An Efficient Monte Carlo-based Probabilistic Time-Dependent Routing Calculation Targeting a Server-Side Car Navigation System

Incorporating speed probability distribution to the computation of the route planning in car navigation systems guarantees more accurate and precise responses. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for dynamically selecting the number of samples used for the Monte Carlo simulation to solve the Probabilistic Time-Dependent Routing (PTDR) problem, thus improving the computation efficiency. The proposed method is used to determine in a proactive manner the number of simulations to be done to extract the travel-time estimation for each specific request while respecting an error threshold as output quality level. The methodology requires a reduced effort on the application development side. We adopted an aspect-oriented programming language (LARA) together with a flexible dynamic autotuning library (mARGOt) respectively to instrument the code and to take tuning decisions on the number of samples improving the execution efficiency. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed adaptive approach saves a large fraction of simulations (between 36% and 81%) with respect to a static approach while considering different traffic situations, paths and error requirements. Given the negligible runtime overhead of the proposed approach, it results in an execution-time speedup between 1.5x and 5.1x. This speedup is reflected at infrastructure-level in terms of a reduction of around 36% of the computing resources needed to support the whole navigation pipeline

Caracterização da violência contra crianças e adolescentes

Violence against children and adolescents has been perpetrated over the years and with the emergence of programs for the protection of these victims, there has been an increase in the notification of cases of abuse, mainly practiced by parents in the home environment. Among the numerous risk factors present in violence against children and adolescents are parents with emotional or financial instability, unemployment, low educationlevel and drugs use. These types of violence can be psychological, physical, sexual, negligent or sexually exploited. This article aims to identify the violence committed against. La violencia contra los niños y adolescentes se ha perpetrado a lo largo de los años y, con el surgimiento de programas para proteger a estas víctimas, se ha incrementado la notificación de casos de maltrato, principalmente practicado por los padres en el ámbito familiar. Entre los numerosos factores de riesgo presentes en la violencia contra los niños y adolescentes se encuentran los padres con inestabilidad emocional o económica, el desempleo, la baja escolaridad y el consumo de drogas. Dicha violencia puede ser psicológica, física, sexual, negligencia o explotación sexual. Este artículo tiene como objetivo identificar las violencias cometidas contra niños y adolescentes, caracterizar el perfil del agresor y de la víctima y analizar los cambios de comportamiento en víctimas de maltrato.A violência contra crianças e adolescentes tem se perpetrado ao longo dos anos e, com o surgimento de programas para a proteção dessas vítimas, houve o aumento da notificação de casos de maus-tratos, sendo principalmente praticados pelos progenitores em ambiente domiciliar. Dentre os inúmeros fatores de risco presentes na violência contra crianças e adolescentes estão os pais com instabilidade emocional ou financeira, desemprego, baixa escolaridade e uso de drogas. Essas violências podem ser de teor psicológico, físico, sexual, por negligência ou por exploração sexual. O presente artigo tem como objetivo identificar as violências cometidas contra as crianças e adolescentes, caracterizar o perfil do agressor e da vítima e analisar as mudanças de comportamento nas vítimas dos maus-tratos

Methyl CpG–binding proteins induce large-scale chromatin reorganization during terminal differentiation

Pericentric heterochromatin plays an important role in epigenetic gene regulation. We show that pericentric heterochromatin aggregates during myogenic differentiation. This clustering leads to the formation of large chromocenters and correlates with increased levels of the methyl CpG–binding protein MeCP2 and pericentric DNA methylation. Ectopic expression of fluorescently tagged MeCP2 mimicked this effect, causing a dose-dependent clustering of chromocenters in the absence of differentiation. MeCP2-induced rearrangement of heterochromatin occurred throughout interphase, did not depend on the H3K9 histone methylation pathway, and required the methyl CpG–binding domain (MBD) only. Similar to MeCP2, another methyl CpG–binding protein, MBD2, also increased during myogenic differentiation and could induce clustering of pericentric regions, arguing for functional redundancy. This MeCP2- and MBD2-mediated chromatin reorganization may thus represent a molecular link between nuclear genome topology and the epigenetic maintenance of cellular differentiation

INFLUENCE OF EMOTIONAL DETERMINANTS ON THE FOOD CHOICES OF THE PORTUGUESE

Food choices are influenced by many factors, such as emotional. When people eat, driven by emotional factors, they often lose control, which may lead to eating disorders. Therefore, this work aimed at studying the influence that emotional determinants had on people’s food choices. It was undertaken a descriptive cross-sectional study by means of a questionnaire on a non-probabilistic sample of 1314 participants. The data was collected among a sample of the Portuguese population and measured if people´s food choices were influenced by emotional determinants.The results revealed that the participants’ food choices were, in general, slightly influenced by emotional determinants (mean scores between –0.5 and 0.5, on a scale from –2 to +2). There were found significant differences in all of the variables under study. The participants, who already experienced an episode of binge-eating, were the ones that obtained the highest mean score (0.63±0.79), meaning that in this case those participants’ food choices were influenced by emotional determinants. These results support the premise that emotional determinants are influenced by the characteristics of each individual and also the existence of a positive association between emotional eating and the presence of eating disorders, especially, binge-eating

