Universidad de Burgos

We propose a method for generating classifier ensembles based on feature extraction. To create the training data for a base classifier, the feature set is randomly split into K subsets (K is a parameter of the algorithm) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is applied to each subset. All principal components are retained in order to preserve the variability information in the data. Thus, K axis rotations take place to form the new features for a base classifier. The idea of the rotation approach is to encourage simultaneously individual accuracy and diversity within the ensemble. Diversity is promoted through the feature extraction for each base classifier. Decision trees were chosen here because they are sensitive to rotation of the feature axes, hence the name "forest." Accuracy is sought by keeping all principal components and also using the whole data set to train each base classifier. Using WEKA, we examined the Rotation Forest ensemble on a random selection of 33 benchmark data sets from the UCI repository and compared it with Bagging, AdaBoost, and Random Forest. The results were favorable to Rotation Forest and prompted an investigation into diversity-accuracy landscape of the ensemble models. Diversity-error diagrams revealed that Rotation Forest ensembles construct individual classifiers which are more accurate than these in AdaBoost and Random Forest, and more diverse than these in Bagging, sometimes more accurate as well.

Sustainable technologies applied to energy-related applications should develop a pivotal role in the next decades. In particular, carbon dioxide capture from flue gases emitted by fossil-fueled power plants should play a pivotal role in controlling and reducing the greenhouse effect. Therefore, the development of new materials for carbon capture purposes has merged as central research line, for which many alternatives have been proposed. Ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged as one of the most promising choices for carbon capture, but in spite of their promising properties, some serious drawbacks have also appeared. Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have recently been considered as alternatives to ILs that maintain most of their relevant properties, such as task-specific character, and at the same time avoid some of their problems, mainly from economic and environmental viewpoints. DES production from low-cost and natural sources, together with their almost null toxicity and total biodegradability, makes these solvents a suitable platform for developing gas separation agents within the green chemistry framework. Therefore, because of the promising characteristics of DESs as CO2 absorbents and in general as gas separating agents, the state of the art on physicochemical properties of DESs in relationship to their influence on gas separation mechanisms and on the studies of gas solubility in DESs are discussed. The objective of this review work is to analyze the current knowledge on gas separation using DESs, comparing the capturing abilities and properties of DESs with those of ILs, inferring the weaknesses and strengths of DESs, and proposing future research directions on this subject.

This document summarises the conclusions of a European Respiratory Society Task Force on the diagnosis and management of obstructive sleep disordered breathing (SDB) in childhood and refers to children aged 2-18 years. Prospective cohort studies describing the natural history of SDB or randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials regarding its management are scarce. Selected evidence (362 articles) can be consolidated into seven management steps. SDB is suspected when symptoms or abnormalities related to upper airway obstruction are present (step 1). Central nervous or cardiovascular system morbidity, growth failure or enuresis and predictors of SDB persistence in the long-term are recognised (steps 2 and 3), and SDB severity is determined objectively preferably using polysomnography (step 4). Children with an apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI) >5 episodes·h(-1), those with an AHI of 1-5 episodes·h(-1) and the presence of morbidity or factors predicting SDB persistence, and children with complex conditions (e.g. Down syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome) all appear to benefit from treatment (step 5). Treatment interventions are usually implemented in a stepwise fashion addressing all abnormalities that predispose to SDB (step 6) with re-evaluation after each intervention to detect residual disease and to determine the need for additional treatment (step 7).

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the proposition that corporate social responsibility reporting could be viewed as both an outcome of, and part of reputation risk management processes. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws heavily on management research. In addition, an image restoration framework is introduced. Findings The concept of reputation risk management could assist in the understanding of corporate social responsibility reporting practice. Originality/value This paper explores the link between reputation risk management and existing theorising in social accounting.

