299 research outputs found
Correction to: Outpatient erbium:YAG (2940 nm) laser treatment for snoring: a prospective study on 40 patients (Lasers in Medical Science, (2018), 33, 2, (399-406), 10.1007/s10103-018-2436-6)
No full textIn the originally published article, the name of the first author was incorrectly labeled. Given name is Isabelle and family name is Fini Storchi
Lipidyl pseudopteranes A-F: isolation, biomimetic synthesis, and PTP1B inhibitory activity of a new class of pseudopteranoids from the Gorgonian Pseudopterogorgia acerosa
No full textNovel lipidyl pseudopteranoids, lipidyl pseudopteranes A-F (1-6), have been isolated from the soft coral Pseudopterogorgia acerosa collected from the Bahamas. Structure elucidation of the six new compounds was based on 1D and 2D NMR data and mass spectrometry, and a biomimetic synthesis of 1 from pseudopterolide (7) was used to help establish its absolute configuration. These structures represent the first report of a pseudopterane diterpene with a fatty acid moiety. Lipidyl pseudopteranes A and D exhibited modest yet selective inhibitory activity against protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B, a promising drug target
Designing and simulating wavelength shifting geometry in an active helium target
No full textScalar polarizabilities are fundamental characteristics closely related to the internal structure of nucleons. While the polarizabilities of the proton have been well studied, the neutron remains elusive due to the lack of a free-neutron target. Based at the Institute for Nuclear Physics in Germany, the A2 Collaboration has proposed a new active helium target filled with helium isotopes that would allow better access to the neutron. This design would allow for the collection of scintillation light within the active volume, which would reduce backgrounds. The blast of photons emitted from each collision are in the vacuum ultraviolet, while the silicon photomultipliers used only detect in the 200 { 900 nm range. Thus, a wavelength shifting material is needed. This research examines potential configurations of wavelength shifting fibers to be placed within the target and simulates the light collection and output of each design. Monte Carlo and Geant4 simulations were carried out to compare scintillation light collection between potential wavelength shifter geometries. The results of this work, along with future analysis, will provide integral insight for building the next prototype. Once the target is built, the neutron scalar polarizabilities can be applied
to help explain quantum chromodynamics in the non-perturbative region
Hierarchical Bayesian Models to Assess Between- and Within-Batch Variability of Pathogen Contamination in Food
No full textISI Document Delivery No.: 906KUTimes Cited: 1Cited Reference Count: 43Commeau, Natalie Cornu, Marie Albert, Isabelle Denis, Jean-Baptiste Parent, EricAgence National de la Recherche (ANR) (France)We thank Marie-Laure Delignette-Muller for useful comments. This work was supported by a grant from the Agence National de la Recherche (ANR) (France), as a part of the Quant'HACCP project. We are grateful to the FBOs that answered our enquiry.WILEY-BLACKWELLMALDENParent, Eric] UMR 518 INRA MIA, F-75005 Paris, France. [Commeau, NatalieCornu, Marie] ANSES, Lab Securite Aliments, F-94706 Maisons Alfort, France. [Commeau, Natalie] AgroParisTech ENGREF, F-75732 Paris, France. [Albert, Isabelle] Unite Metarisk INRA, F-75005 Paris, France. [Denis, Jean-Baptiste] INRA Math & Informat Appl, F-78352 Jouy En Josas, France.Commeau, N (reprint author), UMR 518 INRA MIA, 16 Rue Claude Bernard, F-75005 Paris, [email protected] within-batch and between-batch variability is of major interest for risk assessors and risk managers in the context of microbiological contamination of food. For example, the ratio between the within-batch variability and the between-batch variability has a large impact on the results of a sampling plan. Here, we designed hierarchical Bayesian models to represent such variability. Compatible priors were built mathematically to obtain sound model comparisons. A numeric criterion is proposed to assess the contamination structure comparing the ability of the models to replicate grouped data at the batch level using a posterior predictive loss approach. Models were applied to two case studies: contamination by Listeria monocytogenes of pork breast used to produce diced bacon and contamination by the same microorganism on cold smoked salmon at the end of the process. In the first case study, a contamination structure clearly exists and is located at the batch level, that is, between batches variability is relatively strong, whereas in the second a structure also exists but is less marked
Cycle through life: Designing a non-stigmatising stabilised bicycle for Beixo
