Analysis of Gastrointestinal Acoustic Activity Using Deep Neural Networks

Automated bowel sound (BS) analysis methods were already well developed by the early 2000s. Accuracy of ~90% had been achieved by several teams using various analytical approaches. Clinical research on BS had revealed their high potential in the non-invasive investigation of irritable bowel syndrome to study gastrointestinal motility and in a surgical setting. This article proposes a novel methodology for the analysis of BS using hybrid convolutional and recursive neural networks. It is one of the first methods of using deep learning to be widely explored. We have developed an experimental pipeline and evaluated our results with a new dataset collected using a device with a dedicated contact microphone. Data have been collected at night-time, which is the most interesting period from a neurogastroenterological point of view. Previous works had ignored this period and instead kept brief records only during the day. Our algorithm can detect bowel sounds with an accuracy >93%. Moreover, we have achieved a very high specificity (>97%), crucial in diagnosis. The results have been checked with a medical professional, and they successfully support clinical diagnosis. We have developed a client-server system allowing medical practitioners to upload the recordings from their patients and have them analyzed online. This system is available online. Although BS research is technologically mature, it still lacks a uniform methodology, an international forum for discussion, and an open platform for data exchange, and therefore it is not commonly used. Our server could provide a starting point for establishing a common framework in BS research.

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Automated Bowel Sound Analysis: An Overview

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21165294 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (16) ◽

pp. 5294

Author(s):

Jan Krzysztof Nowak ◽

Robert Nowak ◽

Kacper Radzikowski ◽

Ireneusz Grulkowski ◽

Jaroslaw Walkowiak

Keyword(s):

Data Exchange ◽

Common Ground ◽

Moving Average ◽

Bowel Sound ◽

Main Research ◽

Open Platform ◽

Starting Point ◽

Benchmark Datasets ◽

Irritable Bowel ◽

Analytical Approaches

Despite technological progress, we lack a consensus on the method of conducting automated bowel sound (BS) analysis and, consequently, BS tools have not become available to doctors. We aimed to briefly review the literature on BS recording and analysis, with an emphasis on the broad range of analytical approaches. Scientific journals and conference materials were researched with a specific set of terms (Scopus, MEDLINE, IEEE) to find reports on BS. The research articles identified were analyzed in the context of main research directions at a number of centers globally. Automated BS analysis methods were already well developed by the early 2000s. Accuracy of 90% and higher had been achieved with various analytical approaches, including wavelet transformations, multi-layer perceptrons, independent component analysis and autoregressive-moving-average models. Clinical research on BS has exposed their important potential in the non-invasive diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome, in surgery, and for the investigation of gastrointestinal motility. The most recent advances are linked to the application of artificial intelligence and the development of dedicated BS devices. BS research is technologically mature, but lacks uniform methodology, an international forum for discussion and an open platform for data exchange. A common ground is needed as a starting point. The next key development will be the release of freely available benchmark datasets with labels confirmed by human experts.

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Enzyme Promiscuous Activity: How to Define it and its Evolutionary Aspects

Protein and Peptide Letters ◽

10.2174/0929866527666191223141205 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (5) ◽

pp. 400-410

Author(s):

Valentina De Luca ◽

Luigi Mandrich

Keyword(s):