"The utopia of rules. On technology, stupidity, and the secret joys of bureaucracy." Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, 36(3), pp. 209–210

Redox-flow batteries, based on their particular ability to decouple power and energy, stand as prime candidates for cost-effective stationary storage, particularly in the case of long discharges and long storage times. Integration of renewables and subsequent need for energy storage is promoting effort on the development of mature and emerging redox-flow technologies. This review aims at providing a critical analysis of redox-flow technologies that can potentially fulfill cost requirements and enable large scale storage, mainly aqueous based systems. A comprehensive overview of the status of those technologies, including advantages and weaknesses, is presented. Compiled data on the market permeability, performance and cost should serve, together with the perspective included, to understand the different strategies to reach the successful implementation, from component development to innovative designs.

Abstract The merger of game-based approaches and Virtual Reality (VR) environments that can enhance learning and training methodologies have a very promising future, reinforced by the widespread market-availability of affordable software and hardware tools for VR-environments. Rather than passive observers, users engage in those learning environments as active participants, permitting the development of exploration-based learning paradigms. There are separate reviews of VR technologies and serious games for educational and training purposes with a focus on only one knowledge area. However, this review covers 135 proposals for serious games in immersive VR-environments that are combinations of both VR and serious games and that offer end-user validation. First, an analysis of the forum, nationality, and date of publication of the articles is conducted. Then, the application domains, the target audience, the design of the game and its technological implementation, the performance evaluation procedure, and the results are analyzed. The aim here is to identify the factual standards of the proposed solutions and the differences between training and learning applications. Finally, the study lays the basis for future research lines that will develop serious games in immersive VR-environments, providing recommendations for the improvement of these tools and their successful application for the enhancement of both learning and training tasks.

Discretization is an essential preprocessing technique used in many knowledge discovery and data mining tasks. Its main goal is to transform a set of continuous attributes into discrete ones, by associating categorical values to intervals and thus transforming quantitative data into qualitative data. In this manner, symbolic data mining algorithms can be applied over continuous data and the representation of information is simplified, making it more concise and specific. The literature provides numerous proposals of discretization and some attempts to categorize them into a taxonomy can be found. However, in previous papers, there is a lack of consensus in the definition of the properties and no formal categorization has been established yet, which may be confusing for practitioners. Furthermore, only a small set of discretizers have been widely considered, while many other methods have gone unnoticed. With the intention of alleviating these problems, this paper provides a survey of discretization methods proposed in the literature from a theoretical and empirical perspective. From the theoretical perspective, we develop a taxonomy based on the main properties pointed out in previous research, unifying the notation and including all the known methods up to date. Empirically, we conduct an experimental study in supervised classification involving the most representative and newest discretizers, different types of classifiers, and a large number of data sets. The results of their performances measured in terms of accuracy, number of intervals, and inconsistency have been verified by means of nonparametric statistical tests. Additionally, a set of discretizers are highlighted as the best performing ones.

Earliest modern humans out of Africa Recent paleoanthropological studies have suggested that modern humans migrated from Africa as early as the beginning of the Late Pleistocene, 120,000 years ago. Hershkovitz et al. now suggest that early modern humans were already present outside of Africa more than 55,000 years earlier (see the Perspective by Stringer and Galway-Witham). During excavations of sediments at Mount Carmel, Israel, they found a fossil of a mouth part, a left hemimaxilla, with almost complete dentition. The sediments contain a series of well-defined hearths and a rich stone-based industry, as well as abundant animal remains. Analysis of the human remains, and dating of the site and the fossil itself, indicate a likely age of at least 177,000 years for the fossil—making it the oldest member of the Homo sapiens clade found outside Africa. Science , this issue p. 456 ; see also p. 389

Seventeen Middle Pleistocene crania from the Sima de los Huesos site (Atapuerca, Spain) are analyzed, including seven new specimens. This sample makes it possible to thoroughly characterize a Middle Pleistocene hominin paleodeme and to address hypotheses about the origin and evolution of the Neandertals. Using a variety of techniques, the hominin-bearing layer could be reassigned to a period around 430,000 years ago. The sample shows a consistent morphological pattern with derived Neandertal features present in the face and anterior vault, many of which are related to the masticatory apparatus. This suggests that facial modification was the first step in the evolution of the Neandertal lineage, pointing to a mosaic pattern of evolution, with different anatomical and functional modules evolving at different rates.

