Proyectos

[vc_section el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center circle--pattern" css=".vc_custom_1648956589196{padding-top: 3rem !important;}"][vc_row el_class="pb-5"][vc_column][vc_wp_custommenu nav_menu="6"][uoh_breadcrumb_component automatic_breadcrumb="true"][uoh_title_component title_dropdown="big" title_decorator="true"]{{title}}[/uoh_title_component][vc_column_text css=""]This project will consider the design of Stochastic MPC strategies based Computational Intelligence techniques such as fuzzy models and neural networks, but focusing on achieving theoretical properties such as stability and feasibility, increasing computation speed, and can use control policies. This is novel in that these properties are hardly ever obtained when using nonlinear models in SMPC. Additionally, we will aim to systematize the stability and convergence analyses. These developments will be validated on applications such as irrigation systems, climatization systems, microgrids. This is expected to improve the performance of existing control methods for systems with stochastic uncertainty, and enable the design of advanced control systems where the lack of guarantees or slow computation does not permit the implementation of advanced control systems. Additionally, the development of ad-hoc controllers based on SMPC with RL for Electric Vehicle Routing will be tackled in this research. This controller will be tackled following principles particularly selected for this application since stability is not a major concern here because of the finite horizon for every day of operation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649209804184{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center p-md-0 pt-5"][vc_column el_class="p-0"][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649210787516{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5 pb-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center"][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

[vc_section el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center circle--pattern" css=".vc_custom_1648956589196{padding-top: 3rem !important;}"][vc_row el_class="pb-5"][vc_column][vc_wp_custommenu nav_menu="6"][uoh_breadcrumb_component automatic_breadcrumb="true"][uoh_title_component title_dropdown="big" title_decorator="true"]{{title}}[/uoh_title_component][vc_column_text css=""]PROPOSAL ABSTRACT: Cyber-attacks in modular multilevel converters (MMCs) Cyber-attacks on electrical systems are a major concern to many countries as they can have significant impacts on social well-being and economic prosperity. Recent examples of such attacks are (i) the cyber-attacks that targeted the supervisory control data acquisition (SCADA) system of the Ukrainian power grid, causing a power outage that affected approximately 225,000 customers, (ii) the cyber-attack that occurred in 2019 in Venezuela, affecting the power supply of Caracas city, and (iii) the cyber-attacks that affected battery control systems in Korea, resulting in fire and damage. These examples show that cyber-attacks can significantly affect the normal operation of electrical systems and have motivated much research around the world. Much of the published research deals with cyber-attack issues in electrical systems such as microgrids, smart grids and modern power systems. However, cyber-attacks in modular multilevel converters (MMCs) have received limited attention: a recent letter (2021, see introduction section) is the only article published in this area so far. The MMC is deemed to be a prominent solution for medium to high-voltage and high-power applications, with several commercial converters adopting this approach and numerous projects worldwide using this topology. This project aims to investigate cyber-attack issues in the MMC control system and addresses the lack of investigation in this area. In particular, this research will consider the MMC in the context of high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems since this topology is a promising solution to transfer power over long distances. It has been widely used in commercial projects (Trans Bay Cable, Dolwin2, Nano3-terminal DC grid, etc.). In this project, distributed control schemes for controlling the MMC are considered. For this control approach, low-level control tasks are distributed among local controllers placed in the MMC submodules, while high-level control tasks are undertaken by a central controller. The computational burden for the central controller is therefore reduced. The distributed architecture is chosen since the MMC for HVDC applications requires a high number of submodules (SMs). In this case, if the traditional centralised control scheme is used, where a central controller is in charge of processing all the information required for implementing the whole control system, the execution time may not be sufficient for each control cycle to perform all the control tasks, limiting the modularity, flexibility and expandability of this topology (in terms of software development). This project will investigate and quantify the impacts, in terms of operation and stability, of the type of cyber-attack named “false data injection attacks” (FDIAs ) on distributed control systems used for MMCs. Particular focus will be centred on designing strategies for detecting these cyber-attacks and locating the vulnerable sub-modules in the MMC. Also, novel cyber-attack-resilient distributed control schemes will be