1,389 research outputs found
genetic optimization for economic feasibility of refurbishment in buildings
Abstract This paper investigates the possibility to enhance the thermal characteristics of a building fabric taking into account the economic feasibility in order to avoid useless expensive interventions. The problem consists in realizing an internal insulation system for a single apartment located in Trieste. A genetic optimization has been implemented in order to search a large number of solutions with multiple objects and constraints. EnergyPlus has been used for dynamic building and plant simulation and modeFRONTIER for optimization loop setup. The objectives are the used heating energy consumption and the life cycle refurbishment cost, using a net present value approach. An additional objective has been added in order to guarantee the maximization of the interior useful floor area, which is directly influenced by the internal insulation thickness. Different approaches have been compared, considering actions dealing with opaque surfaces only or considering the replacement of existing windows. The paper demonstrates that an automatic optimization approach can help designers to identify the best suited intervention for building refurbishment
The Low Energy Tagger for the KLOE-2 experiment
The KLOE experiment at the upgraded DAFNE e+e- collider in Frascati (KLOE-2)
is going to start a new data taking at the beginning of 2010 with its detector
upgraded with a tagging system for the identification of gamma-gamma
interactions. The tagging stations for low-energy e+e- will consist in two
calorimeters The calorimeter used to detect low-energy e+e- will be placed
between the beam-pipe outer support structure and the inner wall of the KLOE
drift chamber. This calorimeter will be made of LYSO crystals readout by
Silicon Photomultipliers, to achieve an energy resolution better than 8% at 200
MeV.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, in the proceedings of "Frontier detectors for
frontier physics", isola d'Elba, Italy, May 200
Polymorphisms in Pepsinogen C and miRNA Genes Associate with High Serum Pepsinogen II in Gastric Cancer Patients
Background: Pepsinogen (PG) II (PGII) is a serological marker used to estimate the risk of
gastric cancer but how PGII expression is regulated is largely unknown. It has been suggested that
PGII expression, from the PGC (Progastricsin) gene, is regulated by microRNAs (miRNA), but how
PGII levels vary with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and miRNAs genotype remains unclear.
Methods: Serum levels of PGI and PGII were determined in 80 patients with gastric cancer and
persons at risk for gastric cancer (74 first-degree relatives of patients, 62 patients with autoimmune
chronic atrophic gastritis, and 2 patients with dysplasia), with and without H. pylori infection. As
control from the general population, 52 blood donors were added to the analyses. Associations
between PGII levels and genetic variants in PGC and miRNA genes in these groups were explored
based on H. pylori seropositivity and the risk for gastric cancer. The two-dimensional difference
in gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and the NanoString analysis of messenger RNA (mRNAs) from
gastric cancer tissue were used to determine the pathways associated with increased PGII levels.
Results: PGII levels were significantly higher in patients with gastric cancer, and in those with H.
pylori infection, than in other patients or controls. A PGI/PGII ratio 3 was found better than
PGI < 25 ng/mL to identify patients with gastric cancer (15.0% vs. 8.8%). For two genetic variants,
namely rs8111742 in miR-Let-7e and rs121224 in miR-365b, there were significant differences in
PGII levels between genotype groups among patients with gastric cancer (p = 0.02 and p = 0.01,
respectively), but not among other study subjects. Moreover, a strict relation between rs9471643
C-allele with H. pylori infection and gastric cancer was underlined. Fold change in gene expression of
mRNA isolated from gastric cancer tissue correlated well with polymorphism, H. pylori infection,
increased PGII level, and pathway for bacteria cell entry into the host. Conclusions: Serum PGII
levels depend in part on an interaction between H. pylori and host miRNA genotypes, which may
interfere with the cut-off of PGI/PGII ratio used to identify persons at risk of gastric cancer. Results
reported new findings regarding the relation among H. pylori, PGII-related host polymorphism, and
genes involved in this interaction in the gastric cancer setting
Functional Brain Connectivity Patterns Associated with Visual Hallucinations in Dementia with Lewy Bodies
The supplementary material is available in the electronic version of this article: https://doi.org/ 10.3233/ADR-200288.Copyright © 2021 – The authors. Background:
The presence of recurrent, complex visual hallucinations (VH) is among the core clinical features of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). It has been proposed that VH arise from a disrupted organization of functional brain networks. However, studies are still limited, especially investigating the resting-state functional brain features underpinning VH in patients with dementia.
Objective:
The aim of the present pilot study was to investigate whether there were any alterations in functional connectivity associated with VH in DLB.
Methods:
Seed-based analyses and independent component analysis (ICA) of resting-state fMRI scans were carried out to explore differences in functional connectivity between DLB patients with and without VH.
Results:
Seed-based analyses reported decreased connectivity of the lateral geniculate nucleus, the superior parietal lobule and the putamen with the medial frontal gyrus in DLB patients with VH. Visual areas showed a pattern of both decreased and increased functional connectivity. ICA revealed between-group differences in the default mode network (DMN).
