Many tissue-restricted diseases are linked to mutations in lamins and nuclear envelope transmembrane proteins (NETs). How these mutations in ubiquitously expressed proteins cause such defined diseases is still unknown. It is hypothesized that tissue restricted NETs that are partners of the nuclear lamins/existing linked proteins mediate tissue-specific disease pathologies. Proteomic studies have identified many tissue restricted NETs with effects on the cytoskeleton, gene positioning and regulation. This study investigates potential roles of candidate NETs in mediating tissue restricted disease pathology and their interactions with known factors such as emerin and lamins, mutations in which have been linked to a variety of tissue-specific dystrophies. This study looks into candidate tissue-specific NETs distribution in human tissues and in vitro using a solid phase binding assay to study candidate NETs interactions. I confirmed the tissue-specificity of the candidate NETs in human and mouse tissue sections but did not find clear reproducible distribution of these NETs in patient tissue biopsy. One postulate is that NETs bind WT lamin for localisation and/or function and disruption of this interaction leads to disease. Using a solid phase binding assay approach to study NETs/lamin interactions, we demonstrate that Tmem120a, an adipocyte-specific NET binds WT lamin but has a reduced Bmax when tested for binding against a lipodstrophy causing lamin mutant (R482Q and G465D). This is consistent with the hypothesis that tissue-specific NET partners might mediate tissue-specific disease pathology in lamin-linked nuclearenvelopathies.

Main goal of this diploma thesis is characterization of open data, standards and analyzation of adoption and utilization of open principles in the public sector of the Czech Republic. And comparison with European Union and chosen countries. Identifies technology and tools for linked data, used for deployment of highest rating of data openness. Defines geographical data, its standards and INSPIRE directive for spatial information in Europe. The goal of practical part of thesis is to analyze adoption of open principles for geographical data between Czech institutions. Focusing on what data are available, if open principles are applied and on what circumstances are data available. Foreign countries are also covered for the comparison.

In order to make a step towards the idea of the Semantic Web it is necessary to research ways how to retrieve semantic information from documents published on the current Web 2.0. As an answer to growing amount of data published in a form of relational tables, the Odalic system, based on the extended TableMiner+ Semantic Table Interpretation algorithm was introduced to provide a convenient way to semantize tabular data using knowledge base disambiguation process. The goal of this thesis is to propose an extended algorithm for the Odalic system, which would allow the system to gather semantic information for tabular data describing products from e-shops, which have very limited presence in the knowl- edge bases. This should be achieved by using a machine learning technique called classification. This thesis consists of several parts - obtaining and preprocessing of the product data from e-shops, evaluation of several classification algorithms in order to select the best-performing one, description of design and implementation of the extended Odalic algorithm, description of its integration into the Odalic system, evaluation of the improved algorithm using the obtained product data and semantization of the product data using the new Odalic algorithm. In the end, the results are concluded and possible...

This dissertation explores the identity formation of Ethiopian and Nigerian immigrants, their second generation children, and native born African Americans who reside in the Seattle metropolitan area. Using boundary formation theory, I argue that African immigrants and their second generation children are developing a shared sense of Black identity and racial solidarity (linked fate) with native born African Americans. This shared Black identity is illustrated through both Africans and African Americans’ recognition of one another as racial group members, the constraints on their Black identities, and their navigation of similar institutional and political contexts. I argue that this is highly suggestive of an expansion of the Black racial boundary, and the reconstitution of Black identity in the post-Civil Rights Era. Despite some boundary contraction within the Black racial category by some 1st generation Africans, the African 1.5 and second generation are engaging in boundary crossing particularly with African Americans through their bicultural identities. This process appears to be leading to the blurring of boundaries between the children of African immigrants and native born African Americans, especially through the 1.5 and second generations involvement and integration into African American social and professional organizations. Evidence presented in this dissertation suggests that there is a weakening of ethnic identity among the African 1.5 and second generation. This weakening of ethnic identity among the children of Ethiopians and Nigerians suggest subsequent generations of Africans born here in the United States will eventually be absorbed into an undifferentiated African American/Black category. Keywords: Ethiopians, Nigerians, African Americans, linked fate, Black identity, Africans