proposed. It must be pointed out that all the methods derived in this project will be validated through simulation and experimental results. To this end, the cyber-attack detection methods will be based on state observers (Kalman filter, particle filter, etc.) and artificial intelligence (AI) based observers. Note that these detection methods should operate in a distributed architecture, meaning the state estimation should be performed based on partial information of the system. They should be able to be implemented on the SMs local controllers. Finally, once the cyber-attacks are identified, control schemes to neutralise those attacks will be investigated, generating cyber-attack-resilient distributed control schemes for the MMC. The objectives of this proposal are (i) Analyse and quantify the effects of cyber-attacks on the standard distributed control strategies proposed for MMCs and the ones recently proposed based on the consensus theory, (ii) Design distributed methods for the detection of the cyber-attacks considered in this project, (iii) Design of cyber-attacks-resilient distributed control schemes for the MMC, and (iv) Implement an experimental rig for testing and validate the proposals derived from this research. Since there is no literature regarding cyber-attacks in MMCs, the literature review will be focused on work dealing with cyber-attacks on other electrical systems such as microgrids, smart grid and modern power systems. The aim will be to determine if the techniques proposed for these systems can be adapted for the MMC. A similar approach will be followed to address cyber-attack-resilient distributed control schemes. The main contributions of this project will be: 1. The project will provide the foundation for research into cyber-attacks in MMC, as so far, there is very little information in the literature on this topic. Note that cyber-attacks are a hot topic in other electrical systems. Thus it should be investigated for the MMC. 2. Novel distributed methods for detecting cyber-attacks in MMCs will be proposed and validated through simulations and experiment. 3. Novel cyber-attack-resilient distributed control schemes for the MMC will be proposed and validated through simulations and experiment. 4. An experimental rig to analyse and validate the points mentioned above will be designed and built. It will be composed of a central controller and local controllers placed in each SM of the MMC.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649209804184{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center p-md-0 pt-5"][vc_column el_class="p-0"][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649210787516{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5 pb-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center"][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

[vc_section el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center circle--pattern" css=".vc_custom_1648956589196{padding-top: 3rem !important;}"][vc_row el_class="pb-5"][vc_column][vc_wp_custommenu nav_menu="6"][uoh_breadcrumb_component automatic_breadcrumb="true"][uoh_title_component title_dropdown="big" title_decorator="true"]{{title}}[/uoh_title_component][vc_column_text css=""]Estudio de problemas de optimización y juegos con incertidumbre dependiente de decisiones. Estudio a nivel teórico y algorítmico. Estudio de aplicaciones.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649209804184{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center p-md-0 pt-5"][vc_column el_class="p-0"][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649210787516{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5 pb-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center"][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

[vc_section el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center circle--pattern" css=".vc_custom_1648956589196{padding-top: 3rem !important;}"][vc_row el_class="pb-5"][vc_column][vc_wp_custommenu nav_menu="6"][uoh_breadcrumb_component automatic_breadcrumb="true"][uoh_title_component title_dropdown="big" title_decorator="true"]{{title}}[/uoh_title_component][vc_column_text css=""]La investigación analizará las estrategias desplegadas por hogares de bajos ingresos en etapa de formación, en la resolución del trade-off acceso a vivienda formal mal localizada o acceso a ciudad usando estrategias informales de acceso a vivienda. El aumento del precio del suelo y la consecuente falta de suelo para la construcción de vivienda de interés social, junto con la mala localización de ella, serían antecedentes relevantes para la configuración de una serie de estrategias de los hogares vulnerables, para lidiar con el trade-off entre acceso a vivienda o acceso a la ciudad. La crisis de acceso a la vivienda formal queda reflejada en hechos como: el aumento de campamentos y de familias que habitan en ellos, llegando a un máximo histórico entre el 2020-2021 (CES, 2021); el déficit cuantitativo de vivienda que supera por creces la capacidad de construcción de vivienda social en el periodo actual (Gascic, 2021); los niveles de hacinamiento que ha puesto en evidencia la pandemia; el incremento en los precios de arriendo y de compra de vivienda, las altas tasas de allegamiento, entre otros. Si bien tradicionalmente se ha desarrollado investigación que apunta a la crítica del funcionamiento del mercado del suelo y la política de vivienda, que se ha subordinado al mercado, se ha prestado poca atención a