Hyperscaling in the Domany-Kinzel Cellular Automaton

An apparent violation of hyperscaling at the endpoint of the critical line in the Domany-Kinzel stochastic cellular automaton finds an elementary resolution upon noting that the order parameter is discontinuous at this point. We derive a hyperscaling relation for such transitions and discuss applications to related examples.Comment: 8 pages, latex, no figure

Requirements for a Nutrition Education Demonstrator

[Context and Motivation] Development of innovative ICT-based applications is a complex process involving collaboration of all relevant disciplines. This complexity arises due to differences in terminology, knowledge and often also the ways of working between developers in the disciplines involved. [Question/problem] Advances in each discipline bring a rich design environment of theories, models, methods and techniques. Making a selection from these makes the development of distributed applications very challenging, often requiring a holistic approach to address the needs of the disciplines involved. This paper describes early stage requirements acquisition of a mobile nutrition education demonstrator which supports overweight persons in adopting healthier dietary behaviour. [Principal idea/results] We present a novel way to combine and use known requirements acquisition methods involving a two stage user needs analysis based on scenarios which apply a theory-based model of behavioural change and are onstructed in two phases. The first phase scenarios specify an indicative description reflecting the use of the transtheoretical model of behavioural change. In the second phase, a handshake protocol adds elements of optative system-oriented descriptions to the scenarios such that the intended system can support the indicative description. [Contribution] The holistic and phased approach separates design concerns to which each of the disciplines contributes with their own expertise and domain principles. It preserves the applied domain principles in the design and it bridges gaps in terminology, knowledge and ways of working

The DNA electronic specific heat at low temperature: The role of aperiodicity

AbstractThe electronic specific heat spectra at constant volume (CV) of a long-range correlated extended ladder model, mimicking a DNA molecule, is theoretically analyzed for a stacked array of a double-stranded structure made up from the nucleotides guanine G, adenine A, cytosine C and thymine T. The role of the aperiodicity on CV is discussed, considering two different nucleotide arrangements with increasing disorder, namely the Fibonacci and the Rudin–Shapiro quasiperiodic structures. Comparisons are made for different values of the band fillings, considering also a finite segment of natural DNA, as part of the human chromosome Ch22

A novel enzymatically-mediated drug delivery carrier for bone tissue engineering applications: combining biodegradable starch-based microparticles and differentiation agents

In many biomedical applications, the performance of biomaterials depends largely on their degradation behavior. For instance, in drug delivery applications, the polymeric carrier should degrade under physiological conditions slowly releasing the encapsulated drug. The aim of this work was, therefore, to develop an enzymaticmediated degradation carrier system for the delivery of differentiation agents to be used in bone tissue engineering applications. For that, a polymeric blend of starch with polycaprolactone (SPCL) was used to produce a microparticle carrier for the controlled release of dexamethasone (DEX). In order to investigate the effect of enzymes on the degradation behavior of the developed system and release profile of the encapsulated osteogenic agent (DEX), the microparticles were incubated in phosphate buffer solution in the presence of a-amylase and/or lipase enzymes (at physiological concentrations), at 37 C for different periods of time. The degradation was followed by gravimetric measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and the release of DEX was monitored by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The developed microparticles were shown to be susceptible to enzymatic degradation, as observed by an increase in weight loss and porosity with degradation time when compared with control samples (incubation in buffer only). For longer degradation times, the diameter of the microparticles decreased significantly and a highly porous matrix was obtained. The in vitro release studies showed a sustained release pattern with 48% of the encapsulated drug being released for a period of 30 days. As the degradation proceeds, it is expected that the remaining encapsulated drug will be completely released as a consequence of an increasingly permeable matrix and faster diffusion of the drug. Cytocompatibility results indicated the possibility of the developed microparticles to be used as biomaterial due to their reduced cytotoxic effects

Mobile monitoring application to support sustainable behavioural change towards healthy lifestyle

