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The maintenance of magnetostatic equilibrium is the first problem that should be solved while we are analyzing any plasma configuration. It is not yet fully understood how the magnetosphere reaches magnetostatic equilibrium and what specific conditions are necessary to maintain it. Unraveling these processes requires knowledge about the 2-D distribution of plasma pressure for different geomagnetic conditions. In this work, we have obtained a self-consistent numerical solution for the dipole magnetic field disturbances caused by plasma pressure in the case of an azimuthally symmetric plasma distribution specified in the near Earth's magnetosphere. These results are complemented with the use of actual data measured by high-orbit satellite missions, such as THEMIS, RBSP or MMS. The main result is that we can recover the Earth's magnetic field depression due to a 2-D pressure profile in the presence of strong geomagnetic storms., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

Background: Severe spermatogenic failure (SPGF) represents one of the most relevant causes of male infertility. This pathological condition can lead to extreme abnormalities in the seminal sperm count, such as severe oligozoospermia (SO) or non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA). Most cases of SPGF have an unknown aetiology, and it is known that this idiopathic form of male infertility represents a complex condition. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether common genetic variation in TEX15, which encodes a key player in spermatogenesis, is involved in the susceptibility to idiopathic SPGF. Materials and Methods: We designed a genetic association study comprising a total of 727 SPGF cases (including 527 NOA and 200 SO) and 1,058 unaffected men from the Iberian Peninsula. Following a tagging strategy, three tag singlenucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of TEX15 (rs1362912, rs323342, and rs323346) were selected for genotyping using TaqMan probes. Case-control association tests were then performed by logistic regression models. In silico analyses were also carried out to shed light into the putative functional implications of the studied variants. Results: A significant increase in TEX15-rs1362912 minor allele frequency (MAF) was observed in the group of SO patients (MAF = 0.0842) compared to either the control cohort (MAF = 0.0468, OR = 1.90, p = 7.47E-03) or the NOA group (MAF = 0.0472, OR = 1.83, p = 1.23E-02). The genotype distribution of the SO population was also different from those of both control (p = 1.14E-02) and NOA groups (p = 4.33–02). The analysis of functional annotations of the human genome suggested that the effect of the SO-associated TEX15 variants is likely exerted by alteration of the binding affinity of crucial transcription factors for spermatogenesis. Conclusion: Our results suggest that common variation in TEX15 is involved in the genetic predisposition to SO, thus supporting the notion of idiopathic SPGF as a complex trait., Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation, Andalusian Government PID 2020-120157RB-I 00, Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain (MICINN) Spanish Government PY20_00212 B-CTS-584-UGR20 MCIN/AEI IJC 2018-03802 6-I, European Commission FPU20/02926, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, European Social Fund (ESF), National Funds, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology European Commission PEstC/SAU/LA0003/2013 POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274 Portuguese State Budget of the Ministry for Science, Technology and High Education SFRH/BPD/120777/201 6 UID/BIM/00 009/2016 UIDB/00009/20 20, ToxOmics-Centre for Toxicogenomics and Human Health, Genetics, Oncology and Human Toxicology, Nova Medical School, Lisbon, Instituto de Salud Carlos III European Commission FEDER funds/European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) DTS18/001 01, SNS-Dpt, Generalitat de Catalunya, SNS-Dpt. Salut Generalitat de Catalunya 2017SGR191 Exp. CES09/020

This paper presents the ReCoRES task, organized at IberLEF 2022, within the framework of the 38th edition of the International Conference of the Spanish Society for Natural Language Processing. The main goal of this shared-task is to promote the task of Reading Comprehension and Verbal Reasoning. This task is divided into two sub-tasks: (1) identifying the correct alternative in reading comprehension questions and (2) generating the reasoning used to select an alternative. In general, 3 teams participated in this event, mainly proposing transformer-based neural models in conjunction with additional strategies. The results of this event, insights and some challenges are presented, opening a range of possibilities for future work. Este artículo presenta la tarea ReCoRES, organizada en IberLEF 2022, en el marco de la 38 edición de la Conferencia Internacional de la Sociedad Española para el Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural. El objetivo de esta tarea es promover la tarea de Comprensión de Lectura y Razonamiento Verbal. Esta tarea es dividida en dos sub-tareas: (1) la identificación de la alternativa correcta en preguntas de comprensión de lectura y (2) la generación del razonamiento usado para seleccionar una alternativa. En general, 3 equipos participaron de este evento proponiendo mayormente modelos neuronales basados en transformers con algunas estrategias adicionales. Los resultados de este evento así como aprendizajes y algunos desafíos son presentados, abriendo un abanico de posibilidades como trabajos futuros.

