Bio-inspired broad-class phonetic labelling

Recent studies have shown that the correct labeling of phonetic classes may help current Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) when combined with classical parsing automata based on Hidden Markov Models (HMM).Through the present paper a method for Phonetic Class Labeling (PCL) based on bio-inspired speech processing is described. The methodology is based in the automatic detection of formants and formant trajectories after a careful separation of the vocal and glottal components of speech and in the operation of CF (Characteristic Frequency) neurons in the cochlear nucleus and cortical complex of the human auditory apparatus. Examples of phonetic class labeling are given and the applicability of the method to Speech Processing is discussed

Echolucency of carotid plaques correlates with plaque cellularity

AbstractObjective: to analyse the relationship between carotid plaque echolucency and cellularity. Methods: carotid plaques (14 symptomatic and 16 asymptomatic) were snap frozen after endarterectomy and defined on the basis of their grey-scale-median (GSM), obtained from pre-operative high-definition ultrasonography, as either echolucent (<32) or echogenic (≥32). DNA and total soluble protein were determined to assess cellularity. Results: after correcting for wet weight, symptomatic plaques had significantly more DNA (0.400 ± 0.07 vs 0.335 ± 0.07 mg/g; p = 0.03) and soluble protein (34.1 ± 6.6 vs 29.7 ± 3.4 mg/g; p = 0.03) than asymptomatic plaques. Predominantly echolucent (Grey-Weale classification) plaques had more DNA (0.404 ± 0.06 vs 0.332 ± 0.08 mg/g; p = 0.03) than echogenic plaques. Plaques with GSM < 32 also had more DNA (0.386 ± 0.08 vs 0.319 ± 0.06 mg/g; p = 0.04) and soluble protein (34.7 ± 7.3 vs 29.6 ± 4.2 mg/g; p = 0.03) than those with GSM ≥ 32. Inverse relations were found between GSM and plaque DNA (r = −0.47; p = 0.02) and soluble protein (r = −0.45; p = 0.02) as well as between age and DNA (r = 0.39; p = 0.04) and soluble protein (r = −0.50; p = 0.003). Conclusions: echolucency of carotid plaques as assessed by ultrasonography reflects plaque cellularity. This observation support the notion that ultrasonography can be used to identify high-risk plaques and evaluate effect of interventions on plaque structure.Eur J Vasc Endovasc Surg 26, 32-38 (2003

Effect of ultrasonication, thermosonication and ultraviolet irradiation on the quality of strawberies (fragaria anannassa) and red bell peppers (capsicum annuum L.)

The objective of this work was to study the effect of ultrasonication, thermosonication and UV-C irradiation on the quality attributes of strawberries (Fragaria anannassa) and red bell peppers (Capsicum annuum, L.). Thermosonication studies were carried out at 50ºC and 65ºC. Control water treatments at the same temperatures were conducted. The analysed quality factors were colour and texture for both products, in addition to anthocyanins content in the case of strawberries. Results showed that UV-C constituted a harmless treatment, with little or no effect on color, texture or anthocyanins content. Ultrasonication caused small colour changes and no significant effects on texture of both products. Thermosonication at 65ºC resulted in undesirable changes of color, anthocyanins and texture of strawberries, and color of red bell peppers. When compared to water treated samples, thermosonicated ones showed higher texture retention. This effect was much more pronounced on red bell peppers

Novel and natural knockout lung cancer cell lines for the LKB1/STK11 tumor suppressor gene

Germline mutations of the LKB1 gene are responsible for Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS), an autosomal dominant inherited disorder bestowing an increased risk of cancer. We have recently demonstrated that LKB1 inactivating mutations are not confined to PJS, but also appear in lung adenocarcinomas of sporadic origin, including primary tumors and lung cancer cell lines. To accurately determine the frequency of inactivating LKB1 gene mutations in lung tumors we have sequenced the complete coding region of LKB1 in 21 additional lung cancer cell lines. Here we describe the mutational status of LKB1 gene in 30 lung cancer cell lines from different histopathological types, including 11 lung adenocarcinomas (LADs) and 11 small cell lung cancers (SCLCs). LKB1 gene alterations were present in six (54%) of the LAD cell lines tested but in none of the other histological types. Similar to our previous observations in primary tumors, all point mutations were of the nonsense or frameshift type, leading to an abnormal, truncated protein. Moreover, 2 cell lines (A427 and H2126) harbored large gene deletions that spanned several exons. Hence, we have identified additional lung cancer cell lines carrying inactivating mutations of the LKB1 tumor suppressor gene, further attesting to the significance of this gene in the development of LADs and providing new natural LKB1 knockouts for studies of the biological function of the LKB1 protein

Feeding entrainment of locomotor activity rhythms, digestive enzymes and neuroendocrine factors in goldfish

©2007. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This document is the Accepted version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Journal of PHYSIOL BEHAV. To access the final edited and published work see http://doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2006.10.017L.M. VERA, N. DE PEDRO, E. GÓMEZ-MILÁN, M.J. DELGADO, M.J. SÁNCHEZ MUROS, J.A. MADRID, F.J. SÁNCHEZ-VÁZQUEZ. Feeding entrainment of locomotor activity, digestive enzymes and neuroendocrine factors in goldfish. PHYSIOL BEHAV 90 (2-3) 518-524, 2007. The existence of food anticipatory activity (FAA) in animals subjected to daily feeding schedules seems to be mediated by a feeding-entrainable oscillator (FEO). Such an FEO may help in anticipating meal time and so optimizing food acquisition and nutrient utilization. In this study we investigated the existence of FAA and whether digestive enzymes, plasma cortisol, hypothalamic NPY and gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and plasma melatonin were entrained by periodic feeding in goldfish. We observed that periodically fed goldfish showed FAA in locomotor activity as well as in amylase and NPY. Alkaline protease and GIT melatonin were higher after feeding, whereas plasma cortisol levels were reduced. Plasma melatonin remained unmodified before and after meal time. These results suggested that scheduled feeding entrained both behavioral and certain physiological patterns in goldfish, FAA being of adaptive value to anticipate a meal and prepare the digestive physiology of fish

On Homomorphic Secret Sharing from polynomial-modulus LWE

Homomorphic secret sharing (HSS) is a form of secret sharing that supports the local evaluation of functions on the shares, with applications to multi-server private information retrieval, secure computation, and more. Insisting on additive reconstruction, all known instantiations of HSS from “Learning with Error (LWE)”-type assumptions either have to rely on LWE with superpolynomial modulus, come with non-negligible error probability, and/or have to perform expensive ciphertext multiplications, resulting in bad concrete efficiency. In this work, we present a new 2-party local share conversion procedure, which allows to locally convert noise encoded shares to non-noise plaintext shares such that the parties can detect whenever a (potential) error occurs and in that case resort to an alternative conversion procedure. Building on this technique, we present the first HSS for branching programs from (Ring-)LWE with polynomial input share size which can make use of the efficient multiplication procedure of Boyle et al. (Eurocrypt 2019) and has no correctness error. Our construction comes at the cost of a – on expectation – slightly increased output share size (which is insignificant compared to the input share size) and a more involved reconstruction procedure. More concretely, we show that in the setting of 2-server private information retrieval we can choose ciphertext sizes of only a quarter of the size of the scheme of Boyle et al. at essentially no extra cost

II Ciclo de Conferências : Conselho Técnico-Científico: temas atuais em investigação

A obra é constituída pelos resumos das comunicações apresentadas pelos docentes da Escola Superior Agrária do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco e são referentes aos projetos de investigação nos quais estão envolvidos.O atual Conselho Técnico-Científico (CTC) da Escola Superior Agrária de Castelo Branco (ESACB) tomou posse em fevereiro de 2012, tendo decidido dar continuidade ao ciclo de conferências iniciado pelo CTC anterior. Os trabalhos de Investigação, Inovação e Experimentação que foram apresentados demonstram não só o dinamismo e a ligação com a comunidade, como também a preocupação na identificação e resolução de problemas, que acrescentem valor aos produtos e processos que se situam no âmbito das competências desta Escola. Sendo este um objetivo prioritário da missão do IPCB/ESA, a divulgação destas conferências permite chegar a um público mais alargado e abrir caminhos para a concretização de novos projetos, que contribuam de forma efetiva para o desenvolvimento e aumento da competitividade da região e do país

Altered protein expression and protein nitration pattern during d-galactosamine-induced cell death in human hepatocytes: a proteomic analysis

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Hepatic injury by d-galactosamine (d-GalN) is a suitable experimental model of hepatocellular injury. The induction of oxidative and nitrosative stress participates during d-GalN-induced cell death in cultured rat hepatocytes. This study aimed to identify protein expression changes during the induction of apoptosis and necrosis by d-GalN in cultured human hepatocytes. METHODS: A proteomic approach was used to identify the proteins involved and those altered by tyrosine nitration. A high dose of d-GalN (40 mM) was used to induce apoptosis and necrosis in primary culture of human hepatocytes. Cellular lysates prepared at different times after addition of d-GalN were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis. Gel spots with an altered expression and those matching nitrotyrosine-immunopositive proteins were excised and analyzed by mass spectrometry. RESULTS: d-GalN treatment upregulated microsomal cytochrome b5, fatty acid binding protein and manganese superoxide dismutase, and enhanced annexin degradation. d-GalN increased tyrosine nitration of four cytosolic (Hsc70, Hsp70, annexin A4 and carbonyl reductase) and three mitochondrial (glycine amidinotransferase, ATP synthase beta chain, and thiosulfate sulfurtransferase) proteins in human hepatocytes. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide evidences that oxidative stress and nitric oxide-derived reactive oxygen intermediates induce specific alterations in protein expression that may be critical for the induction of apoptosis and necrosis by d-GalN in cultured human hepatocytes