We describe the development of body area networks (BANs) incorporating sensors and other devices to provide intelligent mobile services in healthcare and well-being. The first BAN applications were designed to simply transmit biosignals and display them remotely. Further developments include analysis and interpretation of biosignals in the light of context data. By including feedback loops, BAN telemonitoring was also augmented with teletreatment services. Recent developments include incorporation of clinical decision support by applying techniques from artificial intelligence. These developments represent a movement towards smart healthcare, making health BAN applications more intelligent by incorporating feedback, context awareness, personalization, and decision support.\ud The element of decision support was first introduced into the BAN health and well-being applications in the Food Valley Eating Advisor (FOVEA) project. Obesity and overweight represent a growing threat to health and well-being in modern society. Physical inactivity has been shown to contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality rates, and this is now a global trend bringing huge costs in terms of human suffering and reduction in life expectancy as well as uncontrolled growth in demand on healthcare services. Part of the solution is to foster healthier lifestyle. A major challenge however is that exercise and dietary programs may work for the individual in the short term, but adherence in the medium and long term is difficult to sustain, making weight management a continuing struggle for individuals and a growing problem for society, governments, and health services. Using ICT to support sustainable behavioral change in relation to healthy exercise and diet is the goal of the FOVEA monitoring and feedback application. We strive to design and develop intelligent BAN-based applications that support motivation and adherence in the long term. We present this healthy lifestyle application and report results of an evaluation conducted by surveying professionals in related disciplines

Nanomaterials for Advancing the Health Immunosensor

Nanotechnology has exerted a significant impact in the development of biosensors allowing more sensible analytical methods. In health applications, the main challenge of the immunoassay is to reach the suitable limit of detection, recognizing different analytes in complex samples like whole blood, serum, urine, and other biological fluids. Different nanomaterials, including metallic, silica and magnetic nanoparticles, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, have been applied, mainly to improve charge electron transfer, catalytic activity, amount of immobilized biomolecules, low-background current, signal-to-noise ratio that consequently increase the sensitivity of immunosensors. Given the great impact of nanotechnology, this chapter intends to discuss new aspects of nanomaterials relating to immunosensor advancement

Interpreting streaming biosignals:in search of best approaches to augmenting mobile health monitoring with machine learning for adaptive clinical decision support

We investigate Body Area Networks for ambulant patient monitoring. As well as sensing physiological parameters, BAN applications may provide feedback to patients. Automating formulation of feedback requires realtime analysis and interpretation of streaming biosignals and other context and knowledge sources. We illustrate with two prototype applications: the first is designed to detect epileptic seizures and support appropriate intervention. The second is a decision support application aiding weight management; the goal is to promote health and prevent chronic illnesses associated with overweight/obesity. We begin to explore extending these and other m-health applications with generic AI-based decision support and machine learning. Monitoring success of different behavioural change strategies could provide a basis for machine learning, enabling adaptive clinical decision support by personalising and adapting strategies to individuals and their changing needs. Data mining applied to BAN data aggregated from large numbers of patients opens up possibilities for discovery of new clinical knowledge

Caracterização de uma vegetação de cerrado em uma área no município de Nova Olinda-CE

Caracterização de uma vegetação de cerrado em umaárea no município de Nova Olinda-C

Measurement of the p-pbar -> Wgamma + X cross section at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV and WWgamma anomalous coupling limits

The WWgamma triple gauge boson coupling parameters are studied using p-pbar -> l nu gamma + X (l = e,mu) events at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV. The data were collected with the DO detector from an integrated luminosity of 162 pb^{-1} delivered by the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The cross section times branching fraction for p-pbar -> W(gamma) + X -> l nu gamma + X with E_T^{gamma} > 8 GeV and Delta R_{l gamma} > 0.7 is 14.8 +/- 1.6 (stat) +/- 1.0 (syst) +/- 1.0 (lum) pb. The one-dimensional 95% confidence level limits on anomalous couplings are -0.88 < Delta kappa_{gamma} < 0.96 and -0.20 < lambda_{gamma} < 0.20.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. D Rapid Communication