2,371 research outputs found
A study into the effect of POSS nanoparticles on cellulose acetate membranes
No full textAbstract not availableClare H. Worthley, Kristina T. Constantopoulos, Milena Ginic-Markovic, Elda Markovic, Stephen Clark
Fully Automated Electrically Controlled Tunable Broadband Interferometric Dielectric Spectroscopy for Aqueous Solutions
No full textsponsorship: Manuscript received May 16, 2021; accepted June 22, 2021. This work was supported in part by KU Leuven Internal Funding (C2 project mu 2BIO) and in part by the Flemish Hercules. The work of Meng Zhang was supported by the Scholarship provided by the Chinese Scholarship Council. (Corresponding author: Xiue Bao.) (KU Leuven Internal Fund, Flemish Hercules, Chinese Scholarship Council)status: Publishe
Indoor environment data time-series reconstruction using autoencoder neural networks
No full textAs the number of installed meters in buildings increases, there is a growing number of data time-series that could be used to develop data-driven models to support and optimize building operation. However, building data sets are often characterized by errors and missing values, which are considered, by the recent research, among the main limiting factors on the performance of the proposed models. Motivated by the need to address the problem of missing data in building operation, this work presents a data-driven approach to fill these gaps. In this study, three different autoencoder neural networks are trained to reconstruct missing short-term indoor environment data time-series in a data set collected in an office building in Aachen, Germany. This consisted of a four year-long monitoring campaign in and between the years 2014 and 2017, of 84 different rooms. The models are applicable for different time-series obtained from room automation, such as indoor air temperature, relative humidity and CO2 data streams. The results prove that the proposed methods outperform classic numerical approaches and they result in reconstructing the corresponding variables with average RMSEs of 0.42 °C, 1.30 % and 78.41 ppm, respectively
Increased frequency of interleukin 2-responsive t-cells specific for myelin basic-protein and proteolipid protein in peripheral-blood and cerebrospinal-fluid of patients with multiple-sclerosis
No full textEqual numbers of CD4(+) T cells recognizing myelin basic protein (MBP) and proteolipid protein (PLP) are found in the circulation of normal individuals and multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. We hypothesized that if myelin-reactive T cells are critical for the pathogenesis of MS, they would exist in a different state of activation as compared with myelin-reactive T cells cloned from the blood of normal individuals. This was investigated in a total of 62 subjects with definitive MS. While there were no differences in the frequencies of MBP- and PLP-reactive T cells after primary antigen stimulation, the frequency of MBP or PLP but not tetanus toxoid-reactive T cells generated after primary recombinant interleukin (rIL-2) stimulation was significantly higher in MS patients as compared with control individuals. Primary rIL-2-stimulated MBP-reactive T cell lines were CD4(+) and recognized MBP epitopes 84-102 and 143-168 similar to MBP-reactive T cell lines generated with primary MBP stimulation. In the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of MS patients, MBP-reactive T cells generated with primary rIL-2 stimulation accounted for 7% of the IL-2-responsive cells, greater than 10-fold higher than paired blood samples, and these T cells also selectively recognized MBP peptides 84-102 and 143-168. In striking contrast, MBP-reactive T cells were not detected in CSF obtained from patients with other neurologic diseases. These results provide definitive in vitro evidence of an absolute difference in the activation state of myelin-reactive T cells in the central nervous system of patients with MS and provide evidence of a pathogenic role of autoreactive T cells in the disease
Increased frequency of interleukin 2-responsive t-cells specific for myelin basic-protein and proteolipid protein in peripheral-blood and cerebrospinal-fluid of patients with multiple-sclerosis
No full textEqual numbers of CD4(+) T cells recognizing myelin basic protein (MBP) and proteolipid protein (PLP) are found in the circulation of normal individuals and multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. We hypothesized that if myelin-reactive T cells are critical for the pathogenesis of MS, they would exist in a different state of activation as compared with myelin-reactive T cells cloned from the blood of normal individuals. This was investigated in a total of 62 subjects with definitive MS. While there were no differences in the frequencies of MBP- and PLP-reactive T cells after primary antigen stimulation, the frequency of MBP or PLP but not tetanus toxoid-reactive T cells generated after primary recombinant interleukin (rIL-2) stimulation was significantly higher in MS patients as compared with control individuals. Primary rIL-2-stimulated MBP-reactive T cell lines were CD4(+) and recognized MBP epitopes 84-102 and 143-168 similar to MBP-reactive T cell lines generated with primary MBP stimulation. In the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of MS patients, MBP-reactive T cells generated with primary rIL-2 stimulation accounted for 7% of the IL-2-responsive cells, greater than 10-fold higher than paired blood samples, and these T cells also selectively recognized MBP peptides 84-102 and 143-168. In striking contrast, MBP-reactive T cells were not detected in CSF obtained from patients with other neurologic diseases. These results provide definitive in vitro evidence of an absolute difference in the activation state of myelin-reactive T cells in the central nervous system of patients with MS and provide evidence of a pathogenic role of autoreactive T cells in the disease
