizes the perceived quality, taking into account the relation between the estimated bandwidth and the qualities and penalizing the freezes. The results will show that it produces an optimal control as other approaches do, but keeping the adaptivenes

Business application of viral marketing and Electronic Word-of-Mouth. Firm opinions

La práctica tradicional del boca-oreja, natural desde hace años como modo de publicidad efectiva sin recurrir a grandes inversiones ni contrataciones en medios masivos se ha convertido en una nueva posibilidad de marketing con la llegada de las nuevas tecnologías e Internet. Así ha aparecido una nueva estrategia de marketing que consiste en explotar las redes sociales preexistentes para producir incrementos exponenciales en conocimiento de marca, denominada marketing viral. El efecto "boca-oreja online" que genera es una herramienta poderosa para las empresas, aunque su verdadero potencial está aún por descubrir. El objetivo del presente trabajo de investigación es analizar este fenómeno a través de una amplia revisión bibliográfica del término, así como un estudio empírico consistente en una entrevista en profundidad realizada a una muestra de importantes empresas españolas. Los resultados indican que el marketing viral puede ser empleado para el beneficio, tanto de grandes empresas con grandes presupuestos, como de pequeños negocios. Las experiencias exitosas de su utilización demuestran que, cuando se usa integrado en el resto de estrategias comerciales de la empresa, puede mejorar la recomendación de la marca e incrementar su notoriedad en el mercado. El marketing viral puede ser ventajoso a la hora de lanzar un nuevo producto al mercado, sin embargo, la efectividad y la medición de las campañas son vistas por muchos académicos y profesionales como un punto débil de la estrategia.Traditional word of mouth, which was for many years used as effective advertising that didn’t require major investments in mass media, has become a new marketing opportunity with the advent of new technologies and the Internet. Thus, a new marketing strategy called viral marketing has emerged and it exploits existing social networks to produce exponential increases in brand awareness. The effect of “online word of mouth” is a powerful tool for businesses, but its true potential is yet to be discovered. The objective of this research is to analyze this phenomenon through an extensive literature review of the term, as well as an empirical study consisting of indepth interviews conducted with a sample of large Spanish companies. The results indicate that viral marketing can be used for the benefit of both large companies with big budgets and small businesses. Successful experiences of this strategy show that, when integrated with the rest of the company’s business strategies, it can improve the recommendation of the brand and increase its visibility in the market. Viral marketing can be advantageous when launching a new product to the market. However, its effectiveness and the measurement of the campaigns are seen by many academics and professionals as a weakness of this strateg

Las Políticas gubernamentales y su relación con en el financiamiento y el emprendimiento para las PyMEs en México

This research analyzes the impact of the governmental politics as a determinate factor for the access to financing and the entrepreneur orientation for the SEMs in Mexico. Because nowadays the economics circumstances are really needs new and effective strategies to face the problems that avoid the economic development, that is why the publics politics must be oriented to improve the access to financing and encourage the innovation, proactivity and risk taken for the SEMs in Mexico. For this paper have made an inquest to 400 SMEs from the state of Aguascalientes, México, which analyzes the impact of the governmental politics in financing and entrepreneur orientation. The results were that the governmental politics has a positive impact in financing in the SEMs and them have to provides mechanisms that facilitates the corporative entrepreneur.Este estudio analiza el impacto que ejercen las políticas gubernamentales como factor para el acceso al financiamiento y la orientación emprendedora de las PyMEs. Dadas las condiciones económicas actuales es evidente la necesidad de nuevas y efectivas estrategias para enfrentar los problemas que atentan el desarrollo económico. Es indispensable generar mejores condiciones a través de políticas gubernamentales orientadas a mejorar el acceso al financiamiento incentivando la innovación, proactividad y toma de riesgos en las PyMEs. Se realizó una encuesta a 400 PyMEs de todos los sectores del Estado de Aguascalientes, México, donde se analiza el impacto de las políticas gubernamentales en financiamiento y la orientación emprendedora. Se obtuvo como resultado que las políticas públicas en materia de financiamiento tienen un impacto significativo en las PyMEs; en el rubro de orientación emprendedora las políticas gubernamentales tienen que ser un mecanismo facilitador para que el emprendimiento en las PyMEs se pueda desarrollar

