Towards IoT platforms’ integration:Semantic Translations between W3C SSN and ETSI SAREF

Several IoT ontologies have been developed lately to improve the semantic interoperability of IoT solutions. The most popular of these ontologies, the W3C Semantic Sensor Network (SSN), is considered an ontological foundation for diverse IoT initiatives, particularly OpenIoT. With characteristics similar to SSN, the ETSI Smart Appliances REFerence (SAREF) ontology evolved from the needs of smart home solutions to common requirements of IoT. Some IoT solutions rely on platform-specific ontologies and their integration requires mechanisms to align these ontologies. In this paper we discuss the ontology alignment between SSN and SAREF, identifying mapping alternatives and proposing basic mappings that can be re-used to define more complex ones. We introduce here an initial specification of the semantic translations from the main elements of SSN to SAREF, which includes classes, object properties and data properties. The alignment will be used in a semantic matching process leveraging the semantic mediator component of the INTER-IoT project. An initial evaluation of the translation was executed by translating the wind sensor (Vaisala WM30), an example provided by the W3C, from SSN to SAREF. This initial evaluation demonstrates the coherence and feasibility of the proposed mappings

Data Descriptor : A European Multi Lake Survey dataset of environmental variables, phytoplankton pigments and cyanotoxins

Under ongoing climate change and increasing anthropogenic activity, which continuously challenge ecosystem resilience, an in-depth understanding of ecological processes is urgently needed. Lakes, as providers of numerous ecosystem services, face multiple stressors that threaten their functioning. Harmful cyanobacterial blooms are a persistent problem resulting from nutrient pollution and climate-change induced stressors, like poor transparency, increased water temperature and enhanced stratification. Consistency in data collection and analysis methods is necessary to achieve fully comparable datasets and for statistical validity, avoiding issues linked to disparate data sources. The European Multi Lake Survey (EMLS) in summer 2015 was an initiative among scientists from 27 countries to collect and analyse lake physical, chemical and biological variables in a fully standardized manner. This database includes in-situ lake variables along with nutrient, pigment and cyanotoxin data of 369 lakes in Europe, which were centrally analysed in dedicated laboratories. Publishing the EMLS methods and dataset might inspire similar initiatives to study across large geographic areas that will contribute to better understanding lake responses in a changing environment.Peer reviewe

Stratification strength and light climate explain variation in chlorophyll a at the continental scale in a European multilake survey in a heatwave summer

To determine the drivers of phytoplankton biomass, we collected standardized morphometric, physical, and biological data in 230 lakes across the Mediterranean, Continental, and Boreal climatic zones of the European continent. Multilinear regression models tested on this snapshot of mostly eutrophic lakes (median total phosphorus [TP] = 0.06 and total nitrogen [TN] = 0.7 mg L−1), and its subsets (2 depth types and 3 climatic zones), show that light climate and stratification strength were the most significant explanatory variables for chlorophyll a (Chl a) variance. TN was a significant predictor for phytoplankton biomass for shallow and continental lakes, while TP never appeared as an explanatory variable, suggesting that under high TP, light, which partially controls stratification strength, becomes limiting for phytoplankton development. Mediterranean lakes were the warmest yet most weakly stratified and had significantly less Chl a than Boreal lakes, where the temperature anomaly from the long-term average, during a summer heatwave was the highest (+4°C) and showed a significant, exponential relationship with stratification strength. This European survey represents a summer snapshot of phytoplankton biomass and its drivers, and lends support that light and stratification metrics, which are both affected by climate change, are better predictors for phytoplankton biomass in nutrient-rich lakes than nutrient concentrations and surface temperature

The V471A polymorphism in autophagy-related gene ATG7 modifies age at onset specifically in Italian Huntington disease patients