The capture of CO 2 from flue gases derived from fossil-fueled power plants and the absorption of CO 2 /H 2 S for natural gas sweetening purposes are two relevant industrial problems closely related to very important environmental, economical, and technological problems that need to be solved. Amine-based technologies are widely used in the industry for these purposes, but they lead to several problems that have led many researchers to pose new alternatives. Ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged in the last few years as promising new acid gas absorbents, and thus, this remarkable interest, in both industry and academia, has led to a large collection of experimental and theoretical studies in which the most important aspects of the absorption process are analyzed. In this review, we show the most relevant conclusions obtained from the analysis of the literature, analyzing the state-of-the-art results, trying to infer the viability of ILs as an alternative to the available amine-based absorption processes, and showing the possible future directions of research.

Experience economy is the last segment in the evolution of the market, and it is characterized by the fact that consumers do not acquire goods, products or services, but experiences that they integrate in their biography, and consequently in their identity. Customer Experience, possibly the latest revolution in business thinking along with the digital transformation, seeks the design and management of truly customer-centric experiences. This revolution is spreading across different sectors, among which the health sector should necessarily be considered. This talk covers the fundamental ideas within the concept of customer experience, as well as it provides information and suggestions about how to design and deliver an optimal patient experience.

The large collection of thermophysical properties data for liquids available in the open literature is analyzed, describing its importance for industrial purposes. Although there has been a boom of thermophysical properties measurements for these fluids in the past decade, the reported analysis shows that studies have been centered on a limited number of fluids, whereas data collection for the new family ionic liquids is lacking. Measurements have been performed for limited temperature ranges, and pressure effects on the properties are extremely scarce in the literature; remarkable differences among data from different literature sources are reported. The need of sample purity quantification is analyzed together with the strong effect of these impurities on thermophysical properties. Available predictive models for the studied properties are analyzed together with the quality of their predictions. The main conclusion of this review is to point out the need of further systematic thermophysical studies, including for new environmentally friendly ionic liquids, carried out with interlaboratory comparisons, which allow the development of reference data sets.

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to evaluate and compare antioxidant capacity and radical scavenging activity of naringin and its aglycone by different in vitro assays. The effects of flavanones on lipid peroxidation, glutathione (GSH) oxidation and DNA cleavage were also assessed. RESULTS: The results showed that naringenin exhibited higher antioxidant capacity and hydroxyl and superoxide radical scavenger efficiency than naringin. Our results evidenced that glycosylation attenuated the efficiency in inhibiting the enzyme xanthine oxidase and the aglycone could act like a more active chelator of metallic ions than the glycoside. Additionally, naringenin showed a greater effectiveness in the protection against oxidative damage to lipids in a dose-dependent manner. Both flavanones were equally effective in reducing DNA damage. However, they show no protective effect on oxidation of GSH. CONCLUSION: The data obtained support the importance of characterizing the ratio naringin/naringenin in foods when they are evaluated for their health benefits.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a case for research in ethical, social and environmental (or sustainability) accounting and accountability which engages with those organisations claiming to manage and report their sustainability performance. In addition, the paper reviews the contributions in this special issue. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides an analysis and critique of the extent of engagement research in the field of sustainability accounting and accountability. It draws on the fields of management, management accounting and critical accounting to present a case for further research engagement with sustainability accounting and accountability practice. Findings The paper finds that the extant literature in the field of sustainability accounting and reporting, in contrast to the fields of management accounting and management, has largely ignored practice within organisations. The lack of “engaging research” is found to be due to concerns about increasing the breadth of participants in the social accounting agenda and “managerial capture”. The paper argues that further research engaging with organisations is needed in order to identify how accounting and management systems might reduce their negative sustainability impacts. The paper argues that such research can benefit from the methodological and theoretical insights of other disciplines. Research limitations/implications The paper suggests where further contributions might be made by future research endeavours engaging with organisations. Practical implications Engagement research in sustainability accounting and reporting has the potential to improve theorizing, practice and the sustainability performance of organisations. Originality/value Drawing on the methods and theories of other disciplines and the papers in the special issue, the paper presents a way forward for researchers engaging with organisations practicing sustainability accounting and reporting.

