894 research outputs found

    Evaluation of approaches to increase the effectiveness of various disinfectants against biofilm communities of different ages

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    Disinfectants are used as the main agents against microorganisms circulating on the surfaces of food enterprises. However, the adaptive ability of microorganisms to form biofilms complicates the process of surface cleaning and reduces the effectiveness of disinfectants. Modern disinfectants act against freely circulating microflora, but it is known that they are not always effective against biofilms. The purpose of this study was to investigate effective disinfectant compositions with bactericidal effect on binary bacterial biofilms of different ages. The article describes the effects of disinfectants based on chlorine, peracetic acid and quaternary ammonium compounds with enzymes in concentrations recommended by the manufacturer and increased several times on Salmonella 38, Brochothrix thermosphacta 2726 and Staphylococcus equorum 2736 planktonic cultures and binary biofilms. Binary biofilms of different ages (2 and 9 days old) were exposed to disinfectants with various active ingredients in combination with adjuvants, i. e. hydrogen peroxide 6% and various concentrations of isopropyl alcohol (30%). All products in concentrations recommended by the manufacturer did not have a disinfectant effect against the studied biofilm cultures. As a result of the work, it was found that the most effective disinfectants against multispecies biofilms were quaternary ammonium compounds in combination with enzymes and chlorine in combination with isopropyl alcohol (30%). The results obtained allow to expand knowledge about effective methods for controlling biofilms.Disinfectants are used as the main agents against microorganisms circulating on the surfaces of food enterprises. However, the adaptive ability of microorganisms to form biofilms complicates the process of surface cleaning and reduces the effectiveness of disinfectants. Modern disinfectants act against freely circulating microflora, but it is known that they are not always effective against biofilms. The purpose of this study was to investigate effective disinfectant compositions with bactericidal effect on binary bacterial biofilms of different ages. The article describes the effects of disinfectants based on chlorine, peracetic acid and quaternary ammonium compounds with enzymes in concentrations recommended by the manufacturer and increased several times on Salmonella 38, Brochothrix thermosphacta 2726 and Staphylococcus equorum 2736 planktonic cultures and binary biofilms. Binary biofilms of different ages (2 and 9 days old) were exposed to disinfectants with various active ingredients in combination with adjuvants, i. e. hydrogen peroxide 6% and various concentrations of isopropyl alcohol (30%). All products in concentrations recommended by the manufacturer did not have a disinfectant effect against the studied biofilm cultures. As a result of the work, it was found that the most effective disinfectants against multispecies biofilms were quaternary ammonium compounds in combination with enzymes and chlorine in combination with isopropyl alcohol (30%). The results obtained allow to expand knowledge about effective methods for controlling biofilms

    Mapping the connections : An integrated approach to mapping Nature’s contributions to people in a Nordic biosphere reserve