Gene Evolution ◽

Sequence Divergence ◽

High Specificity ◽

Industrial Applications ◽

Point Of View ◽

Enzyme Promiscuity ◽

Primary Activity ◽

Starting Point ◽

Main Activity

: Enzymes are among the most studied biological molecules because better understanding enzymes structure and activity will shed more light on their biological processes and regulation; from a biotechnological point of view there are many examples of enzymes used with the aim to obtain new products and/or to make industrial processes less invasive towards the environment. Enzymes are known for their high specificity in the recognition of a substrate but considering the particular features of an increasing number of enzymes this is not completely true, in fact, many enzymes are active on different substrates: this ability is called enzyme promiscuity. Usually, promiscuous activities have significantly lower kinetic parameters than to that of primary activity, but they have a crucial role in gene evolution. It is accepted that gene duplication followed by sequence divergence is considered a key evolutionary mechanism to generate new enzyme functions. In this way, promiscuous activities are the starting point to increase a secondary activity in the main activity and then get a new enzyme. The primary activity can be lost or reduced to a promiscuous activity. In this review we describe the differences between substrate and enzyme promiscuity, and its rule in gene evolution. From a practical point of view the knowledge of promiscuity can facilitate the in vitro progress of proteins engineering, both for biomedical and industrial applications. In particular, we report cases regarding esterases, phosphotriesterases and cytochrome P450.

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DDS and OPC UA Protocol Coexistence Solution in Real-Time and Industry 4.0 Context Using Non-Ideal Infrastructure

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21227760 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (22) ◽

pp. 7760

Author(s):

Alexandru Ioana ◽

Adrian Korodi

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Industry 4.0 ◽

Data Exchange ◽

Performance Comparison ◽

Point Of View ◽

General Definition ◽

Time Data ◽

Production Lines ◽

Open Platform ◽

Advantages And Disadvantages

Continuing the evolution towards Industry 4.0, the industrial communication protocols represent a significant topic of interest, as real-time data exchange between multiple devices constitute the pillar of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) scenarios. Although the legacy protocols are still persistent in the industry, the transition was initiated by the key Industry 4.0 facilitating protocol, the Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture (OPC UA). OPC UA has to reach the envisioned applicability, and it therefore has to consider coexistence with other emerging real-time oriented protocols in the production lines. The Data Distribution Service (DDS) will certainly be present in future architectures in some areas as robots, co-bots, and compact units. The current paper proposes a solution to evaluate the real-time coexistence of OPC UA and DDS protocols, functioning in parallel and in a gateway context. The purpose is to confirm the compatibility and feasibility between the two protocols alongside a general definition of criteria and expectations from an architectural point of view, pointing out advantages and disadvantages in a neutral manner, shaping a comprehensive view of the possibilities. The researched architecture is meant to comply with both performance comparison scenarios and interaction scenarios over a gateway application. Considering the industrial tendencies, the developed solution is applied using non-ideal infrastructures to provide a more feasible and faster applicability in the production lines.

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LES AXES DE LA CRÉATION ET LA NAISSANCE DE LʹIMAGINAIRE COMME LANGAGE MYTHIQUE

Trictrac ◽

10.25159/1996-7330/1221 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Liliana Danciu ◽

Petru Adrian Danciu

Keyword(s):

Sacred Space ◽

Physical World ◽

Spoken Word ◽

Point Of View ◽

Philosophical Approach ◽

Starting Point ◽

Written Form ◽

The Creation ◽

Religious Systems ◽

Rich Spectrum

The axes of the creation and birth of the imaginary as a mythical language. Our research follows the relationships of the concepts that are taking into account creation on the double axis of verticality and horizontality. We highlight those symbolic elements which would later constitute the mythical language about the sacred space-temporality. Inside this space-temporality a rich spectrum of mythical images develops; images capable of explaining the relationships of the creation plans. Without a religious perception of the temporality, the conceptualization of the axis would remain a philosophical approach. Through our point of view, the two are born simultaneously. Thanks to them, creation can be imagined. The first “frozen” formula of the mystical human spirit can be thought, brought to a palpable reality, expressed in an oral and then a written form. Studied together, temporality (sacred or not) and space are permanently imagined together. For example, a loss of mundane temporality in the secret ecstasy that offers to the soul an ascending direction does not mean getting out of universal temporality, but of its mundane section. In the sacred space the soul relates to time. Even the gods are submitted by the sacred, Aeon sometimes being synonymous to destiny. The universal creator seems to evade every touch, but not consistently, only when he avoids the descent into its created worlds. In sacredness, time and space seem or become confused, both expressing the same reality, by the immediate swing from thinking to deed. The mythical imagery conceives the displacement in the primary space-temporality by the spoken word. So, for something to appear and live, the spoken word is required. Even the divine dream appears as a pre-word of a creator’s thought. The thought follows the spoken word, the spoken word follows the gestures which finally indicate the meanings of the creative act, controlling the rhythm of the creation days. These three will later be adapted through imitation in rite. We are now situated at the limit of the physical world, a real challenge for the mythical imagery. The general feature of the mythical expression on the creation of the material world is the state of the divinity’s exhaustion, most often conceptualized by sacrifice or divine fatigue. The world geography identifies with the anatomy of a self-gutted god. Practically, material creation is most likely the complete revelation of God’s body autopsy. As each body decomposes, everything in it is an illusion. An axial approach of the phenomenon exists in all religious systems. The created element’s origin is exterior, with or without a pre-existing matter, by a god’s sacrifice or only because it has to be that way. This is the starting point of the discussion on the symbolism of axiality as a reason for the constitution of the language of creation, capable of retelling the imaginary construction of myth in an oral and then written form.

