Renal recovery

Acute kidney injury (AKI) research in the past decade has mostly focused upon development of a standard AKI definition, validation of early novel biomarkers to predict AKI prior to serum creatinine rise and predict AKI severity, and assessment of aspects of renal replacement therapies and their impact on survival. Given the independent association between AKI and mortality in the acute phase, such focus makes imminent sense. More recently, the recognition that AKI is associated with subsequent development of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease, with the attendant increase in mortality, has led to interest in the clinical epidemiology and the mechanistic understanding of renal recovery after an AKI episode in critically ill patients. We review the current knowledge surrounding renal recovery after an AKI episode, including renal replacement therapy initiation timing and modality impact, biomarker assessment and mechanistic targets to guide potential future clinical trials

Effect of plant growth regulators on flowering behavior of cashew cv. Vengurla-4 grown in the hilly tracts of South Gujarat

A trial was conducted at Subhir and Chikhalda locations in Dang district of South Gujarat, India to assess the effect of Ethrel, NAA and GA3 on the flowering behavior of cashew cultivar Vengurla-4 during 2013-14. Three concentrations each of GA3 (50, 75, 100 ppm), Ethrel (10, 30, 50 ppm) and NAA (50, 75, 100ppm) were applied as foliar sprays 20 days before blossoming and 20 days after full bloom in twenty year old trees of cashew cultivar Vengurla-4. Trees sprayed with 50 ppm Ethrel had significantly the highest number of flowering panicles per squaremeter (13.09), number of perfect flowers per panicle (87.11) and sex ratio (0.24) across locations and in pooled data. However, this was at par with 10 ppm Ethrel which emerged as the second best treatment of the trial. This study demonstrated the potential of Ethrel in improving various flowering parameters of cashew which are important determinations in increasing nut production

Competition of stress corrosion crack branches observed in-situ using time-lapse 3D x-ray synchrotron computed tomography

The progress of a stress corrosion crack in a sensitized AA7075 alloy was studied by in-situ x-ray synchrotron computed tomography. A load was applied to a pre-cracked specimen inside an environmental cell containing moist air and the propagation of the stress corrosion crack was observed. Measurements from the 3D image of the crack have already been shown to provide better quantification compared to observations of the crack from the outer surface. In this paper we study in detail the progress of the stress corrosion crack as it propagates through the material. We reveal how the formation of metal ligaments occurs and the competition of the ‘main’ crack and its branches. We have visualized these features to show the complexity of the local variation in crack morphology in a way that brings new insight into the interaction of the stress corrosion crack with the microstructure of the material

VITO combineert sensorplatformen met aardobservatie voor een betere monitoring van water

De huidige systemen om de toestand van het water op te volgen, voldoen vaak niet aan de noden van waterbeheerders, baggeraars, waterbedrijven, havenbeheerders, enzovoort. De data schieten tekort in kwaliteit en kwantiteit. Daarom ontwikkelt VITO een monitoringssysteem dat geautomatiseerde sensoren op onbemande vaartuigen combineert met aardobservatie: SAVEWATER. Ook het beschikbaar stellen van de data maakt deel uit van dit systeem. Het project wordt samen met de Europese ruimtevaartorganisatie ESA uitgewerkt

Gene regulation knowledge commons: community action takes care of DNA binding transcription factors

A large gap remains between the amount of knowledge in scientific literature and the fraction that gets curated into standardized databases, despite many curation initiatives. Yet the availability of comprehensive knowledge in databases is crucial for exploiting existing background knowledge, both for designing follow-up experiments and for interpreting new experimental data. Structured resources also underpin the computational integration and modeling of regulatory pathways, which further aids our understanding of regulatory dynamics. We argue how cooperation between the scientific community and professional curators can increase the capacity of capturing precise knowledge from literature. We demonstrate this with a project in which we mobilize biological domain experts who curate large amounts of DNA binding transcription factors, and show that they, although new to the field of curation, can make valuable contributions by harvesting reported knowledge from scientific papers. Such community curation can enhance the scientific epistemic process.Database URL: http://www.tfcheckpoint.org

Improving Attitude Words Classification for Opinion Mining using Word Embedding

[EN] Recognizing and classifying evaluative expressions is an important issue of sentiment analysis. This paper presents a corpus-based method for classifying attitude types (Affect, Judgment and Appreciation) and attitude orientation (positive and negative) of words in Spanish relying on the Attitude system of the Appraisal Theory. The main contribution lies in exploring large and unlabeled corpora using neural network word embedding techniques in order to obtain semantic information among words of the same attitude and orientation class. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves a good effectiveness and outperforms the state of the art for automatic classification of attitude words in Spanish language.The work of the fourth author was partially supported by the SomEMBED TIN2015-71147-C2-1-P research project (MINECO/FEDER).Ortega-Bueno, R.; Medina-Pagola, JE.; Muñiz-Cuza, CE.; Rosso, P. (2019). Improving Attitude Words Classification for Opinion Mining using Word Embedding. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 11401:971-982. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13469-3_112S9719821140

‘Where we stayed was very bad …’: migrant children’s perspectives on life in informal rented accommodation in two southern African cities

Most research and initiatives relating to children's experiences of urban space have focused on the physical environment. Housing policies in Third World countries have also emphas- ised the provision of physical infrastructure and buildings, and urban aesthetics. In this paper the authors draw on the voices of young informants from Maseru (Lesotho), and Blantyre (Malawi), who, in discussions concerning moving house, chose to talk about social and economic aspects of life in the informal sector rented accommodation that is increasingly characteristic of these and many other African cities. The children offer insight into the peopling of urban space, mapping unruly environments characterised by disorder, gossip, and social contestation, far removed from the hard technocratic spaces imagined by planners. Their observations are important not only because children represent a very large and relatively neglected proportion of African urban dwellers but also because they offer a unique insight into the dynamic character of urban environments. As close observers of adult decisionmaking processes, children are informed commentators on motivations for moving house as well as the impacts of urban environments on their own lives. Not only do the children highlight the inadequacies of the informal private rental sector but they also offer a window onto why it is inadequate

Insights from twenty years of comparative research in Pacific Large Ocean States

Under global environmental change, understanding the interactions between people and nature has become critical for human survival. Comparative research can identify trends within social-ecological systems providing key insights for both environmental and developmental research. Island systems, with clear land boundaries, have been proposed as ideal case studies for comparative research, but it is unclear to what extent their potential has been fulfilled. To summarize existing research and identify potential gaps and new directions, we reviewed comparative environmental and developmental research on Pacific Large Ocean States. A diversity of case study locations and research themes were addressed within the sample of reviewed studies. Within the reviewed literature climate change, energy infrastructure, trade and fisheries were key themes of environmental and developmental research compared between island systems. Research was biased towards wealthier Pacific Large Ocean States and those with a relatively higher degree of socio-economic development. Our review highlights the potential value of a stronger a priori inclusion of spatial scale and conceptual frameworks, such as spatial resilience, to facilitate generalization from case studies