How Much Country Economy Influences ECC Profile in Serbian Children—A Macro-Level Factor Analysis
No full textIntroduction: Serbia has universal health coverage (UHC) for pediatric dental care and similar country distribution for dentists and physicians per 1,000 inhabitants. However, a high prevalence of early childhood caries (ECC) with wide variation across the country was observed in previous studies. This paper aimed to analyze the association between economic and healthcare country macro-level factors with ECC prevalence and treatment. Method: The outcome variables were ECC prevalence and frequency of untreated ECC in 36- to 71-month-olds. Cross-sectional pathfinder survey on a nationally representative sample of children was conducted in order to obtain data. Independent variables included the following: gross domestic product (GDP), social and health care budget beneficiaries' expenditures, local self-government budget, unemployment rate, population density and density of physicians and dentists. Guided by the WHO's Basic Methods for Oral Health Surveys stratified cluster sample, 17 sites were randomly chosen to obtain adequate distribution of data regarding urban, peri-urban and rural areas in each analyzed statistical territorial unit. The variables were analyzed using the independent t-test or Mann–Whitney U test. A probability value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results: The final sample included 864 children aged 36 to 71 months. Observed prevalence of ECC was 41.1%. Although no statistically significant difference was found, children with ECC compared to healthy children were living in parts of the country with averages of ≈122€ lower GDP per capita, ≈4€ lower social and health care expenditures per capita, 9 inhabitants per km2 lower population density, almost 7€ per capita lower local self-government budget and a 0.6% higher unemployment rate. Furthermore, although without a statistically significant difference, untreated ECC was associated with ≈302€ lower GDP per capita, ≈12€ lower social and health care expenditures per capita, 34 inhabitants per km2 lower population density, almost 20€ per capita lower local self-government budget and a 1.7% higher unemployment rate. Conclusions: This study, performed in a nationally representative sample of preschool children, revealed the association of economic macro-level factors with ECC prevalence and its (non-) treatment. Further research on a larger sample is necessary to confirm the results. These findings suggest that most of the public-health efforts regarding prevention and early treatment of ECC should be directed at regions with lower economic performance
Feasibility test of activity index summary metric in human hand activity recognition
No full textActivity monitoring is a technique for assessing the physical activity that a
person undertakes over some time. Activity Index (AI) is a metric that
summarizes the raw measurements from tri-axial accelerometers, often used
for measuring physical activity. Our research compared the Activity Index
for different activity groups and hand usage [1]. We also tested this metric
as a classification feature, and how different data acquisition and
segmentation parameter configurations influence classification accuracy.
Data acquisition was done with a previously developed system that includes a
smartwatch on each wrist and a smartphone placed in the subject?s pocket;
raw data from smartwatch accelerometers was used for the analysis. We
calculated the Activity Index for labeled data segments and used ANOVA1
statistical test with Bonferroni correction. Significant differences were
found between cases of hand usage (left, right, none, both). In the next
analysis phase, the Activity Index was used as the classification feature
with three supervised machine learning algorithms-Support Vector Machine,
k-Nearest Neighbors, and Random Forest. The best accuracy (measured by F1
score) of classifying hand usage was achieved by using the Random Forest
algorithm, 50 Hz sampling frequency, and a window of 10 s without overlap
for AI calculation, and it was 97%. On the other hand, the classification of
activity groups had a low accuracy, which indicated that a specific activity
group can?t be identified by using only one simple feature.</jats:p
Fabrication of doped carbon nanotubes by template synthesis using nanoporous alumina as template
No full textThere is a considerable need to develop new synthetic methods for fabricating CNTs which are more biocompatible, addressing issues such as elimination of catalysts, increasing CNT water solubility and adjusting optimal diameters and lengths. Template synthesis using nanoporous alumina membrane is recognised as an elegant approach to fabricate CNTs with controlled diameters, length and shapes suitable for many applications. In this study we present the template synthesis of multi walled CNTs with controlled physical and chemical properties to demonstrate fabrication of biocompatible CNTs with minor toxicity to the biological system.Tariq Altalhi, Milena Ginic-Markovic, Stephen Clarke, Dusan Losi
- …