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L’absence chez Michel Butor. L’Emploi du temps et Degrés

Quêtes littéraires ◽

10.31743/ql.4628 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 66-80

Author(s):

Michał Mrozowicki

Keyword(s):

Human Memory ◽

Point Of View ◽

Narrative Discourse ◽

The Novel ◽

Michel Butor ◽

Starting Point ◽

One Year ◽

The Moment ◽

Narrative Mode ◽

The City

Michel Butor, born in 1926, one of the leaders of the French New Novel movement, has written only four novels between 1954 and 1960. The most famous of them is La Modification (Second thoughts), published in 1957. The author of the paper analyzes two other Butor’s novels: L’Emploi du temps (Passing time) – 1956, and Degrés (Degrees) – 1960. The theme of absence is crucial in both of them. In the former, the novel, presented as the diary of Jacques Revel, a young Frenchman spending a year in Bleston (a fictitious English city vaguely similar to Manchester), describes the narrator’s struggle to survive in a double – spatial and temporal – labyrinth. The first of them, formed by Bleston’s streets, squares and parks, is symbolized by the City plan. During his one year sojourn in the city, using its plan, Revel learns patiently how to move in its different districts, and in its strange labyrinth – strange because devoid any centre – that at the end stops annoying him. The other, the temporal one, symbolized by the diary itself, the labyrinth of the human memory, discovered by the narrator rather lately, somewhere in the middle of the year passed in Bleston, becomes, by contrast, more and more dense and complex, which is reflected by an increasinly complex narration used to describe the past. However, at the moment Revel is leaving the city, he is still unable to recall and to describe the events of the 29th of February 1952. This gap, this absence, symbolizes his defeat as the narrator, and, in the same time, the human memory’s limits. In Degrees temporal and spatial structures are also very important. This time round, however, the problems of the narration itself, become predominant. Considered from this point of view, the novel announces Gerard Genette’s work Narrative Discourse and his theoretical discussion of two narratological categories: narrative voice and narrative mode. Having transgressed his narrative competences, Pierre Vernier, the narrator of the first and the second parts of the novel, who, taking as a starting point, a complete account of one hour at school, tries to describe the whole world and various aspects of the human civilization for the benefit of his nephew, Pierre Eller, must fail and disappear, as the narrator, from the third part, which is narrated by another narrator, less audacious and more credible.

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OWNERSHIP IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA AND THE STATE AS THE HOLDER OF THE PROPERTY RIGHT UNDER THE CONSTITUTION IN 1991

Knowledge International Journal ◽

10.35120/kij28061993s ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 28 (6) ◽

pp. 1993-2005

Author(s):

Shemsije Demiri ◽

Rudina Kaja

Keyword(s):