No full textThis report presents the design process and the design proposal of a non-stigmatising stabilised bicycle designed for the bicycle company Beixo. With the trendy three wheel cargobike that has been designed for the problem of stability and stigma, insecure cyclists, including elderly, can cycle with confidence and stay mobile and independent. A literature study and user research using contextmapping methods were conducted to identify and understand the problem that this thesis deals with. Age-related disabilities, such as reduced balance and strength, can cause elderly people to fall with their bicycle. A fall often leads to injuries and fear of falling again. This feeling of insecurity causes many elderly to stop cycling, giving up an important part of their mobility. Assistive devices that help elderly to stay mobile, like tricycles, already exist, but these aids are perceived as stigmatising and are not easily accepted by users. Stigma is a negative judgmental reaction from bystanders to a person or person using a product caused by the visible characteristics of the person or product that are perceived as socially undesirable. This master thesis deals with the question if a bike can be designed such that it provides stability without being stigmatising. Existing research was used to find design strategies to deal with the problem of stability and stigma. The chosen design strategy included disguising the stabilizing function of the third wheel, adding additional benefits, making the design age independent and creating an association with an accepted product category. The design process consisted of design and research activities. The chosen design direction ‘cargo tricycle’ which has the potential to solve the problem of stability and of stigma was developed further into a concept and later the design proposal. The proposed design provides a solution to the problem of stability and stigma by creating a reference to cargo bikes. The bike has two front wheels in between which the cargo container is located. The bamboo container is compact and allows for easy loading of small cargo, for example groceries. The designed steering system steers the wheels around the container, allowing for light steering. The frame has a low entry and large adjustability to allow for an ergonomic cycling position for all users. The integrated shaft drive motor provides pedaling support, making cycling effortless. Its function and appearance could make this compact cargo bike suitable for many more target groups than elderly insecure cyclists, for example people who have never learned to cycle, ALS patients, people with reduced balance due to hearing impairment, people who wish to transport small loads, etc. To validate the design, a ‘looks-like-real’ working prototype was created. This prototype was showcased at the Embassy of Health during the Dutch Design Week 2018 where it received positive attention from visitors. The stability of the bike was tested by using it in everyday cycling situations in bicycle infrastructure. The subjective stability and stigma was tested with potential users, by letting them test ride the bike and asking about their experience. The design provides stability when cycling a straight path, but stability in turns can be improved. Potential users feel instable when taking turns and need to get used to the feeling of cycling on this bike. The bike is a tricycle and will never give the user the same cycling feeling as a bicycle. With a tricycle there is a trade-off between stability and a bike-like feeling. The opinion about stigma of the design differs between people. The reactions of the visitors of the Dutch Design Week were positive and indicated that avoiding stigma has been succeeded. However, not all the participants in the user evaluation agreed on this. Which product category the user compares the bike with when evaluating stigma is thought to influence the opinion about stigma and needs to be considered for the positioning of the product.Integrated Product Design | Design for Interactio
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Incorporating Haydn’s Minuets: Towards a Somatic Theory of Music
No full textThis dissertation addresses a repertoire and an issue that have both been somewhat neglected in musicological studies—the minuets of Joseph Haydn, and the somatic experience of dance. Of all Haydn’s compositions, his minuets have received less attention than perhaps any other movement or genre—despite the fact that his output includes more than four hundred of them. My basic hope is that equipping ourselves as musicologists to deal with somatics and dance will allow us to find something to say about this particular repertoire, to engage with it more thoroughly than we do at present.
