La creación del lugar Donostia - San Sebastian anterior a 1813: los casos de la colina sobre el puerto y del Campanario

En este trabajo se presenta una investigación cuyo objetivo es conocer, con mayor rigor científico, la formación de la ciudad de Donostia-San Sebastián en el pasado, como instrumento de valor y utilidad para entender la ciudad hoy existente y, así, intervenir mejor en ella. La investigación tiene tres fases: primera, una indagación cuidadosa con un examen minucioso de la documentación existente, tanto escrita como iconográfica, resaltando particularmente la cartografía antigua; segunda, un proceso de reconstitución a escala real de la ciudad hacia 1800, con la realización de un modelo 3D vectorial; y tercera, una lectura interpretativa de la constitución de la ciudad y sus permanencias actuales, acompañada de una transcripción gráfica y visual de las enseñanzas adquiridas. Se muestran dos casos de estudio dentro de esta ciudad del XVIII, el de la colina sobre el puerto y el del campanario, a modo de ejemplo de la investigación que se realiza.L’objet de ce travail est la presentation d’une recherche ayant pour but une connaissance plus rigoureuse et scientifique de la formation physique de la ville de Donostia-San Sebastian dans le passé, d’une grande importance et utilité pour comprendre et mieux intervenir dans la ville d’aujourd’hui. C’est une recherche qui se divise en trois phases: d’abord une recollection et un examen minutieux de la documentation existante aussi bien iconographique qu’écrite, dont la cartographie ancienne joue un rôle majeur, deuxièmement un processus de reconstitution, a son exacte echelle, de la ville vers 1800 grâce à l’élaboration d’un modèle 3D vectoriel et finalement une interpretation de la constitution de la ville et de ses permanences actuelles avec une transcription graphique et visuelle des enseignements acquis. L’étude de la colline surplombant le port et l’étude du clocher, elements importants de la ville du XVIII, servent içi d’exemple de la recherche en cours.This work is about a research whose aim is to know with more scientific rigor the physic formation of the town of Donostia-San Sebastián in the past, as a valuable and useful tool for the understanding of the present day city and a better intervention on it. This research is divided in three phases: first, a collecting and a meticulous examination of the existing both iconographic and written documentation, based mainly on the ancient cartography; secondly, a process of reconstitution of the town in 1800, at full scale, by means of a 3D vectorial model; and last, an interpretation of the town formation and its permanences, with a graphic and visual transcription of acquired information. The study of the hill above the harbour and the Campanile, important features of the XVIIIth century city, is showed here as an example of the current research.Peer Reviewe

An Agent-Based Dialog Simulation Technique to Develop and Evaluate Conversational Agents

Proceedings of: 9th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multiagent Systems (PAAMS 11). Salamanca, 6-8 April, 2011In this paper, we present an agent-based dialog simulation technique for learning new dialog strategies and evaluate conversational agents. Using this technique the effort necessary to acquire data required to train the dialog model and then explore new dialog strategies is considerably reduced. A set of measures has also been defined to evaluate the dialog strategy that is automatically learned and compare different dialog corpora. We have applied this technique to explore the space of possible dialog strategies and evaluate the dialogs acquired for a conversational agent that collects monitored data from patients suffering from diabetes.Funded by projects CICYT TIN2008-06742-C02-02/TSI, CICYT TEC2008-06732-C02- 02/TEC, CAM CONTEXTS (S2009/TIC-1485), and DPS2008-07029-C02-02.Publicad

Historical press as a meteorological and climatic information recovery source. The case of Tarragona city (Spain)

