2,901 research outputs found
Making decisions about saving energy in compressed air systems using Ambient Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence
Compressed air systems are often the most expensive and inefficient industrial systems. For every 10 units of energy, less than 1 unit turns into useful compressed air. Air compressors tend to be kept fully on even if they are not (all) needed. The research proposed in this short paper will combinereal time ambient sensing with Artificial Intelligence andKnowledge Management to automatically improve efficiency in energy intensive manufacturing. The research will minimise energy use for air compressors based on real-time manufacturing conditions (and anticipated future requirements). Ambient datawill provide detailed information on performance. Artificial Intelligence will make sense of that data and automatically act. Knowledge Management will facilitate the processing of information to advise human operators on actions to reduce energy use and maintain productivity. The aim is to create new intelligent techniques to save energy in compressed air systems
The Accelerations of Stars Orbiting the Milky Way's Central Black Hole
Recent measurements, of the velocities of stars near the center of the Milky
Way have provided the strongest evidence for the presence of a supermassive
black hole in a galaxy, but the observational uncertainties poorly constrain
many of the properties of the black hole. Determining the accelerations of
stars in their orbits around the center provides much more precise information
about the position and mass of the black hole. Here we report measurements of
the accelerations for three stars located ~0.005 pc from the central radio
source Sgr A*; these accelerations are comparable to those experienced by the
Earth as it orbits the Sun. These data increase the inferred minimum mass
density in the central region of the Galaxy by an order of magnitude relative
to previous results and localized the dark mass to within 0.05 +- 0.04 arcsec
of the nominal position of Sgr A*. In addition, the orbital period of one of
the observed stars could be as short as 15 years, allowing us the opportunity
in the near future to observe an entire period.Comment: To appear in September 21 2000 issue of Natur
Predictors of failed attendances in a multi-specialty outpatient centre using electronic databases.
BACKGROUND: Failure to keep outpatient medical appointments results in inefficiencies and costs. The objective of this study is to show the factors in an existing electronic database that affect failed appointments and to develop a predictive probability model to increase the effectiveness of interventions. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on outpatient clinic attendances at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore from 2000 to 2004. 22864 patients were randomly sampled for analysis. The outcome measure was failed outpatient appointments according to each patient's latest appointment. RESULTS: Failures comprised of 21% of all appointments and 39% when using the patients' latest appointment. Using odds ratios from the mutliple logistic regression analysis, age group (0.75 to 0.84 for groups above 40 years compared to below 20 years), race (1.48 for Malays, 1.61 for Indians compared to Chinese), days from scheduling to appointment (2.38 for more than 21 days compared to less than 7 days), previous failed appointments (1.79 for more than 60% failures and 4.38 for no previous appointments, compared with less than 20% failures), provision of cell phone number (0.10 for providing numbers compared to otherwise) and distance from hospital (1.14 for more than 14 km compared to less than 6 km) were significantly associated with failed appointments. The predicted probability model's diagnostic accuracy to predict failures is more than 80%. CONCLUSION: A few key variables have shown to adequately account for and predict failed appointments using existing electronic databases. These can be used to develop integrative technological solutions in the outpatient clinic
The outcome of arthroscopic treatment of temporomandibular joint arthoropathy
The document attached has been archived with permission from the Australian Dental Association. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Ninety patients underwent arthroscopic temporomandibular joint surgery to 124 joints for arthropathy which had failed to respond to at least six months of non-surgical treatment. They were surveyed at between 6 months and 5 years (mean 2.5 years) after surgery and 63 per cent responded to the survey. They reported an 82 per cent improvement for pain (50 to 100 per cent better), 80 per cent for clicking and 82 per cent for locking. There was no morbidity following the treatment. Arthroscopic surgery sould be considered for advanced temporomandibular joint arthropathy which is refractory to non-surgical treatment.I. Rosenburg and A. N. Gos
A novel malaria vaccine candidate antigen expressed in Tetrahymena thermophila