los siguientes fenómenos: a) La capacidad de agencia de los hogares en la toma de decisiones residenciales y cómo ellos son capaces de resolver, a través del uso de estrategias formales e informales, o una combinación de ambas, el acceso a vivienda/localización en la ciudad; b) La racionalidad, motivaciones o drivers de la elección de esa localización. Es por ello, que la investigación se pregunta: ¿Cuáles son las racionalidades usadas en las estrategias de los hogares pobres para acceder a una localización en la ciudad que supere el trade-off de vivienda versus localización? La principal hipótesis de investigación es que en el actual contexto de aumento generalizado de precios del suelo y a pesar de la disminución del déficit habitacional según las cifras oficiales, crece la proporción de nuevos hogares de bajos ingresos que acceden a vivienda por vías informales motivados por permanecer en la ciudad o mejorar su localización en ella. Estas estrategias tienen en común saltarse la institucionalidad urbana porque implican una ocupación ilegal del suelo -no ajustada al derecho a propiedad- y/o porque implican una falta de sujeción a las normas urbanas. El foco de la investigación está en Santiago, ya que se presume que es en esta zona donde se encontrara una diversidad relevante de estrategias de acceso a vivienda. Se considerarán hogares en formación, es decir, cuyos jefes de hogar estén entre 18 y 40 años, en etapa de decisión de localización. Para llevar a cabo la investigación, se realizarán tres fases de recolección de información: un análisis de distintas bases de datos que busca identificar las estrategias y su localización en la ciudad. En una segunda etapa, la investigación busca caracterizar esas estrategias a partir de la racionalidad de la elección y los drivers que se movilizan y en tercer lugar, se cuantificará la presencia de estrategias y los factores que moldean la decisión en los distintos casos. Dentro de las principales actividades contempladas se realizará una estancia en Francia para compartir con el equipo del PRODIG (Pôle de recherche pour l’organisation et la diffusion de l’information géographique) centro de investigación en Geografía con el cuál la investigadora ha incursionado en redes de investigación para trabajar temas de desigualdades urbanas, sobre todo en las áreas periféricas de las ciudades. El PRODIG centra su investigación en América Latina, lo que permitirá contrastar los resultados con otras realidades; la participación en los congresos ISA, RC-21 y LASA para formar redes de investigación; la formación de 4 tesistas de magister. Dentro de los productos, se desarrollarán dos artículos de divulgación científica, un seminario de cierre, un mapa de localización de estrategias y un set de indicadores para identificarlas.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649209804184{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center p-md-0 pt-5"][vc_column el_class="p-0"][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649210787516{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5 pb-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center"][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

[vc_section el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center circle--pattern" css=".vc_custom_1648956589196{padding-top: 3rem !important;}"][vc_row el_class="pb-5"][vc_column][vc_wp_custommenu nav_menu="6"][uoh_breadcrumb_component automatic_breadcrumb="true"][uoh_title_component title_dropdown="big" title_decorator="true"]{{title}}[/uoh_title_component][vc_column_text css=""]Numerous real-life decision-making processes involve solving a task with uncertain input that can be estimated from historic data. There is a growing interest in decision-focused learning methods (a.k.a. smart predict-then-optimize) whose goal is to find models that fit the data while considering how the predicted input will perform in a particular task. For example, the task can be a shortest path problem that uses predictions on travel times in the objective function. Fitting the data and ignoring the task may lead to sub-optimal decisions. Sometimes, uncertainty is involved in the constraints of the model. In this case, ignoring the task would lead to infeasible decisions. The goal of this project is to develop efficient exact algorithms and new applications to train a Machine Learning models that perform well in one or several tasks using mathematical programming (MP) tools. In this context, the typical measure of a predictor is the regret: the excess cost incurred when making a suboptimal decision due to an imprecise predictor. This problem is bilevel in nature: the top-level decision consists in determining a predictor that minimizes a regret while considering that the predictions will affect a task, e.g. an optimization problem in a lower level. This structure is typically non-convex and non-continuous, making the problem difficult to solve for realistic instances. However, several recent advances in bilevel-tailored approaches exploit this structure and can solve large scale problems. There are two main ways of estimating task-oriented predictors: 1) stochastic gradient-based methods; and 2) MP reformulations of the problem. Stochastic gradient-based methods replace the non-differentiable regret for some differentiable surrogate loss function approximating the real loss. Due to advances in neural network implementations and stochastic gradient-descent this approach is the most applied