1,126 research outputs found
embalming and reperfusion of porcine kidneys
No full text<p>These are the data of the following article:</p>
<p>Understanding Thiel embalming in pig kidneys to develop a new circulation model</p>
<p>First author: Wouter Willaert</p
Digging through the dirt: a general method for abstract discrete state estimation with limited prior knowledge
No full textAutonomous robots are often successfully deployed in controlled environments. Operation in uncontrolled situations remains challenging; it is hypothesized that the detection of abstract discrete states (ADS) can improve operation in these circumstances. ADS are high-level system states that are not directly detectable and influence system dynamics. An example of a typical ADS problem that is used in this thesis is that of a wheeled robot driving through puddles of mud that, when entered, alters the velocity of the robot. When the robot is in such a puddle, it is in an ADS 'mud', and when it is not, it is in an ADS 'free'. ADS can be indirectly inferred through the analysis of lower-level data such as the velocity of the robot. The goal of this thesis is to design a general abstract discrete state estimator (ADSE) operating with limited prior knowledge. An ADSE is a hierarchical system for detecting changes in ADS. The ADSE should be general; applicable to multiple ADSE problems. The ADSE should further operate under limited prior knowledge: only assuming that the amount of ADS and the ADS that describes the regular operation are known. The basis for the ADSE designed in this thesis is a Gaussian hidden Markov model (GHMM), a hidden Markov model enhanced with Gaussian emissions. Randomly generated experiments are done on a simple but general ADSE problem. Two unsupervised learning methods derived from Expectation Maximization are evaluated, namely Baum-Welch (BW) and forward extraction (FWE). FWE is introduced in this thesis and is a simpler implementation of Viterbi extraction, leveraging assumptions of ADSE to in theory gain computational efficiency. We found that both BW and FWE exhibit superior performance compared to a likelihood-based baseline estimator when the maximum score of the learning curve is considered. When the final score is considered, in some cases, FWE displays a deteriorating learning curve, resulting in worse final scores compared to the baseline. Furthermore, it was found that the lower the overlap coefficient (therefore the less similar the ADS), the higher the maximum reached score. It was further shown that BW exhibits better convergence than FWE to the true model parameters. Besides this, FWE obtained comparable or in some cases even superior scores compared to BW. In general, from the results, the diversity of the experiments conducted, and the assumptions made we can conclude that the GHMM can be a general method for an ADSE with limited prior knowledge. To quantify the suitability of the GHMM for ADSE, further research should include the evaluation of different ADSE methods on the same problem. There exists a tradeoff between the lower computational cost FWE and the more stable but more computationally intensive BW learning. Therefore, future research can include a combination of these methods. Other extensions include extending the GHMM to a Gaussian mixture hidden Markov model to allow for the modeling of more complex distributions, or the application to multiple states or a changing environment.https://github.com/Wouter-deBoer/adseMechanical Engineering | Vehicle Engineering | Cognitive Robotic
Nederland op een kantelpunt: Interview met Wouter Veldhuis over het Stedelijk Netwerk Nederland en het sociaal netwerk van woonwijken
No full textDe stedenbouwkundige en architect Wouter Veldhuis en landschapsarchitect Jannemarie de Jonge zijn per 1 december 2020 Rijksadviseur voor de fysieke leefomgeving. Later in september 2021 komt daar de architect Francesco Veenstra bij als Rijksbouwmeester en dan is het nieuwe trio College van Rijksadviseurs weer compleet. De uitdagingen voor het college zijn groot. De ruimteclaims die er liggen in stad en land, de hooggestemde ambities om klimaatneutraal en circulair te zijn in 2050, de roep om een minister voor de fysieke leefomgeving en of wonen en weer een echt ministerie met budget. Het enorme probleem op de woningmarkt en de druk om één miljoen woningen ergens bij te bouwen. Op 24 april sprak het team van 1M Homes initiative van de TU Delft met de nieuw benoemde rijksadviseur voor de fysieke leefomgeving Wouter Veldhuis over de aanstaande veranderingen
Dataset of Middle Dutch lexical stress patterns and syllabifications
No full textThis dataset consists of 48.219 Middle Dutch words taken from in total 205 rhymed texts of the Cd-rom Middelnederlands (1998). All of these words have been assigned a syllabification and lexical stress pattern.
E.g.: proevede is syllabified as proe-ve-de and has a stress index set at -3, which means that – counting from the rightmost syllable – the third syllable receives stress.
