Knowledge-based spatiotemporal linear abstraction

We present a theoretical framework and a case study for reusing the same conceptual and computational methodology for both temporal abstraction and linear (unidimensional) space abstraction, in a domain (evaluation of traffic-control actions) significantly different from the one (clinical medicine) in which the method was originally used. The method, known as knowledge-based temporal abstraction, abstracts high-level concepts and patterns from time-stamped raw data using a formal theory of domain-specific temporal-abstraction knowledge. We applied this method, originally used to interpret time-oriented clinical data, to the domain of traffic control, in which the monitoring task requires linear pattern matching along both space and time. First, we reused the method for creation of unidimensional spatial abstractions over highways, given sensor measurements along each highway measured at the same time point. Second, we reused the method to create temporal abstractions of the traffic behavior, for the same space segments, but during consecutive time points. We defined the corresponding temporal-abstraction and spatial-abstraction domain-specific knowledge. Our results suggest that (1) the knowledge-based temporal-abstraction method is reusable over time and unidimensional space as well as over significantly different domains; (2) the method can be generalized into a knowledge-based linear-abstraction method, which solves tasks requiring abstraction of data along any linear distance measure; and (3) a spatiotemporal-abstraction method can be assembled from two copies of the generalized method and a spatial-decomposition mechanism, and is applicable to tasks requiring abstraction of time-oriented data into meaningful spatiotemporal patterns over a linear, decomposable space, such as traffic over a set of highways.

Tissue engineering of cartilage in space

Tissue engineering of cartilage, i.e., the in vitro cultivation of cartilage cells on synthetic polymer scaffolds, was studied on the Mir Space Station and on Earth. Specifically, three-dimensional cell-polymer constructs consisting of bovine articular chondrocytes and polyglycolic acid scaffolds were grown in rotating bioreactors, first for 3 months on Earth and then for an additional 4 months on either Mir (10−4–10−6 g) or Earth (1 g). This mission provided a unique opportunity to study the feasibility of long-term cell culture flight experiments and to assess the effects of spaceflight on the growth and function of a model musculoskeletal tissue. Both environments yielded cartilaginous constructs, each weighing between 0.3 and 0.4 g and consisting of viable, differentiated cells that synthesized proteoglycan and type II collagen. Compared with the Earth group, Mir-grown constructs were more spherical, smaller, and mechanically inferior. The same bioreactor system can be used for a variety of controlled microgravity studies of cartilage and other tissues. These results may have implications for human spaceflight, e.g., a Mars mission, and clinical medicine, e.g., improved understanding of the effects of pseudo-weightlessness in prolonged immobilization, hydrotherapy, and intrauterine development.

Omics for Investigating Chitosan as an Antifungal and Gene Modulator

Chitosan is a biopolymer with a wide range of applications. The use of chitosan in clinical medicine to control infections by fungal pathogens such as Candida spp. is one of its most promising applications in view of the reduced number of antifungals available. Chitosan increases intracellular oxidative stress, then permeabilizes the plasma membrane of sensitive filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa and yeast. Transcriptomics reveals plasma membrane homeostasis and oxidative metabolism genes as key players in the response of fungi to chitosan. A lipase and a monosaccharide transporter, both inner plasma membrane proteins, and a glutathione transferase are main chitosan targets in N. crassa. Biocontrol fungi such as Pochonia chlamydosporia have a low content of polyunsaturated free fatty acids in their plasma membranes and are resistant to chitosan. Genome sequencing of P. chlamydosporia reveals a wide gene machinery to degrade and assimilate chitosan. Chitosan increases P. chlamydosporia sporulation and enhances parasitism of plant parasitic nematodes by the fungus. Omics studies allow understanding the mode of action of chitosan and help its development as an antifungal and gene modulator.

A report of the first three years' work of the East Harlem health center demonstration.

Mode of access: Internet.

Practische Beobachtungen und Erfahrungen aus der Medicin, Chirurgie, Geburtshülfe und gerichtlichen Arzneikunde.

Mode of access: Internet.

Medicina clinica oder Handbuch der medicinischen Praxis.

Mode of access: Internet.

Saint Thomas's Hospital reports.

Vols. 34-36, 38 include the hospital's Medical School Prospectus, 1906/07-1923/24, 1925/26.

The Medical clinics of North America

Issues for July 1943-Nov. 1958 lack vol. numbering but constitute v. 27, no. 4-v. 42

Dissertatio inauguralis medica, De decubitu humorum ... /

Mode of access: Internet.

Les oracles de Cos : ouvrage de medecine clinique, a la portee de tout lecteur capable d'une attention raisonnable, interessant pour les jeunes medecins, & utiles aux chirurgiens, cures et autres ecclesiastiques ayant charge d'ame /

Mode of access: Internet.

Verhandlungen der ausserordentlichen Tagung des Deutschen Kongresses für Innere Medizin in Warschau am 1. und 2. Mai 1916. Kriegsseuchen und Kriegskrankheiten. Berichte und Aussprache.

Mode of access: Internet.

Gazzetta degli ospedali e delle cliniche.

Editor: 1922- Luigi Lucatello.

Mississippi Valley medical journal.

Mode of access: Internet.

Clinica chirurgica.

Vols. 45-46 never published.

Poisonous proteins; the Herter lectures for 1916 given in the University and Bellevue medical school, New York,

"These lectures were published in the Journal of laboratory and clinical medicine."--Pref.