Exploring triangulation in infancy : Two contrasted cases.

Two contrasted father-mother-infant interactions are observed longitudinally during trilogue play. They illustrate the contribution of recent research to the exploration of triangulation in infancy: namely, the infant's capacity to handle triangular interactions and share her affects with her two parents, and the way that this capacity is recruited in functional versus problematic alliances. It is likely that an infant under stress when interacting with one parent will protest at that parent and also at the other. Such is the case when, for example, the father acts intrusively while playing with his baby. The infant is then driven to avert and turns to the mother. The regulation of this dyadic intrusion-avoidance pattern at family level depends on the family alliance. When coparenting is supportive, the mother validates the infant's bid for help without interfering with the father. Thus, the problematic pattern is contained in the dyad, and the infant's triangular capacities remain in the service of her own developmental goals. But when coparenting is hostile-competitive, the mother ignores the infant's bid or engages with her in a way that interferes with her play with her father. In this case, the infant's triangular capacities are used to relieve the tension between the parents. The importance of tracing family process back to infancy for family therapy is discussed.

Estudio sobre la recepción del modelo de best seller norteamericano en los best sellers europeos. Los casos de Francia y España.

L’objectiu d’aquest projecte és analitzar la qualitat literària dels best sellers i observar les limitacions d’aquest anàlisi. Deguda la complexitat del fenòmen best seller, i tot i ser conscients de que són obres que s’han d’abordar des d’una perspectiva pluridisciplinar, vam decidir començar aquest projecte analitzant tres best sellers espanyols des de la metodologia de l’estilística i de la narratologia. Les obres analitzades són 'La sombra del viento' de Carlos Ruiz Zafón, 'Un milagro en equilibrio', de Lucía Etxevarría, i 'El capitán Alatriste', de Pérez Reverte, i l’anàlisi és de tipus quantitatiu, de les estructures emprades per a l’expressió de lo metafòric, dels personatges, trames i tòpics. Les conclusions varen ser que, des d’un punt de vista estilístic, es pot demostrar la mala qualitat literària d’aquestes obres, així com la seva relació amb la tradició del gènere del folletí, amb el que comparteixen moltes característiques. Tanmateix, una altra de les conclusions de l’estudi fou que abordar el best seller des de l’estilística no ofereix una visió completa d’aquest fenòmen. Aquest projecte doncs, que té per títol “Estudio estilístico de tres casos de best seller en el ámbito español: 'La sombra del viento', 'Un milagro en equilibrio' y 'El capitán Alatriste'” ha d’ampliar-se en catàleg i en metodologia, adoptant vàries perspectives simultàneament, que ofereixin una visió adecuada de la complexitat del fenòmen. El catàleg s’ha extès a 15 obres en l’àmbit espanyol, i a 15 més en l’àmbit francès, durant el 2008, i la perspectiva multidisciplinar engloba estudis culturals, de recepció i sociologia. Des d’aquesta nova base metodològica i teòrica, s’han realitzat 500 enquestes a lectors a Barcelona i a París, en diferents punts de venta de llibres, durant el 2010.

Mixing compositions and other scales

Theory of compositional data analysis is often focused on the composition only. However in practical applications we often treat a composition together with covariableswith some other scale. This contribution systematically gathers and develop statistical tools for this situation. For instance, for the graphical display of the dependenceof a composition with a categorical variable, a colored set of ternary diagrams mightbe a good idea for a first look at the data, but it will fast hide important aspects ifthe composition has many parts, or it takes extreme values. On the other hand colored scatterplots of ilr components could not be very instructive for the analyst, if theconventional, black-box ilr is used.Thinking on terms of the Euclidean structure of the simplex, we suggest to set upappropriate projections, which on one side show the compositional geometry and on theother side are still comprehensible by a non-expert analyst, readable for all locations andscales of the data. This is e.g. done by defining special balance displays with carefully-selected axes. Following this idea, we need to systematically ask how to display, explore,describe, and test the relation to complementary or explanatory data of categorical, real,ratio or again compositional scales.This contribution shows that it is sufficient to use some basic concepts and very fewadvanced tools from multivariate statistics (principal covariances, multivariate linearmodels, trellis or parallel plots, etc.) to build appropriate procedures for all these combinations of scales. This has some fundamental implications in their software implementation, and how might they be taught to analysts not already experts in multivariateanalysis