Uric acid (UA) is the end product of purine metabolism in humans due to the loss of uricase activity by various mutations of its gene during the Miocene epoch, which led to humans having higher UA levels than other mammals. Furthermore, 90% of UA filtered by the kidneys is reabsorbed, instead of being excreted. These facts suggest that evolution and physiology have not treated UA as a harmful waste product, but as something beneficial that has to be kept. This has led various researchers to think about the possible evolutionary advantages of the loss of uricase and the subsequent increase in UA levels. It has been argued that due to the powerful antioxidant activity of UA, the evolutionary benefit could be the increased life expectancy of hominids. For other authors, the loss of uricase and the increase in UA could be a mechanism to maintain blood pressure in times of very low salt ingestion. The oldest hypothesis associates the increase in UA with higher intelligence in humans. Finally, UA has protective effects against several neurodegenerative diseases, suggesting it could have interesting actions on neuronal development and function. These hypotheses are discussed from an evolutionary perspective and their clinical significance. UA has some obvious harmful effects, and some, not so well-known, beneficial effects as an antioxidant and neuroprotector.

Winemaking generates large amounts of wine pomace, also called grape pomace. This by-product has attracted the attention of food scientists and the food industry, due to its high content in nutrients and bioactive compounds. This review mainly focuses on the different published approaches to the use of wine pomace and its functions in the food industry. Traditionally, wine pomace has been used to obtain wine alcohol, food colorings, and grape seed oil. More recently, research has focused in the production of other value-added products, such as extracts of bioactive compounds, mainly phenols, recovery of tartaric acid, and the making of flours. The most common functions associated with wine pomace products are their use as antioxidants, followed by their use as fortifying, coloring, and antimicrobial agents. These products have mainly been applied to the preparation of meat and fish products and to, a lesser extent, cereal products.

Honey is a natural sweetener with a complex composition. Honey features vary depending on the botanical source and geographical origin, as well as climatic, processing and storage conditions. Honey is mainly composed of carbohydrates and water, parameters that influence its shelf life and some of its properties, including color, flavor, density, viscosity, hygroscopicity, and crystallization. Honey also contains small amounts of other components, such as nitrogen compounds, organic acids, minerals, vitamins, Maillard reaction products, volatile compounds, and several bioactive substances that affect sensory and physical characteristics, as well as biological potential. This review summarizes the literature about the composition and main properties of honey. It also describes the use of honey as a biomonitor for collecting information about the environment, identifying environmental contamination and assessing the level of soil, water, plant and air pollution.

Anions cannot diffuse passively through biological membranes and membrane-bound proteins mainly govern the transmembrane movement of these charged species. The use of synthetic compounds that are able to facilitate the transmembrane transport of anions is a fascinating and burgeoning topic. The study of facilitated anion transport across lipid bilayers is an emerging field in supramolecular and bioorganic chemistry. In this critical review we describe the recent research progress in this area, focusing on literature published during the years 2007-2009. An overview of the assays that are used in the transmembrane transport of anions is also included (158 references).

New approaches to the transmembrane transport of anions are discussed in this review. Advances in the design of small molecule anion carriers are reviewed in addition to advances in the design of synthetic anion channels. The application of anion transporters to the potential future treatment of disease is discussed in the context of recent findings on the selectivity of anion transporters.