Search results for: occupancy detection

Authors: Wafa Toumi, Alessandro Ripalti, Luigi Ricciardiello, Dalila Gargouri, Jamel Kharrat, Abderraouf Cherif, Ahmed Bouhafa, Slim Jarboui, Mohamed Zili, Ridha Khelifa

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Background & aims: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies throughout the world. Several risk factors, both genetic and environmental, including viral infections, have been linked to colorectal carcinogenesis. A few studies report the detection of human polyomavirus JC (JCV) DNA and transformation antigen (T-Ag) in a fraction of the colorectal tumors studied and suggest an association of this virus with CRC. In order to investigate whether such an association of JCV with CRC will hold in a different epidemiological setting, we looked for the presence of JCV DNA and T-Ag expression in a group of Tunisian CRC patients. Methods: Fresh colorectal mucosa biopsies were obtained from 17 healthy volunteers and from both colorectal tumors and adjacent normal tissues of 47 CRC patients. DNA was extracted from fresh biopsies or from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections using the Invitrogen Purelink Genomic DNA mini Kit. A simple PCR and a nested PCR were used to amplify a region of the T-Ag gene. The obtained PCR products revealed a 154 bp and a 98 bp bands, respectively. Specificity was confirmed by sequencing of the PCR products. T-Ag expression was determined by immunohistochemical staining using a mouse monoclonal antibody (clone PAb416) directed against SV40 T-Ag that cross reacts with JCV T-Ag. Results: JCV DNA was found in 12 (25%) and 22 (46%) of the CRC tumors by simple PCR and by nested PCR, respectively. All paired adjacent normal mucosa biopsies were negative for viral DNA. Sequencing of the DNA amplicons obtained confirmed the authenticity of T-Ag sequences. Immunohistochemical staining showed nuclear T-Ag expression in all 22 JCV DNA- positive samples and in 3 additional tumor samples which appeared DNA-negative by PCR. Conclusions: These results suggest an association of JCV with a subpopulation of Tunisian colorectal tumors.

Keywords: colorectal cancer, immunohistochemistry, Polyomavirus JC, PCR

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Authors: Hossein Tavallali, Mohammad Ali Karimi, Gohar Deilamy-Rad

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In this study, a new type of alumina-coated magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4/Al2O3 NPs) with sodium dodecyl sulfate- 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol (SDS-PAN) as a new sorbent solid phase extraction (SPE) has been successfully synthesized and applied for preconcentration and separation of Cd and Pb in environmental samples. Compared with conventional SPE methods, the advantages of this new magnetic Mixed Hemimicelles Solid-Phase Extraction Procedure (MMHSPE) still include easy preparation and regeneration of sorbents, short times of sample pretreatment, high extraction yields, and high breakthrough volumes. It shows great analytical potential in preconcentration of Cd and Pb compounds from large volume water samples. Due to the high surface area of these new sorbents and the excellent adsorption capacity after surface modification by SDS-PAN, satisfactory concentration factor and extraction recoveries can be produced with only 0.05 g Fe3O4/Al2O3 NPs. The metals were eluted with 3mL HNO3 2 mol L-1 directly and detected with the detection system Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (FAAS). Various influencing parameters on the separation and preconcentration of trace metals, such as the amount of PAN, pH value, sample volume, standing time, desorption solvent and maximal extraction volume, amount of sorbent and concentration of eluent, were studied. The detection limits of this method for Cd and Pb were 0.3 and 0.7 ng mL−1 and the R.S.D.s were 3.4 and 2.8% (C = 28.00 ng mL-1, n = 6), respectively. The preconcentration factor of the modified nanoparticles was 166.6. The proposed method has been applied to the determination of these metal ions at trace levels in soil, river, tap, mineral, spring and wastewater samples with satisfactory results.

