Comparison of different clustering approaches on different databases of smart meter data

Various clustering methods have been applied to determine representative groups of buildings based on their energy use patterns. We reviewed and selected the most commonly used clustering methods, including kmeans, k-medoids, Self-Organizing Map (SOM) coupled with k-means and hierarchical, and our proposed deep clustering algorithm for comparative performance assessment using datasets of smart meters. After the data preparation (data cleaning, segmentation, and normalization), the clustering is run, firstly, letting the number of clusters free to be chosen by the optimization process, and then forcing it to be equal to the number of primary functions of buildings. Depending on the purpose of clustering, e.g., to identify daily 24-hour load shape, to identify primary building use type (e.g., office, residential, school, retail), the optimal number of clustering can vary greatly. Thus, based on the final aim, forcing somehow the number of clusters is the most followed and suggested for engineering purposes. The k-means, the k-medoid, and the hierarchical algorithms show the best results, in all cases. While for the nature of the databases the additional step of adding a SOM to the k-means algorithms does not show improvements in terms of evaluation metrics. The direct comparison of the different algorithms gives a clear overview of the existing main clustering approaches and their performance in capturing typical use patterns in typical smart meter databases. The resulting cluster centroids could be used to better understand and characterize the energy use patterns of different buildings and building typologies with the final aims of benchmarking or customers segmentation

UNIMIB@NEEL-IT: Named Entity Recognition and Linking of Italian Tweets

Questo articolo descrive il sistema proposto dal gruppo UNIMIB per il task di Named Entity Recognition and Linking applicato a tweet in lingua italiana (NEEL-IT). Il sistema, che rappresenta un approccio iniziale al problema, \ue8 costituito da tre passaggi fondamentali: (1) Named Entity Recognition tramite l\u2019utilizzo di Conditional Random Fields, (2) Named Entity Linking considerando sia approcci supervisionati sia modelli di linguaggio basati su reti neurali, e (3) NIL clustering tramite un approccio basato su grafi.This paper describes the framework proposed by the UNIMIB Team for the task of Named Entity Recognition and Linking of Italian Tweets (NEEL-IT). The proposed pipeline, which represents an entry level system, is composed of three main steps: (1) Named Entity Recognition using Conditional Random Fields, (2) Named Entity Linking by considering both Supervised and Neural-Network Language models, and (3) NIL clustering byusing a graph-based approach

HIV-1 mediated insertional activation of STAT5B promotes the formation of a viral reservoir in T regulatory cells

n/

Atypical mature T-cell neoplasms: The relevance of the role of flow cytometry

Lymphoproliferative disorders are a heterogeneous group of malignant clonal proliferations of lymphocytes whose diagnosis remains challenging, despite diagnostic criteria are now well established, due to their heterogeneity in clinical presentation and immunophenotypic profile. Lymphoid T-cell disorders are more rarely seen than B-cell entities and more difficult to diagnose for the absence of a specific immunophenotypic signature. Flow cytometry is a useful tool in diagnosing T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders since it is not only able to better characterize T-cell neoplasms but also to resolve some very complicated cases, in particular those in which a small size population of neoplastic cells is available for the analysis. Here, we report three patients with mature T-cell neoplasms with atypical clinical and biological features in which analysis of peripheral blood and bone marrow specimens by means of multicolor flow cytometry was very useful to identify and characterize three rare T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders, such as angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, peripheral T-cell lymphoma not otherwise specified and T-cell prolym-phocytic leukemia. The aim of this case series report is not only to describe three rare cases of lymphoproliferative neoplasms but also to raise awareness that a fast, highly sensitive, and reproducible procedure, such as flow cytometry immunophenotyping, can have a determinant diagnostic role in these patients

Activating Killer Immunoglobulin Receptors and HLA-C: A successful combination providing HIV-1 control

Several studies demonstrated a relevant role of polymorphisms located within the HLA-B and -C loci and the Killer Immunoglobulin Receptors (KIRs) 3DL1 and 3DS1 in controlling HIV-1 replication. KIRs are regulatory receptors expressed at the surface of NK and CD8+ T-cells that specifically bind HLA-A and -B alleles belonging to the Bw4 supratype and all the -C alleles expressing the C1 or C2 supratype. We here disclose a novel signature associated with the Elite Controller but not with the long-term nonprogressor status concerning 2DS activating KIRs and HLA-C2 alleles insensitive to miRNA148a regulation. Overall, our findings support a crucial role of NK cells in the control of HIV-1 viremia

