196 research outputs found
Pushing context-awareness down to the core: moreflexibility for the PerLa language
Information technology is increasingly pervading our envi-
ronment, making real Mark Weiser’s vision of a “disappear-
ing technology”. The work described in this paper focuses
on using context to enable pervasive system personaliza-
tion, allowing context-aware sensor-data tailoring. Since
sensor networks, besides data collection, are also able to pro-
duce active behaviours, the tailoring capabilities are also ex-
tended to these, thus applying context-awareness to generic
system operations. Moreover, because the number of pos-
sible context can grow rapidly with the complexity of the
application, the design phase is also supported by the possi-
bility to speed-up and modularize the definition of the data
and operations associated with each specific context, pro-
ducing a support tool that eases the job of the designers of
modern context-aware pervasive systems
Towards autonomic pervasive systems: the PerLa context language
The property of context-awareness, inherent to a Pervasive
System, requires a clear definition of context and of how the
context parameter values must be extracted from the real
world. Since often the same variables are common to the
operational system and to the context it operates into, the
usage of the same language to manage both the application
and the context can lead to substantial savings in application
development time and costs. In this paper we propose a
context-management extension to the PerLa language and
middleware that allows for declarative gathering of context
data from the environment, feeding this data to the internal
context model and, once a context is active, acting on the
relevant resources of the pervasive system, according to the
chosen contextual policy
Fecal metaproteomic analysis reveals unique changes of the gut microbiome functions after consumption of sourdough Carasau bread
Sourdough-leavened bread (SB) is acknowledged for its great variety of valuable effects on consumer's metabolism and health, including a low glycemic index and a reduced content of the possible carcinogen acrylamide. Here, we aimed to investigate how these effects influence the gut microbiota composition and functions. Therefore, we subjected rats to a diet supplemented with SB, baker's yeast leavened bread (BB), or unsupplemented diet (chow), and, after 4 weeks of treatment, their gut microbiota was analyzed using a metaproteogenomic approach. As a result, diet supplementation with SB led to a reduction of specific members of the intestinal microbiota previously associated to low protein diets, namely Alistipes and Mucispirillum, or known as intestinal pathobionts, i.e., Mycoplasma. Concerning functions, asparaginases expressed by Bacteroides were observed as more abundant in SB-fed rats, leading to hypothesize that in their colonic microbiota the enzyme substrate, asparagine, was available in higher amounts than in BB- and chow-fed rats. Another group of protein families, expressed by Clostridium, was detected as more abundant in animal fed SB-supplemented diet. Of these, manganese catalase, small acid-soluble proteins (SASP), Ser/Thr kinase PrkA, and V-ATPase proteolipid subunit have been all reported to take part in Clostridium sporulation, strongly suggesting that the diet supplementation with SB might promote environmental conditions inducing metabolic dormancy of Clostridium spp. within the gut microbiota. In conclusion, our data describe the effects of SB consumption on the intestinal microbiota taxonomy and functions in rats. Moreover, our results suggest that a metaproteogenomic approach can provide evidence of the interplay between metabolites deriving from bread digestion and microbial metabolism
The Role and Relevance of Experimentation in Informatics
Informatics is a relatively young eld within sci-
ence and engineering. Its research and develop-
ment methodologies build on the scientic and de-
sign methodologies in the classical areas, often with
new elements to it. We take an in-depth look at one
of the less well-understood methodologies in infor-
matics, namely
experimentation.
What does it mean to do experiments in in-
formatics? Does it make sense to `import' tradi-
tional principles of experimentation from classical
disciplines into the eld of computing and informa-
tion processing? How should experiments be docu-
mented? These are some of the questions that are
treated.
