Online Data Preprocessing: A Case Study Approach

Besides the Internet search facility and e-mails, social networking is now one of the three best uses of the Internet. A tremendous number of volunteers every day write articles, share photos, videos and links at a scope and scale never imagined before. However, because social network data are huge and come from heterogeneous sources, the data are highly susceptible to inconsistency, redundancy, noise, and loss. For data scientists, preparing the data and getting it into a standard format is critical because the quality of data is going to directly affect the performance of mining algorithms that are going to be applied next. Low-quality data will certainly limit the analysis and lower the quality of mining results. To this end, the goal of this study is to provide an overview of the different phases involved in data preprocessing, with a focus on social network data. As a case study, we will show how we applied preprocessing to the data that we collected for the Malaysian Flight MH370 that disappeared in 2014

Chikungunya virus and its envelope protein E2 induce hyperalgesia in mice: Inhibition by anti-E2 monoclonal antibodies and by targeting TRPV1

Chikungunya virus is an arthropod-borne infectious agent that causes Chikungunya fever disease. About 90% of the infected patients experience intense polyarthralgia, affecting mainly the extremities but also the large joints such as the knees. Chronic disease symptoms persist for months, even after clearance of the virus from the blood. Envelope proteins stimulate the immune response against the Chikungunya virus, becoming an important therapeutic target. We inactivated the Chikungunya virus (iCHIKV) and produced recombinant E2 (rE2) protein and three different types of anti-rE2 monoclonal antibodies. Using these tools, we observed that iCHIKV and rE2 protein induced mechanical hyperalgesia (electronic aesthesiometer test) and thermal hyperalgesia (Hargreaves test) in mice. These behavioral results were accompanied by the activation of dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons in mice, as observed by calcium influx. Treatment with three different types of anti-rE2 monoclonal antibodies and absence or blockade (AMG-9810 treatment) of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) channel diminished mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia in mice. iCHIKV and rE2 activated TRPV1+ mouse DRG neurons in vitro, demonstrating their ability to activate nociceptor sensory neurons directly. Therefore, our mouse data demonstrate that targeting E2 CHIKV protein with monoclonal antibodies and inhibiting TRPV1 channels are reasonable strategies to control CHIKV pain

Therapeutic activity of lipoxin A4 in TiO2-induced arthritis in mice: NF-κB and Nrf2 in synovial fluid leukocytes and neuronal TRPV1 mechanisms

BACKGROUND: Lipoxin A4 (LXA METHODS: Mice were stimulated with TiO RESULTS: LXA CONCLUSION: LX

Sleep and Awakening Quality during COVID-19 Confinement: Complexity and Relevance for Health and Behavior

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate sleep and awakening quality (SQ and AQ) during COVID-19 in a large and diversified population in order to identify significant associations and risks in terms of demography, health and health-related behaviors, sleep variables, mental health, and attitudes. Methods/Results:Online surveys were used for data collection, received from 5479 individuals from the general population, sleep disorder patients, and COVID-involved (medical doctors (MDs) and nurses) and COVID-affected professionals (teachers, psychologists, and dentists). SQ and AQ were worse in adults, females, and high-education subjects. Feeling worse, having economic problems, depression, anxiety, irritability, and a high Calamity Experience Check List (CECL) score during COVID were significantly associated with poor SQ and AQ. Shorter sleep duration, increased latency, poor nutrition, low physical activity, increased mobile and social network use, more negative and less positive attitudes and behaviors were associated with poor AQ. Conclusions: The SQ logistic regression showed gender, morbidities, CECL, and awakenings as relevant, whereas, for AQ, relevant variables further included age and physical activity. Aiming to have a high stress compliance, each individual should sleep well, have important control of their mood, practice positive behaviors while dismissing negative behaviors and attitudes, practice exercise, have adequate nutrition, and beware of technologies and dependences

Water resource management for sustainable development

Water resource management is the cornerstone for sustainable development. According to the United Nations world water development report, one-fifth of the world?s population lives in areas characterized by physical water scarcity.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Synthesis and Characterization of Hybrid Materials Consisting of n-octadecyltriethoxysilane by Using n-Hexadecylamine as Surfactant and Q0 and T0 Cross-Linkers

