Passport to a profession in the degree of pharmacy: how to integrate university students into the real world of work: "Passport to a profession in Pharmacy"

The incorporation of the Spanish university system into the European Higher Education Areahas brought about a series of adaptations. Among the recommendations is the inclusion ofan external training period in a company, which has resulted in significant changes in thedegree syllabus in order to balance the theoretical and practical education required by thestudents. This new framework has been legally confirmed by the Spanish Government and, inthe case of the University of Barcelona, by the publication of internal guidelines. Takingadvantage of this new opportunity to adapt the Pharmacy degree to real-world problems inindustry, the Dean’s team of the Faculty of Pharmacy, with the support of the Facultyadministrative staff and the Students Advisory Service, have assumed the challenge ofincluding a new subject in the syllabus entitled Training in Companies.In parallel, a new activity has been set up to ensure that the students choose the mostsuitable company department/job for them and to help them pass the company interview.Under the name of Passport to a Profession, a series of ten explanatory talks has beenscheduled every academic year. These talks deal with a broad range of topics aimed atproviding the students with the basic tools they will need to make the most of a companytraining period and to make headway in the professional world when they finish theirdegree. In addition, three Faculty of Pharmacy-Pharmaceutical company workshops and tworound-table conferences have been held in the last two years in order to bring the universityand industry together. Notably, the project to provide students with company training isexpanding on an international level, with two to three undergraduate students contractedevery year by a United Kingdom-based multinational pharmaceutical company.The statistical data of the whole process has been analysed for a more in-depthunderstanding of the activity and to improve the programme.

Calibration of CES functions for real-world multisectoral modeling

We show how to calibrate CES production and utility functions when indirect taxation affecting inputs and consumption is present. These calibrated functions can then be used in computable general equilibrium models. Taxation modifies the standard calibration procedures since any taxed good has two associated prices and a choice of reference value units has to be made. We also provide an example of computer code to solve the calibration of CES utilities under two alternate normalizations. To our knowledge, this paper fills a methodological gap in the CGE literature.

Is confidence in decisions related to feedback? Evidence-and lack of evidence-from random samples of real-world managerial behavior?

Confidence in decision making is an important dimension of managerialbehavior. However, what is the relation between confidence, on the onehand, and the fact of receiving or expecting to receive feedback ondecisions taken, on the other hand? To explore this and related issuesin the context of everyday decision making, use was made of the ESM(Experience Sampling Method) to sample decisions taken by undergraduatesand business executives. For several days, participants received 4 or 5SMS messages daily (on their mobile telephones) at random moments at whichpoint they completed brief questionnaires about their current decisionmaking activities. Issues considered here include differences between thetypes of decisions faced by the two groups, their structure, feedback(received and expected), and confidence in decisions taken as well as inthe validity of feedback. No relation was found between confidence indecisions and whether participants received or expected to receivefeedback on those decisions. In addition, although participants areclearly aware that feedback can provide both confirming and disconfirming evidence, their ability to specify appropriatefeedback is imperfect. Finally, difficulties experienced inusing the ESM are discussed as are possibilities for further researchusing this methodology.

Blind channel deconvolution of real world signals using source separation techniques

In this paper we present a method for blind deconvolution of linear channels based on source separation techniques, for real word signals. This technique applied to blind deconvolution problems is based in exploiting not the spatial independence between signals but the temporal independence between samples of the signal. Our objective is to minimize the mutual information between samples of the output in order to retrieve the original signal. In order to make use of use this idea the input signal must be a non-Gaussian i.i.d. signal. Because most real world signals do not have this i.i.d. nature, we will need to preprocess the original signal before the transmission into the channel. Likewise we should assure that the transmitted signal has non-Gaussian statistics in order to achieve the correct function of the algorithm. The strategy used for this preprocessing will be presented in this paper. If the receiver has the inverse of the preprocess, the original signal can be reconstructed without the convolutive distortion.

Predictors of remission in the treatment of major depressive disorder: real-world evidence from a 6-month prospective observational study

