A hybrid approach to solving coarse-grained DisCSPs.

A coarse-grained Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problem (DisCSP) consists of several loosely connected constraint satisfaction subproblems, each assigned to an individual agent. We present Multi-Hyb, a two-phase concurrent hybrid approach for solving DisCSPs. In the first phase, each agents subproblem is solved using systematic search which generates the key partial solutions to the global problem. Concurrently, a penalty-based local search algorithm attempts to find a global solution from these partial solutions. If phase 1 fails to find a solution, a phase 2 systematic search algorithm solves the problem using the knowledge gained from phase 1. We show that our approach is highly competitive in comparison with other coarse-grained DisCSP algorithms

Multi-Hyb: a hybrid algorithm for solving DisCSPs with complex local problems.

A coarse-grained Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problem (DisCSP) is a constraint problem where several agents, each responsible for solving one part (a complex local problem), cooperate to determine an overall solution. Thus, agents solve the overall problem by finding a solution to their complex local problem which is compatible with the solutions proposed by other agents for their own local problems. Several approaches to solving DisCSPs have been devised and can be classified as systematic search and local search techniques. We present Multi-Hyb, a two-phase hybrid algorithm for solving coarse-grained DisCSPs which uses both systematic and local search during problem solving. Phase 1 generates key partial solutions to the global problem using systematic search. Concurrently, a penalty-based local search algorithm attempts to find a global solution to the problem using these partial solutions. If a global solution is not found in phase 1, the information learnt from phase 1 is used to inform the search carried out during the next phase. Phase two runs a systematic search algorithm on complex variables guided by the following knowledge obtained in phase 1: (i) partial solutions and; (ii) complex local problems which appear more difficult to satisfy. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that Multi-Hyb is competitive in several problem classes in terms of: (i) the communication cost and (ii) the computational effort needed

Ontology alignment based on word embedding and random forest classification.

Ontology alignment is crucial for integrating heterogeneous data sources and forms an important component for realising the goals of the semantic web. Accordingly, several ontology alignment techniques have been proposed and used for discovering correspondences between the concepts (or entities) of different ontologies. However, these techniques mostly depend on string-based similarities which are unable to handle the vocabulary mismatch problem. Also, determining which similarity measures to use and how to effectively combine them in alignment systems are challenges that have persisted in this area. In this work, we introduce a random forest classifier approach for ontology alignment which relies on word embedding to discover semantic similarities between concepts. Specifically, we combine string-based and semantic similarity measures to form feature vectors that are used by the classifier model to determine when concepts match. By harnessing background knowledge and relying on minimal information from the ontologies, our approach can deal with knowledge-light ontological resources. It also eliminates the need for learning the aggregation weights of multiple similarity measures. Our experiments using Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative (OAEI) dataset and real-world ontologies highlight the utility of our approach and show that it can outperform state-of-the-art alignment systems

Taxonomic corpus-based concept summary generation for document annotation

Semantic annotation is an enabling technology which links documents to concepts that unambiguously describe their content. Annotation improves access to document contents for both humans and software agents. However, the annotation process is a challenging task as annotators often have to select from thousands of potentially relevant concepts from controlled vocabularies. The best approaches to assist in this task rely on reusing the annotations of an annotated corpus. In the absence of a pre-annotated corpus, alternative approaches suffer due to insufficient descriptive texts for concepts in most vocabularies. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised method for recommending document annotations based on generating node descriptors from an external corpus. We exploit knowledge of the taxonomic structure of a thesaurus to ensure that effective descriptors (concept summaries) are generated for concepts. Our evaluation on recommending annotations show that the content that we generate effectively represents the concepts. Also, our approach outperforms those which rely on information from a thesaurus alone and is comparable with supervised approaches

rad21 Is Involved in Corneal Stroma Development by Regulating Neural Crest Migration

Previously, we identified RAD21(R450C) from a peripheral sclerocornea pedigree. Injection of this rad21 variant mRNA into Xenopus laevis embryos disrupted the organization of corneal stroma fibrils. To understand the mechanisms of RAD21-mediated corneal stroma defects, gene expression and chromosome conformation analysis were performed using cells from family members affected by peripheral sclerocornea. Both gene expression and chromosome conformation of cell adhesion genes were affected in cells carrying the heterozygous rad21 variant. Since cell migration is essential in early embryonic development and sclerocornea is a congenital disease, we studied neural crest migration during cornea development in X. laevis embryos. In X. laevis embryos injected with rad21 mutant mRNA, neural crest migration was disrupted, and the number of neural crest-derived periocular mesenchymes decreased significantly in the corneal stroma region. Our data indicate that the RAD21(R450C) variant contributes to peripheral sclerocornea by modifying chromosome conformation and gene expression, therefore disturbing neural crest cell migration, which suggests RAD21 plays a key role in corneal stroma development

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

Correction to: Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

Workflow Collaboration with Constraint Solving Capabilities

Abstract. This paper describes our efforts to provide a collaborative problem solving architecture driven by semantic-based workflow orchestration and constraint problem solving. These technologies are based on shared ontologies that allows two systems of very different natures to communicate, perform specialised tasks and achieve common goals. We give an account of our approach for the workflow assisted collaboration with constraint solving capabilities. We found that systems built with semantic (web) based technologies is useful for collaboration and flexible to enhance the system with specialised capabilities. However, much care must be exercised before correct semantics may be exchanged and collaborations occur smoothly

A hybrid approach to distributed constraint satisfaction.

We present a hybrid approach to Distributed Constraint Satisfaction which combines incomplete, fast, penalty-based local search with complete, slower systematic search. Thus, we propose the hybrid algorithm PenDHyb where the distributed local search algorithm DisPeL is run for a very small amount of time in order to learn about the difficult areas of the problem from the penalty counts imposed during its problem-solving. This knowledge is then used to guide the systematic search algorithm SynCBJ. Extensive empirical results in several problem classes indicate that PenDHyb is effective for large problems