Vaccination of Mice with Salmonella Expressing VapA: Mucosal and Systemic Th1 Responses Provide Protection against Rhodococcus equi Infection

Conventional vaccines to prevent the pneumonia caused by Rhodococcus equi have not been successful. We have recently demonstrated that immunization with Salmonella enterica Typhimurium expressing the VapA antigen protects mice against R. equi infection. We now report that oral vaccination of mice with this recombinant strain results in high and persistent fecal levels of antigen-specific IgA, and specific proliferation of the spleen cells of immunized mice in response to the in vitro stimulation with R. equi antigen. After in vitro stimulation, spleen cells of immunized mice produce high levels of Th1 cytokines and show a prominent mRNA expression of the Th1 transcription factor T-bet, in detriment of the Th2 transcription factor GATA-3. Following R. equi challenge, a high H2O2, NO, IL-12, and IFN-γ content is detected in the organs of immunized mice. On the other hand, TNF-α and IL-4 levels are markedly lower in the organs of vaccinated mice, compared with the non-vaccinated ones. The IL-10 content and the mRNA transcription level of TGF-β are also higher in the organs of immunized mice. A greater incidence of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and B lymphocytes is verified in vaccinated mice. However, there is no difference between vaccinated and non-vaccinated mice in terms of the frequency of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ T cells. Finally, we show that the vaccination confers a long-term protection against R. equi infection. Altogether, these data indicate that the oral vaccination of mice with S. enterica Typhimurium expressing VapA induces specific and long-lasting humoral and cellular responses against the pathogen, which are appropriately regulated and allow tissue integrity after challenge

Extraction of agar from Gelidium corneum using an alternative heating technology

Traditional polysaccharides extraction processes are often performed under heating which makes them time-, energy- and solvent-consuming. The aim of this work was to assess the possibility of using ohmic heating to replace conventional heating in the extraction of seaweed hydrocolloids. This technology is able to heat almost instantaneously the whole volume to be treated, using the ability that most materials have to dissipate energy as heat. As a result, it is energetically much more efficient, with efficiencies well above 95%. In traditional boilers, energetic efficiency is usually around 70-80%. This implies that the energetic efficiency of traditional extraction is below these values, as we have also to account for energy losses in the pipelines and in the extractor. The extraction of agar from Gelidium corneum (sesquipedale) was chosen as a model process due to the high temperatures and energy input needed. All traditional and ohmic extractions were made with a ratio of 50 g of water: 1 g of seaweed at 95 °C, for 2 hours on seaweeds pre-treated with NaOH and neutralized with diluted acetic acid. For the ohmic system, the voltage was set at 600 V and the distance between electrodes was 10 cm. The yields achieved (around 15-20%) were similar in both traditional and ohmic extractions. Gelling ability, sulphate and 3-6-anydrogalactose contents were also in the same range resulting in agars with similar functional properties. Ohmic heating is thus an energetically more efficient alternative to the conventional process of extraction of agar from seaweeds without impairing its functional properties. Besides the evident energy efficiency advantage, steam (and thus boiler blowdown) savings also constitute an important environmental improvement

Clear-water scour at comparatively large cylindrical piers

New long-duration clear-water scour data were collected at single cylindrical piers with the objective of investigating the effect of sediment coarseness, Dp=D50 (Dp = pier diameter; D50 = median grain size) on the equilibrium scour depth and improving the scour depth time evolution modeling by making use of the exponential function suggested in the literature. Experiments were carried out for the flow intensity close to the threshold condition of initiation of sediment motion, imposing wide changes of sediment coarseness and flow shallowness, d=Dp (d = approach flow depth). The effect of sediment coarseness on the equilibrium scour depth was identified; existing predictors were modified to incorporate this effect for U=Uc ≈ 1.0; Dp=D50 > ≈60 and d=Dp ≥ 0.5; the complete characterization of a known scour depth time evolution model was achieved for U=Uc ≈ 1.0, 60 < Dp=D50 < 500 and 0.5 ≤ d=Dp ≤ 5.0

Antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii and Leishmania spp. in domestic cats from Luanda, Angola