Keywords: Alumina-coated magnetite nanoparticles, Magnetic Mixed Hemimicell Solid-Phase Extraction, Cd and Pb, soil sample

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Authors: Gulyas Erzsebet

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The multimerisation of proteins is a common feature of many cellular processes; however, it could also impair protein functions and/or be associated with the occurrence of diseases. Thus, development of a research tool monitoring the appearance/presence of multimeric protein forms has great importance for a variety of research fields. Such a tool is potentially applicable in the ante-mortem diagnosis of certain conformational diseases, such as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) and Alzheimer’s disease. These conditions are accompanied by the appearance of aggregated protein multimers, present in low concentrations in various tissues. This detection is particularly relevant for TSE where the handling of tissues derived from affected individuals and of meat products of infected animals have become an enormous health concern. Here we demonstrate the potential of such a multimer detection approach in TSE by developing a facile approach. The Biospiral-Detect system resembles a traditional sandwich ELISA, except that the capturing antibody that is attached to a solid surface and the detecting antibody is directed against the same or overlapping epitopes. As a consequence, the capturing antibody shields the epitope on the captured monomer from reacting with the detecting antibody, therefore monomers are not detected. Thus, MDS is capable of detecting only protein multimers with high specificity. We developed an alternative system as well, where RNA aptamers were employed instead of monoclonal antibodies. In order to minimize degradation, the 3' and 5' ends of the aptamer contained deoxyribonucleotides and phosphorothioate linkages. When compared the monoclonal antibodies-based system with the aptamers-based one, the former proved to be superior. Thus all subsequent experiments were conducted by employing the Biospiral -Detect modified sandwich ELISA kit. Our approach showed an order of magnitude higher sensitivity toward mulimers than monomers suggesting that this approach may become a valuable diagnostic tool for conformational diseases that are accompanied by multimerization.

Keywords: diagnosis, ELISA, Prion, TSE

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Authors: M. Bilal Ishfaq, Adnan N. Qureshi

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COVID-19 is the most infectious disease these days, it was first reported in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei in China then it spread rapidly throughout the whole world. Later on 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a pandemic. Since COVID-19 is highly contagious, it has affected approximately 219M people worldwide and caused 4.55M deaths. It has brought the importance of accurate diagnosis of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and COVID-19 to the forefront. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach for the automated detection of COVID-19 using medical imaging. We have presented the hybridization of manually extracted and convolutional features. Our approach combines Haralick texture features and convolutional features extracted from chest X-rays and CT scans. We also employ a minimum redundancy maximum relevance (MRMR) feature selection algorithm to reduce computational complexity and enhance classification performance. The proposed model is evaluated on four publicly available datasets, including Chest X-ray Pneumonia, COVID-19 Pneumonia, COVID-19 CTMaster, and VinBig data. The results demonstrate high accuracy and effectiveness, with 0.9925 on the Chest X-ray pneumonia dataset, 0.9895 on the COVID-19, Pneumonia and Normal Chest X-ray dataset, 0.9806 on the Covid CTMaster dataset, and 0.9398 on the VinBig dataset. We further evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model using ROC curves, where the AUC for the best-performing model reaches 0.96. Our proposed model provides a promising tool for the early detection and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19, which can assist healthcare professionals in making informed treatment decisions and improving patient outcomes. The results of the proposed model are quite plausible and the system can be deployed in a clinical or research setting to assist in the diagnosis of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19, feature engineering, artificial neural networks, radiology images

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Authors: Evgeny A. Rybakov, Dmitry P. Starikov

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This article contains information about creating special unit for scanning 3D objects different nature, different materials, for example plastic, plaster, cardboard, wood, metal and etc. The main part of the unit is infrared transducer, which is sends the wave to the object and receive back wave for calculating distance. After that, microcontroller send to PC data, and computer program create model for printing from the plastic, gypsum, brass, etc.

Keywords: clutch, infrared, microcontroller, plastic, shaft, stage

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Authors: Mirco Tarozzi, Giacomo Pignagnoli, Andrea Benedetti

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The design of planning maintenance of civil structures often requires the evaluation of their level of safety in order to be able to choose which structure, and in which measure, it needs a structural retrofit. This work deals with the evaluation of the stiffness reduction of a scaled steel deck due to the presence of localized damages. The dynamic tests performed on it have shown the variability of its main frequencies linked to the gradual reduction of its rigidity. This deck consists in a steel grillage of four secondary beams and three main beams linked to a concrete slab. This steel deck is 6 m long and 3 m wide and it rests on two abutments made of concrete. By processing the signals of the accelerations due to a random excitation of the deck, the main natural frequencies of this bridge have been extracted. In order to assign more reliable parameters to the numerical model of the deck, some load tests have been performed and the mechanical property of the materials and the supports have been obtained. The two external beams have been cut at one third of their length and the structural strength has been restored by the design of a bolted plate. The gradual loss of the bolts and the plates removal have made the simulation of localized damage possible. In order to define the relationship between frequency variation and loss in stiffness, the identification of its natural frequencies has been performed, before and after the occurrence of the damage, corresponding to each step. The study of the relationship between stiffness losses and frequency shifts has been reported in this paper: the square of the frequency variation due to the presence of the damage is proportional to the ratio between the rigidities. This relationship can be used to quantify the loss in stiffness of a real scale bridge in an efficient way.

Keywords: damage detection, dynamic test, frequency shifts, operational modal analysis, steel bridge

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Authors: Rosalina Penaloza, Joanna Navarro, Pauline Jolly, Anna Junkins, Carlos Seas, Larissa Otero

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Background: Tuberculosis (TB) case detection in Peru relies on passive case finding. This strategy relies on the assumption that the community is aware that a persistent cough is a possible symptom of TB and that formal health care needs to be sought. Despite its importance, health knowledge specific to TB is underexplored in Peru. This study aimed to assess health literacy and level of TB knowledge among outpatients attending a referral hospital in Lima, Peru. The goal was to ascertain knowledge gaps in key areas relating to TB, to identify and prioritize subgroups for intervention, and to provide insight for policy and community interventions considering health literacy. Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted using a survey to measure sociodemographic factors, tuberculosis knowledge, and health literacy. Bivariate and Multivariate logistic regression was performed to study the associations between variables and to account for potential confounders. The study was conducted at Hospital Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru from June – August 2017. Results: 272 participants were included in the analysis. 57.7% knew someone who had had TB before, 9% had had TB in the past. Two weeks a cough was correctly identified as a symptom that could be TB by 69.1%. High TB knowledge was found among 149 (54.8%) participants. High health literacy was found among 193 (71.0%) participants. Health literacy and TB knowledge were not significantly associated (OR 0.9 (95%CI 0.5-1.5)). After controlling for sex, age, district, education, health insurance, frequency of hospital visits and previous TB diagnosis: High TB knowledge was associated with knowing someone with TB (aOR 2.7 (95%CI 1.6-4.7)) and being a public transport driver, (aOR 0.2 (95%CI 0.05-0.9)). Not being poor was the single factor associated with high health literacy (aOR 3.8 (95%CI 1.6-8.9)). Conclusions: TB knowledge was fair, though 30% did not know the most important symptom of TB. Tailoring educational strategies to risk groups may enhance passive case detection especially amongst transport workers in Lima, Peru.

Keywords: health literacy, Peru, tuberculosis, tuberculosis knowledge

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Authors: Tadesse Eguale, Ephrem Engdawork, Wondwossen Gebreyes, Dainel Asrat, Hile Alemayehu, John Gunn

