Designing a Controlled Medical Vocabulary Server: The VOSER Project

journal articleBiomedical Informatic

A framework of quality assessment methods for crowdsourced geographic information : a systematic literature review

Collaboration is the foundation to strengthen disaster preparedness and for effective emergency response actions at all levels. Some studies have highlighted that remote volunteers, i.e., volunteers supported by Web 2.0 technologies, possess the potential to strengthen humanitarian relief organizations by offering information regarding disaster-affected people and infrastructure. Although studies have explored various aspects of this topic, none of those provided an overview of the state-of-the-art of researches on the collaboration among humanitarian organizations and communities of remote volunteers. With the aim of overcoming this gap, a systematic literature review was conducted on the existing research works. Therefore, the main contribution of this work lies in examining the state of research in this field and in identifying potential research gaps. The results show that most of the research works addresses the general domain of disaster management, whereas only few of them address the domain of humanitarian logistics. Collaboration among Humanitarian Relief Organizations and Volunteer Technical Communities: Identifying Research Opportunities and Challenges through a Systematic Literature Review (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315790817_Collaboration_among_Humanitarian_Relief_Organizations_and_Volunteer_Technical_Communities_Identifying_Research_Opportunities_and_Challenges_through_a_Systematic_Literature_Review [accessed May 26, 2017]

Holographic collisions in confining theories

We study the gravitational dual of a high-energy collision in a confining gauge theory. We consider a linearized approach in which two point particles traveling in an AdS-soliton background suddenly collide to form an object at rest (presumably a black hole for large enough center-of-mass energies). The resulting radiation exhibits the features expected in a theory with a mass gap: late-time power law tails of the form t −3/2, the failure of Huygens" principle and distortion of the wave pattern as it propagates. The energy spectrum is exponentially suppressed for frequencies smaller than the gauge theory mass gap. Consequently, we observe no memory effect in the gravitational waveforms. At larger frequencies the spectrum has an upward-stairway structure, which corresponds to the excitation of the tower of massive states in the confining gauge theory. We discuss the importance of phenomenological cutoffs to regularize the divergent spectrum, and the aspects of the full non-linear collision that are expected to be captured by our approach

Análise de fluxos metabólicos com substrato isotopicamente marcado (13C-MFA) em S. typhimurium

Linhagens atenuadas de Salmonella têm sido estudadas para produção e veiculação de substâncias com fins terapêuticos. Modelos metabólicos à escala genômica são ferramentas importantes no desenvolvimento de estratégias de engenharia metabólica. Este trabalho teve por objetivo obter dados experimentais para aprimorar o modelo metabólico e aprofundar o conhecimento do metabolismo de S. typhimurium (St). Foram realizados cultivos contínuos à taxa de diluição (D) de 0,24 e 0,48 h-1, utilizando U-13C-glicose como substrato. Aminoácidos da biomassa foram analisados por GC-MS. A análise de fluxos metabólicos permitiu determinar a distribuição de fluxos nas principais vias metabólicas de St. A glicólise foi a via majoritamente utilizada para catabolisar a glicose. As maiores diferenças nos fluxos estimados, para as duas D, verificaram-se nas vias anapleróticas. Sobrepondo os dados de fluxos intracelulares ao modelo metabólico será gerado um modelo mais preciso do metabolismo de S. typhimurium

Production, characterization and application of activated carbon from brewer’s spent grain lignin

Different types of activated carbon were prepared by chemical activation of brewer’s spent grain (BSG) lignin using H3PO4 at various acid/lignin ratios (1, 2, or 3 g/g) and carbonization temperatures (300, 450, or 600 °C), according to a 22 full-factorial design. The resulting materials were characterized with regard to their surface area, pore volume, and pore size distribution, and used for detoxification of BSG hemicellulosic hydrolysate (a mixture of sugars, phenolic compounds, metallic ions, among other compounds). BSG carbons presented BET surface areas between 33 and 692 m2/g, and micro- and mesopores with volumes between 0.058 and 0.453 cm3/g. The carbons showed high capacity for adsorption of metallic ions, mainly nickel, iron, chromium, and silicon. The concentration of phenolic compounds and color were also reduced by these sorbents. These results suggest that activated carbons with characteristics similar to those commercially found and high adsorption capacity can be produced from BSG lignin.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq Brazil)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

