Ontological Reengineering for Reuse

This paper presents the concept of Ontological Reengineering as the process of retrieving and transforming a conceptual model of an existing and implemented ontology into a new, more correct and more complete conceptual model which is reimplemented. Three activities have been identified in this process: reverse engineering, restructuring and forward engineering. The aim of Reverse Engineering is to output a possible conceptual model on the basis of the code in which the ontology is implemented. The goal of Restructuring is to reorganize this initial conceptual model into a new conceptual model, which is built bearing in mind the use of the restructured ontology by the ontology/application that reuses it. Finally, the objective of Forward Engineering is output a new implementation of the ontology. The paper also discusses how the ontological reengineering process has been applied to the Standard-Units ontology [18], which is included in a Chemical-Elements [12] ontology. These two ontologies will be included in a Monatomic-Ions and Environmental-Pollutants ontologies

Ontology's crossed life cycles

This paper presents the idea that the life cycle of an ontology is highly impacted as a result of the process of reusing it for building another ontology. One of the more important results of the experiment presented is how the different activities to be carried out during the development of a specific ontology may involve performing other types of activities on other ontologies already built or under construction. We identify in that paper new intradependencies between activities carried out inside the same otology and interdependencies between activities carried out in different ontologies. The interrelation between life cycles of several ontologies provokes that integration has to be approached globally rather than as a mere integration of out implementation

Sexual Compulsivity Scale: Adaptation and Validation in the Spanish Population

Sexual compulsivity has been studied in relation to high-risk behavior for sexually transmitted infections. The aim of this study was the adaptation and validation of the Sexual Compulsivity Scale to a sample of Spanish young people. This scale was applied to 1,196 (891 female, 305 male) Spanish college students. The results of principal components factor analysis using a varimax rotation indicated a two-factor solution. The reliability of the Sexual Compulsivity Scale was found to be high. Moreover, the scale showed good temporal stability. External correlates were examined through Pearson correlations between the Sexual Compulsivity Scale and other constructs related with HIV prevention. The authors’ results suggest that the Sexual Compulsivity Scale is an appropriate measure for assessing sexual compulsivity, showing adequate psychometric properties in the Spanish population

Information fusion from multiple databases using meta-association rules

Nowadays, data volume, distribution, and volatility make it difficult to search global patterns by applying traditional Data Mining techniques. In the case of data in a distributed environment, sometimes a local analysis of each dataset separately is adequate but some other times a global decision is needed by the analysis of the entire data. Association rules discovering methods typically require a single uniform dataset and managing with the entire set of distributed data is not possible due to its size. To address the scenarios in which satisfying this requirement is not practical or even feasible, we propose a new method for fusing information, in the form of rules, extracted from multiple datasets. The proposed model produces meta-association rules, i.e. rules in which the antecedent or the consequent may contain rules as well, for finding joint correlations among trends found individually in each dataset. In this paper, we describe the formulation and the implementation of two alternative frameworks that obtain, respectively, crisp meta-rules and fuzzy meta-rules. We compare our proposal with the information obtained when the datasets are not separated, in order to see the main differences between traditional association rules and meta-association rules. We also compare crisp and fuzzy methods for meta-association rule mining, observing that the fuzzy approach offers several advantages: it is more accurate since it incorporates the strength or validity of the previous information, produces a more manageable set of rules for human inspection, and allows the incorporation of contextual information to the mining process expressed in a more human-friendly format

The Spanish version of the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale - short form (IGDS9-SF): further examination using item response theory

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as a tentative disorder in the latest (fifth) revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). However, psychometric evaluation of the nine IGD criteria remains necessary to further enhance its assessment. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGDS9-SF). The internal structure, internal consistency, temporal stability, and relationships with other variables were assessed. Furthermore, a polytomous item response theory (IRT) approach was used to evaluate the performance of each item and the test as a whole. A sample of 388 online gamers (53.61% women, mean age 25.45 years, standard deviation (SD) = 9.62) was recruited for this study. Similar to previous research, the results supported a one-factor structure for the IGDS9-SF, adequate internal consistency and temporal stability of scores, goodness of fit of the items to the graded response model (GRM), and more precise scores at high trait levels to assess IGD in Spanish populations. These findings corroborate the suitability of the Spanish IGDS9-SF for clinical assessment and research within Spanish-speaking populations

Sífilis secundaria en gestante con coinfección por VIH en norte de Santander, Colombia: reporte de caso