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Salmonella is one of the major zoonotic pathogens affecting wide range of vertebrates and humans worldwide. Consumption of contaminated dairy products and contact with dairy cattle represent the common sources of non-typhoidal Salmonella infection in humans. Fecal samples were collected from 132 dairy herds in central Ethiopia and cultured for Salmonella to determine the prevalence, serotype distribution and antimicrobial susceptibility. Salmonella was recovered from the feces of at least one cattle in 10(7.6%) of the dairy farms. Out of 1193 fecal samples 30(2.5%) were positive for Salmonella. Large farm size, detection of diarrhea in one or more animals during sampling and keeping animals completely indoor compared to occasional grazing outside were associated with Salmonella positivity of the farms. Farm level prevalence of Salmonella was significantly higher in young animals below 6 months of age compared to other age groups(X2=10.24; p=0.04). Nine different serotypes were isolated. The four most frequently recovered serotypes were S. Typhimurium (23.3%),S. Saintpaul (20%) and S. Kentucky and S. Virchow (16.7%) each. All isolates were resistant or intermediately resistant to at least one of the 18 drugs tested. Twenty-six (86.7%), 20(66.7%), 18(60%), 16(53.3%) of the isolates were resistant to streptomycin, nitrofurantoin, sulfisoxazole and tetracycline respectively. Resistance to 2 drugs was detected in 93.3% of the isolates. Resistance to 3 or more drugs were detected in 21(70%) of the total isolates while multi-drug resistance (MDR) to 7 or more drugs were detected in 12 (40%) of the isolates. The rate of occurrence of MDR in Salmonella strains isolated from dairy farms in Addis Ababa was significantly higher than those isolated from farms outside of Addis Ababa((p= 0.009). The detection of high MDR in Salmonella isolates originating from dairy farms warrants the need for strict pathogen reduction strategy in dairy cattle and spread of these MDR strains to human population.

Keywords: salmonella, antimicrobial resistance, fecal prevalence

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Authors: L. Piñeiro, N. Cobas, L. Gómez-Limia, S. Martínez, I. Franco

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The swordfish (Xiphias gladius) is a large oceanic fish of high commercial value, which is widely distributed in waters of the world’s oceans. They are considered to be an important source of high quality proteins, vitamins and essential fatty acids, although only half of the population follows the recommendation of nutritionists to consume fish at least twice a week. Swordfish is consumed worldwide because of its low fat content and high protein content. It is generally sold as fresh, frozen, and as pieces or slices. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of salting and frying on the composition of the water-soluble vitamins (B₂, B₃, B₉ and B₁₂) and fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, and E) of swordfish. Three loins of swordfish from Pacific Ocean were analyzed. All the fishes had a weight between 50 and 70 kg and were transported to the laboratory frozen (-18 ºC). Before the processing, they were defrosted at 4 ºC. Each loin was sliced and salted in brine. After cleaning the slices, they were divided into portions (10×2 cm) and fried in olive oil. The identification and quantification of vitamins were carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), using methanol and 0.010% trifluoroacetic acid as mobile phases at a flow-rate of 0.7 mL min^-1. The UV-Vis detector was used for the detection of the water- and fat-soluble vitamins (A and D), as well as the fluorescence detector for the detection of the vitamin E. During salting, water and fat-soluble vitamin contents remained constant, observing an evident decrease in the values of vitamin B₂. The diffusion of salt into the interior of the pieces and the loss of constitution water that occur during this stage would be related to this significant decrease. In general, after frying water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins showed a great thermolability with high percentages of retention with values among 50–100%. Vitamin B₃ is the one that exhibited higher percentages of retention with values close to 100%. However, vitamin B₉ presented the highest losses with a percentage of retention of less than 20%.

Keywords: frying, HPLC, salting, swordfish, vitamins

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Authors: Amirhosein Moonesi Shabestary, Eckhard Krepper, Dirk Lucas

