Magpie: towards a semantic web browser

Web browsing involves two tasks: finding the right web page and then making sense of its content. So far, research has focused on supporting the task of finding web resources through ‘standard’ information retrieval mechanisms, or semantics-enhanced search. Much less attention has been paid to the second problem. In this paper we describe Magpie, a tool which supports the interpretation of web pages. Magpie offers complementary knowledge sources, which a reader can call upon to quickly gain access to any background knowledge relevant to a web resource. Magpie automatically associates an ontologybased semantic layer to web resources, allowing relevant services to be invoked within a standard web browser. Hence, Magpie may be seen as a step towards a semantic web browser. The functionality of Magpie is illustrated using examples of how it has been integrated with our lab’s web resources

Collaborative semantic web browsing with Magpie

Web browsing is often a collaborative activity. Users involved in a joint information gathering exercise will wish to share knowledge about the web pages visited and the contents found. Magpie is a suite of tools supporting the interpretation of web pages and semantically enriched web browsing. By automatically associating an ontology-based semantic layer to web resources, Magpie allows relevant services to be invoked as well as remotely triggered within a standard web browser. In this paper we describe how Magpie trigger services can provide semantic support to collaborative browsing activities

Fast evaluation of appointment schedules for outpatients in health care

We consider the problem of evaluating an appointment schedule for outpatients in a hospital. Given a fixed-length session during which a physician sees K patients, each patient has to be given an appointment time during this session in advance. When a patient arrives on its appointment, the consultations of the previous patients are either already finished or are still going on, which respectively means that the physician has been standing idle or that the patient has to wait, both of which are undesirable. Optimising a schedule according to performance criteria such as patient waiting times, physician idle times, session overtime, etc. usually requires a heuristic search method involving a huge number of repeated schedule evaluations. Hence, the aim of our evaluation approach is to obtain accurate predictions as fast as possible, i.e. at a very low computational cost. This is achieved by (1) using Lindley's recursion to allow for explicit expressions and (2) choosing a discrete-time (slotted) setting to make those expression easy to compute. We assume general, possibly distinct, distributions for the patient's consultation times, which allows us to account for multiple treatment types, as well as patient no-shows. The moments of waiting and idle times are obtained. For each slot, we also calculate the moments of waiting and idle time of an additional patient, should it be appointed to that slot. As we demonstrate, a graphical representation of these quantities can be used to assist a sequential scheduling strategy, as often used in practice

Características socio-demográficas de los pacientes con exacerbación de la enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva crónica (EPOC)

Introduction, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an irreversible pathological process characterized by a limitation of airflow that increases progressively and is associated with an abnormal pulmonary inflammatory response to harmful particles or gases, mainly caused by smoking. It directly affects the patient since it is a pathology with which he will have to carry the rest of his life, adapt to the limitations that he will develop over time and cope with the exacerbations that he develops, Objectives, Validate the instrument to determine the socio demographic characteristics of patients with exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Methodology, it is a mixed investigation; quantitative, qualitative, retrospective, with a snowball selection sample technique, it is a field work, cross-sectional and descriptive, Instruments, the quantitative instrument-questionnaire and the qualitative instrument-interview were validated by the judgment of 16 experts, a Master of Public Health Respiratory Therapist participated, a specialist in Pneumology, 3 General Practitioners, 2 Master of Public Health Dentists, 4 graduates Master in Public Health Nursing, 3 Respiratory Therapists with experience in the management of patients with COPD and 2 master nutritionists in Public Health, Results, the pilot plan was with the snowball selection technique and its result showed that in the quantitative instrument: Cronbach's alpha, a score of 0.8 was obtained, a reliability of Good-High, in the qualitative instrument: an average of 89; category: emotional 85, family 83 and socioeconomic 87 as a result is rated 80-100 very reliable, Conclusions, the instrument was validated by expert judgment, reaching a score of 89 "Reliability" is considered a "Very Reliable" instrument to determine the socio demographic characteristics of patients with               exacerbation of COPD.Introducción, La enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva crónica (EPOC) es un proceso patológico irreversible que se caracteriza por una limitación del flujo aéreo que incrementa de manera progresiva y se asocia con una respuesta inflamatoria pulmonar anormal a partículas o a gases nocivos, principalmente causada por el tabaquismo, afecta de manera directa al paciente ya que es una patología con la que tendrá que conllevar es resto de su vida, adaptarse a las limitaciones que esta ira desarrollando con el pasar del tiempo y sobrellevar las exacerbaciones que desarrolle, Objetivos, Validar del instrumento para determinar las características socio demográficas de los pacientes con exacerbación de Enfermedad Pulmonar Obstructiva Crónica, Metodología, es una investigación mixta; cuantitativa, cualitativa, retrospectivo, con técnica para muestra de selección bola de nieve, es un trabajo de campo, de corte transversal y descriptiva, Instrumentos, el instrumento cuantitativo-cuestionario y el instrumento cualitativo-entrevista fueron validados por juicio de 16 expertos, , participó un Terapeuta respiratorio magister en Salud Pública, un médico especialista en Neumología, 3 Médicos generales, 2 Odontólogos maestrante en Salud Publica, 4 licenciados/as en Enfermería maestrantes en Salud Publica, 3 Terapeutas Respiratorios con experiencia en el manejo de pacientes con la EPOC y 2 nutricionistas maestrantes en Salud Publica, Resultados, el plan piloto fue con la técnica de selección bola de nieve y su resultado demostró que en el instrumento cuantitativo: alfa de Cronbach se obtuvo una calificación de 0.8 una confiabilidad de Bueno-Alto, en el instrumento cualitativo: se obtuvo un promedio de 89; categoría: emocional 85, familiar 83 y socioeconómica 87 como resultado se califica de 80-100 muy confiable, Conclusiones, se realizó la validación del instrumento por juicio de expertos alcanzando puntaje de 89 “Confiabilidad” queda considerado como instrumento “Muy Confiable” determinar las características socio demográficas de los pacientes con exacerbación de la EPOC