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    Naturen og hennes økosystemer gir flere bidrag til mennesker som gagner vår velvære. Disse økosystemtjenestene er truet på grunn av omfattende menneskelige aktiviteter som har resultert i omfattende arealbruksendringer, raske klimaendringer og destruktiv overhøsting. Å anerkjenne og verdsette økosystemtjenester er en måte å gjøre rede for dem i politiske handlinger for å forvalte økosystemer bærekraftig for mennesker og natur. Imidlertid er det forskjellige måter som økosystemtjenester kan verdsettes på tvers av biofysiske, sosiokulturelle og monetære verdidomener, og disse verdiene samhandler innenfor og på tvers av domener. For å verdsette økosystemtjenester fullt ut er det behov for ikke bare å utvikle verdsettingsmetoder på tvers av alle tre domenene, men også måter å integrere på tvers av dem. Økosystemtjenester er ikke jevnt fordelt, og deres verdier er forskjellige i rom på grunn av ulike sosiale og økologiske faktorer. For å administrere økosystemtjenester må vi derfor også se hvordan og hvorfor verdiene deres varierer på tvers av landskap. og vi må gjøre rede for det dynamiske forholdet mellom økosystemtjenester på tvers av verdidomener og sosial-økologiske kontekster. I denne oppgaven presenterer jeg fire artikler som tar for seg noen av disse utfordringene med økosystemtjenester innenfor konteksten av et UNESCO-biosfærereservat på Vestlandet. Først kartla vi sosiokulturelle verdier for økosystemtjenester ved hjelp av en undersøkelse av geografiske informasjonssystemer (PPGIS) for offentlig deltakelse. Vi undersøkte hvordan sosiokulturelle verdier for økosystemtjenesteverdier varierer på tvers av et biosfærereservat, hvilke verdier som vanligvis forekommer sammen i bunter, og hvilke sosial-økologiske egenskaper som bestemmer fordelingen av disse buntene. Folk kartla hovedsakelig steder for friluftsliv, biologisk mangfold, landbruksprodukter og kulturarv, hovedsakelig i områder med høyere menneskelig befolkning. Vi identifiserte fem bunter som representerer koblede biokulturelle verdier for landbruk og kulturarv, friluftsliv og biologisk mangfold, og vill mat og mental velvære. Generelt var tilgjengelighet den viktigste faktoren som avgjorde fordelingen av buntene. For det andre integrerte vi biofysiske verdier med sosiokulturelle verdier og kartla økosystemtjenester i biosfærereservatet. Vi undersøkte fordelingen av disse integrerte økosystemtjenesteverdiene over biosfærereservatsonene og deres bunter over to romlige skalaer. Økosystemtjenestene samlet inn i tre distinkte sosial-økologiske systemarketyper som var like i distribusjon og relative økosystemtjenesteverdier på begge romlige skalaer. Buntene var også godt tilpasset relative økosystemtjenesteverdier i biosfærereservatsonene (kjerne, buffer og overgang), noe som indikerer at buntene fanger opp de sosialøkologiske systemene i sonene. Disse resultatene viser at det er viktig å vurdere sonenes sosialøkologiske kontekst for å gi tilstrekkelig kunnskap til å informere ledelsen. For det tredje brukte vi en ny kombinasjon av PPGIS og sosiale nettverksdata for å kartlegge økosystemets samproduksjonsnettverk i biosfærereservatet. Vi identifiserte fire komponenter i økosystemets samproduksjonsnettverk som sosiokulturelle verdier, direkte ledelse, styring og forskning/kunnskapsproduksjon. Først kartla vi den relative oppmerksomheten ulike økosystemtjenester mottok fra disse samproduksjonskomponentene. Deretter kartla vi det sosiale nettverket for kommunikasjon om ulike økosystemtjenester blant samproduksjonskomponentene. Vi fant misforhold mellom ulike komponenter i samproduksjonsnettverket. Viktigere, vi identifiserte at kulturelle økosystemer ble høyt verdsatt, men får relativt mindre styring og særlig forskningsoppmerksomhet. Videre var de primære forvalterne av kulturelle økosystemtjenester også dårlig koblet i økosystemtjenestens samproduksjonssosiale nettverk. Resultatene viser viktigheten av å tenke på samproduksjon av økosystemtjenester som et relasjonelt nettverk og av å kartlegge hva som diskuteres av hvem. Til slutt integrerte vi økologiske feltundersøkelser og PPGIS for å utforske (mis)matchen i biofysiske og sosiokulturelle verdier for økosystemtjenester i sammenheng med landforlatelse og skogplanting. Biofysiske verdier for økosystemtjenester var mer like på tvers av vegetasjonstyper, mens sosiokulturelle verdier generelt var høyest i åpen vegetasjon og uplantede skogtyper. Økosystemtjenesten med størst forskjell i biofysiske og sosiokulturelle verdier global klimaregulering, mens biologisk mangfold og landbruksprodukter var like på tvers av verdidomenene. Sosiokulturelle verdier var ikke jevnt fordelt på studiedeltakerne. Det var to distinkte grupper som representerte eldre bønder bosatt i regionen med høye verdier for å levere økosystemtjenester på den ene siden, og yngre kvinner som ikke er innbyggere som verdsetter regulering og vedlikehold av økosystemtjenester. Denne studien viser viktigheten av å vurdere ulike både ulike verdidomener og faktorene som påvirker disse verdiene i beslutninger om endring av arealbruk.Nature and her ecosystems make multiple contributions to people that benefit our wellbeing. These ecosystem services are under threat due to extensive human activities that have resulted in widespread land-use change, rapid climate change and destructive overharvesting. Acknowledging and valuing ecosystem services is a way to account for them in policy actions to manage ecosystems sustainably for people and nature. However, there are different ways in which ecosystem services can be valued across biophysical, socio-cultural, and monetary value-domains and these values interact within and across domains. To fully value ecosystem services there is a need to not only develop valuation methods across all three domains, but also ways of integrating across them. Ecosystem services are not evenly distributed, and their values differ in space due to various social and ecological factors. Therefore, to manage ecosystem services we also need to know how and why their values vary across landscapes, and we need to account for the dynamic relationship between ecosystem services across the value-domains and social-ecological contexts. In this thesis I present four papers that addresses some of these challenges with ecosystem services within the context of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in western Norway. First, we mapped socio-cultural values for ecosystem services using a public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) survey. We explored how socio-cultural values for ecosystem service values vary across a biosphere reserve, which values commonly co-occur in bundles, and what social-ecological characteristics determine the distribution of those bundles. People mapped predominantly places for outdoor recreation, biodiversity, agricultural products, and cultural heritage predominantly in areas with higher human populations. We identified five bundles representing linked biocultural values for agriculture and cultural heritage, outdoor recreation and biodiversity, and wild food and mental wellbeing. In general accessibility was the most important factor that determined the distribution of the bundles. Second, we integrated biophysical values with socio-cultural values and mapped ecosystem services in the biosphere reserve. We explored the distribution of these integrated ecosystem services values across the biosphere reserve zones and their bundles across two spatial scales. The ecosystem services bundled into three distinct social-ecological system archetypes that were similar in their distribution and relative ecosystem service values at both spatial scales. The bundles were also well matched to relative ecosystem services values of the Biosphere Reserve zones (core, buffer and transition) indicating that the bundles capture the social-ecological systems of the zones. These results show that it is important to consider the social-ecological context of the zones to provide sufficient knowledge to inform management. Third, we used a novel combination of PPGIS and social network data to map the ecosystem co-production network in the biosphere reserve. We identified four components of the ecosystem co-production network as socio-cultural values, direct management, governance, and research/knowledge production. First, we mapped the relative attention different ecosystem services received from those co-production components. Then we mapped the social network of communication about different ecosystem services among the co-production components. We found mismatches between different components of the co-production network. Importantly, we identified that cultural ecosystems were highly valued but receive comparatively less governance and particularly research attention. Furthermore, the primary managers of cultural ecosystem services were also poorly connected in the ecosystem service co-production social-network. The results show the importance of thinking of ecosystem service co-production as a relational network and of mapping what is being discussed by whom. Finally, we integrated ecological field surveys and PPGIS to explore the (mis)match in biophysical and socio-cultural values for ecosystem services in the context of land abandonment and afforestation. Biophysical values for ecosystem services were more similar across vegetation types while socio-cultural values were generally highest in open vegetation and unplanted forest types. The ecosystem service with the largest difference in biophysical and socio-cultural values global climate regulation, while biodiversity and agricultural products were similar across the value-domains. Socio-cultural values were not evenly spread across the study participants. There were two distinct groups representing older farmers resident in the region with high values for provisioning ecosystem services on the one hand, and non-resident younger females valuing regulating and maintenance ecosystem services. This study shows the importance of considering different value-domains and the factors that influence those values in land-use change decisions.Doktorgradsavhandlin

