Certification of Mass Fractions of Aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2 in Peanut Butter, BCR-385R and BCR-401R

This report describes the preparation of peanut butter (BCR-385R and BCR-401R) matrix reference materials and the certification of their content (mass fraction) of aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2. The preparation of the materials, the homogeneity and stability studies and the characterisation are described and the results are discussed. Uncertainties were calculated in compliance with the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM), including uncertainties due to possible heterogeneity and instability.JRC.D.2-Reference material

Topic spotting using subword units

In this paper we present a new approach for topic spotting based on subword units and feature vectors instead of words. In our first approach, we only use vector quantized feature vectors and polygram language models for topic representation. In the second approach, we use phonemes instead of the vector quantized feature vectors and model the topics again using polygram language models. We trained and tested the two methods on two different corpora. The first is a part of a media corpus which contains data from TV shows for three different topics. The second is the VERBMOBIL-corpus where we used 18 dialog acts as topics. Each corpus was splitted into disjunctive test and training sets. We achieved recognition rates up to 82% for the three topics of the media corpus and up to 64% using 18 dialog acts of the VERBMOBIL-corpus as topics

The certification of fipronil sulfone and the sum of fipronil and fipronil sulfone expressed as fipronil in egg powder ERM-BB125

This report describes the production of the ERM-BB125, which is an egg material certified for the mass fraction of fipronil sulfone and the sum of fipronil and fipronil sulfone expressed as fipronil. This material was produced following ISO 17034 and is certified in accordance with ISO Guide 35. Eggs from a farm embargoed by the Belgian food safety authorities were freeze-dried, cryo-milled and homogenised. Between-unit homogeneity was quantified and stability during dispatch and storage were assessed in accordance with ISO Guide 35. The material was characterised by an interlaboratory comparison of laboratories of demonstrated competence and adhering to ISO/IEC 17025. Technically invalid results were removed but no outlier was eliminated on statistical grounds only. Uncertainties of the certified values were calculated in accordance with the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM)and include uncertainties related to possible inhomogeneity, instability and characterisation. The material is intended for the quality control and assessment of method performance. As with any reference material, it can be used for establishing control charts or during validation studies. The CRM is available in sealed glass vials containing at least 5 g of dried egg powder. The minimum amount of sample to be used is 1 g of the dry material.JRC.F.6-Reference Material

Dialog act classification with the help of prosody

This paper presents automatic methods for the segmentation and classication of dialog acts (DA). In Verbmobil it is often sufficient to recognize the sequence of DAs occurring during a dialog between the two partners. Since a turn can consist of one or more successive DAs we conduct the classification of DAs in a two step procedure: First each turn has to be segmented into units which correspond to a DA and second the DA categories have to be identified. For the segmentation we use polygrams and multi -layer perceptrons, using prosodic features. The classification of DAs is done with semantic classication trees and polygrams

Characterization of the actin binding properties of the vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein VASP

AbstractThe vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) colocalizes with the ends of stress fibers in cell-matrix and cell-cell contacts. We report here that bacterially expressed murine VASP directly interacts with skeletal muscle actin in several test systems including cosedimentation, viscometry and polymerization assays. It nucleates actin polymerization and tightly bundles actin filaments. The interaction with actin is salt-sensitive, indicating that the complex formation is primarily based on electrostatic interactions. Actin binding is confined to the C-terminal domain of VASP (EVH2). This domain, when expressed as a fusion protein with EGFP, associates with stress fibers in transiently transfected cells

CERTIFICATION REPORT The certification of the mass fraction of pesticides in cucumber: ERM-BC403

This report describes the production of ERM®-BC403, which is a cucumber material certified for the mass fraction of selected pesticides. This material was produced following ISO Guide 34:2009 and is certified in accordance with ISO Guide 35:2006. Cucumbers from a biodynamic farm were used as base material. The cucumbers were transformed into slurry, freeze-dried and cryogenically milled. The obtained product was partially reconstituted with water and a separate portion was spiked with a pesticide mixture. The contaminated portion was then mixed with the rest of the material, homogenised and accurately dispensed into 100-ml vials. A second freeze-drying cycle was applied with the vials placed directly in the freeze-dryer. Prior to analysis the resulting sponge of dry cucumber must be reconstituted with a specific volume of water. Between-unit homogeneity was quantified and stability during dispatch and storage were assessed in accordance with ISO Guide 35:2006 [ ]. The material was characterised by an interlaboratory comparison of laboratories of demonstrated competence and adhering to ISO/IEC 17025. Technically invalid results were removed but no outliers were eliminated on statistical grounds only. Uncertainties of the certified values were calculated in accordance with the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) [ ] and include uncertainties related to possible inhomogeneity, instability and characterisation. The material is intended for the quality control / assessment of method performance. As with any reference material, it can be used for establishing control charts or used for validation of analytical methods. The CRM is available in sets of two glass vials containing each approximately 3.2 g of dried material. The vials were sealed under an atmosphere of argon. The minimum amount of sample to be used is 2.5 g of the reconstituted material.JRC.F.6-Reference Material