BACKGROUND: This study examined potential predictors of remission among patients treated for major depressive disorder (MDD) in a naturalistic clinical setting, mostly in the Middle East, East Asia, and Mexico. METHODS: Data for this post hoc analysis were taken from a 6-month prospective, noninterventional, observational study that involved 1,549 MDD patients without sexual dysfunction at baseline in 12 countries worldwide. Depression severity was measured using the Clinical Global Impression of Severity and the 16-item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology Self-Report (QIDS-SR16). Depression-related pain was measured using the pain-related items of the Somatic Symptom Inventory. Remission was defined as a QIDS-SR16 score ≤5. Generalized estimating equation regression models were used to examine baseline factors associated with remission during follow-up. RESULTS: Being from East Asia (odds ratio [OR] 0.48 versus Mexico; P<0.001), a higher level of depression severity at baseline (OR 0.77, P=0.003, for Clinical Global Impression of Severity; OR 0.92, P<0.001, for QIDS-SR16), more previous MDD episodes (OR 0.92, P=0.007), previous treatments/therapies for depression (OR 0.78, P=0.030), and having any significant psychiatric and medical comorbidity at baseline (OR 0.60, P<0.001) were negatively associated with remission, whereas being male (OR 1.29, P=0.026) and treatment with duloxetine (OR 2.38 versus selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, P<0.001) were positively associated with remission. However, the association between Somatic Symptom Inventory pain scores and remission no longer appeared to be significant in this multiple regression (P=0.580), (P=0.008 in descriptive statistics), although it remained significant in a subgroup of patients treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (OR 0.97, P=0.023), but not in those treated with duloxetine (P=0.182). CONCLUSION: These findings are largely consistent with previous reports from the USA and Europe. They also highlight the potential mediating role of treatment with duloxetine on the negative relationship between depression-related pain and outcomes of depression.

Extensió de l'entorn SMARD per permetre la depuració d'aplicacions basades en agents mòbils

Un dels principals obstacles per l’adopció dels agents mòbils, fins i tot per tasques per les quals s’ha demostrat la seva idoneïtat, és la dificultat de desenvolupar-los. Aquest projecte aporta solucions per ajudar en aquest procés. Més concretament, per provar agents i observar-ne el seu comportament en un entorn de simulació, abans d’executar-los en un escenari real. Hem afegit un depurador i un constructor d’agents mòbils a la interfície gràfica de disseny d’itineraris de l’entorn SMARD. Fent servir afegit aquests nous components, el programador pot dissenyar, construir i fer proves d’un agent mòbil des d’aquesta aplicació.

Compression-based Image Registration

Image registration is an important component of image analysis used to align two or more images. In this paper, we present a new framework for image registration based on compression. The basic idea underlying our approach is the conjecture that two images are correctly registered when we can maximally compress one image given the information in the other. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we show that the image registration process can be dealt with from the perspective of a compression problem. Second, we demonstrate that the similarity metric, introduced by Li et al., performs well in image registration. Two different versions of the similarity metric have been used: the Kolmogorov version, computed using standard real-world compressors, and the Shannon version, calculated from an estimation of the entropy rate of the images

Partial correlation : Network analysis

The final year project came to us as an opportunity to get involved in a topic which has appeared to be attractive during the learning process of majoring in economics: statistics and its application to the analysis of economic data, i.e. econometrics.Moreover, the combination of econometrics and computer science is a very hot topic nowadays, given the Information Technologies boom in the last decades and the consequent exponential increase in the amount of data collected and stored day by day. Data analysts able to deal with Big Data and to find useful results from it are verydemanded in these days and, according to our understanding, the work they do, although sometimes controversial in terms of ethics, is a clear source of value added both for private corporations and the public sector. For these reasons, the essence of this project is the study of a statistical instrument valid for the analysis of large datasets which is directly related to computer science: Partial Correlation Networks.The structure of the project has been determined by our objectives through the development of it. At first, the characteristics of the studied instrument are explained, from the basic ideas up to the features of the model behind it, with the final goal of presenting SPACE model as a tool for estimating interconnections in between elements in large data sets. Afterwards, an illustrated simulation is performed in order to show the power and efficiency of the model presented. And at last, the model is put into practice by analyzing a relatively large data set of real world data, with the objective of assessing whether the proposed statistical instrument is valid and useful when applied to a real multivariate time series. In short, our main goals are to present the model and evaluate if Partial Correlation Network Analysis is an effective, useful instrument and allows finding valuable results from Big Data.As a result, the findings all along this project suggest the Partial Correlation Estimation by Joint Sparse Regression Models approach presented by Peng et al. (2009) to work well under the assumption of sparsity of data. Moreover, partial correlation networks are shown to be a very valid tool to represent cross-sectional interconnections in between elements in large data sets.The scope of this project is however limited, as there are some sections in which deeper analysis would have been appropriate. Considering intertemporal connections in between elements, the choice of the tuning parameter lambda, or a deeper analysis of the results in the real data application are examples of aspects in which this project could be completed.To sum up, the analyzed statistical tool has been proved to be a very useful instrument to find relationships that connect the elements present in a large data set. And after all, partial correlation networks allow the owner of this set to observe and analyze the existing linkages that could have been omitted otherwise.