Conclusion:
Functional connectivity analyses suggest dysfunctional top-down and bottom-up processes and DMN-related alterations in DLB patients with VH. This impairment might foster the generation of false visual images that are misinterpreted, ultimately resulting in VH.Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health, University of Sheffield, UK matched funding studentship
Measurement of neutron detection efficiency between 22 and 174 MeV using two different kinds of Pb-scintillating fiber sampling calorimeters
We exposed a prototype of the lead-scintillating fiber KLOE calorimeter to
neutron beam of 21, 46 and 174 MeV at The Svedberg Laboratory, Uppsala, to
study its neutron detection efficiency. This has been found larger than what
expected considering the scintillator thickness of the prototype. %To check our
method, we measured also the neutron %detection efficiency of a 5 cm thick
NE110 scintillator. We show preliminary measurement carried out with a
different prototype with a larger lead/fiber ratio, which proves the relevance
of passive material to neutron detection efficiency in this kind of
calorimeters
Higher ventricular-arterial coupling derived from three-dimensional echocardiography is associated with a worse clinical outcome in systemic sclerosis
Primary myocardial involvement is common in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Ventricular-arterial coupling (VAC) reflecting the interplay between ventricular performance and arterial load, is a key determinant of cardiovascular (CV) performance. We aimed to investigate VAC, VAC-derived indices, and the potential association between altered VAC and survival free from death/hospitalization for major adverse CV events (MACE) in scleroderma. Only SSc patients without any anamnes-tic and echocardiographic evidence of primary myocardial involvement who underwent three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) were included in this cross-sectional study and compared with healthy matched controls. 3DE was used for noninvasive measurements of end-systolic elastance (Ees), arterial elastance (Ea), VAC (Ea/Ees) and end-diastolic elastance (Eed); the occurrence of death/hospitalization for MACE was recorded during follow-up. Sixty-five SSc patients (54 female; aged 56 ± 14 years) were included. Ees (p = 0.04), Ea (p = 0.04) and Eed (p = 0.01) were higher in patients vs. controls. Thus, VAC was similar in both groups. Ees was lower and VAC was higher in patients with diffuse cutaneous form (dcSSc) vs. patients with limited form (lcSSc) (p = 0.001 and p = 0.02, respectively). Over a median follow-up of 4 years, four patients died for heart failure and 34 were hospitalized for CV events. In patients with VAC >0.63 the risk of MACE was higher (HR 2.5; 95% CI 1.13–5.7; p = 0.01) and survival free from death/hospitalization was lower (p = 0.005) than in those with VAC < 0.63. Our study suggests that VAC may be impaired in SSc patients without signs and symptoms of primary myocardial involvement. Moreover, VAC appears to have a prognostic role in SSc
Níveis de metano e perdas energéticas em bovinos de corte, suplementados ou não, em pastagem de capim mombaça (Panicum maximum cv. Mombaça).
Objetivou-se avaliar o impacto da suplementação protéico-energética na emissão de metano (CH4) de novilhos, durante a recria, em pastagem de capim-mombaça. Os tratamentos avaliados foram: T0 ? Apenas suplementação mineral; T1 ? Suplementação protéico-energética. Utilizou-se a técnica do gás traçador interno hexafluoreto de enxofre (SF6) para estimar a emissão diária de CH4. Foram utilizados 20 animais, sendo dez de cada tratamento, em dois ensaios, com medição de CH4 em cinco dias consecutivos. Na análise estatística dos dados de emissão de CH4 , utilizou-se a metodologia de modelos mistos para medidas repetidas do SAS. Os animais foram também avaliados quanto à eficiência de utilização do alimento, utilizando-se como critério o consumo alimentar residual (CAR). Animais suplementados e não suplementados não diferiram (P>0,05) quanto à produção diária de metano e quanto à perda total diária de energia na forma de CH4. Entretanto, quando a perda de energia foi expressa em g/kg de matéria seca consumida (21,51 vs. 29,76 g/kg) e como porcentagem da energia bruta (EB) ingerida (6,36 versus 8,59 %), os animais suplementados tiveram menores perdas (P0,05) quanto aos níveis de emissão de metano (total ou por kg de matéria seca ? MS ingerida). Assim, conclui-se que: a suplementação com concentrado age de forma efetiva na mitigação da emissão de metano; diferenças no CAR não podem ser atribuídas a diferenças nos níveis de emissão de metano
Study of the a_0(980) meson via the radiative decay phi->eta pi^0 gamma with the KLOE detector
We have studied the phi->a_0(980) gamma process with the KLOE detector at the
Frascati phi-factory DAPhNE by detecting the phi->eta pi^0 gamma decays in the
final states with eta->gamma gamma and eta->pi^+ pi^- pi^0. We have measured
the branching ratios for both final states: Br(phi->eta pi^0 gamma)=(7.01 +/-
0.10 +/- 0.20)x10^-5 and (7.12 +/- 0.13 +/- 0.22)x10^-5 respectively. We have
also extracted the a_0(980) mass and its couplings to eta pi^0, K^+ K^-, and to
the phi meson from the fit of the eta pi^0 invariant mass distributions using
different phenomenological models.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Physics Letters B. Corrected typos
in eq.
A global fit to determine the pseudoscalar mixing angle and the gluonium content of the eta' meson
We update the values of the eta-eta' mixing angle and of the eta' gluonium
content by fitting our measurement R_phi = BR(phi to eta' gamma)/ BR(phi to eta
gamma) together with several vector meson radiative decays to pseudoscalars (V
to P gamma), pseudoscalar mesons radiative decays to vectors (P to V gamma) and
the eta' to gamma gamma, pi^0 to gamma gamma widths. From the fit we extract a
gluonium fraction of Z^2_G = 0.12 +- 0.04, the pseudoscalar mixing angle psi_P
= (40.4 +- 0.6) degree and the phi-omega mixing angle psi_V = (3.32 +- 0.09)
degree. Z^2_G and psi_P are fairly consistent with those previously published.
We also evaluate the impact on the eta' gluonium content determination of
future experimental improvements of the eta' branching ratios and decay width.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures to submit to JHE
Measurement of the neutron detection efficiency of a 80% absorber - 20% scintillating fibers calorimeter
The neutron detection efficiency of a sampling calorimeter made of 1 mm
diameter scintillating fibers embedded in a lead/bismuth structure has been
measured at the neutron beam of the The Svedberg Laboratory at Uppsala. A
significant enhancement of the detection efficiency with respect to a bulk
organic scintillator detector with the same thickness is observed.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
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