An ARAIM adaptation for Kalman Filter

This work propose a new Kalman filter-based method for integrity monitoring, following the solution separation approach of the Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM) algorithm. This method evaluates the separation of state correction using different subsets of measurement to detect abnormalities as well as potential faulty satellites for exclusion. This approach differs from existing Kalman filter-based methods, which use innovation vector or residual vector for stochastic evaluation

Plant layout and pick-and-place strategies for improving performances in secondary packaging plants of food products

The aim of secondary packaging plants is to pick food products from a conveyor belt and to place them into boxes. The typical configuration of these packaging plants consists of a set of sequential robot stations, performing pick and place cycles from one conveyor to another parallel one, which transport the products and the boxes to be filled. Depending on the relative movement of the two conveyors, the plant operates in co-current or counter-current flow configuration. Undesired perturbations in the product flow rate from its nominal value can lead to critical events, i.e. unpicked product at the end of the first conveyor or not-completely filled boxes. Even if the structures of co-current flow and of counter-current flow plants, are very similar, their behaviour in non-nominal or perturbed conditions can be significantly different. The aim of this paper is to deeply investigate the behaviour of these two kinds of secondary packaging lines, evaluating their performances in the case of different pick and place strategies, using discrete events simulation techniques. Results show to which extent the different proposed control strategies can improve the performances of both co-current and counter-currents plants and, in particular, how co-current plant layouts can achieve performances which are equivalent to, or perhaps even better than, those that can be obtained with a counter-current plant layout, that cannot be freely used since it has been patented. The simulation tool, control algorithms and results presented can help packaging plant designers for choosing the most appropriate solutions and for properly sizing the plant. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Compulsive Social Behavior Emerges after Selective Ablation of Striatal Cholinergic Interneurons

The mechanisms underlying social dysfunction in neuropsychiatric conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette syndrome (TS) remain uncertain. Dysfunctions in basal ganglia, including reduced number of striatal cholinergic interneurons (SCIN), have been involved in their pathophysiology. To explore the role of SCIN in relation to perseverative behaviors we characterized a new transgenic mouse model in which inducible ablation of SCIN is achieved with high efficiency in a cell-type and region specific manner. Mice were subjected to an extensive behavioral testing including assessment of social behaviors and corticostriatal functional connectivity was evaluated in vivo. Selective SCIN ablation leads to altered social interactions together with exacerbated spontaneously emitted repetitive behaviors. Lesioned mice showed normal motor coordination, balance, and general locomotion. Interestingly, only environmentally-driven, but not self-directed, repetitive behaviors are exacerbated in lesioned mice. Remarkably, in mice with SCIN ablation the normal pattern of social exploration is continuously replayed. The emerging pattern of social interactions is highly predictable and invariant across time. In vivo electrophysiological recordings indicate that SCIN ablation results in an increase of the functional connectivity between different cortical areas and the motor, but not associative, region of the striatum. Our results identify a role of SCIN in suppressing perseverative behaviors including social related ones. In sum, SCIN ablation in mice leads to exacerbated ritualistic-like behaviors that impact on social performance providing a link between SCIN dysfunction and social impairments present in psychiatric disorders.Fil: Martos Schott, Yanina Victoria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Braz, Bárbara Yael. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Beccaria, Juan Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Murer, Mario Gustavo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Belforte, Juan Emilio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; Argentin

Positioning precision of GPS/Galileo integration in Vietnam

The design of Galileo has been conceived so as to facilitate its possible joint use with GPS thus contributing to a favorable multi-GNSS environment. Evaluating the performances of such multi-GNSS combination is crucial for end users to assess the quality of obtainable PVT and the easiness of interoperability of the two systems. In this paper, we evaluate the GPS/Galileo integration performances in terms of estimated precision in position determination and in terms of availability of the service. Results obtained from real data are presented and show that there is an improvement of both these criteria when the two systems are jointly used

Refinement of neuronal synchronization with gamma oscillations in the medial prefrontal cortex after adolescence