    Satisfiability Modulo Finite Fields

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    We study satisfiability modulo the theory of finite fields and give a decision procedure for this theory. We implement our procedure for prime fields inside the cvc5 SMT solver. Using this theory, we con- struct SMT queries that encode translation validation for various zero knowledge proof compilers applied to Boolean computations. We evalu- ate our procedure on these benchmarks. Our experiments show that our implementation is superior to previous approaches (which encode field arithmetic using integers or bit-vectors)

    MLFMF: Data Sets for Machine Learning for Mathematical Formalization

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    We introduce MLFMF, a collection of data sets for benchmarking recommendation systems used to support formalization of mathematics with proof assistants. These systems help humans identify which previous entries (theorems, constructions, datatypes, and postulates) are relevant in proving a new theorem or carrying out a new construction. Each data set is derived from a library of formalized mathematics written in proof assistants Agda or Lean. The collection includes the largest Lean~4 library Mathlib, and some of the largest Agda libraries: the standard library, the library of univalent mathematics Agda-unimath, and the TypeTopology library. Each data set represents the corresponding library in two ways: as a heterogeneous network, and as a list of s-expressions representing the syntax trees of all the entries in the library. The network contains the (modular) structure of the library and the references between entries, while the s-expressions give complete and easily parsed information about every entry. We report baseline results using standard graph and word embeddings, tree ensembles, and instance-based learning algorithms. The MLFMF data sets provide solid benchmarking support for further investigation of the numerous machine learning approaches to formalized mathematics. The methodology used to extract the networks and the s-expressions readily applies to other libraries, and is applicable to other proof assistants. With more than 250000250\,000 entries in total, this is currently the largest collection of formalized mathematical knowledge in machine learnable format.Comment: NeurIPS 202

