1,276 research outputs found
Southern Adventist University Undergraduate Catalog 2023-2024
Southern Adventist University\u27s undergraduate catalog for the academic year 2023-2024.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/undergrad_catalog/1123/thumbnail.jp
LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volume
LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volum
Advances and Applications of DSmT for Information Fusion. Collected Works, Volume 5
This fifth volume on Advances and Applications of DSmT for Information Fusion collects theoretical and applied contributions of researchers working in different fields of applications and in mathematics, and is available in open-access. The collected contributions of this volume have either been published or presented after disseminating the fourth volume in 2015 in international conferences, seminars, workshops and journals, or they are new. The contributions of each part of this volume are chronologically ordered.
First Part of this book presents some theoretical advances on DSmT, dealing mainly with modified Proportional Conflict Redistribution Rules (PCR) of combination with degree of intersection, coarsening techniques, interval calculus for PCR thanks to set inversion via interval analysis (SIVIA), rough set classifiers, canonical decomposition of dichotomous belief functions, fast PCR fusion, fast inter-criteria analysis with PCR, and improved PCR5 and PCR6 rules preserving the (quasi-)neutrality of (quasi-)vacuous belief assignment in the fusion of sources of evidence with their Matlab codes.
Because more applications of DSmT have emerged in the past years since the apparition of the fourth book of DSmT in 2015, the second part of this volume is about selected applications of DSmT mainly in building change detection, object recognition, quality of data association in tracking, perception in robotics, risk assessment for torrent protection and multi-criteria decision-making, multi-modal image fusion, coarsening techniques, recommender system, levee characterization and assessment, human heading perception, trust assessment, robotics, biometrics, failure detection, GPS systems, inter-criteria analysis, group decision, human activity recognition, storm prediction, data association for autonomous vehicles, identification of maritime vessels, fusion of support vector machines (SVM), Silx-Furtif RUST code library for information fusion including PCR rules, and network for ship classification.
Finally, the third part presents interesting contributions related to belief functions in general published or presented along the years since 2015. These contributions are related with decision-making under uncertainty, belief approximations, probability transformations, new distances between belief functions, non-classical multi-criteria decision-making problems with belief functions, generalization of Bayes theorem, image processing, data association, entropy and cross-entropy measures, fuzzy evidence numbers, negator of belief mass, human activity recognition, information fusion for breast cancer therapy, imbalanced data classification, and hybrid techniques mixing deep learning with belief functions as well
Taylor University Catalog 2023-2024
The 2023-2024 academic catalog of Taylor University in Upland, Indiana.https://pillars.taylor.edu/catalogs/1128/thumbnail.jp
Southern Adventist University Undergraduate Catalog 2022-2023
Southern Adventist University\u27s undergraduate catalog for the academic year 2022-2023.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/undergrad_catalog/1121/thumbnail.jp
Novel approaches for the control of fungal pathogens
Fungal pathogens are a continual threat with potential impacts on human health, agriculture, food and goods security. Despite this, currently used treatments are limited to a handful of drug or fungicide classes. The limited availability of treatment options is further challenged by growing fungal resistance, tightening legislation over drug/fungicide use and evolving public opinion. In this thesis, certain novel approaches were explored for their potential in the control of fungal pathogens of humans or crops.
One approach utilised the concept of combinatorial treatments, applied specifically to synergistic interactions among natural product (NP) compounds. NPs have been questioned for their translational applications due to promiscuous activity; this study proposed the potential of synergy for potentiating antifungal activity and improving target specificity. In a high-throughput screening approach, selected NPs were screened pairwise against a wider NP chemical library. Screening of 800 NP combinations revealed 34 pairs that were potentially synergistic in their inhibitory effects on yeast growth. Moreover, scaled-up validation tests for three combinations of particular interest showed that synergy was present against several important pathogens. One synergistic combination was explored mechanistically and found to promote synergistic mitochondrial membrane depolarization and ROS formation. This work indicated the potential for synergistic NP combinations in fungal pathogen control.
An additional study focussed on relationships between NP interactions and their underlying mechanisms of synergy, focusing on a particular triangle of NP interactions (involving two synergies but also no interaction). Results indicated that the NP sclareol, found to synergise with a number of other NPs, could also induce synergy between the previously non-synergistic pair of compounds. Results supported that this action of sclareol involved uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation, which may be an activity that enables synergies against fungal pathogens more widely.
An additional approach explored the potential of collateral sensitivity (CS) as a potential drug-repurposing strategy against azole-resistant Candida albicans. CS is where resistance to one drug is linked to sensitivity to another, so offering means to target drug resistant strains. Two azole-resistant clinical isolates of C. albicans showed hypersensitivity to several non-antifungal drugs, particularly aminoglycosides. The mutants were slow growers, but slow growth was not sufficient to explain the hypersensitivity, neither were the isolates’ alleles of erg11, the gene encoding the lanosterol demethylase targeted by azoles. Moreover, the hypersensitivity was not reproduced in other azole-resistant isolates. Mechanistic studies pointed to a possible role for cell wall glycosylation or integrity defects in the original two isolates. Further work expanded the search for CS compounds against azole-resistant C. albicans through a screen of a 1,280-compound library. The results did not identify any hit compounds, but reproducibility and dosage concerns meant that hit compounds could have been missed.
A final approach set out to assess mechanistic bases for reported fungal anti-attachment properties of certain polymer materials. One strategy was an accelerated evolution experiment, designed to select C. albicans variants hyper-attaching to polymer. However, attachment propensity did not change, indicating resilience of the anti-attachment material properties. Another strategy examined cell wall properties that may affect anti-attachment, in C. albicans and the plant pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici. Results with selective fluorescent probes highlighted certain cell wall components that were enriched in polymer-attaching or glass-attaching cells. This offers a path for understanding cell properties important for (anti-) attachment to the polymer materials, valuable for informing design of improved polymers.
Taken together the three approaches explored in this thesis offer exciting potential for bolstering efforts to control fungal pathogens, providing bases for further mechanistic and possible translational developmen
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