© 2022 The Authors. Andrology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society of Andrology and European Academy of Andrology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes., Background: Previous studies in animal models evidenced that genetic mutations of KATNAL1, resulting in dysfunction of its encoded protein, lead to male infertility through disruption of microtubule remodelling and premature germ cell exfoliation. Subsequent studies in humans also suggested a possible role of KATNAL1 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the development of male infertility as a consequence of severe spermatogenic failure. Objectives: The main objective of the present study is to evaluate the effect of the common genetic variation of KATNAL1 in a large and phenotypically well-characterised cohort of infertile men because of severe spermatogenic failure. Materials and methods: A total of 715 infertile men because of severe spermatogenic failure, including 210 severe oligospermia and 505 non-obstructive azoospermia patients, as well as 1058 unaffected controls were genotyped for three KATNAL1 single-nucleotide polymorphism taggers (rs2077011, rs7338931 and rs2149971). Case-control association analyses by logistic regression assuming different models and in silico functional characterisation of risk variants were conducted. Results: Genetic associations were observed between the three analysed taggers and different severe spermatogenic failure groups. However, in all cases, the haplotype model (rs2077011*C | rs7338931*T | rs2149971*A) better explained the observed associations than the three risk alleles independently. This haplotype was associated with non-obstructive azoospermia (adjusted p = 4.96E-02, odds ratio = 2.97), Sertoli-cell only syndrome (adjusted p = 2.83E-02, odds ratio = 5.16) and testicular sperm extraction unsuccessful outcomes (adjusted p = 8.99E-04, odds ratio = 6.13). The in silico analyses indicated that the effect on severe spermatogenic failure predisposition could be because of an alteration of the KATNAL1 splicing pattern. Conclusions: Specific allelic combinations of KATNAL1 genetic polymorphisms may confer a risk of developing severe male infertility phenotypes by favouring the overrepresentation of a short non-functional transcript isoform in the testis., This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (refs. SAF2016-78722-R and PID2020-120157RB-I00), the ‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III’ (Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias)/Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional ‘Una manera de hacer Europa’ (FIS/FEDER) (ref. DTS18/00101 to Sara Larriba), the Generalitat de Catalunya (ref. 2017SGR191), the ‘Ramón y Cajal’ program (ref. RYC-2014-16458) and the ‘Juan de la Cierva Incorporación’ program (ref. IJC2018-038026-I), as well as the Andalusian Government through the R&D&i Projects Grants for Universities and Public Research Entities (ref. PY20_00212), which include FEDER funds. Andrea Guzmán-Jiménez was a recipient of a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Professional Training (‘Becas de Colaboración en Departamentos Universitarios para el curso académico 2020/2021’). Patricia I. Marques is supported by the FCT post-doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPD/120777/2016), financed from the Portuguese State Budget of the Ministry for Science, Technology and High Education and from the European Social Fund, available through the ‘Programa Operacional do Capital Humano’. João Gonçalves was partially funded by FCT/MCTES through national funds attributed to the Centre for Toxicogenomics and Human Health—ToxOmics (UID/BIM/00009/2016 and UIDB/00009/2020). Sara Larriba is sponsored by the Researchers Consolidation Program (ISCIII SNS/Dpt. Salut Generalitat de Catalunya) (CES09/020).

Prescribed-time algorithms based on time-varying gains have remarkable properties, such as finite-time regulation in a time prescribed by the user, that is the same for every nonzero initial condition, and that holds even under matched disturbances. However, at the same time, prescribed-time algorithms are also known to lack robustness to measurement noise. In this note, it is shown that in the non-scalar case the lack of robustness of some prescribed-time algorithms is of an extreme form. Specifically, arbitrarily small measurement noise can cause considerable deviations, divergence, and other detrimental consequences.

Este trabajo de investigación fue presentado como Trabajo Fin de Grado en la Facultad de Medicina de nuestra Universidad (convocatoria ordinaria, curso 2021/2022) el 13 de junio de 2022., Objective: A rapidly developing scenario like a pandemic requires the prompt production of high-quality systematic reviews, which can be automated using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. We evaluated the application of AI tools in COVID–19 evidence syntheses. Study design: After prospective registration of the review protocol, we automated the download of all open-access COVID–19 systematic reviews in the COVID–19 Living Overview of Evidence database, indexed them for AI-related keywords, and located those that used AI tools. We compared their journals’ JCR Impact Factor, citations per month, screening workloads, completion times (from pre-registration to preprint or submission to a journal) and AMSTAR–2 methodology assessments (maximum score 13 points) with a set of publication date matched control reviews without AI. Results: Of the 3 999 COVID–19 reviews, 28 (0.7 %, 95 % CI 0.47-1.03 %) made use of AI. On average, compared to controls (n = 64), AI reviews were published in journals with higher Impact Factors (median 8.9 vs. 3.5, P, Objetivo: Un escenario dinámico como una pandemia requiere la rápida producción de revisiones sistemáticas de calidad, que pueden automatizarse utilizando inteligencia artificial (IA). Se evaluó el uso de herramientas de IA en las revisiones sistemáticas sobre COVID–19. Diseño del estudio: Tras el registro prospectivo del protocolo del estudio, automatizamos la descarga de todas las revisiones sistemáticas open-access sobre COVID–19 en la base de datos COVID–19 Living Overview of Evidence, las indexamos en busca de palabras clave relacionadas con la IA y localizamos aquellas que utilizaban herramientas de IA. Comparamos el factor de impacto de sus revistas, las citas por mes recibidas, las cargas de trabajo en screening, el tiempo de elaboración (días desde el registro del protocolo hasta el primer preprint o envío a una revista) y la evaluación metodológica AMSTAR–2 (máximo, 13 puntos) con un grupo control de revisiones sistemáticas que no usaron IA emparejadas por fecha de publicación. Resultados: De las 3999 revisiones sobre COVID–19, 28 (0,7%, IC al 95%: 0,471,03 %) hicieron uso de IA. De media, en comparación con los controles (n = 64), las revisiones con IA se publicaron en revistas con mayor factor de impacto (mediana 8,9 vs. 3,5, P, La elaboración de este estudio fue becada con una “Beca de Iniciación a la Investigación para Estudiantes de Grado” del Plan Propio de Investigación 2021 de la UGR. El coste de la publicación open-access fue financiado por la Universidad de Granada y el Consorcio de Bibliotecas Universitarias de Andalucía (CBUA).