CONGAS: a collaborative ontology development framework based on Named GrAphS

The process of ontology development involves a range of skills and know-how often requiring team work of different people, each of them with his own way of contributing to the definition and formalization of the domain representation. For this reason, collaborative development is an important feature for ontology editing tools, and should take into account the different characteristics of team participants, provide them with a dedicated working environment allowing to express their ideas and creativity, still protecting integrity of the shared work. In this paper we present CONGAS, a collaborative version of the Knowledge Management and Acquisition platform Semantic Turkey which, exploiting the potentialities brought by recent introduction of context management into RDF triple graphs, offers a collaborative environment where proposals for ontology evolution can emerge and coexist, be evaluated by team users, trusted across different perspectives and eventually converged into the main development stream

Transcriptome of iPSC-derived neuronal cells reveals a module of co-expressed genes consistently associated with autism spectrum disorder

Evaluation of expression profile in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients is an important approach to understand possible similar functional consequences that may underlie disease pathophysiology regardless of its genetic heterogeneity. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neuronal models have been useful to explore this question, but larger cohorts and different ASD endophenotypes still need to be investigated. Moreover, whether changes seen in this in vitro model reflect previous findings in ASD postmortem brains and how consistent they are across the studies remain underexplored questions. We examined the transcriptome of iPSC-derived neuronal cells from a normocephalic ASD cohort composed mostly of high-functioning individuals and from non-ASD individuals. ASD patients presented expression dysregulation of a module of co-expressed genes involved in protein synthesis in neuronal progenitor cells (NPC), and a module of genes related to synapse/neurotransmission and a module related to translation in neurons. Proteomic analysis in NPC revealed potential molecular links between the modules dysregulated in NPC and in neurons. Remarkably, the comparison of our results to a series of transcriptome studies revealed that the module related to synapse has been consistently found as upregulated in iPSC-derived neurons-which has an expression profile more closely related to fetal brain-while downregulated in postmortem brain tissue, indicating a reliable association of this network to the disease and suggesting that its dysregulation might occur in different directions across development in ASD individuals. Therefore, the expression pattern of this network might be used as biomarker for ASD and should be experimentally explored as a therapeutic target

Gobbleing over the web with semantic turkey

In this work we introduce Semantic Turkey, a Semantic Extension for the popular web browser Mozilla Firefox. Semantic Turkey can be used to annotate information from visited web sites and organize this information according to a personally defined ontology. Clear separation between knowledge data (the WHAT) and web links (the WHERE) is established into the knowledge model of the system, which allows for innovative navigation of the acquired information and of the pages where it has been collected. This paper describes the architecture of the Semantic Turkey extension for Firefox, discusses its development in the context of the FILAS technophore project, shows its most interesting features and presents our plans for future improvements of the tool

Semantic Turkey: a semantic bookmarking tool (system description)

In this work we introduce Semantic Turkey, a Semantic Extension for the popular web browser Mozilla Firefox. Semantic Turkey can be used to keep track of relevant information from visited web sites and organize collected content according to a personally defined ontology. Clear separation between knowledge data (the WHAT) and web links (the WHERE) is established into the knowledge model of the system, which allows for innovative navigation of both the acquired information and of the pages where it has been collected. This paper describes the architecture of the Semantic Turkey extension for Firefox, analyzes its development, shows its most interesting features and presents our plans for future improvements of the tool

Gobbleing over the web with semantic turkey

In this work we introduce Semantic Turkey, a Semantic Extension for the popular web browser Mozilla Firefox. Semantic Turkey can be used to annotate information from visited web sites and organize this information according to a personally defined ontology. Clear separation between knowledge data (the WHAT) and web links (the WHERE) is established into the knowledge model of the system, which allows for innovative navigation of the acquired information and of the pages where it has been collected. This paper describes the architecture of the Semantic Turkey extension for Firefox, discusses its development in the context of the FILAS technophore project, shows its most interesting features and presents our plans for future improvements of the tool

Anthropometric indices of school children and familiar risk factors.

BACKGROUND: Overweight in adolescence predicts adverse health effects in adulthood. We carried out a primary school health program and assessed children's growth and body composition. METHODS: Were screened 869 (448 M, 421 F) primary school children: height, weight, four skinfolds, and four circumferences were measured. A family-reported questionnaire was used to determine family composition, history, and lifestyle. RESULTS: Age was 118 +/- 5 months, BMI 18 +/- 3 kg/m(2). No difference by gender was observed as for BMI or blood pressure. Girls had higher skinfold thickness at the biceps (BCF), triceps (TCF), subscapular (SSF), and suprailiac (SIF) areas (P < 0.001), hip and thigh circumferences (P < 0.01), body fat percentage (P < 0.001). Boys had higher waist circumference (P < 0.01), waist/thigh ratio, and conicity index (P < 0.001). Offspring BMI was correlated with birth weight (P < 0.05), parental BMI and scholarship level (P < 0.001), children blood pressure (P < 0.001), and hours per day spent in television viewing (P < 0.01). Family history for diabetes was associated with higher BMI, SSF, waist circumference (P < 0.05), and upper thigh (P < 0.01). Family history for hypertension was associated with higher SSF/TCF ratio (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Three of 869 children had BMI >30 kg/m(2) (2 boys and 1 girl), 33 had BMI >25 kg/m(2) (17 boys and 16 girls). The percentages of children who could be considered overweight (BMI >/=95(th) percentile of age- and sex-specific NHANES I reference data) were boys, 10.0%, and girls, 9.3%. Anthropometric and anamnestic data on child and family yield more accurate estimates of risk profile: fat distribution seems relevant for metabolic and cardiovascular disorders

Mechanosynthesis of multiferroic hybrid organic-inorganic [NH4][M(HCOO)3] M = Co2+,Mn2+,Zn2+,Ni2+, Cu2+ formate-based frameworks

The family of compounds with formula [NH4][M(HCOO)3], with M a divalent D-metal, is characterized by porous frameworks hosting NH4+ cations exhibiting at low temperature a spontaneous ferroelectric polarization. The presence of magnetically active divalent metal determines the occurrence of antiferromagnetic ordering below 30 K opening the avenue for a rational formulation of a new class of multiferroic materials. We demonstrate that this intriguing class of compounds can be synthetized with a mechanochemical approach. This novel route of synthesis was applied to the series [NH4][M(HCOO)3] with M= Cu2+, Co2+, Mn2+, Zn2+ and Ni2+ using as reactants ammonium formate and the corresponding di-hydrated metal formates. The milling duration of the process correlates with the thermal stability of the di-hydrated metal formates indicating that the first step of the mechanosynthesis process is represented by the removal of water molecules. The characterizations of the final products indicate the presence of single phase [NH4][M(HCOO)3] compounds with an excellent degree of crystallinity