Universitat Pompeu Fabra Research Articles

Children as Public Goods?

Philosophy & Public AffairsVolume 41, Issue 3 p. 226-258 Original Article Children as Public Goods? SERENA OLSARETTI, SERENA OLSARETTISearch for more papers by this author SERENA OLSARETTI, SERENA OLSARETTISearch for more papers by this author First published: 12 September 2013 https://doi.org/10.1111/papa.12019Citations: 28 For comments on previous drafts of this article I am very grateful to Paul Bou-Habib, Paula Casal, Avigail Eisenberg, David Enoch, Anca Gheaus, Colin Macleod, Zofia Stemplowska, Peter Vallentyne, Andrew Williams, and two anonymous referees of this journal. I have also benefited from comments by audiences at the UKALPP conference in York, the Equality and Justice Workshop in Exeter, the Ideals and Reality in Social Ethics Conference in Newport, the NOMOS meeting in Barcelona, the Society for Applied Philosophy Annual Conference in Oxford, the Political Philosophy Colloquium in Princeton, the Workshop on Adam Swift's Work in Oxford, and the Family, Justice and Demographic Change Conference at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Citing Literature Volume41, Issue3Summer 2013Pages 226-258 RelatedInformation

Benchmarking framework for myocardial tracking and deformation algorithms: An open access database

In this paper we present a benchmarking framework for the validation of cardiac motion analysis algorithms. The reported methods are the response to an open challenge that was issued to the medical imaging community through a MICCAI workshop. The database included magnetic resonance (MR) and 3D ultrasound (3DUS) datasets from a dynamic phantom and 15 healthy volunteers. Participants processed 3D tagged MR datasets (3DTAG), cine steady state free precession MR datasets (SSFP) and 3DUS datasets, amounting to 1158 image volumes. Ground-truth for motion tracking was based on 12 landmarks (4 walls at 3 ventricular levels). They were manually tracked by two observers in the 3DTAG data over the whole cardiac cycle, using an in-house application with 4D visualization capabilities. The median of the inter-observer variability was computed for the phantom dataset (0.77 mm) and for the volunteer datasets (0.84 mm). The ground-truth was registered to 3DUS coordinates using a point based similarity transform. Four institutions responded to the challenge by providing motion estimates for the data: Fraunhofer MEVIS (MEVIS), Bremen, Germany; Imperial College London - University College London (IUCL), UK; Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain; Inria-Asclepios project (INRIA), France. Details on the implementation and evaluation of the four methodologies are presented in this manuscript. The manually tracked landmarks were used to evaluate tracking accuracy of all methodologies. For 3DTAG, median values were computed over all time frames for the phantom dataset (MEVIS=1.20mm, IUCL=0.73 mm, UPF=1.10mm, INRIA=1.09 mm) and for the volunteer datasets (MEVIS=1.33 mm, IUCL=1.52 mm, UPF=1.09 mm, INRIA=1.32 mm). For 3DUS, median values were computed at end diastole and end systole for the phantom dataset (MEVIS=4.40 mm, UPF=3.48 mm, INRIA=4.78 mm) and for the volunteer datasets (MEVIS=3.51 mm, UPF=3.71 mm, INRIA=4.07 mm). For SSFP, median values were computed at end diastole and end systole for the phantom dataset(UPF=6.18 mm, INRIA=3.93 mm) and for the volunteer datasets (UPF=3.09 mm, INRIA=4.78 mm). Finally, strain curves were generated and qualitatively compared. Good agreement was found between the different modalities and methodologies, except for radial strain that showed a high variability in cases of lower image quality.

