Influência da velocidade específica de crescimento de Monascus purpureus ATCC36928 na produção de pigmentos vermelhos

Os pigmentos vermelhos produzidos por Monascus sp são substitutos de sais de nitrito (conservantes), os quais são precursores de nitrosamina (cancerígeno). O objetivo deste trabalho foi desenvolver o processo de cultivo contínuo para averbar a produção de pigmentos vermelhos estabelecendo valor adequado da velocidade específica de crescimento (μ), apresentado dados de viabilidade celular e morfologia microbiana. Não há na literatura relatos da aplicação de tal processo para Monascus purpureus ATCC36928. Os valores de D aplicados foram de 0,05 h-1, 0,025 h-1 e 0,1 h-1 (μmáx é de 0,15h-1). O maior valor da produção específica de pigmentos vermelhos (0,51UL.g) deu-se sob o menor valor de μ aplicado (0,025h-1) comparando-se à situação, de μ=0,1h-1, para a qual obteve-se 0,22UL.g-1. Menor viabilidade na condição de menor μ aplicado (0,025h-1), com perdas de 32%. A redução do valor de μ resultou no aumento do comprimento das hifas (20%) e do grau de ramificação (240%)

Robotic ubiquitous cognitive ecology for smart homes

Robotic ecologies are networks of heterogeneous robotic devices pervasively embedded in everyday environments, where they cooperate to perform complex tasks. While their potential makes them increasingly popular, one fundamental problem is how to make them both autonomous and adaptive, so as to reduce the amount of preparation, pre-programming and human supervision that they require in real world applications. The project RUBICON develops learning solutions which yield cheaper, adaptive and efficient coordination of robotic ecologies. The approach we pursue builds upon a unique combination of methods from cognitive robotics, machine learning, planning and agent- based control, and wireless sensor networks. This paper illustrates the innovations advanced by RUBICON in each of these fronts before describing how the resulting techniques have been integrated and applied to a smart home scenario. The resulting system is able to provide useful services and pro-actively assist the users in their activities. RUBICON learns through an incremental and progressive approach driven by the feed- back received from its own activities and from the user, while also self-organizing the manner in which it uses available sensors, actuators and other functional components in the process. This paper summarises some of the lessons learned by adopting such an approach and outlines promising directions for future work

Quantized spin waves in the metallic state of magnetoresistive manganites

High resolution spin waves measurements have been carried out in ferromagnetic (F) La(1-x)(Sr,Ca)xMnO3 with x(Sr)=0.15, 0.175, 0.2, 0.3 and x(Ca)=0.3. In all q-directions, close to the zone boundary, the spin wave spectra consist of several energy levels, with the same values in the metallic and the x\approx 1/8 ranges. Mainly the intensity varies, jumping from the lower energy levels determined in the x\approx 1/8 range to the higher energy ones observed in the metallic state. On the basis of a quantitative agreement found for x(Sr)=0.15 in a model of ordered 2D clusters, the spin wave anomalies of the metallic state can be interpreted in terms of quantized spin waves within the same 2D clusters, embedded in a 3D matrix.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Automated Planning Techniques for Robot Manipulation Tasks Involving Articulated Objects

The goal-oriented manipulation of articulated objects plays an important role in real-world robot tasks. Current approaches typically pose a number of simplifying assumptions to reason upon how to obtain an articulated object’s goal configuration, and exploit ad hoc algorithms. The consequence is two-fold: firstly, it is difficult to generalise obtained solutions (in terms of actions a robot can execute) to different target object’s configurations and, in a broad sense, to different object’s physical characteristics; secondly, the representation and the reasoning layers are tightly coupled and inter-dependent. In this paper we investigate the use of automated planning techniques for dealing with articulated objects manipulation tasks. Such techniques allow for a clear separation between knowledge and reasoning, as advocated in Knowledge Engineering. We introduce two PDDL formulations of the task, which rely on conceptually different representations of the orientation of the objects. Experiments involving several planners and increasing size objects demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed models, and confirm its exploitability when embedded in a real-world robot software architecture

Decreased Gas6 and sAxl Plasma Levels Are Associated with Hair Loss in COVID-19 Survivors

: Post-acute conditions after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are quite common, although the underlying pathogenetic mechanisms leading to these conditions are not yet completely understood. In this prospective observational study, we aimed to test the hypothesis that Growth Arrest-Specific 6 (Gas6) and its soluble receptors, Axl (sAxl) and MerTK (sMer), might be implicated. A total of 263 subjects underwent a structured clinical evaluation one year after their hospital discharge for COVID-19, and they consented to donate a blood sample to measure their circulating Gas6, sAxl, and sMer levels. A total of 98 (37.3%) post-COVID-19 subjects complained of at least one residual physical symptom one year after their hospital discharge. Univariate analysis revealed that sAxl was marginally associated with residual symptoms, but at the level of logistic regression analysis, only the diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide (DLCO) (OR 0.98, CI 95%: 0.96-0.99; p = 0.007) and the female sex (OR 2.49, CI 95%: 1.45-4.28; p = 0.001) were independently associated with long-lasting symptoms. A total of 69 (26.2%) subjects had hair loss. At the level of univariate analysis, Gas6, sAxl, DLCO, and the female gender were associated with its development. In a logistic regression analysis model, Gas6 (OR 0.96, CI 95%: 0.92-0.99; p = 0.015) and sAxl (OR 0.98, CI 95%; 0.97-1.0; p = 0.014), along with the female sex (OR 6.58, CI 95%: 3.39-12.78; p = 0.0001), were independent predictors of hair loss. Decreased levels of Gas6 and sAxl were associated with a history of hair loss following COVID-19. This was resolved spontaneously in most patients, although 23.7% complained of persistent hair loss one year after hospital discharge

