Sensor Drift Compensation Using Fuzzy Interference System and Sparse-Grid Quadrature Filter in Blood Glucose Control

Diabetes mellitus is a serious chronic condition of the human metabolism. The development of an automated treatment has reached clinical phase in the last few years. The goal is to keep the blood glucose concentration within a certain region with minimal interaction required by the patient or medical personnel. However, there are still several prac- tical problems to solve. One of these would be that the available sensors have significant noise and drift. The latter is rather difficult to manage, because the deviating signal can cause the controller to drive the glu- cose concentration out of the safe region even in the case of frequent calibration. In this study a linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) controller is employed on a widely used diabetes model and enhanced with an ad- vanced Sparse-grid quadratic filter and a fuzzy interference system-based calibration supervisor

Morphological and Histochemical Changes in Intercellular Junctional Complexes in Epithelial Cells of Mouse Small Intestine Upon X-Irradiation: Changes of Ruthenium Red Permeability and Calcium Content

Changes of calcium-content and permeability of tight junction following X-irradiation were investigated in mouse intestinal epithelial cells by electron microscopy. In the control animals the lower parts of tight junctional area as well as the other junctional elements and the intercellular space are labeled by pyroantimonate precipitates, which contain calcium as revealed by electron spectroscopy and electron energy loss spectrometry. X-irradiation, parallel with morphological changes, lead to rapid decrease of pyroantimonate precipitable calcium content and increase of the permeability of tight junctions indicated by the penetration of ruthenium red into the intercellular space. These changes were readily reversible following 0,5 Gy doses of irradiation however, they persisted up to 24 hours following 5 Gy irradiation. We conclude that irradiation at the applied doses can transiently destabilize the tight junctions in the epithelial layer of the small intestine, presumably through a calcium dependent mechanism

Mechanochemical Reactions of Lithium Niobate Induced by High-Energy Ball-Milling

Lithium niobate (LiNbO3, LN) nanocrystals were prepared by ball-milling of the crucible residue of a Czochralski grown congruent single crystal, using a Spex 8000 Mixer Mill with different types of vials (stainless steel, alumina, tungsten carbide) and various milling parameters. Dynamic light scattering and powder X-ray diffraction were used to determine the achieved particle and grain sizes, respectively. Possible contamination from the vials was checked by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy measurements. Milling resulted in sample darkening due to mechanochemical reduction of Nb (V) via polaron and bipolaron formation, oxygen release and Li2O segregation, while subsequent oxidizing heat-treatments recovered the white color with the evaporation of Li2O and crystallization of a LiNb3O8 phase instead. The phase transformations occurring during both the grinding and the post-grinding heat treatments were studied by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and optical reflection measurement, while the Li2O content of the as-ground samples was quantitatively measured by coulometric titration

Effects of Modulated and Continuous Microwave Irradiation on the Morphology and Cell Surface Negative Charge of 3T3 Fibroblasts

Mouse embryo 3T3 cells were irradiated with 2450 MHz continuous and low frequency (16 Hz) square modulated waves of absorbed energy ranging from 0.0024 to 2.4 mW/g. The low frequency modulated microwave irradiation yielded more morphological cell changes than did the continuous microwave fields of the same intensity. The amount of free negative charges (cationized ferritin binding) on cell surfaces decreased following irradiation by modulated waves but remained unchanged under the effect of a continuous field of the same dose. Modulated waves of 0.024 mW/g dose increased the ruffling activity of the cells, and caused ultrastructural alteration in the cytoplasm. Similar effects were experienced by continuous waves at higher (0.24 and 2.4 mW/g) doses