Toxoplasma gondii and Leishmania spp. are zoonotic protozoa of importance to animal and public health. The present study aimed to assess for the first time the seroprevalence of these zoonotic parasites in a domestic feline population living in Luanda, Angola. One hundred and two cats were sampled at a veterinary medical centre, from May 2014 to February 2016. The age of the cats ranged from 2.5 to 143 months (median: 12 months; interquartile range: 7.5–24). Serum samples were tested for immunoglobulin (Ig) G antibodies to T. gondii at two-fold dilutions of 1:20 to 1:2560 with a modified agglutination test (MAT) commercial kit. The direct agglutination test (DAT) for titration of IgG antibodies specific to Leishmania spp. used a standard freeze-dried antigen at a concentration of 5 × 10 7 promastigotes per milliliter, following a predefined protocol. Two-fold dilution series ranging from 1:25 to 1:800 were tested, with a cut-off titre of 100 chosen for seropositivity. Four out of 102 cats (3.9%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1–9.7) had antibodies to T. gondii: one had a titer of 20, one a titer of 160, and two had a titer ≥ 2560. No cat (0.0%; CI: 0.0–3.5) was found seropositive for Leishmania spp. A statistically significant difference was found between T. gondii seroprevalence and Leishmania spp. seroprevalence (p = 0.043). The odds of a cat being seropositive to T. gondii increased by an average factor of 1.58 for each 1-year increase in age (p = 0.003). The sampled cats were well-cared animals and may not represent the overall feline population of Angola at the national and city levels. The fact that only 12 out of the 102 sampled cats ate or had access to raw or undercooked meat and/or viscera may have reduced the likelihood of finding seropositive results. Under these circumstances, additional studies, including a larger number of cats, are necessary for a more comprehensive assessment of the zoonotic risk posed by these animals in Angola.The authors would like to express their gratitude to Hugo Vilhena for his logistic support. This work was sponsored by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Ministry of Education and Science, Portugal, under the Projects UID/CVT/00772/2013 and UID/CVT/ 0772/2016.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Development of a Questionnaire to Assess Knowledge and Perceptions about Edible Insects

Edible insects (EI) have been consumed as traditional foods in many parts of the globe, but in other regions, they are not readily accepted, particularly in Western countries. However, because EI are suggested to constitute a more sustainable protein food as compared with other sources of animal protein, they can be considered a future food that could help mitigate hunger and malnutrition. Additionally, new gastronomic trends are already targeting this area for exploring new potentialities. The objective of this work was to develop and validate a questionnaire to assess consumers’ perceptions and knowledge about EI in seven different domains: D1. Culture and Tradition, D2. Gastronomic Innovation and Gourmet Kitchen, D3. Environment and Sustainability, D4. Economic and Social Aspects, D5. Commercialization and Marketing, D6. Nutritional Aspects and D7. Health Effects. The 64 items were subjected to item analysis and reliability analysis for validation, and factor analysis was also conducted to identify a grouping structure. The results validated all the items of the seven subscales with high values of Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.732 for D1, α = 0.795 for D2, α = 0.882 for D3, α = 0.742 for D4, α = 0.675 for D5, α = 0.799 for D6 and α = 0.788 for D7). However, by eliminating 17 items, the final values of the alpha increased in all subscales. Factor analysis with extraction by principal component analysis with varimax rotation extracted 14 factors that explained, in total, 65% of the variance, although the first two factors were the most important (35.7% variance explained). In conclusion, the confirmed usefulness of the questionnaire has been hereby validated for assessing consumer perceptions of and knowledge about EI.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pegasus: Performance Engineering for Software Applications Targeting HPC Systems

Developing and optimizing software applications for high performance and energy efficiency is a very challenging task, even when considering a single target machine. For instance, optimizing for multicore-based computing systems requires in-depth knowledge about programming languages, application programming interfaces, compilers, performance tuning tools, and computer architecture and organization. Many of the tasks of performance engineering methodologies require manual efforts and the use of different tools not always part of an integrated toolchain. This paper presents Pegasus, a performance engineering approach supported by a framework that consists of a source-to-source compiler, controlled and guided by strategies programmed in a Domain-Specific Language, and an autotuner. Pegasus is a holistic and versatile approach spanning various decision layers composing the software stack, and exploiting the system capabilities and workloads effectively through the use of runtime autotuning. The Pegasus approach helps developers by automating tasks regarding the efficient implementation of software applications in multicore computing systems. These tasks focus on application analysis, profiling, code transformations, and the integration of runtime autotuning. Pegasus allows developers to program their strategies or to automatically apply existing strategies to software applications in order to ensure the compliance of non-functional requirements, such as performance and energy efficiency. We show how to apply Pegasus and demonstrate its applicability and effectiveness in a complex case study, which includes tasks from a smart navigation system