7,512 research outputs found
Exploiting multimedia in creating and analysing multimedia Web archives
The data contained on the web and the social web are inherently multimedia and consist of a mixture of textual, visual and audio modalities. Community memories embodied on the web and social web contain a rich mixture of data from these modalities. In many ways, the web is the greatest resource ever created by human-kind. However, due to the dynamic and distributed nature of the web, its content changes, appears and disappears on a daily basis. Web archiving provides a way of capturing snapshots of (parts of) the web for preservation and future analysis. This paper provides an overview of techniques we have developed within the context of the EU funded ARCOMEM (ARchiving COmmunity MEMories) project to allow multimedia web content to be leveraged during the archival process and for post-archival analysis. Through a set of use cases, we explore several practical applications of multimedia analytics within the realm of web archiving, web archive analysis and multimedia data on the web in general
Bridging the Semantic Gap in Multimedia Information Retrieval: Top-down and Bottom-up approaches
Semantic representation of multimedia information is vital for enabling the kind of multimedia search capabilities that professional searchers require. Manual annotation is often not possible because of the shear scale of the multimedia information that needs indexing. This paper explores the ways in which we are using both top-down, ontologically driven approaches and bottom-up, automatic-annotation approaches to provide retrieval facilities to users. We also discuss many of the current techniques that we are investigating to combine these top-down and bottom-up approaches
An Integrated Content and Metadata based Retrieval System for Art
In this paper we describe aspects of the Artiste project to develop a distributed content and metadata based analysis, retrieval and navigation system for a number of major European Museums. In particular, after a brief overview of the complete system, we describe the design and evaluation of some of the image analysis algorithms developed to meet the specific requirements of the users from the museums. These include a method for retrievals based on sub images, retrievals based on very low quality images and retrieval using craquelure type
Pharmacokinetics of β-Lactam Antibiotics:Clues from the Past to Help Discover Long-Acting Oral Drugs in the Future
β-Lactams
represent perhaps the most important class of antibiotics
yet discovered. However, despite many years of active research, none
of the currently approved drugs in this class combine oral activity
with long duration of action. Recent developments suggest that new
β-lactam antibiotics with such a profile would have utility
in the treatment of tuberculosis. Consequently, the historical β-lactam
pharmacokinetic data have been compiled and analyzed to identify possible
directions and drug discovery strategies aimed toward new β-lactam
antibiotics with this profile
Dynamics and heterogeneity of brain damage in multiple sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease driving inflammatory and
degenerative processes that damage the central nervous system (CNS). However,
it is not well understood how these events interact and evolve to evoke such a
highly dynamic and heterogeneous disease. We established a hypothesis whereby
the variability in the course of MS is driven by the very same pathogenic
mechanisms responsible for the disease, the autoimmune attack on the CNS that
leads to chronic inflammation, neuroaxonal degeneration and remyelination. We
propose that each of these processes acts more or less severely and at
different times in each of the clinical subgroups. To test this hypothesis, we
developed a mathematical model that was constrained by experimental data (the
expanded disability status scale [EDSS] time series) obtained from a
retrospective longitudinal cohort of 66 MS patients with a long-term follow-up
(up to 20 years). Moreover, we validated this model in a second prospective
cohort of 120 MS patients with a three-year follow-up, for which EDSS data and
brain volume time series were available. The clinical heterogeneity in the
datasets was reduced by grouping the EDSS time series using an unsupervised
clustering analysis. We found that by adjusting certain parameters, albeit
within their biological range, the mathematical model reproduced the different
disease courses, supporting the dynamic CNS damage hypothesis to explain MS
heterogeneity. Our analysis suggests that the irreversible axon degeneration
produced in the early stages of progressive MS is mainly due to the higher
rate of myelinated axon degeneration, coupled to the lower capacity for
remyelination. However, and in agreement with recent pathological studies,
degeneration of chronically demyelinated axons is not a key feature that
distinguishes this phenotype. Moreover, the model reveals that lower rates of
axon degeneration and more rapid remyelination make relapsing MS more
resilient than the progressive subtype. Therefore, our results support the
hypothesis of a common pathogenesis for the different MS subtypes, even in the
