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OntolAD: a formal ontology for architectural descriptions
No full textArchitecture descriptions have been the focus of several studies in which they contribute for the design, evaluation, and evolution of software systems. In parallel, ontologies have been proposed for sharing and disseminating knowledge on a particular domain. In this scenario, the ontology proposed in the ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 standard for architecture descriptions represents an important e ort towards improving architecture descriptions as it establishes a common vocabulary. Nonetheless, a formal ontology for this standard could also support automatic conformance validation and enhance architectural descriptions reuse. However, a formal ontology for this standard is not available yet. Therefore, the main contribution of this paper is the proposal of OntolAD, a formal ontology expressed in OWL 2 for the ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 standard. We demonstrate the feasibility of our formal ontology by applying it for describing the service-oriented architecture style (SOA). We conclude this study with interesting perspectives of using this ontology in future work.São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) (grant 2012/24290-5)National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the United States National Institutes of Health (grant GM10331601
Applying multi-view based metadata in personalized ranking for recommender systems
No full textIn this paper, we propose a multi-view based metadata extraction technique from unstructured textual content in order to be applied in recommendation algorithms based on latent factors. The solution aims at reducing the problem of intense and time-consuming human effort to identify, collect and label descriptions about the items. Our proposal uses a unsupervised learning method to construct topic hierarchies with named entity recognition as privileged information. We evaluate the technique using different recommendation algorithms, and show that better accuracy is obtained when additional information about items is considered.São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) (Grants 2012/13830-9, 2013/16039-3, 2013/22547-1)CAPE
Sustainable development in the retail supply chain brazilian fashion: case study
No full textA wide and varied network of industry makes up the chain of brazilian fashion retail suppliers, to meet consumers’ diverse and differentiated products, making complex the selection of suppliers in relation to social and environmental requirements. It is necessary a study of the adequacy of the se requirement
Changes in the biochemical and immunological components of serum and colostrum of overweight and obese mothers
No full textAbstract\ud
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Background\ud
Obesity in pregnancy is associated with systemic inflammation, immunological changes and adverse maternal-fetal outcomes. Information on the association between maternal obesity and breast milk composition is scarce. This study describes changes and relationships between biochemical and immunological parameters of colostrum and serum of overweight and obese women.\ud
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Methods\ud
Colostrum and blood samples were collected from 25 normal weight, 24 overweight and 19 obese women for determination of glucose, total protein, triglycerides, cholesterol, immunoglobulins, complement proteins (C3 and C4), fat and calorie content and C-reactive protein (CRP).\ud
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Results\ud
Glucose was higher in colostrum of obese women (p = .002). In normal weight and obese women, total protein content was higher in colostrum than in serum (p = .001). Serum triglycerides (p = .008) and cholesterol (p = .010) concentrations were significantly higher in overweight and obese women than in their normal weight counterparts, but in colostrum their concentrations were similar across the three groups. Secretory IgA (sIgA) in colostrum and IgA in serum concentrations were significantly higher (p = .001) in overweight and obese mothers, whereas IgG and IgM concentrations did not vary among the groups (p = .825). Serum C3 (p = .001) and C4 (p = .040) concentrations were higher in obese women. No differences in colostrum complement proteins were detected among the groups. Calorie content (p = .003) and fat (p = .005) concentrations in colostrum and serum CRP (p = .002) were higher in obese women.\ud
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Conclusions\ud
The results corroborate the hypothesis that colostrum of overweight and obese women undergoes biochemical and immunological changes that affect its composition, namely increasing glucose concentrations, calorie content, fat and sIgA concentrations.Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa de São Paulo (FAPESP-No 2012-17843-8; No 2012-16662-0)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq-No 308702/2013-1; No 475238/2013-3
Self-service kiosk for testing sunglasses
No full textAbstract\ud
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Background\ud
Sunglasses users may only be assured on their ultraviolet protection by purchasing certified products, however they are not able to check if sunglasses are still ultraviolet (UV) protected as they age, unless they resort themselves to a professional who is qualified for using a spectrophotometer and is acknowledged on the standards for providing a report for the user. Current literature establishes safe limits on the exposure of the eyes relatively to the ultraviolet radiation exposure for the UVA and UVB ranges (280 nm – 400 nm). The UV protection is category dependent. Sunglasses are categorized from 0 to 4 and the categories are determined by the lenses transmission’s percentage on the visible range (380 nm – 780 nm).\ud
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Methods\ud
In order to overcome inaccessibility of such measurements on sunglasses, a prototype for testing ultraviolet protection on sunglasses, according to Brazilian Standards, has been developed for amateur use. The system consists of assembling UVA and UVB light sources and two UV responsive photodiode sensors, with Erythema action response for measuring UV protection; for categories measurements, combination of white light and LEDs were used for the visible range, as well as a light sensor having spectral response similar to the human eye. Electronics has been developed for controlling the measurements and software has been implemented for providing the report as well as for the user’s interface.\ud
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Results\ud
All the system was embedded as a self-service touch screen kiosk and provides transmittance measurements that are within the deviation limit required by NBR15111, i.e., 0.25%. Measurements were performed in over 45 sunglasses and compared to CARY 5000 – VARIAN spectrophotometer and present a good correlation for the measurements of transmittance in the visible spectral range (r2 = 0.9999) and in the ultraviolet range (r2 = 0.9997).\ud