Las rúbricas analíticas como recurso de evaluación de créditos prácticos en la asignatura de Atención a la Diversidad e Intervención Educativa en NEE

Memoria ID-0172. Ayudas de la Universidad de Salamanca para la innovación docente, curso 2015-2016

Gold(III) Porphyrin Was Used as an Electron Acceptor for Efficient Organic Solar Cells

[Abstract] The widespread use of nonfullerene-based electron-accepting materials has triggered a rapid increase in the performance of organic photovoltaic devices. However, the number of efficient acceptor compounds available is rather limited, which hinders the discovery of new, high-performing donor:acceptor combinations. Here, we present a new, efficient electron-accepting compound based on a hitherto unexplored family of well-known molecules: gold porphyrins. The electronic properties of our electron-accepting gold porphyrin, named VC10, were studied by UV−Vis spectroscopy and by cyclic voltammetry (CV) , revealing two intense optical absorption bands at 500−600 and 700−920 nm and an optical bandgap of 1.39 eV. Blending VC10 with PTB7-Th, a donor polymer, which gives rise to an absorption band at 550−780 nm complementary to that of VC10, enables the fabrication of organic solar cells (OSCs) featuring a power conversion efficiency of 9.24% and an energy loss of 0.52 eV. Hence, this work establishes a new approach in the search for efficient acceptor molecules for solar cells and new guidelines for future photovoltaic material designF.L. and P.d.l.C. thank MCI (Spain) (PID2019-105049RB-I00), MICIU (RED2018-102815-T), the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, and the European Social Fund (SBPLY/17/180501/000254) for financial support. V.C. thanks MECD for an FPU grant (FPU15/02170). G.D.S. thanks the Government of India SERI-DST (DST/TMD/SERI/D05(c)) for financial support. J.M. thanks the MICINN for grant PGC2018-094620-A-I00Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha; SBPLY/17/180501/000254Government of India; DST/TMD/SERI/D05(c

Role of vascular mechanisms involved in the acute gastric mucosal injury induced by droxicam and piroxicam in rats

We describe the formation of severe gastric erosions produced in fasted rats by intragastric administration of droxicam and its active species piroxicam, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs of the oxicam group. The time course of gastric damage and the possible role of mucus secretion, changes of gastric vascular permeability, and neutrophil activation in the development of droxicam- and piroxicam-induced astric lesions, were also investigated. Both drugs dose-dependently (1-25-20 mg kg - ) caused acute gastric haemorrhagic erosions in the rat. These lesions were significantly greater with piroxicam treatment 6 h after dosing. Only the lower doses of droxicam and piroxicam (1.25 mg kg-') induced a significant increase of mucus gel production at different times (3 and 6 h). However, there was no increase in the concentration of its components. Oral pretreatment of the animals with either agent did not induce any changes on the values of mucosal vascular permeability. In contrast, myeloperoxidase activity as an index of neutrophil infiltration was significantly increased. A marked relationship was found between the lesion index and myeloperoxidase activity. These results suggest that neutrophil infiltration could play an important role in the pathogenesis of gastric mucosal injury induced by these oxicam agent

