New species of Aeromonas isolated in Cuba

One hundred and fifty-five strains of Aeromonas isolated in the stools of children under 5 years presenting with acute diarrheal disease were studied. Using the Aerokey II system for the identification of species, 47 strains were identified as Aeromonas caviae, 58 as Aeromonas hydrophila, 23 as Aeromonas veronii biovar sobria, 14 as Aeromonas trota, 9 as Aeromonas veronii biovar veronii, 2 as Aeromonas jandaei and 2 as Aeromonas shubertii, Emphasis is placed on the advantages of this method which allowed for the classification of new species not identified previously in our country.     

Experience classification for transfer learning in traffic signal control

In recent years, due to the drastic rise in the number of vehicles and the lack of sufficient infrastructure, traffic jams, air pollution, and fuel consumption have increased in cities. The optimization of timing for traffic lights is one of the solutions for the mentioned problems. Many methods have been introduced to deal with these problems, including reinforcement learning. Although a great number of learning-based methods have been used in traffic signal control, they suffer from poor performance and slow learning convergence. In this paper, a transfer learning-based method for traffic signal control has been proposed. Multi-agent system has also been used for modelling the traffic network and transfer learning has been used to make reinforcement learning agents transfer their experience to each other. Furthermore, a classifier has been utilized to classify the transferred experiences. The results show that using the proposed method leads to a significant improvement on average delay time and convergence time of the learning process.

     

Deploying deep learning approaches to left ventricular non-compaction measurement

The Journal of Supercomputing - Left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC) is a rare cardiomyopathy characterized by abnormal trabeculations in the left ventricle cavity. Although traditional computer...     

A panoramic view and swot analysis of artificial intelligence for achieving the sustainable development goals by 2030: progress and prospects

Applied Intelligence - The17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations Agenda 2030 constitute a global blueprint agenda and instrument for peace and prosperity...     

Algorithms for processing the group K nearest-neighbor query on distributed frameworks

Distributed and Parallel Databases - Given two datasets of points (called Query and Training), the Group (K) Nearest-Neighbor (GKNN) query retrieves (K) points of the Training with the smallest sum...     

Does maintainability relate to the energy consumption of software? A case study

Software Quality Journal - Energy consumption of software has been becoming increasingly significant, since it can vary according to how the software has been developed. In recent years, developers...     

Modeling of the condyle elements within a biomechanical knee model

The development of a computational multibody knee model able to capture some of the fundamental properties of the human knee articulation is presented. This desideratum is reached by including the kinetics of the real knee articulation. The research question is whether an accurate modeling of the condyle contact in the knee will lead to reproduction of the complex combination of flexion/extension, abduction/adduction, and tibial rotation observed in the real knee. The model is composed by two anatomic segments, the tibia and the femur, whose characteristics are functions of the geometric and anatomic properties of the real bones. The biomechanical model characterization is developed under the framework of multibody systems methodologies using Cartesian coordinates. The type of approach used in the proposed knee model is the joint surface contact conditions between ellipsoids, representing the two femoral condyles, and points, representing the tibial plateau and the menisci. These elements are closely fitted to the actual knee geometry. This task is undertaken by considering a parameter optimization process to replicate experimental data published in the literature, namely that by Lafortune and his coworkers in 1992. Then kinematic data in the form of flexion/extension patterns are imposed on the model corresponding to the stance phase of the human gait. From the results obtained, by performing several computational simulations, it can be observed that the knee model approximates the average secondary motion patterns observed in the literature. Because the literature reports considerable inter-individual differences in the secondary motion patterns, the knee model presented here is also used to check whether it is possible to reproduce the observed differences with reasonable variations of bone shape parameters. This task is accomplished by a parameter study, in which the main variables that define the geometry of condyles are taken into account. It was observed that the data reveal a difference in secondary kinematics of the knee in flexion versus extension. The likely explanation for this fact is the elastic component of the secondary motions created by the combination of joint forces and soft tissue deformations. The proposed knee model is, therefore, used to investigate whether this observed behavior can be explained by reasonable elastic deformations of the points representing the menisci in the model.     

The GPU on the simulation of cellular computing models

Membrane Computing is a discipline aiming to abstract formal computing models, called membrane systems or P systems, from the structure and functioning of the living cells as well as from the cooperation of cells in tissues, organs, and other higher order structures. This framework provides polynomial time solutions to NP-complete problems by trading space for time, and whose efficient simulation poses challenges in three different aspects: an intrinsic massively parallelism of P systems, an exponential computational workspace, and a non-intensive floating point nature. In this paper, we analyze the simulation of a family of recognizer P systems with active membranes that solves the Satisfiability problem in linear time on different instances of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). For an efficient handling of the exponential workspace created by the P systems computation, we enable different data policies to increase memory bandwidth and exploit data locality through tiling and dynamic queues. Parallelism inherent to the target P system is also managed to demonstrate that GPUs offer a valid alternative for high-performance computing at a considerably lower cost. Furthermore, scalability is demonstrated on the way to the largest problem size we were able to run, and considering the new hardware generation from Nvidia, Fermi, for a total speed-up exceeding four orders of magnitude when running our simulations on the Tesla S2050 server.     

Effect of breed-type on the relationships between intramuscular and total body fat in steers

The partitioning of total dissectible body fat and the amounts of intramuscular fat in Psoas major, Semitendinosus and Biceps brachii muscles were determined in two groups of A. Angus and AA × Nelore steers with similar averages of total dissectible fat (27·7 kg). In addition, the fatty acid composition of total fat and the triglyceride fraction from dissectible and intramuscular fats were determined.

The AA × Nelore steers have higher levels of subcutaneous fat and lower levels of intermuscular fat than the A. Angus but contain lower levels of intramuscular fat in the three muscles. The allometric regressions varied according to the muscle and breed type. The fatty acid composition of subcutaneous and kidney fats were similar but differences in the percentages of 14:0, 18:0, 18:2 and 20:4 fatty acids in intramuscular fats between the two genetic groups were detected.     

A comparison of distribution and composition of intramuscular fat in Duroc Jersey and Hampshire pigs at 100 kg liveweight

The intramuscular fat content, its fatty acid composition and that from the triglyceride fraction, were determined in several muscles from the right sides of four Duroc Jersey and four Hampshire castrated male pigs slaughtered at 100 kg liveweight. The Hampshires had heavier muscles than the Duroc Jersey pigs, but did not show significant differences in the percentages of intramuscular fat. The concentrations of linoleic acid were, in general, higher in the Hampshire than in the Duroc Jersey pigs and in many muscles the differences were highly significant (p < 0·05) The concentrations of linoleic acid (18:2) in the triglyceride fraction did not differ among muscles within breeds but were higher in Hampshire than in Duroc Jersey pigs.