Use of a semantic web service to support the management of information applied to student selection processes in a higher education institution

La integración de la web semántica y los servicios web poseen el potencial para darle a la web actual la infraestructura para construir los servicios, las herramientas y aplicaciones que les permitan a los computadores interactuar de manera inteligente y transformar la información en conocimiento. El proyecto de investigación propuesto consiste en aplicar la construcción de la ontología (modelo conceptual explícito y formal) enfocada en procesos que permitirán además de estandarizar y clasificar la información, ser replicada en otras áreas de la organización a medida que el conocimiento sea asimilado. Este trabajo presenta una visión general de las metodologías para usar ontologías y presenta un marco de trabajo enfocado en el desarrollo de un prototipo de un servicio web semántico que se integra con un repositorio de documentos relacionados en el proceso de admisión de estudiantes de una universidad, que además de realizar búsquedas de información, el resultado es clasificado y relacionado según el dominio especificado en la ontología, dando el punto de partida para implementar una solución como es la gestión de la información.The integration of the Semantic Web and Web services have the potential to give to the current web, the infrastructure to build services, tools and applications that allow computers to interact intelligently and transform information into knowledge. The proposed investigation project consists in applying the construction of ontology (formal and explicit conceptual model) focused on processes that will further standardize and classify information, be replicated in other areas of the organization as knowledge is assimilated. This work presents a general vision about the methodologies in order to use ontologies and show a frame of working focused on the development of a prototype of a semantic web service that integrates with a repository of documents related to the admission process of students from a university, in addition to information searches, the result is classified and related to the specified domain in the ontology, providing the starting point to implement a solution such as the management of information

Steady-state global optimization of metabolic non-linear dynamic models through recasting into power-law canonical models

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Design of newly engineered microbial strains for biotechnological purposes would greatly benefit from the development of realistic mathematical models for the processes to be optimized. Such models can then be analyzed and, with the development and application of appropriate optimization techniques, one could identify the modifications that need to be made to the organism in order to achieve the desired biotechnological goal. As appropriate models to perform such an analysis are necessarily non-linear and typically non-convex, finding their global optimum is a challenging task. Canonical modeling techniques, such as Generalized Mass Action (GMA) models based on the power-law formalism, offer a possible solution to this problem because they have a mathematical structure that enables the development of specific algorithms for global optimization.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Based on the GMA canonical representation, we have developed in previous works a highly efficient optimization algorithm and a set of related strategies for understanding the evolution of adaptive responses in cellular metabolism. Here, we explore the possibility of recasting kinetic non-linear models into an equivalent GMA model, so that global optimization on the recast GMA model can be performed. With this technique, optimization is greatly facilitated and the results are transposable to the original non-linear problem. This procedure is straightforward for a particular class of non-linear models known as Saturable and Cooperative (SC) models that extend the power-law formalism to deal with saturation and cooperativity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results show that recasting non-linear kinetic models into GMA models is indeed an appropriate strategy that helps overcoming some of the numerical difficulties that arise during the global optimization task.</p

Cell Lineage Tracing Identifies Hormone-Regulated and Wnt-Responsive Vaginal Epithelial Stem Cells.

The intact vaginal epithelium is essential for women's reproductive health and provides protection against HIV and sexually transmitted infections. How this epithelium maintains itself remains poorly understood. Here, we used single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to define the diverse cell populations in the vaginal epithelium. We show that vaginal epithelial cell proliferation is limited to the basal compartment without any obvious label-retaining cells. Furthermore, we developed vaginal organoids and show that the basal cells have increased organoid forming efficiency. Importantly, Axin2 marks a self-renewing subpopulation of basal cells that gives rise to differentiated cells over time. These cells are ovariectomy-resistant stem cells as they proliferate even in the absence of hormones. Upon hormone supplementation, these cells expand and reconstitute the entire vaginal epithelium. Wnt/β-catenin is essential for the proliferation and differentiation of vaginal stem cells. Together, these data define heterogeneity in vaginal epithelium and identify vaginal epithelial stem cells

Stabilization of Palygorskite Aqueous Suspensions Using Bio-Based and Synthetic Polyelectrolytes

