The IGN-E case: Integrating through a hidden ontology

National Geographic Institute of Spain (IGN-E) wanted to integrate its main information sources for building a common vocabulary reference and thus to manage the huge amount of information it held. The main problem of this integration is the great heterogeneity of data sources. The Ontology Engineering Group (OEG) is working with IGN-E to attain this objective in two phases: first, by creating automatically an ontology using the semantics of catalogues sections, and second, by discovering mappings automatically that can relate ontology concepts to database instances. So, these mappings are the instruments to break the syntactic, semantic and granularity heterogeneity gap. We have developed software for building a first ontology version and for discovering automatically mappings using techniques that take into account all types of heterogeneity. The ontology contains a set of extra-attributes which are identified in the building process. The ontology, called PhenomenOntology, will be reviewed by domain experts of IGN-E. The automatic mapping discovery will be also used for discovering new knowledge that will be added to the ontology. For increasing the usability and giving independence to different parts, the processes of each phase will be designed automatically and as upgradeable as possible

Pertinencia de Aplicación de la Ingeniería Ontológica a la Planificación Hidráulica del Territorio

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Situación actual de los metadatos en el ámbito internacional

En un prinicipio, los metadatos han sido considerados como atributos descriptivos de las principales caracterísiticas de los recursos relacionados con la información ..

Las IDE como evolución natural de los SIG

La IDEE es un proyecto cooperativo, de autoría colectiva, en el que colaboran organismos e instituciones de los tres ámbitos de la Administración (general, regional y local), del entorno universitario y del sector privado. Esta impresionante oferta de información geográfica, junto con las funcionalidades que aportan las tecnologías de Infraestructuras de Datos Espaciales (IDE), permite vislumbrar un abanico de líneas de trabajo, todavía inexploradas, de gran interés para todos los especialistas, técnicos e investigadores que manejan o precisan de cartografía en su quehacer cotidiano, que veremos en el presente artículo

Usefulness of the Hepatocyte Growth Factor as a Predictor of Mortality in Patients Hospitalized With Acute Heart Failure Regardless of Ejection Fraction

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) plays a role in the improvement of cardiac function and remodeling. Their serum levels are strongly related with mortality in chronic systolic heart failure (HF). The aim of this study was to study prognostic value of HGF in acute HF, interaction with ejection fraction, renal function, and natriuretic peptides. We included 373 patients (age 76 ± 10 years, left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF] 46 ± 14%, 48% men) consecutively admitted for acute HF. Blood samples were obtained at admission. All patients were followed up until death or close of study (>1 year, median 371 days). HGF concentrations were determined using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (human HGF immunoassay). The predictive power of HGF was estimated by Cox regression with calculation of Harrell C-statistic. HGF had a median of 1,942 pg/ml (interquartile rank 1,354). According to HGF quartiles, mortality rates (per 1,000 patients/year) were 98, 183, 375, and 393, respectively (p <0.001). In Cox regression analysis, HGF (hazard ratio1SD = 1.5, 95% confidence interval 1.1 to 2.1, p = 0.002) and N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP; hazard ratio1SD = 1.8, 95% confidence interval 1.2 to 2.6, p = 0.002) were independent predictors of mortality. Interaction between HGF and LVEF, origin, and renal function was nonsignificant. The addition of HGF improved the predictive ability of the models (C-statistic 0.768 vs 0.741, p = 0.016). HGF showed a complementary value over NT-proBNP (p = 0.001): mortality rate was 490 with both above the median versus 72 with both below. In conclusion, in patients with acute HF, serum HGF concentrations are elevated and identify patients at higher risk of mortality, regardless of LVEF, ischemic origin, or renal function. HGF had independent and additive information over NT-proBNP

Interference-Aware Scheduling Using Geometric Constraints

The large scale parallel and distributed platforms produce a continuously increasing amount of data which have to be stored, exchanged and used by various jobs allocated on different nodes of the platform. The management of this huge communication demand is crucial for the performance of the system. Meanwhile, we have to deal with more interferences as the trend is to use a single all-purpose interconnection network. In this paper, we consider two different types of communications: the flows induced by data exchanges during computations and the flows related to Input/Output operations. We propose a general model for interference-aware scheduling, where explicit communications are replaced by external topological constraints. Specifically, we limit the interferences of both communication types by adding geometric constraints on the allocation of jobs into machines. The proposed constraints reduce implicitly the data movements by restricting the set of possible allocations for each job. We present this methodology on the case study of simple network topologies, namely the line and the ring. We propose theoretical lower and upper bounds under different assumptions with respect to the platform and jobs characteristics. The obtained results illustrate well the difficulty of the problem even on simple topologies

The pathophysiology of malarial anaemia: where have all the red cells gone?