Activated carbon production from brewer’s spent grain lignin

Activated carbons are adsorbents that are industrially used in multiple processes for product separation and purification, and for the treatment of liquid and gaseous effluents. Despite its frequent use in the water and waste industries, activated carbons remain an expensive material. In view of the high cost and the tedious procedures for the preparation and regeneration of activated carbons, there is a continuing search for low-cost potential adsorbents. The preparation of activated carbons from lignin is an attractive way of giving added value to this material, which is mainly used as in-house fuel for the recovery of both energy and residual inorganic matter. Over the past few decades, some works have been done on the activation of agricultural lignocellulosic waste materials to carbons, due to their low cost and high availability. Nevertheless, there is not any literature report about the activated carbon production from brewer’s spent grain (BSG) lignin. Use of BSG lignin as starting material for activated carbon production is interesting because BSG (the main brewery by-product) is produced in large amounts during all year, and is a lignin-rich material. Lignin can be converted in activated carbon by physical or chemical activation, the last one being more amply used than physical activation, because it requires lower activation temperatures and gives higher product yields. The purpose of the present work was to prepare activated carbon from BSG lignin, by chemical activation using phosphoric acid as impregnating agent, and to examine the influence of preparation conditions (acid/lignin ratio and carbonization temperature) on the textural characteristics of the materials produced (surface area, volume of pores, and pores size distribution) as well as on its adsorption capacities. Chemical activation of BSG lignin using phosphoric acid as impregnating agent was performed at various acid/lignin ratios (1, 2, or 3 g/g) and carbonization temperatures (300, 450, or 600 ºC), according to a 22 full factorial design. The resulting materials were characterized (regarding the surface area, volume of pores, and pores size distribution), and used for detoxification of the BSG hemicellulosic hydrolysate, which consists in a mixture of sugars, phenolic compounds, metallic ions, among other compounds. BSG carbons presented BET surface areas between 33 and 692 m2/g, and volume of pores between 0.058 and 0.453 cm3/g, which generally consisted in micro and mesopores. Adsorption capacity also varied to each carbon, according to the used activation condition. However, all of them showed high capacity for adsorption of metallic ions, mainly nickel, iron, chromium and silicon. In most of the cases, the BSG carbons efficiency for removal of these metals was higher than that obtained when using a commercial carbon sample. Phenolic compounds concentration and color were also reduced by using these sorbents, and the sugars content was practically not affected, which is benefic if the hydrolysate use in bioconversion processes is desired. The present work allowed to conclude that it is possible to produce activated carbons with good efficiency for phenolic compounds and metallic ions removal (mainly Ni, Fe, Cr, and Si), by chemical activation of the BSG lignin. The adsorption capacity of the carbons compared well and even favorably with that of a commercial activated carbon, suggesting that they have potential to be successfully used in detoxification processes in substitution of commercial sorbents. Regarding to the preparation of these activated carbons, an impregnation ratio and activation temperature of 3 g H3PO4/g lignin and 600 ºC, respectively, was the best combination of operating conditions leading to activated carbons with good capacity for adsorption of different toxic compounds. Acknowledgements: CAPES, FAPESP and CNPq (Brazil)

Mapping Salmonella typhimurium pathways using ¹³C metabolic flux analysis

In the last years, Salmonella has been extensively studied not only due to its importance as a pathogen, but also as a host to produce pharmaceutical compounds. However, the full exploitation of Salmonella as a platform for bioproduct delivery has been hampered by the lack of information about its metabolism. Genome-scale metabolic models can be valuable tools to delineate metabolic engineering strategies as long as they closely represent the actual metabolism of the target organism. In the present study, a 13C-MFA approach was applied to map the fluxes at the central carbon pathways of S. typhimurium LT2 growing at glucose-limited chemostat cultures. The experiments were carried out in a 2L bioreactor, using defined medium enriched with 20% 13C-labeled glucose. Metabolic flux distributions in central carbon pathways of S. typhimurium LT2 were estimated using OpenFLUX2 based on the labeling pattern of biomass protein hydrolysates together with biomass composition. The results suggested that pentose phosphate is used to catabolize glucose, with minor fluxes through glycolysis. In silico simulations, using Optflux and pFBA as simulation method, allowed to study the performance of the genome-scale metabolic model. In general, the accuracy of in silico simulations was improved by the superimposition of estimated intracellular fluxes to the existing genome-scale metabolic model, showing a better fitting to the experimental extracellular fluxes, whereas the intracellular fluxes of pentose phosphate and anaplerotic reactions were poorly described.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brazil (CAPES) – Finance code 001. The authors also acknowledge the support of CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brazil); International cooperation project CAPES-FCT (Coordenacão de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior/Brazil - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/Portugal - Process 315/11); CAPES, Brazil (Atração de Jovens Talentos - Process 064922/2014-01); Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal (strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469 unit) and COMPETE 2020, Portugal (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684), in addition to the BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norteinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evidence of a new geothermal prospect in the Northern-Central trans-Mexican volcanic belt: Rancho Nuevo, Guanajuato, Mexico

Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Cultivo de Saccharomyces cerevisiae adaptada em D-xilulose sob condições aeróbias e anaeróbias

O desenvolvimento de um processo para produção de etanol com uma alta produtividade a partir de D-xilulose é de grande interesse econômico. Esse processo pode agregar maior valor aos resíduos lignocelulósicos, além de promover um aproveitamento completo da biomassa, utilizando-se suas frações celulósica e hemicelulósica para a obtenção de etanol. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi estudar a assimilação de D-xilulose, o crescimento e a produção de etanol e xilitol em cultivo de levedura de panificação de Saccharomyces cerevisiae em condições aeróbias e anaeróbis. Os experimentos foram conduzidos em biorreator de bancada de 2L, utilizando meio mínimo contendo a mistura xilose-xilulose. Os cultivos foram realizados com colônia de levedura previamente selecionada a partir de experimentos de screening com mais de 20 colônias de isoladas de levedura comercial que apresentaram crescimento em meio mínimo contendo a mistura xilose-xilulose em condições anaeróbias. A fermentação da D-xilulose pela levedura na ausência de oxigênio resultou na produção de 4,2 g/L de etanol e 3,7 de xilitol. Já o crescimento da levedura em condições aeróbias forneceu como produto principal a biomassa, com formação de 8 g/L e como subproduto o xilitol, com concentração máxima de 2,0 g/L