DogOnt - Ontology Modeling for Intelligent Domotic Environments

Abstract. Home automation has recently gained a new momentum thanks to the ever-increasing commercial availability of domotic components. In this context, researchers are working to provide interoperation mechanisms and to add intelligence on top of them. For supporting intelligent behaviors, house modeling is an essential requirement to understand current and future house states and to possibly drive more complex actions. In this paper we propose a new house modeling ontology designed to fit real world domotic system capabilities and to support interoperation between currently available and future solutions. Taking advantage of technologies developed in the context of the Semantic Web, the DogOnt ontology supports device/network independent description of houses, including both “controllable ” and architectural elements. States and functionalities are automatically associated to the modeled elements through proper inheritance mechanisms and by means of properly defined SWRL auto-completion rules which ease the modeling process, while automatic device recognition is achieved through classification reasoning.

Interleukin-4 (IL-4) enhances and soluble interleukin-4 receptor (sIL-4R) inhibits histamine release from peripheral blood basophils and mast cells in vitro and in vivo

The aim of the study was to analyse the effect of interleukin-4 (IL-4) on allergen and anti-IgE mediated histamine release from basophils and human skin mast cells and to assess whether soluble recombinant interleukin-4 receptor (sIL4R) can inhibit these effects. Anti-IgE stimulated histamine release from peripheral blood basophils and mast cells of atopic donors was enhanced after preincubation with IL-4, whereas after preincubation with sIL-4R it was inhibited. These effects were even more pronounced when samples were stimulated with a clinically relevant allergen. In IL-4 preincubated skin mast cells, there was a similar enhancement of anti-IgE stimulated histamine release, which could again be inhibited by sIL-4R. The effects of IL-4 and sIL4R were dose- and time-dependent. Mice sensitized to ovalbumin and treated with soluble recombinant murine sIL-4R showed significantly reduced immediate-type cutaneous hypersensitivity responses compared with untreated mice. These in vivo effects were IgE independent, since there were no significant differences in total and allergen specific IgE/IgG1 antibody titres between treated and untreated mice. This indicates that IL4 exerts priming effects on histamine release by effector cells of the allergic response and that these effects are potently antagonized by soluble IL-4R both in vitro and in vivo

Concerted reductive coupling of an alkyl chloride at Pt(IV)

Oxidation of a doubly cyclometallated platinum(II) complex results in two isomeric platinum(IV) complexes. Whereas the trans isomer is robust, being manipulable in air at room temperature, the cis isomer decomposes at −20 °C and above. Reductive coupling of an alkyl chloride at the cis isomer gives a new species which can be reoxidised. The independence of this coupling on additional halide rules out the reverse of an SN2 reaction, leaving a concerted process as the only sensible reaction pathway

Diverse immune mechanisms of allergen immunotherapy for allergic rhinitis with and without asthma

Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Allergen immunotherapy (AIT) is an effective treatment for allergic rhinitis, inducing long-term clinical tolerance to the sensitizing allergen. Clinical tolerance induction can be achieved when AIT is administered for at least 3 years. AIT is associated with the modulation of innate and adaptive immune systems. This comprises inhibition of IgE-dependent activation of mast cells and basophils in the local target organ, suppression of TH2 cells, immune deviation toward TH1 cells, induction of T and B regulatory cells, and production of allergen-neutralizing antibodies. However, recent developments in their underpinning mechanisms have revealed that AIT, administered subcutaneously or sublingually, induces immune regulation through novel cell targets and molecular mechanisms. This comprehensive review discusses how immune tolerance driven by subcutaneous immunotherapy and sublingual immunotherapy is associated with the induction of a novel regulatory subset of innate lymphoid cells and suppression of proinflammatory TH2, allergen-specific TH2 (TH2A), and T follicular helper cells. Moreover, they are associated with exhaustion of TH2A cells and differential expression of nasal and systemic IgA antibodies. Uncovering the underpinning mechanisms of a successful AIT and immune tolerance induction will allow the development of targeted therapeutics for allergic rhinitis with and without asthma

Safety, tolerability, and impact on allergic inflammation of autologous E.coli autovaccine in the treatment of house dust mite asthma - a prospective open clinical trial

