628 research outputs found
Interaction of sulphonylurea derivatives with vascular ATP-sensitive potassium channels in humans
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Estimating High Level Waste Mixing Performance in Hanford Double Shell Tanks
The ability to effectively mix, sample, certify, and deliver consistent batches of high level waste (HLW) feed from the Hanford double shell tanks (DSTs) to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) presents a significant mission risk with potential to impact mission length and the quantity of HLW glass produced. The Department of Energy's (DOE's) Tank Operations Contractor (TOC), Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) is currently demonstrating mixing, sampling, and batch transfer performance in two different sizes of small-scale DSTs. The results of these demonstrations will be used to estimate full-scale DST mixing performance and provide the key input to a programmatic decision on the need to build a dedicated feed certification facility. This paper discusses the results from initial mixing demonstration activities and presents data evaluation techniques that allow insight into the performance relationships of the two small tanks. The next steps, sampling and batch transfers, of the small scale demonstration activities are introduced. A discussion of the integration of results from the mixing, sampling, and batch transfer tests to allow estimating full-scale DST performance is presented
UIT-Saviors at MEDVQA-GI 2023: Improving Multimodal Learning with Image Enhancement for Gastrointestinal Visual Question Answering
In recent years, artificial intelligence has played an important role in
medicine and disease diagnosis, with many applications to be mentioned, one of
which is Medical Visual Question Answering (MedVQA). By combining computer
vision and natural language processing, MedVQA systems can assist experts in
extracting relevant information from medical image based on a given question
and providing precise diagnostic answers. The ImageCLEFmed-MEDVQA-GI-2023
challenge carried out visual question answering task in the gastrointestinal
domain, which includes gastroscopy and colonoscopy images. Our team approached
Task 1 of the challenge by proposing a multimodal learning method with image
enhancement to improve the VQA performance on gastrointestinal images. The
multimodal architecture is set up with BERT encoder and different pre-trained
vision models based on convolutional neural network (CNN) and Transformer
architecture for features extraction from question and endoscopy image. The
result of this study highlights the dominance of Transformer-based vision
models over the CNNs and demonstrates the effectiveness of the image
enhancement process, with six out of the eight vision models achieving better
F1-Score. Our best method, which takes advantages of BERT+BEiT fusion and image
enhancement, achieves up to 87.25% accuracy and 91.85% F1-Score on the
development test set, while also producing good result on the private test set
with accuracy of 82.01%.Comment: ImageCLEF2023 published version:
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3497/paper-129.pd
Inverse lift: a signature of the elasticity of complex fluids?
To understand the mechanics of a complex fluid such as a foam we propose a
model experiment (a bidimensional flow around an obstacle) for which an
external sollicitation is applied, and a local response is measured,
simultaneously. We observe that an asymmetric obstacle (cambered airfoil
profile) experiences a downards lift, opposite to the lift usually known (in a
different context) in aerodynamics. Correlations of velocity, deformations and
pressure fields yield a clear explanation of this inverse lift, involving the
elasticity of the foam. We argue that such an inverse lift is likely common to
complex fluids with elasticity.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, revised version, submitted to PR
Design of directional couplers for marine applications with artificial transmission lines
The article describes the design of the coupler for marine applications, on which the miniaturization of its dimensions was carried out. The description of the compact device is given. It consists of artificial transmission lines of the original form. The use of such lines for the coupler allowed to achieve good results in reducing the size. So the area of the resulting device is 72.25% less than that of a conventional device, while it has comparable characteristics. The described approach can be used for other devices requiring miniaturization and implemented on a printed circuit board. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd
Using discrete choice experiments to investigate subject preferences for preventive asthma medication
Background and objective: Long-term adherence to inhaled corticosteroids is poor despite the crucial role of preventer medications in achieving good asthma outcomes. This study was undertaken to explore patient preferences in relation to their current inhaled corticosteroid medication, a hypothetical preventer or no medication. Methods: A discrete choice experiment was conducted in 57 adults with mild-moderate asthma and airway hyper-responsiveness, who were using inhaled corticosteroid ≤500 μg/day (beclomethasone equivalent). In the discrete choice experiment, subjects evaluated 16 hypothetical scenarios made up of 10 attributes that described the process and outcomes of taking asthma medication, with two to four levels for each attribute. For each scenario, subjects chose between the hypothetical medication, the medication they were currently taking and no asthma medication. A random parameter multinomial logit model was estimated to quantify subject preferences for the aspects of taking asthma medication and the influence of attributes on medication decisions. Results: Subjects consistently made choices in favour of being able to do strenuous and sporting activities with or without reliever, experiencing no side-effects and never having to monitor their peak flow. Frequency of collecting prescriptions, frequency of taking the medication, its route of administration and the strength of the doctor recommendation about the medication were not significant determinants of choice. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that patients prefer a preventer that confers capacity to maximize physical activity, has no side-effects and does not require daily peak flow monitoring. © 2007 The Authors
Role of dynamic Jahn-Teller distortions in Na2C60 and Na2CsC60 studied by NMR
Through 13C NMR spin lattice relaxation (T1) measurements in cubic Na2C60, we
detect a gap in its electronic excitations, similar to that observed in
tetragonal A4C60. This establishes that Jahn-Teller distortions (JTD) and
strong electronic correlations must be considered to understand the behaviour
of even electron systems, regardless of the structure. Furthermore, in metallic
Na2CsC60, a similar contribution to T1 is also detected for 13C and 133Cs NMR,
implying the occurence of excitations typical of JT distorted C60^{2-} (or
equivalently C60^{4-}). This supports the idea that dynamic JTD can induce
attractive electronic interactions in odd electron systems.Comment: 3 figure
Elastic interactions of active cells with soft materials
Anchorage-dependent cells collect information on the mechanical properties of
the environment through their contractile machineries and use this information
to position and orient themselves. Since the probing process is anisotropic,
cellular force patterns during active mechanosensing can be modelled as
anisotropic force contraction dipoles. Their build-up depends on the mechanical
properties of the environment, including elastic rigidity and prestrain. In a
finite sized sample, it also depends on sample geometry and boundary conditions
through image strain fields. We discuss the interactions of active cells with
an elastic environment and compare it to the case of physical force dipoles.
Despite marked differences, both cases can be described in the same theoretical
framework. We exactly solve the elastic equations for anisotropic force
contraction dipoles in different geometries (full space, halfspace and sphere)
and with different boundary conditions. These results are then used to predict
optimal position and orientation of mechanosensing cells in soft material.Comment: Revtex, 38 pages, 8 Postscript files included; revised version,
accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Design-related risk factors for revision of primary cemented stems: Analysis of 3 common stems in the Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register
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