Comment

Comment

The Motherhood Earnings Dip: Evidence from Administrative Records

Fernández-Kranz Daniel, Aitor Lacuesta and Núria Rodríguez-Planas Daniel Fernández-Kranz is an associate professor of economics at the IE-Business School, Madrid. Aitor Lacuesta is a senior economist at the Banco de España, Madrid. Núria Rodríguez-Planas is a visiting research fellow at IZA, affiliated researcher at the Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC), and visiting professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra

MEK1 inactivates Myt1 to regulate Golgi membrane fragmentation and mitotic entry in mammalian cells

The pericentriolar stacks of Golgi cisternae are separated from each other in G2 and fragmented extensively during mitosis. MEK1 is required for Golgi fragmentation in G2 and for the entry of cells into mitosis. We now report that Myt1 mediates MEK1's effects on the Golgi complex. Knockdown of Myt1 by siRNA increased the efficiency of Golgi complex fragmentation by mitotic cytosol in permeabilized and intact HeLa cells. Myt1 knockdown eliminated the requirement of MEK1 in Golgi fragmentation and alleviated the delay in mitotic entry due to MEK1 inhibition. The phosphorylation of Myt1 by MEK1 requires another kinase but is independent of RSK, Plk, and CDK1. Altogether our findings reveal that Myt1 is inactivated by MEK1 mediated phosphorylation to fragment the Golgi complex in G2 and for the entry of cells into mitosis. It is known that Myt1 inactivation is required for CDK1 activation. Myt1 therefore is an important link by which MEK1 dependent fragmentation of the Golgi complex in G2 is connected to the CDK1 mediated breakdown of Golgi into tubules and vesicles in mitosis.

Multiple access communications in future-generation wireless networks

In June 1971, the first two-way wireless transmission of data packets within a computer network was achieved at the Manoa campus, University of Hawaii, Honolulu [1]. The ALOHANet was an experimental UHF radio network designed and implemented at the University of Hawaii at a time when the only other option for remote access to information resources was based upon the use of inflexible, slow, and unreliable telephone network connections. The ALOHA System Research project began in September 1968, with the purpose of defining [2] “those situations where radio communications are preferable to conventional wire communications.” The properties of the wireless medium led to the use of a new form of random access channel architecture, now known as an ALOHA channel. The commercial application of ALOHA channels in the 1970s was limited by the fact that suitable frequencies for terrestrial wireless transmission of packets were not generally available. Thus, the first two commercial uses of an ALOHA channel were in cable networks and then in satellite networks. In 1973, Metcalfe demonstrated a cable-based application of ALOHA in the “Alto ALOHA Network” [3] at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. This network was later developed by Metcalfe into Ethernet. In 1976, an ALOHA channel was used for the request channel in the Marisat (later Inmarsat) satellite network [4]. Over the last 30 years millions of small two-way earth stations using ALOHA channels have been implemented around the world. In the early 1980s, frequencies for mobile networks became available [5] and in 1985 frequencies suitable for what became known as WiFi were allocated [6] in the USA. ALOHA channels were used in a limited way in the 1980s in 1G mobile phones for signaling and control purposes [7]. In the 1990s, Matti Makkonen and others at Telecom Finland greatly expanded the use of ALOHA channels in order to implement SMS message texting in 2G mobile phones. In the early 2000s, additional ALOHA channels were added to 2.5G and 3G mobile phones with the widespread introduction of GPRS using a slotted ALOHA random access channel combined with a version of the Reservation ALOHA scheme first analyzed by a group at BBN [8]. It seems clear that the expanding use of smartphones and IP-based web traffic in developing 4G networks will lead to an even greater use of random access ALOHA channels in this decade. Metcalfe at Xerox [9] and Kleinrock and Tobagi at UCLA [10] added the use of Carrier Sense (CS) and Carrier Detection (CD) to an unslotted ALOHA channel to define the CSMA/CD protocol used in the original Ethernet 802.3 cable standard. The 802.11 WiFi wireless standard modified the CD part of the Ethernet standard to Collision Avoidance (CA) to define the CSMA/CA protocols adopted in 1997 for WiFi. Ironically, recent chatter on the web dealing with full duplex WiFi hints at further development of WiFi in the direction of the original ALOHA architecture. The theoretical foundations of ALOHA random access have been described in various ALOHA System technical papers [11,12]. Over the last 30 years research groups throughout the world have provided a deeper, more complete understanding of the multiple access channel, its limitations, and its possibilities. Many of these possibilities are dealt with in this Special Issue of the EURASIP Journal of Wireless Communications and Networking. This Special Issue contains 21 selected articles, covering a significant number of hot topics in Multiple Access Communications such as new cooperative MAC protocols; spectrum sharing, and channel assignment techniques for cognitive radio networks; new results on PHY layer multiple access techniques; admission control, and radio resource management for multimedia traffic in WLANs, WIMAX, and LTE networks, as well as on general topics such as multiuser detection (MUD), cross layer, and quality of service. * Correspondence: boris.bellalta@upf.edu Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain Full list of author information is available at the end of the article Abramson et al. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking 2012, 2012:45 http://jwcn.eurasipjournals.com/content/2012/1/45

