A study of bioaerosol sampling cyclones

A wetted wall cyclone using an airblast atomizer upstream of the inlet was designed as an improvement of a wetted wall cyclone developed by White et al. in 1975, which uses liquid injection through a port on the wall of the cyclone inlet. In the course of this project, many changes to different aspects of the White-type cyclone design and operation were considered. These included inlet configuration, liquid delivery, porous media, surface finishes and coatings, outlet skimmer design, and cyclone body length. The final airblast atomizer cyclone (AAC) design considered has an aerosol-to-hydrosol collection efficiency cut-point of 1.6 µm with collection efficiencies at 2 and 3 µm of 65% and 85%, respectively. The efficiency reported for the White-type cyclone for single Bacillus globigii spores that have a particle size of about 1 µm was approximately 81.8%. The aerosol-to-aerosol transmission efficiency for the AAC configuration was found to be approximately 50% for 1 µm diameter particles as compared with 70 100% for the White-type cyclone. A time response test was performed in which the White-type (ca. 2003) cyclone had an initial response of 3 minutes for a condition where there was no liquid carryover through the cyclone outlet and 8 minutes on average with hydrosol carryover. The decay response of the White-type cyclone was 1.25 minutes for non-liquid carryover conditions. The AAC had an initial response of 2.75 minutes and a decay response of 2.5 minutes. The shortened version of the AAC had an initial response of 1.5 minutes and a decay response of 1.25 minutes. There was no liquid carryover observed for any tests of this cyclone configuration. Power consumption tests were performed comparing pressure drops across different variations of White-type cyclones (circa 2003 and 1999) including a variation with an electrical discharge machined (EDM) inlet profile, that reduces the pressure drop at a nominal air flowrate of 780 L/min from 18 inH2O for the basic White-type cyclone (ca. 2003) to 16 inH2O with use of the EDM inlet. Two different variations of White-type cyclones were found to have pressure drops of 25 inH2O and 18 inH2O at an air flowrate of 780 L/min

Integración de anotaciones espaciales automáticas de diferentes fuentes mediante tecnologías semánticas

Information Extraction is one of the main tasks in Text Mining, which is essential for all types of applications exploiting geographic information because there is a big volume of geographic information not directly compiled in specific formats proposed by Geographic Information Systems, but just embedded in plain text sources. Currently, there are several software solutions for the processing of texts and the annotation of spatial named entities. However, the problem of these tools is that their output is based on heterogeneous annotation languages, which make it difficult their integration in other systems.The objective of this work is to propose the conversion of the output of these tools into a common spatial annotation language based on semantic technologies to facilitate their integration and interoperability. As a common annotation language we propose the use of a text annotation based on RDFa and using the vocabulary proposed by the international initiative Schema.org. In order to validate this proposal, we have created the necessary infrastructure to build a semantic repository of documents, where the annotations generated by different annotation tools can be integrated and harmonized.La extracción de información es una de las tareas principales de la minería de textos que resulta de gran utilidad para todo tipo de aplicaciones que exploten la información geográfica ya que hay gran cantidad de información geográfica que no se recopila directamente en formatos reconocibles por Sistemas de Información Geográfica, sino directamente como texto plano. Actualmente existen diversas soluciones informáticas para el procesamiento de textos y la anotación de entidades espaciales. Sin embargo, el problema que tienen estas herramientas es que producen como resultado de este procesamiento un texto anotado con lenguajes de marcado propio, que dificulta su integración en otros sistemas. El objetivo de este trabajo es proponer la conversión de la salida de estas herramientas a un lenguaje de anotación espacial común basado en tecnologías semánticas que facilite su integración e interoperabilidad. Como factor común de los lenguajes de marcado se propone una anotación de textos basada en RDFa y utilizando el vocabulario de la iniciativa internacional Schema.org. Para validar la utilidad de esta propuesta se ha creado la infraestructura necesaria para construir un repositorio semántico de documentos donde se integren y armonicen las anotaciones generadas por diversas herramientas de anotación existentes