    Making Presentation Math Computable

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    This Open-Access-book addresses the issue of translating mathematical expressions from LaTeX to the syntax of Computer Algebra Systems (CAS). Over the past decades, especially in the domain of Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), LaTeX has become the de-facto standard to typeset mathematical formulae in publications. Since scientists are generally required to publish their work, LaTeX has become an integral part of today's publishing workflow. On the other hand, modern research increasingly relies on CAS to simplify, manipulate, compute, and visualize mathematics. However, existing LaTeX import functions in CAS are limited to simple arithmetic expressions and are, therefore, insufficient for most use cases. Consequently, the workflow of experimenting and publishing in the Sciences often includes time-consuming and error-prone manual conversions between presentational LaTeX and computational CAS formats. To address the lack of a reliable and comprehensive translation tool between LaTeX and CAS, this thesis makes the following three contributions. First, it provides an approach to semantically enhance LaTeX expressions with sufficient semantic information for translations into CAS syntaxes. Second, it demonstrates the first context-aware LaTeX to CAS translation framework LaCASt. Third, the thesis provides a novel approach to evaluate the performance for LaTeX to CAS translations on large-scaled datasets with an automatic verification of equations in digital mathematical libraries. This is an open access book

    Admissible types-to-PERs relativization in higher-order logic

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    Relativizing statements in Higher-Order Logic (HOL) from types to sets is useful for improving productivity when working with HOL-based interactive theorem provers such as HOL4, HOL Light and Isabelle/HOL. This paper provides the first comprehensive definition and study of types-to-sets relativization in HOL, done in the more general form of types-to-PERs (partial equivalence relations). We prove that, for a large practical fragment of HOL which includes container types such as datatypes and codatatypes, types-to-PERs relativization is admissible, in that the provability of the original, type-based statement implies the provability of its relativized, PER-based counterpart. Our results also imply the admissibility of a previously proposed axiomatic extension of HOL with local type definitions. We have implemented types-to-PERs relativization as an Isabelle tool that performs relativization of HOL theorems on demand

    Emergence of collective phenomena and formation of cell colonies from cell individual characteristics. Applied modeling and simulations.

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    Programa de Doctorado en Biotecnología, Ingeniería y Tecnología QuímicaLínea de Investigación: Tecnología Química y de MaterialesClave Programa: DBICódigo Línea: 112Biological systems are known for their complexity, as they comprise multiple components that interact with each other, often in sophisticated ways. However, biological systems are inherently physical systems as well, so that their behavior can be predicted in principle using general physical laws. The ever growing available computational power and the development of novel algorithms is providing the necessary framework for such approach. The present thesis focuses on cell ensembles, a type of biological system in which the integrating components are cells that grow, divide and interact with each other. In particular, different cellular physical characteristics are evaluated via computational simulations on their impact on the cell ensemble. The goal is to describe how to, at least partially, the behavior of the cell ensemble can be explained as a result of the purely physical traits of the participating cells.Los sistemas biológicos son conocidos por su complejidad, debido a que normalmente comprenden múltiples componentes que interactúan de forma sofisticada entre sí. No obstante, los sistemas biológicos también son inherentemente sistemas físicos, por lo que su comportamiento podría ser predicho en principio utilizando las leyes físicas conocidas. El creciente poder computacional disponible y el desarrollo de nuevos algoritmos proporcionan el marco necesario para tal enfoque. Esta tesis se centra en las comunidades celulares, un tipo de sistema biológico en el que los componentes integrantes son células que crecen, se dividen e interactúan entre sí. En particular, mediante simulaciones computacionales se evalúan diferentes características físicas celulares sobre su impacto en el conjunto de la colonia de células. El objetivo es describir cómo, al menos parcialmente, el comportamiento de las colonias celulares se puede explicar como resultado de las características físicas individuales de las células participantes.Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla. Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturale
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