Search

We have evaluated the data-efficient Bayesian optimization method for the specific task of injection tuning in a circular accelerator. In this paper, we describe the implementation of this method at the Karlsruhe Research Accelerator with up to nine tuning parameters, including the determination of the associated hyperparameters. We show that the Bayesian optimization method outperforms manual tuning and the commonly used Nelder-Mead optimization algorithm both in simulation and experiment. The algorithm was also successfully used to ease the commissioning phase after the installation of new injection magnets and is regularly used during accelerator operations. We demonstrate that the introduction of context variables that include intra-bunch scattering effects, such as the Touschek effect, further improves the control and robustness of the injection process.

Data collected for refugee registration and to target humanitarian assistance include information about household composition and demographics that can be used to identify gender-based vulnerabilities. This paper combines the microdata collected by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to register refugees with data from its Home Visit surveys to analyze income poverty rates among refugees with a gender lens. It finds distinguishing between different types of male and female principal applicant (PA) households is important in the setting of Syrian refugees in Jordan. Poverty rates for couples with children do not differ by gender of the PA but for other household types poverty rates are higher for those with female PAs. Households formed because of the unpredictable dynamics of forced displacement, such as sibling households, unaccompanied children, and single caregivers, are extremely vulnerable, especially if the principal applicant is a woman or a girl.

Multiple in vitro studies reported insufficient accuracy of intraoral scanners (IOSs) for complete-arch multiple implant impression. The aim of the study is to analyze the precision of three IOSs, PIC dental (Pic dental, Iditec North West SL), TRIOS 3 (3Shape), and True Definition (Midmark Corporation) and the influence of several factors in the edentulous complete maxillary and mandibular arch. A fully edentulous patient with eight implants in the maxillary and in the mandibular jaw was selected. Five impressions were taken per system and arch. A suprastructure was designed on each digital working cast. The precision was analyzed comparing each of the 28 distances and seven relative angulations of the abutments of all the designed suprastructures. The descriptive statistics, the Student’s t-test, and the ANOVA test were used to analyze the data (α = 0.05). Significant differences were observed when comparing the IOSs in some of the distances and angulations. (4) The increase in the distance between implants affected the precision of T and TD but not the PIC system. The type of arch did not affect the PIC precision, but the T and TD systems performed worse in the mandibular arch. The system with the best precision was the PIC, followed by TD, and then T. Sin financiación 4.614 Q1 JCR 2021 0.828 Q2 SJR 2022 No data IDR 2021 UEM

Introducción: La Facultad de Medicina de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana ha venido implementando un plan curricular basado en competencias para garantizar la formación holística de los médicos generales a partir de una estrategia pedagógica denominada actividad integradora (AI), que busca incentivar conocimientos, habilidades y destrezas para el desarrollo de competencias de los médicos en formación. Objetivo: Explorar las percepciones y experiencias de estudiantes, docentes y directivos en el desarrollo de competencias a partir de la implementación de la AI. Método: Estudio cualitativo, descriptivo e interpretativo que se hizo a partir de entrevistas y grupos focales con estudiantes, docentes y personal directivo. Resultados: Se encontró que la AI se constituye como una estrategia de aprendizaje que permite el desarrollo de competencias a través de una didáctica específica que trasforma el escenario pedagógico en un espacio de construcción conjunta de saberes a partir del trabajo en grupo. Conclusiones: Los resultados muestran que, a pesar de que la definición de competencias no es unánime entre los actores, la implementación de la AI ha favorecido que los estudiantes desarrollen conocimientos, habilidades y destrezas desde los saberes propuestos por Miller en el marco de un currículo basado en competencias.