Serum paraoxonase-3 concentration in HIV-infected patients. Evidence for a protective role against oxidation

We investigated the influence of the HIV infection on serum paraoxonase-3 (PON3) concentration and assessed the relationships with lipoprotein-associated abnormalities, immunological response, and accelerated atherosclerosis. We studied 207 HIV-infected patients and 385 healthy volunteers. Serum PON3 was determined by in-house ELISA, and PON3 distribution in lipoproteins was investigated by fast-performance liquid chromatography (FPLC). Polymorphisms of the PON3 promoter were analyzed by the Iplex Gold MassArray(TM) method. PON3 concentrations were increased (about three times) in HIV-infected patients with respect to controls (P < 0.001) and were inversely correlated with oxidized LDL levels (P = 0.038). Long-term use of nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)-based antiretroviral therapy was associated with a decrease of PON3 concentrations. In a multivariate linear regression analysis, these relationships were still strong when the main confounding covariates were considered. PON3 was mainly found in HDL in HIV-infected patients, but a substantial amount of the protein was detected in LDL particles. This study reports for the first time an important increase in serum PON3 concentrations in HIV-infected patients that is associated with their oxidative status and their treatment with NNRTI. Long-term, prospective studies are needed to confirm the possible influence of this enzyme on the course of this disease and its possible utility as an analytical biomarker.

Molecular tools for species discrimination and detection of hybridization between two closely related Clupeid fishes Alosa alosa and A. fallax

Main financial support for this study was provided by the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT), through the research project (POCTI/BSE/41527/2001) as well as a PhD (SFRH/BD/4619/2001) and post-doc (SFRH/BPD/26384/2006) grants to RF. Additional financial support to RF was given by the Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO, Portugal), BIOEVO, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain) and Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian (FCG, Portugal).

La comunidad «Recursos y datos primarios» de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra: los repositorios institucionales como infraestructuras científicas: estudio de caso

Este trabajo ha sido desarrollado en el marco del proyecto CLARIN, proyecto co-financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia (ACI2009-0995) de Espana, por la Generalitat de Cataluya, y por la Union Europea (FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2007-1-212230).

Implicit and explicit language learning: conditions, processes, and knowledge in SLA and bilingualism

