Programming patterns and development guidelines for Semantic Sensor Grids (SemSorGrid4Env)

The web of Linked Data holds great potential for the creation of semantic applications that can combine self-describing structured data from many sources including sensor networks. Such applications build upon the success of an earlier generation of 'rapidly developed' applications that utilised RESTful APIs. This deliverable details experience, best practice, and design patterns for developing high-level web-based APIs in support of semantic web applications and mashups for sensor grids. Its main contributions are a proposal for combining Linked Data with RESTful application development summarised through a set of design principles; and the application of these design principles to Semantic Sensor Grids through the development of a High-Level API for Observations. These are supported by implementations of the High-Level API for Observations in software, and example semantic mashups that utilise the API

Implementation and Deployment of a Library of the High-level Application Programming Interfaces (SemSorGrid4Env)

The high-level API service is designed to support rapid development of thin web applications and mashups beyond the state of the art in GIS, while maintaining compatibility with existing tools and expectations. It provides a fully configurable API, while maintaining a separation of concerns between domain experts, service administrators and mashup developers. It adheres to REST and Linked Data principles, and provides a novel bridge between standards-based (OGC O&M) and Semantic Web approaches. This document discusses the background motivations for the HLAPI (including experiences gained from any previously implemented versions), before moving onto specific details of the final implementation, including configuration and deployment instructions, as well as a full tutorial to assist mashup developers with using the exposed observation data

Quantification of Acetaminophen and Its Metabolites in Plasma Using UPLC-MS: Doors Open to Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in Special Patient Populations

Item does not contain fulltextBACKGROUND: Acetaminophen (APAP, paracetamol) is the most commonly used drug for pain and fever in both the United States and Europe and is considered safe when used at registered dosages. Nevertheless, differences between specific populations lead to remarkable changes in exposure to potentially toxic metabolites. Furthermore, extended knowledge is required on metabolite formation after intoxication, to optimize antidote treatment. Therefore, the authors aimed to develop and validate a quick and easy analytical method for simultaneous quantification of APAP, APAP-glucuronide, APAP-sulfate, APAP-cysteine, APAP-glutathione, APAP-mercapturate, and protein-derived APAP-cysteine in human plasma by ultraperformance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry. METHODS: The internal standard was APAP-D4 for all analytes. Chromatographic separation was achieved with a reversed-phase Acquity ultraperformance liquid chromatography HSS T3 column with a runtime of only 4.5 minutes per injected sample. Gradient elution was performed with a mobile phase consisting of ammonium acetate, formic acid in Milli-Q ultrapure water or in methanol at flow rate of 0.4 mL/minute. RESULTS: A plasma volume of only 10 muL was required to achieve both adequate accuracy and precision. Calibration curves of all 6 analytes were linear. All analytes were stable for at least 48 hours in the autosampler; the high quality control of APAP-glutathione was stable for 24 hours. The method was validated according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: This method allows quantification of APAP and 6 metabolites, which serves purposes for research, as well as therapeutic drug monitoring. The advantage of this method is the combination of minimal injection volume, a short runtime, an easy sample preparation method, and the ability to quantify APAP and all 6 metabolites

Cellular Automata Models of Road Traffic

In this paper, we give an elaborate and understandable review of traffic cellular automata (TCA) models, which are a class of computationally efficient microscopic traffic flow models. TCA models arise from the physics discipline of statistical mechanics, having the goal of reproducing the correct macroscopic behaviour based on a minimal description of microscopic interactions. After giving an overview of cellular automata (CA) models, their background and physical setup, we introduce the mathematical notations, show how to perform measurements on a TCA model's lattice of cells, as well as how to convert these quantities into real-world units and vice versa. The majority of this paper then relays an extensive account of the behavioural aspects of several TCA models encountered in literature. Already, several reviews of TCA models exist, but none of them consider all the models exclusively from the behavioural point of view. In this respect, our overview fills this void, as it focusses on the behaviour of the TCA models, by means of time-space and phase-space diagrams, and histograms showing the distributions of vehicles' speeds, space, and time gaps. In the report, we subsequently give a concise overview of TCA models that are employed in a multi-lane setting, and some of the TCA models used to describe city traffic as a two-dimensional grid of cells, or as a road network with explicitly modelled intersections. The final part of the paper illustrates some of the more common analytical approximations to single-cell TCA models.Comment: Accepted for publication in "Physics Reports". A version of this paper with high-quality images can be found at: http://phdsven.dyns.cx (go to "Papers written"

Challenges and prospects for the conservation of crop genetic resources in field genebanks, in In Vitro collections and/or in liquid nitrogen.