TEIXEIRA NETO, L. E. Uma abordagem para publicação de visões RDF de dados relacionais. 2014. 97 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Ciência da Computação) - Centro de Ciências, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, 2014. / Submitted by Daniel Eduardo Alencar da Silva (dealencar.silva@gmail.com) on 2015-01-23T19:39:51Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_dis_letneto.pdf: 2039098 bytes, checksum: 476ca3810a4d9341414016b0440023ba (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Nirlange Queiroz(nirlange@gmail.com) on 2015-06-09T14:15:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_dis_letneto.pdf: 2039098 bytes, checksum: 476ca3810a4d9341414016b0440023ba (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-09T14:15:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_dis_letneto.pdf: 2039098 bytes, checksum: 476ca3810a4d9341414016b0440023ba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / The Linked Data initiative brought new opportunities for building the next generation of Web applications. However, the full potential of linked data depends on how easy it is to transform data stored in conventional, relational databases into RDF triples. Recently, the W3C RDB2RDF Working Group proposed a standard mapping language, called R2RML, to specify customized mappings between relational schemas and target RDF vocabularies. However, the generation of customized R2RML mappings is not an easy task. Thus, it is mandatory to define: (a) a solution that maps concepts from a relational schema to terms from a RDF schema; (b) a process to support the publication of relational data into RDF, and (c) a tool that implements this process. Correspondence assertions are proposed to formalize the mappings between relational schemas and RDF schemas. Views are created to publish data from a database to a new structure or schema. The definition of RDF views over relational data allows providing this data in terms of an OWL ontology structure without having to change the database schema. In this work, we propose a three-tier architecture – database, SQL views and RDF views – where the SQL views layer maps the database concepts into RDF terms. The creation of this intermediate layer facilitates the generation of R2RML mappings and prevents that changes in the data layer result in changes on R2RML mappings. Additionally, we define a three-step process to generate the RDF views of relational data. First, the user defines the schema of the relational database and the target OWL ontology. Then, he defines correspondence assertions that formally specify the relational database in terms of the target ontology. Using these assertions, an exported ontology is generated automatically. The second step produces the SQL views that perform the mapping defined by the assertions and a R2RML mapping between these views and the exported ontology. This dissertation describes a formalization of the correspondence assertions, the three-tier architecture, the publishing process steps, the algorithms needed, a tool that supports the entire process and a case study to validate the results obtained. / A iniciativa Linked Data trouxe novas oportunidades para a construção da nova geração de aplicações Web. Entretanto, a utilização das melhores práticas estabelecidas por este padrão depende de mecanismos que facilitem a transformação dos dados armazenados em bancos relacionais em triplas RDF. Recentemente, o grupo de trabalho W3C RDB2RDF propôs uma linguagem de mapeamento padrão, denominada R2RML, para especificar mapeamentos customizados entre esquemas relacionais e vocabulários RDF. No entanto, a geração de mapeamentos R2RML não é uma tarefa fácil. É imperativo, então, definir: (a) uma solução para mapear os conceitos de um esquema relacional em termos de um esquema RDF; (b) um processo que suporte a publicação dos dados relacionais no formato RDF; e (c) uma ferramenta para facilitar a aplicação deste processo. Assertivas de correspondência são propostas para formalizar mapeamentos entre esquemas relacionais e esquemas RDF. Visões são usadas para publicar dados de uma base de dados em uma nova estrutura ou esquema. A definição de visões RDF sobre dados relacionais permite que esses dados possam ser disponibilizados em uma estrutura de termos de uma ontologia OWL, sem que seja necessário alterar o esquema da base de dados. Neste trabalho, propomos uma arquitetura em três camadas – de dados, de visões SQL e de visões RDF – onde a camada de visões SQL mapeia os conceitos da camada de dados nos termos da camada de visões RDF. A criação desta camada intermediária de visões facilita a geração dos mapeamentos R2RML e evita que alterações na camada de dados impliquem em alterações destes mapeamentos. Adicionalmente, definimos um processo em três etapas para geração das visões RDF. Na primeira etapa, o usuário define o esquema do banco de dados relacional e a ontologia OWL alvo e cria assertivas de correspondência que mapeiam os conceitos do esquema relacional nos termos da ontologia alvo. A partir destas assertivas, uma ontologia exportada é gerada automaticamente. O segundo passo produz um esquema de visões SQL gerado a partir da ontologia exportada e um mapeamento R2RML do esquema de visões para a ontologia exportada, de forma automatizada. Por fim, no terceiro passo, as visões RDF são publicadas em um SPARQL endpoint. Neste trabalho são detalhados as assertivas de correspondência, a arquitetura, o processo, os algoritmos necessários, uma ferramenta que suporta o processo e um estudo de caso para validação dos resultados obtidos.