Indocyanine Green Angiography Findings in Acute Retinal Necrosis Syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Acute retinal necrosis syndrome is clinically defined by the presence of peripheral necrotizing retinitis associated with severe occlusive vasculitis caused primarily by herpes simplex virus and varicella zoster virus. Previously considered as an exclusively retinal pathology, choroidal involvement, as demonstrated by indocyanine green angiography, has not been extensively studied. HISTORY AND SIGNS: Indocyanine green angiography was performed in 4 patients with ARN. Observed angiographic patterns included: 1. a characteristic triangular area of hypo-perfusion, 2. hypofluorescent lobular patches and areas of fuzzy choroidal vascular hyperfluorescence, and 3. isolated hypofluorescent lobular patches of the contralateral eye. THERAPY AND OUTCOME: Marked choroidal hypo-perfusion on indocyanine green angiography was associated with extensive retinal ischemia. Treatment included a combination of antiviral agents and corticosteroids complemented by prophylactic acetylsalicylate. CONCLUSION: Indocyanine green angiography may provide important information regarding choroidal vascular involvement in ARN. It may also permit the timely identification of sub-clinical contralateral eye involvement.

A compositional data analysis package for R providing multiple approaches

”compositions” is a new R-package for the analysis of compositional and positive data.It contains four classes corresponding to the four different types of compositional andpositive geometry (including the Aitchison geometry). It provides means for computation,plotting and high-level multivariate statistical analysis in all four geometries.These geometries are treated in an fully analogous way, based on the principle of workingin coordinates, and the object-oriented programming paradigm of R. In this way,called functions automatically select the most appropriate type of analysis as a functionof the geometry. The graphical capabilities include ternary diagrams and tetrahedrons,various compositional plots (boxplots, barplots, piecharts) and extensive graphical toolsfor principal components. Afterwards, ortion and proportion lines, straight lines andellipses in all geometries can be added to plots. The package is accompanied by ahands-on-introduction, documentation for every function, demos of the graphical capabilitiesand plenty of usage examples. It allows direct and parallel computation inall four vector spaces and provides the beginner with a copy-and-paste style of dataanalysis, while letting advanced users keep the functionality and customizability theydemand of R, as well as all necessary tools to add own analysis routines. A completeexample is included in the appendix

News from compositions, the R package

The R-package “compositions”is a tool for advanced compositional analysis. Its basicfunctionality has seen some conceptual improvement, containing now some facilitiesto work with and represent ilr bases built from balances, and an elaborated subsys-tem for dealing with several kinds of irregular data: (rounded or structural) zeroes,incomplete observations and outliers. The general approach to these irregularities isbased on subcompositions: for an irregular datum, one can distinguish a “regular” sub-composition (where all parts are actually observed and the datum behaves typically)and a “problematic” subcomposition (with those unobserved, zero or rounded parts, orelse where the datum shows an erratic or atypical behaviour). Systematic classificationschemes are proposed for both outliers and missing values (including zeros) focusing onthe nature of irregularities in the datum subcomposition(s).To compute statistics with values missing at random and structural zeros, a projectionapproach is implemented: a given datum contributes to the estimation of the desiredparameters only on the subcompositon where it was observed. For data sets withvalues below the detection limit, two different approaches are provided: the well-knownimputation technique, and also the projection approach.To compute statistics in the presence of outliers, robust statistics are adapted to thecharacteristics of compositional data, based on the minimum covariance determinantapproach. The outlier classification is based on four different models of outlier occur-rence and Monte-Carlo-based tests for their characterization. Furthermore the packageprovides special plots helping to understand the nature of outliers in the dataset.Keywords: coda-dendrogram, lost values, MAR, missing data, MCD estimator,robustness, rounded zeros