FMAP: Distributed Cooperative Multi-Agent Planning

This paper proposes FMAP (Forward Multi-Agent Planning), a fully-distributed multi-agent planning method that integrates planning and coordination. Although FMAP is specifically aimed at solving problems that require cooperation among agents, the flexibility of the domain-independent planning model allows FMAP to tackle multi-agent planning tasks of any type. In FMAP, agents jointly explore the plan space by building up refinement plans through a complete and flexible forward-chaining partial-order planner. The search is guided by h D T G , a novel heuristic function that is based on the concepts of Domain Transition Graph and frontier state and is optimized to evaluate plans in distributed environments. Agents in FMAP apply an advanced privacy model that allows them to adequately keep private information while communicating only the data of the refinement plans that is relevant to each of the participating agents. Experimental results show that FMAP is a general-purpose approach that efficiently solves tightly-coupled domains that have specialized agents and cooperative goals as well as loosely-coupled problems. Specifically, the empirical evaluation shows that FMAP outperforms current MAP systems at solving complex planning tasks that are adapted from the International Planning Competition benchmarks.This work has been partly supported by the Spanish MICINN under projects Consolider Ingenio 2010 CSD2007-00022 and TIN2011-27652-C03-01, the Valencian Prometeo project II/2013/019, and the FPI-UPV scholarship granted to the first author by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Torreño Lerma, A.; Onaindia De La Rivaherrera, E.; Sapena Vercher, O. (2014). FMAP: Distributed Cooperative Multi-Agent Planning. Applied Intelligence. 41(2):606-626. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-014-0540-2S606626412Benton J, Coles A, Coles A (2012) Temporal planning with preferences and time-dependent continuous costs. 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The still under-investigated role of cognitive deficits in PML diagnosis.

Background Despite cognitive deficits frequently represent the first clinical manifestations of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML) in Natalizumab-treated MS patients, the importance of cognitive deficits in PML diagnosis is still under-investigated. The aim of the current study is to investigate the cognitive deficits at PML diagnosis in a group of Italian patients with PML. Methods Thirty-four PML patients were included in the study. The demographic and clinical data, the lesion load and localization, and the longitudinal clinical course was compared between patients with (n = 13) and without (n = 15) cognitive deficit upon PML suspicion (the remaining six patients were asymptomatic). Clinical presentation of cognitive symptoms was described in detail. Result After symptoms detection, the time to diagnosis resulted to be shorter for patients presenting with cognitive than for patients with non cognitive onset (p = 0.03). Within patients with cognitive onset, six patients were presenting with language and/or reading difficulties (46.15%); five patients with memory difficulties (38.4%); three patients with apraxia (23.1%); two patients with disorientation (15.3%); two patients with neglect (15.3%); one patients with object agnosia (7.7%), one patient with perseveration (7.7%) and one patient with dementia (7.7%). Frontal lesions were less frequent (p = 0.03), whereas temporal lesions were slightly more frequent (p = 0.06) in patients with cognitive deficits. The longitudinal PML course seemed to be more severe in cognitive than in non cognitive patients (F = 2.73, p = 0.03), but differences disappeared (F = 1.24, p = 0.29) when balancing for the incidence of immune reconstitution syndrome and for other treatments for PML (steroids, plasma exchange (PLEX) and other therapies (Mefloquine, Mirtazapine, Maraviroc). Conclusion Cognitive deficits at PML onset manifest with symptoms which are absolutely rare in MS. Their appearance in MS patients should strongly suggest PML. Clinicians should be sensitive to the importance of formal neuropsychological evaluation, with particular focus on executive function, which are not easily detected without a formal assessment

Upregulation of mGlu2 receptors via NF-kB p65 acetylation is involved in the proneurogenic and antidepressant effects of acetyl-L-carnitine

Acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) is a naturally occurring molecule with an important role in cellular bioenergetics and as donor of acetyl groups to proteins, including NF-kappa B p65. In humans, exogenously administered ALC has been shown to be effective in mood disturbances, with a good tolerability profile. No current information is available on the antidepressant effect of ALC in animal models of depression and on the putative mechanism involved in such effect. Here we report that ALC is a proneurogenic molecule, whose effect on neuronal differentiation of adult hippocampal neural progenitors is independent of its neuroprotective activity. The in vitro proneurogenic effects of ALC appear to be mediated by activation of the NF-kappa B pathway, and in particular by p65 acetylation, and subsequent NF-kappa B-mediated upregulation of metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (mGlu2) expression. When tested in vivo, chronic ALC treatment could revert depressive-like behavior caused by unpredictable chronic mild stress, a rodent model of depression with high face validity and predictivity, and its behavioral effect correlated with upregulated expression of mGlu2 receptor in hippocampi of stressed mice. Moreover, chronic, but not acute or subchronic, drug treatment significantly increased adult born neurons in hippocampi of stressed and unstressed mice. We now propose that this mechanism could be potentially involved in the antidepressant effect of ALC in humans. These results are potentially relevant from a clinical perspective, as for its high tolerability profile ALC may be ideally employed in patient subpopulations who are sensitive to the side effects associated with classical antidepressant