Development of effective malaria vaccines is hampered by the problem of producing correctly folded Plasmodium proteins for use as vaccine components. We have investigated the use of a novel ciliate expression system, Tetrahymena thermophila, as a P. falciparum vaccine antigen platform. A synthetic vaccine antigen composed of N-terminal and C-terminal regions of merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP-1) was expressed in Tetrahymena thermophila. The recombinant antigen was secreted into the culture medium and purified by monoclonal antibody (mAb) affinity chromatography. The vaccine was immunogenic in MF1 mice, eliciting high antibody titers against both N- and C-terminal components. Sera from immunized animals reacted strongly with P. falciparum parasites from three antigenically different strains by immunofluorescence assays, confirming that the antibodies produced are able to recognize parasite antigens in their native form. Epitope mapping of serum reactivity with a peptide library derived from all three MSP-1 Block 2 serotypes confirmed that the MSP-1 Block 2 hybrid component of the vaccine had effectively targeted all three serotypes of this polymorphic region of MSP-1. This study has successfully demonstrated the use of Tetrahymena thermophila as a recombinant protein expression platform for the production of malaria vaccine antigens
Considering Intra-individual Genetic Heterogeneity to Understand Biodiversity
In this chapter, I am concerned with the concept of Intra-individual Genetic Hetereogeneity (IGH) and its potential influence on biodiversity estimates. Definitions of biological individuality are often indirectly dependent on genetic sampling -and vice versa. Genetic sampling typically focuses on a particular locus or set of loci, found in the the mitochondrial, chloroplast or nuclear genome. If ecological function or evolutionary individuality can be defined on the level of multiple divergent genomes, as I shall argue is the case in IGH, our current genetic sampling strategies and analytic approaches may miss out on relevant biodiversity. Now that more and more examples of IGH are available, it is becoming possible to investigate the positive and negative effects of IGH on the functioning and evolution of multicellular individuals more systematically. I consider some examples and argue that studying diversity through the lens of IGH facilitates thinking not in terms of units, but in terms of interactions between biological entities. This, in turn, enables a fresh take on the ecological and evolutionary significance of biological diversity
What we talk about when we talk about "global mindset": managerial cognition in multinational corporations
Recent developments in the global economy and in multinational corporations have placed significant emphasis on the cognitive orientations of managers, giving rise to a number of concepts such as “global mindset” that are presumed to be associated with the effective management of multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper reviews the literature on global mindset and clarifies some of the conceptual confusion surrounding the construct. We identify common themes across writers, suggesting that the majority of studies fall into one of three research perspectives: cultural, strategic, and multidimensional. We also identify two constructs from the social sciences that underlie the perspectives found in the literature: cosmopolitanism and cognitive complexity and use these two constructs to develop an integrative theoretical framework of global mindset. We then provide a critical assessment of the field of global mindset and suggest directions for future theoretical and empirical research
Antibody responses induced by SHIV infection are more focused than those induced by soluble native HIV-1 envelope trimers in non-human primates
The development of an effective human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) vaccine is a high
global health priority. Soluble native-like HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein trimers (Env), including those based on the SOSIP design, have shown promise as vaccine candidates by inducing neutralizing antibody responses against the autologous virus in animal models.
However, to overcome HIV-1’s extreme diversity a vaccine needs to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs). Such bNAbs can protect non-human primates (NHPs) and
humans from infection. The prototypic BG505 SOSIP.664 immunogen is based on the
BG505 env sequence isolated from an HIV-1-infected infant from Kenya who developed a
bNAb response. Studying bNAb development during natural HIV-1 infection can inform vaccine design, however, it is unclear to what extent vaccine-induced antibody responses to
Env are comparable to those induced by natural infection. Here, we compared Env antibody
responses in BG505 SOSIP-immunized NHPs with those in BG505 SHIV-infected NHPs,
by analyzing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). We observed three major differences between
BG505 SOSIP immunization and BG505 SHIV infection. First, SHIV infection resulted in
more clonal expansion and less antibody diversity compared to SOSIP immunization, likely because of higher and/or prolonged antigenic stimulation and increased antigen diversity
during infection. Second, while we retrieved comparatively fewer neutralizing mAbs (NAbs)
from SOSIP-immunized animals, these NAbs targeted more diverse epitopes compared to
NAbs from SHIV-infected animals. However, none of the NAbs, either elicited by vaccination
or infection, showed any breadth. Finally, SOSIP immunization elicited antibodies against
the base of the trimer, while infection did not, consistent with the base being placed onto the
virus membrane in the latter setting. Together these data provide new insights into the antibody response against BG505 Env during infection and immunization and limitations that
need to be overcome to induce better responses after vaccination
T Lymphocytes Promote the Antiviral and Inflammatory Responses of Airway Epithelial Cells
T cells modulate the antiviral and inflammatory responses of airway epithelial cells to human rhinoviruses (HRV)
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