Interactions between respiration and systemic hemodynamics. Part I: basic concepts.

The topic of cardiorespiratory interactions is of extreme importance to the practicing intensivist. It also has a reputation for being intellectually challenging, due in part to the enormous volume of relevant, at times contradictory literature. Another source of difficulty is the need to simultaneously consider the interrelated functioning of several organ systems (not necessarily limited to the heart and lung), in other words, to adopt a systemic (as opposed to analytic) point of view. We believe that the proper understanding of a few simple physiological concepts is of great help in organizing knowledge in this field. The first part of this review will be devoted to demonstrating this point. The second part, to be published in a coming issue of Intensive Care Medicine, will apply these concepts to clinical situations. We hope that this text will be of some use, especially to intensivists in training, to demystify a field that many find intimidating.

ViralZone: recent updates to the virus knowledge resource.

ViralZone (http://viralzone.expasy.org) is a knowledge repository that allows users to learn about viruses including their virion structure, replication cycle and host-virus interactions. The information is divided into viral fact sheets that describe virion shape, molecular biology and epidemiology for each viral genus, with links to the corresponding annotated proteomes of UniProtKB. Each viral genus page contains detailed illustrations, text and PubMed references. This new update provides a linked view of viral molecular biology through 133 new viral ontology pages that describe common steps of viral replication cycles shared by several viral genera. This viral cell-cycle ontology is also represented in UniProtKB in the form of annotated keywords. In this way, users can navigate from the description of a replication-cycle event, to the viral genus concerned, and the associated UniProtKB protein records.

Parametric Approach to Blind Deconvolution of Nonlinear Channels

A parametric procedure for the blind inversion of nonlinear channels is proposed, based on a recent method of blind source separation in nonlinear mixtures. Experiments show that the proposed algorithms perform efficiently, even in the presence of hard distortion. The method, based on the minimization of the output mutual information, needs the knowledge of log-derivative of input distribution (the so-called score function). Each algorithm consists of three adaptive blocks: one devoted to adaptive estimation of the score function, and two other blocks estimating the inverses of the linear and nonlinear parts of the channel, (quasi-)optimally adapted using the estimated score functions. This paper is mainly concerned by the nonlinear part, for which we propose two parametric models, the first based on a polynomial model and the second on a neural network, while [14, 15] proposed non-parametric approaches.

Open source software in translator training

La formació de traductors implica l´ús de procediments i eines que permetin els estudiants familiaritzar-se amb contextos professionals. El software lliure especialitzat inclou eines de qualitat professional i procediments accessibles per a les institucions acadèmiques i els estudiants a distància que treballen a casa seva. Els projectes reals que utilitzen software lliure i traducció col·laborativa (crowdsourcing) constitueixen recursos indispensables en la formació de traductors.

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.

Detection of hemorrhage source: the diagnostic value of post-mortem CT-angiography.

The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic value of post-mortem computed tomography angiography (PMCTA) to conventional, ante-mortem computed tomography (CT)-scan, CT-angiography (CTA) and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) in the detection and localization of the source of bleeding in cases of acute hemorrhage with fatal outcomes. The medical records and imaging scans of nine individuals who underwent a conventional, ante-mortem CT-scan, CTA or DSA and later died in the hospital as a result of an acute hemorrhage were reviewed. Post-mortem computed tomography angiography, using multi-phase post-mortem CTA, as well as medico-legal autopsies were performed. Localization accuracy of the bleeding was assessed by comparing the diagnostic findings of the different techniques. The results revealed that data from ante-mortem and post-mortem radiological examinations were similar, though the PMCTA showed a higher sensitivity for detecting the hemorrhage source than did ante-mortem radiological investigations. By comparing the results of PMCTA and conventional autopsy, much higher sensitivity was noted in PMCTA in identifying the source of the bleeding. In fact, the vessels involved were identified in eight out of nine cases using PMCTA and only in three cases through conventional autopsy. Our study showed that PMCTA, similar to clinical radiological investigations, is able to precisely identify lesions of arterial and/or venous vessels and thus determine the source of bleeding in cases of acute hemorrhages with fatal outcomes.