La mejora de la calidad de vida de las personas con lesión medular: la transición del centro rehabilitador a la vida cotidiana desde la perspectiva de los usuarios

El retorno a la vida cotidiana para una persona con lesión medular después del periodo de rehabilitación en régimen hospitalario, es un proceso difícil no exento de dificultades y nuevos retos personales. En este trabajo nos planteamos identificar aquellos factores más relevantes que contribuyen a mejorar su calidad de vida, desde la perspectiva de las propias personas afectadas. Hemos realizado dos grupos de discusión: uno formado por 12 personas con paraplejia y otro formado por 6 personas con tetraplejia. El análisis de contenido realizado indica que, para los participantes existen dos dimensiones relacionadas con su percepción de calidad de vida una vez salen del centro de rehabilitación: a) necesidad de atención al entorno más próximo y b) preparación para el mundo real. Concluimos señalando la importancia de realizar programas de rehabilitación integral, que incluyan, rehabilitación física, aprendizaje de habilidades que posibiliten el máximo de independencia y autonomía personal y trabajo de apoyo a la familia

DAI-DEPUR: an integrated and distributed architecture for wastewater treatment plants supervision

The activated sludge process - the main biological technology usually applied towastewater treatment plants (WWTP) - directly depends on live beings (microorganisms), and therefore on unforeseen changes produced by them. It could be possible to get a good plant operation if the supervisory control system is able to react to the changes and deviations in the system and can take thenecessary actions to restore the system’s performance. These decisions are oftenbased both on physical, chemical, microbiological principles (suitable to bemodelled by conventional control algorithms) and on some knowledge (suitable to be modelled by knowledge-based systems). But one of the key problems in knowledge-based control systems design is the development of an architecture able to manage efficiently the different elements of the process (integrated architecture), to learn from previous cases (spec@c experimental knowledge) and to acquire the domain knowledge (general expert knowledge). These problems increase when the process belongs to an ill-structured domain and is composed of several complex operational units. Therefore, an integrated and distributed AIarchitecture seems to be a good choice. This paper proposes an integrated and distributed supervisory multi-level architecture for the supervision of WWTP, that overcomes some of the main troubles of classical control techniques and those of knowledge-based systems applied to real world systems

Energy policies for rural electrification: a social multi-criteria evaluation approach

In this article, a real-world case- study is presented with two general objectives: to give a clear and simple illustrative example of application of social multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) in the field of rural renewable energy policies, and to help in understanding to what extent and under which circumstances solar energy is suitable for electrifying isolated farmhouses. In this sense, this study might offer public decision- makers some insight on the conditions that favour the diffusion of renewable energy, in order to help them to design more effective energy policies for rural communities.

Creation of a carrier-grade telco based on a voice over IP backbone

En aquesta memòria l'autor, fent servir un enfoc modern, redissenya i implementa la plataforma que una empresa de telecomunicacions del segle 21 necessita per poder donar serveis de telefonia i comunicacions als seus usuaris i clients. Al llarg d'aquesta exposició es condueix al lector des d'una fase inicial de disseny fins a la implementació i posada en producció del sistema final desenvolupat, centrant-nos en solucionar les necessitats actuals que això implica. Aquesta memòria cubreix el software, hardware i els processos de negoci associats al repte de fer realitat aquest objectiu, i presenta al lector les múltiples tecnologies emprades per aconseguir-ho, fent emfàsi en la convergència actual de xarxes cap al concepte de xarxes IP i basant-se en aquesta tendència i utilitzant aquesta tecnologia de veu sobre IP per donar forma a la plataforma que finalment, de forma pràctica, es posa en producció.

The Role of supply constraints in multiplier analysis

Multiplier analysis based upon the information contained in Leontief's inverse is undoubtedly part of the core of the input-output methodology and numerous applications an extensions have been developed that exploit its informational content. Nonetheless there are some implicit theoretical assumptions whose implications have perhaps not been fully assessed. This is the case of the 'excess capacity' assumption. Because of this assumption resources are available as needed to adjust production to new equilibrium states. In real world applications, however, new resources are scarce and costly. Supply constraints kick in and hence resource allocation needs to take them into account to really assess the effect of government policies. Using a closed general equilibrium model that incorporates supply constraints, we perform some simple numerical exercises and proceed to derive a 'constrained' multiplier matrix that can be compared with the standard 'unrestricted' multiplier matrix. Results show that the effectiveness of expenditure policies hinges critically on whether or not supply constraints are considered.

Interfície de control de dades en una fàbrica

Aquest treball tracta de l'estudi i creació de la interfície d'una aplicació que reculli les dades de control generades en un procés productiu real en una petita planta de fabricació amb cinc treballadors.

Creació d'un entorn web de treball per a una biblioteca : Fent ús de Struts, Tiles i Hibernate

El següent projecte final de carrera vol assolir assolir la creació d'un entorn web de treball per a una Biblioteca. L'aplicació al món real es base en un mòdul administratiu, que podrà ser utilitzat pels treballadors de la pròpia Biblioteca i un mòdul que servirà de consulta als socis.