Applicability Results of a Nonlinear Model-Based Robust Blood Glucose Control Algorithm

INTRODUCTION: Generating optimal control algorithms for an artificial pancreas is an intensively researched problem. The available models are all nonlinear and rather complex. Model predictive control or run-to-run-based methodologies have proven to be efficient solutions for individualized treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). However, the controller has to ensure safety and stability under all circumstances. Robust control methods seek to provide this safety and guarantee to handle even the worst-case situations and, hence, to generalize and complement results obtained by individualized control algorithms. METHODS: Modern robust (e.g., H(inf)) control is a linear model-based methodology that we have combined with the nonlinear model-based linear parameter varying technique. The control algorithm was designed on the high-complexity modified nonlinear glucose–insulin model of Sorensen, and it was compared step-by- step with linear model-based H(inf) control results published in the literature. The applicability of the developed algorithm was tested first on a control cohort of 10 healthy persons’ oral glucose tolerance test results and then on a large meal absorption profile adapted from the literature. In the latter case, two preliminary virtual patients were generated based on 1–1 week real continuous glucose monitor measurements. RESULTS: We have found that the algorithm avoids hypoglycemia (not caused by physical activity or stress) independently from the considered absorption profiles. CONCLUSION: Use of hard constraints proved their efficiency in fitting blood glucose level within a defined interval. However, in the future, more data of different T1DM patients will be collected and tested, including dynamic absorption model and in silico tests on validated simulators

Towards developing a building typology for Sudan

Sudan suffers from hard summers with temperatures approaching 42 0C in the South and 48 0C in the North. In spite of that, the technical solutions in buildings for protection against solar radiation and natural ventilation are generally beyond reach. There isn’t sufficient information provided on the characteristics of the building stock, building physics and energy use of buildings in Sudan. The main objective of this research paper is to collect the data from the population and housing census, scientific research papers and different reports, and to use these in preparing a building typology table. The climate in Sudan is divided into three zones: warm desert climate, warm semi-arid climate, and tropical savanna climate zone. The building varies according to the climate zones, geographical feature, and urbanization levels. Building materials range from natural ones like straw, wood, and mud to moderns one like bricks and concrete. Building typology varies from structures to provide temporary shelter to the permanent single or multi-family houses. The main result of this research paper is to identify a building typology in Sudan with reference buildings. This is the first paper that introduced the typology table of Sudan

A cross-platform modular framework for building Life Cycle Assessment

In recent years the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for assessing and improving the environmental performance of buildings has increased. At the same time, the automated optimization of building designs is gaining attraction for both design and research purposes. In this regard, a number of issues persist when aiming to optimize building’s environmental impacts along the design process. Firstly, as LCA applies a life cycle perspective, many aspects have to be considered (e.g. energy demand in operation as well as consumption of resources and energy for production and end of life treatment) and a variety of specific calculations is needed (e.g. building energy performance simulation, material quantity take-off). Secondly, sophisticated software packages are available and being used for each of these calculations (e.g. software for building modelling, dynamic energy simulation, quantity surveying). Though many of these software packages are currently standalone applications that rely on human interaction, there is an increasing trend to provide an application programming interface (API) that enables customization and automation. Thirdly, the mentioned processes and calculations are influencing each other in various ways and several scenarios have to be assessed. Thus, a comprehensive and modular approach is required that promotes interconnectivity of the different software solutions and automation of the assessment. In this paper we propose a modular cross-platform framework for LCA of buildings aiming to support flexibility and scalability of building LCA. We present a conceptual framework, example data exchange requirements and highlight potential implementation strategies

Large scale smart meter data assessment for energy benchmarking and occupant behaviour profile development

This paper will present objectives and first results of the research project entitled “Large Scale Smart Meter Data Assessment for Energy Benchmarking and Occupant Behaviour Profile Development of Building Clusters,” implemented in the geographical scope of Hungary. The project seeks to utilize a new and unique opportunity for accessing and processing an enormous dataset collected by smart meters. Recently in Hungary, nearly 10 000 buildings have been equipped with smart meters within the “Central Smart Grid Pilot Project”. By means of advanced data analysis techniques, consumption trends and motivations of building users are being investigated. The aims are to help building designers and engineers design more energy efficient buildings at lower investment costs by avoiding system oversizing, and to obtain better knowledge about hourly, daily and monthly energy consumption trends. Furthermore, standard net demand values for normative energy calculations can be updated and specified more precisely since consumption habits change with time and depend on the region

Development of electricity consumption profiles of residential buildings based on smart meter data clustering