Novel hybrid xerogel materials were synthesized by a sol-gel procedure. n-octadecyltriethoxysilane was co-condensed with and without different cross-linkers using Q0 and T0 mono-functionalized organosilanes in the presence of n-hexadecylamine with different hydroxyl silica functional groups at the surface. These polymer networks have shown new properties, for example, a high degree of cross-linking and hydrolysis. Two different synthesis steps were carried out: simple self-assembly followed by sol-gel transition and precipitation of homogenous sols. Due to the lack of solubility of these materials, the compositions of the new materials were determined by infrared spectroscopy, 13C and 29Si CP/MAS NMR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy

Portuguese honeys as antimicrobial agents against Candida species

Background and aim Honey has been recognized worldwide for its antioxidant, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. Among them, the antifungal properties associated to honey make it an attractive alternative treatment for Candida-associated infections, particularly for topical application to the mucous membranes and skin. In this sense, the main purpose of this work was to evaluate physicochemical properties of five Portuguese honeys and Manuka honey (an Australian honey with well recognized medical proprieties, used as control) and to evaluate the antifungal activity in Candida species planktonic and biofilm assays. Experimental procedure Pollen analysis, pH determination, color, concentration of protein and methylglyoxal, conductivity, total phenolics and flavonoids, hydrogen peroxide concentration, and characterization by differential scanning calorimetry in honey samples were determined. Additionally, the effect of honeys on planktonic growth of Candida was initially evaluated by determination of the minimum inhibitory concentrations. Then, the same effect of those honeys was evaluated in biofilms, by Colony Forming Units enumeration. Results and conclusion It has been shown that Portuguese heather (Erica cinereal) honey presented the most similar physicochemical properties to manuka honey (specially phenolic and flavonoids contents). The five Portuguese honeys under study, presented in general a potent activity against planktonic multi-resistant yeast pathogens (several clinical isolates and reference strains of Candida species) and S. aureus and P. aeruginosa bacteria cultures. Additionally, it was also concluded that Portuguese heather honey (50% and 75% (w/v)) can also act as a good Candida species biofilm reducer, namely for C. tropicalis.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal, under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDBB/04469/2020020 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Portugal, under the scope of Norte 2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Construction and configuration of convection-powered asphalt solar collectors for the reduction of urban temperatures

In this paper, an analysis of a convection-powered asphalt solar collector prototype is approached by the means of experimental trials and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations in order to evaluate how to optimise its design for the reduction of high urban pavement temperatures. Since the energy harvesting setup consists of a series of pipes buried in the pavement, their arrangement is here studied and experimentally compared to a possible construction technique consisting of concrete corrugations that aim at replacing the pipes. CFD simulations are employed to optimise the air collection chamber which is placed immediately before the heated air leaves the asphalt solar collector prototype. The data gathered is analysed in terms of energy harvested and exergy. The results obtained show that for an overall optimal performance, pipes should be installed in a single row under the pavement wearing course. This allowed a surface temperature reduction of up to 5.5 °C in the pavement prototype studied and the highest absorbed energy and exergy measured. In addition, the CFD simulations showed that care has to be put in finding the optimal shape and size for the air collection chamber, as they significantly influence the behaviour of the system

Parameters influencing the size of chitosan-TPP nano- and microparticles

Chitosan nanoparticles, produced by ionic gelation, are among the most intensely studied nanosystems for drug delivery. However, a lack of inter-laboratory reproducibility and a poor physicochemical understanding of the process of particle formation have been slowing their potential market applications. To address these shortcomings, the current study presents a systematic analysis of the main polymer factors affecting the nanoparticle formation driven by an initial screening using systematic statistical Design of Experiments (DoE). In summary, we found that for a given chitosan to TPP molar ratio, the average hydrodynamic diameter of the particles formed is strongly dependent on the initial chitosan concentration. The degree of acetylation of the chitosan was found to be the second most important factor involved in the system's ability to form particles. Interestingly, viscosimetry studies indicated that the particle formation and the average hydrodynamic diameter of the particles formed were highly dependent on the presence or absence of salts in the medium. In conclusion, we found that by controlling two simple factors of the polymer solution, namely its initial concentration and its solvent environment, it is feasible to control in a reproducible manner the production and characteristics of chitosan particles ranging in size from nano- to micrometres