Thesaurus-based search in large heterogeneous collections

In cultural heritage, large virtual collections are coming into existence. Such collections contain heterogeneous sets of metadata and vocabulary concepts, originating from multiple sources. In the context of the E-Culture demonstrator we have shown earlier that such virtual collections can be effectively explored with keyword search and semantic clustering. In this paper we describe the design rationale of ClioPatria, an open-source system which provides APIs for scalable semantic graph search. The use of ClioPatria’s search strategies is illustrated with a realistic use case: searching for ”Picasso”. We discuss details of scalable graph search, the required OWL reasoning functionalities and show why SPARQL queries are insufficient for solving the search problem

Tomato susceptibility to Alternaria stem canker:Parameters involved in host-specific toxin-induced leaf necrosis

AAL-toxin causes severe necrosis in leaves of susceptible tomato cultivars at nanomolar concentrations. In resistant tomato cultivars harbouring the semi-dominant Alternaria stem canker resistance locus necrosis is also observed, however at much higher toxin concentrations, in both lines the percentage of the leaf area exhibiting necrosis is dependent on toxin concentration and on length of toxin exposure. However, at the same toxin concentration, periods of toxin exposure resulting in similar necrosis are much longer for the resistant than for the susceptible tomato. It was demonstrated that toxin uptake in the leaves does not imply toxin uptake in the cells since a discrepancy was observed between death of protoplasts, isolated from leaves cut for protoplast isolation immediately after incubation on AAL-toxin and necrosis in leaves when further incubated on water. However, when after exposure to AAL-toxin leaves were further incubated on water for 24 h before they were cut for protoplast isolation, a correlation was found between leaf necrosis and death of protoplasts. This suggests that further transport is needed in leaves after toxin uptake, bringing toxin to all the cells, that cannot occur in leaves cut for protoplast isolation. Light plays an important role in AAL-toxin induced necrosis and it was shown that length of light exposure controls necrosis development like toxin concentration and length of toxin exposure. The product of these 3 parameters can provide a good hint to predict the extent of leaf necrosis. The effect of light might be restricted to differentiated leaf tissue, since it was not observed in callus tissue

Students’ and Teachers’ Experiences With the Implementation of Problem-Based Learning at a University Law School

A few years ago, the Erasmus School of Law implemented problem-based learning (PBL) as an instructional method in the bachelor’s program. Transition to a PBL program often brings some difficulties for the teaching staff. To find out whether the implementation at the Erasmus School of Law has been successful, students and teachers were asked about their experiences with and perceptions of the PBL program. Both students and teachers reported positive study behaviors, such as regular studying and active involvement of students as a result of PBL. However, some issues also arose after implementing PBL: staff members reported dissatisfaction regarding the PBL program and students reported feelings of insufficient preparation for the legal profession. Recommendations on how to address these issues are discussed

Nuclear DDX3 expression predicts poor outcome in colorectal and breast cancer

Purpose: DEAD box protein 3 (DDX3) is an RNA helicase with oncogenic properties that shuttles between the cytoplasm and nucleus. The majority of DDX3 is found in the cytoplasm, but a subset of tumors has distinct nuclear DDX3 localization of yet unknown biological significance. This study aimed to evaluate the significance of and mechanisms behind nuclear DDX3 expression in colorectal and breast cancer. Methods: Expression of nuclear DDX3 and the nuclear exporter chromosome region maintenance 1 (CRM1) was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in 304 colorectal and 292 breast cancer patient samples. Correlations between the subcellular localization of DDX3 and CRM1 and the difference in overall survival between patients with and without nuclear DDX3 were studied. In addition, DDX3 mutants were created for in vitro evaluation of the mechanism behind nuclear retention of DDX3. Results: DDX3 was present in the nucleus of 35% of colorectal and 48% of breast cancer patient samples and was particularly strong in the nucleolus. Nuclear DDX3 correlated with worse overall survival in both colorectal (hazard ratio [HR] 2.34, P<0.001) and breast cancer (HR 2.39, P=0.004) patients. Colorectal cancers with nuclear DDX3 expression more often had cytoplasmic expression of the nuclear exporter CRM1 (relative risk 1.67, P=0.04). In vitro analysis of DDX3 deletion mutants demonstrated that CRM1-mediated export was most dependent on the N-terminal nuclear export signal. Conclusion: Overall, we conclude that nuclear DDX3 is partially CRM1-mediated and predicts worse survival in colorectal and breast cancer patients, putting it forward as a target for therapeutic intervention with DDX3 inhibitors under development in these cancer types

Searching in semantically rich linked data: a case study in cultural heritage

Traditionally the relations between concepts from a controlled vocabulary, such as the hierarchical and associative relations in a thesaurus, have been used to support users in their search process. In the context of the Semantic Web, multiple interlinked vocabularies are becoming available, providing a large number of different relations between concepts. However, for a specific search task, only a small fraction of these will be meaningful to the user, and currently we have little understanding of which methods can be used to determine this. In this paper, we describe a case study in the cultural heritage domain that investigates support for the specific task of finding artworks in a data set of multiple linked art collections and vocabularies. In a first experiment a number of use cases from domain experts ar

