Big data-driven prediction of airspace congestion

Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP) worldwide have been making a considerable effort for the development of a better method to measure and predict aircraft counts within a particular airspace, also referred to as airspace density. An accurate measurement and prediction of airspace density is crucial for a better managed airspace, both strategically and tactically, yielding a higher level of automation and thereby reducing the air traffic controller's workload. Although the prior approaches have been able to address the problem to some extent, data management and query processing of ever-increasing vast volume of air traffic data at high rates, for various analytics purposes such as predicting aircraft counts, still remains a challenge especially when only linear prediction models are used. In this paper, we present a novel data management and prediction system that accurately predicts aircraft counts for a particular airspace sector within the National Airspace System (NAS). The incoming Traffic Flow Management (TFM) data is streaming, big, uncorrelated and noisy. In the preprocessing step, the system continuously processes the incoming raw data, reduces it to a compact size, and stores it in a NoSQL database, where it makes the data available for efficient query processing. In the prediction step, the system learns from historical trajectories and uses their segments to collect key features such as sector boundary crossings, weather parameters, and other air traffic data. The features are fed into various regression models, including linear, non-linear and ensemble models, and the best performing model is used for prediction. Evaluation on an extensive set of real track, weather, and air traffic data including boundary crossings in the U.S. verify that our system efficiently and accurately predicts aircraft counts in each airspace sector.Comment: Submitted to the 2023 IEEE/AIAA Digital Aviation Systems Conference (DASC

Use of \u3cem\u3eN\u3c/em\u3e-Alkane Technique to Estimate Sheep Dry Matter Intake

Given the complexity of evaluating intake on grazing, some compounds have been studied to promote qualitative and quantitative estimates of animal physiology. In this sense, the technique using n-alkanes as a marker has been used in several animal species, especially in grazing ruminants (Dove and Mayes 1996). By definition, validation under grazing or browsing conditions is not possible, because actual intakes are unknown (Dove and Mayes 2005). Thus, the aim of the study was to evaluate the methodology of n-alkanes to estimate herbage intake by sheep in metabolic cages

Mutation of the surface layer protein SlpB has pleiotropic effects in the probiotic propionibacterium freudenreichii CIRM-BIA 129

Propionibacterium freudenreichii is a beneficial Gram-positive bacterium, traditionally used as a cheese-ripening starter, and currently considered as an emerging probiotic. As an example, the P. freudenreichii CIRM-BIA 129 strain recently revealed promising immunomodulatory properties. Its consumption accordingly exerts healing effects in different animal models of colitis, suggesting a potent role in the context of inflammatory bowel diseases. This anti-inflammatory effect depends on surface layer proteins (SLPs). SLPs may be involved in key functions in probiotics, such as persistence within the gut, adhesion to host cells and mucus, or immunomodulation. Several SLPs coexist in P. freudenreichii CIRM-BIA 129 and mediate immunomodulation and adhesion. A mutant P. freudenreichii CIRM-BIA 129ΔslpB (CB129ΔslpB) strain was shown to exhibit decreased adhesion to intestinal epithelial cells. In the present study, we thoroughly analyzed the impact of this mutation on cellular properties. Firstly, we investigated alterations of surface properties in CB129ΔslpB. Surface extractable proteins, surface charges (ζ-potential) and surface hydrophobicity were affected by the mutation. Whole-cell proteomics, using high definition mass spectrometry, identified 1,288 quantifiable proteins in the wild-type strain, i.e., 53% of the theoretical proteome predicted according to P. freudenreichii CIRM-BIA 129 genome sequence. In the mutant strain, we detected 1,252 proteins, including 1,227 proteins in common with the wild-type strain. Comparative quantitative analysis revealed 97 proteins with significant differences between wild-type and mutant strains. These proteins are involved in various cellular process like signaling, metabolism, and DNA repair and replication. Finally, in silico analysis predicted that slpB gene is not part of an operon, thus not affecting the downstream genes after gene knockout. This study, in accordance with the various roles attributed in the literature to SLPs, revealed a pleiotropic effect of a single slpB mutation, in the probiotic P. freudenreichii. This suggests that SlpB may be at a central node of cellular processes and confirms that both nature and amount of SLPs, which are highly variable within the P. freudenreichii species, determine the probiotic abilities of strains.Fil: do Carmo, Fillipe L. R.. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; Francia. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; BrasilFil: Marques Da Silva, Wanderson. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Tavares, Guilherme C.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Ibraim, Izabela C.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; BrasilFil: Cordeiro, Barbara F.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; BrasilFil: Oliveira, Emiliano R.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; BrasilFil: Rabah, Houem. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; FranciaFil: Cauty, Chantal. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; FranciaFil: da Silva, Sara H.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; BrasilFil: Canário Viana, Marcus V.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; BrasilFil: Caetano, Ana C. B.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; BrasilFil: dos Santos, Roselane G.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; BrasilFil: de Oliveira Carvalho, Rodrigo D.. Instituto de Ciencias Da Saúde; BrasilFil: Jardin, Julien. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; FranciaFil: Pereira, Felipe L.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Folador, Edson L.. Universidade Estadual da Paraiba; BrasilFil: Le Loir, Yves. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; FranciaFil: Figueiredo, Henrique C. P.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Jan, Gwénaël. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; FranciaFil: Azevedo, Vasco. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; Brasi

