Open University of Catalonia

About: Open University of Catalonia is a education organization based out in Barcelona, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Higher education. The organization has 1943 authors who have published 4646 publications receiving 64200 citations. The organization is also known as: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya & UOC.

Differential DNA methylation in experienced meditators after an intensive day of mindfulness-based practice: Implications for immune-related pathways

Abstract: The human methylome is dynamically influenced by psychological stress. However, its responsiveness to stress management remains underexplored. Meditation practice has been shown to significantly reduce stress level, among other beneficial neurophysiological outcomes. Here, we evaluated the impact of a day of intensive meditation practice (t2−t1 = 8 h) on the methylome of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in experienced meditators (n = 17). In parallel, we assessed the influence of a day of leisure activities in the same environment on the methylome of matched control subjects with no meditation experience (n = 17). DNA methylation profiles were analyzed using the Illumina 450 K beadchip array. We fitted for each methylation site a linear model for multi-level experiments which adjusts the variation between t1 and t2 for baseline differences. No significant baseline differences in methylation profiles was detected between groups. In the meditation group, we identified 61 differentially methylated sites (DMS) after the intervention. These DMS were enriched in genes mostly associated with immune cell metabolism and ageing and in binding sites for several transcription factors involved in immune response and inflammation, among other functions. In the control group, no significant change in methylation level was observed after the day of leisure activities. These results suggest that a short meditation intervention in trained subjects may rapidly influence the epigenome at sites of potential relevance for immune function and provide a better understanding of the dynamics of the human methylome over short time windows.

Scalable RAN Virtualization in Multitenant LTE-A Heterogeneous Networks

Abstract: Cellular communications are evolving to facilitate the current and expected increasing needs of quality of service, high data rates, and diversity of offered services. Toward this direction, radio access network (RAN) virtualization aims at providing solutions of mapping virtual network elements onto radio resources of the existing physical network. This paper proposes the Resources nEgotiation for NEtwork Virtualization (RENEV) algorithm, which is suitable for application in heterogeneous networks in Long-Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) environments, consisting of a macro evolved Node B overlaid with small cells (SCs). By exploiting radio resource management principles, RENEV achieves slicing and on-demand delivery of resources. Leveraging the multitenancy approach, radio resources are transferred in terms of physical radio resource blocks among multiple heterogeneous base stations, which are interconnected via the X2 interface. The main target is to deal with traffic variations in geographical dimension. All signaling design considerations under the current Third-Generation Partnership Project LTE-A architecture are also investigated. Analytical studies and simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate RENEV in terms of the network's throughput and additional signaling overhead. Moreover, we show that RENEV can be applied independently on top of already proposed schemes for RAN virtualization to improve their performance. The results indicate that significant advantages are achieved both from the network's and users' perspective and that it is a scalable solution for different numbers of SCs.

EMOTIC: Emotions in Context Dataset

Abstract: Recognizing people's emotions from their frame of reference is very important in our everyday life. This capacity helps us to perceive or predict the subsequent actions of people, interact effectively with them and to be sympathetic and sensitive toward them. Hence, one should expect that a machine needs to have a similar capability of understanding people's feelings in order to correctly interact with humans. Current research on emotion recognition has focused on the analysis of facial expressions. However, recognizing emotions requires also understanding the scene in which a person is immersed. The unavailability of suitable data to study such a problem has made research in emotion recognition in context difficult. In this paper, we present the EMOTIC database (from EMOTions In Context), a database of images with people in real environments, annotated with their apparent emotions. We defined an extended list of 26 emotion categories to annotate the images, and combined these annotations with three common continuous dimensions: Valence, Arousal, and Dominance. Images in the database are annotated using the Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) platform. The resulting set contains 18,313 images with 23,788 annotated people. The goal of this paper is to present the EMOTIC database, detailing how it was created and the information available. We expect this dataset can help to open up new horizons on creating systems able of recognizing rich information about people's apparent emotional states.

Parental and Secondary School Teachers’ Perceptions of ICT Professionals, Gender Differences and their Role in the Choice of Studies

Abstract: The influence of parents and teachers in the decisions made by adolescents regarding study options has not been widely documented in Spain. The main aim of this qualitative study consisted of analyzing the opinions of parents and secondary school teachers about their role in the different academic and professional choices boys and girls make. Seven focus groups (4 with 27 parents and 3 with 22 secondary school teachers) from 5 schools located in urban and rural areas of Catalonia (Spain) were carried out in order to explore how both groups perceive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professionals, gender differences in study options and their own role in adolescents’ choice of study options. Our findings show that parents and teachers hold stereotypes about ICTs and consider that gender does not condition adolescents’ study choices. Both groups saw themselves as playing a secondary role in adolescents’ academic and professional choices. Some gender differences among parents and teachers emerged regarding their perception of the ICT professionals and their own role and of others in shaping adolescents’ study choices. The findings and their practical implications are discussed.

Crisis and post-crisis urban gardening initiatives from a southern European perspective: the case of Barcelona.

Abstract: Throughout the 20th century, urban gardening in central and northern Europe as well as in North America has received a great deal of academic attention. However, the recent proliferation of urban g...