presence of genetic and environmental heterogeneity. Hence, MS can be
considered as a single disease in which specific dynamics can provoke a
variety of clinical outcomes in different patient groups. These results have
important implications for the design of therapeutic interventions for MS at
different stages of the disease
2,3,8-trisubstituted quinolines with antimalarial activity
FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCombination therapy drugs are considered a fundamental way to control malaria as it mimimizes the risk of emergence of resistance to the individual partner drugs. Consequently, this type of therapy constitutes a driving force for the discovery of new drug901212151231FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQSEM INFORMAÇÃOSEM INFORMAÇÃOWe especially thank Prof. Marcos Eberlin (Thomsom Laboratory) for HRMS analyses. We are grateful to Sergio Wittlin, Sibylle Sax and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Basel, Switzerland) for conducting the resistance assays. We thank Mark We
Methods and matrices: Approaches to identifying miRNAs for nasopharyngeal carcinoma
We tested two miRNA discovery workflows on two sample sources for miRNAs associated with NPC. In the first workflow, we assumed that NPC tumor tissue would be enriched for miRNAs, so we compared miRNA expression in FFPE from NPC cases and controls using microarray and RNA-Seq technologies. Candidate miRNAs from both technologies were verified by qPCR in FFPE and sera from an independent NPC sample set. In a second workflow, we directly interrogated NPC case and control sera by RNA-Seq for c-miRNAs associated with NPC, with candidate c-miRNAs verified by qPCR in the sera from the same independent NPC sample set. Results
Both microarray and RNA-Seq narrowed the miRNA signature to 1-5% of the known mature human miRNAs. Moreover, these two methods produced similar results when applied to the same sample type (FFPE), with RNA-Seq additionally indicating “unknown” miRNAs associated with NPC. However, we found different miRNA profiles in NPC sera compared to FFPE using RNA-Seq, with the few overlapping miRNAs found to be significantly up-regulated in FFPE significantly down-regulated in sera (and vice versa). Despite the different miRNA profiles found in FFPE and sera, both profiles strongly associated with NPC, providing two potential sources for biomarker signatures for NPC. Conclusions
We determined that the direct interrogation of sera by RNA-Seq was the most informative method for identifying a c-miRNA signature associated with NPC. We also showed that there are different miRNA expression profiles associated with NPC for tumor tissue and sera. These results reflect on the methods and meaning of miRNA biomarkers for NPC in tissue and peripheral blood
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Pre-vaccination prevalence of anogenital and oral human papillomavirus in young HIV-infected men who have sex with men.
The aims of this study were to: 1) determine prevalence of anogenital and oral HPV, 2) determine concordance between HPV at anal, perianal, scrotal/penile, and oral sites; and 3) describe factors associated with anogenital HPV types targeted by the 9-valent vaccine. Data were collected from 2012 to 2015 among men who have sex with men 18-26 years of age enrolled in a vaccine trial (N = 145). Penile/scrotal, perianal, anal, and oral samples were tested for 61 HPV types. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with types in the 9-valent vaccine. Participants' mean age was 23.0 years, 55.2% were African-American, and 26.2% were Hispanic; 93% had anal, 40% penile, and 6% oral HPV. Among those with anogenital infection, 18% had HPV16. Concordance was low between anogenital and oral sites. Factors independently associated with a 9-valent vaccine-type HPV were: race (African-American vs. White, OR=2.67, 95% CI=1.11-6.42), current smoking (yes vs. no, OR=2.37, 95% CI=1.03-5.48), and number of recent receptive anal sex partners (2+ vs. 0, OR=3.47, 95% CI=1.16-10.4). Most MSM were not infected with HPV16 or HPV18, suggesting that they may still benefit from HPV vaccination, but anogenital HPV was very common, highlighting the importance of vaccinating men before sexual initiation. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: NCT01209325
Variable Curvature Slab Molecular Dynamics as a Method to Determine Surface Stress
A thin plate or slab, prepared so that opposite faces have different surface
stresses, will bend as a result of the stress difference. We have developed a
classical molecular dynamics (MD) formulation where (similar in spirit to
constant-pressure MD) the curvature of the slab enters as an additional
dynamical degree of freedom. The equations of motion of the atoms have been
modified according to a variable metric, and an additional equation of motion
for the curvature is introduced. We demonstrate the method to Au surfaces, both
clean and covered with Pb adsorbates, using many-body glue potentials.
Applications to stepped surfaces, deconstruction and other surface phenomena
are under study.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, REVTeX, submitted to Physical Review
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