A Log-linear model of grain size influence on the geochemistry of sediments

Sediment composition is mainly controlled by the nature of the source rock(s), and chemical (weathering) and physical processes (mechanical crushing, abrasion, hydrodynamic sorting) during alteration and transport. Although the factors controlling these processes are conceptually well understood, detailed quantification of compositional changes induced by a single process are rare, as are examples where the effects of several processes can be distinguished. The present study was designed to characterize the role of mechanical crushing and sorting in the absence of chemical weathering. Twenty sediment samples were taken from Alpine glaciers that erode almost pure granitoid lithologies. For each sample, 11 grain-size fractions from granules to clay (ø grades &-1 to &9) were separated, and each fraction was analysed for its chemical composition.The presence of clear steps in the box-plots of all parts (in adequate ilr and clr scales) against ø is assumed to be explained by typical crystal size ranges for the relevant mineral phases. These scatter plots and the biplot suggest a splitting of the full grain size range into three groups: coarser than ø=4 (comparatively rich in SiO2, Na2O, K2O, Al2O3, and dominated by “felsic” minerals like quartz and feldspar), finer than ø=8 (comparatively rich in TiO2, MnO, MgO, Fe2O3, mostly related to “mafic” sheet silicates like biotite and chlorite), and intermediate grains sizes (4≤ø &8; comparatively rich in P2O5 and CaO, related to apatite, some feldspar).To further test the absence of chemical weathering, the observed compositions were regressed against three explanatory variables: a trend on grain size in ø scale, a step function for ø≥4, and another for ø≥8. The original hypothesis was that the trend could be identified with weathering effects, whereas each step function would highlight those minerals with biggest characteristic size at its lower end. Results suggest that this assumption is reasonable for the step function, but that besides weathering some other factors (different mechanical behavior of minerals) have also an important contribution to the trend.Key words: sediment, geochemistry, grain size, regression, step function

Pragmatic approach for interpreting antiretroviral drug concentrations based on a systematic review of population pharmacokinetic studies

Objectives: The study objective was to derive reference pharmacokinetic curves of antiretroviral drugs (ART) based on available population pharmacokinetic (Pop-PK) studies that can be used to optimize therapeutic drug monitoring guided dosage adjustment.¦Methods: A systematic search of Pop-PK studies of 8 ART in adults was performed in PubMed. To simulate reference PK curves, a summary of the PK parameters was obtained for each drug based on meta-analysis approach. Most models used one-compartment model, thus chosen as reference model. Models using bi-exponential disposition were simplified to one-compartment, since the first distribution phase was rapid and not determinant for the description of the terminal elimination phase, mostly relevant for this project. Different absorption were standardized for first-order absorption processes.¦Apparent clearance (CL), apparent volume of distribution of the terminal phase (Vz) and absorption rate constant (ka) and inter-individual variability were pooled into summary mean value, weighted by number of plasma levels; intra-individual variability was weighted by number of individuals in each study.¦Simulations based on summary PK parameters served to construct concentration PK percentiles (NONMEM®).¦Concordance between individual and summary parameters was assessed graphically using Forest-plots. To test robustness, difference in simulated curves based on published and summary parameters was calculated using efavirenz as probe drug.¦Results: CL was readily accessible from all studies. For studies with one-compartment, Vz was central volume of distribution; for two-compartment, Vz was CL/λz. ka was directly used or derived based on the mean absorption time (MAT) for more complicated absorption models, assuming MAT=1/ka.¦The value of CL for each drug was in excellent agreement throughout all Pop-PK models, suggesting that minimal concentration derived from summary models was adequately characterized. The comparison of the concentration vs. time profile for efavirenz between published and summary PK parameters revealed not more than 20% difference. Although our approach appears adequate for estimation of elimination phase, the simplification of absorption phase might lead to small bias shortly after drug intake.¦Conclusions: Simulated reference percentile curves based on such an approach represent a useful tool for interpretating drug concentrations. This Pop-PK meta-analysis approach should be further validated and could be extended to elaborate more sophisticated computerized tool for the Bayesian TDM of ART.