Malarial anaemia is an enormous public health problem in endemic areas and occurs predominantly in children in the first 3 years of life. Anaemia is due to both a great increase in clearance of uninfected cells and a failure of an adequate bone marrow response. Odhiambo, Stoute and colleagues show how the age distribution of malarial anaemia and the haemolysis of red blood cells may be linked by an age-dependent increase in the capacity of red blood cells to inactivate complement components absorbed or deposited directly on to the surface of the red blood cell. In this commentary, we discuss what has been established about the role of complement deposition on the surface of red blood cells in the pathology of malarial anaemia, how genetic polymorphisms of the complement control proteins influence the outcome of malaria infection and how the findings of Odhiambo, Stoute and colleagues and others shed light on the puzzling age distribution of different syndromes of severe malaria

Relevant microclimate for determining the development rate of malaria mosquitoes and possible implications of climate change

Background The relationship between mosquito development and temperature is one of the keys to understanding the current and future dynamics and distribution of vector-borne diseases such as malaria. Many process-based models use mean air temperature to estimate larval development times, and hence adult vector densities and/or malaria risk. Methods Water temperatures in three different-sized water pools, as well as the adjacent air temperature in lowland and highland sites in western Kenya were monitored. Both air and water temperatures were fed into a widely-applied temperature-dependent development model for Anopheles gambiae immatures, and subsequently their impact on predicted vector abundance was assessed. Results Mean water temperature in typical mosquito breeding sites was 4-6°C higher than the mean temperature of the adjacent air, resulting in larval development rates, and hence population growth rates, that are much higher than predicted based on air temperature. On the other hand, due to the non-linearities in the relationship between temperature and larval development rate, together with a marginal buffering in the increase in water temperature compared with air temperature, the relative increases in larval development rates predicted due to climate change are substantially less. Conclusions Existing models will tend to underestimate mosquito population growth under current conditions, and may overestimate relative increases in population growth under future climate change. These results highlight the need for better integration of biological and environmental information at the scale relevant to mosquito biology

Incidence and influence on referral of primary stabbing headache in an outpatient headache clinic

Primary stabbing headache (PSH) is a pain, as brief, sharp, jabbing stabs, predominantly felt in the first division of trigeminal nerve. Population studies have shown that PSH is a common headache. However, most people suffer attacks of low frequency or intensity and seldom seek for medical assistance. There are few clinic-based studies of PSH, and its real influence as a primary cause for referral to neurology outpatient offices is to be determined. We aim to investigate the burden of PSH as main complaint in an outpatient headache clinic. We reviewed all patients with PSH (ICHD-II criteria), attended in an outpatient headache clinic in a tertiary hospital during a 2.5-year period (January 2008–June 2010). We considered demographic and nosological characteristics and if PSH was main cause of submission. 36 patients (26 females, 10 males) out of 725 (5%) were diagnosed of PSH. Mean age at onset 34.1 ± 2.9 years (range 10–72). Mean time from onset to diagnosis 68.8 ± 18.3 months. Twenty-four patients fulfilled ICHD-II criteria for other headaches (14 migraine, 6 tension-type headache, 2 hemicrania continua, 1 primary cough headache and 1 primary exertional headache). 77.7% of patients were submitted from primary care. In 14 patients (39%), PSH was main reason for submission, its intensity or frequency in 5 (35.7%) and fear of malignancy in 9 (74.3%). Only two patients of those who associated other headaches were submitted due to PSH. In conclusion, PSH is not an uncommon diagnosis in an outpatient headache office. However, and according to our data, it is not usually the main cause of submission to a headache clinic