abstract: The concept of Linked Data is gaining widespread popularity and importance. The method of publishing and linking structured data on the web is called Linked Data. Emergence of Linked Data has made it possible to make sense of huge data, which is scattered all over the web, and link multiple heterogeneous sources. This leads to the challenge of maintaining the quality of Linked Data, i.e., ensuring outdated data is removed and new data is included. The focus of this thesis is devising strategies to effectively integrate data from multiple sources, publish it as Linked Data, and maintain the quality of Linked Data. The domain used in the study is online education. With so many online courses offered by Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), it is becoming increasingly difficult for an end user to gauge which course best fits his/her needs. Users are spoilt for choices. It would be very helpful for them to make a choice if there is a single place where they can visually compare the offerings of various MOOC providers for the course they are interested in. Previous work has been done in this area through the MOOCLink project that involved integrating data from Coursera, EdX, and Udacity and generation of linked data, i.e. Resource Description Framework (RDF) triples. The research objective of this thesis is to determine a methodology by which the quality of data available through the MOOCLink application is maintained, as there are lots of new courses being constantly added and old courses being removed by data providers. This thesis presents the integration of data from various MOOC providers and algorithms for incrementally updating linked data to maintain their quality and compare it against a naïve approach in order to constantly keep the users engaged with up-to-date data. A master threshold value was determined through experiments and analysis that quantifies one algorithm being better than the other in terms of time efficiency. An evaluation of the tool shows the effectiveness of the algorithms presented in this thesis. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2016

Several institutions collect statistical data about cities, regions, and countries for various purposes. Yet, while access to high quality and recent such data is both crucial for decision makers and a means for achieving transparency to the public, all too often such collections of data remain isolated and not re-useable, let alone comparable or properly integrated. In this paper we present the Open City Data Pipeline, a focused attempt to collect, integrate, and enrich statistical data collected at city level worldwide, and re-publish the resulting dataset in a re-useable manner as Linked Data. The main features of the Open City Data Pipeline are: (i) we integrate and cleanse data from several sources in a modular and extensible, always up-to-date fashion; (ii) we use both Machine Learning techniques and reasoning over equational background knowledge to enrich the data by imputing missing values, (iii) we assess the estimated accuracy of such imputations per indicator. Additionally, (iv) we make the integrated and enriched data, including links to external data sources, such as DBpedia, available both in a web browser interface and as machine-readable Linked Data, using standard vocabularies such as QB and PROV. Apart from providing a contribution to the growing collection of data available as Linked Data, our enrichment process for missing values also contributes a novel methodology for combining rule-based inference about equational knowledge with inferences obtained from statistical Machine Learning approaches. While most existing works about inference in Linked Data have focused on ontological reasoning in RDFS and OWL, we believe that these complementary methods and particularly their combination could be fruitfully applied also in many other domains for integrating Statistical Linked Data, independent from our concrete use case of integrating city data.

Apesar de ser uma criação recente, o cartão de crédito desponta como um dos mais utilizados meios de pagamento, além de instrumento de viabilização de crédito na sociedade atual. É diferenciação relevante a ser notada entre o cartão de crédito, peça plástica, e o sistema de cartão de crédito. Enquanto o primeiro se refere apenas ao documento de legitimação, ou seja, instrumento físico capaz de demonstrar uma relação existente entre o titular do cartão e o emissor, um dos contratos que integram o sistema, o segundo é o produto dos contratos coligados que possibilitam a concretização da operação. Além do contrato já indicado, o contrato entre fornecedor e emissor e o contrato entre fornecedor e titular formam, em um modelo básico, os contratos envolvidos na operação, coligados funcionalmente, ou seja, apesar de manter sua estrutura formal segmentada, formam um conjunto que viabiliza a operação. Os contratos envolvidos, apesar da tipicidade social, com a reiteração de contratações semelhantes, abrangendo os mesmos direitos e obrigações que identificam o modelo, são legalmente atípicos, já que as prestações envolvidas não permitem identificação com os tipos legais atualmente positivados nem assemelhação que permita aplicação das regras próprias daqueles, restando, no direito brasileiro, a vigência de normas e princípios gerais aos contratos e obrigações envolvidos. Os contratos coligados demandam uma recompreensão dos princípios tradicionais dirigidos e aplicáveis aos contratos atomizados, com diversos efeitos para o estudo dos contratos de cartão de crédito e a busca de soluções, até mesmo para as tradicionais questões controvertidas. / Despite being a recent creation, credit cards rise as one of the most used means of payment, besides being instruments of credit viabilization in the current society. There is a relevant differentiation to be observed between credit cards, plastic pieces, and the credit card system. While the former only refers to the legitimation document, that is, to the physical instrument capable of evidencing a relationship existing between the card holder and the issuer, one of the contracts that integrate the system, the latter is the product of the linked contracts that allow the operation execution. Besides that already indicated contract, the contract between suppliers and issuers and the contract between suppliers and holders form, in a basic model, the contracted involved in the operation, functionally linked, that is, although keeping their formal structure segmented, they form a set that feasibilizes the operation. The involved contracts, despite the social typicity, with the reiteration of similar contractings, involving the same rights and obligations that identify the model, are legally atypical, as the considerations involved do not allow identification with the legal types currently ascertained, nor similarity allowing application of their own rules, there being, in the Brazilian laws, the validity of general norms and principles governing the contracts and obligations involved. The linked contracts require a re-understanding of the traditional principles directed towards and applicable to atomized contracts, with various effects for the study of credit card contracts and for the quest for solutions, even for traditionally controvert issues.