Legal Aspect ◽

State Ownership ◽

The State ◽

Point Of View ◽

State Function ◽

Dominant Form ◽

Republic Of Macedonia ◽

General Terms ◽

Starting Point ◽

The Republic

This paper deals with the right to property in general terms from its source in Roman law, which is the starting point for all subsequent legal systems. As a result of this, the acquisition of property rights is handled from the historical point of view, with the inclusion of various local and international literature and studies, as well as the legal aspect devoted to the respective civil codes of the states cited in the paper.Due to such socio-economic developments, state ownership and its ownership function have changed. The state function as owner of property also changed in Macedonia's property law.The new constitutional sequence of the Republic of Macedonia since 1991 became privately owned as a dominant form of ownership, however, state ownership also exists.This process of transforming social property into state or private (dissolves), in Macedonia starts from Yugoslavia through privatization, return and denationalization measures, on which basis laws on privatization have been adopted. Because of this, there will be particularly intensive negotiations regaring the remaining state assets.

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Design of Inhibitors for Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate Dehydrogenase (GAPDH) Enzyme of Leishmania mexicana

Medicinal Chemistry ◽

10.2174/1573406415666190712111139 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (6) ◽

pp. 784-795

Author(s):

Krisnna M.A. Alves ◽

Fábio José Bonfim Cardoso ◽

Kathia M. Honorio ◽

Fábio A. de Molfetta

Keyword(s):

Molecular Dynamics ◽

Molecular Dynamics Simulations ◽

Binding Site ◽

Point Of View ◽

New Drugs ◽

Leishmania Mexicana ◽

Receptor Complexes ◽

Starting Point ◽

Dynamics Simulations ◽

Selection Of

Background:: Leishmaniosis is a neglected tropical disease and glyceraldehyde 3- phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is a key enzyme in the design of new drugs to fight this disease. Objective:: The present study aimed to evaluate potential inhibitors of GAPDH enzyme found in Leishmania mexicana (L. mexicana). Methods: A search for novel antileishmanial molecules was carried out based on similarities from the pharmacophoric point of view related to the binding site of the crystallographic enzyme using the ZINCPharmer server. The molecules selected in this screening were subjected to molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations. Results:: Consensual analysis of the docking energy values was performed, resulting in the selection of ten compounds. These ligand-receptor complexes were visually inspected in order to analyze the main interactions and subjected to toxicophoric evaluation, culminating in the selection of three compounds, which were subsequently submitted to molecular dynamics simulations. The docking results showed that the selected compounds interacted with GAPDH from L. mexicana, especially by hydrogen bonds with Cys166, Arg249, His194, Thr167, and Thr226. From the results obtained from molecular dynamics, it was observed that one of the loop regions, corresponding to the residues 195-222, can be related to the fitting of the substrate at the binding site, assisting in the positioning and the molecular recognition via residues responsible for the catalytic activity. Conclusion:: he use of molecular modeling techniques enabled the identification of promising compounds as inhibitors of the GAPDH enzyme from L. mexicana, and the results obtained here can serve as a starting point to design new and more effective compounds than those currently available.

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The European Bioinformatics Institute in 2020: building a global infrastructure of interconnected data resources for the life sciences

Nucleic Acids Research ◽

10.1093/nar/gkz1033 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 48 (D1) ◽

pp. D17-D23 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Charles E Cook ◽

Oana Stroe ◽

Guy Cochrane ◽

Ewan Birney ◽

Rolf Apweiler

Keyword(s):

Data Exchange ◽

Life Sciences ◽

Image Data ◽

European Bioinformatics Institute ◽

Added Value ◽

Value Analysis ◽

Starting Point ◽

Core Mission ◽

Training Team ◽

Exchange Data

Abstract Data resources at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI, https://www.ebi.ac.uk/) archive, organize and provide added-value analysis of research data produced around the world. This year's update for EMBL-EBI focuses on data exchanges among resources, both within the institute and with a wider global infrastructure. Within EMBL-EBI, data resources exchange data through a rich network of data flows mediated by automated systems. This network ensures that users are served with as much information as possible from any search and any starting point within EMBL-EBI’s websites. EMBL-EBI data resources also exchange data with hundreds of other data resources worldwide and collectively are a key component of a global infrastructure of interconnected life sciences data resources. We also describe the BioImage Archive, a deposition database for raw images derived from primary research that will supply data for future knowledgebases that will add value through curation of primary image data. We also report a new release of the PRIDE database with an improved technical infrastructure, a new API, a new webpage, and improved data exchange with UniProt and Expression Atlas. Training is a core mission of EMBL-EBI and in 2018 our training team served more users, both in-person and through web-based programmes, than ever before.