The cause of Huntington disease (HD) is a polyglutamine repeat expansion of more than 36 units in the huntingtin protein, which is inversely correlated with the age at onset of the disease. However, additional genetic factors are believed to modify the course and the age at onset of HD. Recently, we identified the V471A polymorphism in the autophagy-related gene ATG7, a key component of the autophagy pathway that plays an important role in HD pathogenesis, to be associated with the age at onset in a large group of European Huntington disease patients. To confirm this association in a second independent patient cohort, we analysed the ATG7 V471A polymorphism in additional 1,464 European HD patients of the “REGISTRY” cohort from the European Huntington Disease Network (EHDN). In the entire REGISTRY cohort we could not confirm a modifying effect of the ATG7 V471A polymorphism. However, analysing a modifying effect of ATG7 in these REGISTRY patients and in patients of our previous HD cohort according to their ethnic origin, we identified a significant effect of the ATG7 V471A polymorphism on the HD age at onset only in the Italian population (327 patients). In these Italian patients, the polymorphism is associated with a 6-years earlier disease onset and thus seems to have an aggravating effect. We could specify the role of ATG7 as a genetic modifier for HD particularly in the Italian population. This result affirms the modifying influence of the autophagic pathway on the course of HD, but also suggests population-specific modifying mechanisms in HD pathogenesis

Identification of genetic variants associated with Huntington's disease progression: a genome-wide association study

Background Huntington's disease is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene, HTT. Age at onset has been used as a quantitative phenotype in genetic analysis looking for Huntington's disease modifiers, but is hard to define and not always available. Therefore, we aimed to generate a novel measure of disease progression and to identify genetic markers associated with this progression measure. Methods We generated a progression score on the basis of principal component analysis of prospectively acquired longitudinal changes in motor, cognitive, and imaging measures in the 218 indivduals in the TRACK-HD cohort of Huntington's disease gene mutation carriers (data collected 2008–11). We generated a parallel progression score using data from 1773 previously genotyped participants from the European Huntington's Disease Network REGISTRY study of Huntington's disease mutation carriers (data collected 2003–13). We did a genome-wide association analyses in terms of progression for 216 TRACK-HD participants and 1773 REGISTRY participants, then a meta-analysis of these results was undertaken. Findings Longitudinal motor, cognitive, and imaging scores were correlated with each other in TRACK-HD participants, justifying use of a single, cross-domain measure of disease progression in both studies. The TRACK-HD and REGISTRY progression measures were correlated with each other (r=0·674), and with age at onset (TRACK-HD, r=0·315; REGISTRY, r=0·234). The meta-analysis of progression in TRACK-HD and REGISTRY gave a genome-wide significant signal (p=1·12 × 10−10) on chromosome 5 spanning three genes: MSH3, DHFR, and MTRNR2L2. The genes in this locus were associated with progression in TRACK-HD (MSH3 p=2·94 × 10−8 DHFR p=8·37 × 10−7 MTRNR2L2 p=2·15 × 10−9) and to a lesser extent in REGISTRY (MSH3 p=9·36 × 10−4 DHFR p=8·45 × 10−4 MTRNR2L2 p=1·20 × 10−3). The lead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TRACK-HD (rs557874766) was genome-wide significant in the meta-analysis (p=1·58 × 10−8), and encodes an aminoacid change (Pro67Ala) in MSH3. In TRACK-HD, each copy of the minor allele at this SNP was associated with a 0·4 units per year (95% CI 0·16–0·66) reduction in the rate of change of the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) Total Motor Score, and a reduction of 0·12 units per year (95% CI 0·06–0·18) in the rate of change of UHDRS Total Functional Capacity score. These associations remained significant after adjusting for age of onset. Interpretation The multidomain progression measure in TRACK-HD was associated with a functional variant that was genome-wide significant in our meta-analysis. The association in only 216 participants implies that the progression measure is a sensitive reflection of disease burden, that the effect size at this locus is large, or both. Knockout of Msh3 reduces somatic expansion in Huntington's disease mouse models, suggesting this mechanism as an area for future therapeutic investigation

