THE CO LUM BIA RIVER GORGE THE STORY OF THE RIVER AND TH E ROCKS

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subscription rate- $2.00 per calencbr year Available bock issues$.25 each Second closs postage pai

TrainMiC, Training in Metrology in Chemistry.

Abstract not availableJRC.D-Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (Geel

Multidimensional integration of RDF datasets

Data providers have been uploading RDF datasets on the web to aid researchers and analysts in finding insights. These datasets, made available by different data providers, contain common characteristics that enable their integration. However, since each provider has their own data dictionary, identifying common concepts is not trivial and we require costly and complex entity resolution and transformation rules to perform such integration. In this paper, we propose a novel method, that given a set of independent RDF datasets, provides a multidimensional interpretation of these datasets and integrates them based on a common multidimensional space (if any) identified. To do so, our method first identifies potential dimensional and factual data on the input datasets and performs entity resolution to merge common dimensional and factual concepts. As a result, we generate a common multidimensional space and identify each input dataset as a cuboid of the resulting lattice. With such output, we are able to exploit open data with OLAP operators in a richer fashion than dealing with them separately.This research has been funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Information Technologies for Business Intelligence-Doctoral College (IT4BI-DC) program.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Factors associated with comprehensive medication review completion rates: A national survey of community pharmacists

Background Completion rates for medication therapy management (MTM) services have been lower than desired and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has added MTM comprehensive medication review (CMR) completion rates as a Part D plan star measure. Over half of plans utilize community pharmacists via contracts with MTM vendors. Objectives The primary objective of this survey study was to identify factors associated with the CMR completion rates of community pharmacies contracted with a national MTM vendor. Methodsl Representatives from 27,560 pharmacy locations contracted with a national MTM vendor were surveyed. The dependent variable of interest was the pharmacies' CMR completion rate. Independent variables included the pharmacy's progressiveness stratum and number of CMRs assigned by the MTM vendor during the time period, as well as self-reported data to characterize MTM facilitators, barriers, delivery strategies, staffing, selected items from a modified Assessment of Chronic Illness Care, and pharmacist/pharmacy demographics. Univariate negative binomial models were fit for each independent variable, and variables significant at p < 0.05 were entered into a multivariable model. Results Representatives from 3836 (13.9%) pharmacy locations responded; of these, 90.9% (n = 3486) responses were useable. The median CMR completion rate was 0.42. Variables remaining significant at p < 0.05 in the multivariable model included: progressiveness strata; pharmacy type; scores on the facilitators scale; responses to two potential barriers items; scores on the patient/caregiver delivery strategies sub-scale; providing MTM at multiple locations; reporting that the MTM vendor sending the survey link is the primary MTM vendor for which the respondent provides MTM; and the number of hours per week that the pharmacy is open. Conclusions Factors at the respondent (e.g., responses to facilitators scale) and pharmacy (e.g., pharmacy type) levels were associated with CMR completion rates. These findings could be used by MTM stakeholders to improve CMR completion rates

Recursion representation of the Neveu-Schwarz superconformal block

Four-point super-conformal blocks for the N = 1 Neveu-Schwarz algebra are defined in terms of power series of the even super-projective invariant. Coefficients of these expansions are represented both as sums over poles in the "intermediate" conformal weight and as sums over poles in the central charge of the algebra. The residua of these poles are calculated in both cases. Closed recurrence relations for the block coefficients are derived.Comment: 20 page

Limits of minimal models and continuous orbifolds

The lambda=0 't Hooft limit of the 2d W_N minimal models is shown to be equivalent to the singlet sector of a free boson theory, thus paralleling exactly the structure of the free theory in the Klebanov-Polyakov proposal. In 2d, the singlet sector does not describe a consistent theory by itself since the corresponding partition function is not modular invariant. However, it can be interpreted as the untwisted sector of a continuous orbifold, and this point of view suggests that it can be made consistent by adding in the appropriate twisted sectors. We show that these twisted sectors account for the `light states' that were not included in the original 't Hooft limit. We also show that, for the Virasoro minimal models (N=2), the twisted sector of our orbifold agrees precisely with the limit theory of Runkel & Watts. In particular, this implies that our construction satisfies crossing symmetry.Comment: 33 pages; v2: minor improvements and references added, published versio

Chemical characterization of some substituted hydroxyapatites

Synthetic multi-substituted hydroxyapatite nano powders containing silicon and or carbonate prepared by a wet chemical method. The process parameters are set up to allow the simultaneous substitution of carbonate and silicon ions in the place of phosphorus. The chemical and structural characterizations of the prepared powders are determined with the aid of; XRF, ICP, XRD and FTIR. The results show that, the ion substitution in the crystal lattice of HA caused a change in the unit cell dimensions and affected the degree of crystallization of the produced powders. The apatite formation abilityy of the prepared discs from the synthesized powders is determined by immersing in SBF solution for different periods. The degree of ion release was determined in the obtained solutions. The examined surface of the immersed discs under SEM and analyzed by CDS showed a more dense HA layer than those of un-substituted ones. The HA with the substituted silicon and carbonate ions, showed the highest solubility with greater rate of ion release, compared with carbonate-free powder. All prepared powders took sodium ion from the SBF solution during immersion, which was not recorded before

Fab antibody fragment-functionalized liposomes for specific targeting of antigen-positive cells

Liposomes functionalized with monoclonal antibodies or their antigen-binding fragments have attracted much attention as specific drug delivery devices for treatment of various diseases including cancer. The conjugation of antibodies to liposomes is usually achieved by covalent coupling using cross-linkers in a reaction that might adversely affect the characteristics of the final product. Here we present an alternative strategy for liposome functionalization: we created a recombinant Fab antibody fragment genetically fused on its C-terminus to the hydrophobic peptide derived from pulmonary surfactant protein D, which became inserted into the liposomal bilayer during liposomal preparation and anchored the Fab onto the liposome surface. The Fab-conjugated liposomes specifically recognized antigen-positive cells and efficiently delivered their cargo, the Alexa Fluor 647 dye, into target cells in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, our approach offers the potential for straightforward development of nanomedicines functionalized with an antibody of choice without the need of harmful cross-linkers.This work has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013; grant agreement NMP4-LA-2009-228827 NANOFOL) and Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement No 683356 - FOLSMART), further from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Knowledge Questions from Knowledge Graphs

We address the novel problem of automatically generating quiz-style knowledge questions from a knowledge graph such as DBpedia. Questions of this kind have ample applications, for instance, to educate users about or to evaluate their knowledge in a specific domain. To solve the problem, we propose an end-to-end approach. The approach first selects a named entity from the knowledge graph as an answer. It then generates a structured triple-pattern query, which yields the answer as its sole result. If a multiple-choice question is desired, the approach selects alternative answer options. Finally, our approach uses a template-based method to verbalize the structured query and yield a natural language question. A key challenge is estimating how difficult the generated question is to human users. To do this, we make use of historical data from the Jeopardy! quiz show and a semantically annotated Web-scale document collection, engineer suitable features, and train a logistic regression classifier to predict question difficulty. Experiments demonstrate the viability of our overall approach