Nonpoint source pollution, space, time and asymetric information - a deposit refund approach

The incorporation of space allows the establishment of a more precise relationship between a contaminating input, a contaminating byproduct and emissions that reach the final receptor. However, the presence of asymmetric information impedes the implementation of the first-best policy. As a solution to this problem a site specific deposit refund system for the contaminating input and the contaminating byproduct are proposed. Moreover, the utilization of a successive optimization technique first over space and second over time enables definition of the optimal intertemporal site specific deposit refund system

Localitzador gràfic d'adreces IP

Internet s'ha convertit en una font extraordinària de recursos per una audiència en constant creixement arreu el món. A l'igual que en altres activitats de la nostra societat, el coneixement de la localització geogràfica d'aquests recursos i de la gent que hi accedeix és útil tant pels usuaris com pels proveïdors d'informació. La geolocalització IP, però, pot donar informació errònia o amb un nivell de precisió que no vagi més enllà de la referència a un país.Aquest treball recull els diferents actors que formen part de la geolocalització IP i s'ha analitzat el paper que juguen en aquest procés així com la seva influència en el nivell de fiabilitat i exactitud final. Amb aquests sòlids fonaments s'ha desenvolupat una aplicació per representar gràficament en un mapa la geolocalització IP d'un dispositiu i la dels nodes que formen el camí realitzat fins arribar-hi, així com tota la informació addicional que de cada IP s'ha pogut obtenir.El resultat ha estat una memòria tècnica de tot el treball de recerca juntament amb una aplicació que s'executa en l'entorn de Microsoft Windows i plataforma .NET, caracteritzada per la seva facilitat d'ús gràcies a un disseny simple molt intuïtiu i efectiu, la rapidesa d'execució per què aprofita la programació de fils, i un positiu impacte visual ja que fa servir l'API de Google Maps per a la representació visual de la traça.

Iowa Source Water Protection: Workbook, November, 18, 2014

There are a few basic fundamentals you need before starting a source water protection project. These include information on your community’s wells (or intakes), aquifer, source water area, and potential contaminants. All of these essential items should be included in your community’s source water information, you may find this information in the workbook and guidebook.

Iowa Source Water Protection: Guidebook, November, 18, 2014

There are a few basic fundamentals you need before starting a source water protection project. These include information on your community’s wells (or intakes), aquifer, source water area, and potential contaminants. All of these essential items should be included in your community’s source water information, you may find this information in the workbook and guidebook.

Current knowledge on the Ralstonia solanacearum type III secretion system

R. solanacearum was ranked in a recent survey the second most important bacterial plant pathogen, following the widely used research model Pseudomonas syringae (Mansfield et al., 2012). The main reason is that bacterial wilt caused by R. solanacearum is the world"s most devastating bacterial plant disease (http://faostat.fao.org), threatening food safety in tropical and subtropical agriculture, especially in China, Bangladesh, Bolivia and Uganda (Martin and French, 1985). This is due to the unusually wide host range of the bacterium, its high persistence and because resistant crop varieties are unavailable. In addition, R. solanacearum has been established as a model bacterium for plant pathology thanks to pioneering molecular and genomic studies (Boucher et al., 1985; Cunnac et al., 2004b; Mukaihara et al., 2010; Occhialini et al., 2005; Salanoubat et al., 2002). As for many bacterial pathogens, the main virulence determinant in R. solanacearum is the type III secretion system (T3SS) (Boucher et al., 1994), which injects a number of effector proteins into plant cells causing disease in hosts or an hypersensitive response in resistant plants. In this article we discuss the current state in the study of the R. solanacearum T3SS, stressing the latest findings and future perspectives.