Angiogenesis, the main mechanism that allows vascular expansion for tissue regeneration or disease progression, is often triggered by an imbalance between oxygen consumption and demand. Here, by analyzing changes in the transcriptomic profile of endothelial cells (ECs) under hypoxia we uncovered that the repression of cell cycle entry and DNA replication stand as central responses in the early adaptation of ECs to low oxygen tension. Accordingly, hypoxia imposed a restriction in S‐phase in ECs that is mediated by Hypoxia‐Inducible Factors. Our results indicate that the induction of angiogenesis by hypoxia in Embryoid Bodies generated from murine Stem Cells is accomplished by the compensation of decreased S‐phase entry in mature ECs and differentiation of progenitor cells. This conditioning most likely allows an optimum remodeling of the vascular network. Identification of the molecular underpinnings of cell cycle arrest by hypoxia would be relevant for the design of improved strategies aimed to suppress angiogenesis in pathological contexts where hypoxia is a driver of neovascularization., This work was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, MICINN) SAF2014‐53819‐R to Luis del Peso and Benilde Jimenez; SAF2017‐ 88771‐R to Luis del Peso and Benilde Jimenez and SAF2015‐71381‐R to Maria C. Marin and by Junta de Castilla y Leon LE021P17 to Maria C. Marin. Laura Maeso‐Alonso is supported by a predoctoral scholarship from the Asociación Española contra el Cáncer (AECC).

La ciénaga de las macanas es el mayor sistema de humedales en las provincias centrales de Panamá. Las actividades económicas y la salud de ecosistema que rodea la ciénaga es muy dependiente de la precipitación anual en esta área, la misma fue duramente afectada por las sequías del 2015 en donde casi llega a secarse por completo. Esta situación es sumamente grave debido a que una vez se seca un humedal es difícil y costoso que vuelva a la normalidad. Los estudios hidrológicos son necesarios para prevenir escenarios de sequía y entender el comportamiento de estos cuerpos de agua. Este análisis cuantifica como el cambio climático ha afectado las variables meteorológicas tales como temperatura y precipitación, y a su vez analiza como el cambio de estas variables afectan al balance hídrico de la ciénaga, tomando como parámetros de estudios la precipitación y la evapotranspiración. La temperatura y la precipitación vieron aumentos de 0.54C y 204 mm para un período de estudio de 22 años. En el balance hídrico se pudo evaluar que los años de sequía fueron el 2000, 2015 y 2019, lo cual explicaría porque le ciénaga estuvo a punto de secarse en el año 2015 demostrando que hay un fuerte aporte por parte de la precipitación al balance hídrico. Nuestra meta es utilizar esta nueva información para crear estrategias efectivas que prevengan la degradación de estos ecosistemas.

La ciénaga de las Macanas es el único humedal de agua dulce ubicado en las provincias centrales de Panamá, con un área protegida de aproximada de 867 ha. Es categorizada un Área de Recursos Manejados por el Ministerio de Ambiente, donde se practica turismo, ecología, ganadería, agricultura y avistamiento de aves. La falta de estudios y datos actualizados del humedal, no han permitido evaluar su actividad hídrica en cuanto al desempeño del espejo de agua a través de los años. Es de especial atención, hacer un mayor monitoreo y análisis de la data de precipitación y de escorrentía, siendo estas unas de las principales entradas del cuerpo de agua. Este estudió emplea imágenes satelitales Landsat, descargadas del USGS Survey (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/). Los datos climatológicos fueron obtenidos de estaciones de ETESA y MIAMBIENTE. Se trabajará con la data recopilada en el lugar, para así promover la participación de actores claves interesados en un desarrollo sostenible de la zona. Los resultados preliminares indican la rápida pérdida de humedad en los suelos en la época seca (enero-abril); así como situaciones de inundación por las tormentas de julio y agosto, manteniéndose inundados los suelos en los meses de octubre y noviembre. Las situaciones extremas antes mencionadas, hacen de la Ciénaga de las Macanas una zona vulnerable, a la cual se le debe garantizar su seguridad hídrica.

Coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) is generated when the electron bunch length is in the order of the magnitude of the wavelength of the emitted radiation. The self-interaction of short electron bunches with their own electromagnetic fields changes the longitudinal beam dynamics significantly. Above a certain current threshold, the micro-bunching instability develops, characterized by the appearance of distinguishable substructures in the longitudinal phase space of the bunch. To stabilize the CSR emission, a real-time feedback control loop based on reinforcement learning (RL) is proposed. Informed by the available THz diagnostics, the feedback is designed to act on the radio frequency (RF) system of the storage ring to mitigate the micro-bunching dynamics. To satisfy low-latency requirements given by the longitudinal beam dynamics, the RL controller has been implemented on hardware (FPGA). In this article, a real-time feedback loop architecture and its performance is presented and compared with a software implementation using Keras-RL on CPU/GPU. The results obtained with the CSR simulation Inovesa demonstrate that the functionality of both platforms is equivalent. The training performance of the hardware implementation is similar to software solution, while it outperforms the Keras-RL implementation by an order of magnitude. The presented RL hardware controller is considered as an essential platform for the development of intelligent CSR control systems.

This study explores implicit theories on creativity in a group of educators, and some associated myths and beliefs, such as: “The school can do nothing to develop creativity”, “childhood is the golden age of creativity”, and “school kills creativity”. The sample was composed by educators graduated from the undergraduated program of Early Chile Education and the graduated students from the Masters Education of the School of Education at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana of Bogotá (Colombia). The analysis of the 110 answers, found that to define creativity, educators utilize the concepts of transformation, expertise, innovation, and problem solving. Most participants indicate that the most creative age is childhood, which confirms the “golden age” myth. Regarding the relation between creativity and schools, educators believe that schools can and must develop creativity, but they need specific conditions to achieve this. Based on these results it is important to stress the importance to develop pre-service and in-service teaching programs that allow educators to overcome these false beliefs and to understand how to foster creativity in educational settings.

BACKGROUND The retinoic acid (RA)–catabolizing enzyme Cyp26a1 plays an important role in protecting tailbud tissues from inappropriate exposure to RA. Cyp26a1-null animals exhibit caudal agenesis and spina bifida, imperforate anus, agenesis of the caudal portions of the digestive and urogenital tracts, and malformed lumbosacral skeletal elements. This phenotype closely resembles the most severe form of caudal agenesis in humans. In view of these findings, we investigated a potential involvement of the human CYP26A1 gene in the pathogenesis of caudal regression syndrome (CRS). METHODS Mutational screening of 49 CRS patients and 132 controls was performed using denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography and sequencing. Differences in the genotype and allele frequency of each SNP were evaluated by χ2 analysis. The biological significance of the intronic variants was investigated by transfection assays of mutant constructs and by analysis of the splicing patterns with RT-PCR. RESULTS Mutational screening allowed us to identify 6 SNPs, 4 of which (447C>G, 1134G>A, IVS1+10G>C, and IVS4+8AG>GA) are new. In addition, we describe a novel 2-site haplotype consisting of the 2 intronic SNPs. Both single-locus and haplotype analyses revealed no association with increased risk for CRS. The consequences of the 2 intronic polymorphisms on the mRNA splicing process were also investigated. Moreover, using functional and computational methods we demonstrated that both of these intronic polymorphisms affect the intron splicing efficiency. CONCLUSIONS Our research did not provide evidence that CYP26A1 has implications for the pathogenesis of human CRS. However, the relationship between CRS risk and the CYP26A1 genotype requires further study with a larger number of genotyped subjects. Birth Defects Research (Part A), 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

BACKGROUND: Placental Plasmodium falciparum infection modulates neonatal cell-mediated immune responses and is associated with increased susceptibility of infants to malaria. METHODS: By flow-cytometric analysis of maternal peripheral and cord blood samples collected at delivery, we measured and compared the activation status and proinflammatory cytokine activity of T cells from women segregated into groups according to malaria status. RESULTS: Stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate/ionomycin resulted in the highest percentages of tumor necrosis factor-alpha- and interferon-gamma-positive gamma delta T cells in peripheral blood samples and in corresponding cord blood samples from those treated for malaria during pregnancy. Cord blood samples from this group also contained significantly higher percentages of CD69(+) and CD25(+) gamma delta T cells and CD3(+) T cells, compared with samples from either the group with active placental P. falciparum infection at delivery or the group with no infection. Proinflammatory cytokine activity of cells from the group with placental P. falciparum infection at delivery was either similar to or lower than that of cells from the group with no infection. CONCLUSIONS: The findings imply that treatment of P. falciparum malaria during pregnancy leads to enhanced innate immune T cell activation and proinflammatory cytokine responses in both maternal and fetal compartments. Ongoing placental P. falciparum infection, conversely, is associated with an absence of such activity.

