Інноваційне управління новачками

Detta projekt har gått ut på att bygga en självbalanserande robot på två hjul som autonomt ska kunna köra 10-30 meter rakt fram, detektera en svart linje på marken och sedan stanna och fortsätta hålla balansen. Vi valde en cykelkonstruktion med en propellerbestyckad vinge för balansering. Två propellrar regleras av en PID-regulator med hjälp av signaler från en accelerometer och ett gyro. Framdriften sker med en DC-motor kopplad till framhjulet. En reflexionssensor används för detekteringen av den svarta linjen och hela framdrivningen styrs via IR-fjärrkontroll.The goal of this project was to build a self-balancing robot on two wheels that autonomously can drive 10-30 meters, detect a black line on the ground and then stop while still upholding balance. We chose a bike-like construction with a propeller-mounted wing for balancing. Two propellers are regulated by a PID-regulator aided by an accelerometer and a gyro. Propulsion is done by a DC-motor on the front wheel. A reflex sensor is used to detect the black line and the whole propulsion system is remote controlled by IR

Pain and the biochemistry of fibromyalgia: patterns of peripheral cytokines and chemokines contribute to the differentiation between fibromyalgia and controls and are associated with pain, fat infiltration and content

ObjectivesThis explorative study analyses interrelationships between peripheral compounds in saliva, plasma, and muscles together with body composition variables in healthy subjects and in fibromyalgia patients (FM). There is a need to better understand the extent cytokines and chemokines are associated with body composition and which cytokines and chemokines differentiate FM from healthy controls.MethodsHere, 32 female FM patients and 30 age-matched female healthy controls underwent a clinical examination that included blood sample, saliva samples, and pain threshold tests. In addition, the subjects completed a health questionnaire. From these blood and saliva samples, a panel of 68 mainly cytokines and chemokines were determined. Microdialysis of trapezius and erector spinae muscles, phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy of erector spinae muscle, and whole-body magnetic resonance imaging for determination of body composition (BC)—i.e., muscle volume, fat content and infiltration—were also performed.ResultsAfter standardizing BC measurements to remove the confounding effect of Body Mass Index, fat infiltration and content are generally increased, and fat-free muscle volume is decreased in FM. Mainly saliva proteins differentiated FM from controls. When including all investigated compounds and BC variables, fat infiltration and content variables were most important, followed by muscle compounds and cytokines and chemokines from saliva and plasma. Various plasma proteins correlated positively with pain intensity in FM and negatively with pain thresholds in all subjects taken together. A mix of increased plasma cytokines and chemokines correlated with an index covering fat infiltration and content in different tissues. When muscle compounds were included in the analysis, several of these were identified as the most important regressors, although many plasma and saliva proteins remained significant.DiscussionPeripheral factors were important for group differentiation between FM and controls. In saliva (but not plasma), cytokines and chemokines were significantly associated with group membership as saliva compounds were increased in FM. The importance of peripheral factors for group differentiation increased when muscle compounds and body composition variables were also included. Plasma proteins were important for pain intensity and sensitivity. Cytokines and chemokines mainly from plasma were also significantly and positively associated with a fat infiltration and content index.ConclusionOur findings of associations between cytokines and chemokines and fat infiltration and content in different tissues confirm that inflammation and immune factors are secreted from adipose tissue. FM is clearly characterized by complex interactions between peripheral tissues and the peripheral and central nervous systems, including nociceptive, immune, and neuroendocrine processes

Increase of beta-Lactam-Resistant Invasive Haemophilus influenzae in Sweden, 1997 to 2010