Clinical use of HIV integrase inhibitors : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Optimal regimen choice of antiretroviral therapy is essential to achieve long-term clinical success. Integrase inhibitors have swiftly been adopted as part of current antiretroviral regimens. The purpose of this study was to review the evidence for integrase inhibitor use in clinical settings. Methods: MEDLINE and Web-of-Science were screened from April 2006 until November 2012, as were hand-searched scientific meeting proceedings. Multiple reviewers independently screened 1323 citations in duplicate to identify randomized controlled trials, nonrandomized controlled trials and cohort studies on integrase inhibitor use in clinical practice. Independent, duplicate data extraction and quality assessment were conducted. Results: 48 unique studies were included on the use of integrase inhibitors in antiretroviral therapy-naive patients and treatment-experienced patients with either virological failure or switching to integrase inhibitors while virologically suppressed. On the selected studies with comparable outcome measures and indication (n = 16), a meta-analysis was performed based on modified intention-to-treat (mITT), on-treatment (OT) and as-treated (AT) virological outcome data. In therapy-naive patients, favorable odds ratios (OR) for integrase inhibitor-based regimens were observed, (mITT OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.59-0.86). However, integrase inhibitors combined with protease inhibitors only did not result in a significant better virological outcome. Evidence further supported integrase inhibitor use following virological failure (mITT OR 0.27; 95% CI 0.11-0.66), but switching to integrase inhibitors from a high genetic barrier drug during successful treatment was not supported (mITT OR 1.43; 95% CI 0.89-2.31). Integrase inhibitor-based regimens result in similar immunological responses compared to other regimens. A low genetic barrier to drug-resistance development was observed for raltegravir and elvitegravir, but not for dolutegravir. Conclusion: In first-line therapy, integrase inhibitors are superior to other regimens. Integrase inhibitor use after virological failure is supported as well by the meta-analysis. Careful use is however warranted when replacing a high genetic barrier drug in treatment-experienced patients switching successful treatment

The intracellular detection of MIP-1beta enhances the capacity to detect IFN-gamma mediated HIV-1-specific CD8 T-cell responses in a flow cytometric setting providing a sensitive alternative to the ELISPOT

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>T-cell mediated immunity likely plays an important role in controlling HIV-1 infection and progression to AIDS. Several candidate vaccines against HIV-1 aim at stimulating cellular immune responses, either alone or together with the induction of neutralizing antibodies, and assays able to measure CD8 and CD4 T-cell responses need to be implemented. At present, the IFN-γ-based ELISPOT assay is considered the gold standard and it is broadly preferred as primary assay for detection of antigen-specific T-cell responses in vaccine trials. However, in spite of its high sensitivity, the measurement of the sole IFN-γ production provides limited information on the quality of the immune response. On the other hand, the introduction of polychromatic flow-cytometry-based assays such as the intracellular cytokine staining (ICS) strongly improved the capacity to detect several markers on a single cell level.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The cumulative analysis of 275 samples from 31 different HIV-1 infected individuals using an ICS staining procedure optimized by our laboratories revealed that, following antigenic stimulation, IFN-γ producing T-cells were also producing MIP-1β whereas T-cells characterized by the sole production of IFN-γ were rare. Since the analysis of the combination of two functions decreases the background and the measurement of the IFN-γ+ MIP-1β+ T-cells was equivalent to the measurement of the total IFN-γ+ T-cells, we adopted the IFN-γ+ MIP-1β+ data analysis system to evaluate IFN-γ-based, antigen-specific T-cell responses. Comparison of our ICS assay with ELISPOT assays performed in two different experienced laboratories demonstrated that the IFN-γ+ MIP-1β+ data analysis system increased the sensitivity of the ICS up to levels comparable to the sensitivity of the ELISPOT assay.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The IFN-γ+ MIP-1β+ data evaluation system provides a clear advantage for the detection of low magnitude HIV-1-specific responses. These results are important to guide the choice for suitable highly sensitive immune assays and to build reagent panels able to accurately characterize the phenotype and function of responding T-cells. More importantly, the ICS assay can be used as primary assay to evaluate HIV-1-specific responses without losing sensitivity in comparison to the ELISPOT assay.</p

Molecular spectrum of TP53 mutations in plasma cell dyscrasias by next generation sequencing: an Italian cohort study and overview of the literature

The prevalence of TP53 mutations greatly varies between tumor types; in multiple myeloma (MM) they were rarely detected at presentation, while increased frequency was reported with disease progression. Using next-generation sequencing, we analyzed TP53 exons 4-9 in a large representative cohort comprising patients with MM at diagnosis and more aggressive forms of plasma cell (PC) dyscrasia, identifying mutations in 4/129 (3%) MM, 6/24 (25%) primary PC leukemia, and 2/10 (20%) secondary PC leukemia cases. A similar increase in prevalence associated with disease aggressiveness (5%, 29.2% and 44%, respectively) was observed for TP53 deletion. Interestingly, in five patients mutations were not concomitant with TP53 deletion. Furthermore, longitudinal analysis revealed the acquisition of TP53 mutations in three of nineteen cases analyzed at relapse. Identified variants were mostly missense mutations concentrated in the DNA binding domain, only partly reflecting the pattern globally observed in human cancers. Our data confirm that TP53 mutations are rare in MM at presentation and rather represent a marker of progression, similarly to del(17p); however, their occurrence even in absence of deletions supports the importance of their assessment in patients with PC dyscrasia, in terms of both risk stratification and therapeutic implications