Automatic reconstruction of itineraries from descriptive texts

Esta tesis se inscribe dentro del marco del proyecto PERDIDO donde los objetivos son la extracción y reconstrucción de itinerarios a partir de documentos textuales. Este trabajo se ha realizado en colaboración entre el laboratorio LIUPPA de l' Université de Pau et des Pays de l' Adour (France), el grupo de Sistemas de Información Avanzados (IAAA) de la Universidad de Zaragoza y el laboratorio COGIT de l' IGN (France). El objetivo de esta tesis es concebir un sistema automático que permita extraer, a partir de guías de viaje o descripciones de itinerarios, los desplazamientos, además de representarlos sobre un mapa. Se propone una aproximación para la representación automática de itinerarios descritos en lenguaje natural. Nuestra propuesta se divide en dos tareas principales. La primera pretende identificar y extraer de los textos describiendo itinerarios información como entidades espaciales y expresiones de desplazamiento o percepción. El objetivo de la segunda tarea es la reconstrucción del itinerario. Nuestra propuesta combina información local extraída gracias al procesamiento del lenguaje natural con datos extraídos de fuentes geográficas externas (por ejemplo, gazetteers). La etapa de anotación de informaciones espaciales se realiza mediante una aproximación que combina el etiquetado morfo-sintáctico y los patrones léxico-sintácticos (cascada de transductores) con el fin de anotar entidades nombradas espaciales y expresiones de desplazamiento y percepción. Una primera contribución a la primera tarea es la desambiguación de topónimos, que es un problema todavía mal resuelto dentro del reconocimiento de entidades nombradas (Named Entity Recognition - NER) y esencial en la recuperación de información geográfica. Se plantea un algoritmo no supervisado de georreferenciación basado en una técnica de clustering capaz de proponer una solución para desambiguar los topónimos los topónimos encontrados en recursos geográficos externos, y al mismo tiempo, la localización de topónimos no referenciados. Se propone un modelo de grafo genérico para la reconstrucción automática de itinerarios, donde cada nodo representa un lugar y cada arista representa un camino enlazando dos lugares. La originalidad de nuestro modelo es que además de tener en cuenta los elementos habituales (caminos y puntos del recorrido), permite representar otros elementos involucrados en la descripción de un itinerario, como por ejemplo los puntos de referencia visual. Se calcula de un árbol de recubrimiento mínimo a partir de un grafo ponderado para obtener automáticamente un itinerario bajo la forma de un grafo. Cada arista del grafo inicial se pondera mediante un método de análisis multicriterio que combina criterios cualitativos y cuantitativos. El valor de estos criterios se determina a partir de informaciones extraídas del texto e informaciones provenientes de recursos geográficos externos. Por ejemplo, se combinan las informaciones generadas por el procesamiento del lenguaje natural como las relaciones espaciales describiendo una orientación (ej: dirigirse hacia el sur) con las coordenadas geográficas de lugares encontrados dentro de los recursos para determinar el valor del criterio ``relación espacial''. Además, a partir de la definición del concepto de itinerario y de las informaciones utilizadas en la lengua para describir un itinerario, se ha modelado un lenguaje de anotación de información espacial adaptado a la descripción de desplazamientos, apoyándonos en las recomendaciones del consorcio TEI (Text Encoding and Interchange). Finalmente, se ha implementado y evaluado las diferentes etapas de nuestra aproximación sobre un corpus multilingüe de descripciones de senderos y excursiones (francés, español, italiano)

A study of bioaerosol sampling cyclones

A wetted wall cyclone using an airblast atomizer upstream of the inlet was designed as an improvement of a wetted wall cyclone developed by White et al. in 1975, which uses liquid injection through a port on the wall of the cyclone inlet. In the course of this project, many changes to different aspects of the White-type cyclone design and operation were considered. These included inlet configuration, liquid delivery, porous media, surface finishes and coatings, outlet skimmer design, and cyclone body length. The final airblast atomizer cyclone (AAC) design considered has an aerosol-to-hydrosol collection efficiency cut-point of 1.6 µm with collection efficiencies at 2 and 3 µm of 65% and 85%, respectively. The efficiency reported for the White-type cyclone for single Bacillus globigii spores that have a particle size of about 1 µm was approximately 81.8%. The aerosol-to-aerosol transmission efficiency for the AAC configuration was found to be approximately 50% for 1 µm diameter particles as compared with 70 100% for the White-type cyclone. A time response test was performed in which the White-type (ca. 2003) cyclone had an initial response of 3 minutes for a condition where there was no liquid carryover through the cyclone outlet and 8 minutes on average with hydrosol carryover. The decay response of the White-type cyclone was 1.25 minutes for non-liquid carryover conditions. The AAC had an initial response of 2.75 minutes and a decay response of 2.5 minutes. The shortened version of the AAC had an initial response of 1.5 minutes and a decay response of 1.25 minutes. There was no liquid carryover observed for any tests of this cyclone configuration. Power consumption tests were performed comparing pressure drops across different variations of White-type cyclones (circa 2003 and 1999) including a variation with an electrical discharge machined (EDM) inlet profile, that reduces the pressure drop at a nominal air flowrate of 780 L/min from 18 inH2O for the basic White-type cyclone (ca. 2003) to 16 inH2O with use of the EDM inlet. Two different variations of White-type cyclones were found to have pressure drops of 25 inH2O and 18 inH2O at an air flowrate of 780 L/min

