4,413 research outputs found
FREQUENCY OF ISOLATION AND ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE OF GRAM NEGATIVE AND GRAM POSITIVE BACTERIA FROM PATIENTS IN INTENSIVE CARE UNITS OF 25 EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS PARTECIPATING IN THE EUROPEAN ARM OF THE SENTRY ANTIMICROBIAL SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM 1997-1998.
Raponi G. partecipante SENTR
FREQUENCY OF ISOLATION OF PATHOGENS FROM BLOOD STREAM, NOSOCOMIAL PNEUMONIAE, SKIN AND SOFT TISSUE, AND URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS OCCURRING IN EUROPEAN PATIENTS.
New methods to analyse microarray data that partially lack a reference signal.
BACKGROUND: Microarray-based Comparative Genomic Hybridisation (CGH) has been used to assess genetic variability between bacterial strains. Crucial for interpretation of microarray data is the availability of a reference to compare signal intensities to reliably determine presence or divergence each DNA fragment. However, the production of a good reference becomes unfeasible when microarrays are based on pan-genomes.When only a single strain is used as a reference for a multistrain array, the accessory gene pool will be partially represented by reference DNA, although these genes represent the genomic repertoire that can explain differences in virulence, pathogenicity or transmissibility between strains. The lack of a reference makes interpretation of the data for these genes difficult and, if the test signal is low, they are often deleted from the analysis. We aimed to develop novel methods to determine the presence or divergence of genes in a Staphylococcus aureus multistrain PCR product microarray-based CGH approach for which reference DNA was not available for some probes.
RESULTS: In this study we have developed 6 new methods to predict divergence and presence of all genes spotted on a multistrain Staphylococcus aureus DNA microarray, published previously, including those gene spots that lack reference signals. When considering specificity and PPV (i.e. the false-positive rate) as the most important criteria for evaluating these methods, the method that defined gene presence based on a signal at least twice as high as the background and higher than the reference signal (method 4) had the best test characteristics. For this method specificity was 100% and 82% for MRSA252 (compared to the GACK method) and all spots (compared to sequence data), respectively, and PPV were 100% and 76% for MRSA252 (compared to the GACK method) and all spots (compared to sequence data), respectively.
CONCLUSION: A definition of gene presence based on signal at least twice as high as the background and higher than the reference signal (method 4) had the best test characteristics, allowing the analysis of 6-17% more of the genes not present in the reference strain. This method is recommended to analyse microarray data that partially lack a reference signal
Link stability estimation based on link connectivity changes in mobile ad-hoc networks
Dear Wang,
Re: Link Stability Estimation Based on Link Connectivity Changes in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks
I have not been able to assess if this is an author version peer-reviewed or is it an author version non peer reviewed. Could you please clarify this so I can proceed to add your paper to Spiral. Spiral digital repository only accept peer-reviewed papers.
30/11/12 author has confirmed peer reviewe
Cerebral atrophy in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease: rates and acceleration.
OBJECTIVE: To quantify the regional and global cerebral atrophy rates and assess acceleration rates in healthy controls, subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and subjects with mild Alzheimer disease (AD). METHODS: Using 0-, 6-, 12-, 18-, 24-, and 36-month MRI scans of controls and subjects with MCI and AD from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database, we calculated volume change of whole brain, hippocampus, and ventricles between all pairs of scans using the boundary shift integral. RESULTS: We found no evidence of acceleration in whole-brain atrophy rates in any group. There was evidence that hippocampal atrophy rates in MCI subjects accelerate by 0.22%/year2 on average (p = 0.037). There was evidence of acceleration in rates of ventricular enlargement in subjects with MCI (p = 0.001) and AD (p < 0.001), with rates estimated to increase by 0.27 mL/year2 (95% confidence interval 0.12, 0.43) and 0.88 mL/year2 (95% confidence interval 0.47, 1.29), respectively. A post hoc analysis suggested that the acceleration of hippocampal loss in MCI subjects was mainly driven by the MCI subjects that were observed to progress to clinical AD within 3 years of baseline, with this group showing hippocampal atrophy rate acceleration of 0.50%/year2 (p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: The small acceleration rates suggest a long period of transition to the pathologic losses seen in clinical AD. The acceleration in hippocampal atrophy rates in MCI subjects in the ADNI seems to be driven by those MCI subjects who concurrently progressed to a clinical diagnosis of AD
Energy efficiency in ad-hoc wireless networks
In ad-hoc wireless networks, nodes are typically battery-powered, therefore energy limitations are among the critical constraints in ad-hoc wireless networks' development. The approaches investigated in this thesis to achieve energy efficient performance in wireless networks
can be grouped into three main categories.