Objective: To report the case of a pregnant, Venezuelan migrant woman, diagnosed with secondary syphilis and HIV coinfection. Materials and Methods: A review of the related literature was carried out, identifying the importance of the case in the current migration situation. Case presentation: A 22-year-old woman with a pregnancy of 20.6 weeks, without prenatal check-ups, consulted due to the appearance of skin lesions of 3 months of evolution. Secondary syphilis was diagnosed, antibiotic treatment was started, and the patient was referred to the primary care service for the migrant population. Subsequently, HIV coinfection was diagnosed. The infectious disease service indicated antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, treatment was not started due to her illegal migrant status. After 3 months, the patient consulted for pelvic pain. It was decided to end the pregnancy via cesarean section and to perform tubal ligation. Preoperative prophylaxis was implemented. A female product was obtained in which congenital syphilis was ruled out and which was considered of low risk for HIV infection. Conclusion: The incidence of gestational syphilis in Venezuelan patients who have migrated to Colombia has increased markedly. Public health policies must be established to facilitate access to health services and STD prevention programs in this population.Objetivo: Reportar el caso de una gestante, migrante de nacionalidad venezolana, diagnosticada con sífilis secundaria y coinfección por VIH.Materiales y Métodos: Se realizó revisión de la literatura relacionada, identificando la importancia del caso en la situación de migración actual.Presentación del caso: Mujer de 22 años con embarazo de 20,6 semanas, sin controles prenatales, consulta por lesiones cutáneas de 3 meses de evolución. Se diagnostica sífilis secundaria, se inicia tratamiento, y se remite a la paciente al servicio de atención en población migrante. Posteriormente, se diagnostica coinfección por VIH. Infectología indica terapia antirretroviral (TAR). Sin embargo, el tratamiento no se inicia debido a su condición de migrante ilegal. Transcurridos 3 meses, la paciente consulta por dolor pélvico. Se decide finalizar embarazo vía cesárea y realizar ligadura tubárica. Se implementó profilaxis preoperatoria. Se obtuvo producto de sexo femenino en el que se descartó sífilis congénita y que se consideró de bajo riesgo para infección por VIH.Conclusión: La incidencia de sífilis gestacional en pacientes venezolanos que han migrado a Colombia se ha incrementado notablemente. Se deben instaurar políticas en salud pública que faciliten el acceso a los servicios de salud y a programas de prevención de ETS en esta población

Local adaptation of a bacterium is as important as its presence in structuring a natural microbial community

This is the final version of the article. Available from Springer Nature via the DOI in this record.Local adaptation of a species can affect community composition, yet the importance of local adaptation compared with species presence per se is unknown. Here we determine how a compost bacterial community exposed to elevated temperature changes over 2 months as a result of the presence of a focal bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25, that had been pre-adapted or not to the compost for 48 days. The effect of local adaptation on community composition is as great as the effect of species presence per se, with these results robust to the presence of an additional strong selection pressure: an SBW25-specific virus. These findings suggest that evolution occurring over ecological time scales can be a key driver of the structure of natural microbial communities, particularly in situations where some species have an evolutionary head start following large perturbations, such as exposure to antibiotics or crop planting and harvesting.The work was funded by BBSRC, AXA Research fund and NERC. P.G. was supported by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship within the European Commission 7th Framework Program (PIEF-GA-2010-272945), and acknowledges the Spanish MINECO support (AGL2014-59556-R). A.B. was supported by the Royal Society (UK). L.D.M. acknowledges the KU Leuven Research Fund support PF/2010/07

New insights into the Manila clam – Perkinsus olseni interaction based on gene expression analysis of clam hemocytes and parasite trophozoites through in vitro challenges

The Manila clam (Ruditapes philippinarum) is the bivalve species with the highest global production from both fisheries and aquaculture, but its production is seriously threatened by perkinsosis, a disease caused by the protozoan parasite Perkinsus olseni. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying R. philippinarum–P. olseni interactions, we analysed the gene expression profiles of in vitro challenged clam hemocytes and P. olseni trophozoites, using two oligo-microarray platforms, one previously validated for R. philippinarum hemocytes and a new one developed and validated in this study for P. olseni. Manila clam hemocytes were in vitro challenged with trophozoites, zoospores, and extracellular products from P. olseni in vitro cultures, while P. olseni trophozoites were in vitro challenged with Manila clam plasma along the same time-series (1 h, 8 h, and 24 h). The hemocytes showed a fast activation of the innate immune response, particularly associated with hemocyte recruitment, in the three types of challenges. Nevertheless, different immune-related pathways were activated in response to the different parasite stages, suggesting specific recognition mechanisms. Furthermore, the analyses provided useful complementary data to previous in vivo challenges, and confirmed the potential of some proposed biomarkers. The combined analysis of gene expression in host and parasite identified several processes in both the clam and P. olseni, such as redox and glucose metabolism, protease activity, apoptosis and iron metabolism, whose modulation suggests cross-talk between parasite and host. This information might be critical to determine the outcome of the infection, thus highlighting potential therapeutic targets. Altogether, the results of this study aid understanding the response and interaction between R. philippinarum and P. olseni, and will contribute to developing effective control strategies for this threatening parasitosisThis work was funded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of the Spanish Government, through the projects (AGL2011-30449-C02-01 and AGL2012-37981), the European Regional Development Funds (FEDER 2007–2013) and the Regional Government of Galicia, Xunta de Galicia, Spain, through the projects ED431C 2018/28 and ED431D 2017/21. The study was also supported by the Centro de Supercomputación de Galicia (CESGA). The first author would like to acknowledge the PhD scholarship awarded by the EXPERTS III Consortium of the European Community Mobility Programme “Erasmus Mundus Action 2, Strand 1” (EMA2). SFB was supported by a scholarship of the Consellería do Mar da Xunta de GaliciaS

Aerosol stratification characterization of an astronomical site by means of a backscatter lidar at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory

The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, located on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, is home of many astronomical facilities. In the context of the Extremely Large Telescope Design Study, an intensive lidar campaign was performed in the ORM near the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope (17°52’41.2” W, 28°45’40.1” N, 2395 m asl) between 26th May and 14th June 2008. The goal of the campaign was to characterize the atmosphere in terms of planetary boundary layer height and aerosol stratification vs. synoptic conditions. As a by-product an estimate of the aerosol optical thickness was also obtained and compared to the total atmospheric extinction coefficient measured by the Carlsberg Meridian Telescope.Postprint (published version