among researchers and practitioners in the Machine Learning community. MP for data science has attracted the attention of researchers and practitioners in different areas as mathematics, operations research, computer science during the last years. It provides some degree of flexibility, being able to model desirable considerations for predictions models. For instance, MP has been successfully used to train sparse models yielding improved explainability and/or fairness. Moreover, MP models are in many cases solvable by any off-the-shelf solver. However, for the decision-focused learning problem there are still many gaps using MP formulations. To the best of our knowledge, MP formulations have been used only for surrogate loss functions. Behind the low usage of MP tools is the scalability. A typical ML setting involves data sets involving thousands of observations. In consequence, the training task becomes more difficult. To tackle this issue, decomposition methods such as cut and column generation can help to solve problems at scale. We aim to provide efficient exact methods that can return either optimal solutions, or optimality guarantees for large scale instances. During the last years, decision-focused learning has been widely applied to combinatorial optimization problems. However, this approach can also be used in many other applications such as Markov decision processes (MDPs) or game theory. In the first case, we can take algorithmic advantage of well-known existing algorithms for MDPs such as value iteration or policy iteration, or approximation techniques such as Q-learning. The game-theoretic setting is more challenging: depending on the notion of equilibrium the loss function would change. For instance, the definition of regret can be applied straightforwardly to Stackelberg equilibria (or leader-follower equilibria), a concept widely applied to energy markets, security and transportation. In the case of Nash equilibrium, the definition of regret is not direct anymore. We hope to develop models that adapt the decision-focused learning paradigm to this broader context. The study of this topic requires the use and development of MP of tools along with their algorithmic analysis. During the project, we expect to develop efficient of algorithms that can be used by decision making, as well as contribute in the understanding of the theoretical aspects of decision-focused learning.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649209804184{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center p-md-0 pt-5"][vc_column el_class="p-0"][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649210787516{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5 pb-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center"][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

[vc_section el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center circle--pattern" css=".vc_custom_1648956589196{padding-top: 3rem !important;}"][vc_row el_class="pb-5"][vc_column][vc_wp_custommenu nav_menu="6"][uoh_breadcrumb_component automatic_breadcrumb="true"][uoh_title_component title_dropdown="big" title_decorator="true"]{{title}}[/uoh_title_component][vc_column_text css=""]Esta investigación se centra en el conocimiento del profesor de matemáticas de educación básica en ejercicio y se sitúa como la continuación de un proyecto de investigación adjudicado en 2020 por el IR (La construcción del pensamiento algebraico en la Formación Inicial Docente: un estudio exploratorio). El interés de este proyecto de iniciación en investigación 2022 está puesto en indagar cómo los docentes consideran el pensamiento matemático de sus estudiantes para interpretar situaciones de enseñanza-aprendizaje y tomar decisiones en el momento. Dado que los contextos de enseñanza de las matemáticas son complejos y dinámicos, los programas o cursos de Desarrollo Profesional son considerados un espacio para comprender y enriquecer el conocimiento profesional de los docentes, los cuales deben estar al servicio del aprendizaje y rendimiento de los estudiantes. Como una forma de abordar el conocimiento profesional de los docentes se encuentra la competencia del Noticing, la cual permite resolver tareas profesionales y se considera un elemento crucial de la experticia del profesor de Matemáticas. Sin embargo, la especificidad en el conocimiento del profesor hace necesario profundizar en el desarrollo del Noticing a través de diferentes dominios de conocimiento de las matemáticas escolares. De esta forma, esta investigación indagará en describir cómo profesores de matemáticas de educación básica en ejercicio promueven el pensamiento algebraico de sus estudiantes. Así, el tema de este proyecto extiende la investigación previa que se ha centrado, principalmente, en la formación inicial docente y en alguno de los aspectos del álgebra (como los patrones). Los objetivos generales de investigación son: • Caracterizar el conocimiento profesional evidenciado por docentes de educación básica sobre el fomento del pensamiento algebraico al participar de un curso de DP. • Identificar las acciones desarrolladas en un curso de DP que fomentan la competencia del Noticing en los docentes de educación básica. Conceptualmente, la competencia del Noticing se aborda desde el componente “Atender al pensamiento matemático de los estudiantes” (Jacobs, Lamb y Philipp, 2010) y su propósito central es comprender las características del pensamiento de los estudiantes, interpretarlo y tomar decisiones