La prensa histórica es una fuente de información meteorológica y climática adicional a la fuente habitual de los archivos meteorológicos. En este estudio se presenta el proceso de recuperación de los valores de las variables meteorológicas de la ciudad de Tarragona (Spain) a partir de periódicos antiguos. En primer lugar se detalla la fase de localización de los datos meteorológicos, dispersos en diferentes fondos, datos que han sido digitalizados manualmente para su preservación y posterior manipulación. El análisis de las distintas variables recuperadas permite a menudo observar los diferentes cambios en las mediciones, las localizaciones y los instrumentos utilizados. Así pues, se dispone de una recuperación de metadatos para que la posterior manipulación de las series climáticas sea lo más homogénea posible. Finalmente se muestran las potencialidades y carencias de la recuperación de datos meteorológicos a través de la prensa antigua.The historical press is a source of meteorological and climatic information in addition to the traditional documentary sources. In this study is presented the recovery process of meteorological variables from the city of Tarragona (Spain) from old newspapers. Firstly, it details the process of locating data in digital form, scattered in different journals, data that has been manually digitized for preservation and subsequent handling. The analysis of different meteorological variables recovered can often see the different changes in measurements, locations and instruments used. It has metadata retrieval for subsequent manipulation of weather variables is as homogeneous as possible. Finally we show the strengths and weaknesses of meteorological data retrieval through old press

Evaluating Interaction of MAS Providing Context-Aware Services

Proceeding of: 5th KES International Conference, KES-AMSTA 2011, Manchester, UK, June 29 – July 1, 2011Much effort has been spent on suggesting and implementing new architectures of MAS to specific domains. Often each new architecture is not even compared to any existing architectures in order to evaluate their potential benefits. The evaluation of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) is a complex problem and it does not have a single form. The present work follows the research line of considering the agent interaction as the main evaluation criteria, the most important characteristic of any complex software as autonomous agents according to [9]. So, in this paper, we have suggested an assignment of evaluation values to Agents interaction in an specific MAS architecture for providing context services by means of conversational agents. This evaluation is mainly based on the relevance of the messages content brought by an interaction. For dependant nature of the relevance of the messages, the valuation has to be adhoc, but our paper provides an example of how interesting is this alternative in order to evaluate any MAS architecture theoretically.Funded by projects CICYT TIN2008-06742-C02-02/TSI, CICYT TEC2008-06732- C02-02/TEC, SINPROB, CAM MADRINET S-0505/TIC/0255, and DPS2008-07029- C02-02

Nanocalorimetric analysis of the ferromagnetic transition in ultrathin films of nickel

We report on in situheat capacity measurements (370-800K) using quasiadiabatic ultrafast differential scanning nanocalorimetry in thin films(1-200nm) of Nigrown by electron beam evaporation. The heat capacity shows a broad peak with a rounded maximum that is attributed to the decrease of long-range interactions in the ferromagnetic to paramagnetic phase transition of Ni. The calorimetric data exhibit a reduction of the Curie temperature as the thickness of the films (or the average grain size) decreases. The magnitude of the jump in specific heat at TC scales with the number of surface or interface atoms

Influence of oxidative stress, diaphragm fatigue, and inspiratory muscle training on the plasma cytokine response to maximum sustainable voluntary ventilation

The influence of oxidative stress, diaphragm fatigue, and inspiratory muscle training (IMT) on the cytokine response to maximum sustainable voluntary ventilation (MSVV) is unknown. Twelve healthy males were divided equally into an IMT or placebo (PLA) group, and before and after a 6-wk intervention they undertook, on separate days, 1h of (1) passive rest and (2) MSVV, whereby participants undertook volitional hyperpnea at rest that mimicked the breathing and respiratory muscle recruitment patterns commensurate with heavy cycling exercise. Plasma cytokines remained unchanged during passive rest. There was a main effect of time (P < 0.01) for plasma interleukin-1 (IL-1) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) concentrations and a strong trend (P = 0.067) for plasma interleukin-1 receptor antagonist concentration during MSVV. Plasma IL-6 concentration was reduced after IMT by 27 + 18% (main effect of intervention, P = 0.029), whereas there was no change after PLA (P = 0.753). There was no increase in a systemic marker of oxidative stress [DNA damage in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC)], and diaphragm fatigue was not related to the increases in plasma IL-1 and IL-6 concentrations. A dose-response relationship was observed between respiratory muscle work and minute ventilation and increases in plasma IL-6 concentration. In conclusion, increases in plasma IL-1 and IL-6 concentrations during MSVV were not due to diaphragm fatigue or DNA damage in PBMC. Increases in plasma IL-6 concentration during MSVV are attenuated following IMT, and the plasma IL-6 response is dependent upon the level of respiratory muscle work and minute ventilation