Intelligent PCA contribution analysis for quality estimation in batch processes. Application in a sequencing batch reactor for wastewater treatment

En aquest treball, es proposa un nou mètode per estimar en temps real la qualitat del producte final en processos per lot. Aquest mètode permet reduir el temps necessari per obtenir els resultats de qualitat de les anàlisi de laboratori. S'utiliza un model de anàlisi de componentes principals (PCA) construït amb dades històriques en condicions normals de funcionament per discernir si un lot finalizat és normal o no. Es calcula una signatura de falla pels lots anormals i es passa a través d'un model de classificació per la seva estimació. L'estudi proposa un mètode per utilitzar la informació de les gràfiques de contribució basat en les signatures de falla, on els indicadors representen el comportament de les variables al llarg del procés en les diferentes etapes. Un conjunt de dades compost per la signatura de falla dels lots anormals històrics es construeix per cercar els patrons i entrenar els models de classifcació per estimar els resultas dels lots futurs. La metodologia proposada s'ha aplicat a un reactor seqüencial per lots (SBR). Diversos algoritmes de classificació es proven per demostrar les possibilitats de la metodologia proposada.

The distribution pattern of Lutzomyia longipalpis (Diptera: Psychodidae) in the peridomiciles of a sector with canine and human visceral leishmaniasis transmission in the municipality of Dracena, São Paulo, Brazil

The specimen distribution pattern of a species can be used to characterise a population of interest and also provides area-specific guidance for pest management and control. In the municipality of Dracena, in the state of São Paulo, we analysed 5,889 Lutzomyia longipalpis specimens collected from the peridomiciles of 14 houses in a sector where American visceral leishmaniasis (AVL) is transmitted to humans and dogs. The goal was to analyse the dispersion and a theoretical fitting of the species occurrence probability. From January-December 2005, samples were collected once per week using CDC light traps that operated for 12-h periods. Each collection was considered a sub-sample and was evaluated monthly. The standardised Morisita index was used as a measure of dispersion. Adherence tests were performed for the log-series distribution. The number of traps was used to adjust the octave plots. The quantity of Lu. longipalpis in the sector was highly aggregated for each month of the year, adhering to a log-series distribution for 11 of the 12 months analysed. A sex-stratified analysis demonstrated a pattern of aggregated dispersion adjusted for each month of the year. The classes and frequencies of the traps in octaves can be employed as indicators for entomological surveillance and AVL control.

Spectrum of some trianguled categories

In this paper, we compute the triangular spectrum (as de fined by P. Balmer) of two classes of tensor triangulated categories which are quite common in algebraic geometry. One of them is the derived category of G-equivariant sheaves on a smooth scheme X, for a fi nite group G. The other class is the derived category of split superschemes.

Additive functions in boolean models of gene regulatory network modules.

