ArchOnto, a CIDOC-CRM-Based Linked Data Model for the Portuguese Archives

Archives are faced with great challenges due to the vast amounts of data they have to curate. New data models are required, and work is underway. The International Council on Archives is creating the RiC-CM (Records in Context), and there is a long line of work in museums with the CIDOC-CRM (CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model). Both models are based on ontologies to represent cultural heritage data and link them to other information. The Portuguese National Archives hold a collection with over 3.5 million metadata records, described with the ISAD(G) standard. The archives are designing a new linked data model and a technological platform with applications for archive contributors, archivists, and the public. The current work extends CIDOC-CRM into ArchOnto, an ontology-based model for archives. The model defines the relevant archival entities and properties and will be used to migrate existing records. ArchOnto accommodates the existing ISAD(G) information and takes into account its implementation with current technologies. The model is evaluated with records from representative fonds. After the test on these samples, the model is ready to be populated with the semi-automatic transformation of the ISAD records. The evaluation of the model and the population strategies will proceed with experiments involving professional and lay users. (c) 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Specific structural features of syndecans and heparan sulfate chains are needed for cell signaling

The syndecans, heparan sulfate proteoglycans, are abundant molecules associated with the cell surface and extracellular matrix and consist of a protein core to which heparan sulfate chains are covalently attached. Each of the syndecan core proteins has a short cytoplasmic domain that binds cytosolic regulatory factors. the syndecans also contain highly conserved transmembrane domains and extracellular domains for which important activities are becoming known. These protein domains locate the syndecan on cell surface sites during development and tumor formation where they interact with other receptors to regulate signaling and cytoskeletal organization. the functions of cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycan have been centered on the role of heparan sulfate chains, located on the outer side of the cell surface, in the binding of a wide array of ligands, including extracellular matrix proteins and soluble growth factors. More recently, the core proteins of the syndecan family transmembrane proteoglycans have also been shown to be involved in cell signaling through interaction with integrins and tyrosine kinase receptors.Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Bioquim, BR-04044020 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Bioquim, BR-04044020 São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Probing the interaction between heparan sulfate proteoglycan with biologically relevant molecules in mimetic models for cell membranes: A Langmuir film study

Investigating the role of proteoglycans associated to cell membranes is fundamental to comprehend biochemical process that occurs at the level of membrane surfaces. in this paper, we exploit syndecan-4, a heparan sulfate proteoglycan obtained from cell cultures, in lipid Langmuir monolayers at the air-water interface. the monolayer served as a model for half a membrane, and the molecular interactions involved could be evaluated with tensiometry and vibrational spectroscopy techniques. Polarization-modulation infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS) employed in a constant surface pressure regime showed that the main chemical groups for syndecan-4 were present at the air-water interface. Subsequent monolayer decompression and compression showed surface pressure-area isotherms with a large expansion for the lipid monolayers interacting with the cell culture reported to over-express syndecan-4, which was also an indication that the proteoglycan was inserted in the lipid monolayer. the introduction of biological molecules with affinity for syndecam-4, such as growth factors, which present a key role in biochemical process of cell signaling, changed the surface properties of the hybrid film, leading to a model, by which the growth factor binds to the sulfate groups present in the heparan sulfate chains. the polypeptide moiety of syndecan-4 responds to this interaction changing its conformation, which leads to lipid film relaxation and further monolayer condensation. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Inst Ciencias Ambientais Quim & Farmaceut, Diadema, SP, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, São Paulo, SP, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Inst Ciencias Ambientais Quim & Farmaceut, Diadema, SP, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, São Paulo, SP, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Comparative evaluation of web search engines in health information retrieval

Purpose: With this work we intend to evaluate several generalist and health-specific search engines on retrieval of health information by consumers. We compare the retrieval effectiveness of these engines in different types of clinical queries, medical specialties and condition's severity. Finally, we compare the use of evaluation metrics for binary relevance scales and for graded ones. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted a user study in which users evaluated the relevance of documents retrieved by 4 search engines in 2 different health information needs. Users could choose between generalist (Bing, Google, Sapo and Yahoo!) and health-specific search engines (MedlinePlus, SapoSaúde and WebMD). We then analyse the differences between search engines and groups of information needs with six different measures: graded average precision (gap), average precision (ap), gap@5, gap@10, ap@5 and ap@10. Findings: Results show that generalist web search engines surpass the precision of health-specific engines. Google has the better performance, mainly on the top-10 results. We found that information needs associated with severe conditions are associated with higher precision just like overview and psychiatry questions. Originality/value: Our study is one of the first studies to use a recently proposed measure to evaluate the effectiveness of retrieval systems with graded relevance scales. It includes tasks of several medical specialties, types of clinical questions and different levels of severity what, to the best of our knowledge, has not been done before. Also, it is a study in which users have a large involvement in the experiment. Results are useful to understand how search engines differ in their responses to health information needs, to inform about what types of online health information are more common on the Web and to infer ways to improve this type of search. Keywords: Evaluation, Health information retrieval, User study, Graded-relevance, Web search engines Paper type: Research paper INTRODUCTION Patients, their family and friends, commonly designated by health consumers, are increasingly using the Web to search for health information. The last Pew Internet report on health information According to This study evaluates the performance of 4 generalist search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo! and Sapo) and 3 health-specific search engines (MedlinePlus, WebMD and SapoSaúde). The evaluation is based on the data collected in a user study with undergraduate students and work tasks defined according to the framework proposed by Borlun