1. IntroductionCristina Sanz and Ronald P. Leow, Georgetown University Part I: Theory 2. Stubborn Syntax: How It Resists Explicit Teaching and LearningBill VanPatten, Texas Tech University 3. An Epitaph for Grammar: An Abridged HistoryArthur S. Reber, University of British Columbia 4. Implicit and Explicit SLA and Their InterfaceNick C. Ellis, University of Michigan 5. How Analysis and Control Lead to Advantages and Disadvantages in Bilingual ProcessingEllen Bialystok, York University Part II: Methodological Issues and Empirical Research on Awareness, Pedagogical Contexts, and Individual Differences in SLA 6. Getting a Grip on the Slippery Construct of Awareness: Toward a Finer-Grained Methodological PerspectiveRonald P. Leow, Ellen Johnson, and German Zarate-Sandez, Georgetown University 7. Aging, Pedagogical Conditions, and Differential Success in SLA: An Empirical StudyAlison E. Lenet and Cristina Sanz, Georgetown University Beatriz Lado, University of San Diego James H. Howard Jr., The Catholic University of America and Georgetown University Medical Center and Darlene V. Howard, Georgetown University 8. Effects of Feedback Timing in SLA: A Computer-Assisted Study on the Spanish SubjunctiveFlorencia Henshaw, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 9. Working Memory Predicts the Acquisition of Explicit L2 KnowledgeJared A. Linck and Daniel J. Weiss, The Pennsylvania State University 10. The Effects of Formal Instruction and Study Abroad Contexts on Foreign Language Development: The SALA ProjectCarmen Perez-Vidal, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Maria Juan-Garau, University of the Balearic Islands and Joan C. Mora, Universitat de Barcelona 11. Input Processing Principles: A Contribution from First-Exposure DataRebekah Rast, The American University of Paris Part III: Empirical Research on L2 Phonology 12. What Is Implicit and What Is Explicit in L2 Speech? Findings from an Oral CorpusHeather E. Hilton, Universite Paris 8 13. Explicit Training and Implicit Learning of L2 Phonemic ContrastsFred R. Echman, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Gregory K. Iverson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language Robert Allen Fox and Ewa Jacewicz, The Ohio State University, and Sue Ann Lee, Texas Tech University Part IV: Empirical Studies on Key Issues in Bilingualism: Aging, Third Language Acquisition, and Language Separation 14. English Speakers' Perception of Spanish Vowels: Evidence for Multiple Category AssimilationLeslie S. Gordon, The University of Georgia 15. Early Phonological Acquisition in a Set of English-Spanish Bilingual TwinsDavid Ingram and Virginia Dubasik, Arizona State University Juana Liceras, University of Ottawa and Racquel Fernandez Fuertes, University of Valladolid 16. Language Learning Strategies in Adult L3 Acquisition: Relationship between L3 Development, Strategy Use, L2 Levels and GenderHui-Ju Lin, Georgetown University 17. Effects of Bilingualism on Inhibitory Control in Elderly Brazilian BilingualsIngrid Finger, Johanna Dagort Billig, and Ana Paula Scholl, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Book Reviews: Book Review Policy

Journalism in Crisis: Corporate Media and Financialization. Nuria Almiron, trans, by WUUam McGrath. New York: Hampton Press, Inc., 2010. 212 pp. $45 hbk $23.95 pbk This is most important available analysis of crisis of journalism, exhibiting critical skills of which alarmingly few North American analysts are capable. Nuria Almiron is lecturer and researcher in communication at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. Her political economy approach goes well beyond platitudes of death-by-Internet sermonizing even beyond themes of concentration and overreach so well-rehearsed by Robert McChesney. McChesney and Nichols (2010) regret passing of a Golden Age that preceded advertising. For Almiron, journahsm is in perpetual crisis, hapless child of bourgeois parents - freedom of press as formulated in Declaration of Rights of State of Virginia (1776) and in French Revolution's Declaration of Rights of Man (1789), eternally abused by instrumentalization of dominant classes. Journalism remains caught in contradiction between its emancipating potential and conditions imposed on it by financial globalization. No longer even plaything of erratic conglomerates and moguls, it has entered a post-corporate era characterized by supremacy of capital (finance) over industrial sphere (production) inherent to evolution of modern capitaUsm. The term financialization (first employed by Andre Orlean in 1999) is identified by Gerald Epstein (2005) as one of three main trends in global economics of past thirty years, others being neoUberaUsm and globalization, and defined as the increasing role of financial motives, financial markets, financial actors, and financial institutions in operation of domestic and international economies. It is product of ending of fixed international Exchange rates, disorganization of raw-materials markets, privileged position of transnational corporations, budget deficits, deregulation, Uberalization, and monetary disintermediation. The result is conversion of financial sector into one of today's principal sources of profit, but also of global instability - manifest in overinvestment and financial engineering as egregiously illustrated by tax havens that hold a third of wealth of high net-worth individuals, and by other forms of money hiding, laundering and extreme speculation. These lead to overcapacity, concentration, and implosion. These basic capitalist cycles are far more enduring and predictable than information, digital, ICT, and other revolutions that bedazzle those who should know so much better. Media and finance are closely interlinked, illustrated by development in mid-nineteenth-century of Reuters, not long after London Stock Exchange, providing financial, business, and economic information flows that have become bedrock of very structure of modern capitalism. The technology of information flows is dependent on raising of capital in financial markets, which are also insatiable consumers of communication technologies and financial news. Banks exert a fundamental influence on information corporations: they determine which and how many media wUl survive, their degree of concentration, autonomy, and diversity. These relationships bind concentration, internationalization, industrialization, and financialization, this latter passing through three main stages of absolute family control, relative farmly control, and managerial control. …