In this dissertation I argue that a man or woman in the upper levels of society in Vienna towards the end of the eighteenth century would know the dance steps for the minuet. They would be in possession of this somatic knowledge; these eighteenth-century bodies would contain the minuet. And when sitting down to listen to a concert performance of a quartet or symphonic minuet by Haydn, they would still do so in a body that knows how to move to the sounds of the minuet, and perhaps has moved to some by the very same composer. This, I would argue, is perhaps the main difference between an audience member in Haydn’s day and one of our own time, whose (typical) lack of any knowledge of the minuet as a dance posits a gulf between him/her and the audience member of two hundred years ago. The question I ask, then, is this: what does it mean to experience Haydn’s minuets, whether those written specifically to be danced to or those written to be listened to, in a body that contains the movements for this dance?
Chapter 1 lays out the historical context for the dissertation. It examines the social events at which the minuet was danced in Vienna in the 1790s, focusing in particular on the annual charity balls held at the Hofburg Redoutensäle by the Gesellschaft bildender Künstler. Drawing on contemporaneous descriptions and ticket lists preserved in the Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, I show that members of the nobility, the bourgeoisie, and the artistic community were all present at these balls, and argue that the dance hall constituted a vital mixing ground for eighteenth-century Viennese society. I claim that Jürgen Habermas’s three criteria for the emergence of a public sphere (1962)—disregard of status, accessibility of culture products, and inclusivity of the space—are met in this setting.
Chapters 2 and 3 ask: what was the minuet in late-eighteenth-century Vienna? Chapter 2 examines choreographies, outlining the steps and figures that dancing masters detailed in German-language treatises around the end of the eighteenth century. Chapter 3 outlines the patterns and norms that theorists identified and prescribed in minuet music. Examining hundreds of (mostly unpublished) minuets written for dancing, I assess how well the rules proclaimed by the music theorists are actually borne out across the repertoire, and build a composite picture of the minuet’s choreography and music.
Chapter 4 grapples with the ‘tenacious doxa that physical sensations must irrevocably elude language’, as Isabelle Ginot described it in 2010. Drawing on the burgeoning field of ‘somatic studies’, and in particular Suzanne Ravn’s (2010) theorisation of sensing weight, I attempt a somatic enquiry into Haydn’s minuets composed for a ball held by the Gesellschaft bildender Künstler in 1792. The analysis theorises ways in which musical features would have been felt by dancers enacting the steps of the minuet to them.
Chapter 5 constitutes an attempt to extend the somatic approach to the minuet movements of Haydn’s ‘London’ Symphonies. I ask how investing the body into the experience of listening to this music changes one’s engagement with it. I argue that learning to invest the body into the listening experience, actively and deliberately, will not only reveal facets of the music to which we have hitherto been desensitised: it will vitalise our engagement with the music.MusicHaydn; minuet; somati
Voice Compression and Communications: Principles and Applications for Fixes and Wireless Channels
No full textUp-to-date, expert coverage of topics in wireless voice communications Voice communication is the most important facet of mobile radio service. Even when the predicted surge of wireless data and Internet services becomes a reality, voice will remain the most natural means of human communication. Voice Compression and Communications details issues in wireless voice communications and treats compression, channel coding, and wireless transmission as a joint subject. Part I covers background material, whereas Part II provides detailed information on both proprietary and standardized analysis-by-synthesis codecs, including the speech codecs of virtually all existing wireline-based and wireless systems. Parts III and IV discuss mainly research-based wideband, audio, as well as very low-rate schemes likely to find their way into future standards. Voice Compression and Communications describes fundamental concepts in a non-mathematical way early in the book for those with only a background knowledge of signal processing and communications. More advanced readers will find detailed discussions of theoretical principles, future concepts, and solutions to various specific wireless voice communications problems
Green Production of Anionic Surfactant Obtained from Pea Protein