Palygorskite is a natural fibrous clay mineral that can be used in several applications, for which colloidal stability in aqueous suspensions is a key point to improve its performance. In this study, methods of magnetic stirring, high-speed shearing, and ultrasonication, as well as different chemical dispersants, combined with these methods, namely carboxymethylcellulose, alginate, polyphosphate, and polyacrylate, were used to improve the dispersibility and the formation of stable suspensions of palygorskite in different conditions of pH. The stability and particle size of suspensions with a low concentration of palygorskite were evaluated by visual inspection, optical and electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and zeta potential measurements. Moreover, the palygorskite used in this work was initially characterized for its mineralogical, chemical, physical, and morphological properties. It was found that more stable suspensions were produced with ultrasonication compared to the other two physical treatments, with magnetic stirring being inefficient in all tested cases, and for higher pH values (pH of 12 and pH of 8, the natural pH of the clay) when compared to lower pH values (pH of 3). Remarkably, combined with ultrasonication, carboxymethylcellulose or in a lesser extent polyphosphate at near neutral pH allowed for the disaggregation of crystal bundles of palygorskite into individualized crystals. These results may be helpful to optimize the performance of palygorskite in several domains where it is applied.The present research was supported by the R&D project titled “FILCNF-New generation of composite films of cellulose nanofibrils with mineral particles as high strength materials with gas barrier properties” (PTDC/QUI-OUT/31884/2017, CENTRO 01-0145-FEDER-031884), Strategic Research Centre Project UIDB00102/2020, and Techn & Art (UID/05488/2018) funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and FEDER.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Decade of GRB Follow-Up by BOOTES in Spain (2003–2013)

This article covers ten years of GRB follow-ups by the Spanish BOOTES stations: 71 follow-ups providing 23 detections. Follow-ups by BOOTES-1B from 2005 to 2008 were given in a previous article and are here reviewed and updated, and additional detection data points are included as the former articlemerely stated their existence. The all-sky cameras CASSANDRA have not yet detected any GRB optical afterglows, but limits are reported where available.The authors appreciate the auspices of INTA, IHSM-UMA/CSIC, and UMA as well as the financial support by the Junta de Andaluca and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Research Projects P07-TIC-03094, P12-TIC2839, AYA2009-14000-C03-01, AYA 2010-39727-C03-01, and AYA-2015-71718-R. Martin Jelinek was supported by the postdoctoral fellowship of the Czech Academy of Sciences. This study was carried out in the framework of the Unidad Asociada IAA-CSIC at the Group of Planetary Science of ETSI-UPV/EHU. This work was supported by the Ikerbasque Foundation for Science. The Czech CVUT FEL team acknowledges the support by GA CR Grant 13-33324S

Análise econômica de investimentos em sistemas de produção agroflorestal no Estado do Pará.

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Avaliação econômica de sistemas agroflorestais no Estado do Pará.

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Detection of an optical transient following the 13 March 2000 short/hard gamma-ray burst

We imaged the error box of a gamma-ray burst of the short (0.5 s), hard type (GRB 000313), with the BOOTES-1 experiment in southern Spain, starting 4 min after the gamma-ray event, in the I-band. A bright optical transient (OT 000313) with I = 9.4 +/- 0.1 was found in the BOOTES-1 image, close to the error box (3-sigma) provided by BATSE. Late time VRIK'-band deep observations failed to reveal an underlying host galaxy. If the OT 000313 is related to the short, hard GRB 000313, this would be the first optical counterpart ever found for this kind of events (all counterparts to date have been found for bursts of the long, soft type). The fact that only prompt optical emission has been detected (but no afterglow emission at all, as supported by theoretical models) might explain why no optical counterparts have ever been found for short, hard GRBs.This fact suggests that most short bursts might occur in a low-density medium and favours the models that relate them to binary mergers in very low-density enviroments.Comment: Revised version. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters, 5 pages, 3 figure

A decade of GRB follow-up by BOOTES in Spain (2003-2013)

This article covers ten years of GRB follow-ups by the Spanish BOOTES stations: 71 follow-ups providing 23 detections. Follow-ups by BOOTES-1B from 2005 to 2008 were given in the previous article, and are here reviewed, updated, and include additional detection data points as the former article merely stated their existence. The all-sky cameras CASSANDRA have not yet detected any GRB optical afterglows, but limits are reported where available