672 research outputs found
Improvement on the mechanical properties of cork composites using suberin as coupling agent through a reactive extrusion process
New functionalized composite structures were prepared using low-density polyethylene (LDPE), cork powder and different suberins extracted from cork and birch outer bark as coupling agents to promote interfacial adhesion. The compounding was performed under reactive extrusion and samples processed by compression moulding. The morphology of the functionalized composites showed good adhesion between cork and the polymeric phase. The mechanical results confirm that the addition of suberin acts as coupling agent improving the strength and leads to cork-polymer composite materials with improved strain and lower modulus. When the suberin was added to the composition a slight increase on the composite density occurred. The new cork-polymer composites demonstrated that this technological approach is industrially appealing.QREN FCOMP-01-0202-FEDER-003107 finance support on the project ”NovelComp”.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).European project FP6 of Wacheup: New concepts for upgrading pulp and cork mill waste streams to value-added chemicals.Corticeira Amorim S.G.P.S. on the development of new products based in/with cork and for the supply of cork materials
Tight Finite-Key Analysis for Quantum Cryptography
Despite enormous progress both in theoretical and experimental quantum
cryptography, the security of most current implementations of quantum key
distribution is still not established rigorously. One of the main problems is
that the security of the final key is highly dependent on the number, M, of
signals exchanged between the legitimate parties. While, in any practical
implementation, M is limited by the available resources, existing security
proofs are often only valid asymptotically for unrealistically large values of
M. Here, we demonstrate that this gap between theory and practice can be
overcome using a recently developed proof technique based on the uncertainty
relation for smooth entropies. Specifically, we consider a family of
Bennett-Brassard 1984 quantum key distribution protocols and show that security
against general attacks can be guaranteed already for moderate values of M.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
A novel CT‑based automated analysis method provides comparable results with MRI in measuring brain atrophy and white matter lesions
Purpose Automated analysis of neuroimaging data is commonly based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but sometimes the availability is limited or a patient might have contradictions to MRI. Therefore, automated analyses of computed tomography (CT) images would be beneficial. Methods We developed an automated method to evaluate medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA), global cortical atrophy (GCA), and the severity of white matter lesions (WMLs) from a CT scan and compared the results to those obtained from MRI in a cohort of 214 subjects gathered from Kuopio and Helsinki University Hospital registers from 2005 - 2016. Results The correlation coefficients of computational measures between CT and MRI were 0.9 (MTA), 0.82 (GCA), and 0.86 (Fazekas). CT-based measures were identical to MRI-based measures in 60% (MTA), 62% (GCA) and 60% (Fazekas) of cases when the measures were rounded to the nearest full grade variable. However, the difference in measures was 1 or less in 97-98% of cases. Similar results were obtained for cortical atrophy ratings, especially in the frontal and temporal lobes, when assessing the brain lobes separately. Bland-Altman plots and weighted kappa values demonstrated high agreement regarding measures based on CT and MRI. Conclusions MTA, GCA, and Fazekas grades can also be assessed reliably from a CT scan with our method. Even though the measures obtained with the different imaging modalities were not identical in a relatively extensive cohort, the differences were minor. This expands the possibility of using this automated analysis method when MRI is inaccessible or contraindicated.Peer reviewe
Pathways towards Legal Migration into the EU: Reappraising concepts, trajectories and policies. CEPS Paperback, September 2017
On 27 January 2017, the Justice and Home Affairs Section of CEPS and
the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG
HOME) of the European Commission co-organised a policy
workshop in Brussels entitled “Reappraising the EU legal migration acquis:
Legal pathways for a new model of economic migration, and the role of
social science research”. The event brought together leading academics,
practitioners and European Commission representatives to assess and
discuss the state of play in the (internal and external) EU legal migration
acquis, and its role in developing legal pathways towards economic
migration.
Held under the Chatham House Rule, the policy workshop’s
roundtable discussions allowed participants to identify and address some of
the key challenges, inconsistencies and gaps in the standing EU policies and
legislation in the area of legal and economic migration. Scholars involved in
EU and nationally funded, collaborative research projects on social science
and humanities (SSH) had the opportunity to exchange interdisciplinary
knowledge with European Commission officials representing the different
services working on legal migration policies. The role and potential of
independent academic research in the framework of EU migration policymaking
were also discussed. The full programme of the policy workshop is
reproduced in the annex of this book
Tackling the translational challenges of multi-omics research in the realm of European personalised medicine : A workshop report
Personalised medicine (PM) presents a great opportunity to improve the future of individualised healthcare. Recent advances in -omics technologies have led to unprecedented efforts characterising the biology and molecular mechanisms that underlie the development and progression of a wide array of complex human diseases, supporting further development of PM. This article reflects the outcome of the 2021 EATRIS-Plus Multi-omics Stakeholder Group workshop organised to 1) outline a global overview of common promises and challenges that key European stakeholders are facing in the field of multi-omics research, 2) assess the potential of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and 3) establish an initial dialogue between key initiatives in this space. Our focus is on the alignment of agendas of European initiatives in multi-omics research and the centrality of patients in designing solutions that have the potential to advance PM in long-term healthcare strategies.Peer reviewe
Comprehensive evaluation of coding region point mutations in microsatellite-unstable colorectal cancer
Microsatellite instability (MSI) leads to accumulation of an excessive number of mutations in the genome, mostly small insertions and deletions. MSI colorectal cancers (CRCs), however, also contain more point mutations than microsatellite-stable (MSS) tumors, yet they have not been as comprehensively studied. To identify candidate driver genes affected by point mutations in MSI CRC, we ranked genes based on mutation significance while correcting for replication timing and gene expression utilizing an algorithm, MutSigCV. Somatic point mutation data from the exome kit-targeted area from 24 exome-sequenced sporadic MSI CRCs and respective normals, and 12 whole-genome-sequenced sporadic MSI CRCs and respective normals were utilized. The top 73 genes were validated in 93 additional MSI CRCs. The MutSigCV ranking identified several well-established MSI CRC driver genes and provided additional evidence for previously proposed CRC candidate genes as well as shortlisted genes that have to our knowledge not been linked to CRC before. Two genes, SMARCB1 and STK38L, were also functionally scrutinized, providing evidence of a tumorigenic role, for SMARCB1 mutations in particular. © 2018 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 licensePeer reviewe
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