Clood CBR: towards microservices oriented case-based reasoning.

CBR applications have been deployed in a wide range of sectors, from pharmaceuticals; to defence and aerospace to IoT and transportation, to poetry and music generation; for example. However, a majority of these have been built using monolithic architectures which impose size and complexity constraints. As such these applications have a barrier to adopting new technologies and remain prohibitively expensive in both time and cost because changes in frameworks or languages affect the application directly. To address this challenge, we introduce a distributed and highly scalable generic CBR system, Clood, which is based on a microservices architecture. This splits the application into a set of smaller, interconnected services that scale to meet varying demands. Experimental results show that our Clood implementation retrieves cases at a fairly consistent rate as the casebase grows by several orders of magnitude and was over 3,700 times faster than a comparable monolithic CBR system when retrieving from half a million cases. Microservices are cloud-native architectures and with the rapid increase in cloud-computing adoption, it is timely for the CBR community to have access to such a framework

Management of the COPD patient with comorbidities: an experts recommendation document

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with multiple comorbidities, which impact negatively on patients and are often underdiagnosed, thus lacking a proper management due to the absence of clear guidelines. Purpose: To elaborate expert recommendations aimed to help healthcare professionals to provide the right care for treating COPD patients with comorbidities. Methods: A modified RAND-UCLA appropriateness method consisting of nominal groups to draw up consensus recommendations (6 Spanish experts) and 2-Delphi rounds to validate them (23 Spanish experts) was performed. Results: A panel of Spanish internal medicine experts reached consensus on 73 recommendations and 81 conclusions on the clinical consequences of the presence of comorbidities. In general, the experts reached consensus on the issues raised with regard to cardiovascular comorbidity and metabolic disorders. Consensus was reached on the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in cases of depression and the usefulness of referring patients with anxiety to respiratory rehabilitation programmes. The results also showed consensus on the usefulness of investigating the quality of sleep, the treatment of pain with opioids and the evaluation of osteoporosis by lateral chest radiography. Conclusion: This study provides conclusions and recommendations that are intended to improve the management of the complexity of patients with COPD and important comorbidities, usually excluded from clinical trials. Keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, comorbidities, modified RANDUCLA, Delphi techniqu

Impact of Vitamin D Supplementation on Arterial Vasomotion, Stiffness and Endothelial Biomarkers in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

Background: Cardiovascular events are frequent and vascular endothelial function is abnormal in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We demonstrated endothelial dysfunction with vitamin D deficiency in CKD patients; however the impact of cholecalciferol supplementation on vascular stiffness and vasomotor function, endothelial and bone biomarkers in CKD patients with low 25-hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D] is unknown, which this study investigated. Methods: We assessed non-diabetic patients with CKD stage 3/4, age 17–80 years and serum 25(OH)D ,75 nmol/L. Brachial artery Flow Mediated Dilation (FMD), Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV), Augmentation Index (AI) and circulating blood biomarkers were evaluated at baseline and at 16 weeks. Oral 300,000 units cholecalciferol was administered at baseline and 8-weeks. Results: Clinical characteristics of 26 patients were: age 50614 (mean61SD) years, eGFR 41611 ml/min/1.73 m2, males 73%, dyslipidaemia 36%, smokers 23% and hypertensives 87%. At 16-week serum 25(OH)D and calcium increased (43616 to 84629 nmol/L, p,0.001 and 2.3760.09 to 2.4260.09 mmol/L; p = 0.004, respectively) and parathyroid hormone decreased (10.868.6 to 7.464.4; p = 0.001). FMD improved from 3.163.3% to 6.163.7%, p = 0.001. Endothelial biomarker concentrations decreased: E-Selectin from 566662123 to 525662058 pg/mL; p = 0.032, ICAM-1, 3.4560.01 to 3.1061.04 ng/mL; p = 0.038 and VCAM-1, 54633 to 42633 ng/mL; p = 0.006. eGFR, BP, PWV, AI, hsCRP, von Willebrand factor and Fibroblast Growth Factor-23, remained unchanged. Conclusion: This study demonstrates for the first time improvement of endothelial vasomotor and secretory functions with vitamin D in CKD patients without significant adverse effects on arterial stiffness, serum calcium or FGF-23. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT0200571

Uncoupling of the LKB1-AMPKα Energy Sensor Pathway by Growth Factors and Oncogenic BRAFV600E

BACKGROUND: Understanding the biochemical mechanisms contributing to melanoma development and progression is critical for therapeutical intervention. LKB1 is a multi-task Ser/Thr kinase that phosphorylates AMPK controlling cell growth and apoptosis under metabolic stress conditions. Additionally, LKB1(Ser428) becomes phosphorylated in a RAS-Erk1/2-p90(RSK) pathway dependent manner. However, the connection between the RAS pathway and LKB1 is mostly unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using the UV induced HGF transgenic mouse melanoma model to investigate the interplay among HGF signaling, RAS pathway and PI3K pathway in melanoma, we identified LKB1 as a protein directly modified by HGF induced signaling. A variety of molecular techniques and tissue culture revealed that LKB1(Ser428) (Ser431 in the mouse) is constitutively phosphorylated in BRAF(V600E) mutant melanoma cell lines and spontaneous mouse tumors with high RAS pathway activity. Interestingly, BRAF(V600E) mutant melanoma cells showed a very limited response to metabolic stress mediated by the LKB1-AMPK-mTOR pathway. Here we show for the first time that RAS pathway activation including BRAF(V600E) mutation promotes the uncoupling of AMPK from LKB1 by a mechanism that appears to be independent of LKB1(Ser428) phosphorylation. Notably, the inhibition of the RAS pathway in BRAF(V600E) mutant melanoma cells recovered the complex formation and rescued the LKB1-AMPKalpha metabolic stress-induced response, increasing apoptosis in cooperation with the pro-apoptotic proteins Bad and Bim, and the down-regulation of Mcl-1. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These data demonstrate that growth factor treatment and in particular oncogenic BRAF(V600E) induces the uncoupling of LKB1-AMPKalpha complexes providing at the same time a possible mechanism in cell proliferation that engages cell growth and cell division in response to mitogenic stimuli and resistance to low energy conditions in tumor cells. Importantly, this mechanism reveals a new level for therapeutical intervention particularly relevant in tumors harboring a deregulated RAS-Erk1/2 pathway

Recommendations for conducting the rodent erythrocyte Pig-a assay: A report from the HESI GTTC Pig-a Workgroup.

The rodent Pig-a assay is a flow cytometric, phenotype-based method used to measure in vivo somatic cell mutation. An Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) test guideline is currently being developed to support routine use of the assay for regulatory purposes (OECD project number 4.93). This article provides advice on best practices for designing and conducting rodent Pig-a studies in support of evaluating test substance safety, with a focus on the rat model. Various aspects of assay conduct, including laboratory proficiency, minimum number of animals per dose group, preferred treatment and blood sampling schedule, and statistical analysis are described

Analysis of parcel-based image classification methods for monitoring the activities of the Land Bank of Galicia (Spain)

[EN] The abandonment of agricultural plots entails a low economic productivity of the land and a higher vulnerability to wildfires and degradation of affected areas. In this sense, the local government of Galicia is promoting new methodologies based on high-resolution images in order to classify the territory in basic and generic land uses. This procedure will be used to control the sustainable management of plots belonging to the Land Bank. This paper presents an application study for maintaining and updating land use/land cover geospatial databases using parcel-oriented classification. The test is performed over two geographic areas of Galicia, in the northwest of Spain. In this region, forest and shrublands in mountain environments are very heterogeneous with many private unproductive plots, some of which are in a high state of abandonment. The dataset is made of high spatial resolution multispectral imagery, cadastral cartography employed to define the image objects (plots), and field samples used to define evaluation and training samples. A set of descriptive features is computed quantifying different properties of the objects, i.e. spectral, texture, structural, and geometrical. Additionally, the effect on the classification and updating processes of the historical land use as a descriptive feature is tested. Three different classification methodologies are analyzed: linear discriminant analysis, decision trees, and support vector machine. The overall accuracies of the classifications obtained are always above 90 % and support vector machine method is proved to provide the best performance. Forest and shrublands areas are especially undefined, so the discrimination between these two classes is low. The results enable to conclude that the use of automatic parcel-oriented classification techniques for updating tasks of land use/land cover geospatial databases, is effective in the areas tested, particularly when broad and well defined classes are required.The authors appreciate the collaboration and support provided by Xunta de Galicia, Sociedade para o Desenvolvemento Comarcal de Galícia, and Banco de Terras de Galicia. The financial support provided by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación in the framework of the projects CGL2010-19591/BTE and CGL2009-14220 is also acknowledged.Hermosilla, T.; Díaz Manso, J.; Ruiz Fernández, LÁ.; Recio Recio, JA.; Fernández-Sarría, A.; Ferradáns Nogueira, P. (2012). Analysis of parcel-based image classification methods for monitoring the activities of the Land Bank of Galicia (Spain). Applied Geomatics. 4(4):245-255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12518-012-0087-zS24525544Arikan M (2004) Parcel-based crop mapping through multi-temporal masking classification of landsat 7 images in Karacabey, Turkey. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens Spat Inf Sci 35:1085–1090Balaguer A, Ruiz LA, Hermosilla T, Recio JA (2010) Definition of a comprehensive set of texture semivariogram features and their evaluation for object-oriented image classification. Comput Geosci 36(2):231–240Balaguer-Besser A, Hermosilla T, Recio JA, Ruiz LA (2011) Semivariogram calculation optimization for object-oriented image classification. Model Sci Educ Learn 4(7):91–104Blaschke T (2010) Object based image analysis for remote sensing. ISPRS J Photogramm 65(1):2–16Cohen Y, Shoshany M (2000) Integration of remote sensing, GIS and expert knowledge in national knowledge-based crop recognition in Mediterranean environment. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens 33(Part B7):280–286Congalton R (1991) A review of assessing the accuracy of classifications of remotely sensed data. Remote Sens Environ 37(1):35–46Dadhwal VK, Singh RP, Dutta S, Parihar JS (2002) Remote sensing based crop inventory: a review of Indian experience. Trop Ecol 43(1):107–122De Wit AJW, Clevers JGPW (2004) Efficiency and accuracy of per-field classification for operational crop mapping. Int J Remote Sens 25:4091–4112Del Frate F, Pacifici F, Solimini D (2008) Monitoring urban land cover in Rome, Italy, and its changes by single-polarization multitemporal SAR images. IEEE J Sel Top Appl Earth Obs Remote Sens 1:87–97Díaz-Manso JM, Ferradáns-Nogueira P (2011) Modelo de uso actual da terra. In: Cobelle-Rico EJ, Diaz-Manso JM, Crecente-Maseda R, Martínez-Rivas EM (eds) Mercado e Mobilidade de Terras en Galícia, 1st edn. Servizo de Publicacións e Intercambio Científico, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, pp 31–44Dupas CA (2000) SAR and LANDSAT TM image fusion for land cover classification in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest Domain. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens XXXIII(Part B1):96–103El Kady M, Mack CB (1992) Remote sensing for crop inventory of Egypt’s old agricultural lands. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens 29:176–185Everitt BS, Dunn G (2001) Applied multivariate data analysis, 2nd edn. Edward Arnold, LondonHaralick RM, Shanmugam K, Dinstein I (1973) Texture features for image classification. IEEE Transact Syst Man Cybern 3(6):610–622Hermosilla T, Almonacid J, Fernández-Sarría A, Ruiz LA, Recio JA (2010) Combining features extracted from imagery and lidar data for object-oriented classification of forest areas. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens Spat Inf Sci 38(4/C7)Hernández Orallo J, Ramírez Quintana MJ, Ferri Ramírez C (2004) Introducción a la minería de datos. Pearson Educación S.A, MadridHomer C, Huang C, Yang L, Wylie B, Coan M (2004) Development of a 2001 National Land-Cover Database for the United States. Photogramm Eng Remote Sens 70:829–840Huberty CJ (1994) Applied discriminant analysis. Wiley, New YorkLaws KI (1985) Goal-directed texture image segmentation. Appl Artif Intel II, SPIE 548:19–26Ormeci C, Alganci U, Sertel E (2010) Identification of crop areas using SPOT-5 data, FIG Congress 2010 Facing the Challenges—building the capacity. Sydney, Australia, pp 11–16Peled A, Gilichinsky M (2004) GIS-driven analyses of remotely sensed data for quality assessment of existing land cover classification. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens Spat Inf Sci 35Peled A, Gilichinsky M (2010) Knowledge-based classification of land cover for the quality assessment of GIS database. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens Spat Inf Sci 38:217–222Perveen F, Nagasawa R, Ali S, Husnain (2008) Evaluation of ASTER spectral bands for agricultural land cover mapping using pixel-based and object-based classification approaches. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens Spat Inf Sci 37(4-C1)Petit CC, Lambin EF (2002) Impact of data integration technique on historical land-use/land-cover change: comparing historical maps with remote sensing data in the Belgian Ardennes. Landsc Ecol 17:117–132Quinlan JR (1993) C4.5: Programs for machine learning. Kaufmann, San FranciscoRabe A, van der Linden S, Hostert P (2010) imageSVM, Version 2.1. www.hu-geomatics.deRecio JA, Hermosilla T, Ruiz LA, Fernández-Sarría A (2011) Historical land use as a feature for image classification. Photogramm Eng Remote Sens 77(4):377–387Ruiz LA, Fernández-Sarría A, Recio JA (2004) Texture feature extraction for classification of remote sensing data using wavelet decomposition: a comparative study. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens Spat Inf Sci 35(B4):1109–1115Ruiz LA, Recio JA, Hermosilla T, Fdez. Sarriá A (2009) Identification of agricultural and land cover database changes using object-oriented classification techniques. 33rd International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment, May 4–8, Stresa (Italy)Ruiz LA, Recio JA, Fernández-Sarría A, Hermosilla T (2011) A feature extraction software tool for agricultural object-based image analysis. Comput Electron Agric 76(4):284–296Tansey K, Chambers I, Anstee A, Denniss A, Lamb A (2009) Object-oriented classification of very high resolution airborne imagery for the extraction of hedgerows and field margin cover in agricultural areas. Appl Geogr 29(2):145–157van der Linden S, Rabe A, Wirth F, Suess S, Okujeni A, Hostert P (2010) imageSVM regression, application manual: imageSVM version 2.1. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, GermanyVapnik VN (1998) Statistical learning theory. Wiley, New YorkWalsh SJ, McCleary AL, Mena CF, Shao Y, Tuttle JP, Gonzalez A, Atkinson R (2008) QuickBird and Hyperion data analysis of an invasive plant species in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador: implications for control and land use management. Remote Sens Environ 112(5):1927–1941Walter V (2004) Object-based classification of remote sensing data for change detection. ISPRS J Photogramm Remote Sens 58:225–238Walter V (2005) Object-based evaluation of lidar and multiespectral data for automatic change detection in GIS databases. Geo-Inf Syst 18:10–15Zaragozí, B, Rabasa, A, Rodríguez-Sala, JJ, Navarro, JT, Belda, A, Ramón, A (2012) Modelling farmland abandonment: A study combining GIS and data mining techniques. Agric Ecosys Environ 155:124–132Zhang S, Liu X (2005) Realization of data mining model for expert classification using multi-scale spatial data. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens Spat Inf Sci 26(4/W6):107–11

Emergent Properties of Patch Shapes Affect Edge Permeability to Animals

Animal travel between habitat patches affects populations, communities and ecosystems. There are three levels of organization of edge properties, and each of these can affect animals. At the lowest level are the different habitats on each side of an edge, then there is the edge itself, and finally, at the highest level of organization, is the geometry or structure of the edge. This study used computer simulations to (1) find out whether effects of edge shapes on animal behavior can arise as emergent properties solely due to reactions to edges in general, without the animals reacting to the shapes of the edges, and to (2) generate predictions to allow field and experimental studies to test mechanisms of edge shape response. Individual animals were modeled traveling inside a habitat patch that had different kinds of edge shapes (convex, concave and straight). When animals responded edges of patches, this created an emergent property of responding to the shape of the edge. The response was mostly to absolute width of the shapes, and not the narrowness of them. When animals were attracted to edges, then they tended to collect in convexities and disperse from concavities, and the opposite happened when animals avoided edges. Most of the responses occurred within a distance of 40% of the perceptual range from the tip of the shapes. Predictions were produced for directionality at various locations and combinations of treatments, to be used for testing edge behavior mechanisms. These results suggest that edge shapes tend to either concentrate or disperse animals, simply because the animals are either attracted to or avoid edges, with an effect as great as 3 times the normal density. Thus edge shape could affect processes like pollination, seed predation and dispersal and predator abundance

Tissue factor expression as a possible determinant of thromboembolism in ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer, and clear cell carcinoma in particular, reportedly increases the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). However, the mechanisms remain unclear. Tissue factor (TF) supposedly represents a major factor in the procoagulant activities of cancer cells. The present study examined the involvement of TF expression in VTE for patients with ovarian cancer. Subjects comprised 32 consecutive patients (mean age 49.8 years) with histologically confirmed ovarian cancer. Presence of VTE was examined using a combination of clinical features, D-dimer levels and venous ultrasonography. Immunohistochemical analysis was used to evaluate TF expression into 4 degrees. Venous thromboembolism was identified in 10 of the 32 patients (31%), including five of the 11 patients with clear cell carcinoma. Tissue factor expression was detected in cancer tissues from 24 patients and displayed significant correlations with VTE development (P=0.0003), D-dimer concentration (P=0.003) and clear cell carcinoma (P<0.05). Multivariate analysis identified TF expression as an independent predictive factor of VTE development (P<0.05). Tissue factor (TF) expression is a possible determinant of VTE development in ovarian cancer. In particular, clear cell carcinoma may produce excessive levels of TF and is more likely to develop VTE

Ranging characteristics of the domestic cat (Felis catus) in an urban environment

In many countries, high densities of domestic cats (Felis catus) are found in urban habitats where they have the potential to exert considerable predation pressure on their prey. However, little is known of the ranging behaviour of cats in the UK. Twenty cats in suburban Reading, UK, were fitted with GPS trackers to quantify movement patterns. Cats were monitored during the summer and winter for an average of 6.8 24 h periods per season. Mean daily area ranged (95 % MCP) was 1.94 ha. Including all fixes, mean maximum area ranged was 6.88 ha. These are broadly comparable to those observed in urban areas in other countries. Daily area ranged was not affected by the cat’s sex or the season, but was significantly larger at night than during the day. There was no relationship between area ranged and habitat availability. Taking available habitat into account, cat ranging area contained significantly more garden and other green space than urban habitats. If cats were shown to be negatively affecting prey populations, one mitigation option for consideration in housing developments proposed near important wildlife sites would be to incorporate a ‘buffer zone’ in which cat ownership was not permitted. Absolute maximum daily area ranged by a cat in this study was 33.78 ha. This would correspond to an exclusory limit of approximately 300–400 m to minimise the negative effects of cat predation, but this may need to be larger if cat ranging behaviour is negatively affected by population densit

Multiple populations in globular clusters. Lessons learned from the Milky Way globular clusters

Recent progress in studies of globular clusters has shown that they are not simple stellar populations, being rather made of multiple generations. Evidence stems both from photometry and spectroscopy. A new paradigm is then arising for the formation of massive star clusters, which includes several episodes of star formation. While this provides an explanation for several features of globular clusters, including the second parameter problem, it also opens new perspectives about the relation between globular clusters and the halo of our Galaxy, and by extension of all populations with a high specific frequency of globular clusters, such as, e.g., giant elliptical galaxies. We review progress in this area, focusing on the most recent studies. Several points remain to be properly understood, in particular those concerning the nature of the polluters producing the abundance pattern in the clusters and the typical timescale, the range of cluster masses where this phenomenon is active, and the relation between globular clusters and other satellites of our Galaxy.Comment: In press (The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review