An Architecture to Provide Context-Aware Services by Means of Conversational Agents

Proceedings of: Forth Internationl Wokshop on User-Centric Technologies and Applications (CONTEXTS 2010), Valencia, September 7-10, 2010In human-human interaction, a great deal of information is conveyed without explicit communication. This context information characterizes the situation of the different entities involved in the communication process (users, place, environment and computational objects). In this paper, we present an agent-based architecture that incorporates this valuable information to provide the most adapted service to the user. One of the main characteristics of our proposal is the incorporation of conversational agents handling different domains and adapted taking into account the different users requirements and preferences by means of a context manager. This way, we ensure a natural communication between the user and the system to provide a personalized service. The implementation of our proposed architecture to develop and evaluate a context-aware railway information system is also described.Funded by projects CICYT TIN2008-06742-C02-02/TSI, CICYT TEC2008-06732-C02-02/TEC, SINPROB, CAM MADRINET S-0505/TIC/0255, and DPS2008-07029-C02-02.Publicad

Exercise addiction risk and health in male and female amateur endurance cyclists

To determine the relationship between the risk of exercise addiction (REA) and health status in amateur endurance cyclists. Methods In 859 (751 men and 108 women) cyclists and 718 inactive subjects (307 men and 411 women), we examined the REA (Exercise Addiction Inventory), training status (volume, frequency, experience, and performance), socioeconomic status, quality of life (QoL) (SF-12), quality of sleep (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), and cardiometabolic risk: body mass index, physical activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaire), physical condition (International Fitness Scale), adherence to the Mediterranean diet (Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener), alcohol and tobacco consumption. Results In total, 17% of the cyclists showed evidence of REA and 83% showed low REA. REA occurred independent of age, sex, training, and socioeconomic status (all ps > .05). Regardless of REA, the cyclists displayed a better physical QoL and a lower cardiometabolic risk than the inactive subjects (all ps < .05). The cyclists with REA displayed worse values of mental QoL, quality of sleep, and anxiety than cyclists with low REA (all ps < .05). The REA group had better values of mental QoL and anxiety and similar values of quality of sleep than the inactive subjects. The differences in mental QoL between the REA and low REA groups were significantly greater in women (p = .013). There was no Addiction × Sex interaction in the other analyzed variables. Conclusion Our results suggest that an increased prevalence of REA limits the benefits that amateur endurance cycling has on mental health and quality of sleep

The G1/S Specific Cyclin D2 Is a Regulator of HIV-1 Restriction in Non-proliferating Cells

Macrophages are a heterogeneous cell population strongly influenced by differentiation stimuli that become susceptible to HIV-1 infection after inactivation of the restriction factor SAMHD1 by cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK). Here, we have used primary human monocyte-derived macrophages differentiated through different stimuli to evaluate macrophage heterogeneity on cell activation and proliferation and susceptibility to HIV-1 infection. Stimulation of monocytes with GM-CSF induces a non-proliferating macrophage population highly restrictive to HIV-1 infection, characterized by the upregulation of the G1/S-specific cyclin D2, known to control early steps of cell cycle progression. Knockdown of cyclin D2, enhances HIV-1 replication in GM-CSF macrophages through inactivation of SAMHD1 restriction factor by phosphorylation. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments show that cyclin D2 forms a complex with CDK4 and p21, a factor known to restrict HIV-1 replication by affecting the function of the downstream cascade that leads to SAMHD1 deactivation. Thus, we demonstrate that cyclin D2 acts as regulator of cell cycle proteins affecting SAMHD1-mediated HIV-1 restriction in non-proliferating macrophage