Wearable textile GPS antenna for integration in protective garments

In the context of wearable textile systems for rescue workers, the knowledge of the position of the mobile operator is a crucial information for coordination of interventions. For this purpose, a textile wearable GPS antenna is required. Such an antenna must be completely integrable into a protective garment and resistent against harsh environmental conditions. Moreover, its performance must be sufficiently resilient to real-work disturbances, such as the proximity of textile materials composing the garment and the wearer's human body. A GPS textile wearable patch antenna was designed in order to meet such requirements. Performance investigations on a realized prototype were carried out by means of measurements in open space and in two real-work situations, showing an excellent behavior in open-space and a slight performance degradation when textiles and/or human body are present. However, the performance of the proposed antenna are sufficiently satisfactory and promising for application in wearable textile systems

Aalst Siesegemkouter 1. Archeologisch vooronderzoek

Dit rapport werd ingediend bij het agentschap samen met een aantal afzonderlijke digitale bijlagen. Een aantal van deze bijlagen zijn niet inbegrepen in dit pdf document en zijn niet online beschikbaar. Sommige bijlagen (grondplannen, fotos, spoorbeschrijvingen, enz.) kunnen van belang zijn voor een betere lezing en interpretatie van dit rapport. Indien u deze bijlagen wenst te raadplegen kan u daarvoor contact opnemen met: [email protected]

Nondestructive measurement of fruit and vegetable quality

We review nondestructive techniques for measuring internal and external quality attributes of fruit and vegetables, such as color, size and shape, flavor, texture, and absence of defects. The different techniques are organized according to their physical measurement principle. We first describe each technique and then list some examples. As many of these techniques rely on mathematical models and particular data processing methods, we discuss these where needed. We pay particular attention to techniques that can be implemented online in grading lines

Citrulline supplementation improves organ perfusion and arginine availability under conditions with enhanced arginase activity

Enhanced arginase-induced arginine consumption is believed to play a key role in the pathogenesis of sickle cell disease-induced end organ failure. Enhancement of arginine availability with l-arginine supplementation exhibited less consistent results; however, l-citrulline, the precursor of l-arginine, may be a promising alternative. In this study, we determined the effects of l-citrulline compared to l-arginine supplementation on arginine-nitric oxide (NO) metabolism, arginine availability and microcirculation in a murine model with acutely-enhanced arginase activity. The effects were measured in six groups of mice (n = 8 each) injected intraperitoneally with sterile saline or arginase (1000 IE/mouse) with or without being separately injected with l-citrulline or l-arginine 1 h prior to assessment of the microcirculation with side stream dark-field (SDF)-imaging or in vivo NO-production with electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. Arginase injection caused a decrease in plasma and tissue arginine concentrations. l-arginine and l-citrulline supplementation both enhanced plasma and tissue arginine concentrations in arginase-injected mice. However, only the citrulline supplementation increased NO production and improved microcirculatory flow in arginase-injected mice. In conclusion, the present study provides for the first time in vivo experimental evidence that l-citrulline, and not l-arginine supplementation, improves the end organ microcirculation during conditions with acute arginase-induced arginine deficiency by increasing the NO concentration in tissues

Atonal homolog 1 Is a Tumor Suppressor Gene

Colon cancer accounts for more than 10% of all cancer deaths annually. Our genetic evidence from Drosophila and previous in vitro studies of mammalian Atonal homolog 1 (Atoh1, also called Math1 or Hath1) suggest an anti-oncogenic function for the Atonal group of proneural basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors. We asked whether mouse Atoh1 and human ATOH1 act as tumor suppressor genes in vivo. Genetic knockouts in mouse and molecular analyses in the mouse and in human cancer cell lines support a tumor suppressor function for ATOH1. ATOH1 antagonizes tumor formation and growth by regulating proliferation and apoptosis, likely via activation of the Jun N-terminal kinase signaling pathway. Furthermore, colorectal cancer and Merkel cell carcinoma patients show genetic and epigenetic ATOH1 loss-of-function mutations. Our data indicate that ATOH1 may be an early target for oncogenic mutations in tissues where it instructs cellular differentiation

Applying end-to-end imitation learning for real-time perception and control of autonomous vehicles: from simulation to real world environments

Autonomous vehicles are no longer a thing of the future. The technology is here and getting better every day. The current systems are however typically bound to specific controlled geographical areas, limiting their usability. There is still a lot of work and research to be done to make a truly independent autonomous vehicle. Advancements in deep learning have increased the validity of using end-to-end systems as a promising alternative approach to current systems. This thesis explores some of the possibilities of these end-to-end systems and compares the performance of different architectures and techniques i.a. the importance of using temporal data, the importance of the quality of the dataset, classification vs. regression and the effect of increasing the complexity of the system. This work also explores the implementation of these architectures on the JetBot robotic test platform for the task of both lane following and following navigational directions in a simplified urban environment. The architecture proposed by Aasbø and Haavaldsen, “Autonomous Vehicle Control: End-to-end Learning in Simulated Environments. is used as a basis. The idea is explored further by applying the findings on the jetbot platform, performing further tests and validating results. The findings in this thesis show that even a simple deep neural net can achieve full autonomy, given a sufficiently large dataset of high quality. The results with more complex models on the JetBot platform were not promising, with the vehicle regularly ignoring commands or swerving out of lane. Further experiments hinted that this is probably because those models were over-qualified for the simple environment as well as the use of a (too) limited dataset

Neolithische vondsten en een finaal-neolithische houtskoolrijke kuil te Wortegem-Diepestraat (Oost-Vlaanderen, BE)

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