informadas. Este componente involucra tres habilidades interrelacionadas: (a) prestar atención a las estrategias de los estudiantes; (b) interpretar sus comprensiones; y (c) decidir cómo responder sobre la base de dichas comprensiones. Adicionalmente, este proyecto se basa en el marco conceptual del álgebra propuesto por Kaput (2008), el cual organiza la enseñanza del álgebra a través de cuatro prácticas (generalización, representación, justificación y razonamiento) que se encuentran presente en cada uno de los enfoques al pensamiento algebraico (aritmética generalizada; equivalencia, expresiones, ecuaciones e inecuaciones; y pensamiento funcional). De manera general, este proyecto sigue las directrices metodológicas de la Investigación de Diseño (Swan, 2020). Participarán 20 profesores de educación básica que realizan clases de matemáticas en colegios municipales con los cuales la Institución Patrocinante tiene convenios. Para indagar cómo se desarrolla la habilidad del Noticing en el curso de Desarrollo Profesional sobre pensamiento algebraico, los docentes participarán del curso, así como de entrevistas individuales semiestructuradas y de grabaciones de clases. El foco de análisis de la información estará centrado en las producciones orales y escritas de los docentes, los cuales permitirán analizar cómo se va desarrollada la competencia descrita. Este proyecto contempla la ejecución de cuatro etapas a desarrollar en dos años: (a) diseño inicial del curso de Desarrollo Profesional; (b) recogida de la información; (c) organización y análisis de datos; y (d) difusión de resultados. El impacto esperado de los resultados influirá en tres áreas principales: (a) investigación e internacionalización, consolidando y posicionando una línea de investigación novedosa en el campo de la educación matemática; (b) docencia en pre y posgrado, enriqueciendo la formación inicial y continúa de profesores; y (c) redes de colaboración, lo cual permitirá seguir estableciendo un trabajo conjunto con investigadores nacionales e internacionales interesados en la mejora de las prácticas matemáticas que se realizan en el aula. Referencias Jacobs, V. R., Lamb, L. L. y Philipp, R. A. (2010). Professional noticing of children’s mathematical thinking. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 2(41), 169-202. Kaput, J. (2008). What is algebra? What is the algebraic reasoning? En J. . Kaput, D. W. Carraher y M. L. Blanton (Eds.), Algebra in the early grades (pp. 5-17). Nueva York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Swan, M. (2020). Design Research in Mathematics Education. En S. Lerman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education (pp. 192-195). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15789-0_180.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649209804184{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center p-md-0 pt-5"][vc_column el_class="p-0"][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649210787516{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5 pb-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center"][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

[vc_section el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center circle--pattern" css=".vc_custom_1648956589196{padding-top: 3rem !important;}"][vc_row el_class="pb-5"][vc_column][vc_wp_custommenu nav_menu="6"][uoh_breadcrumb_component automatic_breadcrumb="true"][uoh_title_component title_dropdown="big" title_decorator="true"]{{title}}[/uoh_title_component][vc_column_text css=""].[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649209804184{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center p-md-0 pt-5"][vc_column el_class="p-0"][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649210787516{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5 pb-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center"][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

[vc_section el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center circle--pattern" css=".vc_custom_1648956589196{padding-top: 3rem !important;}"][vc_row el_class="pb-5"][vc_column][vc_wp_custommenu nav_menu="6"][uoh_breadcrumb_component automatic_breadcrumb="true"][uoh_title_component title_dropdown="big" title_decorator="true"]{{title}}[/uoh_title_component][vc_column_text css=""].[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649209804184{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center p-md-0 pt-5"][vc_column el_class="p-0"][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649210787516{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5 pb-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center"][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