Digital Audio Effects

1Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione (DEI), Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy 2Department of Signal Processing and Communications, Helmut-Schmidt-University—University of Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, Germany 3Music Technology Group, Department of Information and Communication Technologies & Audiovisual Institute, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain 4Centre for Digital Music (C4DM), School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, UK 5Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK

Emotion response patterns to transient stimuli in migraineurs and non-migraineurs

Event Abstract Back to Event Emotion response patterns to transient stimuli in migraineurs and non-migraineurs Ana Pesquita1*, Ulysses Bernardet1, Aleksander Valjamae1, Joan Dura2, Patricia Pozo-Rosich2 and Paul J. Verschure1 1 Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain 2 Hospital Universitari Vall d Hebron, Spain Despite strong epidemiological evidence supporting a link between migraine and emotion, little is known about the specificity of emotional processing in migraine. Our psychophysiological study aimed at probing the responses of migraineurs to affective stimuli, and in particular, the dynamic pattern of affective modulation in response to shifts in emotional stimulation. Twenty-two healthy subjects and eighteen migraineurs-with-aura (MA), in inter-critical phase and with reported migraine frequency above 6 days per month, participated in the study. A set of pictures was selected from the International Affective Picture System to create five picture classes ranging from low, neutral to high on the valence and arousal dimensions. Pictures were arranged in two stages. In the first stage pictures were presented individually in order to establish the baseline response, and in the second stage picture transitions from one valence class to the opposite one were presented. Each picture was shown for 6 seconds with varying transition intervals. Affective responses were assessed by subjective ratings of valence and arousal and by measuring skin conductance responses. Results revealed that, compared to non-migraineurs, MA exhibited enhanced reactivity to unpleasant stimuli, non-habituation of affective responses to repeated exposure to unpleasant and even neutral stimuli, and high susceptibility to disrupt positive affective states in the presence of unpleasant stimuli. Our findings provide a fined-grain profile of migraineurs altered emotion responsiveness, giving a step towards understanding the role of emotion in migraine’s brain disorder and bringing forth insights for the development of emotion modulation strategies to reduce the impact of migraine in patients' lives. Funding: Supported by Fundació La Marató de TV3 071932 and an INOV-Art Scholarship to A.P. Keywords: emotion, Migraineurs Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Emotion, Motivation and the Social Brain Citation: Pesquita A, Bernardet U, Valjamae A, Dura J, Pozo-Rosich P and Verschure PJ (2011). Emotion response patterns to transient stimuli in migraineurs and non-migraineurs. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00493 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 22 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Ana Pesquita, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, anapesquita@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Ana Pesquita Ulysses Bernardet Aleksander Valjamae Joan Dura Patricia Pozo-Rosich Paul J Verschure Google Ana Pesquita Ulysses Bernardet Aleksander Valjamae Joan Dura Patricia Pozo-Rosich Paul J Verschure Google Scholar Ana Pesquita Ulysses Bernardet Aleksander Valjamae Joan Dura Patricia Pozo-Rosich Paul J Verschure PubMed Ana Pesquita Ulysses Bernardet Aleksander Valjamae Joan Dura Patricia Pozo-Rosich Paul J Verschure Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Semantic and world knowledge integration during l2 sentence reading

