Rank Order for a Rehabilitation Program Using Multiple Criteria

In this study we investigate an urban planning problem where an area is to be rehabilitated. The area is divided into several sub-areas any of which could be the starting point for the rehabilitation process. The ultimate goal is to find a rank order for the alternative sub-areas, which simultaneously solves the problem of where to start the rehabilitation. If all information are given on the ordinal scale, we could use e.g. the classical minimum violation principle to solve this problem. In this paper, we have generalized this approach to cover the cardinal scale and pairwise information

New Developments in Spin Labels for Pulsed Dipolar EPR

Spin labelling is a chemical technique that enables the integration of a molecule containing an unpaired electron into another framework for study. Given the need to understand the structure, dynamics, and conformational changes of biomacromolecules, spin labelling provides a relatively non-intrusive technique and has certain advantages over X-ray crystallography; which requires high quality crystals. The technique relies on the design of binding probes that target a functional group, for example, the thiol group of a cysteine residue within a protein. The unpaired electron is typically supplied through a nitroxide radical and sterically shielded to preserve stability. Pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) techniques allow small magnetic couplings to be measured (e.g., <50 MHz) providing information on single label probes or the dipolar coupling between multiple labels. In particular, distances between spin labels pairs can be derived which has led to many protein/enzymes and nucleotides being studied. Here, we summarise recent examples of spin labels used for pulse EPR that serve to illustrate the contribution of chemistry to advancing discoveries in this field

Detection of Ligand-induced Conformational Changes in the Activation Loop of Aurora-A Kinase by PELDOR Spectroscopy.

The structure of protein kinases has been extensively studied by protein crystallography. Conformational movement of the kinase activation loop is thought to be crucial for regulation of activity; however, in many cases the position of the activation loop in solution is unknown. Protein kinases are an important class of therapeutic target and kinase inhibitors are classified by their effect on the activation loop. Here, we report the use of pulsed electron double resonance (PELDOR) and site-directed spin labeling to monitor conformational changes through the insertion of MTSL [S-(1-oxyl-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-2,5-dihydro-1 H-pyrrol-3-yl)methyl methanesulfonothioate] on the dynamic activation loop and a stable site on the outer surface of the enzyme. The action of different ligands such as microtubule-associated protein (TPX2) and inhibitors could be discriminated as well as their ability to lock the activation loop in a fixed conformation. This study provides evidence for structural adaptations that could be used for drug design and a methodological approach that has potential to characterize inhibitors in development

Active vibration control of a mounting bracket for automotive gearboxes

The aim of this paper is to investigate the use of active vibration control in automotive gearboxes mounting brackets to reduce tonal disturbances. A combination of piezoelectric accelerometers and an internally preloaded piezo stack actuator is used to counteract their unbalanced caused vibrations. Initially, a numerical modal analysis was carried out to identify the normal modes in the frequency range of interest. The piezo stack was simulated by a ROD element and its effect numerically characterized. The upper and lower faces of the stack were mechanically coupled with the bracket structure, whereas the active control strategy involved the relative displacement of two opposite points of the bracket. To this aim, dedicated interfaces were designed to integrate the stack into the mounting bracket. In order to control the vibrations in correspondence of the second bending mode (1599.4Hz), the primary disturbance, simulated by a shaker, was modelled in the frequency domain using a white noise signal. A narrow window of 20Hz was initially selected as the control system domain. Then, this frequency range has been made gradually wider around the resonance peak, in order to optimize the control effect, and then extended up to 80 Hz when undesired effects occurred. Primary and secondary control plants were firstly numerically fitted from the measured responses and excitations using system identification techniques, and then used for the active controller design and simulations

Feasibility study for a tonal vibration control system of a mounting bracket for automotive gearboxes