The conservation of crop genetic resources, including their wild relatives, is of utmost importance for the future of mankind. Most crops produce orthodox seeds and can, therefore, be stored in seed genebanks. However, this is not an option for crops and species that produce recalcitrant (non-storable) seeds such as cacao, coffee and avocado, for crops that do not produce seeds at all; therefore, they are inevitably vegetatively propagated such as bananas, or crops that are predominantly clonally propagated as their seeds are not true to type, such as potato, cassava and many fruit trees. Field, in vitro and cryopreserved collections provide an alternative in such cases. In this paper, an overview is given on how to manage and setup a field, in vitro and cryopreserved collections, as well as advantages and associated problems taking into account the practical, financial and safety issues in the long-term. In addition, the need for identification of unique accessions and elimination of duplicates is discussed. The different conservation methods are illustrated with practical examples and experiences from national and international genebanks. Finally, the importance of establishing safe and long-term conservation methods and associated backup possibilities is highlighted in the frame of the global COVID-19 pandemic

Simultaneous quantification of fentanyl, sufentanil, cefazolin, doxapram and keto-doxapram in plasma using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A simple and specific UPLC–MS/MS method was developed and validated for simultaneous quantification of fentanyl, sufentanil, cefazolin, doxapram and its active metabolite keto-doxapram. The internal standard was fentanyl-d5 for all analytes. Chromatographic separation was achieved with a reversed-phase Acquity UPLC HSS T3 column with a run-time of only 5.0 min per injected sample. Gradient elution was performed with a mobile phase consisting of ammonium acetate or formic acid in Milli-Q ultrapure water or in methanol with a total flow rate of 0.4 mL min−1. A plasma volume of only 50 μL was required to achieve adequate accuracy and precision. Calibration curves of all five analytes were linear. All analytes were stable for at least 48 h in the autosampler. The method was validated according to US Food and Drug Administration guidelines. This method allows quantification of fentanyl, sufentanil, cefazolin, doxapram and keto-doxapram, which is useful for research as we

Highly sensitive and rapid determination of tacrolimus in peripheral blood mononuclear cells by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

After solid organ transplantation, tacrolimus is given to prevent rejection. Therapeutic drug monitoring is used to reach target concentrations of tacrolimus in whole blood. Because the site of action of tacrolimus is the lymphocyte, and tacrolimus binds ~80% to erythrocytes, the intracellular tacrolimus concentration in lymphocytes is possibly more relevant. For this purpose, we aimed to develop, improve and validate a UPLC–MS/MS method to measure tacrolimus concentrations in isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). PBMCs were isolated using a Ficoll separation technique, followed by a washing step using red blood cell lysis. A cell suspension of 50 μL containing 1 million PBMCs was used in combination with MagSiMUS-TDMPREP. To each sample we added 30 μL lysis buffer, 20 μL reconstitution buffer containing 13C2H4-tacrolimus as internal standard, 40 μL MagSiMUS-TDMPREP Type I Particle Mix and 175 μL Organic Precipitation Reagent VI for methanol-based protein precipitation. A 10 μL aliquot of the supernatant was injected into the UPLC–MS/MS system. The method was validated, resulting in high sensitivity and specificity. The method was linear (r2 = 0.997) over the range 5.0–1250 pg/1 × 106 PBMCs. The inaccuracy was <5% and the imprecision was <15%. The washing steps following Ficoll isolation could be performed at either room temperature or on ice, with no effect of the temperature on the results. A method for the analysis of tacrolimus concentrations in PBMCs was developed and successfully validated. Further research will be performed to investigate the correlation between concentrations in PBMCs and clinical outcome