Event Abstract Back to Event Semantic and world knowledge integration during l2 sentence reading Clara D. Martin1*, Xavier Garcia1, Audrey Breton2, Guillaume Thierry3 and Albert Costa1 1 Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain 2 Université de Lyon - CNRS, France 3 University of Bangor, United States The main goal of the present study was to investigate difficulties in sentence reading in a second (L2) compared to a first language. Sentences that we hear or read can be meaningful or not (e.g., Mozart composed classical/orange music) and can be true or false (e.g., Mozart composed classical/jazz music). Hagoort et al. (2004) tested the temporality of meaning and truth integration during sentence comprehension. They recorded Event-related Potentials (ERPs) from participants who had to read silently correct sentences (e.g., Mozart composed classical music), sentences with semantic violations (e.g., Mozart composed orange music) and sentences with world knowledge violations (e.g., Mozart composed jazz music). ERP data revealed that integration of both semantic and world knowledge during sentence reading happens in parallel (both violation effects observed 400 ms after the critical word presentation; N400 effect). In the present study, we investigated semantic and world knowledge violations during reading in L2. We hypothesized that difficulties in reading in L2 might be due to difficulties in world knowledge integration. While recording ERPs, we presented Spanish-English late bilinguals with correct sentences, sentences with semantic violations and sentences with world knowledge violations. Semantic violations induced a N400 effect, as previously observed in monolinguals (Hagoort et al., 2004). While world knowledge also produced a N400 effect in monolinguals, the effect was delayed in bilinguals (P600 effect). We concluded that L2 readers integrate semantic as monolinguals do, but integrate world knowledge later on in the processing stream. This delay in world knowledge integration might be one of the reasons why reading is more laborious in L2 than in L1. Keywords: EEG, Language Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neural Bases of Language Citation: Martin CD, Garcia X, Breton A, Thierry G and Costa A (2011). Semantic and world knowledge integration during l2 sentence reading. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00292 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 22 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Clara D Martin, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, claramartin3@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Clara D Martin Xavier Garcia Audrey Breton Guillaume Thierry Albert Costa Google Clara D Martin Xavier Garcia Audrey Breton Guillaume Thierry Albert Costa Google Scholar Clara D Martin Xavier Garcia Audrey Breton Guillaume Thierry Albert Costa PubMed Clara D Martin Xavier Garcia Audrey Breton Guillaume Thierry Albert Costa Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

About the Authors

About the Authors

Correction: Genes Confer Similar Robustness to Environmental, Stochastic, and Genetic Perturbations in Yeast

The affiliations listed for the author are incorrect. The correct affiliations should read: 1 European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) - Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) Systems Biology Unit, Barcelona, Spain, 2 Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats (ICREA), Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain.

Natural Killer Cell Killing of Acute Myelogenous Leukemia and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Blasts by Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-Like Receptor–Negative Natural Killer Cells after NKG2A and LIR-1 Blockade

Although the study of natural killer (NK) cell alloreactivity has been dominated by studies of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs), we hypothesized that NKG2A and LIR-1, present on 53% +/- 13% and 36% +/- 18% of normal NK cells, respectively, play roles in the NK cell killing of primary leukemia targets. KIR(-) cells, which compose nearly half of the circulating NK cell population, exhibit tolerance to primary leukemia targets, suggesting signaling through other inhibitory receptors. Both acute myelogenous leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia targets were rendered susceptible to lysis by fresh resting KIR(-) NK cells when inhibitory receptor-major histocompatibility class I interactions were blocked by pan-HLA antibodies, demonstrating that these cells are functionally competent. Blockade of a single inhibitory receptor resulted in slightly increased killing, whereas combined LIR-1 and NKG2A blockade consistently resulted in increased NK cell cytotoxicity. Dual blockade of NKG2A and LIR-1 led to significant killing of targets by resting KIR(-) NK cells, demonstrating that this population is not hyporesponsive. Together these results suggest that alloreactivity of a significant fraction of KIR(-) NK cells is mediated by NKG2A and LIR-1. Thus strategies to interrupt NKG2A and LIR-1 in combination with anti-KIR blockade hold promise for exploiting NK cell therapy in acute leukemias.

