DNA methylation and adaptive response in forest tree species

Progressive increase of temperatures as well as longer seasonal drought periods revealed by climate studies correspond to fast environmental changes that forest species face with their actual genetic background. Natural selective processes cannot develop an adaptive response within this time frame. Thus the capability of forest tree species to adapt to the new environments will depend on their genetic background, but also rely on their phenotypic plasticity. Several reports have shown the involvement of epigenetic modifiers as the basis of the phenotypic plasticity, and in particular to the adaptation to abiotic stresses. DNA methylation (methylation of cytosine residues)is one the most important epigenetic modification in eukaryotes. Itis involved in specific biological processes such as gene transcription regulation, gene silencing, mobile element control or genome imprinting.Therefore, there is a great interest in analyzing cytosine methylation levels and distribution within the genome

Impacts and adaptive capacity as drivers for prioritizing agricultural adaptation to climate change in Europe

In the face of likely climate change impacts policy makers at different spatial scales need access to assessment tools that enable informed policy instruments to be designed. Recent scientific advances have facilitated the development of improved climate projections, but it remains to be seen whether these are translated into effective adaptation strategies. This paper uses existing databases on climate impacts on European agriculture and combines them with an assessment of adaptive capacity to develop an interdisciplinary approach for prioritising policies. It proposes a method for identifying relevant policies for different EU countries that are representative of various agroclimatic zones. Our analysis presents a framework for integrating current knowledge of future climate impacts with an understanding of the underlying socio-economic, agricultural and environmental traits that determine a region’s capacity for adapting to climate change.

AUTOFLY-Aid: Flight Deck Automation Support with Dynamic 4D Trajectory Management for Responsive and Adaptive Airborne Collision Avoidance

AUTOFLY-Aid Project aims to develop and demonstrate novel automation support algorithms and tools to the flight crew for flight critical collision avoidance using “dynamic 4D trajectory management”. The automation support system is envisioned to improve the primary shortcomings of TCAS, and to aid the pilot through add-on avionics/head-up displays and reality augmentation devices in dynamically evolving collision avoidance scenarios. The main theoretical innovative and novel concepts to be developed by AUTOFLY-Aid project are a) design and development of the mathematical models of the full composite airspace picture from the flight deck’s perspective, as seen/measured/informed by the aircraft flying in SESAR 2020, b) design and development of a dynamic trajectory planning algorithm that can generate at real-time (on the order of seconds) flyable (i.e. dynamically and performance-wise feasible) alternative trajectories across the evolving stochastic composite airspace picture (which includes new conflicts, blunder risks, terrain and weather limitations) and c) development and testing of the Collision Avoidance Automation Support System on a Boeing 737 NG FNPT II Flight Simulator with synthetic vision and reality augmentation while providing the flight crew with quantified and visual understanding of collision risks in terms of time and directions and countermeasures.

Bifurcation diagrams for polymer blends with diffuse interfaces in confined and adaptive geometries

Dynamics of binary mixtures such as polymer blends, and fluids near the critical point, is described by the model-H, which couples momentum transport and diffusion of the components [1]. We present an extended version of the model-H that allows to study the combined effect of phase separation in a polymer blend and surface structuring of the film itself [2]. We apply it to analyze the stability of vertically stratified base states on extended films of polymer blends and show that convective transport leads to new mechanisms of instability as compared to the simpler diffusive case described by the Cahn- Hilliard model [3, 4]. We carry out this analysis for realistic parameters of polymer blends used in experimental setups such as PS/PVME. However, geometrically more complicated states involving lateral structuring, strong deflections of the free surface, oblique diffuse interfaces, checkerboard modes, or droplets of a component above of the other are possible at critical composition solving the Cahn Hilliard equation in the static limit for rectangular domains [5, 6] or with deformable free surfaces [6]. We extend these results for off-critical compositions, since balanced overall composition in experiments are unusual. In particular, we study steady nonlinear solutions of the Cahn-Hilliard equation for bidimensional layers with fixed geometry and deformable free surface. Furthermore we distinguished the cases with and without energetic bias at the free surface. We present bifurcation diagrams for off-critical films of polymer blends with free surfaces, showing their free energy, and the L2-norms of surface deflection and the concentration field, as a function of lateral domain size and mean composition. Simultaneously, we look at spatial dependent profiles of the height and concentration. To treat the problem of films with arbitrary surface deflections our calculations are based on minimizing the free energy functional at given composition and geometric constraints using a variational approach based on the Cahn-Hilliard equation. The problem is solved numerically using the finite element method (FEM).

