DESKMatcher

This paper describes DESKMatcher, a label-based ontology matcher. It utilizes background knowledge from the financial services and enterprise domain to better find matches in these domains. The background knowledge utilized for the enterprise domain was in the form of documentation of terms used in SAP software (textual). Therefore, Word2Vec and GloVewere used for these corpora. The Financial Industries Business Ontology (FIBO) was used as more specific background knowledge for the financial services domain. Vector space embeddings for this corpus were trained using RDF2Vec and KGloVe. Individual matchers utilizing one set of embeddings (generated from a combination of method and corpus) are pipelined together after string-based matchers, searching only for matches between entities that have not been assignedto a match in a previous step. Results on theOAEI tracks are expectedto be sub-par, because low overlap between corpus and task vocabulary is expected

Volunteer Team Management

This thesis looked into volunteer team management in a project in AIESEC in Finland through the action research method. AIESEC in Finland is a non-profit non-government organization with a purpose of “peace and fulfilment of humankinds potential” through development of the youth’s future leadership. AIESEC was not a commissioning party; the project was the basis for the thesis without the supervision of the company. The thesis is based on a project that the author was in charge of, in AIESEC in Finland. The project was to organise an annual event, for which an organizing committee team was recruited. Author’s role as the team leader and manager is the primary basis for this thesis’s research. Deriving from the nature and the circumstances of the project four objectives were formed. The objectives were: − Understand the phenomenon of synergy in team management of volunteers. − Understand the role of the team leader in relation to volunteer’s motivation and performance. − Understand the role of recognition in volunteer motivation and performance. − Understand the role of effective meeting management in volunteer team performance. The results were derived from the discussion of the implementation and the data collected through the survey of the team members against the theoretical framework. The results constituted that the role of the team leader is essential in the team member’s motivation and performance but also in building team synergy, creating appropriate means of recognitions, and hosting effecting team meetings. The leader’s role is complex and proper management of all of the previously mentioned factors has pointed towards volunteer team member motivation, therefore leading to better performance. Further research suggests looking into detail of similar project in AIESEC in Finland as well as other NGOs, for better understanding of volunteer team management. Because volunteers are so different in nature from paid staff, they require a different management approach

Examining the interactions between Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus and their effect on antimicrobial susceptibility

The purpose of this work was to examine the role of biomolecules involved in interspecies interactions changing antimicrobial tolerance, particularly for metals. In this thesis it was determined that compounds from P. aeruginosa were able to alter the tolerance of S. aureus to metal antimicrobials, antiseptics and antibiotics. S. aureus tolerance to Ga(NO3)3, CdSO4 and ZnSO4, the anionic metal(loids) K2TeO3, Na2SeO3 and NaAsO2 as well as tetracycline, nalidixic acid, benzalkonium chloride and hydrogen peroxide were all diminished when exposed to P. aeruginosa spent media. Conversely, P. aeruginosa spent media was able to enhance S. aureus tolerance to NiSO4, CuSO4 and AgNO3. The phenotype was dependent on growing in simulated wound fluid (SWF). When spent media was produced in either LB or a minimal media M9 with casamino acids, no difference in tolerance was provided and instead anti-Staphylococcal compounds were produced. The provided copper and silver tolerance enhancement was found to be multifactorial with both unique and similar contributors for each metal. Copper tolerance is provided by reducing its bioavailability in the media. This is performed by binding to amino acids and dihydroaeruginoate (Dha), an intermediate in the synthesis of the siderophore pyochelin. Changes to the membrane of S. aureus due to inhibition of the agr system by 3-oxo-C12-HSL likely reduces the import of copper and thus its toxicity. Production of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) induced by the Pseudomonas Quinolone Signal (PQS) contributes to reduced silver toxicity for S. aureus. The compounds contained within OMVs, including PQS, would likely bind silver reducing its bioavailability. Amino acid catabolism of serine and threonine also increases silver tolerance in S. aureus. This likely occurs through reducing the interaction of silver with L-serine dehydratase, a necessary enzyme in conversion of threonine and serine conversion to pyruvate

Nanomaterials in Wound Healing and Infection Control

Wounds continue to be a serious medical concern due to their increasing incidence from injuries, surgery, burns and chronic diseases such as diabetes. Delays in the healing process are influenced by infectious microbes, especially when they are in the biofilm form, which leads to a persistent infection. Biofilms are well known for their increased antibiotic resistance. Therefore, the development of novel wound dressing drug formulations and materials with combined antibacterial, antibiofilm and wound healing properties are required. Nanomaterials (NM) have unique properties due to their size and very large surface area that leads to a wide range of applications. Several NMs have antimicrobial activity combined with wound regeneration features thus give them promising applicability to a variety of wound types. The idea of NM-based antibiotics has been around for a decade at least and there are many recent reviews of the use of nanomaterials as antimicrobials. However, far less attention has been given to exploring if these NMs actually improve wound healing outcomes. In this review, we present an overview of different types of nanomaterials explored specifically for wound healing properties combined with infection control