Economía artificial: métodos de inspiración social en la resolución de problemas complejos

La dimensión social de la Economía le confiere una complejidad que es muy difícil de formalizar en un conjunto de ecuaciones algebraicas. La aproximación de la Economía Experimental (EE) y la de su extensión de la Economía Artificial (EA) con modelos basados en agentes artificiales (ABM), permiten recoger parte de esa complejidad cuando el intercambio es impersonal. En este artículo analizamos desde la EA el paradigmático ejemplo de la subasta doble continua (CDA) y su dinámica social con diferentes tipos de agentes. Los resultados obtenidos con sociedades artificiales, no sólo son relevantes para explicar los mecanismos de la institución, sino que el propio mercado puede ser un vehículo para resolver problemas de gestión de la empresa y de elección y escasez de complejidad nphard. Para ilustrarlo empleamos un ejemplo basado en la aplicación de subastas combinatorias: mediante la programación basada en mercados se puede realizar la asignación de slots de recursos en problemas de gestión de carteras de proyectosMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación con referencia CSD2010-00034 (SimulPast CONSOLIDER- INGENIO 2010) y el proyecto Application of Agent-Based Computational Economics to Strategic Slot Allocation cofinanciado por EUROCONTROL- SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) y la Unión Europea como parte del programa SESA

Still navigating across the Atlantic: a view of a virtual reference service for academic libraries.

This paper presents the Via Virtual Project, a virtual reference service designed by the University of Cadiz as a strategy in response to the new educational model in Europe. It was launched in cooperation with the University of New Mexico General Library as a bilingual reference service in real time, available 24 hours a day. The philosophy of the project will be described: the difference between virtual reference and a traditional reference service, the reorganisation of functions and activities, the acquisition of new skills by staff, the implementation of the software, and training etc. At present, the University of Cadiz Library is working in conjunction with the University of Valparaiso Library

Errors and Artefacts in Agent-Based Modelling

The objectives of this paper are to define and classify different types of errors and artefacts that can appear in the process of developing an agent-based model, and to propose activities aimed at avoiding them during the model construction and testing phases. To do this in a structured way, we review the main concepts of the process of developing such a model – establishing a general framework that summarises the process of designing, implementing, and using agent-based models. Within this framework we identify the various stages where different types of errors and artefacts may appear. Finally we propose activities that could be used to detect (and hence eliminate) each type of error or artefact.Verification, Replication, Artefact, Error, Agent-Based Modelling, Modelling Roles

Teaching the mean-field approximation

[ENG] Many University subjects that we teach in engineering degrees (e.g. Control Theory, Operations Research, Game Theory, Physics, Fluid Dynamics, Modelling and Control of Queuing and Production Systems, Stochastic Processes, and Network Theory) make extensive use of the so-called mean-field analysis. In these subjects, the mean-field analysis often appears as an approximation of a discrete time stochastic process where a) the inherent stochasticity of the original process is replaced with determinism, and b) the time discreteness of the original process is replaced with time continuity. Thus, the mean-field approximation is presented as a continuous time differential equation that can approximate the dynamics of the discrete time stochastic process under investigation. In this paper we present a teaching methodology that we have found useful for introducing students to the mean-field analysis, and we provide some accompanying teaching material –in the form of computer models– that other academics may want to use in their own lecturesThe authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish JCyL (VA006B09, GR251/2009), MICINN (SICOSSYS: TIN2008-06464-C03-02; CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010: CSD2010-00034; DPI2010-16920) and L.R.I. from the Spanish Ministry of Education (JC2009-00263)

Gestión de Empresas 2.0. Desde la Estructura Jerárquica hasta las Redes de Conocimiento. El Modelo CIACO_RED

[ESP] En este trabajo se abordan tres de los principales fenómenos que convierten a la empresa en una estructura en constante cambio y donde las personas participativas, colaborativas, abiertas, con visión global, y sin miedo a lo nuevo e insólito, se convierten en los protagonistas principales y agentes capaces de dar respuestas a los nuevos desafíos. El resultado es una nueva organización, donde pueden participar agentes desconocidos hasta el momento, que deberá aprender a reinventarse de forma permanente y en clara sintonía con tales cambios. A este respecto, no es mucho decir, que el éxito de la empresa, su fuerza, energía y permanencia no está en sus fuentes de producción, sino en el conocimiento, talento y competencias de sus trabajadores, actuando colectivamente, adaptados a las nuevas tecnologías y sin miedo a lo nuevo e inesperado. Obviamente, ante esta coyuntura, los modelos o formas de gestión tradicionales no sirven y deben ser sustituidos por otros que presten su atención de manera prioritaria en los lazos que articulan la empresa y que, además, son los facilitadores del uso pleno de las capacidades y conocimientos de los trabajadores. Este planteamiento organizativo, en el pasado, sencillamente, no era posible. Se habla, así, de empresas 2.0, modelos de gestión abiertos, redes de conocimiento como alternativas de interacción y colaboración para acometer los nuevos desafíos y todo un conjunto de tecnologías para la información, relaciones y comunicaciones al servicio de los “trabajadores del conocimiento

Analysis of the prognostic role of an immune checkpoint score in resected non-small cell lung cancer patients