The proportions of Haemophilus influenzae resistant to ampicillin and other beta-lactam antibiotics have been low in Sweden compared to other countries in the Western world. However, a near-doubled proportion of nasopharyngeal Swedish H. influenzae isolates with resistance to beta-lactams has been observed in the last decade. In the present study, the epidemiology and mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance of H. influenzae isolates from blood and cerebrospinal fluid in southern Sweden from 1997 to 2010 (n = 465) were studied. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed using disk diffusion, and isolates with resistance to any tested beta-lactam were further analyzed in detail. We identified a significantly increased (P = 0.03) proportion of beta-lactam-resistant invasive H. influenzae during the study period, which was mainly attributed to a significant recent increase of beta-lactamase-negative beta-lactam-resistant isolates (P = 0.04). Furthermore, invasive beta-lactamase-negative beta-lactam-resistant H. influenzae isolates from 2007 and onwards were found in higher proportions than the corresponding proportions of nasopharyngeal isolates in a national survey. Multiple-locus sequence typing (MIST) of this group of isolates did not completely separate isolates with different resistance phenotypes. However, one cluster of beta-lactamase-negative ampicillin-resistant (BLNAR) isolates was identified, and it included isolates from all geographical areas. A truncated variant of a beta-lactamase gene with a promoter deletion, bla(TEM-1)-P Delta dominated among the beta-lactamase-positive H. influenzae isolates. Our results show that the proportions of beta-lactam-resistant invasive H. influenzae have increased in Sweden in the last decade

Visual assessment of biliary excretion of Gd-EOB-DTPA in patients with suspected diffuse liver disease – A biopsy-verified prospective study

AbstractObjectivesTo qualitatively evaluate late dynamic contrast phases, 10, 20 and 30min, after administration of Gd-EOB-DTPA with regard to biliary excretion in patients presenting with elevated liver enzymes without clinical signs of cirrhosis or hepatic decompensation and to compare the visual assessment of contrast agent excretion with histo-pathological fibrosis stage, contrast uptake parameters and blood tests.Methods29 patients were prospectively examined using 1.5T MRI. The visually assessed presence or absence of contrast agent for each of five anatomical regions in randomly reviewed time-series was summarized on a four grade scale for each patient. The scores, including a total visual score, were related to the histo-pathological findings, the quantitative contrast agent uptake parameters, expressed as KHep or LSC_N, and blood tests.ResultsNo relationship between the fibrosis grade or contrast uptake parameters could be established. A negative correlation between the visual assessment and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was found. Comparing a sub-group of cholestatic patients with fibrosis score and Gd-EOB-DTPA dynamic parameters did not add any additional significant correlation.ConclusionsNo correlation between visually assessed biliary excretion of Gd-EOB-DTPA and histo-pathological or contrast uptake parameters was found. A negative correlation between the visual assessment and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was found

Active Noise Control in Forest Machines

Achieving a low noise level is of great interest to the forest machine industry. Traditionally this is obtained by using passive noise reduction, i.e. by using materials for sound isolation and sound absorption. Especially designs to attenuate low frequency noise tend to be bulky and impractical from an installation point of view. An alternative solution to the problem is to use active noise control (ANC). The basic principle of ANC is to generate an anti-noise signal designed to destructively interfere with the unwanted noise. In this thesis two algorithms (Feedback FxLMS and Feedforward FxLMS) are implemented and evaluated for use in the ANC-system. The ANC-system is tuned to the specific environment in the driver’s cabin of a Komatsu forest machine. The algorithms are first tested in a simulated environment and then in real-time inside a forest machine. Simulations are made both in Matlab and in C using both generated signals and recorded signals. The C code is implemented on the Analog Devices Blackfin DSP card BF526. The result showed a significantly reduction of the sound pressure level (SPL) in the driver’s cabin. The noise attenuation obtained using the Feedback FxLMS was approximately 14 dB for a tonal 100 Hz signal and 11 dB using recorded engine noise from a forest machine at 850 rpm

Utredning av Smurfit Kappas plattform för styrning/reglering

Validerat; 20101217 (root

Human Whole Body Pharmacokinetic Minimal Model for the Liver Specific Contrast Agent Gd-EOB-DTPA