Anesthesia of a dental patient with Angelman syndrome -A case report-

Angelman syndrome is characterized by a partial deficit of paired autosomal chromosome 15, which contains a subunit of the GABA (Gamma-Amino Butyric Acid) receptor. Many drugs that act on the CNS (Central Nerve System) during anesthesia are believed to exert their effects via the GABA receptors. We describe the anesthesia of a 7 year-old female patient with Angelman syndrome who underwent surgery for dental caries. The basic factors that needed to be considered when administering anesthesia to this patient were epilepsy, significant dominance of the vagal tone, craniofacial abnormalities and peripheral muscular atrophy. Inhalational anesthetics (sevoflurane) were employed for this patient. The patient had an uneventful peri-operative period and was discharged home on the same day of the operation

Studying the effects of reproductive hormones and bacterial vaginosis on the glycome of lavage samples from the cervicovaginal cavity

The cervicovaginal fluid (CVF) coating the vaginal epithelium is an important immunological mediator, providing a barrier to infection. Glycosylation of CVF proteins, such as mucins, IgG and S-IgA, plays a critical role in their immunological functions. Although multiple factors, such as hormones and microflora, may influence glycosylation of the CVF, few studies have examined their impact on this important immunological fluid. Herein we analyzed the glycosylation of cervicovaginal lavage (CVL) samples collected from 165 women under different hormonal conditions including: (1) no contraceptive, post-menopausal, (2) no contraceptive, days 1-14 of the menstrual cycle, (3) no contraceptive, days 15-28 of the menstrual cycle, (4) combined-oral contraceptive pills for at least 6 months, (5) depomedroxyprogesterone acetate (Depo-Provera) injections for at least 6 months, (6) levonorgestrel IUD for at least 1 month. Glycomic profiling was obtained using our lectin microarray system, a rapid method to analyze carbohydrate composition. Although some small effects were observed due to hormone levels, the major influence on the glycome was the presence of an altered bacterial cohort due to bacterial vaginosis (BV). Compared to normal women, samples from women with BV contained lower levels of sialic acid and high-mannose glycans in their CVL. The change in high mannose levels was unexpected and may be related to the increased risk of HIV-infection observed in women with BV, as high mannose receptors are a viral entry pathway. Changes in the glycome were also observed with hormonal contraceptive use, in a contraceptive-dependent manner. Overall, microflora had a greater impact on the glycome than hormonal levels, and both of these effects should be more closely examined in future studies given the importance of glycans in the innate immune system

Impact of bacterial vaginosis, as assessed by nugent criteria and hormonal status on glycosidases and lectin binding in cervicovaginal lavage samples

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of hormonal status and bacterial vaginosis (BV) on the glycosidases present and glycosylation changes as assessed by lectin binding to cervicovaginal lavage constituents. Frozen cervicovaginal lavage samples from a completed study examining the impact of reproductive hormones on the physicochemical properties of vaginal fluid were utilized for the present study. In the parent study, 165 women were characterized as having BV, intermediate or normal microflora using the Nugent criteria. The presence of glycosidases in the samples was determined using quantitative 4-methyl-umbelliferone based assays, and glycosylation was assessed using enzyme linked lectin assays (ELLA). Women with BV had elevated sialidase, α-galactosidase, β-galactosidase and α-glucosidase activities compared to intermediate or normal women (P<0.001, 0.003, 0.006 and 0.042 respectively). The amount of sialic acid (Sambucus nigra, P = 0.003) and high mannose (griffithsin, P<0.001) were reduced, as evaluated by lectin binding, in women with BV. When the data were stratified according to hormonal status, α-glucosidase and griffithsin binding were decreased among postmenopausal women (P<0.02) when compared to premenopausal groups. These data suggest that both hormonal status and BV impact the glycosidases and lectin binding sites present in vaginal fluid. The sialidases present at increased levels in women with BV likely reduce the number of sialic acid binding sites. Other enzymes likely reduce griffithsin binding. The alterations in the glycosidase content, high mannose and sialic acid binding sites in the cervicovaginal fluid associated with bacterial vaginosis may impact susceptibility to viruses, such as HIV, that utilize glycans as a portal of entry