Orientador: Wilma Aparecida Starke Buzetti / Banca: Edson Guilherme Vieira / Banca: Willian Marinho Dourado Coelho / Resumo: A leishmaniose visceral (LV), doença causada pelo protozoário Leishmania infantum e transmitida pelo flebotomíneo Lutzomyia longipalpis, é considerada um problema de saúde pública no Brasil. O objetivo deste trabalho foi realizar um estudo epidemiológico sobre a ocorrência da LV em cães e gatos e de flebotomíneos em dois abrigos de animais, durante o período de um ano, no município de Ilha Solteira, SP. Amostras de material biológico foram coletadas de 192 cães e de 197 gatos, para realização de exames sorológicos por meio do ensaio imunoenzimático indireto (ELISA), da reação de imunofluorescência indireta (RIFI) para ambas espécies animais e da reação intradérmica de Montenegro para cães. Dos cães examinados, 17,2% (33/192) estavam sorologicamente positivos para LV pelo método ELISA, 19,8% (38/192) pela RIFI e 45,4% (15/33) pela reação intradérmica. Para cães, a concordância entre as técnicas sorológicas foi classificada de razoável a boa, mas quando comparadas à reação de Montenegro foi considerada ruim. No inquérito felino das 197 amostras, a soroprevalência foi de 32,4% (64/197) e 31,9% (63/197) no ELISA e RIFI, respectivamente. Embora a maioria dos cães e dos gatos entregue nos abrigos já estivesse infectada, seis cães e cinco gatos infectaram-se no interior desses abrigos, após algum tempo de permanência nesses recintos. Um total de 131 flebotomíneos foram capturados por meio das armadilhas luminosas, colocadas no interior dos dois abrigos durante o período de dois anos. Os fatores de riscos associados à LV foram determinados estatisticamente pela análise univariada, com valor significativo (p ≤ 0,05), onde o porte pequeno dos cães, o uso de coleira de deltametrina e o diagnóstico precoce foram variáveis determinantes que influenciaram a positividade dos animais, ou seja, as duas últimas variáveis determinaram significativamente na diminuição de casos positivos da doença nos... / Abstract: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a disease caused by Leishmania infantum and transmitted by the sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis, is considered a public health problem in Brazil. The study aimed to carry out an epidemiological study on the occurrence of VL in dogs and cats, and sand flies during the period of one year in two animal shelters from Ilha Solteira, SP. A total of 197 and 192 biological material samples were collected, respectively from cats and dogs for serological survey by an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and an indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) for both species of animals, and the intradermal reaction of Montenegro (only for dogs). During the study with dogs, 17,2% (33/192) were serologically positive for LV by ELISA, 19,8% (38/192) by IFAT and 45,4% (15/33) by the intradermal method. The correlation analysis between the serological techniques was ranged from reasonable to good for dogs, but was bad when compared to the Montenegro reaction. The feline seroprevalence was 32,4% (64/197) and 31,9% (63/197) for ELISA and IFAT, respectively. Although the most of dogs and cats in shelters were infected, six dogs and five cats infected inside the shelters. A total of 131 sand flies were captured by the light traps in both shelters, during two years. The risk factors, statistically determined by univariate analysis (p ≤ 0.05), demonstrated that the small size of the dogs, the use of deltamethrin collar and the precocious diagnosis, significantly influenced the animals positivity for VL. It was concluded that these animal shelters were vulnerable to this parasitic infection because of the presence of sand flies and positive animals for LV / Mestre

The goal with this project was to convert open structured data, e.g. csv-files, to Linked Open Data and to demonstrate possible uses of such data. The project was also supposed to inspire and lay a foundation for future work in the area. The conversion was done using the D2RQ platform, and the chosen dataset contains air quality measurements from Umeå Municipality. The resulting data was then published on the internet with D2R server. For demonstration purposes two tasks were done. A visualization of the converted data was published on the web, together with traffic and weather data. Secondly a physical city model was built of carton with eight photodiodes, a Raspberry Pi and visualized with a local webserver. The goals for the project were fulfilled and it has also inspired Knowit to continue with commercial projects in the area of Linked Open Data. Future effort should be put in converting more data to Linked Open Data and to create full scale sensor networks in a city.