A Logical Approach to Cooperative Information Systems

``Cooperative information system management'' refers to the capacity of several computing systems to communicate and cooperate in order to acquire, store, manage, query data and knowledge. Current solutions to the problem of cooperative information management are still far from being satisfactory. In particular, they lack the ability to fully model cooperation among heterogeneous systems according to a declarative style. The use of a logical approach to model all aspects of cooperation seems very promising. In this paper, we de®ne a logical language able to support cooperative queries, updates and update propagation. We model the sources of information as deductive databases, sharing the same logical language to ex- press queries and updates, but containing independent, even if possibly related, data. We use the Obj-U-Datalog (E. Bertino, G. Guerrini, D. Montesi, Toward deductive object data- bases, Theory and Practice of Object Systems 1 (1) (1995) 19±39) language to model queries and transactions in each source of data. Such language is then extended to deal with active rules in the style of Active-U-Datalog (E. Bertino, B. Catania, V. Gervasi, A. Ra aet a, Ac- tive-U-Datalog: Integrating active rules in a logical update language, in: B. Freitag, H. Decker, M. Kifer, A. Voronkov (Eds.), LBCS 1472: Transactions and Change in Login Databases, 1998, pp. 106±132), interpreted according to the PARK semantics proposed in G. Gottlob, G. Moerkotte, V.S. Subrahmanian (The PARK semantics for active rules, in: P.M.G. Apers, M. Bouzeghoub, G. Gardarin (Eds.), LNCS 1057: Proceedings of the Fifth International Con- ference on Extending Database Technology, 1996, pp. 35±55). By using active rules, a system can e ciently perform update propagation among di erent databases. The result is a logical environment, integrating active and deductive rules, to perform update propagation in a cooperative framework

Defining and Analysing Resource Assignments in Business Processes with RAL

Business process (BP) modelling notations tend to stray their attention from (human) resource management, unlike other aspects such as control flow or even data flow. They not only offer little intuitive languages to assign resources to BP activities, but neither link BPs with the structure of the organization where they are used, so BP models can easily contain errors such as the assignment of resources that do not belong to the organizational model. In this paper we address this problem and define RAL (Resource Assignment Language), a domainspecific language explicitly developed to assign resources to the activities of a BP model. RAL makes BPs aware of organizational structures. Besides, RAL semantics is based on an OWL-DL ontology, which enables the automatic analysis of resource assignment expressions, thus allowing the extraction of information from the resource assignments, and the detection of inconsistencies and assignment conflicts

Adsorption of Rhodamine B from Wastewater on the Arsenic- Hyperaccumulator Pteris Vittata Waste Roots

The Pteris vittata fern, which is a perennial plant known for hyper-accumulating Arsenic, can be grown in hydroponic cultures and is often used for phytoremediation of contaminated water. To reduce the cost of disposing As-contaminated biomass, this study examined the potential of using waste roots from Pteris vittata as a new and inexpensive bio-adsorbent for removing Rhodamine B (RB) dye, which is commonly used in industrial applications. Batch tests were performed at 25°C in order to observe both the rate and the equilibrium conditions of the system. The isotherm showed a typical Langmuir behavior exhibiting a maximum adsorption capacity of 42.7 mg/g. Kinetics tests were conducted at different solid-liquid ratios and fitted by a mathematical model. The maximum likelihood method was employed to estimate the effective diffusivity of RB in the solid which resulted 4.48 10-9 cm2/min. This study lays the groundwork for future investigations into the use of this material in continuous systems to determine its feasibility for application in industrial apparatus

Flexible Transaction Dependencies in Database Systems

Numerous extended transaction models have been proposed in the literature to overcome the limitations of the traditional transaction model for advanced applications characterized by their long durations, cooperation between activities and access to multiple databases (like CAD/CAM and office automation). However, most of these extended models have been proposed with specific applications in mind and almost always fail to support applications with slightly different requirements.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44828/1/10619_2004_Article_270346.pd

Differences in osteoimmunological biomarkers predictive of psoriatic arthritis among a large Italian cohort of psoriatic patients

