Digitally Continuous Multivalued Functions, Morphological Operations and Thinning Algorithms

In a recent paper (Escribano et al. in Discrete Geometry for Computer Imagery 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4992, pp. 81–92, 2008) we have introduced a notion of continuity in digital spaces which extends the usual notion of digital continuity. Our approach, which uses multivalued functions, provides a better framework to define topological notions, like retractions, in a far more realistic way than by using just single-valued digitally continuous functions.     

Subcellular speciation analysis of trace element oxidation states using synchrotron radiation micro-X-ray absorption near-edge structure

Identification of chemical species at a subcellular level is a key to understand the mechanisms involved in the biology of chemical elements. When performed with a microbeam, X-ray absorption near-edge structure (micro-XANES) enables the direct speciation analysis of oxidation states in subcellular compartments avoiding cell fractionation and other preparation steps that might modify the chemical species. Here we report the principal characteristics in terms of spatial resolution, detection limit, reproducibility, and repeatability of a micro-XANES experimental setup based on Kirkpatrick-Baez X-ray focusing optics that maintains high flux of incoming radiation (>10(11) photons/s) at micrometric spatial resolution (1.5 x 4.0 microm2). Applications and limitations of this setup are illustrated by examples of iron and arsenic absorption spectra obtained from the cytosol, nucleus, and mitochondrial network of cultured cells. A better repeatability and sensitivity with no oxidation state modification and minimal beam damage is achieved when cells are analyzed in a frozen hydrated state, as compared to freeze-dried cells. This original experimental setup can now be applied for the direct speciation analysis of most trace elements at the subcellular level.     

A New Real-Time PCR Assay for the Specific Detection of Salmonella spp. Targeting the bipA Gene

A straightforward real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay was designed and evaluated for the detection of Salmonella spp. in food and water samples. This new assay is based on the specific detection of the bipA gene of Salmonella, which encodes a protein of the guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-binding elongation family that displays global modulating properties, by regulating a wide variety of downstream processes. The new method correctly identified all 48 Salmonella strains used in the inclusivity test, and did not detect all 30 non-Salmonella species tested. The method was evaluated by analyzing 120 diverse food and water samples enriched in buffered peptone water. The bipA-based real-time PCR assay showed 100% efficiency, sensitivity, and specificity compared to the invA-based method previously published, which was developed as a part of a European project for the standardization of PCR methods in food microbiology. The assay includes an independent internal amplification control (IAC) in each reaction to control false negative results.     

Obtaining fruit segments from a traditional orange variety (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck cv. Sangrina) by enzymatic peeling

A process for obtaining fruit segments from a traditional orange of Sangrina variety by enzymatic peeling was optimized. Enzymatic peeling was carried out by fruit infusion under vacuum conditions in a commercial preparation of pectinases and cellulases (Peelzym II). For the optimization of vacuum conditions, the potential enzymatic saturation of albedo was determined. To obtain a final product with good quality, it was necessary to prove the effectiveness of different concentration of Peelzym II for the degradation of the fruit albedo and also the incubation time of the fruits with the enzymatic solution. The best condition to obtain Sangrina segments by enzymatic peeling was 1 ml L⁻¹ of Peelzym II applied at 67 kPa with two vacuum pulses of 2 min and a subsequent period of 40 min in the enzymatic solution at atmospheric pressure. The reuse of the enzyme preparation in an industrial peeling process was also studied. Results show that it is possible to reuse the enzymatic preparation in an industrial peeling process, although a 30% decrease in the pectinase activity occurred after four peeling cycles.     

Surface Seiche Formation on a Shallow Reservoir in Complex Terrain

This study presents field observations and numerical modeling of surface seiche formations on a shallow reservoir in a complex terrain (Rules Reservoir, Spain). The influence of the surrounding topography on the atmospheric loading (barometric pressure and wind speed) is investigated, with the associated atmospheric-hydrodynamic coupling. During a 13-day field study, maximum free surface oscillations of 4?cm were recorded after the passing of a short duration storm (<5??min), which included a peak wind gust of 22??m/s. Observations also present evidence of resonant excitation of the free surface caused by high-frequency microscale harmonics (<10??min) in the atmospheric forcing. Resonant excitation caused by harmonics in the atmospheric forcing is significant for small reservoirs situated in regions of complex terrain where topographical obstacles modify the flow patterns in the near-surface boundary layer, generating eddies with harmonics in the microscale range of the atmospheric forcing spectrum. Harmonics in the atmospheric forcing are observed for a range of periods (200–700?s) during the survey. Surface oscillations of 2?cm are generated when the frequency of the forcing matches the fundamental reservoir modal frequency, even for low wind speeds. A two-dimensional depth-integrated numerical model predicted the observed surface seiche formation in both cases.     

Interchanging lexical resources on the Semantic Web

Lexica and terminology databases play a vital role in many NLP applications, but currently most such resources are published in application-specific formats, or with custom access interfaces, leading to the problem that much of this data is in “data silos” and hence difficult to access. The Semantic Web and in particular the Linked Data initiative provide effective solutions to this problem, as well as possibilities for data reuse by inter-lexicon linking, and incorporation of data categories by dereferencable URIs. The Semantic Web focuses on the use of ontologies to describe semantics on the Web, but currently there is no standard for providing complex lexical information for such ontologies and for describing the relationship between the lexicon and the ontology. We present our model, lemon, which aims to address these gaps while building on existing work, in particular the Lexical Markup Framework, the ISOcat Data Category Registry, SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) and the LexInfo and LIR ontology-lexicon models.