Standards and specifications to manage accessibility issues in e-learning

Despite the acknowledged need of providing a personalized and adaptive learning process for all, current learning management systems do not properly cover personalization and accessibility issues and they are still struggling to support the reusability requirements coming from the pervasive usage of standards. There is a lack of frameworks for providing layered-based infrastructure covering the interoperability required to manage the whole range of standards, applications and services needed to meet accessibility and adaptations needs of lifelong learning services.

Smart Spaces and Smart Objects interoperability Architecture (S3OiA)

The presented work aims to contribute towards the standardization and the interoperability off the Future Internet through an open and scalable architecture design. We present S³OiA as a syntactic/semantic Service-Oriented Architecture that allows the integration of any type of object or device, not mattering their nature, on the Internet of Things. Moreover, the architecture makes possible the use of underlying heterogeneous resources as a substrate for the automatic composition of complex applications through a semantic Triple Space paradigm. Created applications are dynamic and adaptive since they are able to evolve depending on the context where they are executed. The validation scenario of this architecture encompasses areas which are prone to involve human beings in order to promote personal autonomy, such as home-care automation environments and Ambient Assisted Living.

Adaptive Refinements in BEM

Accuracy estimates and adaptive refinements is nowadays one of the main research topics in finite element computations [6,7,8, 9,11].Its extension to Boundary Elements has been tried as a means to better understand its capabilities as well as to impro ve its efficiency and its obvious advantages. The possibility of implementing adaptive techniques was shown [1,2] for h-conver gence and p-convergence respectively. Some posterior works [3,4 5,10] have shown the promising results that can be expected from those techniques. The main difficulty is associated to the reasonable establishment of “estimation” and “indication” factors related to the global and local errors in each refinement. Although some global measures have been used it is clear that the reduction in dimension intrinsic to boundary elements (3D→2D: 2D→1D) could allow a direct comparison among residuals using the graphic possibilities of modern computers and allowing a point-to-point comparison in place of the classical global approaches. Nevertheless an indicator generalizing the well known Peano’s one has been produced.

Noise-agnostic adaptive image filtering without training references on an evolvable hardware platform

One of the main concerns of evolvable and adaptive systems is the need of a training mechanism, which is normally done by using a training reference and a test input. The fitness function to be optimized during the evolution (training) phase is obtained by comparing the output of the candidate systems against the reference. The adaptivity that this type of systems may provide by re-evolving during operation is especially important for applications with runtime variable conditions. However, fully automated self-adaptivity poses additional problems. For instance, in some cases, it is not possible to have such reference, because the changes in the environment conditions are unknown, so it becomes difficult to autonomously identify which problem requires to be solved, and hence, what conditions should be representative for an adequate re-evolution. In this paper, a solution to solve this dependency is presented and analyzed. The system consists of an image filter application mapped on an evolvable hardware platform, able to evolve using two consecutive frames from a camera as both test and reference images. The system is entirely mapped in an FPGA, and native dynamic and partial reconfiguration is used for evolution. It is also shown that using such images, both of them being noisy, as input and reference images in the evolution phase of the system is equivalent or even better than evolving the filter with offline images. The combination of both techniques results in the completely autonomous, noise type/level agnostic filtering system without reference image requirement described along the paper.

Assessing the impact of adaptive accessibility on the optimal transport policy implementation by using an integrated land-use/transport model for Madrid

Accessibility is an essential concept widely used to evaluate the impact of land-use and transport strategies in transport and urban planning. Accessibility is typically evaluated by using a transport model or a land-use model independently or successively without a feedback loop, thus neglecting the interaction effects between the two systems and the induced competition effects among opportunities due to accessibility improvements. More than a mere methodological curiosity, failure to account for land- use/transport interactions and the competition effect may result in large underestimation of the policy effects. With the recent development of land-use and transport interaction (LUTI) models, there is a growing interest in using these models to adequately measure accessibility and evaluate its impact. The current study joins this research stream by embedding an accessibility measure in a LUTI model with two main aims. The first aim is to account for adaptive accessibility, namely the adjustment of the potential accessibility due to the effect of competition among opportunities (e.g., workplaces) as a result of improved accessibility. LUTI models are particularly suitable for assessing adaptive accessibility because the competition factor is a function of the number of jobs, which is related to land-use attractiveness and the number of workers which is related, among other factors, to the transport demand. The second aim is to identify the optimal implementation scenario of policy measures on the basis of the potential and adaptive accessibility and analyse the results in terms of social welfare and accessibility. The metropolitan area of Madrid is used as a case-study and two transport policy instruments, namely a cordon toll and bus frequency increase, have been chosen for the simulation study in order to present the usefulness of the approach to urban planners and policy makers. The MARS model (Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulator) calibrated for Madrid was employed as the analysis tool. The impact of accessibility is embedded in the model through a social welfare function that includes not only costs and benefits to both road users and transport operators, but also costs and benefits for the government and society in general (external costs). An optimisation procedure is performed by the MARS model for maximizing the value of objective function in order to find the best (optimal) policy imp lementations intensity (i.e., price, frequency). Last, the two policy strategies are evaluated in terms of their accessibility. Results show that the accessibility with competition factor influences the optimal policy implementation level and also generates different results in terms of social welfare. In addition, mapping the difference between the potential and the adaptive accessibility indicators shows that the main changes occur in areas where there is a strong competition among land-use opportunities.