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Conclusions\ud
The prototype identifies the UV protection, for non-corrective sunglasses, according to category of the lens and is available for the public. In addition to educating the population about the importance of wearing protected sunglasses, the prototype has also allowed the public to have access to information about the quality of protection of their own sunglasses in an easy and free testing method
Relationship between acid–base status and inflammation in the critically ill
No full textAbstract\ud
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Introduction\ud
There is a complex interplay between changes in acid–base components and inflammation. This manuscript aims to explore associations between plasma cytokines and chemokines and acid–base status on admission to intensive care.\ud
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Methods\ud
We conducted a prospective cohort study in a 13-bed ICU in a tertiary-care center in Brazil. 87 unselected patients admitted to the ICU during a 2-year period were included. We measured multiple inflammatory mediators in plasma using multiplex assays and evaluated the association between mediator concentrations and acid–base variables using a variety of statistical modeling approaches, including generalized linear models, multiadaptive regression splines and principal component analysis.\ud
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Results\ud
We found a positive association between strong ion gap (SIG) and plasma concentrations of interleukin (IL)6, 8, 10 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF); whereas albumin was negatively associated with IL6, IL7, IL8, IL10, TNF and interferon (IFN)α. Apparent strong ion difference (SIDa) was negatively associated with IL10 and IL17. A principal component analysis including SAPS 3 indicated that the association between acid–base components and inflammatory status was largely independent of illness severity, with both increased SIG and decreased SIDa (both drivers of acidosis) associated with increased inflammation.\ud
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Conclusion\ud
Acid–base variables (especially increased SIG, decreased albumin and decreased SIDa) on admission to ICU are associated with immunological activation. These findings should encourage new research into the effects of acid–base status on inflammation.Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP
Color and texture influence on computer-aided diagnosis of dermatological ulcers
No full textThis study presents an analysis of classification techniques for Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) regarding ulcerated lesions. We focus on determining influence of both color and texture in the automated image classification and its implication. To do so, we assayed a dataset of dermatological ulcers containing five variations in terms of tissue composition of lesion skin: granulation (red), fibrin (yellow), callous (white), necrotic (black), and a mix of the previous variations (mixed). Every image was previously labeled by experts regarding this red-yellow-black-white-mixed model. We employed specially designed color and texture extractors to represent the dataset images, namely: Color Layout, Color Structure, Scalable Color, Edge Histogram, Haralick, and Texture-Spectrum. The first three are color feature extractors and the last three are texture extractors. Following, we employed the SymmetricaUncert-\ud
AttributeEval method to determine the features suitable for image classification. We tested a set of classifiers that follows distinct paradigms over the selected features, achieving an accuracy ratio of up to 77% in terms of images correctly classified, with the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve up to 0.84. The classification performance and the selected features enabled us to determine that texture features were more predominant than color in the entire classification process.FAPESPCNPqCAPESSticAMSU
Differential replicative ability of clinical dengue virus isolates in an immunocompetent C57BL/6 mouse model
No full textAbstract\ud
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Background\ud
Several experimental animal models have been used to study the pathogenesis of dengue disease; however, most of the studies used laboratory-adapted viruses, which lack the virulence of viruses circulating in humans. The aim of this study was to analyze the ability of clinical Dengue virus (DENV) isolates (D2/BR/RP/RMB/09 and D3/BR/SL3/02) to infect immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice.\ud
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Methods\ud
Two strategies of intraperitoneal infection, which were based on the concept of the antibody dependent enhancement phenomenon, were used. In one strategy, the animals were inoculated with macrophages infected in vitro with dengue viruses, which were incubated with enhancing antibodies, and in the other strategy, the animals were inoculated with a complex of enhancing antibodies and dengue viruses.\ud
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Results\ud
The D3/BR/SL3/08 isolate showed a higher ability of infection (virus RNA was more frequently detected in the serum and in several organs) in the experimental model compared to both the D2/BR/RP/RMB/2009 isolate and a laboratory adapted DENV-1 strain (Mochizuki strain), regardless of the infection strategy used. The main features of the D3/BR/SL3/08 isolate were its neuroinvasiveness and the induction of an extended period of viremia. Enhancing antibodies did not influence on the infection of animals when macrophages were used, but the level of viremia was increased when they were used as a complex with a D3/BR/SL3/02 isolate.\ud
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Discussion\ud
We showed that DENV isolates could infect immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice, which have has been previously used to study some aspect of dengue disease when infected with laboratory adapted strains. DENV genome was detected in the same organs found in humans when autopsy and biopsy samples were analyzed, showing that C57BL/6 mice reproduce some aspects of the DENV tropism observed in humans. The main difference observed between the D3/BR/SL3/02 and D2/BR/RP/RMB/2009 clinical isolates was the neuroinvasive ability of the first one. Neuroinvasiveness has been described in some DENV infected cases and is common for other members of the Flavivirus genus.\ud
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Conclusions\ud
These results suggest that C57BL/6 mice can be used as an experimental model to evaluate virulence differences among DENV clinical isolates.São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), grant number 2012/11169-3CNPq - PQ (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - Produtividade em Pesquisa) scholarship, grant number 310735/2013/