This upload contains the following files:
The JSON-file (compressed), which was used as input data for a machine learning algorithm trained for the automatic syllabification and stress assignment of Middle Dutch polysyllabic words (for the code of this experiment, see GitHub)
An Excel-file, containing the same data as the JSON (for more convenient reference)
A split file (compressed), used in the training proces of the above-mentioned experiment
A pdf-file with some insightful illustrations about the contents of the dataset
This dataset is part of the research of Wouter Haverals (FWO, University of Antwerp), carried out under the supervision of prof. Mike Kestemont and em. prof. Frank Willaert.</p
Electrostatic precipitation during intraperitoneal aerosolized drug delivery (eIPADD)
No full textAmrit Sareen
ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATION DURING INTRAPERITONEAL AEROSOLIZED DRUG DELIVERY (eIPADD)
Amrit Sareen (1), Mohammad Rahimi Gorji (1,2,3), Lotte Desmet (2), Charlotte Debbaut (2,3), Wouter Willaert (1,3), Wim Ceelen (1,3)
(1) Laboratory of Experimental Surgery, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
(2) IBiTech – BioMMedA, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
(3) Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Ghent, Belgium
Introduction: Intraperitoneal aerosolized drug delivery (IPADD) presents a promising approach for managing peritoneal metastasis (PM) by administering aerosolized anticancer drugs directly into the peritoneal cavity via laparoscopic techniques. However, a notable limitation of IPADD is the uneven distribution of the aerosol within the cavity due to directional spray from the nozzle. To address this issue, electrostatic precipitation (eIPADD) has been proposed, aiming to enhance both the uniformity of aerosol distribution and tissue drug penetration through an electrophoretic mechanism.
Materials & methods: This study investigates the impact of electrostatic precipitation on the spatial distribution and tissue penetration of drugs in both normal and tumor tissue. Using a custom-built aluminum box to simulate the abdominal cavity, experiments were conducted with methylene blue as a model drug. Electrostatic precipitation was induced using a brush electrode and grounding electrode with a voltage of 10 kV.
Results: The spatial distribution of the aerosol was clearly improved with the addition of electrostatic precipitation, as evidenced by the extent of surface staining of the tissue samples. Electrostatic precipitation enhanced tissue penetration of the blue dye in both the normal peritoneal samples and in the PMP samples.
Conclusion: The results of this in vitro study show that eIPADD improves spatial aerosol distribution and enhances drug penetration in normal and tumor tissue. Consequently, improved anticancer efficacy can be expected. Future experiments will use different tumor types, a more realistic geometry of the peritoneal cavity, and in vivo confirmation in animal models of intraperitoneal aerosolized drug delivery
De maat van het Middelnederlands : een digitaal onderzoek naar de prosodische en ritmische kenmerken van Middelnederlandse berijmde literatuur
No full textAbstract: Wat bedoelen we wanneer we zeggen dat het ritme van een literaire tekst \u2018hortend\u2019 of \u2018vloeiend\u2019 is? De ritmische eigenschappen van literatuur worden doorgaans met intu\ueftieve en vage termen beschreven en dat is zeker het geval voor de Middelnederlandse letterkunde. De vele berijmde teksten uit de vroegste periode van onze literatuurgeschiedenis worden regelmatig beschreven in termen zoals de hierboven genoemde. Vaak is het echter onduidelijk wat er precies mee wordt bedoeld. De studie van het Middelnederlands versritme heeft daarom veel te winnen bij een computationele benadering, waarbij vooroordelen en persoonlijke smaak buiten spel worden gezet. Dit proefschrift onderzoekt de mogelijkheid om het ritme van Middelnederlandse teksten te reconstrueren en te bestuderen door te vertrekken vanuit het eigenlijke tekstmateriaal. Het resultaat is een zogenaamde \u2018automatische scansiemachine\u2019, die een voorspelling maakt over de ritmische uitspraak van deze middeleeuwse verzen
Does Indonesia have a"low-pay"civil service?
No full textGovernment officials and polcy analysts maintain that Indonesia's civil servants are poorly paid and have been for decades. This conclusion is supported by anecdotal evidence and casual empiricism. The authors systematically analyze the realtionship between government and private compensation levels using data from two large household surveys carried out by Indonesia's Central Bureau of Statistics: the 1998 Sakernas and 1999 Susenas. The results suggest that government workers with a high school education or less, representing three-quarters of the civil service, earn a pay premium over their private sector counterparts. Civil servants with more than a high school education earn less than they would in the private sector but, on average, the premium is far smaller than commonly is alleged and is in keeping with public/private differentials in other countries. These results prove robust to varying econometric specifications and cast doubt on low pay as an explanation for government corruption.Decentralization,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,National Governance,Knowledge Economy,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,NationalGovernance,Knowledge Economy,Education for the Knowledge Economy,Parliamentary Government
Pressurized intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy for the treatment of irresectable peritoneal metastasis
No full textOptimization of the capacity of a rose sorting system using discrete event simulation
No full textIn Rose cultivation companies in the Netherlands, there is a demand for a higher sorting capacity on the existing sorting systems. The objective for this research is to advice which part of the sorting system needs to be adjusted to gain a higher sorting capacity. For the current sorting systems, five bottlenecks are defined, the bottlenecks limit the sorting capacity. To be able to forecast the effect of machine adjustments, a discrete event simulation model has been constructed, using Simulink and Matlab. This simulation model is verified, matched and validated using data of on an existing rose sorting system. Results of a single day validation showed that the time to process the roses can be simulated with a 97% accuracy. Subsequently, five different simulations are executed. In each simulation, one of the five bottlenecks is removed or reduced. With the results of these simulations the capacity limitation due to each bottleneck is quantified. However entirely removing a bottleneck is not feasible in reality for all bottlenecks. A last situation is simulated where all feasible bottleneck reductions are combined. This showed that the time to sort all roses is reduced by 35%.Marine Technology | Transport Engineering and Logistic
- …