iCarer Project: Intelligent Care Guidance and Learning Services Platform for Informal Carers of the Elderly

The increasing ageing population is demanding new care approaches to maintain the quality of life of elderly people. Informal carers are becoming crucial agents in the care and support of elderly people, which can lead to those carers suffering from additional stress due to competing priorities with employment or due to lack of knowledge about elderly people?s care needs. Thus, support and stress relief in carers should be a key issue in the home-care process of these older adults. Considering this context, this work presents the iCarer project aimed at developing a personalized and adaptive platform to offer informal carers support by means of monitoring their activities of daily care and psychological state, as well as providing an orientation to help them improve the care provided. Additionally, iCarer will provide e-Learning services and an informal carers learning network. As a result, carers will be able to expand their knowledge, supported by the experience provided by expert counsellors and fellow carers. Additionally, the coordination between formal and informal carers will be improved, offering the informal carers flexibility to organize and combine their assistance and social activities.

Assessing the accessibility impact of transport policy by a land-use and transport interaction model - The case of Madrid

Accessibility is an essential concept widely used to evaluate the impact of transport and land-use strategies in urban planning and policy making. Accessibility is typically evaluated by using separately a transport model or a land-use model. This paper embeds two accessibility indicators (i.e., potential and adaptive accessibility) in a land use and transport interaction (LUTI) model in order to assess transport policies implementation. The first aim is to define the adaptive accessibility, considering the competition factor at territorial level (e.g. workplaces and workers). The second aim is to identify the optimal implementation scenario of policy measures using potential and adaptive accessibility indicators. The analysis of the results in terms of social welfare and accessibility changes closes the paper. Two transport policy measures are applied in Madrid region: a cordon toll and increase bus frequency. They have been simulated through the MARS model (Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulator, i.e. LUTI model). An optimisation procedure is performed by MARS for maximizing the value of the objective function in order to find the optimal policy implementation (first best). Both policy measures are evaluated in terms of accessibility. Results show that the introduction of the accessibility indicators (potential and adaptive) influence the optimal value of the toll price and bus frequency level, generating different results in terms of social welfare. Mapping the difference between potential and adaptive accessibility indicator shows that the main changes occur in areas where there is a strong competition among different land-use opportunities.

An economic modelling approach for vulnerability assesment in irrigation farms in Spain

In the last years, vulnerability assessment has emerged as a need for policy making instead of being a pure academic exercise (Hinkel, 2010). In the current context of changing climate, increasing water scarcity threatens economic activities in many arid or semi-arid regions of the World. Climate change (CC) science and policy debates have traditionally focused on CC mitigation and impact assessment (Krysanova et al., 2010). However, even if mitigation policies are successfully enforced some climate change is still expected. Then, adaptation is strongly necessary and, for that, improved knowledge on vulnerability and adaptive capacity is required.