The marked anatomical and functional changes taking place in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) during adolescence set grounds for the high incidence of neuropsychiatric disorders with adolescent onset. Although circuit refinement through synapse pruning may constitute the anatomical basis for the cognitive differences reported between adolescents and adults, a physiological correlate of circuit refinement at the level of neuronal ensembles has not been demonstrated. We have recorded neuronal activity together with local field potentials in the medial PFC of juvenile and adult mice under anesthesia, which allowed studying local functional connectivity without behavioral or sensorial interference. Entrainment of pyramidal neurons and interneurons to gamma oscillations, but not to theta or beta oscillations, was reduced after adolescence. Interneurons were synchronized to gamma oscillations across a wider area of the PFC than pyramidal neurons, and the span of interneuron synchronization was shorter in adults than juvenile mice. Thus, transition from childhood to adulthood is characterized by reduction of the strength and span of neuronal synchronization specific to gamma oscillations in the mPFC. The more restricted and weak ongoing synchronization in adults may allow a more dynamic rearrangement of neuronal ensembles during behavior and promote parallel processing of information.Fil: de Almeida, Julián. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas. Laboratorio de Fisiología de Circuitos Neuronales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Jourdan, Iván. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas. Laboratorio de Fisiología de Circuitos Neuronales; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Murer, Mario Gustavo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas. Laboratorio de Fisiología de Circuitos Neuronales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Belforte, Juan Emilio. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas. Laboratorio de Fisiología de Circuitos Neuronales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

A new conceptual approach for systematic error correction in CNC machine tools minimizing worst case prediction error

A new artifact-based method to identify the systematic errors in multi-axis CNC machine tools minimizing the worst case prediction error is presented. The closed loop volumetric error is identified by simultaneously moving the axes of the machine tool. The physical artifact is manufactured on the machine tool and later measured on a coordinate measuring machine. The artifact consists of a set of holes in the machine tool workspace at locations that minimize the worst case prediction error for a given bounded measurement error. The number of holes to be drilled depends on the degree of the polynomials used to model the systematic error and the number of axes of the machine tool. The prediction error is also function of the number and location of the holes. The feasibility of the method is first investigated for a two-axis machine to find the best experimental setting. Finally based on the two-axis case study, we extend the results to machine tools with any number of axes. The obtained results are very promising and require only a short time to produce the artifac

Striatal Cholinergic Interneurons Are Required for Contending Strategy Selection While Solving Spatial Navigation Problems

How do animals adopt a given behavioral strategy to solve a recurrent problem when several effective strategies are available to reach the goal? Here we provide evidence that striatal cholinergic interneurons (SCINs) modulate their activity when mice must select between different strategies with similar goal-reaching effectiveness. Using a cell type-specific transgenic murine system, we show that adult SCIN ablation impairs strategy selection in navigational tasks where a goal can be independently achieved by adopting an allocentric or egocentric strategy. SCIN-depleted mice learn to achieve the goal in these tasks, regardless of their appetitive or aversive nature, in a similar way as controls. However, they cannot shift away from their initially adopted strategies, as control mice do, as training progresses. Our results indicate that SCINs are required for shaping the probability function used for strategy selection as experience accumulates throughout training. Thus, SCINs may be critical for the resolution of cognitive conflicts emerging when several strategies compete for behavioral control while adapting to environmental demands. Our findings may increase our understanding about the emergence of perseverative/compulsive traits in neuropsychiatric disorders with a reported SCIN reduction, such as Tourette and Williams syndromes.Fil: Beccaria, Juan Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Pretell Annan, Carlos Alfredo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Keifman, Ettel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Murer, Mario Gustavo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Belforte, Juan Emilio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; Argentin

Preserved motility after neonatal dopaminergic lesion relates to hyperexcitability of direct pathway medium spiny neurons