The Osteopontin (OPN) encoding gene, SPP1 , can be considered as a candidate for genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes (T1D) because of its known function in immune response and inflammation. This work aimed to evaluate the role of SPP1 gene in susceptibility to T1D. Patients (238: 130 male, 108 female) and unaffected adult control individuals (137: 68 males and 69 females) have been genotyped for three variants in the SPP1 gene: − 156 (G/GG) and − 66 (T/G) in the promoter and a biallelic ins/del variant (TG/TGTG) at + 245 in the first intron. The G allele at the − 66 SNP had significantly higher frequency in controls than T1D patients. Interestingly, case-control comparison in males showed no significant association, whereas the association was confirmed in females. These results suggest that SPP1 can play a role as susceptibility gene, possibly by a sex-specific mechanism acting in the autoimmune process.

Item does not contain fulltext Higher susceptibility of newborns to infections has been attributed to the hypo-responsiveness of their cellular immune system. Here we compared the activation status and expression of cytokines and cytotoxic molecules of cord versus maternal peripheral blood mononuclear cells in an African population. Human leucocyte antigen-DR was expressed on a lower percentage of cord compared to maternal gammadelta and CD3(+) T cells. Similarly, a lower proportion of cord versus maternal gammadelta and CD3(+) T cells displayed perforin, granzyme B and cytokine activity either ex vivo or following non-specific stimulation in vitro. In contrast, comparable proportions of cord and maternal CD94(+) CD3(-) natural killer (NK) cells showed perforin and granzyme B expression ex vivo. We conclude that cord blood gammadelta and CD3(+) T cells are functionally hypo-responsive as reflected by reduced numbers of such cells expressing either an activation marker, T helper 1 (Th1) and Th2 cytokines or cytotoxic effector molecules. The similarity in numbers of cord and maternal CD94(+) CD3(-) cells expressing cytotoxic effector molecules suggests that neonatal Africans' NK cells may be functionally mature.

Placental Plasmodium falciparum infection modulates neonatal cell-mediated immune responses and is associated with increased susceptibility of infants to malaria.By flow-cytometric analysis of maternal peripheral and cord blood samples collected at delivery, we measured and compared the activation status and proinflammatory cytokine activity of T cells from women segregated into groups according to malaria status.Stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate/ionomycin resulted in the highest percentages of tumor necrosis factor-alpha- and interferon-gamma-positive gamma delta T cells in peripheral blood samples and in corresponding cord blood samples from those treated for malaria during pregnancy. Cord blood samples from this group also contained significantly higher percentages of CD69(+) and CD25(+) gamma delta T cells and CD3(+) T cells, compared with samples from either the group with active placental P. falciparum infection at delivery or the group with no infection. Proinflammatory cytokine activity of cells from the group with placental P. falciparum infection at delivery was either similar to or lower than that of cells from the group with no infection.The findings imply that treatment of P. falciparum malaria during pregnancy leads to enhanced innate immune T cell activation and proinflammatory cytokine responses in both maternal and fetal compartments. Ongoing placental P. falciparum infection, conversely, is associated with an absence of such activity.

In Adua vengono messe a confronto due voci narranti, il padre e la figlia, mentre la Somalia e Roma segnano, in periodi diversi, le vite di entrambi. Con i cambiamenti della focalizzazione nel romanzo si conferma che la complessità del rapporto tra l’uomo e lo spazio è molto di più che una questione transculturale (bianco vs nero, italiano vs straniero) ; vi è soprattutto sottostante la dicotomia fra individuale e collettivo, vecchio e nuovo, reale e immaginario, maschile e femminile. Nell’intervento l’obiettivo è esaminare il modo in cui il cambiamento socioculturale avvenuto nell’arco di due generazioni abbia trasformato la percezione dello spazio dalla parte dei soggetti migranti.