Optimal Multiresolution 3D Level-Set Method for Liver Segmentation incorporating Local Curvature Constraints

Advanced liver surgery requires a precise pre-operative planning, where liver segmentation and remnant liver volume are key elements to avoid post-operative liver failure. In that context, level-set algorithms have achieved better results than others, especially with altered liver parenchyma or in cases with previous surgery. In order to improve functional liver parenchyma volume measurements, in this work we propose two strategies to enhance previous level-set algorithms: an optimal multi-resolution strategy with fine details correction and adaptive curvature, as well as an additional semiautomatic step imposing local curvature constraints. Results show more accurate segmentations, especially in elongated structures, detecting internal lesions and avoiding leakages to close structures

Catadioptric panoramic stereovision for humanoid robots

This paper proposes a novel design of a reconfigurable humanoid robot head, based on biological likeness of human being so that the humanoid robot could agreeably interact with people in various everyday tasks. The proposed humanoid head has a modular and adaptive structural design and is equipped with three main components: frame, neck motion system and omnidirectional stereovision system modules. The omnidirectional stereovision system module being the last module, a motivating contribution with regard to other computer vision systems implemented in former humanoids, it opens new research possibilities for achieving human-like behaviour. A proposal for a real-time catadioptric stereovision system is presented, including stereo geometry for rectifying the system configuration and depth estimation. The methodology for an initial approach for visual servoing tasks is divided into two phases, first related to the robust detection of moving objects, their depth estimation and position calculation, and second the development of attention-based control strategies. Perception capabilities provided allow the extraction of 3D information from a wide range of visions from uncontrolled dynamic environments, and work results are illustrated through a number of experiments.

Emulación de instrumentos de sobremesa mediante Tarjetas de Adquisición de Datos

Este proyecto se ha enmarcado en la línea de desarrollo del Laboratorio Virtual de electrónica, desarrollado en la Escuela Universitaria de Ingeniería Técnica de Telecomunicación (EUITT), de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). Con el Laboratorio Virtual los alumnos de la universidad, de cualquiera de las escuelas de ingeniería que la componen, pueden realizar prácticas de forma remota. Es decir, desde cualquier PC con el software adecuado instalado y a través de Internet, sin requerir su presencia en un laboratorio físico. La característica más destacable e importante de este Laboratorio Virtual es que las medidas que se realizan no son simulaciones sobre circuitos virtuales, sino medidas reales sobre circuitos reales: el alumno puede configurar una serie de interconexiones entre componentes electrónicos, formando el circuito que necesite, que posteriormente el Laboratorio Virtual se encargará de realizar físicamente, gracias al hardware y al software que conforman el sistema. Tras ello, el alumno puede excitar el circuito con señales provenientes de instrumental real de laboratorio y obtener medidas de la misma forma, en los puntos del circuito que indique. La necesidad principal a la que este Proyecto de Fin de Carrera da solución es la sustitución de los instrumentos de sobremesa por instrumentos emulados en base a Tarjetas de Adquisición de Datos (DAQ). Los instrumentos emulados son: un multímetro, un generador de señales y un osciloscopio. Además, existen otros objetivos derivados de lo anterior, como es el que los instrumentos emulados deben guardar una total compatibilidad con el resto del sistema del Laboratorio Virtual, o que el diseño ha de ser escalable y adaptable. Todo ello se ha implementado mediante: un software escrito en LabVIEW, que utiliza un lenguaje de programación gráfico; un hardware que ha sido primero diseñado y luego fabricado, controlado por el software; y una Tarjeta de Adquisición de Datos, que gracias a la escalabilidad del sistema puede sustituirse por otro modelo superior o incluso por varias de ellas. ABSTRACT. This project is framed in the development line of the electronics Virtual Laboratory, developed at Escuela Universitaria de Ingeniería Técnica de Telecomunicación (EUITT), from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). With the Virtual Laboratory, the university’s students, from any of its engineering schools that is composed of, can do practices remotely. Or in other words, from any PC with the correct software installed and through the Internet, without requiring his or her presence in a physical laboratory. The most remarkable and important characteristic this Virtual Laboratory has is that the measures the students does are not simulations over virtual circuits, but real measures over real circuits: the student can configure a series of interconnections between electronic parts, setting up the circuit he or she needs, and afterwards the Virtual Laboratory will realize that circuit physically, thanks to the hardware and software that compose the whole system. Then, the student can apply signals coming from real laboratory instruments and get measures in the same way, at the points of the circuit he or she points out. The main need this Degree Final Project gives solution is the substitution of the real instruments by emulated instruments, based on Data Acquisition systems (DAQ). The emulated instruments are: a digital multimeter, a signal generator and an oscilloscope. In addition, there is other objectives coming from the previously said, like the need of a total compatibility between the real instruments and the emulated ones and with the rest of the Virtual Laboratory, or that the design must be scalable and adaptive. All of that is implemented by: a software written in LabVIEW, which makes use of a graphical programming language; a hardware that was first designed and later manufactured, then controlled by software; and a Data Acquisition device, though thanks to the system’s scalability it can be substituted by a better model or even by several DAQs.