Using Intelligent Agents to Manage Business Processes

This paper describes work undertaken in the ADEPT (Advanced Decision Environment for Process Tasks) project towards developing an agent-based infrastructure for managing business processes. We describe how the key technology of negotiating, service providing, autonomous agents was realised and demonstrate how this was applied to the BT business process of providing a customer quote for network services

Evaluating the impact of road infrastructure on household income in Papua New Guinea:Spatial data compilation and analysis

As part of the ADB sub‐project ‘Developing Impact Evaluation Methodologies, Approaches, and Capacities in Selected Developing Member Countries’ two closely related research projects were carried out by VU to evaluate the impact of road infrastructure on household income in Papua New Guinea. One project focused on econometric analysis (contract no. 117629‐S85196), while the other developed the spatial database needed for this analysis (contract no. 117642‐S84962). The current report documents the data collection process and provides a concise description of the data that were collected for the project and the analyses that were performed to enrich the available data sources to create meaningful variables for the statistical analysis. It serves as a background document with the scientific paper‐that concisely describes the findings of the two joint research projects

An in vitro DNA sensor-based assay to measure receptor-specific adhesion forces of eukaryotic cells and pathogens

Motility of eukaryotic cells or pathogens within tissues is mediated by the turnover of specific interactions with other cells or with the extracellular matrix. Biophysical characterization of these ligand-receptor adhesions helps to unravel the molecular mechanisms driving migration. Traction force microscopy or optical tweezers are typically used to measure the cellular forces exerted by cells on a substrate. However, the spatial resolution of traction force microscopy is limited to ~2 μm and performing experiments with optical traps is very time-consuming. Here we present the production of biomimetic surfaces that enable specific cell adhesion via synthetic ligands and at the same time monitor the transmitted forces by using molecular tension sensors. The ligands were coupled to double-stranded DNA probes with defined force thresholds for DNA unzipping. Receptor-mediated forces in the pN range are thereby semi-quantitatively converted into fluorescence signals, which can be detected by standard fluorescence microscopy at the resolution limit (~0.2 μm). The modular design of the assay allows to vary the presented ligands and the mechanical strength of the DNA probes, which provides a number of possibilities to probe the adhesion of different eukaryotic cell types and pathogens and is exemplified here with osteosarcoma cells and Plasmodium berghei Sporozoites

Use of soil moisture information in yield models

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Control and elimination of schistosomiasis as a public health problem: thresholds fail to differentiate schistosomiasis morbidity prevalence in children

BACKGROUND: Current World Health Organization guidelines utilize prevalence of heavy-intensity infections (PHIs), that is, ≥50 eggs per 10 mL of urine for Schistosoma haematobium and ≥400 eggs per gram of stool for S. mansoni, to determine whether a targeted area has controlled schistosomiasis morbidity or eliminated schistosomiasis as a public health problem. The relationship between these PHI categories and morbidity is not well understood. METHODS: School-age participants enrolled in schistosomiasis monitoring and evaluation cohorts from 2003 to 2008 in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia were surveyed for infection and morbidity at baseline and after 1 and 2 rounds of preventive chemotherapy. Logistic regression was used to compare morbidity prevalence among participants based on their school's PHI category. RESULTS: Microhematuria levels were associated with the S. haematobium PHI categories at all 3 time points. For any other S. haematobium or S. mansoni morbidity that was measured, PHI categories did not differentiate morbidity prevalence levels consistently. CONCLUSIONS: These analyses suggest that current PHI categorizations do not differentiate the prevalence of standard morbidity markers. A reevaluation of the criteria for schistosomiasis control is warranted

A high throughput molecular force assay for protein-DNA interactions.

An accurate and genome-wide characterization of protein–DNA interactions such as transcription factor binding is of utmost importance for modern biology. Powerful screening methods emerged. But the vast majority of these techniques depend on special labels or markers against the ligand of interest and moreover most of them are not suitable for detecting low-affinity binders. In this article a molecular force assay is described based on measuring comparative unbinding forces of biomolecules for the detection of protein–DNA interactions. The measurement of binding or unbinding forces has several unique advantages in biological applications since the interaction between certain molecules and not the mere presence of one of them is detected. No label or marker against the protein is needed and only specifically bound ligands are detected. In addition the force-based assay permits the detection of ligands over a broad range of affinities in a crowded and opaque ambient environment. We demonstrate that the molecular force assay allows highly sensitive and fast detection of protein–DNA interactions. As a proof of principle, binding of the protein EcoRI to its DNA recognition sequence is measured and the corresponding dissociation constant in the sub-nanomolar range is determined. Furthermore, we introduce a new, simplified setup employing FRET pairs on the molecular level and standard epi-fluorescence for readout. Due to these advancements we can now demonstrate that a feature size of a few microns is sufficient for the measurement process. This will open a new paradigm in high-throughput screening with all the advantages of force-based ligand detection. Graphical abstract: A high throughput molecular force assay for protein–DNA interaction

Associations between infection intensity categories and morbidity prevalence in school-age children are much stronger for Schistosoma haematobium than for S. mansoni

BACKGROUND: World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for measuring global progress in schistosomiasis control classify individuals with Schistosoma spp. infections based on the concentration of excreted eggs. We assessed the associations between WHO infection intensity categories and morbidity prevalence for selected S. haematobium and S. mansoni morbidities in school-age children. METHODOLOGY: A total of 22,488 children aged 6-15 years from monitoring and evaluation cohorts in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia from 2003-2008 were analyzed using Bayesian logistic regression. Models were utilized to evaluate associations between intensity categories and the prevalence of any urinary bladder lesion, any upper urinary tract lesion, microhematuria, and pain while urinating (for S. haematobium) and irregular hepatic ultrasound image pattern (C-F), enlarged portal vein, laboratory-confirmed diarrhea, and self-reported diarrhea (for S. mansoni) across participants with infection and morbidity data. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: S. haematobium infection intensity categories possessed consistent morbidity prevalence across surveys for multiple morbidities and participants with light infections had elevated morbidity levels, compared to negative participants. Conversely, S. mansoni infection intensity categories lacked association with prevalence of the morbidity measures assessed. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Current status infection intensity categories for S. haematobium were associated with morbidity levels in school-age children, suggesting urogenital schistosomiasis morbidity can be predicted by an individual's intensity category. Conversely, S. mansoni infection intensity categories were not consistently indicative of childhood morbidity at baseline or during the first two years of a preventive chemotherapy control program