Slow inhibition controls the representation of conditioning stimulus duration by the cerebellar granulle cells

Event Abstract Back to Event Slow inhibition controls the representation of conditioning stimulus duration by the cerebellar granulle cells Ivan Herreros-Alonso1*, Andrea Giovannucci1 and Paul S. Verschure1, 2 1 Universitat Pompeu Fabra, SPECS - Synthetic Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems, Spain 2 Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Research Professor, Spain During delay eye-blink conditioning a set of Purkinje cells (PC) in the cerebellar cortex respond with a decrease in their simple spike firing rate, the so-called PC conditioned response (PC-CR). The PC-CR is adaptively timed to the expected arrival of the unconditioned stimulus (US). The acquisition mechanism of the PC-CR is still under debate. A family of models propose that the granular layer encodes time while the molecular layer, through supervised learning, associates this code with an error signal conveyed by the climbing fibers (cf), leading to the production of well-time anticipatory PC-CRs. According to such models, learning in the molecular layer is explained by long term plasticity at the parallel fiber (pf) to PC synapse. What remains to be explained is how the granular layer encodes time during the presentation of the conditioning stimulus (CS). Cerebellar glomeruli are a unique structure within the CNS because of the glial encapsulation of multiple synaptic contacts. This encapsulation assures that the extracellular concentration of spilled-over neurotransmitters remains high. We propose that the change in extracellular GABA concentration within the glomeruli might code CS durations in the 1 second range. Namely, due to the enhanced spill-over inhibition during the CS, the activity of the Granule Cell (GC) population will decrease thus encoding the time elapsed since the stimulus onset in its decaying amplitude. We test this prediction with a computational model of the granular layer. With information theory techniques we assess how the features of the slow inhibitory currents affect the representation of time in the GC output. Furthermore, exploiting the classical PC-perceptron analogy, we show that a perceptron can produce well-timed responses when trained on the output of the granular layer model. Summarising, on the one hand we demonstrate that the spill-over of Golgi-released GABA modulates the activity of the GC population such that it can code CS durations in the 1 second range. On the other hand, by showing that the information can be decoded by a linear combination of the pf activity, we demonstrate that a PC could acquire well-timed CRs on the basis of this analog representation of time in the pfs. Keywords: Cerebellum Conference: The Cerebellum: from neurons to higher control and cognition, Pavia, Italy, 8 Jul - 9 Jul, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: The Cerebellum: from neurons to higher control and cognition Citation: Herreros-Alonso I, Giovannucci A and Verschure PS (2010). Slow inhibition controls the representation of conditioning stimulus duration by the cerebellar granulle cells. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: The Cerebellum: from neurons to higher control and cognition. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.83.00011 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 18 Aug 2010; Published Online: 29 Aug 2010. * Correspondence: Dr. Ivan Herreros-Alonso, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, SPECS - Synthetic Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems, Barcelona, Spain, ivanherreros@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Ivan Herreros-Alonso Andrea Giovannucci Paul S Verschure Google Ivan Herreros-Alonso Andrea Giovannucci Paul S Verschure Google Scholar Ivan Herreros-Alonso Andrea Giovannucci Paul S Verschure PubMed Ivan Herreros-Alonso Andrea Giovannucci Paul S Verschure Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

The endocrine regulation of insect metamorphosis and the emerging role of microRNAs