TiO2-MWCNT Nanohybrid: Cytotoxicity, protein corona formation and cellular internalisation in RTG-2 fish cell line

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (TiO2-MWCNT) nanohydrid has an enhanced photocatalytic activity across the visible light with promising applications in environmental remediation, solar energy devices and antimicrobial technologies. However, it is necessary to evaluate the toxicological effects of TiO2-MWCNT towards safe and sustainable development of nanohybrids. In this work, we studied the cytotoxicity, protein corona formation and cellular internalisation of TiO2-MWCNT on fibroblasts derived from gonadal rainbow trout tissue (RTG-2) for the first time. This nanohydrid did not show any toxicity effect on RTG-2 cells up to 100 mg L-1 after 24 h of exposure as monitored by alamar blue, neutral red and trypan blue assays (in presence or absence of foetal bovine serum, FBS). Futhermore, cryo-transmission electron microscopy analysis demonstrated that TiO2 particles is attached on nanotube surface after FBS-protein corona formation in cell culture medium. Raman spectroscopy imaging showed that TiO2-MWCNT can be internalised by RTG-2 cells. This work is a novel contribution towards better understanding the nanobiointeractions of nanohydrids linked to their in vitro effects on fish cells in aquatic nanoecotoxicology

Distance decay 2.0-A global synthesis of taxonomic and functional turnover in ecological communities

Aim: Understanding the variation in community composition and species abundances (i.e., beta-diversity) is at the heart of community ecology. A common approach to examine beta-diversity is to evaluate directional variation in community composition by measuring the decay in the similarity among pairs of communities along spatial or environmental distance. We provide the first global synthesis of taxonomic and functional distance decay along spatial and environmental distance by analysing 148 datasets comprising different types of organisms and environments. Location: Global. Time period: 1990 to present. Major taxa studied: From diatoms to mammals. Method: We measured the strength of the decay using ranked Mantel tests (Mantel r) and the rate of distance decay as the slope of an exponential fit using generalized linear models. We used null models to test whether functional similarity decays faster or slower than expected given the taxonomic decay along the spatial and environmental distance. We also unveiled the factors driving the rate of decay across the datasets, including latitude, spatial extent, realm and organismal features. Results: Taxonomic distance decay was stronger than functional distance decay along both spatial and environmental distance. Functional distance decay was random given the taxonomic distance decay. The rate of taxonomic and functional spatial distance decay was fastest in the datasets from mid-latitudes. Overall, datasets covering larger spatial extents showed a lower rate of decay along spatial distance but a higher rate of decay along environmental distance. Marine ecosystems had the slowest rate of decay along environmental distances. Main conclusions: In general, taxonomic distance decay is a useful tool for biogeographical research because it reflects dispersal-related factors in addition to species responses to climatic and environmental variables. Moreover, functional distance decay might be a cost-effective option for investigating community changes in heterogeneous environments

Effects of Intermittent IL-2 Alone or with Peri-Cycle Antiretroviral Therapy in Early HIV Infection: The STALWART Study

The Study of Aldesleukin with and without antiretroviral therapy (STALWART) evaluated whether intermittent interleukin-2 (IL-2) alone or with antiretroviral therapy (ART) around IL-2 cycles increased CD4+ counts compared to no therapy