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the liver is an important non-invasive tool for diagnosing liver disease. A key application is dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). With the use of the hepatocyte specific contrast agent (CA) Gd-EOB-DTPA it is now possible to evaluate the liver function. Beyond traditional qualitative evaluation of the DCE-MRI images, parametric quantitative techniques are on the rise which yields more objective evaluations. Systems biology is a gradually expanding field using mathematical modeling to gain deeper mechanistic understanding in complex biological systems. The aim of this thesis to combine these two fields in order to derive a physiologically accurate minimal whole body model that can be used to quantitatively evaluate liver function using clinical DCE-MRI examinations.  The work is based on two previously published sources of data using Gd-EOB-DTPA in healthy humans; i) a region of interest analysis of the liver using DCE-MRI ii) a pre-clinical evaluation of the contrast agent using blood sampling.  The modeling framework consists of a system of ordinary differential equations for the contrast agent dynamics and non-linear models for conversion of contrast agent concentrations to relaxivity values in the DCE-MRI image volumes. Using a χ2-test I have shown that the model, with high probability, can fit the experimental data for doses up to twenty times the clinically used one, using the same parameters for all doses. The results also show that some of the parameters governing the hepatocyte flux of CA can be numerically identifiable. Future applications with the model might be as a basis for regional liver function assessment. This can lead to disease diagnosis and progression evaluation for physicians as well as support for surgeons planning liver resection

Human Whole Body Pharmacokinetic Minimal Model for the Liver Specific Contrast Agent Gd-EOB-DTPA

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the liver is an important non-invasive tool for diagnosing liver disease. A key application is dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). With the use of the hepatocyte specific contrast agent (CA) Gd-EOB-DTPA it is now possible to evaluate the liver function. Beyond traditional qualitative evaluation of the DCE-MRI images, parametric quantitative techniques are on the rise which yields more objective evaluations. Systems biology is a gradually expanding field using mathematical modeling to gain deeper mechanistic understanding in complex biological systems. The aim of this thesis to combine these two fields in order to derive a physiologically accurate minimal whole body model that can be used to quantitatively evaluate liver function using clinical DCE-MRI examinations.  The work is based on two previously published sources of data using Gd-EOB-DTPA in healthy humans; i) a region of interest analysis of the liver using DCE-MRI ii) a pre-clinical evaluation of the contrast agent using blood sampling.  The modeling framework consists of a system of ordinary differential equations for the contrast agent dynamics and non-linear models for conversion of contrast agent concentrations to relaxivity values in the DCE-MRI image volumes. Using a χ2-test I have shown that the model, with high probability, can fit the experimental data for doses up to twenty times the clinically used one, using the same parameters for all doses. The results also show that some of the parameters governing the hepatocyte flux of CA can be numerically identifiable. Future applications with the model might be as a basis for regional liver function assessment. This can lead to disease diagnosis and progression evaluation for physicians as well as support for surgeons planning liver resection

A conjugate-gradient based approach for approximate solutions of quadratic programs

This paper deals with numerical behaviour and convergence properties of a recently presented column generation approach for optimization of so called step-and-shoot radiotherapy treatment plans. The approach and variants of it have been reported to be efficient in practice, finding near-optimal solutions by generating only a low number of columns. The impact of different restrictions on the columns in a column generation method is studied, and numerical results are given for quadratic programs corresponding to three patient cases. In particular, it is noted that with a bound on the two-norm of the columns, the method is equivalent to the conjugate-gradient method. Further, the above-mentioned column generation approach for radiotherapy is obtained by employing a restriction based on the infinity-norm and non-negativity. The column generation method has weak convergence properties if restricted to generating feasible step-and-shoot plans, with a "tailing-off" effect for the objective values. However, the numerical results demonstrate that, like the conjugate-gradient method, a rapid decrease of the objective value is obtained in the first few iterations. For the three patient cases, the restriction on the columns to generate feasible step-and-shoot plans has small effect on the numerical efficiency.QC 2012032