68 research outputs found
The BLue Amazon Brain (BLAB): A Modular Architecture of Services about the Brazilian Maritime Territory
We describe the first steps in the development of an artificial agent focused
on the Brazilian maritime territory, a large region within the South Atlantic
also known as the Blue Amazon. The "BLue Amazon Brain" (BLAB) integrates a
number of services aimed at disseminating information about this region and its
importance, functioning as a tool for environmental awareness. The main service
provided by BLAB is a conversational facility that deals with complex questions
about the Blue Amazon, called BLAB-Chat; its central component is a controller
that manages several task-oriented natural language processing modules (e.g.,
question answering and summarizer systems). These modules have access to an
internal data lake as well as to third-party databases. A news reporter
(BLAB-Reporter) and a purposely-developed wiki (BLAB-Wiki) are also part of the
BLAB service architecture. In this paper, we describe our current version of
BLAB's architecture (interface, backend, web services, NLP modules, and
resources) and comment on the challenges we have faced so far, such as the lack
of training data and the scattered state of domain information. Solving these
issues presents a considerable challenge in the development of artificial
intelligence for technical domains
Infection of Anopheles aquasalis from symptomatic and asymptomatic Plasmodium vivax infections in Manaus, western Brazilian Amazon
BACKGROUND: Asymptomatic individuals are one of the major
challenges for malaria elimination programs in endemic areas. In
the absence of clinical symptoms and with a lower parasite
density they constitute silent reservoirs considered important
for maintaining transmission of human malaria. Studies from
Brazil have shown that infected individuals may carry these
parasites for long periods. RESULTS: Patients were selected from
three periurban endemic areas of the city of Manaus, in the
western Brazilian Amazon. Symptomatic and asymptomatic patients
with positive thick blood smear and quantitative real-time PCR
(qPCR) positive for Plasmodium vivax were invited to participate
in the study. A standardised pvs25 gene amplification by qPCR
was used for P. vivax gametocytes detection. Anopheles aquasalis
were fed using membrane feeding assays (MFA) containing blood
from malaria patients. Parasitemia of 42 symptomatic and 25
asymptomatic individuals was determined by microscopic
examination of blood smears and qPCR. Parasitemia density and
gametocyte density were assessed as determinants of infection
rates and oocysts densities. A strong correlation between
gametocyte densities (microscopy and molecular techniques) and
mosquito infectivity (P < 0.001) and oocysts median numbers
(P < 0.05) was found in both groups. The ability to infect
mosquitoes was higher in the symptomatic group (41%), but
infectivity in the asymptomatic group was also seen (1.42%).
CONCLUSIONS: Although their infectivity to mosquitoes is
relatively low, given the high prevalence of P. vivax
asymptomatic carriers they are likely to play and important role
in malaria transmission in the city of Manaus. The role of
asymptomatic infections therefore needs to be considered in
future malaria elimination programs in Brazil
Trocas gasosas influenciam na morfogênese in vitro de duas cultivares de oliveira (Olea europaea L.)
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