66 research outputs found
Qualitative Exploration of Ultrastructural Effects of Perfluorooctanoic Acid on Carp Gills: Mitochondria-Rich Cells as Candidate Biomarkers of Cytotoxicity
No full textPerfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a persistent per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS), remains a global toxicological concern due to its ubiquity, bioaccumulation potential, and toxicity even at low concentrations. This study aimed to elucidate the ultrastructural effects of PFOA on the gills of Cyprinus carpio, a species of high ecological and trophic relevance. Gill samples from fish experimentally exposed to two PFOA concentrations (200 ng L−1 and 2 mg L−1), one of which was environmentally relevant, were examined by transmission electron microscopy. The results revealed cytotoxic changes primarily affecting mitochondria-rich (chloride) cells and, to a lesser extent, epithelial and mucous cells. The main alterations included mitochondrial degeneration, Golgi and endoplasmic reticulum stress, and autophagic activation, indicating a coordinated impairment of the endomembrane system. These findings suggest that PFOA induces a bioenergetic and proteo-synthetic imbalance compromising cellular homeostasis. Both direct cytotoxic and indirect endocrine-mediated mechanisms may contribute to the observed lesions. The pronounced sensitivity of mitochondria-rich cells supports their use as generalist biomarkers of PFOA exposure and effect. Within a One Health framework, these cells may also serve as translational models for elucidating conserved subcellular mechanisms of PFAS-induced cytotoxicity across vertebrates, with implications for environmental and human health risk assessment
Cosma, Octavian Lazár: The Romanian Music Chronicle vol. I (1973) - vol. IX (1991) [Rezension]
No full textThe nine volumes of the "Romanian Music Chronicle", printed by the Music Publishing Hause, Bucharest, in 20 years (1973-1991) are the fruit of an extremely elaborated investigation, that broke all the walls that tried to hide this real patrimony of spirituality. The author, Octavian Lazar Cosma, shouldered the responsibility of a difficult cultural mission to establish the main points of the Romanian music evolution during these two millennia
Christian church in the works of Cosma from Praha, Gall Anonymous and Nestor-Chronicle
No full textThe purpose of the article is to study the representation in the medieval sources of the history of Christian monasticism. The subject of the study became the content of Czech, Polish and Old Rus` chronicles. They were created at the beginning of the XII century by the Nestor-Chronicle, Cosma from Prahaand Gall Anonymous. These chronicles were of a religious nature. They were united by the Christian ideology. But the main attention in these works turned to the statebuilding process in the Polish, Czech and Old Russian lands. The author applied historical-comparative and problem-chronological methods. With this, the peculiarities of consideration in the medieval literature of the development of Christian monasticism in Poland, the Czech and in Rus` were clarified. Attention is drawn to the consideration in the chronicles of the activities of individual figures of Christianity, their relationship with each other and with the authorities, the relationship of monarchs with the church, the emergence of monasteries, the struggle of monasticism with paganism, and so on. It is concluded that these works represent the entire spectrum of functions of medieval monasticism – missionary activity, participation in colonization processes, and so on
New European Parliament: The Physical in the Age of the Digital
No full textAs our society has entered the age of the digital, several problems have risen from the unprecedented amount of information circulation. While indeed the benefits of this instant access to information and data cannot be overstated, one cannot ignore problems such as misinformation. With that in mind, comes the problem of how could architecture deal with a society that is ever more dependent on the immaterial world provided by the digital in the context of politics.This is where the parliament as a building typology factors in. It represents the intersection between political institutions (and by extension the societies they serve) and architecture. As such, the graduation project aims to explore how a parliament would look like in the context of an information society.In short, the proposed answer of the project is injecting a higher degree of publicness to the parliament typology as stressing the physicality of such a political institution is ever more important. By trying to be more inviting to the public and more hones and transparent in regards to how its institution operates, the architecture of the New European Parliament emphasizes why actively engaging the public is crucial in an information society.Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Complex Project
The artificially generated microbiome: A study on the generation and potential use cases of predicted meta-omics data