The association of depression and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Background: Depression is a prevalent and disabling mental disorder that frequently co-occurs with a wide range of chronic conditions. Evidence has suggested that depression could be associated with excess all-cause mortality across different settings and populations, although the causality of these associations remains unclear. Methods: We conducted an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies. PubMed, PsycINFO, and Embase electronic databases were searched through January 20, 2018. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses that investigated associations of depression and all-cause and cause-specific mortality were selected for the review. The evidence was graded as convincing, highly suggestive, suggestive, or weak based on quantitative criteria that included an assessment of heterogeneity, 95% prediction intervals, small-study effects, and excess significance bias. Results: A total of 26 references providing 2 systematic reviews and data for 17 meta-analytic estimates met inclusion criteria (19 of them on all-cause mortality); data from 246 unique studies (N = 3,825,380) were synthesized. All 17 associations had P < 0.05 per random effects summary effects, but none of them met criteria for convincing evidence. Associations of depression and all-cause mortality in patients after acute myocardial infarction, in individuals with heart failure, in cancer patients as well as in samples from mixed settings met criteria for highly suggestive evidence. However, none of the associations remained supported by highly suggestive evidence in sensitivity analyses that considered studies employing structured diagnostic interviews. In addition, associations of depression and all-cause mortality in cancer and post-acute myocardial infarction samples were supported only by suggestive evidence when studies that tried to adjust for potential confounders were considered. Conclusions: Even though associations between depression and mortality have nominally significant results in all assessed settings and populations, the evidence becomes weaker when focusing on studies that used structured interviews and those that tried to adjust for potential confounders. A causal effect of depression on all-cause and cause-specific mortality remains unproven, and thus interventions targeting depression are not expected to result in lower mortality rates at least based on current evidence from observational studies

Revista do Museu Paulista e(m) capas: identidade e representação institucional em texto e imagem

Este artigo propõe reflexão sobre a escrita da história, a partir de estudo das capas da Revista do Museu Paulista, especialmente durante as gestões dos dois primeiros diretores da instituição, quando certa continuidade editorial foi preservada. Tomadas como "fontes", ou seja, objeto de trabalho do historiador, as capas revelam vestígios de processos que permitem reconstruir, em suas dimensões históricas, as complexas imbricações entre a produção da Revista, sua materialidade, e os atos de leitura e interpretação que condicionam e refletem relações entre produtores de textos e seus leitores nas primeiras décadas do século XX, a partir de São Paulo, onde era editada.This paper offers a reflection about the writing of History, based on the study of Revista do Museu Paulista's covers, noticeably during the term of its two first directors, when a certain editorial continuity was preserved. Taken as "sources", namely as historian subjects, those covers reveal evidences of practices that allow one to reconstitute, in its historic dimensions, the complex connection between the creation of the Revista, its materiality, and the reading and interpretation efforts that condition and reflect liaisons with writers and readers during the first decades of the XXth Century, from São Paulo, where it was published.