Increased risk for thromboembolic events from combination of a gynecologic malignancy with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection: a case report

Purpose During the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic, several patient groups are at particular risk. Mortality is higher among cancer patients and may be increased further by thromboembolic events, which are more common in coronavirus 2019 patients according to recent publications. We discuss the association of gynecologic malignancies, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and thromboembolism by reporting a case study and summarizing available literature. Case report A 71-year-old Caucasian patient with ovarian cancer receiving first-line chemotherapy was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Routine screening revealed infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in absence of specific symptoms. After uneventful recovery, oncologic treatment could be continued a few weeks later. Methods We performed a systematic review of the literature on PubMed following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The search included articles ahead of print, published between 1 December 2019 and 1 June 2020. Cross-searches were conducted on all relevant articles. Results We identified five articles meeting the defined criteria, including two retrospective studies, a review, a position paper, as well as a letter to the editor. Conclusion Cancer patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 have a relatively poor outcome, which may partially be due to a higher rate of thromboembolic events. Thromboprophylaxis is recommended, and scoring systems are helpful in early detection. In cancer patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, individual risk for thromboembolic events should be taken into account when considering interruption versus continuation of antitumoral therapy. However, further data and studies are required

An integrated model of acoustics and language using semantic classification trees

We propose Multi-level Semantic Classication Trees to combine different information sources for predicting speech events (e.g. word chains, phrases, etc.) Traditionally in speech recognition systems these information sources (acoustic evidence, language model) are calculated independently and combined via Bayes rule. The proposed approach allows one to combine sources of different types - is no longer necessary for each source to yield a probability. Moreover the tree can look at several information sources simultaneously. The approach is demonstrated for the prediction of prosodically marked phrase boundaries, combining information about the spoken word chain, word category information, prosodic parameters, and the result of a neural network predicting the boundary on the basis of acoustic-prosodic features. The recognition rates of up to 90% for the two class problem boundary vs. no boundary are already comparable to results achieved with the above mentioned Bayes rule approach that combines the acoustic classifier with a 5-gram categorical language model. This is remarkable, since so far only a small set of questions combining information from different sources have been implemented

Filariasis of the Axilla in a Patient Returning from Travel Abroad: A Case Report

Background: The term filariasis comprises a group of parasitic infections caused by helminths belonging to different genera in the superfamily Filaroidea. The human parasites occur mainly in tropical and subtropical regions, but filariae are also found in temperate climates, where they can infect wild and domestic animals. Humans are rarely infected by these zoonotic parasites. Patients and Methods: A 55-year-old patient presented with a new-onset, subcutaneous, non-tender palpable mass in the right axilla. Ultrasonography showed a 1.3-cm, solid, singular encapsulated node. Sonography of the breast on both sides, axilla and lymphatic drainage on the left side, lymphatic drainage on the right side, and mammography on both sides were without pathological findings. The node was excised under local anesthesia as the patient refused minimal invasive biopsy. Results: On histopathological examination, the tail of a parasite of the group of filariae was found. The patient revealed that she had stayed in Africa and Malaysia for professional reasons. 6 months before the time of diagnosis, she had also suffered from a fever and poor general condition after a trip abroad. The patient was referred for further treatment to the Institute for Tropical Medicine at the University of Dusseldorf, where a treatment with ivermectin was conducted on the basis of positive staining with antibodies against filariae. Conclusion: Our case demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between breast center, pathology, and other specialties such as microbiology and tropical medicine

The Oncological Emergency Case: Paraneoplastic Hypoglycemia in Metastatic Breast Cancer - Case Report and Brief Review of the Literature

Background: Paraneoplastic hypoglycemia is a rare syndrome amoungtumorous diseases. It is often associated with a paraneoplasticsecretion of ‘big’ insulin-like growth factor-II. Methods: We describethis syndrome in a 60-year-old patient with advanced breast cancer 8years after primary diagnosis. Results and Conclusion: This non-isletcell tumor-induced hypoglycemia may be the only evidence for anotherwise clinically occult disease progression. Fast diagnosis andappropriate acute and causal treatment concepts should be part ofoncological management