Tractable approximate deduction for OWL

Acknowledgements This work has been partially supported by the European project Marrying Ontologies and Software Technologies (EU ICT2008-216691), the European project Knowledge Driven Data Exploitation (EU FP7/IAPP2011-286348), the UK EPSRC project WhatIf (EP/J014354/1). The authors thank Prof. Ian Horrocks and Dr. Giorgos Stoilos for their helpful discussion on role subsumptions. The authors thank Rafael S. Gonçalves et al. for providing their hotspots ontologies. The authors also thank BoC-group for providing their ADOxx Metamodelling ontologies.Peer reviewedPostprin

RANKING OF MAJOR CLASSES OF ANTIBIOTICS FOR ACTIVITY AGAINST STATIONARY PHASE GRAM-NEGATIVE BACTERIA PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA AND CARBAPENEMASE-PRODUCING KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE AND IDENTIFICATION OF DRUG COMBINATIONS THAT ERADICATE THEIR PERSISTENT INFECTIONS

From the earliest identification of different bacterial phenotypic states, researchers found under antibiotic exposure, there are some bacteria that can keep dormant in a non-growing state as persister cells. These dormant persister bacteria can revert back to the growing population when the antibiotics are removed. The formation of bacterial persister cells establishes phenotypic heterogeneity within a bacterial population and is important for increasing the chances of successfully adapting to environmental change. Persister cells were first discovered in Staphylococcus sp. in 1944 when penicillin failed to kill a small subpopulation of bacterial cells. In the past several decades, researchers found persisters are present in virtually all bacterial species including Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, M. tuberculosis, Borrelia burgdorferi and Klebsiella pneumoniae, which can cause hard to eradicate chronic infections clinically. Persisters exhibit temporary antibiotic-tolerant phenotype and the underlying mechanisms involved in the induction and regulation of persister cells formation have been investigated by the previous lab members regarding mechanisms of persistence in Borrelia burgdorferi and with Yin-Yang Model to illustrate persistent infection. This investigation focuses on the optimal treatment for persistent infection. Because current treatments for such chronic persistent infections are not effective and antibiotic phenotypic resistance is a significant issue. The discovery of antibiotics and their widespread use represent a significant milestone in human history since the 20th century. However, their efficacy has declined at an alarming rate due to the spread of antibiotic resistance, and persistence and the evidence is accumulating that persister cells can contribute to the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Effective treatments for bacterial persistent infections can greatly improve patient outcome. A comprehensive overview of anti-persister treatments suggests that development of drug combination treatments may represent a useful therapeutic approach. A typical drug for treating tuberculosis persistent infection includes pyrazinamide (PZA) which is combined with rifampin and isoniazid which kill growing bacteria. PZA is an anti-persister drug that inhibits unconventional drug targets such as proteins involved in energy metabolism and trans-translation. PZA in this triple drug combination therapy demonstrates a strong activity against persister cells, and based on this principle, we screened for pesister drugs like PZA and ranked drugs from six typical classes of antibiotics for their activity against non-growing Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Based on the ranking results, we formulated drug combinations that can effectively kill the heterogeneous population of Gram-negative bacteria in biofilm model. To further evaluate the activity of drug combinations in a relevant mouse model, we established a chronic pulmonary murine infection model. We found that consistent with our findings in vitro, the drug combinations are more effective against the persistent lung infection than the current standard of care treatment. Finally, we conclude that drug combinations consisting of drugs targeting both actively growing bacteria and non-growing persister cells can eradicate the Gram-negative bacteria biofilm related chronic infections. These findings lay the groundwork for possible improved treatment of persistent infections in the clinic

