108 research outputs found
Computational models for clinical drug response prediction: aligning transcriptomic data of patients and pre-clinical models
No full textExtensive efforts in cancer research over the past decades have markedly improved diagnosis and treatments, leading to better outcomes for cancer patients. Paradoxically, however, these discoveries have begun to shed light on a level of complexity that rules out the emergence of a universal cancer treatment. As any tumor is now known to be essentially a unique disease, clinicians and researchers are moving towards a new paradigm, termed “precision medicine”, which consists of designing bespoke lines of treatment for each patient.This paradigm-shift has been fueled by international consortia that have characterized large collections of tumors, thereby providing a vast reference for cancer heterogeneity. Two main strategies have been employed: sequencing of tumor biopsies directly extracted from patients or studying pre-clinical models, i.e., tumor cells cultured in artificial environments. While the first strategy generates clinically faithful data, the second strategy is flexible and cost-effective, and allows for the study of effects of various drugs at different concentrations.Based on the large amount of data generated from pre-clinical models, computerscientists have developed various machine learning algorithms to model drug response based on these data. However, these models do not take into account the complexity of human tumors and the differences between model systems and human tumors, and are therefore not directly applicable in a clinical setting. In this thesis, we aim at bridging this gap. Specifically, we develop algorithms to integrate and align data generated from the two aforementioned strategies with a goal to predict drug response in patients from datasets generated using pre-clinical models
An acoustic emission study of martensitic and bainitic transformations in carbon steel
No full textSteel is one of the most commonly used materials today, especially in industrial sectors such as ship building and the automotive industry. In order to meet the requirements for steel applications, new multi-phase steels are being developed. The microstructure of these steels consists of a variety of different phases, which leads to superior material properties - a combination of high strength with good formability. For the development of such steels research is required to gain more insight into the underlying microstructure and the mechanisms by which it is formed. This thesis describes unique acoustic emission experiments during martensitic and bainitic transformations in steel. The main objective of this work is to obtain a better understanding of the growth mechanism and kinetics of these solid-state phase transformations that can occur in carbon steel. In view of fact that acoustic emission is an unexplored technique in this kind of steel research, this study also aims to give a good overview of the possibilities and limitations of acoustic emission as a real-time monitoring technique for the evolution of bainite and martensite formation.Applied Science
Modeling Start Curves of Bainite Formation
No full textIt is demonstrated that calculations with a physically based model give an accurate description of the start curve of bainite formation in a wide range of steels. The temperature dependence of the overall kinetics, which determines the characteristic C shape of the start curve, is controlled by both the undercooling below the start temperature (T h ? T) and an effective activation energy Q b . A systematic analysis of the model parameters extracted from the best fits of published time-temperature-transformation (TTT) data reveals a material-independent relationship, which means that the activation energy is in accordance with known details of the dislocation-based nucleation model of bainite. It is shown that the C shape of the start curve can be determined for a given alloying content using an empirical relationship derived for Q b and, in combination with the material-independent relationship, the kinetics of bainite can be predicted at all temperature levels.Materials Science and EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin
Dissertatio theologica contra calumniam Calvino a Bellarmino & Pontificiis impactam, quasi Deum authorem peccati faceret, vel id ex eius doctrina de providentia Dei necessario sequeretur
No full textquam ... sub clypeo ... Petri Werenfelsii ... publice tuebitur author Antonius Philippus Cregutus, Neo-Hanovicus S.M.C. ad d. ... Iulii anno MDCCII loco horisque consuetisEnth. 6 ThesenEnth. 2 Carmina gratulatoria (lat.)Disputatio theol. Basel, 170
Emotion expression in robots: A study on the effect of a virtual gravity vector on the perceived emotional content of robot movement
No full textAdding emotion to motion, or creating emotionally meaningful movement is one of the next steps in robotics. Non-verbal communication between humans and robots has the potential to raise the current interaction level to a next stage. This study is a contribution to the field of emotion expression in robotics. Several parameters are known for influencing the emotional content of a movement in humans. In this study the influence of a changing virtual gravity parameter is investigated. Simulations were created of a virtual arm executing various daily tasks. Each task was executed under three different virtual gravity conditions: gravity vector pointing down, no gravity and gravity vector pointing up. On a website, a user study was created for people to rate the videos of the movement of a robotic arm in terms of its emotional content. The robotic arm performed ten different tasks. Two response tools were used for the participant to rate the videos: the AffectButton and the Self-Assessment Manikin. A total of 275 participants took part in the user study. The overall effect of gravity on the emotional content of the arm movement was found to be rather limited. However, in a number of cases a small significant effect was measured. Gravity had a small significant effect on dominance measured in the AffectButton: the arm movements, when the gravity vector was in the up and downward direction, were rated with a higher level of dominance than in the situation of no gravity. Also, gravity had a small significant effect on pleasure measured in the Self-Assessment Manikin: downward gravity resulted in a higher level of pleasure than in the neutral and upward case. The overall effect of task was generally more significant. When comparing individual tasks, significant difference were found on the ratings of the three variables pleasure, arousal and dominance, in both the AffectButton and the Self-Assessment Manikin.BMDBioMechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin
Gare de Mons transition hub
No full textA new station for the city of Mons, Belgium, that links both the city center and the commercial centerPublic Buildings, Territory in TransitArchitectureArchitectur
A 1 GSa/s Deep Cryogenic, Reconfigurable Soft-core FPGA ADC for Quantum Computing Applications
No full textAnalog interfacing is the only way to communicate with a quantum processor, whether it is applying qubit operations or reading their quantum states. There exist other applications where analog interfacing is abundant, e.g. sensor networks, automotive, industrial control, etc. In those applications the use of FPGAs is continuously growing, however a direct link between the analog world and the digital FPGA is still missing (except for the newest generation of FPGAs, where analog-to-digital conversion is present, but limited in performance). External analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are combined together with the FPGA to form a complete, application specific, system. This system is thus limited in compactness, exibility and reconfigurability. To address those issues we propose an ADC architecture, implemented entirely in a conventional FPGA, that is fully reconfifigurable and easy to calibrate. This allows one to alter the design, according to the system requirements. Therefore it can be used in a wide range of operating conditions, such as a harsh cryogenic environment, where we demonstrated that the FPGA is able to operate. This architecture employs time-to-digital converters (TDCs) and phase interpolation techniques to reach a sampling rate, higher than the clock frequency, up to 1.2 GSa/s. The resulting FPGA ADC can achieve a 8 bit resolution over a 0.6 to 1.9 V input range. The system non-linearities are less than 0.45 LSB. The main advantages of this architecture are its scalability and reconfigurability, enabling applications with changing demands on one single platform.Embedded systemsMicroelectronics & Computer EngineeringElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis to Evaluate Milking Parlour Performance
No full textModern milking parlours allow the automated collection of many data for each cow being milked that can potentially be used to monitor the overall performance of milking process. A group of 24 dairy farms located in Lombardy (Northern Italy) with RFID technology for electronic identification of cows, milk meters to measure individual milk yield and the same milking machine settings (42 kPa system vacuum, 60 cycles/min pulsator rate, and 60% pulsator ratio) were involved in the study. Cows milked/stall per hour [n], milk yield/stall per hour [kg], milking efficiency [%] were downloaded by the herd management software and combined with additional information such as number of milking stalls, stalls/milker, type of exit from milking parlour (rapid or conventional), and type of milking routine (full or partial). Relationships among variables were evaluated through a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) that identified three main groups of related parameters. Large parlours (>32 milking stalls) were associated with a high number of stalls/milker (>15), low number of cows milked/stall per hour (<2.5), low milking efficiency (<31%), low milk yield/stall per hour (<39 kg). On the contrary, small parlours (<16 milking stalls) were associated with a low ratio stall/milker (<8), high performance in terms of cows milked and milk yield per stall per hour (>3.5 and > 52 kg) and milking efficiency (>39%). Parlours of medium size (16–32 milking stalls) were associated with intermediate performance. Results suggest that MCA can potentially be used to evaluate milking parlours performance
Covering plastic films in greenhouses system: A GIS-based model to improve post use suistainable management
No full textYearly, in Europe, more than 1 million tonnes of plastic materials are used in agricultural activities. Among the possible applications, plastic films for protected cultivation practices are highly used worldwide because of the significant advantage deriving from the shortening of the growing period. However, in the absence of a correct policy disposal of plastic films, environmental degradation could take place with serious ecological and economic consequences. In this study, a geographical information system (GIS) - based model to locate and quantify the yearly amount of agricultural plastic waste (APW) coming from crop-shelter coverage used in greenhouses system was put forward and was applied in a study area located in southern Italy, highly characterised by protected cultivation practices. Firstly, the areas with the highest density of crop shelters were mapped, then a suitable index to determine APW amount was computed and applied to obtain heat maps related to covering plastic films. Finally, sensitivity analyses were carried out by varying thickness, lifetime, and density of the covering films of the greenhouses, located in the considered samples. The index ranged between 976 kg ha−1yr−1and, 2484 kg ha−1yr−1. The results showed that the density of greenhouses and tunnels-greenhouses is still elevated nearby the coastline, highlighting that the guidelines of the territorial plan of the Province of Ragusa concerning the displacement of protected crops from the coast to the internal rural areas were disregarded. Moreover, the GIS-based model results could provide basic information for the analysis of the environmental impact due to transportation of APW. Therefore, these results could offer a suitable tool to improve the correct disposal management of covering plastic films and the related recycle policy
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