1. Each wireless network node has four energy consumption states: transmitting, receiving, listening and sleeping states. The power consumed in the listening state is less than the power consumed in the transmitting and receiving states, but significantly greater than that in the sleeping state. Energy efficiency is achieved if as many nodes as possible are put into the sleeping states.
2) Since energy is consumed for transmission nonlinearly in terms of the transmission range, transmission range adjustment is another energy saving approach. In this work, the optimal transmission range is derived and applied to achieve energy efficient performance in a number of scenerios.
3) Since energy can be saved properly arranging the communication algorithms, network topology management or network routing is the third approach which can be utilised in combination with the above two approaches. In this work, Geographical Adaptive Fidelity (GAF) algorithms, clustering algorithms and Geographic Routing (GR) algorithms are all utilised to reduce the energy consumption of wireless networks, such as Sensor Networks and Vehicular Networks.
These three approaches are used in this work to reduce the energy consumption of wireless networks. With the GAF algorithm. We derived the optimal transmission range and optimal grid size in both linear and rectangular networks and as a result we show how the network energy consumptions can be reduced and how the network lifetime can be prolonged. With Geographic Routing algorithms the author
proposed the Optimal Range Forward (ORF) algorithm and Optimal Forward with Energy Balance (OFEB) algorithm to reduce the energy consumption and to prolong the network lifetime. The results show that compared to the traditional GR algorithms (Most Forward within Radius, Nearest Forward Progress), the network lifetime is prolonged. Other approaches have also been considered to improve the networks's energy efficient operation utilising Genetic Algorithms to find the optimal size of the grid or cluster. Furthermore realistic physical layer models, Rayleigh fading and LogNormal fading, are considered in evaluating energy efficiency in a realistic network environment
De Maiestate / Praeside M. Jacobo Thomasio, Moralis Philosoph. P. P., publice disputabit Johannes Dunte, R. L. Author & Respon: ad diem 9. Septembr. H L. Q. C.
DE MAIESTATE / PRAESIDE M. JACOBO THOMASIO, MORALIS PHILOSOPH. P. P., PUBLICE DISPUTABIT JOHANNES DUNTE, R. L. AUTHOR & RESPON: AD DIEM 9. SEPTEMBR. H L. Q. C.
De Maiestate / Praeside M. Jacobo Thomasio, Moralis Philosoph. P. P., publice disputabit Johannes Dunte, R. L. Author & Respon: ad diem 9. Septembr. H L. Q. C. (1)
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Beiträge (21
A Fair and Secure Cluster Formation Process for Ad Hoc Networks
An efficient approach for organizing large ad hoc networks is to divide the nodes
into multiple clusters and designate, for each cluster, a clusterhead which is responsible for
holding intercluster control information. The role of a clusterhead entails rights and duties.
On the one hand, it has a dominant position in front of the others because it manages the
connectivity and has access to other node¿s sensitive information. But on the other hand, the
clusterhead role also has some associated costs. Hence, in order to prevent malicious nodes
from taking control of the group in a fraudulent way and avoid selfish attacks from suitable
nodes, the clusterhead needs to be elected in a secure way. In this paper we present a novel
solution that guarantees the clusterhead is elected in a cheat-proof manner
Routing And Communication Path Mapping In VANETS
Vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) has quickly become an important aspect of the intelligent transport system (ITS), which is a combination of information technology, and transport works to improve efficiency and safety through data gathering and dissemination. However, transmitting data over an ad-hoc network comes with several issues such as broadcast storms, hidden terminal problems and unreliability; these greatly reduce the efficiency of the network and hence the purpose for which it was developed. We therefore propose a system of utilising information gathered externally from the node or through the various layers of the network into the access layer of the ETSI communication stack for routing to improve the overall efficiency of data delivery, reduce hidden terminals and increase reliability. We divide route into segments and design a set of metric system to select a controlling node as well as procedure for data transfer. Furthermore we propose a system for faster data delivery based on priority of data and density of nodes from route information while developing a map to show the communication situation of an area. These metrics and algorithms will be simulated in further research using the NS-3 environment to demonstrate the effectiveness
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