In Parkinson’s disease patients and rodent models, dopaminergic neuron loss (DAN) results in severe motor disabilities. In contrast, general motility is preserved after early postnatal DAN loss in rodents. Here we used mice of both sexes to show that the preserved motility observed after early DAN loss depends on functional changes taking place in medium spiny neurons (MSN) of the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) that belong to the direct pathway (dMSN). Previous animal model studies showed that adult loss of dopaminergic input depresses dMSN response to cortical input, which likely contributes to Parkinson’s disease motor impairments. However, the response of DMS-dMSN to their preferred medial PFC input is preserved after neonatal DAN loss as shown by in vivo studies. Moreover, their response to inputs from adjacent cortical areas is increased, resulting in reduced cortical inputs selectivity. Additional ex vivo studies show that membrane excitability increases in dMSN. Furthermore, chemogenetic inhibition of DMS-dMSN has a more marked inhibitory effect on general motility in lesioned mice than in their control littermates, indicating that expression of normal levels of locomotion and general motility depend on dMSN activity after early DAN loss. Contrastingly, DMS-dMSN inhibition did not ameliorate a characteristic phenotype of the DAN-lesioned animals in a marble burying task demanding higher behavioral control. Thus, increased dMSN excitability likely promoting changes in corticostriatal functional connectivity may contribute to the distinctive behavioral phenotype emerging after developmental DAN loss, with implications for our understanding of the age-dependent effects of forebrain dopamine depletion and neurodevelopment disorders.Fil: Keifman, Ettel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Coll, Camila. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Tubert, Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Paz, Rodrigo Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Belforte, Juan Emilio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Murer, Mario Gustavo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Braz, Bárbara Yael. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; Argentin

The BELS Pproject: an opportunity for setting collaboration links between Europe and South East Asia in the field of GNSS

In 2016 the European Global Navigation Satellite System (EGNSS) Galileo should start initial services that will make it available for practical use together with other existing Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). South East Asia (SEA), which is the Region in the world with the highest multi-GNSS coverage, but has not developed any of them, is the ideal place to promote EGNSS solutions and related technologies to facilitate business while supporting sustainable development. This paper describes the opportunities offered by the project BELS to companies, institutions, researchers from Europe and SEA working in the field of GNSS. The project is funded by the European GNSS Agency (GSA) under the European Union’s Research Framework Programme Horizon 2020.

Getting to Know the Gut Microbial Diversity of Metropolitan Buenos Aires Inhabitants

In recent years, the field of immunology has been revolutionized by the growing understanding of the fundamental role of microbiota in the immune system function. The immune system has evolved to maintain a symbiotic relationship with these microbes. The aim of our study was to know in depth the uncharacterized metagenome of the Buenos Aires (BA) city population and its metropolitan area, being the second most populated agglomeration in the southern hemisphere. For this purpose, we evaluated 30 individuals (age: 35.23 ± 8.26 years and BMI: 23.91 ± 3.4 kg/m2), from the general population of BA. The hypervariable regions V3-V4 of the bacterial 16S gene was sequenced by MiSeq-Illumina system, obtaining 47526 ± 4718 sequences/sample. The dominant phyla were Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Actinobacteria. Additionally, we compared the microbiota of BA with other westernized populations (Santiago de Chile, Rosario-Argentina, United States-Human-microbiome-project, Bologna-Italy) and the Hadza population of hunter-gatherers. The unweighted UniFrac clustered together all westernized populations, leaving the hunter-gatherer population from Hadza out. In particular, Santiago de Chile?s population turns out to be the closest to BA?s, principally due to the presence of Verrucomicrobiales of the genus Akkermansia. These microorganisms have been proposed as a hallmark of a healthy gut. Finally, westernized populations showed more abundant metabolism related KEEG pathways than hunter-gatherers, including carbohydrate metabolism (amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism), amino acid metabolism (alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism), lipid metabolism, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, and sulfur metabolism. These findings contribute to promote research and comparison of the microbiome in different human populations, in order to develop more efficient therapeutic strategies for the restoration of a healthy dialogue between host and environment.Fil: Belforte, Fiorella Sabrina. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez, Natalie. Icahn School Of Medicine At Mount Sinai; Estados UnidosFil: Tonin Monzón, Francisco. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas; ArgentinaFil: Rosso, Ayelen Daiana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas; ArgentinaFil: Quesada, Sofía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas; ArgentinaFil: Cimolai, María Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Luján; ArgentinaFil: Millán, Andrea Liliana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo; ArgentinaFil: Cerrone, Gloria Edith. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo; ArgentinaFil: Frechtel, Gustavo Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo; ArgentinaFil: Burcelin, Rémy. Inserm; Francia. Université Paul Sabatier; FranciaFil: Coluccio Leskow, Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas; ArgentinaFil: Penas Steinhardt, Alberto. Instituto Universidad de la Fundación "Héctor Barceló"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas; Argentin