Event Abstract Back to Event The endocrine regulation of insect metamorphosis and the emerging role of microRNAs Xavier Belles1* 1 Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Spain Insect are classified into two groups according to the metamorphosis mode: the hemimetabolans, which hatch as nymphs with a morphology similar to that of the adult and grow progressively until the adult stage; and the holometabolans, which hatch as a larva with a morphology different from that of the adult, then grow through successive molts until the last larval instar, then to the pupae and to the adult. In the 1930 decade, the experiments of Vincent B. Wigglesworth already showed that the endocrine regulation of insect metamorphosis is based on molting hormones, which induce the successive molts, and juvenile hormones which maintain the juvenile character of them. Later, a number of transcription factors have been reported as mediators of the above hormones, as well as a number of target genes that codify for proteins giving the characteristic shape and behaviour of a juvenile or an adult stage. Most of the information available, however, refers to the most derived holometabolan species, especially to the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, whereas data on the less modified hemimetabolan species are scarce. Working on the hemimetabolan Blattella germanica (the German cockroach), we have recently found that microRNAs, which are RNAs of ca. 22 nucleotides that play a generally repressing action on mRNA stability and translation, have a key role in metamorphosis. With RNA interference (RNAi), we silenced the expression of dicer-1, a ribonuclease that mediates the maturation of microRNAs. When dicer-1 was silenced in the last nymphal instar, the production of microRNAs was impaired and the cockroaches, instead of molting to the adult stage as controls did, they transformed into gigantic supernumerary nymphs (Gomez-Orte & Belles, PNAS 106: 21678-21682, 2009). These results demonstrated that microRNAs are essential in insect metamorphosis, at least in hemimetabolans. The hypothesis emerging is that particular microRNAs would repress the expression of genes giving nymphal characters in the molt to adult. To test it, we are now working on a number of microRNAs that could be candidates to play such a role, studying their pattern of expression and the influence of the molting hormone and the juvenile hormone on their abundance. Experiments of silencing of those microRNA that might play a role in metamorphosis, studies on the effect of them on predicted targets, and building of networks representing the interaction microRNA/targets in pre-metamorphic and metamorphic stages are also included in our project. In the end, we hope that the results obtained will illuminate the endocrine mechanisms that allowed the evolutionary transition from the ancestral hemimetaboly to the derived holometaboly. Keywords: comparative endocrinology Conference: 25th Conference of the European Comparative Endocrinologists, Pécs, Hungary, 31 Aug - 4 Sep, 2010. Presentation Type: Conference Presentation Topic: Comparative endocrinology Citation: Belles X (2010). The endocrine regulation of insect metamorphosis and the emerging role of microRNAs. Front. Endocrinol. Conference Abstract: 25th Conference of the European Comparative Endocrinologists. doi: 10.3389/conf.fendo.2010.01.00017 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 26 Aug 2010; Published Online: 29 Aug 2010. * Correspondence: Dr. Xavier Belles, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Barcelona, Spain, xavier.belles@ibe.upf-csic.es Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Xavier Belles Google Xavier Belles Google Scholar Xavier Belles PubMed Xavier Belles Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

EURALEX Newsletter

This quarterly Newsletter is intended to include not only official announcements but also news about EURALEX members, their publications, projects, and (it is hoped) their opinions, and news about other lexicographical organizations. Please try to support this by sending newsletter contributions to Paul Bogaards at the email address above. The deadlines for spring (March), summer (June), autumn (September), and winter (December) issues are respectively 15 January, 15 April, 15 July, and 15 October annually. The URL of the EURALEX web site is www.euralex.org The Infolex Research Group of the Institute Universitari de Lingüística Aplicada (IULA) of Universitat Pompeu Fabra was honoured to host the XIII International EURALEX Congress. The congress, which marked the 25th anniversary of the founding of the association, was held July 15–19, 2008, at the Ciutadella campus of the university, in the heart...