Sample entropy analysis of EEG signals via artificial neural networks to model patients' consciousness level based on anesthesiologists experience.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, as it can express the human brain's activities and reflect awareness, have been widely used in many research and medical equipment to build a noninvasive monitoring index to the depth of anesthesia (DOA). Bispectral (BIS) index monitor is one of the famous and important indicators for anesthesiologists primarily using EEG signals when assessing the DOA. In this study, an attempt is made to build a new indicator using EEG signals to provide a more valuable reference to the DOA for clinical researchers. The EEG signals are collected from patients under anesthetic surgery which are filtered using multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD) method and analyzed using sample entropy (SampEn) analysis. The calculated signals from SampEn are utilized to train an artificial neural network (ANN) model through using expert assessment of consciousness level (EACL) which is assessed by experienced anesthesiologists as the target to train, validate, and test the ANN. The results that are achieved using the proposed system are compared to BIS index. The proposed system results show that it is not only having similar characteristic to BIS index but also more close to experienced anesthesiologists which illustrates the consciousness level and reflects the DOA successfully.This research is supported by the Center forDynamical Biomarkers and Translational Medicine, National Central University, Taiwan, which is sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology (Grant no. MOST103-2911-I-008-001). Also, it is supported by National Chung-Shan Institute of Science & Technology in Taiwan (Grant nos. CSIST-095-V301 and CSIST-095-V302)

Establishing production service system and information collaboration platform for mold and die products

This paper investigates how the new concept of product service systems can be used and extended to transform, elevate, and revitalize traditional equipment manufacturing industry such as the Mold and Die (MD) sector. A mold and die production service systems (MPSS) framework is established based on recent developments within our industrial collaborators. Within the MPSS framework, MD manufacturers become more specialized in producing MD products and components while sharing and outsourcing manufacturing-oriented services (MOS) from a service provider. Typical services include collaborative order pooling and release, collaborative project progress status tracking, contractor-managed collaborative outsourcing, collaborative product design, collaborative production planning and scheduling, and after-sales technical supports. MOSs are designed, developed, and deployed as SaaS (software as application services) following the service-oriented architecture. Collectively, they form iMPSS-an Information and Collaboration Platform that enables MPSS. The use of iMPSS leads to benefits for stakeholders involved in providing mold and die functionality including better shopfloor decisions and reduced IT investments. © 2010 The Author(s).published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Energy Consumption Scheduling of HVAC Considering Weather Forecast Error Through the Distributionally Robust Approach

In this paper, the distributionally robust optimization approach (DROA) is proposed to schedule the energy consumption of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system with consideration of the weather forecast error. The maximum interval of the outdoor temperature is partitioned into subintervals, and the proposed DROA constructs the ambiguity set of the probability distribution of the outdoor temperature based on the probabilistic information of these subintervals of historical weather data. The actual energy consumption will be adjusted according to the forecast error and the scheduled consumption in real time. The energy consumption scheduling of HVAC through the proposed DROA is formulated as a nonlinear problem with distributionally robust chance constraints. These constraints are reformulated to be linear and then the problem is solved via linear programming. Compared with the method that takes into account the weather forecast error based on the mean and the variance of historical data, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed DROA effectively reduces the electricity cost with less computation time, and the electricity cost is reduced compared with the traditional robust method

FasL expression on human nucleus pulposus cells contributes to the immune privilege of intervertebral disc by interacting with immunocytes

The mechanisms of immune privilege in human nucleus pulposus (NP) remain unclear. Accumulating evidence indicates that Fas ligand (FasL) might play an important role in the immune privilege of the disc. We aimed for addressing the role of FasL expression in human intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) and immune privilege in terms of the interaction between NP cells and immunocytes via the FasL-Fas machinery. We collected NP specimens from 20 patients with IDD as degenerative group and 8 normal cadaveric donors as control. FasL expression was detected by qRT-PCR, western blotting and flow cytometry (FCM). We also collected macrophages and CD8(+) T cells from the peripheral blood of patients with IDD for co-cultures with NP cells. And macrophages and CD8(+) T cells were harvested for apoptosis analysis by FCM after 2 days of co-cultures. We found that FasL expression in mRNA, protein and cellular resolutions demonstrated a significant decrease in degenerative group compared with normal control (p<0.05). FCM analysis found that human NP cells with increased FasL expression resulted in significantly increased apoptosis ratio of macrophages and CD8(+) T cells. Our study demonstrated that FasL expression tends to decrease in degenerated discs and FasL plays an important role in human disc immune privilege, which might provide a novel target for the treatment strategies for IDD.published_or_final_versio

Blowout fire probability prediction of offshore drilling platform based on system dynamics

A Barrier Failure Model of offshore platform fire is proposed based on the analysis of historical accidents. On this basis, a fault tree is built to analyze the causes of fire accidents and the Fussell Vesely importance method is used to compare the contributions degree of the basic events. However, it is known that the traditional fault tree method has some limitations on predicting the dynamic probabilities of accidents. To improve the situation, a dynamic probability prediction model is proposed by integrating fault tree with a system dynamics model. Firstly, the dynamic probability of blowout fire for offshore drilling is predicted using the proposed model. Secondly, sensitivities of causal factors are analyzed based on mutual information to find out the key contributory factors to blowout fire. The research results provide safety managers with reliable and effective risk control strategies for preventing the occurrence of accidents

Modelling ship collision risk based on the statistical analysis of historical data: A case study in Hong Kong waters

Collision, as a common type of ship accidents, leads to serious property loss and personal injury. In this paper, a new framework of quantitative risk assessment is proposed by quantifying the probability and the corresponding consequence based on the historical accident data. Firstly, the consequences of ship collisions are quantified and classified using an equivalent consequence method. Secondly, a decision tree model is established to analyse the impact of ship attributes on the collision consequences. The main ship attributes contributing to collision are determined, based on which, a BP neural network model is developed to estimate the probabilities of the different consequences. Thirdly, the collision risk is predicted by integrating the collision probabilities with the corresponding consequences. Fourthly, a case study in Hong Kong waters is investigated and the results are compared with the available references to validate the proposed framework. The new model can be used to assess present risks to plan preventive measures for the potential collision accidents. © 201

Strain distribution in epitaxial SrTiO₃thin films

2006-2007 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Organochlorine Pesticides in Consumer Fish and Mollusks of Liaoning Province, China: Distribution and Human Exposure Implications

Fish and mollusk samples were collected from markets located in 12 cities in Liaoning province, China, during August and September 2007, and 22 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were detected. DDT, HCH, endosulfan, chlordane, and HCB were the dominating OCPs, with mean concentrations and ranges of, respectively, 15.41 and 0.57 to 177.56 ng/g, 0.84 and below detection limit (BDL) to 22.99 ng/g, 1.31 and BDL to 13.1 ng/g, 1.05 and BDL to 15.68 ng/g, and 0.63 and BDL to 9.21 ng/g in all fish and mollusk samples. The concentrations of other OCPs generally were low and were detectable in a minority of samples, reflecting the low levels of these OCPs in the study region. In general, OCP concentrations were obviously higher in fish than in mollusks, and higher in freshwater fish than in marine fish, which indicated, first, that freshwater fish are more easily influenced than seawater fish and mollusks by OCP residues in agricultural areas and, second, that there are different biota accumulation factors for OCPs between fish and mollusk. To learn the consumption of fish and mollusk, 256 questionnaires were sent to families in 12 cities of Liaoning province. Using the contamination data, average estimated daily intakes of OCPs via fish and mollusk consumption were calculated, which were used for exposure assessment. The public health risks caused by exposure to OCPs in the course of fish and mollusk consumption were compared to noncancer benchmarks and cancer benchmarks

High Frequency of CD4+CXCR5+ TFH Cells in Patients with Immune-Active Chronic Hepatitis B

BACKGROUND: T follicular helper (TFH) cells are a special subpopulation of T helper cells and can regulate humoral immune responses. This study examined whether the frequency of CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH cells could be associated with active immunity in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS: The frequencies of peripheral blood CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH cells, inducible T cell costimulator (ICOS), and/or programmed death 1 (PD-1) positive CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH cells in immune-active (IA), immune-tolerant (IT) CHB, and healthy controls (HC) were characterized by flow cytometry analysis. The effect of adevofir dipivoxil treatment on the frequency of CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH cells, the concentrations of serum IL-2, IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-21, ALT, AST, HBsAg, HBsAb, HBeAg, HBeAb and HBV loads in IA patients were determined. The potential association of the frequency of CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH cells with clinical measures was analyzed. In addition, the frequency of splenic and liver CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH cells in HBV-transgenic mice was examined. We found that the frequency of CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH cells in IA patients was significantly higher than that of IT patients and HC, and the percentages of CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH in IA patients were positively correlated with AST. Furthermore, the percentages of ICOS(+), PD-1(+), and ICOS(+)PD-1(+) in CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH cells in CHB patients were significantly higher than that of HC. Treatment with adefovir dipivoxil reduced the frequency of CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH, PD-1(+)CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH cells and the concentrations of HBsAg and HBeAg, but increased the concentrations of HBsAb, HBeAb, IL-2 and IFN-γ in IA patients. Moreover, the frequency of splenic and liver CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH cells in HBV-transgenic mice was higher than that of wild-type controls. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH cells may participate in the HBV-related immune responses and that high frequency of CD4(+)CXCR5(+) TFH cells may be a biomarker for the evaluation of active immune stage of CHB patients