Gene-on-gene regulations are key components of every living organism. Dynamical abstract models of genetic regulatory networks help explain the genome's evolvability and robustness. These properties can be attributed to the structural topology of the graph formed by genes, as vertices, and regulatory interactions, as edges. Moreover, the actual gene interaction of each gene is believed to play a key role in the stability of the structure. With advances in biology, some effort was deployed to develop update functions in Boolean models that include recent knowledge. We combine real-life gene interaction networks with novel update functions in a Boolean model. We use two sub-networks of biological organisms, the yeast cell-cycle and the mouse embryonic stem cell, as topological support for our system. On these structures, we substitute the original random update functions by a novel threshold-based dynamic function in which the promoting and repressing effect of each interaction is considered. We use a third real-life regulatory network, along with its inferred Boolean update functions to validate the proposed update function. Results of this validation hint to increased biological plausibility of the threshold-based function. To investigate the dynamical behavior of this new model, we visualized the phase transition between order and chaos into the critical regime using Derrida plots. We complement the qualitative nature of Derrida plots with an alternative measure, the criticality distance, that also allows to discriminate between regimes in a quantitative way. Simulation on both real-life genetic regulatory networks show that there exists a set of parameters that allows the systems to operate in the critical region. This new model includes experimentally derived biological information and recent discoveries, which makes it potentially useful to guide experimental research. The update function confers additional realism to the model, while reducing the complexity and solution space, thus making it easier to investigate.

Genetic diversity and host plant preferences revealed by simple sequence repeat and mitochondrial markers in a population of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus intraradices.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are important symbionts of plants that improve plant nutrient acquisition and promote plant diversity. Although within-species genetic differences among AMF have been shown to differentially affect plant growth, very little is actually known about the degree of genetic diversity in AMF populations. This is largely because of difficulties in isolation and cultivation of the fungi in a clean system allowing reliable genotyping to be performed. A population of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus intraradices growing in an in vitro cultivation system was studied using newly developed simple sequence repeat (SSR), nuclear gene intron and mitochondrial ribosomal gene intron markers. The markers revealed a strong differentiation at the nuclear and mitochondrial level among isolates. Genotypes were nonrandomly distributed among four plots showing genetic subdivisions in the field. Meanwhile, identical genotypes were found in geographically distant locations. AMF genotypes showed significant preferences to different host plant species (Glycine max, Helianthus annuus and Allium porrum) used before the fungal in vitro culture establishment. Host plants in a field could provide a heterogeneous environment favouring certain genotypes. Such preferences may partly explain within-population patterns of genetic diversity.

An alternative method for dating unknown tephras based on a segmented regression model

In CoDaWork’05, we presented an application of discriminant function analysis (DFA) to 4 differentcompositional datasets and modelled the first canonical variable using a segmented regression modelsolely based on an observation about the scatter plots. In this paper, multiple linear regressions areapplied to different datasets to confirm the validity of our proposed model. In addition to dating theunknown tephras by calibration as discussed previously, another method of mapping the unknown tephrasinto samples of the reference set or missing samples in between consecutive reference samples isproposed. The application of these methodologies is demonstrated with both simulated and real datasets.This new proposed methodology provides an alternative, more acceptable approach for geologists as theirfocus is on mapping the unknown tephra with relevant eruptive events rather than estimating the age ofunknown tephra.Kew words: Tephrochronology; Segmented regression

Spain in Europe 2004-2008

In March of 2004, the Observatory of European Foreign Policy published a special monograph about Spain in Europe (1996-2004) in digital format. The objective of the monograph was to analyse Spain’s foreign policy agenda and strategy during the period of José María Aznar’s presidency. As the title suggests, one of the initial suppositions of the analysis is the Europeanization of Spanish foreign activities. Is that how it was? Did Aznar’s Spain see the world and relate to it through Brussels? The publication was well received, considering the number of visits received and above all the institutions which asked to link the publication to their web pages. Among these, the EUobserver published the introduction to the piece in English titled Aznar: thinking locally, acting in Europe (described by the EUobserver as a paper of utmost importance). The fact that the elections were held three days after the tragic events of the 11th of March dramatically increased interest in Spain and the implications for Europe. This publication is the second of its type, in this case analysing the period of the Zapatero government (2004-2008). Once again the starting premise (the Europeanization of the agenda and the methods employed) has been considered by the analysts. And once again the articles collected in this publication serve to “triangulate” the analysis. Spain and Europe are two vertices (more or less distant, in essence and in form) which the authors handle in their analysis of the case (third vertex).