Background: Asthma is increasing worldwide and results from a complex immunological interaction between genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. Autovaccination with E. coli induces a strong TH-1 immune response, thus offering an option for the treatment of allergic diseases. Methods: Prospective open trial on safety, tolerability, and impact on allergic inflammation of an autologous E.coli autovaccine in intermittent or mild persistent house dust mite asthma. Determination of exhaled nitric monoxide (eNO) before and after bronchial mite challenge initially and after nine months of autovaccination. Results: Median eNO increase after autovaccination was significantly smaller (from 27.3 to 33.8 ppb; p=0.334) compared to initial values (from 32.6 to 42.2 ppb; p=0.046) (p=0.034). In nine subjects and a total of 306 injections, we observed 101 episodes of local erythema (33.3%; median of maximal diameter 2.5 cm), 95 episodes of local swelling (31.1%; median of maximal diameter 3 cm), and 27 episodes of local pain (8.8%). Four subjects reported itching at the injection site with a total of 30 episodes (9.8%). We observed no serious adverse events. All organ functions (inclusive electrocardiogramm) and laboratory testing of the blood (clinical chemistry, hematology) and the urine (screening test, B-microglobuline) were within normal limits. Vital signs undulated within the physiological variability. Conclusion: The administration of autologous autovacine for the treatment of house dust mite asthma resulted in a reduction of the eNO increase upon bronchial mite challenge. In nine subjects and 306 injections, only a few mild local reactions and no systemic severe adverse events were observed. EudraCT Nr. 2005-005534-12 ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT0067720

Modal Logics of Topological Relations

Logical formalisms for reasoning about relations between spatial regions play a fundamental role in geographical information systems, spatial and constraint databases, and spatial reasoning in AI. In analogy with Halpern and Shoham's modal logic of time intervals based on the Allen relations, we introduce a family of modal logics equipped with eight modal operators that are interpreted by the Egenhofer-Franzosa (or RCC8) relations between regions in topological spaces such as the real plane. We investigate the expressive power and computational complexity of logics obtained in this way. It turns out that our modal logics have the same expressive power as the two-variable fragment of first-order logic, but are exponentially less succinct. The complexity ranges from (undecidable and) recursively enumerable to highly undecidable, where the recursively enumerable logics are obtained by considering substructures of structures induced by topological spaces. As our undecidability results also capture logics based on the real line, they improve upon undecidability results for interval temporal logics by Halpern and Shoham. We also analyze modal logics based on the five RCC5 relations, with similar results regarding the expressive power, but weaker results regarding the complexity

Inhibition of human DNA topoisomerase II by hydroquinone and p-benzoquinone, reactive metabolites of benzene.

Chronic exposure of humans to benzene (BZ) causes acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Both BZ and therapy-related secondary AML are characterized by chromosomal translocations that may occur by inappropriate recombinational events. DNA topoisomerase II (topo II) is an essential sulfhydryl (SH)-dependent endonuclease required for replication, recombination, chromosome segregation, and chromosome structure. Topo II cleaves DNA at purine(R)/pyrimidine(Y) repeat sequences that have been shown to be highly recombinogenic in vivo. Certain antineoplastic drugs stabilize topo II-DNA cleavage complexes at RY repeat sequences, which leads to translocations of the type observed in leukemia. Hydroquinone (HQ) is metabolized to p-benzoquinone (BQ) in a peroxidase-mediated reaction in myeloid progenitor cells. BQ interacts wit SH groups of SH-dependent enzymes. Consequently, the aims of this research were to determine whether HQ and BQ are topo II inhibitors. The ability of the compounds to inhibit the activity of topo III was tested using an assay system that depends on the conversion, by homogeneous human topo II, of catenated kinetoplast DNA into open and/or nicked open circular DNA that can be separated from the catenated DNA by electrophoresis in a 1% agarose-ethidium bromide gel. We provide preliminary data that indicate that both HQ and BQ cause a time and concentration (microM)-dependent inhibition of topo II activity. These compounds, which potentially can form adducts with DNA, have no effect on the migration of the supercoiled and open circular forms in the electrophoretic gradient, and BQ-adducted KDNA can be decatenated by topo II. Using a pRYG plasmid DNA with a single RY repeat as a cleavage site, it was determined that BQ does not stimulate the production of linear DNA indicative of an inhibition of topo II religation of strand breaks by stabilization of the covalent topo III-DNA cleavage complex. Rather, BQ most probably inhibits the SH-dependent topo II by binding to an essential SH group. The inhibition of topo II by BQ has implications for the formation of deleterious translocations that may be involved in BZ-induced initiation of leukemogenesis