In the present research, a high-resolution, detailed electric load dataset was assessed, collected by smart meters from nearly a thousand households in Hungary, many of them single-family houses. The objective was to evaluate this database in detail to determine energy consumption profiles from time series of daily and annual electric load. After representativity check of dataset daily and annual energy consumption profiles were developed, applying three different clustering methods (k-means, fuzzy k-means, agglomerative hierarchical) and three different cluster validity indexes (elbow method, silhouette method, Dunn index) in MATLAB environment. The best clustering method for our examination proved to be the kmeans clustering technique. Analyses were carried out to identify different consumer groups, as well as to clarify the impact of specific parameters such as meter type in the housing unit (e.g. peak, offpeak meter), day of the week (e.g. weekend, weekday), seasonality, geographical location, settlement type and housing type (single-family house, flat, age class of the building). Furthermore, four electric user profile types were proposed, which can be used for building energy demand simulation, summer heat load and winter heating demand calculatio

Assessment of vibration amplitude and transmembrane pressure on vibratory shear enhanced membrane filtration for treating dairy wastewater

In this study, statistical analysis was performed to investigate the influence of operational parameters based on experimental results. The research aimed to know whether a long-term discontinuous module vibration operation is possible without adversely affecting filtration efficiency. Polymer membranes were compared by surface characteristics with contact angle measurements and selected for further membrane filtration experiments for dairy wastewater treatment. The effect of the main operational parameters, membrane module vibration amplitude (Avibr.) and transmembrane pressure (TMP), was investigated using a vibratory shear enhanced processing (VSEP) module with ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes. Components of the permeates, including chemical oxygen demand (COD), were measured, and membrane rejections were calculated to compare with threshold limit values. The results suggest that proper combination of Avibr. and TMP could mitigate membrane fouling. However, discontinuous module vibration resulted in more clogged membrane with lower fluxes, but slightly higher rejections. We conclude that investigating the significance of operational parameters is necessary for a wider, more energy and environment-friendly application in wastewater treatment

Impact of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations on sustained virologic response in HCV-infected patients: Results from the GUARD-C Cohort

BACKGROUND: Despite the introduction of direct-acting antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, peginterferon alfa/ribavirin remains relevant in many resource-constrained settings. The non-randomized GUARD-C cohort investigated baseline predictors of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations (sr-RD) and their impact on sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients receiving peginterferon alfa/ribavirin in routine practice. METHODS: A total of 3181 HCV-mono-infected treatment-naive patients were assigned to 24 or 48 weeks of peginterferon alfa/ribavirin by their physician. Patients were categorized by time-to-first sr-RD (Week 4/12). Detailed analyses of the impact of sr-RD on SVR24 (HCV RNA <50 IU/mL) were conducted in 951 Caucasian, noncirrhotic genotype (G)1 patients assigned to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin for 48 weeks. The probability of SVR24 was identified by a baseline scoring system (range: 0-9 points) on which scores of 5 to 9 and <5 represent high and low probability of SVR24, respectively. RESULTS: SVR24 rates were 46.1% (754/1634), 77.1% (279/362), 68.0% (514/756), and 51.3% (203/396), respectively, in G1, 2, 3, and 4 patients. Overall, 16.9% and 21.8% patients experienced 651 sr-RD for peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, respectively. Among Caucasian noncirrhotic G1 patients: female sex, lower body mass index, pre-existing cardiovascular/pulmonary disease, and low hematological indices were prognostic factors of sr-RD; SVR24 was lower in patients with 651 vs. no sr-RD by Week 4 (37.9% vs. 54.4%; P = 0.0046) and Week 12 (41.7% vs. 55.3%; P = 0.0016); sr-RD by Week 4/12 significantly reduced SVR24 in patients with scores <5 but not 655. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, sr-RD to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin significantly impacts on SVR24 rates in treatment-naive G1 noncirrhotic Caucasian patients. Baseline characteristics can help select patients with a high probability of SVR24 and a low probability of sr-RD with peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin

The highly attenuated oncolytic recombinant vaccinia virus GLV-1h68: comparative genomic features and the contribution of F14.5L inactivation

