De mens als eigen sensor voor comfort

Dit artikel presenteert een nieuwe strategie voor de automatische regeling van individuele verwarming in licht koele kantooromgevingen, waarbij het menselijk lichaam als sensor wordt gebruikt in de klimaatregeling. De temperatuur van de bovenste extremiteiten, zoals vingers, handen, neus en voorhoofd, worden op afstand geregistreerd door infrarood (IR) thermografie en kunnen zo dienst doen als sensoren. Deze waarnemingen dienen als ingangssignaal voor de temperatuurregeling. Doel is het energiegebruik te verminderen met handhaving van het ondervonden thermisch comfort door de individuele gebouwgebruiker. Dit moet leiden tot nieuwe Smart Energy Systems, die met behulp van draadloze sensoren nieuwe, slimmere regelingen toepassen om de energievraag te reduceren. Tot 17% energiebesparing is mogelijk terwijl de gebruiker een optimaler individueel thermisch comfort ervaart

Persoonlijke conditionering met regeltechnische 'human in the loop'-benadering

De behoefte aan individueel comfort heeft geleid tot de ontwikkeling van persoonlijke klimaatsystemen. Deze systemen hebben een positieve impact op het thermisch comfort en maken energiebesparing mogelijk doordat ze de energie meer lokaal en dus effectiever inzetten. De aansturing van deze systemen is nu nog traditioneel en niet optimaal. Een alternatief is wellicht om het menselijk lichaam als sensor te gebruiken en zo individuele klimaatsysteem aan te sturen

7 ',5 '-alpha-bicyclo-DNA: new chemistry for oligonucleotide exon splicing modulation therapy

Antisense oligonucleotides are small pieces of modified DNA or RNA, which offer therapeutic potential for many diseases. We report on the synthesis of 7',5'-alpha-bc-DNA phosphoramidite building blocks, bearing the A, G, T and C-Me nucleobases. Solid-phase synthesis was performed to construct five oligodeoxyribonucleotides containing modified thymidine residues, as well as five fully modified oligonucleotides. Incorporations of the modification inside natural duplexes resulted in strong destabilizing effects. However, fully modified strands formed very stable duplexes with parallel RNA complements. In its own series, 7',5'-alpha-bc-DNA formed duplexes with a surprising high thermal stability. CD spectroscopy and extensive molecular modeling indicated the adoption by the homo-duplex of a ladder-like structure, while hetero-duplexes with DNA or RNA still form helical structure. The biological properties of this new modification were investigated in animal models for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy, where exon splicing modulation can restore production of functional proteins. It was found that the 7',5'-alpha-bc-DNA scaffold confers a high biostability and a good exon splicing modulation activity in vitro and in vivo.Functional Genomics of Muscle, Nerve and Brain Disorder

Simvastatin Treatment Does Not Ameliorate Muscle Pathophysiology in a Mouse Model for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is an X-linked, recessive muscular dystrophy in which the absence of the dystrophin protein leads to fibrosis, inflammation and oxidative stress, resulting in loss of muscle tissue. Drug repurposing, i.e. using drugs already approved for other disorders, is attractive as it decreases development time. Recent studies suggested that simvastatin, a cholesterol lowering drug used for cardiovascular diseases, has beneficial effects on several parameters in mdx mice. To validate properly the effectiveness of simvastatin, two independent labs tested the effects of 12-week simvastatin treatment in either young (starting at 4 weeks of age) or adult (starting at 12 weeks of age) mdx mice. In neither study were benefits of simvastatin treatment observed on muscle function, histology or expression of genes involved in fibrosis, regeneration, oxidative stress and autophagy. Unexpectedly, although the treatment protocol was similar, simvastatin plasma levels were found be much lower than observed in a previous study. In conclusion, in two laboratories, simvastatin did not ameliorate disease pathology in mdx mice, which could either be due to the ineffectiveness of simvastatin itself or due to the low simvastatin plasma levels following oral administration via the food