Expression of heterologous proteins by Pichia pastoris under increased air pressure

The P. pastoris expression system has gained acceptance as an important host organism for the production of heterologous proteins. Its expression system presents the advantage of the organism can grow to the desired cell density on glycerol as the carbon source and then on methanol for high level heterologous production. However, the oxygen limitation generally has a detrimental effect on the expression of foreign genes. The increased air pressure could be used to improve the oxygen solubility in the medium and to reach the high oxygen demand of methanol metabolism. For the first time, two recombinant P. pastoris strains (KM71H/ pPICZαA/frutalin and GS115/pPICZ/lacZ) producing frutalin and β-galactosidase, respectively, were used to investigate, the effect of increased air pressure on yeast growth and heterologous protein expression. Several trials were carried out in a stainless steel bioreactor (Parr 4563, Parr Instruments, USA) under total air pressure of 1 bar and 5 bar. The increase of air pressure up to 5 bar had a small effect on biomass production, but led to a 9-fold improvement in β-galactosidase specific activity compared to 1 bar. Also, the recombinant frutalin secretion was enhanced by the increased air pressure up to 5 bar. The protease specific activity reached at 5 bar was 1.5 times lower than that obtained at 1 bar. This result revealed that the use of increased air pressure up to 5 bar provided optimal conditions for reduction of the proteolysis that occurred on frutalin secretion at atmospheric pressure

A popularização da moda nos anos 1990 e 2000 por meio das revendedoras dos catálogos Hermes

Catalogs are considered showcases, with high impact power, as images influence consumption, stimulating wants and needs. The Brazilian company Hermes stood out in the late 20th century with retail fashion, through catalog resellers. Its importance is not only due to the sale of accessible products, but also to the popularization of fashion in Brazil, by expanding access to TV sets, spreading the image of fashion portrayed in soap operas and influenced by celebrities of all social levels. Reselling through catalogs, although constituting precarious work, was a tool for women from the poorest classes to supplement family income, in addition to promoting integration and socialization among women. Based on the above, the study will be carried out with the aim of analyzing the diffusion of fashion in popular Hermes catalogs and its social role mainly in relation to women, appearance, work and sociability. The methodology will be through bibliographic research and focused interview, applied specifically to resellers of products by catalog.Os catálogos são considerados vitrines, com alto poder de impacto, já que as imagens influenciam o consumo, estimulando o desejo e as necessidades. A empresa brasileira Hermes se destacou no final do século XX com o comércio varejista de moda através de revendas por catálogo. Sua importância se deu não somente pela venda de produtos com preços acessíveis, mas também pela popularização da moda no Brasil por meio da ampliação do acesso aos aparelhos de TV, difundindo assim a imagem de moda retratada nas novelas e influenciada pelas celebridades para todas as camadas sociais. A revenda por catálogos, ainda que constitua um trabalho precarizado, foi uma ferramenta para que as mulheres das classes mais pobres complementassem a renda familiar, além de promover uma integração e sociabilização entre mulheres. A partir do exposto, o estudo será realizado com o intuito de analisar a difusão da moda através dos populares catálogos Hermes e seu papel social principalmente em relação às mulheres, sua aparência, seu trabalho e sociabilidades. A metodologia será por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e entrevista focalizada, aplicada especificadamente às mulheres revendedoras de produtos por catálogo

Knowledge Graph Implementation of Archival Descriptions Through CIDOC-CRM

Archives have well-established description standards, namely the ISAD(G) and ISAAR(CPF) with a hierarchical structure adapted to the nature of archival assets. However, as archives connect to a growing diversity of data, they aim to make their representations more apt to the so-called linked data cloud. The corresponding move from hierarchical, ISAD-conforming descriptions to graph counterparts requires state-of-the-art technologies, data models and vocabularies. Our approach addresses this problem from two perspectives. The first concerns the data model and description vocabularies, as we adopt and build upon the CIDOC-CRM standard. The second is the choice of technologies to support a knowledge graph, including a graph database and an Object Graph Mapping library. The case study is the Portuguese National Archives, Torre do Tombo, and the overall goal is to build a CIDOC-CRM-compliant system for document description and retrieval, to be used by professionals and the public. The early stages described here include the design of the core data model for archival records represented as the ArchOnto ontology and its embodiment in the ArchGraph knowledge graph. The goal of a semantic archival information system will be pursued in the migration of existing records to the richer representation and the development of applications supported on the graph