No full textA pea protein isolate was hydrolyzed by a double enzyme treatment method in order to obtain short peptide sequences used as raw materials to produce lipopeptides-based surfactants. Pea protein hydrolysates were prepared using the combination of Alcalase and Flavourzyme. The influence of the process variables was studied to optimize the proteolytic degradation to high degrees of hydrolysis. The average peptide chain lengths were obtained at 3–5 amino acid units after a hydrolysis of 30 min with the mixture of enzymes. Then, N-acylation in water, in presence of acid chloride (C12 and C16), carried out with a conversion rate of amine functions of 90%, allowed to obtain anionic surfactant mixtures (lipopeptides and sodium fatty acids). These two steps were performed in water, in continuous and did not generate any waste. This process was therefore in line with green chemistry principles. The surface activities (CMC, foaming and emulsifying properties) of these mixtures were also studied. These formulations obtained from natural renewable resources and the reactions done under environmental respect, could replace petrochemical based surfactants for some applications
High fat diet-induced obesity and gestational DMBA exposure alter folliculogenesis and the proteome of the maternal ovary
No full textObesity and ovotoxicant exposures impair female reproductive health with greater ovotoxicity reported in obese relative to lean females. The mother and developing fetus are vulnerable to both during gestation. 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) is released during carbon combustion including from cigarettes, coal, fossil fuels, and forest fires. This study investigated the hypothesis that diet-induced obesity would increase sensitivity of the ovaries to DMBA-induced ovotoxicity and determined impacts of both obesity and DMBA exposure during gestation on the maternal ovary. Female C57BL/6 J mice were fed a control or a High Sugar High Fat (45% kcal from fat; 20% kcal from sucrose) diet until ~30% weight gain was attained before mating with unexposed males. From gestation Day 7, mice were exposed intraperitoneally to either vehicle control (corn oil) or DMBA (1 mg/kg diluted in corn oil) for 7 d. Thus, there were four groups: lean control (LC); lean DMBA exposed; obese control; obese DMBA exposed. Gestational obesity and DMBA exposure decreased (P 0.05) on spleen weight or progesterone. Also, obesity exacerbated the DMBA reduction (P < 0.05) in the number of primordial, secondary follicles, and corpora lutea. In lean mice, DMBA exposure altered abundance of 21 proteins; in obese dams, DMBA exposure affected 134 proteins while obesity alone altered 81 proteins in the maternal ovary. Thus, the maternal ovary is impacted by DMBA exposure and metabolic status influences the outcome.This article is published as Gulnara Novbatova, Isabelle Fox, Kelsey Timme, Aileen F Keating, High fat diet-induced obesity and gestational DMBA exposure alter folliculogenesis and the proteome of the maternal ovary, Biology of Reproduction, Volume 111, Issue 2, August 2024, Pages 496–511, https://doi.org/10.1093/biolre/ioae070. © The Author(s) 2024. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Genetic risk and a primary role for cell-mediated immune mechanisms in multiple sclerosis
No full textMultiple sclerosis is a common disease of the central nervous system in which the interplay between inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes typically results in intermittent neurological disturbance followed by progressive accumulation of disability. Epidemiological studies have shown that genetic factors are primarily responsible for the substantially increased frequency of the disease seen in the relatives of affected individuals, and systematic attempts to identify linkage in multiplex families have confirmed that variation within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) exerts the greatest individual effect on risk. Modestly powered genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have enabled more than 20 additional risk loci to be identified and have shown that multiple variants exerting modest individual effects have a key role in disease susceptibility. Most of the genetic architecture underlying susceptibility to the disease remains to be defined and is anticipated to require the analysis of sample sizes that are beyond the numbers currently available to individual research groups. In a collaborative GWAS involving 9,772 cases of European descent collected by 23 research groups working in 15 different countries, we have replicated almost all of the previously suggested associations and identified at least a further 29 novel susceptibility loci. Within the MHC we have refined the identity of the HLA-DRB1 risk alleles and confirmed that variation in the HLA-A gene underlies the independent protective effect attributable to the class I region. Immunologically relevant genes are significantly overrepresented among those mapping close to the identified loci and particularly implicate T-helper-cell differentiation in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis
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