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Oncoimmunology on 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/2162402X.2016.1260214[EN] Tumors develop mechanisms to recruit tolerogenic immune cells and to induce the expression of molecules that act as immune checkpoints. This regulation of the immune microenvironment favors immune tolerance to the neoplastic cells. In this study, we have investigated the prognostic role of immune-checkpoint expression markers in a cohort of resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. RNA was isolated from fresh-frozen lung specimens (tumor and normal lung) (n = 178). RTqPCR was performed to analyze the relative expression of 20 immune-related genes that were normalized by the use of endogenous genes selected by GeNorm algorithm. Patients with higher expression levels of IL23A and LGALS2 presented better outcomes. In the clustering expression patterns, we observed that patients with higher expression of immunoregulatory genes had better survival rates. Additionally, these data were used to develop a gene expression score. Since CTLA4 and PD1 were associated with prognosis based on Cox regression analysis (Z-score > 1.5), a multivariate model including these two genes was created. Absolute regression coefficients from this analysis were used in order to calculate the immunecheckpoint score: (PD1 x 0.116) + (CTLA4 x 0.059) for each case. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients with high immune-checkpoint score have longer overall survival (OS) [NR vs. 40.4 mo, p = 0.008] and longer relapse-free survival (RFS) [82.6 vs. 23 mo, p = 0.009]. Multivariate analysis in the entire cohort indicated that the immune-checkpoint score was an independent biomarker of prognosis for OS [HR: 0.308; 95% CI, 0.156-0.609; p = 0.001] and RFS [HR: 0.527; 95% CI, 0.298-0.933; p = 0.028] in early-stage NSCLC patients. In conclusion, this score provides relevant prognostic information for a better characterization of early stage NSCLS patients with strikingly different outcomes and who may be candidates for immune-based therapies.This work was supported by the Red Tematica de Investigacion Cooperativa en Cancer (RD12/0036/0025) and the Fondo de Investigacion Sanitaria-Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (PI09/01147, PI09/01149 and PI12/02838)Usó, M.; Jantus-Lewintre, E.; Calabuig-Farinas, S.; Blasco, A.; Garcia Del Olmo, E.; Guijarro, R.; Martorell, M.... (2017). Analysis of the prognostic role of an immune checkpoint score in resected non-small cell lung cancer patients. Oncoimmunology (Online). 6(1):1-10. https://doi.org/10.1080/2162402X.2016.1260214S1106

Biofabrication of a Tubular Model of Human Urothelial Mucosa Using Human Wharton Jelly Mesenchymal Stromal Cells

Several models of bioartificial human urothelial mucosa (UM) have been described recently. In this study, we generated novel tubularized UM substitutes using alternative sources of cells. Nanostructured fibrin–agarose biomaterials containing fibroblasts isolated from the human ureter were used as stroma substitutes. Then, human Wharton jelly mesenchymal stromal cells (HWJSC) were used to generate an epithelial-like layer on top. Three differentiation media were used for 7 and 14 days. Results showed that the biofabrication methods used here succeeded in generating a tubular structure consisting of a stromal substitute with a stratified epithelial-like layer on top, especially using a medium containing epithelial growth and differentiation factors (EM), although differentiation was not complete. At the functional level, UM substitutes were able to synthesize collagen fibers, proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans, although the levels of control UM were not reached ex vivo. Epithelial differentiation was partially achieved, especially with EM after 14 days of development, with expression of keratins 7, 8, and 13 and pancytokeratin, desmoplakin, tightjunction protein-1, and uroplakin 2, although at lower levels than controls. These results confirm the partial urothelial differentiative potential of HWJSC and suggest that the biofabrication methods explored here were able to generate a potential substitute of the human UM for future clinical use.CTS-115 Tissue Engineering Group and by the Spanish Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica, Ministry of Science and Innovation, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, grant FIS PI21/0981 (cofinanced by FEDER funds, European Union)

Transformación de materiales para la impartición del Máster de Enfermedades Tropicales a la modalidad semipresencial

Memoria ID-0055. Ayudas de la Universidad de Salamanca para la innovación docente, curso 2016-2017

Anthelmintic activity of aminoalcohol and diamine derivatives against the gastrointestinal nematode Teladorsagia circumcincta

11 páginas, 5 figuras, 4 tablas.Gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) infections are a serious problem in livestock production due to the great economic losses they cause. Their control is increasingly difficult because of the rapid development of drug resistance and the limited number of available drugs. Therefore, this study evaluated 18 aminoalcohol and 16 diamine derivatives against eggs, first and third stage larvae from a susceptible and a resistant isolate of Tela-dorsagia circumcincta collected from sheep. The effectiveness of the in vitro anthelmintic activity of the com-pounds was evaluated using three different procedures: Egg Hatch Test (EHT), Larval Mortality Test (LMT) and Larval Migration Inhibition Test (LMIT). Those compounds with activities higher than 90 % in the initial screening at 50 μM were selected to determine their half maximal effective concentration (EC50). In parallel, cytotoxicity assays were conducted on Caco2 and HepG2 cell lines to calculate Selectivity Indexes (SI) for each compound. The diamine 30 presented the best results in preventing egg hatching, displaying the lowest EC50 value (1.01 ±0.04 μM) of all compounds tested and the highest SI (21.21 vs. Caco-2 cells). For the LMIT, the diamine 34 showed the highest efficacy, with EC50 values of 2.67 ±0.08 and 3.02 ±0.09 μM on the susceptible and resistant isolate of the parasite, respectively.We are grateful to Dave Bartley, from Moredun Research Institute for providing the triple-resistant isolate of T. circumcincta. RE thank the RICET contract (E07D401988BR) EC Programs. Financial support came from MINECO: RETOS (AGL2016-79813-C2-1R/2R) and Junta de Castilla y León (JCyL) co-financed by FEDER, UE (LE020P17). EVG was funded by FPU16/03536; JV, VCGA and MAB are recipients of Junta de Castilla y Leon and European Social Found (ESF)’s Fellowships Scheme for Doctoral Training Programs. (JCYL-USAL35B, LE082-18, LE051-18, respectively) and MMV by the Spanish “Ramon y Cajal” Programme (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad; RYC-2015-18368).Peer reviewe