(1) Background: In literature it is reported that 20\u201330% of psoriatic patients evolve to psoriatic arthritis over time. Currently, no specific biochemical markers can either predict progression to psoriatic arthritis or response to therapies. This study aimed to identify osteoimmunological markers applicable to clinical practice, giving a quantitative tool for evaluating pathological status and, eventually, to provide prognostic support in diagnosis. (2) Methods: Soluble (serum) bone and cartilage markers were quantified in 50 patients with only psoriasis, 50 psoriatic patients with psoriatic arthritis, and 20 healthy controls by means of multiplex and enzyme-linked immunoassays. (3) Results: Differences in the concentrations of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs), tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs), receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B-ligand (RANK-L), procollagen type I N propeptide (PINP), C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTx-I), dickkopf-related protein 1 (DKK1), and sclerostin (SOST) distinguished healthy controls from psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis patients. We found that MMP2, MMP12, MMP13, TIMP2, and TIMP4 distinguished psoriasis from psoriatic arthritis patients undergoing a systemic treatment, with a good diagnostic accuracy (Area under the ROC Curve (AUC) > 0.7). Then, chitinase-3-like protein 1 (CHI3L1) and MMP10 distinguished psoriasis from psoriatic arthritis not undergoing systemic therapy and, in the presence of onychopathy, MMP8 levels were higher in psoriasis than in psoriatic arthritis. However, in these latter cases, the diagnostic accuracy of the identified biomarkers was low (0.5 < AUC < 0.7). (4) Conclusions. By highlighting never exploited differences, the wide osteoimmunological biomarkers panel provides a novel clue to the development of diagnostic paths in psoriasis and psoriasis-associated arthropathic disease

Are obstetrical complications really involved in the etiology and course of schizophrenia and mood disorders?

The impact of stressful experiences during gestation or early life, leading to increased psychiatric disorders susceptibility, is currently well described in literature, however, few data are available on the association between obstetrical complications and later development of specific diagnoses or clinical features (e.g. psychotic symptoms). Aim of the present paper was to evaluate obstetrical complications frequency in different psychiatric diagnoses and their association with clinical features. Three hundred and eighty-eight patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder were compared in terms of clinical presentation according to the presence, type and severity of obstetrical complications. Seventeen percent of the total sample (N=65) had history of at least one obstetrical complication. Patients with a history of at least one obstetrical complication result in an earlier age of onset (F=3.93, p=0.04) and a current higher GAF score (F=6.46, p=0.01). Lewis-Murray scale score was directly correlated with GAF scores (t=2.9, p=0.004) and inversely correlated with age at onset (t=-2.77, p=0.006). Obstetrical complications are frequently registered in patients with schizophrenia or mood disorders. In our sample, they appear to have an anticipatory effect on illness onset, but they seem not to be associated with a specific psychiatric diagnosis

MiR-24 Tumor Suppressor Activity Is Regulated Independent of p53 and through a Target Site Polymorphism

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are predicted to regulate approximately 30% of all human genes; however, only a few miRNAs have been assigned their targets and specific functions. Here we demonstrate that miR-24, a ubiquitously expressed miRNA, has an anti-proliferative effect independent of p53 function. Cell lines with differential p53 status were used as a model to study the effects of miR-24 on cell proliferation, cell cycle control, gene regulation and cellular transformation. Overexpression of miR-24 in six different cell lines, independent of p53 function, inhibited cell proliferation and resulted in G2/S cell cycle arrest. MiR-24 over expression in cells with wt-p53 upregulated TP53 and p21 protein; however, in p53-null cells miR-24 still induced cell cycle arrest without the involvement of p21. We show that miR-24 regulates p53-independent cellular proliferation by regulating an S-phase enzyme, dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) a target of the chemotherapeutic drug methotrexate (MTX). Of interest, we found that a miR-24 target site polymorphism in DHFR 3′ UTR that results in loss of miR-24-function and high DHFR levels in the cell imparts a growth advantage to immortalized cells and induces neoplastic transformation. Of clinical significance, we found that miR-24 is deregulated in human colorectal cancer tumors and a subset of tumors has reduced levels of miR-24. A novel function for miR-24 as a p53-independent cell cycle inhibitory miRNA is proposed