As a new anticancer treatment option, vaccinia virus (VACV) has shown remarkable antitumor activities (oncolysis) in preclinical studies, but potential infection of other organs remains a safety concern. We present here genome comparisons between the de novo sequence of GLV-1h68, a recombinant VACV, and other VACVs. The identified differences in open reading frames (ORFs) include genes encoding host-range selection, virulence and immune modulation proteins, e.g., ankyrin-like proteins, serine proteinase inhibitor SPI-2/CrmA, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor homolog CrmC, semaphorin-like and interleukin-1 receptor homolog proteins. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that GLV-1h68 is closest to Lister strains but has lost several ORFs present in its parental LIVP strain, including genes encoding CrmE and a viral Golgi anti-apoptotic protein, v-GAAP. The reduced pathogenicity of GLV-1h68 is confirmed in male mice bearing C6 rat glioma and in immunocompetent mice bearing B16-F10 murine melanoma. The contribution of foreign gene expression cassettes in the F14.5L, J2R and A56R loci is analyzed, in particular the contribution of F14.5L inactivation to the reduced virulence is demonstrated by comparing the virulence of GLV-1h68 with its F14.5L-null and revertant viruses. GLV-1h68 is a promising engineered VACV variant for anticancer therapy with tumor-specific replication, reduced pathogenicity and benign tissue tropism

Comparison of Single-Level Open and Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusions Presenting a Learning Curve

Background. Comparison of single-level open and minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusions (O-TLIF and MI-TLIF) of a single surgeon and presentation of his MI-TLIF learning curve in a retrospective observational cohort study. Methods. 27 MI-TLIF and 31 O-TLIF patients, performed between 03/01/2013 and 03/31/2018, were compared regarding the operative time, blood loss, blood transfusion frequency, postoperative length of stay (LOS), and adverse events. An overall comparison of pre- and postoperative Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) results and Visual Analog Score (VAS) results of low back and leg pain was performed in the case of the two techniques. For a learning curve presentation, the MI-TLIF cases were compared and the optimal operative time was determined. Results. The gender ratio and age did not differ in the groups. Operative time showed no difference (P=0.88) between the MI-TLIF (161.2 ± 33.7 minutes) and O-TLIF groups (160 ± 33.6 minutes). Intraoperative blood loss was less (P≤0.001) in the MI-TLIF group (288.9 ± 339.8 mL) than in the O-TLIF group (682.3 ± 465.4 mL) while the incidence of blood transfusion was similar (P=0.64). The MI-TLIF group had shorter LOS (2.7 ± 1.1 days vs. 5 ± 2.7, P≤0.001). The frequencies of the surgical site infections (SSI), durotomy, new motor, and sensory deficit were not significantly different (P=0.17, 0.5, 0.29, 0.92). All the ODI, the VAS low back pain, and the VAS leg pain scores improved in both groups significantly (P≤0.001, P≤0.001, and P≤0.001 in the MI-TLIF group and P≤0.001, P≤0.001, and P≤0.001 in the O-TLIF group). The comparison of the pre- and postoperative results of the ODI and VAS questionnaires of the two techniques showed no significant difference regarding the improvement of these scores (MI-TLIF versus O-TLIF pre- and postoperative ODI difference p=0.64, VAS low back pain P=0.47, and VAS leg pain P=0.21). Assessing the MI-TLIF learning curve, operative time was shortened by 63 minutes (P=0.04). After the 14th MI-TLIF case, the surgical duration became relatively constant. Comparing the 14th and previous MI-TLIF cases to the later cases, LOS showed reduction by 1.03 days (P=0.01), while the other parameters did not show significant changes. Conclusions. Similar operative time and postoperative quality of life improvement can be achieved by MI-TLIF procedure as with O-TLIF, and additionally LOS and blood loss can be reduced. When comparing parameters, MI-TLIF can be an alternative option for O-TLIF with a similar complication profile. The learning curve of MI-TLIF can be steep, although it depends on the circumstances

Environmental and economic optimisation of buildings for different climates

Introduction: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a scientific method for evaluating the environmental impact of products. Standards provide a general framework for conducting an LCA study and calculation rules specifically for buildings. A challenge is to design energy efficient buildings that have a low environmental impact, reasonable costs, and provide high thermal comfort, as these are usually conflicting aspects. Efficient mathematical optimisation algorithms can be applied to such engineering problems. Methodology: In this paper, a multiobjective optimisation technique, the Direct MultiSearch method, is described and its applicability is tested on a multi-story residential building’s case study for two locations, Portugal and Hungary. The objectives are to minimise the life cycle environmental impacts and costs. Results and conclusions: The results indicate that optimum solutions are found at a higher cost but lower Global Warming Potential for Portugal than for Hungary. Optimum solutions have walls with a thermal transmittance of about 0.23 and 0.15 W/m2K for Portugal and Hungary, respectively. Multi-objective optimisation algorithms can be successfully applied to find solutions with low environmental impact and eco-efficient thermal envelope.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio