Bulletins de l'Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique.

t.13:pt.1 (1846)

Bulletins de l'Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique.

t.15:pt.1 (1848)

Bulletins de l'Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique.

t.18:pt.1 (1851)

Bulletins de l'Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique.

t.19:pt.2 (1852)

Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE)

The main argument developed here is the proposal of the concept of “Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation” (SMCE) as a possible useful framework for the application of social choice to the difficult policy problems of our Millennium, where, as stated by Funtowicz and Ravetz, “facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent”. This paper starts from the following main questions: 1. Why “Social” Multi-criteria Evaluation? 2. How such an approach should be developed? The foundations of SMCE are set up by referring to concepts coming from complex system theory and philosophy, such as reflexive complexity, post-normal science and incommensurability. To give some operational guidelines on the application of SMCE basic questions to be answered are: 1. How is it possible to deal with technical incommensurability? 2. How can we deal with the issue of social incommensurability? To answer these questions, by using theoretical considerations and lessons learned from realworld case studies, is the main objective of the present article.

Anàlisi del sistema operatiu RTLinux e implementació d'un entorn de desenvolupament de tasques en temps real (aplicat al control de processos)

El projecte "Anàlisi del sistema operatiu RTLinux i implementació d'un entorn de desenvolupament de tasques en temps real" analitza la possibilitat de crear un entorn de desenvolupament de tasques en temps real per poder crear sistemes de control complex, tot això mitjançant codi lliure. Inicialment es fa un aprenentatge sobre el concepte de temps real, després s'elegeix el sistema operatiu en temps real RTLinux per a crear l'entorn de desenvolupament utilitzant el llenguatge de programació Tcl/Tk. Es creen un conjunt d'aplicacions (pel control computacional) per estudiar la viabilitat de la construcció de l'entorn desitjat per facilitar la tasca de l'usuari final. Aquest projecte obre multitud de possibles camins a continuar: comunicació remota, implementació de planificadors, estudi de controladors, etc.

Multi-scale support vector algorithms for hot spot detection and modelling

The algorithmic approach to data modelling has developed rapidly these last years, in particular methods based on data mining and machine learning have been used in a growing number of applications. These methods follow a data-driven methodology, aiming at providing the best possible generalization and predictive abilities instead of concentrating on the properties of the data model. One of the most successful groups of such methods is known as Support Vector algorithms. Following the fruitful developments in applying Support Vector algorithms to spatial data, this paper introduces a new extension of the traditional support vector regression (SVR) algorithm. This extension allows for the simultaneous modelling of environmental data at several spatial scales. The joint influence of environmental processes presenting different patterns at different scales is here learned automatically from data, providing the optimum mixture of short and large-scale models. The method is adaptive to the spatial scale of the data. With this advantage, it can provide efficient means to model local anomalies that may typically arise in situations at an early phase of an environmental emergency. However, the proposed approach still requires some prior knowledge on the possible existence of such short-scale patterns. This is a possible limitation of the method for its implementation in early warning systems. The purpose of this paper is to present the multi-scale SVR model and to illustrate its use with an application to the mapping of Cs137 activity given the measurements taken in the region of Briansk following the Chernobyl accident.

Trans-Atlantic Pedagogy for Teaching Pre-Service Teachers ICT: Bringing forward cultural issues

Projecte de recerca elaborat a partir d’una estada a la Universitat de Toronto, Canadà, des d’octubre del 2006 a febrer del 2007. El projecte Barchito és un projecte Interrnacional que va involucrar tres universitats: La Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, la Universitat de Toronto (Canadà) i la Universitat de Roosevelt (USA). El seu objectiu principal era posar en contacte estudiants de les tres universitats (de tres cursos diferents) per discutir al voltant de temes com ara l'ensenyament/aprenentatge i elements culturals de cada país. Aquest projecte presenta la natura de l'experiència des de la visió dels participants: alumnat i professorat. Superant diferències inicials de llengua, els participants van aprendre d'altra cultura, van aprendre sobre altres maneres d'ensenyar i van aprendre, en definitiva, sobre ells mateixos. L'eina d'aprenentatge col.laboratiu els va ajudar a sobrepassar el context immediat, emprant per això, l'eina tecnològica anomenada: Knowledge Forum.

Estudi neurofisiològic del control executiu de l'atenció en l'esquizofrènia

Report for the scientific sojourn carried out at the Departament de Psicologia de la Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain, from May until July 2006. Abnormalities in executive functions, including set shifting ability, represent a cardinal feature in schizophrenia. This ability to adapt behavior to changing environmental events or contingencies requires a mechanism for switching attention between learned stimulus-response associations, or task-sets. This project aimed at gaining further knowledge on the brain mechanisms related to the executive control of attention in schizophrenia during the performace of a task switching paradigm. Furthermore, a secondary goal was to further examine the interrelationships between endogenous and exogenous control processes in task set switching.