[vc_section el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center circle--pattern" css=".vc_custom_1648956589196{padding-top: 3rem !important;}"][vc_row el_class="pb-5"][vc_column][vc_wp_custommenu nav_menu="6"][uoh_breadcrumb_component automatic_breadcrumb="true"][uoh_title_component title_dropdown="big" title_decorator="true"]{{title}}[/uoh_title_component][vc_column_text css=""]Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a phenomenon that happens when bacteria become tolerant to antibiotics used to treat the infections they cause. Antibiotics are key therapeutic tools to treat many human and animal infectious diseases; consequently, keeping their activity on bacteria is fundamental for public and animal health. Aquaculture farming is known for using large amounts of antibiotics, making this activity particularly relevant in development and spread of AMR in aquatic environments. There is evidence in Chile that aquaculture activity increases the presence of resistant bacteria and their corresponding genes in marine sediments directly impacted by salmon farms; however, these evaluations are limited to few locations which hampers a generalization of these conclusions to other salmon farming sites in Chilean waters. There is also evidence suggesting that aquaculture-associated resistance genes present in marine sediments might be transferred to bacteria with pathogenic potential in humans such as Escherichia coli, but no studies have reported the presence of resistance traits in such bacteria in the marine environment from areas impacted by salmon farming in Chile. In countries like Norway, bivalve mollusks are used to monitor antibiotic resistance in Enterobacteria in the marine environment; therefore, they could also be useful for monitoring AMR associated with salmon farming and other anthropogenic sources in Chile. Sampling of bivalve mollusks represents an important logistical advantage to complex and expensive seabed sediment sampling. Los Lagos is the region with the highest historical production of farmed salmon in Chile; then, it is a suitable area to investigate the impact of aquaculture-sourced AMR in the marine environment. The general objective of this proposal is to investigate aquaculture-associated AMR in the marine environment of Los Lagos region from an epidemiologic approach, using bivalve mollusks as sentinel organisms and E. coli as the indicator bacterium. Specific objectives include: 1) to detect, characterize and estimate the prevalence of AMR in E. coli isolated from bivalve mollusks in the Los Lagos region, through a region-level sampling; 2) to study the spatial variability of AMR in E. coli isolated from bivalve mollusks from Los Lagos region; 3) to evaluate the effect of salmon farming activity on the richness and intensity of AMR in E. coli isolated from bivalves from Los Lagos region, controlling for potential confounding factors; and 4) to determine whether significant differences exist in the accumulation of E. coli and resistant E. coli in bivalve mollusks between the sampled bivalve species, accounting for environmental and biological factors. Bivalve mollusks samples will be obtained the 130 sampling stations set along the coast of Los Lagos by the National Program for Surveillance and Control of Harmful Algal Blooms Intoxications (red tides) coordinated by the Ministry of Health. Thirty-three additional sampling stations will be set in the same study area in order to achieve the calculated total sample size of 163 sampling stations. At each sampling station bivalve mollusks will be sampled to quantify E. coli and to detect and characterize both phenotypic and genotypic AMR in this bacterium. The study will be focused in 29 antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and 20 antibiotics commonly used in salmon farming or for which resistance has been detected in previous studies. The antimicrobial susceptibility will be performed by estimating the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for each antibiotic using the VITEK2 technology. The genotypic analysis will be carried out by means of the detection target ARGs, through PCR. Spatial clustering will be examined for each antibiotic tested using MIC values and the ARG richness index; global clustering will be evaluated through the Moran’s I statistic, while local clustering will be examined by means of the spatial scan statistic. ARG richness will be modeled as a function of the local salmon farming intensity expressed as the number of active salmon farms within 10 km seaway distance from the bivalve sampling location, using a Poisson mixed-effects model in order to control for other AMR sources and important environmental variables. Similar models will be constructed using MICs as the outcome for antimicrobials that show substantial variability in this parameter. Finally, the abundance of both total and resistant E. coli (MPN/100g) found in bivalve mollusks will be modeled as a function of the bivalve species sampled, accounting for bivalve size, water temperature, local salmon farming intensity and distance to other AMR sources, using a mixed-effect linear regression model. This study will contribute to characterize and to identify the main drivers of the environmental AMR in an area with intense salmon farming activity, and it will help to understand how this AMR can impact public health through potential pathogenic bacteria. In practice, this proposal will be the first extensive epidemiological study in this matter in Chile. Moreover, this proposal will help to determine which bivalve mollusks species are suitable to monitor AMR in environments impacted by salmon farming. All this information will be crucial to set the foundations for a future AMR monitoring program in areas of intense aquaculture.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649209804184{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center p-md-0 pt-5"][vc_column el_class="p-0"][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section css=".vc_custom_1649210787516{background-color: #f6faff !important;}" el_class="p-md-0 pt-md-5 pb-md-5"][vc_row el_class="container mx-auto align-items-center"][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]