Study of the effect of ozone in aqueous solution and chemical agents on strawberry’s safety (fragaria anannassa)

[PORT] O desenvolvimento de tecnologias inovadoras que promovam a segurança de frutos e vegetais, reduzindo o risco de doenças associadas a produtos contaminados, constitui uma preocupação actual. Os tratamentos térmicos, quando convenientemente aplicados, são eficientes na redução da carga microbiana dos frutos e vegetais. Contudo, a temperatura tem um impacto bastante negativo ao nível da textura dos alimentos. Como alternativa podem ser utilizados diversos agentes químicos na lavagem dos hortofrutícolas, tais como soluções de peróxido de hidrogénio e de cloro, de forma a garantir a sua segurança e maior retenção de qualidade. Mais recentemente, a utilização de ozono como agente desinfectante, quer em fase aquosa, quer em fase gasosa, tem vindo a ser objecto de estudo. Com este trabalho pretendeu-se estudar o efeito do ozono em solução aquosa, na redução de mesófilos totais em morango. Os resultados foram comparados com os obtidos por lavagens utilizando dois agentes químicos: soluções de peróxido de hidrogénio (1% e 5% m/m) e soluções de hipoclorito de sódio disponível na forma comercial de Amukina (11.5 g/L). Todos os tratamentos aplicados tiveram a duração de 2 minutos. Os tratamentos com ozono foram combinados com tratamentos térmicos (branqueamentos a 50 ou 55 ºC, durante 1 minuto). Os resultados mostraram que o tratamento não térmico mais eficaz na redução da flora mesófila, foi a lavagem com peróxido de hidrogénio a 5% (redução de cerca de 2 ciclos logarítmicos). Estes resultados não são significativamente diferentes dos resultados obtidos com lavagens com água ozonada (resultados confirmados por ANOVA e testes Post Hoc). O efeito dos tratamentos térmicos, a 50 e 55 ºC, não foi potenciado quando estes foram combinados com lavagens com ozono. Resultados semelhantes foram obtidos quando os tratamentos combinados foram aplicados por ordem alternada (i.e. branqueamento vs ozono ou ozono vs branqueamento). [ENG] The development of innovative technologies, aiming at reducing the risk of related food-borne diseases and thus promoting fruits and vegetables, is an actual concern. Thermal treatments, when conveniently applied, are efficient in microbial load reduction. However, temperature has a negative impact at food textural level. Alternatively, washings with solutions of several chemical agents, such as hydrogen peroxide or sodium hypochlorite, may be applied. More recently, the use of ozone as a disinfectant agent, both in aqueous or in gaseous phases, has been considered. The objective of this work was to study the effect of ozone in aqueous solution, on total mesophyles reduction in strawberries. Results were compared to the ones obtained with washings with two chemical agents: hydrogen peroxide solutions (1% and 5% w/w) and sodium hypochlorite solutions, commercially available as Amukina (11.5 g/L). All treatments were applied for 2 minutes. Ozone treatments were also combined with thermal processes (blanching at 50 or 55 ºC, for 1 minute). Results showed that washings with hydrogen peroxide solutions at 5% were the most efficient non-thermal treatments applied for mesophyles reduction in strawberries (approximately 2 log-cycles). These results were not significantly different from the ones obtained with ozonated-water washings (confirmed by ANOVA and Post Hoc tests). The thermal treatment effect, at 50 and 55 ºC, was not enhanced when combined with ozonatedwater washings. Similar results were obtained when the combined treatments were applied by alternated order (i.e. blanching vs ozono ou ozono vs blanching).Os autores agradecem o apoio financeiro ao Programa Operacional Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural – Projecto AGRO nº822 (Novas Tecnologias de Processamento de Hortofrutículas Congelados – EMERCON). Os autores Alexandre E.M.C., Santos-Pedro D.M. e Brandão T.R.S. agradecem ainda à Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (bolsas de investigação SFRH/BD/16042/2004, SFRH/BPD/9174/2002 e SFRH/BPD/11580/2002, respectivamente)