Search results for "LAB"

Phenotypic and genotypic evaluation of slime production by conventional and molecular microbiological techniques.

2009

Twenty-nine staphylococcal isolates from different clinical samples were tested for slime production: phenotypic characterization was carried out using Christensen test (tube test) and Congo red agar plate test (CRA plate test), while the presence and expression of icaA and icaD genes were evaluated by real-time PCR. In 79.3% of studied strains there was a concordance between slime production and presence of icaA and icaD genes, and between lack of slime production and absence of both or only one of the tested genes. In four of five strains where positive phenotype was not associated with the presence of ica genes, gene co-expression (evaluated by mRNA determination) was lacking, while in o…

Coagulation and fibrinolysis

2016

Uniformidad y diversidad en la codificación civil

2009

En un coloquio sobre exclusión de minorías, me pareció de interés abordar problemas de la codificación del siglo XIX. Desde la Conquista se había extendido el derecho castellano de Partidas y Recopilaciones a las Indias, frente a los derechos propios y costumbres indígenas. En los dos últimos siglos un proceso de uniformidad profundo se extendió por Europa y América con las revoluciones y la aplicación del Code des français de 1804, más o menos retocado. El antiguo derecho admitía las costumbres o usos inveterados por más de diez o veinte años, demostradas en dos juicios, incluso contra leyes, pero ahora se impone el imperio de la ley. Además unifica unas leyes únicas aplicables a todos los…

Prostitution voluntary or forced. A contribution to the debate

2011

La tesis abolicionista de que nadie puede elegir libremente vender su cuerpo ha sido cuestionada por quienes reclaman el reconocimiento de derechos laborales para los trabajadores del sexo, lo cual ha dado lugar a una encendida polémica sobre el carácter voluntario o forzado de la prostitución. Los testimonios de veintitrés mujeres (incluyendo cinco ex prostitutas), recogidos mediante entrevistas en profundidad, sugieren que todas ellas están situadas en un punto intermedio del continuum que va desde la coerción criminal hasta la opción vocacional. Los pasajes relativos específicamente al itinerario de acceso a este mundo permiten distinguir tres tipos de prostitución en función del grado d…

A cognitive architecture for artificial vision

1997

Abstract A new cognitive architecture for artificial vision is proposed. The architecture, aimed at an autonomous intelligent system, is cognitive in the sense that several cognitive hypotheses have been postulated as guidelines for its design. The first one is the existence of a conceptual representation level between the subsymbolic level, that processes sensory data, and the linguistic level, that describes scenes by means of a high level language. The conceptual level plays the role of the interpretation domain for the symbols at the linguistic levels. A second cognitive hypothesis concerns the active role of a focus of attention mechanism in the link between the conceptual and the ling…

What Will You Do Next? A Cognitive Model for Understanding Others’ Intentions Based on Shared Representations

2013

Goal-directed action selection is the problem of what to do next in order to progress towards goal achievement. This problem is computationally more complex in case of joint action settings where two or more agents coordinate their actions in space and time to bring about a common goal: actions performed by one agent influence the action possibilities of the other agents, and ultimately the goal achievement. While humans apparently effortlessly engage in complex joint actions, a number of questions remain to be solved to achieve similar performances in artificial agents: How agents represent and understand actions being performed by others? How this understanding influences the choice of ag…

System times and channel availability analyses in multi-channel cognitive radio networks

2014

Channel accessibility by a secondary user (SU) in cognitive radio networks (CRNs) depends on the availability of the spectrum based on primary user and other SU activities. A new SU request may be blocked and an ongoing SU service may also be discarded if no sufficient spectrum is available. So far, little work has been done to analyze the reliability and availability aspects of CRNs from the perspective of the dependability theory. In this paper, we introduce the concept of availability for spectrum access in multi-channel CRNs, which is defined as the fraction of time that a CRN can allocate at least the minimum number of required channels for a new SU request. Through a proposed continuo…

How does the brain encode epistemic reliability? Perceptual presence, phenomenal transparency, and counterfactual richness

2014

AbstractSeth develops a convincing and detailed internalist alternative to the sensorimotor-contingency theory of perceptual phenomenology. However, there are remaining conceptual problems due to a semantic ambiguity in the notion of “presence” and the idea of “subjective veridicality.” The current model should be integrated with the earlier idea that experiential “realness” and “mind-independence” are determined by the unavailability of earlier processing stages to attention. Counterfactual richness and attentional unavailability may both be indicators of the overall processing level currently achieved, a functional property that normally correlates with epistemic reliability. Perceptual p…

A cognitive architecture for inner speech

2020

Abstract A cognitive architecture for inner speech is presented. It is based on the Standard Model of Mind, integrated with modules for self-talking. Briefly, the working memory of the proposed architecture includes the phonological loop as a component which manages the exchanging information between the phonological store and the articulatory control system. The inner dialogue is modeled as a loop where the phonological store hears the inner voice produced by the hidden articulator process. A central executive module drives the whole system, and contributes to the generation of conscious thoughts by retrieving information from long-term memory. The surface form of thoughts thus emerges by …

Imitation Learning and Anchoring through Conceptual Spaces

2007

In order to have a robotic system able to effectively learn by imitation and not merely reproduce the movements of a human teacher, the system should have the capability to deeply understand the perceived actions to be imitated. This paper deals with the development of a cognitive architecture for learning by imitation in which a rich conceptual representation of the observed actions is built. The purpose of the following discussion is to show how the same conceptual representation can be used both in a bottom-up approach, in order to learn sequences of actions by imitation learning paradigm, and in a top-down approach, in order to anchor the symbolical representations to the perceptual act…