A conceptual design of an active device able to attenuate the tonal vibrations of a mounting bracket for automotive gearboxes is addressed in this paper. A preloaded piezo stack actuator is used to counteract the unbalanced vibrations of the component by monitoring its operational deformations. Firstly, a numerical modal analysis is carried out to characterize the normal modes in the frequency range of interest. The piezo stack is simulated by a rod element and its effect is numerically characterized. The upper and lower faces of the stack are mechanically coupled with the bracket structure, whereas the active control deals with the relative displacement of two points of the bracket. The primary disturbance was simulated by a shaker to control the vibrations in correspondence of the second bending mode (around 1.6 kHz). A 20 Hz narrow band was additionally selected as the control window. Then, this frequency range was enlarged around the resonance peak in order to optimize the control effect, till 80 Hz to investigate the resulting effects. Finally, focus is given to the structural damping by assessing its impact on the control forces and phases to cancel the deformation along the contact direction. The description of the experimental results concludes this work by generally confirming the numerical expectations

Application of Keystroke Dynamics Modelling Techniques to Strengthen the User Identification in the Context of E-commerce

Keystroke dynamics is a biometric technique to identify users based on analysing habitual rhythm patterns in their typing behaviour. In e-commerce, this technique brings benefits to both security and the analysis of patterns of consumer behaviour. This paper focuses on analysing the keystroke dynamics against an e-commerce site for personal identification. This paper is an empirical reinforcement of previous works, with data extracted from realistic conditions that are of most interest for the practical application of modelling keystroke dynamics in free texts. It was a collaborative work with one of the leading e-commerce companies in Latin America. Experimental results showed that it was possible to identify typists with an accuracy of 89% from a sampling of 300 randomly selected users just by reading comment field keystrokes.VII Workshop Seguridad Informática (WSI)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Application of Keystroke Dynamics Modelling Techniques to Strengthen the User Identification in the Context of E-commerce

Keystroke dynamics is a biometric technique to identify users based on analysing habitual rhythm patterns in their typing behaviour. In e-commerce, this technique brings benefits to both security and the analysis of patterns of consumer behaviour. This paper focuses on analysing the keystroke dynamics against an e-commerce site for personal identification. This paper is an empirical reinforcement of previous works, with data extracted from realistic conditions that are of most interest for the practical application of modelling keystroke dynamics in free texts. It was a collaborative work with one of the leading e-commerce companies in Latin America. Experimental results showed that it was possible to identify typists with an accuracy of 89% from a sampling of 300 randomly selected users just by reading comment field keystrokes.VII Workshop Seguridad Informática (WSI)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Anterior Segment-Optical Coherence Tomography features in Blau syndrome.

Blau syndrome (BS) is a rare granulomatous auto-inflammatory disease, characterized by the classic clinical triad of joints, skin and ocular involvements. Ocular manifestation usually consists in a bilateral insidious chronic anterior uveitis with a potential evolution to panuveitis. We describe the case of two siblings, an 8-years old female and a 5-years old male, with a diagnosis of BS, evaluated by Anterior Segment-Optical Coherence Tomography (AS-OCT). In the female patient, slit-lamp examination revealed bilateral anterior granulomatous uveitis and inflammatory sequelae. AS-OCT revealed high intensity reflective layers in the anterior cornea, hyperreflective dots both in the aqueous humor and in the posterior corneal surface. In the male, no signs of inflammation were detected both on slit-lamp examination and AS-OCT scans. AS-OCT is a valuable, non-invasive tool that could improve the diagnosis of ocular involvement, better characterize and follow-up corneal alterations and anterior segment features in pediatric patients with BS

Application of Keystroke Dynamics Modelling Techniques to Strengthen the User Identification in the Context of E-commerce

Keystroke dynamics is a biometric technique to identify users based on analysing habitual rhythm patterns in their typing behaviour. In e-commerce, this technique brings benefits to both security and the analysis of patterns of consumer behaviour. This paper focuses on analysing the keystroke dynamics against an e-commerce site for personal identification. This paper is an empirical reinforcement of previous works, with data extracted from realistic conditions that are of most interest for the practical application of modelling keystroke dynamics in free texts. It was a collaborative work with one of the leading e-commerce companies in Latin America. Experimental results showed that it was possible to identify typists with an accuracy of 89% from a sampling of 300 randomly selected users just by reading comment field keystrokes.VII Workshop Seguridad Informática (WSI)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI