Industrial symbiosis software: software and method to facilitate industrial symbiosis

Bedrijven gaan tegenwoordig vooral lineair om met hun materialen. Grondstoffen komen binnen, worden verwerkt tot producten en hun afval wordt afgevoerd. Binnen één bedrijf ziet dit er logisch uit, maar in een systeem van meerdere bedrijven is te zien dat dit efficiënter kan. Als het afval van een bedrijf gebruikt zou worden als grondstof door een ander bedrijf, ontstaat er industriële symbiose. Daardoor worden er minder grondstoffen verbruikt en worden bruikbare restmaterialen niet verspild. Om bedrijven te helpen bij het zoeken naar partners voor zulke uitwisselingen, is de software InduSym ontwikkeld. Met de software kunnen bedrijven hun grondstoffen en restmateriaal invoeren in een database. Een algoritme doorzoekt deze database en presenteert in een rapport de kansen om te komen tot een symbiotische uitwisseling van reststromen

73 Industrial symbiosis software: software and method to facilitate industrial symbiosis

Bedrijven gaan tegenwoordig vooral lineair om met hun materialen. Grondstoffen komen binnen, worden verwerkt tot producten en hun afval wordt afgevoerd. Binnen één bedrijf ziet dit er logisch uit, maar in een systeem van meerdere bedrijven is te zien dat dit efficiënter kan. Als het afval van een bedrijf gebruikt zou worden als grondstof door een ander bedrijf, ontstaat er industriële symbiose. Daardoor worden er minder grondstoffen verbruikt en worden bruikbare restmaterialen niet verspild. Om bedrijven te helpen bij het zoeken naar partners voor zulke uitwisselingen, is de software InduSym ontwikkeld. Met de software kunnen bedrijven hun grondstoffen en restmateriaal invoeren in een database. Een algoritme doorzoekt deze database en presenteert in een rapport de kansen om te komen tot een symbiotische uitwisseling van reststromen

Preliminary study on the assessment of visceral adipose tissue using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background: Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) was shown to be increased in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) compared to control subjects with comparable body mass index (BMI). Our aim was to determine the relation of VAT by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) in patients with COPD by disease severity, BMI, other indices of body composition and static lung volumes. Methods: 294 COPD patients admitted for rehabilitation were studied. Lung function, static lung volumes and body composition (i.e. BMI, waist circumference, fat-free mass, fat mass and fat distribution between android and gynoid fat mass) were assessed before entering pulmonary rehabilitation. VAT was estimated within the android region by using DEXA. Patients were stratified for gender, BMI (cut-off of 25 kg/m2) and GOLD stage. To assess the impact of VAT on lung volumes, patients were also stratified for VAT less and above 50th percentile. Results: Both male and female patients with more severe airflow limitation had significantly lower VAT values, but these differences disappeared after stratification for BMI. VAT was significantly and strongly correlated with other body composition parameters (all p < 0.001). Patients with moderate to severe airflow limitation and lower VAT had increased static lung hyperinflation and lower diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide. Nevertheless, multivariate stepwise regression models including for BMI, age, gender and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) as confounders did not confirm an independent role for VAT on static lung hyperinflation and diffusion capacity. Conclusion: After stratification for BMI, VAT is comparable in moderate to very severe COPD patients. Furthermore, BMI and demographics, but not VAT, were independent predictors of static lung hyperinflation and diffusing capacity in COPD

Effects of Achieving Target Measures in Rheumatoid Arthritis on Functional Status, Quality of Life, and Resource Utilization: Analysis of Clinical Practice Data

Objective: To evaluate associations between achieving guideline‐recommended targets of disease activity, defined by the Disease Activity Score in 28 joints using C‐reactive protein level (DAS28‐CRP) <2.6, the Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI) ≤3.3, or the Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) ≤2.8, and other health outcomes in a longitudinal observational study. Methods: Other defined thresholds included low disease activity (LDA), moderate (MDA), or severe disease activity (SDA). To control for intraclass correlation and estimate effects of independent variables on outcomes of the modified Health Assessment Questionnaire (M‐HAQ), the EuroQol 5‐domain (EQ‐5D; a quality‐of‐life measure), hospitalization, and durable medical equipment (DME) use, we employed mixed models for continuous outcomes and generalized estimating equations for binary outcomes. Results: Among 1,297 subjects, achievement (versus nonachievement) of recommended disease targets was associated with enhanced physical functioning and lower health resource utilization. After controlling for baseline covariates, achievement of disease targets (versus LDA) was associated with significantly enhanced physical functioning based on SDAI ≤3.3 (ΔM‐HAQ −0.047; P = 0.0100) and CDAI ≤2.8 (−0.073; P = 0.0003) but not DAS28‐CRP <2.6 (−0.022; P = 0.1735). Target attainment was associated with significantly improved EQ‐5D (0.022–0.096; P < 0.0030 versus LDA, MDA, or SDA). Patients achieving guideline‐recommended disease targets were 36–45% less likely to be hospitalized (P < 0.0500) and 23–45% less likely to utilize DME (P < 0.0100). Conclusion: Attaining recommended target disease‐activity measures was associated with enhanced physical functioning and health‐related quality of life. Some health outcomes were similar in subjects attaining guideline targets versus LDA. Achieving LDA is a worthy clinical objective in some patients

Stroke genetics informs drug discovery and risk prediction across ancestries

Previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of stroke — the second leading cause of death worldwide — were conducted predominantly in populations of European ancestry1,2. Here, in cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of 110,182 patients who have had a stroke (five ancestries, 33% non-European) and 1,503,898 control individuals, we identify association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci: 60 in primary inverse-variance-weighted analyses and 29 in secondary meta-regression and multitrait analyses. On the basis of internal cross-ancestry validation and an independent follow-up in 89,084 additional cases of stroke (30% non-European) and 1,013,843 control individuals, 87% of the primary stroke risk loci and 60% of the secondary stroke risk loci were replicated (P < 0.05). Effect sizes were highly correlated across ancestries. Cross-ancestry fine-mapping, in silico mutagenesis analysis3, and transcriptome-wide and proteome-wide association analyses revealed putative causal genes (such as SH3PXD2A and FURIN) and variants (such as at GRK5 and NOS3). Using a three-pronged approach4, we provide genetic evidence for putative drug effects, highlighting F11, KLKB1, PROC, GP1BA, LAMC2 and VCAM1 as possible targets, with drugs already under investigation for stroke for F11 and PROC. A polygenic score integrating cross-ancestry and ancestry-specific stroke GWASs with vascular-risk factor GWASs (integrative polygenic scores) strongly predicted ischaemic stroke in populations of European, East Asian and African ancestry5. Stroke genetic risk scores were predictive of ischaemic stroke independent of clinical risk factors in 52,600 clinical-trial participants with cardiometabolic disease. Our results provide insights to inform biology, reveal potential drug targets and derive genetic risk prediction tools across ancestries

The Facial Structure of the Clique Partitioning Polytope

The clique partitioning problem (CPP) can be formulated as follows. Given is a complete graph G = (V; E), with edge weights w ij 2 R for all fi; jg 2 E. A subset A ` E is called a clique partition if there is a partition of V into non-empty, disjoint sets V 1 ; : : : ; V k , such that each V p (p = 1; : : : ; k) induces a clique (i.e. a complete subgraph), and A = S k p=1 ffi; jgji; j 2 V p g. The weight of such a clique partition A is defined as P fi;jg2A w ij . The problem is now to find a clique partition of maximal weight. The clique partitioning polytope P is the convex hull of the incidence vectors of all clique partitions of G. In this paper we introduce several new classes of facet defining inequalities of the clique partitioning polytope, and we present procedures that combine facet defining inequalities into new ones. Finally, we characterize all facet defining inequalities with right hand side equal to 1 or 2

A 1D wave propagation model of coronary flow in a beating heart

Due to recent developments in miniaturized sensors on guide-wires, assessment of coronary artery disease with intracoronary pressure and flow measurements has become available. However, direct quantification is still limited to the large epicardial vessels, which means that microvascular disease can only be determined from upstream measurements using an appropriate model of the vessels and their interaction with the cardiac muscle