No full textMotivation: Imbalances in the human gut microbiome have been linked to various conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), diabetes, and mental health disorders. While metagenomics and amplicon sequencing are the most commonly used technologies to characterize microbial communities, they do not capture all layers of functional activity of the microbiome. Unfortunately, data from other meta-omics modalities is generally difficult to obtain, due to high costs and error-prone technologies, among other issues. The growing availability of paired meta-omics data offers an opportunity to develop machine learning models that can infer connections between metagenomics data and other forms of meta-omics data. The aim is to enable the prediction of these other forms of meta-omics data from metagenomics data. To that end, we evaluated several machine learning model architectures on the task of predicting meta-omics features from various meta-omics inputs, and analyzed the robustness of these models, as well as potential use cases of artificially generated microbiome data. Results: Machine learning models, in particular simpler architectures such as elastic net regression models and random forests, generated reliable predictions of transcript and metabolite abundances, with correlations of up to 0.77 and 0.74, respectively, but predicting protein profiles proved more difficult, with correlations of at most 0.42. We also identified a core set of well-predicted features for each meta-omics output type, and showed that multi-output regression neural networks performed similarly when trained using fewer output features. Lastly, our experiments demonstrated that predicted features can be used for the downstream task of IBD prediction. For instance, accuracy obtained using predicted metabolite abundances was 77%, compared to the 80% accuracy achieved using real metabolomics data.Computer Scienc
Evaluation of natural language processing embeddings in protein function prediction for bacteria
No full textMotivation: The development of automated protein function prediction models is essential in closing the gap between the large amount of protein sequence data available and the fraction of validly annotated data. Recent approaches to function prediction rely on unsupervised deep learning models, through which protein sequences are represented as real-valued embeddings that can be used as input to a machine-learning model. This study aims to evaluate embedding models in the context of protein function prediction on bacteria, which are organisms less commonly included in these types of benchmarks. To this end, we generated embeddings with four recently developed embedding models, and predicted protein function using a nearest-neighbor search in the embedding space. We evaluated these predictors on two query sets, with proteins from gram-positive B. subtilis and gram-negative E. coli. Results: Our nearest neighbor models outperformed BLAST sequence-based protein function annotation, according to the evaluation procedure outlined in the CAFA challenges. The results were also shown to be comparable, and at times better than DeepGOPlus predictions, thus highlighting the potential of embedding-based predictions as state-of-the art models. On the B. subtilis dataset, our nearest neighbor model from ESM1b embeddings scored an Fmax of 0.6 in molecular function predictions, and was able to predict GO terms with a high information content. Hence unsupervised embedding models were shown to encode information about a protein sequence that is useful in the task of function prediction.Availability: The scripts used in this project are available on GitHub.CSE3000 Research ProjectComputer Science and Engineerin
Financing Architecture: How the Urban Fabric of Manhattan Has Been Shaped by Money
No full textFinancing Architecture: How The Urban Fabric of Manhattan Has Been Shaped by Money investigates the urban fabric of Manhattan, from single building case studies to larger scale urban planning developments, through the lens of money. The thesis introduces Manhattan’s grid layout, a result of the Commissioner’s Plan of 1811, its purpose being that of establishing the historical framework as well as actual urban design framework in which the rest of the analyzed buildings sit in. Moving on from the city-wide scale, the scope of the thesis narrows down to the neighborhood scale, exploring how developments such as the Grand Central Terminal are the result of newfound forces driving the design of architecture in modern times and how these same developments have effects which ripple around their surroundings. A transition is then made towards the study of skyscrapers, detailing how zoning laws have impacted their design and why those same laws were put in place. Finally, the thesis reaches its apex by tackling the symbolism of the 432 Park Avenue needle skyscraper, a building which plays a more important role in the trading market, rather than in the sheltering sphere, something which signals an entirely new way of understanding this type of expensive architecture. Ultimately, by constantly shifting the scale of focus, as well as addressing architectural projects of varying typologies and urban functions, this thesis hopes to emphasize that Manhattan is a product of a design motivated by finances, a far cry from more historically established cities such as London or Paris.AR2A011Architecture, Urbanism and Building Science
CRISTINA MARTINELLI - NICOLA RUSSI, Wladyslaw Anders e Cosma Manera. Cammini per l'Umanesimo
No full textAntonii Augustini archiepiscopi Tarraconensis Dialogorum libri duo de emmendatione Gratiani /
No full textIncludes bibliographical side notes and index.Pagination, v. 1: [60], 244 p.; v. 2: [4], 245-660 p.Mode of access: Internet.Vol. 1 retains bookplate signed by Aloja, with legend: Ex libris Revr. Cosmae V.I.D. Alexj, et fratrum Buono; Gelli dates it ca. 1780. Also Cosma Buono's ownership inscription on both t.p.'s. Bookplate in v. 1 of W.H. Mill, with his note of purchase in both vols., dated 20 Sept. 1838. Ownership inscription of Schaefer Williams on both t.p.'s.Binding: vellum. Author, title and vol. no. on spine labels. Ribbon place markers
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