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Guidelines to Calibrate a Multi-Residential Building Simulation Model Addressing Overheating Evaluation and Residents’ Influence

Buildings ◽

10.3390/buildings11060242 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 242

Author(s):

Christoph Schünemann ◽

David Schiela ◽

Regine Ortlepp

Keyword(s):

Simulation Model ◽

Time Window ◽

Residential Building ◽

Simulation Models ◽

Building Simulation ◽

Night Time ◽

Building Performance Simulation ◽

Starting Point ◽

3D Simulation Model ◽

Building Physics

Can building performance simulation reproduce measured summertime indoor conditions of a multi-residential building in good conformity? This question is answered by calibrating simulated to monitored room temperatures of several rooms of a multi-residential building for an entire summer in two process steps. First, we did a calibration for several days without the residents being present to validate the building physics of the 3D simulation model. Second, the simulations were calibrated for the entire summer period, including the residents’ impact on evolving room temperature and overheating. As a result, a high degree of conformity between simulation and measurement could be achieved for all monitored rooms. The credibility of our results was secured by a detailed sensitivity analysis under varying meteorological conditions, shading situations, and window ventilation or room use in the simulation model. For top floor dwellings, a high overheating intensity was evoked by a combination of insufficient use of night-time window ventilation and non-heat-adapted residential behavior in combination with high solar gains and low heat storage capacities. Finally, the overall findings were merged into a process guideline to describe how a step-by-step calibration of residential building simulation models can be done. This guideline is intended to be a starting point for future discussions about the validity of the simplified boundary conditions which are often used in present-day standard overheating assessment.

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Changes in the Prognosis of Functional Psychoses Since the Days of Kraepelin

The British Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1192/bjp.113.501.813 ◽

1967 ◽

Vol 113 (501) ◽

pp. 813-822 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Örnulv Ödegård

Keyword(s):

Special Problem ◽

Point Of View ◽

General Point ◽

Course Of Illness ◽

Dynamic Reasoning ◽

Starting Point ◽

Functional Psychoses ◽

External Conditions ◽

Point Of Departure ◽

The Universe

My choice of Kraepelin as a point of departure for this lecture has definite reasons. If one wants to stay within the field of clinical psychiatry (as opposed to psychiatric history), that is as far back as one can reasonably go. By this no slight is intended upon the pre-Kraepelinian psychiatrists. For our topic Henry Maudsley would indeed have been a most appropriate starting point, and by no means for reasons of courtesy. His general point of view is admirably sound as a basis for the scientific study of prognosis in psychiatry. I quote: “There is no accident in madness. Causality, not casualty, governs its appearance in the universe, and it is very far from being a good and sufficient practice simply to mark its phenomena and straightway to pass on as if they belonged not to an order but to a disorder of events that called for no explanation.” On the special problem of prognosis he shows his clinical acumen by stating that the outlook is poor when the course of illness is insidious, but this only means that these cases develop their psychoses on the basis of mental deviations which go very far back in the patient's life, so that in fact they are generally in a chronic stage at the time of their first admission to hospital. Here he actually corrects a mistake which is still quite often made. He shows his dynamic attitude when he says that prognosis is to a large extent modified by external conditions, in particular by the attitude of friends and relatives. Maudsley's dynamic reasoning was limited by the narrow framework of the degeneration hypothesis of those days. He had a sceptical attitude towards classification, which he regarded as artificial and dangerously pseudo-exact. His own classification was deliberately provisional, with very wide groups. He held that a description of various sub-forms of chronic insanity was useless, as it would mean nothing but a tiresome enumeration of unconnected details.

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