Genetic diversity and mating system of Scots pine plus trees

We have investigated genetic diversity and the mating system of Scots pine plus trees from the Tuchola Forests – Poland, using allozymes as genetic markers. The studied plus trees possess high genetic diversity (expected heterozygosity He = 0.427) and low inbreeding (Wright’s index F = –0.028), which is comparable to Scots pine trees observed in other studies in natural populations and seed orchards. The mating system analyses revealed that almost all offspring produced by the plus trees were due to outcrossing (tm = 0.983), with no apparent bi-parental inbreeding. The estimate of correlation of paternity indicated that each of mother trees is pollinated on average by a relatively large number of effective males (Nep = 30.3). The observed genetic diversity and mating system patterns indicate that the seeds produced by the studied plus trees possess high genetic variation needed in reforestation processes

Network Tomography and Partial Least Squares for Traffic Matrix Estimation

The traffic matrix is a useful data structure in network management, monitoring, optimization and traffic forecast. A recurrent problem is to obtain accurate traffic matrices in real time from the traffic of a network, specially when this network is large (e.g., a Tier 1 Internet Service Provider), and without causing a relevant overhead in network computing, storage and communication resources. A solution deeply investigated in the past is the network tomography: the estimation of a traffic matrix from the volume of traffic traversing the links (a.k.a. link counts), which measurement implies a minimum overhead. This estimation entails relevant challenges. In this paper, we propose the application of the Partial Least Squares method to this problem. We illustrate the proposal with the Abilene network dataset, and report promising results in comparison to traditional methods like General Tomogravity and the Structural Analysis based on Principal Component Analysis.This work was supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigaci´on in Spain, grant No PID2020-113462RB-I00, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 893146

Effect of water deficit on gas exchange parameters, productivity and grain health of winter wheat cultivars

W latach 2004-2005 mierzono intensywność fotosyntezy, transpiracji, międzykomórkowe stężenie CO2 oraz przewodność szparkową dwóch odmian pszenicy ozimej. Ponadto określono zasiedlenie grzybami ich ziarniaków. Wykazano, że deficyt wody spowodował obniżenie wskaźników wymiany gazowej, cech biometrycznych i masy ziarna. Stwierdzono niższe zasiedlenie ziarna obu odmian pszenicy przez patogeny grzybowe na obiektach z niedoborem wody w pierwszym roku badań. W kolejnym roku zależności nie były jednoznaczne.The rate of photosynthesis and transpiration, intercellular CO2 concentration, and stomatal conductance of two cultivars of winter wheat were determined in the study. The severity of fungal infection of the grain was also estimated. It was found that water deficit decreased the values of gas exchange parameters, biometric characters and grain weight. In the first year the number of fungal isolates in wheat grain of both cultivars was lower under water stress conditions. However, in the next year the findings were ambiguous

Harnessing the Regenerative Potential of Fetal Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Endothelial Colony-Forming Cells in the Biofabrication of Tissue-Engineered Vascular Grafts (TEVGs)

Tissue engineering is a promising approach for the production of small-diameter vascular grafts; however, there are limited data directly comparing the suitability of applicable cell types for vessel biofabrication. Here, we investigated the potential of adult smooth muscle cells (SMCs), placental mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), placental endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs), and a combination of MSCs and ECFCs on highly porous biocompatible poly(ϵ-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds produced via melt electrowriting (MEW) for the biofabrication of tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs). Cellular attachment, proliferation, and deposition of essential extracellular matrix (ECM) components were analysed in vitro over four weeks. TEVGs cultured with MSCs accumulated the highest levels of collagenous components within a dense ECM, while SMCs and the coculture were more sparsely populated, ascertained via histological and immunofluorescence imaging, and biochemical assessment. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) enabled visualisation of morphological differences in cell attachment and growth, with MSCs and SMCs infiltrating and covering scaffolds completely within the 28-day culture period. Coverage and matrix deposition by ECFCs was limited. However, ECFCs lined the ECM formed by MSCs in coculture, visualised via immunostaining. Thus, of cells investigated, placental MSCs were identified as the preferred cell source for the fabrication of tissue-engineered constructs, exhibiting extensive population of porous polymer scaffolds and production of ECM components; with the inclusion of ECFCs for luminal endothelialisation, an encouraging outcome warranting further consideration in future studies. In combination, these findings represent a substantial step toward the development of the next generation of small-diameter vascular grafts in the management of cardiovascular disease.</p