The report argues for the key role of empiri-
cal research and experimentation in contemporary
Informatics. Many IT systems, large and small,
can only be designed sensibly with the help of
experiments. We recommend that professionals and students alike are well-educated in the prin-
ciples of sound experimentation in Informatics. We
also recommend that experimentation protocols are
used and standardized as part of the experimental
method in Informatic
Forecasting out-of-the-ordinary financial events
Being able to understand the financial market is very important for investors and, given the width and complexity of the topic, tools to support investor decisions are badly needed. In this paper we present Mercurio, a system that supports the decision-making process of financial investors through the automatic extraction and analysis of financial data coming from the Web. Mercurio formalizes the knowledge and reasoning of an expert in financial journalism and uses it to identify relevant events within financial newspapers. Moreover, it performs automatic analysis of financial indexes to identify relevant events related to the stock market. Then, sequential pattern mining is used to predict exceptional events on the basis of the knowledge of their past occurrences and relationships with other events, in order to to warn investors about them
A human gut metaproteomic dataset from stool samples pretreated or not by differential centrifugation
We present a human gut metaproteomic dataset deposited in the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository with the dataset identifier PXD001573. Ten aliquots of a single stool sample collected from a healthy human volunteer were either pretreated by differential centrifugation (DC; N=5) or not centrifuged (NC; N=5). Protein extracts were then processed by filter-aided sample preparation, single-run liquid chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry, and peptide identification was carried out using Sequest-HT as search engine within the Proteome Discoverer informatic platform. The dataset described here is also related to the research article entitled "Enrichment or depletion? The impact of stool pretreatment on metaproteomic characterization of the human gut microbiota" published in Proteomics (Tanca et al., 2015), [1]
Leptin as a surrogate immune-metabolic marker to predict impact of anti-cachectic therapy: results of a prospective randomized trial in multiple solid tumors
Description of the work: Leptin is a reliable predictive and surrogate marker of the efficacy of multitargeted treatment of cancer cachexia. Purpose: To the best of our knowledge, no study has assessed the predictive role of biomarkers in establishing the effectiveness of anti-cachectic treatment, which remains a complex issue. Herein, we aimed to find a marker that can detect early response to anti-cachectic treatment. Patients and methods: From January 2012 to December 2022, all consecutive eligible advanced cancer patients with cachexia were prospectively enrolled in an exploratory and validation cohort according to eligibility criteria. All patients received a combined anti-cachectic treatment consisting of megestrol acetate plus celecoxib plus L-carnitine plus antioxidants that showed efficacy in a previous phase III randomized study. Primary endpoints were an increase in lean body mass (LBM), a decrease in resting energy expenditure (REE), a decrease in fatigue, and improvement in global quality of life. Results: A total of 553 consecutive patients were recruited. Twenty patients dropped out, equally distributed over the exploratory (11 patients) and validation (9 patients) cohorts, for early death due to disease progression. Then, 533 patients were deemed assessable. Leptin level changes inversely correlated with circulating levels of inflammatory mediators and reflected the improvement of body composition, energy metabolism, functional performance, and quality of life. At multivariate regression analysis, at week 8, leptin change was an independent predictor of LBM, skeletal muscle index (SMI), grip strength increase, and REE; at week 16, leptin change was an independent predictor of the same parameters and improvement in Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status. The ability of leptin to predict changes in LBM, SMI, REE, and grip strength was superior to that of other inflammatory markers when comparing the receiver operating curves. Moreover, increasing delta leptin values were associated with significantly better outcomes in LBM, SMI, REE, grip strength, and fatigue. Conclusions: Leptin is a reliable predictive marker for multitargeted anti-cachectic treatment outcomes. Thus, it can be an ideal candidate for monitoring and predicting the effects of anti-cachectic treatment and a surrogate marker of the immune-metabolic actions of the selected drugs
The bovine milk microbiota: insights and perspectives from -omics studies
Recent significant progress in culture-independent techniques, together with the parallel development of -omics technologies and data analysis capabilities, have led to a new perception of the milk microbiota as a complex microbial community with great diversity and multifaceted biological roles, living in an environment that was until recently believed to be sterile. In this review, we summarize and discuss the latest findings on the milk microbiota in dairy cows, with a focus on the role it plays in bovine physiology and health. Following an introduction on microbial communities and the importance of their study, we present an overview of the -omics methods currently available for their characterization, and outline the potential offered by a systems biology approach encompassing metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics, and metametabolomics. Then, we review the recent discoveries on the dairy cow milk microbiome enabled by the application of -omics approaches. Learning from studies in humans and in the mouse model, and after a description of the endogenous route hypothesis, we discuss the role of the milk microbiota in the physiology and health of both the mother and the offspring, and report how it can be changed by farming practices and during infection. In conclusion, we shortly outline the impact of the milk microbiota on the quality of milk and of dairy products
A first immunohistochemistry study of transketolase and transketolase-like 1 expression in canine hyperplastic and neoplastic mammary lesions
Background: Canine mammary tumors represent the most common neoplasm in female dogs, and the discovery of cancer biomarkers and their translation to clinical relevant assays is a key requirement in the war on cancer. Since the description of the 'Warburg effect', the reprogramming of metabolic pathways is considered a hallmark of pathological changes in cancer cells. In this study, we investigate the expression of two cancer-related metabolic enzymes, transketolase (TKT) and transketolase-like 1 (TKTL1), involved in the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), an alternative metabolic pathway for glucose breakdown that could promote cancer by providing the precursors and energy required for rapidly growing cells. Results: TKT and TKTL1 protein expression was investigated by immunohistochemistry in canine normal (N = 6) and hyperplastic glands (N = 3), as well as in benign (N = 11) and malignant mammary tumors (N = 17). TKT expression was higher in hyperplastic lesions and in both benign and malignant tumors compared to the normal mammary gland, while TKTL1 levels were remarkably higher in hyperplastic lesions, simple adenomas and simple carcinomas than in the normal mammary glands (P < 0.05). Conclusions: This study reveals that the expression of a key PPP enzyme varies along the evolution of canine mammary neoplastic lesions, and supports a role of metabolic changes in the development of canine mammary tumors
- …