Protective Effect of L‐Arginine Against Ibuprofen‐induced Gastric Injury in Rats

This study has been designed to confirm the protective effect of different single oral doses of L‐arginine in the presence of equimolar doses of ibuprofen, and to compare the results with those obtained after treatment with ibuprofen alone. Different parameters were assessed in rats: gastric damage (mm2 and score), ratio of lesionated stomachs/total stomachs evaluated, and presence of haemorrhage. Six hours after dosing, oral administration of ibuprofen (0·3, 0·6 and 1·2 mmol kg −1) produced a progressive dose‐dependent increase in damage to the gastric mucosa. All treatments with equimolar doses of L‐arginine considerably reduced lesions (mm2 and score) and the same tendency was observed with the other parameters examined. We also evaluated the gastroprotective effect of L‐arginine against anti‐ulcer reference drugs, ranitidine and roxatidine (two antisecretory agents) and misoprostol (a cytoprotective drug). The degree of inhibition of damage provided by L‐arginine was similar to those obtained with the other drugs. Thus, we conclude that the simultaneous administration of equimolar doses of ibuprofen and L‐arginine offers significant protection compared with gastrolesive doses of ibuprofen alone, with an important decrease in the lesionated areas and improvement of the vascular state. The extent of this protective action is comparable with that observed with anti‐ulcer reference drugs

Gold(III) Porphyrin Was Used as an Electron Acceptor for Efficient Organic Solar Cells

[EN] The widespread use of nonfullerene-based electron-accepting materials has triggered a rapid increase in the performance of organic photovoltaic devices. However, the number of efficient acceptor compounds available is rather limited, which hinders the discovery of new, high-performing donor:acceptor combinations. Here, we present a new, efficient electron-accepting compound based on a hitherto unexplored family of well-known molecules: gold porphyrins. The electronic properties of our electron-accepting gold porphyrin, named VC10, were studied by UV-Vis spectroscopy and by cyclic voltammetry (CV) , revealing two intense optical absorption bands at 500-600 and 700-920 nm and an optical bandgap of 1.39 eV. Blending VC10 with PTB7-Th, a donor polymer, which gives rise to an absorption band at 550-780 nm complementary to that of VC10, enables the fabrication of organic solar cells (OSCs) featuring a power conversion efficiency of 9.24% and an energy loss of 0.52 eV. Hence, this work establishes a new approach in the search for efficient acceptor molecules for solar cells and new guidelines for future photovoltaic material design.F.L. and P.d.l.C. thank MCI (Spain) (PID2019-105049RB-I00), MICIU (RED2018-102815-T), the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, and the European Social Fund (SBPLY/17/180501/000254) for financial support. V.C. thanks MECD for an FPU grant (FPU15/02170). G.D.S. thanks the Government of India SERI-DST (DST/TMD/SERI/D05(c)) for financial support. J.M. thanks the MICINN for grant PGC2018-094620-A-I00

Concordance between circulating tumor cells and clinical status during follow-up in anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) non-small-cell lung cancer patients

Background: The identification of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements is found in approximately 5% of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs). However, the development of liquid biopsies as a diagnostic tool is less developed in these cases. This study investigates the use of CTCs during treatment, together with an extended follow-up to correlate with clinical evolution. Patients and Methods: A total of 13 patients out of a cohort of 212 patients with lung adenocarcinoma, presented ALK rearrangements (6%) confirmed by tumor biopsy. A total of 60 serial blood samples were collected from these patients who were prospectively enrolled in the study. Results: All patients had a positive CTC count at baseline (mean = 3). The median follow-up was 9 months (range 1-17 months). Three patients underwent surgery and their CTC counts decreased after the procedure but still remained detectable. After radiotherapy, 3 cases showed an average decrease of 5 CTCs. A total of 6 patients were treated with ALK inhibitors and a partial response was observed in 3 of them, who also presented decreased CTC counts. The other 3 patients presented primary resistance, and their CTC counts were higher than those obtained prior to progression. Conclusion: We believe that the use of CTCs for dynamic monitoring of NSCLC with ALK rearrangement and to detect disease persistence or recurrence may be a reliable technique. CTC counts may also have potential use to monitor the efficacy of ALK inhibitors, facilitating detection of resistance to treatmentThis study was supported by Carlos III Institute of Health, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and European Regional Development Fund (grant number: PI16/01818 and PIE14/00064), D. Pérez-Callejo is supported by SEOM-Río-Hortega contract, A Romero is supported by Joan Rodés fellowship (grant number: JR14/00017) and M Sánchez-Beato is supported by Miguel Servet contract (CP11/00018 and CPII16/00024