Hawtreyan “Credit Deadlock” or Keynesian “Liquidity Trap”? Lessons for Japan from the Great Depression

This paper outlines the ideas of Ralph Hawtrey and Lauchlin Currie on the need for monetised fiscal deficit spending in 1930s USA to combat the deep depression into which the economy had been allowed to sink. In such exceptional circumstances of “credit deadlock” in which banks were afraid to lend and households and business afraid to borrow, the deadlock could best be broken through the spending of new money into circulation via large fiscal deficits. This complementarity of fiscal and monetary policy was shown to be essential, and as such indicates the potential power of monetary policy – in contrast to the Keynesian “liquidity trap” view that it is powerless This lesson was not learned by the Japanese authorities in their response to the asset price collapse of 1991-92, resulting in a lost decade as ballooning fiscal deficits were neutralised throughout the 1990s by unhelpfully tight monetary policy with the Bank of Japan refusing to monetise the deficits.

The endodermis--development and differentiation of the plant's inner skin.

Controlling external compound entrance is essential for plant survival. To set up an efficient and selective sorting of nutrients, free diffusion via the apoplast in vascular plants is blocked at the level of the endodermis. Although we have learned a lot about endodermal specification in the last years, information regarding its differentiation is still very limited. A differentiated endodermal cell can be defined by the presence of the "Casparian strip" (CS), a cell wall modification described first by Robert Caspary in 1865. While the anatomical description of CS in many vascular plants has been very detailed, we still lack molecular information about the establishment of the Casparian strips and their actual function in roots. The recent isolation of a novel protein family, the CASPs, that localizes precisely to a domain of the plasma membrane underneath the CS represents an excellent point of entry to explore CS function and formation. In addition, it has been shown that the endodermis contains transporters that are localized to either the central (stele-facing) or peripheral (soil-facing) plasma membranes. These features suggest that the endodermis functions as a polar plant epithelium.

Learning-induced plasticity in human audition: Objects, time, and space.

The human auditory system is comprised of specialized but interacting anatomic and functional pathways encoding object, spatial, and temporal information. We review how learning-induced plasticity manifests along these pathways and to what extent there are common mechanisms subserving such plasticity. A first series of experiments establishes a temporal hierarchy along which sounds of objects are discriminated along basic to fine-grained categorical boundaries and learned representations. A widespread network of temporal and (pre)frontal brain regions contributes to object discrimination via recursive processing. Learning-induced plasticity typically manifested as repetition suppression within a common set of brain regions. A second series considered how the temporal sequence of sound sources is represented. We show that lateralized responsiveness during the initial encoding phase of pairs of auditory spatial stimuli is critical for their accurate ordered perception. Finally, we consider how spatial representations are formed and modified through training-induced learning. A population-based model of spatial processing is supported wherein temporal and parietal structures interact in the encoding of relative and absolute spatial information over the initial ∼300ms post-stimulus onset. Collectively, these data provide insights into the functional organization of human audition and open directions for new developments in targeted diagnostic and neurorehabilitation strategies.

Neural activity of the anterior insula in emotional processing depends on the individuals' emotional susceptibility

Differences in personality factors between individuals may manifest themselves with different patterns of neural activity while individuals process stimuli with emotional content. We attempted to verify this hypothesis by investigating emotional susceptibility (ES), a specific emotional trait of the human personality defined as the tendency to "experience feelings of discomfort, helplessness, inadequacy and vulnerability" after exposure to stimuli with emotional valence. By administering a questionnaire evaluating the individuals' ES, we selected two groups of participants with high and low ES respectively. Then, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate differences between the groups in the neural activity involved while they were processing emotional stimuli in an explicit (focusing on the content of the stimuli) or an incidental (focusing on spatial features of the stimuli, irrespectively of their content) way. The results showed a selective difference in brain activity between groups only in the explicit processing of the emotional stimuli: bilateral activity of the anterior insula was present in subjects with high ES but not in subjects with low ES. This difference in neural activity within the anterior insula proved to be purely functional since no brain morphological differences were found between groups, as assessed by a voxel-based morphometry analysis. Although the role of the anterior insula in the processing of contexts perceived as emotionally salient is well established, the present study provides the first evidence of a modulation of the insular activity depending on the individuals' ES trait of personality.

Política Mundial en Línia

Aquest projecte MQD va servir per crear nou material docent amb un suport digital per a dues assignatures – Política Comparada i Avaluació de la Gestió Pública – en dues llicenciatures diferents – Ciència Política i Periodisme – Un element clau va ser la participació dels estudiants. En ambdós casos, la forma d’ensenyar va canviar de forma substantiva ja que es va dedicar força temps a fer que els estudiants treballessin en el producte final. La principal idea al darrera d’aquesta experiència era que aprenguéssin “fent.” Una altra idea fonamental és que el seu treball es pugui ensenyar per internet a tothom que tingui interès. La utilització d’una pàgina web va donar visibilitat externa al seu treball. Els resultats es poden consultar a http://cpdp.uab.cat/politica/ i http://cpdp.uab.cat/evaluacio/. Aquesta experiència va ser inclosa en el llibre "Cap a l’EEES. Experiències docents innovadores a ciències socials i a ciències humanes" publicat per la UAB.

Immune Dysfunction and the Pathogenesis of AIDS-associated non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Much has been learned about how HIV-induced immune dysfunction contributes to B cell hyperactivation, and potentially, to the pathogenesis of AIDS-lymphoma. However, further studies are needed to fully understand how HIV infection and immune dysfunction promote B cell hyperactivation and the development/growth of AIDS-lymphoma. In particular, studies are needed to define the role of HHV8 vIL6, IL6 receptor-expression, and lymphocyte surface stimulatory molecules, in promoting B cell hyperactivation or lymphoma cell growth.