Mechanisms of Catalytic Ozonation for the Removal of Low Molecular Weight acids

Catalytic ozonation has been widely applied for the treatment of municipal and industrial wastewaters. However, the mechanism of catalytic ozonation is still unclear due to the controversial results reported in the literature with this limiting the optimization of this technology. In this study, we extended the mechanistic understanding of catalytic ozonation process via investigation of organic oxidation and O3 decay in the presence of a wide variety of catalysts including commercially available Fe–impregnated activated carbon, CuO and Cu–Al layered double hydroxides. We also investigated the influence of salinity as well as the matrix on the performance of the catalytic ozonation process. The Fe–impregnated activated carbon catalyst enhances O3 decay with this generating hydroxyl which enhanced the formate oxidation at pH 3.0 compared to that observed in the presence of O3 alone. The involvement of hydroxyl radicals in formate oxidation by the catalytic ozonation process is supported by the observation that the rate and extent of formate oxidation decreases in the presence of tert-butanol and Cl– (which are known bulk hydroxyl radicals scavengers under acidic conditions). Moreover, the oxidation of formate mostly occurs in the solid–liquid interface and/or the bulk solution with adsorption playing no role in the overall oxidation. The catalyst is not active at pH 7.3 and 8.5 suggesting that only the protonated iron oxide surface sites generated strong oxidant(s) on interaction with O3. A mechanistic kinetic model has been developed to adequately explain O3 decay and formate oxidation during catalytic ozonation process. In the presence of CuO and Cu–Al layered double hydroxides, oxidation of oxalate mostly occurs on the catalyst surface via interaction of surface oxalate complexes with surface−located oxidants. In contrast, the oxidation of formate occurs in the bulk solution as well as on the surface of the catalyst. Measurement of O3 decay kinetics coupled with fluorescence microscopy image analysis corresponding to 7−hydroxycoumarin formation indicates that while surface hydroxyl groups in Cu−Al layered double hydroxides facilitate slow decay of O3 resulting in the formation of hydroxyl radicals on the surface, CuO rapidly transforms O3 into surface−located hydroxyl radicals and/or other oxidants. Futile consumption of surface−located oxidants via interaction with the catalyst surface is minimal for Cu−Al layered double hydroxides; however, it becomes significant in the presence of higher CuO dosages. Based on our understanding of the process, a kinetic model has been built and adequately explains the experimental results obtained. In the study of influence of matrix on performance of ozonation and catalytic ozonation processes, our results reveal that the rate of ozone self−decay is considerably faster in phosphate buffer compared to carbonate buffered solution with this effect stemming from the differing hydroxyl radicals scavenging capacities of the buffering ions. Interestingly, while the nature of the buffer used affects the rate of organic oxidation in conventional ozonation, the overall extent of oxidation of formate and oxalate is the same for different buffering ions. The results obtained also indicate that the carbonate radicals generated as a result of carbonate ion – hydroxyl radical reaction can oxidize formate and oxalate however the oxidation of these organics by phosphate radicals appears to be minimal. The presence of phosphate ions also affects the surface chemistry of the two Cu–based catalysts tested here with phosphate ions inhibiting catalyst mediated O3 decay and sorption of the target organic compounds on the catalyst surface. This inhibition of organic sorption and O3 decay decreases the performance of the catalytic ozonation process in the presence of phosphate ions. The presence of salts (particularly chloride ions) reduces the rate and extent of degradation of humic–like substances and low molecular weight neutrals (typical pollutants present in reverse osmosis concentrates of coal chemical wastewater) during catalytic ozonation using a commercially available Fe−loaded Al2O3 catalyst. Scavenging of aqueous O3 by chloride ions and/or transformation of organics (particularly humics) to more hydrophobic form as a result of charge shielding between adjacent functional groups and/or intramolecular binding by cations inhibits the bulk oxidation of organics to a measurable extent. While the scavenging of aqueous hydroxyl radicals at the salt concentrations investigated here was minimal, the accumulation of chloride ions in the electric double layer near the catalyst surface, particularly when pH<pHpzc, results in more significant scavenging of surface associated hydroxyl radicals, thereby decreasing the performance of the catalytic ozonation process. We also discuss the caveats associated with the application of tert-butanol as a hydroxyl radicals scavenger in ozone–related studies. Our results show that tert-butanol may not be able to access surface located •OH formed during catalytic ozonation. Furthermore, tert-butanol may also interfere with the adsorption of organics on the catalyst surface and decrease the adsorptive as well as concomitant oxidative removal of organics via non radical mediated pathways (if important). In addition, TBA scavenging results are inconclusive for mildly ozone reactive compounds due to switching from O3/•OH mediated oxidation in the absence of tert-butanol to O3 driven oxidation in the presence of tert-butanol. The presence of tert-butanol may also decrease the rate of O3 decay with the increased stability of O3 in the presence of tert-butanol facilitating (i) direct oxidation of ozone−reactive organics in the bulk solution and/or (ii) diffusion of O3 to the surface and subsequent surface−mediated oxidation of organics. Overall, the results presented in thesis provide important insights into the catalytic ozonation process. The experimental methods and the kinetic modelling tools developed in this work can be used to gain mechanistic insights into catalytic ozonation process using other catalysts. Furthermore, the kinetic models developed here can be coupled with the hydrodynamics using computational fluid dynamics tools to predict and optimize the performance of full scale catalytic ozonation reactors

Do skilled immigrants affect the wage rate of Australian workers?

We hypothesise that skilled immigration increases the wage rate in Australia. Our alternative hypothesis is that skilled immigration decreases the wage rate in Australia. The data used for this research comes from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Department of Immigration andCitizenship. Based on our analysis, we find that there is positive relationship between high-skilled immigration and employee earnings per hour.We also find that low-skilled immigrants have a negative effect on employee earnings per hour. We believe that low-skilled workers are easily replaced such that low-skilled immigrants are substitutes to Australian low-skilled workers. However, there are some limitations of our research. Notably, our result are restricted to three occupations

Fibrin Gel as an Injectable Biodegradable Scaffold and Cell Carrier for Tissue Engineering

Due to the increasing needs for organ transplantation and a universal shortage of donated tissues, tissue engineering emerges as a useful approach to engineer functional tissues. Although different synthetic materials have been used to fabricate tissue engineering scaffolds, they have many limitations such as the biocompatibility concerns, the inability to support cell attachment, and undesirable degradation rate. Fibrin gel, a biopolymeric material, provides numerous advantages over synthetic materials in functioning as a tissue engineering scaffold and a cell carrier. Fibrin gel exhibits excellent biocompatibility, promotes cell attachment, and can degrade in a controllable manner. Additionally, fibrin gel mimics the natural blood-clotting process and self-assembles into a polymer network. The ability for fibrin to cure in situ has been exploited to develop injectable scaffolds for the repair of damaged cardiac and cartilage tissues. Additionally, fibrin gel has been utilized as a cell carrier to protect cells from the forces during the application and cell delivery processes while enhancing the cell viability and tissue regeneration. Here, we review the recent advancement in developing fibrin-based biomaterials for the development of injectable tissue engineering scaffold and cell carriers

Coexistence of OTFS Modulation With OFDM-based Communication Systems

This study examines the coexistence of orthogonal time-frequency space (OTFS) modulation with current fourth- and fifth-generation (4G/5G) wireless communication systems that primarily use orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) waveforms. We first derive the input-output-relation (IOR) of OTFS when it coexists with an OFDM system while considering the impact of unequal lengths of the cyclic prefixes (CPs) in the OTFS signal. We show analytically that the inclusion of multiple CPs to the OTFS signal results in the effective sampled delay-Doppler (DD) domain channel response to be less sparse. We also show that the effective DD domain channel coefficients for OTFS in coexisting systems are influenced by the unequal lengths of the CPs. Subsequently, we propose an embedded pilot-aided channel estimation (CE) technique for OTFS in coexisting systems that leverages the derived IOR for accurate channel characterization. Using numerical results, we show that ignoring the impact of unequal lengths of the CPs during signal detection can degrade the bit error rate performance of OTFS in coexisting systems. We also show that the proposed CE technique for OTFS in coexisting systems outperforms the state-of-the-art threshold-based CE technique.Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication in IEEE Global Communications Conferences (GLOBECOM) 2023. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Dynamic Snake Convolution based on Topological Geometric Constraints for Tubular Structure Segmentation

Accurate segmentation of topological tubular structures, such as blood vessels and roads, is crucial in various fields, ensuring accuracy and efficiency in downstream tasks. However, many factors complicate the task, including thin local structures and variable global morphologies. In this work, we note the specificity of tubular structures and use this knowledge to guide our DSCNet to simultaneously enhance perception in three stages: feature extraction, feature fusion, and loss constraint. First, we propose a dynamic snake convolution to accurately capture the features of tubular structures by adaptively focusing on slender and tortuous local structures. Subsequently, we propose a multi-view feature fusion strategy to complement the attention to features from multiple perspectives during feature fusion, ensuring the retention of important information from different global morphologies. Finally, a continuity constraint loss function, based on persistent homology, is proposed to constrain the topological continuity of the segmentation better. Experiments on 2D and 3D datasets show that our DSCNet provides better accuracy and continuity on the tubular structure segmentation task compared with several methods. Our codes will be publicly available.Comment: Accepted by ICCV 202

Coal chemical industry membrane concentrates: characterisation and treatment by ozonation and catalytic ozonation processes

Rationale. The enactment of increasingly stringent regulations has prompted the implementation of membrane technologies such as reverse osmosis (RO) in the management of coal chemical industry (CCI) wastewaters with the goal of achieving zero liquid discharge (ZLD). However, this practice inevitably results in the production of high salinity concentrates containing refractory organic matter. Methodology. In this study, we characterised the organic composition of RO concentrates obtained from the CCI using a variety of methods including liquid chromatography– organic carbon/nitrogen detection (LC-OCND) and investigated the degradability of organic compounds present in these concentrates by ozonation and catalytic ozonation processes. Results and discussion. Organic analysis using LC-OCND revealed that humic-like substances and low molecular weight neutral compounds were the dominant constituents in the CCI concentrates examined. Measurement of degradability of the CCI concentrate by a pure ozona- tion process showed low treatment efficiency (~20% dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal) as a result of the refractory nature of the organic compounds present in the wastewater. The degradation of these organics by a catalytic ozonation process employing a commercially available Fe-oxide based catalyst was higher than that observed by pure ozonation although the extent of organics removal (DOC removal ~47%) is still low due to the refractory nature of the organics as well as the influence of salts on the catalyst performance. Techno-economic analysis of the pure ozonation and catalytic ozonation processes indicated that the total cost of implementation of the ozonation processes (homogeneous or heterogeneous) for CCI concentrate treatment is negligible compared with the overall cost of the complete ZLD process

Anxiety and depression among patients with non-tuberculous mycobacterial disease in Shanghai: a cross-sectional study

ObjectiveTo understand the mental health status and its influencing factors among patients with non-tuberculous mycobacterial disease and to provide a reference for medical staff to formulate scientific and feasible intervention strategies.MethodsA total of 114 patients diagnosed with non-tuberculous mycobacillosis during hospitalization in the Department of Infection from September 2020 to April 2021 were selected as the research participants. Participants’ mental health status and related factors were evaluated using a self-made general patient information questionnaire, self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and self-rating Depression Scale (SDS).ResultsAmong 114 patients with non-tuberculous mycosis, 61 (53.51%) exhibited depressive symptoms, and the SDS score was 51.15 ± 13.04, which was higher than the national norm of 41.88 ± 10.57 (p &lt; 0.05); further, 39 patients (34.21%) showed anxiety symptoms, and the SAS score was 45.75 ± 10.81, which was significantly higher than the national norm of 29.78 ± 10.07 (p &lt; 0.05). Body mass index and monthly household income had significant effects on depression in patients with non-tuberculous mycobacterial disease (p &lt; 0.05). Educational level had a significant effect on the anxiety state of patients with non-tuberculous mycobacterial disease (p &lt; 0.05).ConclusionPatients with non-tuberculous mycobacterial disease are prone to depression and anxiety. Nurses should pay attention to it in clinical work for the timely identification of and intervention for anxiety and depression and intervene