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy-Derived Dynamic Cerebral Autoregulation in Experimental Human Endotoxemia-An Exploratory Study

Cerebral perfusion may be altered in sepsis patients. However, there are conflicting findings on cerebral autoregulation (CA) in healthy participants undergoing the experimental endotoxemia protocol, a proxy for systemic inflammation in sepsis. In the current study, a newly developed near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)-based CA index is investigated in an endotoxemia study population, together with an index of focal cerebral oxygenation. Methods: Continuous-wave NIRS data were obtained from 11 healthy participants receiving a continuous infusion of bacterial endotoxin for 3 h (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02922673) under extensive physiological monitoring. Oxygenated–deoxygenated hemoglobin phase differences in the (very)low frequency (VLF/LF) bands and the Tissue Saturation Index (TSI) were calculated at baseline, during systemic inflammation, and at the end of the experiment 7 h after the initiation of endotoxin administration. Results: The median (inter-quartile range) LF phase difference was 16.2° (3.0–52.6°) at baseline and decreased to 3.9° (2.0–8.8°) at systemic inflammation (p = 0.03). The LF phase difference increased from systemic inflammation to 27.6° (12.7–67.5°) at the end of the experiment (p = 0.005). No significant changes in VLF phase difference were observed. The TSI (mean ± SD) increased from 63.7 ± 3.4% at baseline to 66.5 ± 2.8% during systemic inflammation (p = 0.03) and remained higher at the end of the experiment (67.1 ± 4.2%, p = 0.04). Further analysis did not reveal a major influence of changes in several covariates such as blood pressure, heart rate, PaCO(2), and temperature, although some degree of interaction could not be excluded. Discussion: A reversible decrease in NIRS-derived cerebral autoregulation phase difference was seen after endotoxin infusion, with a small, sustained increase in TSI. These findings suggest that endotoxin administration in healthy participants reversibly impairs CA, accompanied by sustained microvascular vasodilation

Susceptibility of Thymocytes for Infection by Chicken Anemia Virus is Related to Pre- and Posthatching Development

To investigate the age-dependent mechanism of susceptibility for chicken anemia virus (CAV) infection, we inoculated embryos and chickens of ages between day 9 of embryonic development and day 28 after hatching with CAV. Chicken embryos inoculated at days 9 and 11 of development showed no CAV-infected cells in the thymus, nor in other lymphoid organs. Many CAV-infected cells were detected in the thymic cortex of all chicken embryos inoculated at days 13 and 16 of development and of all chickens inoculated 1, 3, and 7 days after hatching. All embryos and chickens that contained CAV-infected cells in the thymus also contained CAV-infected cells in the bone marrow, but not in the bursa of Fabricius or the spleen. In chickens inoculated at days 14 and 21, only few CAV-infected cells were detected in the thymus, whereas these cells were not detected in thymi of 28-day-old inoculated chickens. Depletion of the thymic cortex was only detected in chickens inoculated from day 16 of embryonic development till day 21 after hatching. Only hematocrit values of the chickens inoculated 1 and 3 days after hatching were below normal. The rationale for the simultaneous susceptibility of cells of the T-cell lineage and cells of the erythrocyte lineage is discussed. As far as the thymus is concerned, the absence of clinical and microscopical signs of CAV infection in older chickens and the inability of CAV to infect embryos at days 9 and 11 of embryonic development may be caused by a lack of susceptible thymocytes. In view of the three waves of thymic precursor cells that populate the thymus during ontogeny, as described by Le Douarin and colleagues, we hypothesize that CAV only infects thymocytes derived from the second wave of precursor cells

Influenza in long-term Dutch travelers in the tropics: Symptoms and infections

Background: Influenza is a common infection among travelers, and attack rates are well documented in short-term travelers and holiday makers. Little data exists on long-term, non-expatriate travelers. Methods: This was a prospective mono-centre study of immunocompetent, Dutch travelers aged ≥18 to 64 years. It was conducted at the Public Health Service travel clinic in Amsterdam from December 2008 to September 2011, and included all travelers intending to travel to a tropical or sub-tropical country. Results: Among 602 Dutch long-term travelers to tropical regions, 82 % had protective influenza antibody titres pre-travel. The influenza attack rate of serologically confirmed infection during travel was 15 %, and of symptomatic infection was 6.3 % (fever alone) and 2 % (ILI), respectively. Conclusions: The attack rate in this study is similar to seasonal rates of infection in the general population. Influenza vaccination pre-travel is therefore most important for people at risk of medical complications due to influenza

Amsterdam Museum Linked Open Data

In this document we describe the Amsterdam Museum Linked Open Data set. The dataset is a five-star Linked Data representation and comprises the entire collection of the Amsterdam Museum consisting of more than 70,000 object descriptions. Furthermore, the institution's thesaurus and person authority files used in the object metadata are included in the Linked Data set. The data is mapped to the Europeana Data Model, utilizing Dublin Core, SKOS, RDA-group2 elements and the OAI-ORE model to represent the museum data. Vocabulary concepts are mapped to GeoNames and DBpedia. The two main contributions of this dataset are the inclusion of internal vocabularies and the fact that the complexity of the original dataset is retained