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The current PhD project comprises CFD-modeling and simulation of condensation and heat transfer inside horizontal pipes. Condensation plays an important role in emergency cooling systems of reactors. The emergency cooling system consists of inclined horizontal pipes which are immersed in a tank of subcooled water. In the case of an accident the water level in the core is decreasing, steam comes in the emergency pipes, and due to the subcooled water around the pipe, this steam will start to condense. These horizontal pipes act as a strong heat sink which is responsible for a quick depressurization of the reactor core when any accident happens. This project is defined in order to model all these processes which happening in the emergency cooling systems. The most focus of the project is on detection of different morphologies such as annular flow, stratified flow, slug flow and plug flow. This project is an ongoing project which has been started 1 year ago in Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf (HZDR), Fluid Dynamics department. In HZDR most in cooperation with ANSYS different models are developed for modeling multiphase flows. Inhomogeneous MUSIG model considers the bubble size distribution and is used for modeling small-scaled dispersed gas phase. AIAD (Algebraic Interfacial Area Density Model) is developed for detection of the local morphology and corresponding switch between them. The recent model is GENTOP combines both concepts. GENTOP is able to simulate co-existing large-scaled (continuous) and small-scaled (polydispersed) structures. All these models are validated for adiabatic cases without any phase change. Therefore, the start point of the current PhD project is using the available models and trying to integrate phase transition and wall condensing models into them. In order to simplify the idea of condensation inside horizontal tubes, 3 steps have been defined. The first step is the investigation of condensation inside a horizontal tube by considering only direct contact condensation (DCC) and neglect wall condensation. Therefore, the inlet of the pipe is considered to be annular flow. In this step, AIAD model is used in order to detect the interface. The second step is the extension of the model to consider wall condensation as well which is closer to the reality. In this step, the inlet is pure steam, and due to the wall condensation, a liquid film occurs near the wall which leads to annular flow. The last step will be modeling of different morphologies which are occurring inside the tube during the condensation via using GENTOP model. By using GENTOP, the dispersed phase is able to be considered and simulated. Finally, the results of the simulations will be validated by experimental data which will be available also in HZDR.

Keywords: wall condensation, direct contact condensation, AIAD model, morphology detection

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Authors: Sanjal Gavande, Thomas Mazzuchi, Shahram Sarkani

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In a complex aerospace operational environment, identifying failures in a procedure involving multiple human-machine interactions are difficult. These failures could lead to accidents causing loss of hardware or human life. The likelihood of failure further increases if operational procedures are tested for a novel system with multiple human-machine interfaces and with no prior performance data. The existing approach in the literature of reviewing complex operational tasks in a flowchart or tabular form doesn’t provide any insight into potential system failures due to human decision-making ability. To address these challenges, this research explores an agent-based simulation approach for reliability assessment and fault detection in complex human-machine systems while utilizing a human decision-making model. The simulation will predict the emergent behavior of the system due to the interaction between humans and their decision-making capability with the varying states of the machine and vice-versa. Overall system reliability will be evaluated based on a defined set of success-criteria conditions and the number of recorded failures over an assigned limit of Monte Carlo runs. The study also aims at identifying high-likelihood failure locations for the system. The research concludes that system reliability and failures can be effectively calculated when individual human and machine agent states are clearly defined. This research is limited to the operations phase of a system lifecycle process in an aerospace environment only. Further exploration of the proposed agent-based and human decision-making model will be required to allow for a greater understanding of this topic for application outside of the operations domain.

Keywords: agent-based model, complex human-machine system, human decision-making model, system reliability assessment

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Authors: Fadime Eroglu

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Acanthamoeba genus belongs to kingdom protozoa, and it is known as free-living amoebae. Acanthamoeba genus has been isolated from human bodies, swimming pools, bottled mineral water, contact lens solutions, dust, and soil. The members of the genus Acanthamoeba causes Acanthamoeba Keratitis which is a painful sight-threatening disease of the eyes. In recent years, the prevalence of Acanthamoeba keratitis has been high rate reported. The eight different Acanthamoeba species are known to be effective in Acanthamoeba keratitis. These species are Acanthamoeba castellanii, Acanthamoeba polyphaga, Acanthamoeba griffini, Acanthamoeba hatchetti, Acanthamoeba culbertsoni and Acanhtamoeba rhysodes. The conventional diagnosis of Acanthamoeba Keratitis has relied on cytological preparations and growth of Acanthamoeba in culture. However molecular methods such as real-time PCR has been found to be more sensitive. The real-time PCR has now emerged as an effective method for more rapid testing for the diagnosis of infectious disease in decade. Therefore, a real-time PCR assay for the detection of Acanthamoeba keratitis and Acanthamoeba species have been developed in this study. The 18S rRNA sequences from Acanthamoeba species were obtained from National Center for Biotechnology Information and sequences were aligned with MEGA 6 programme. Primers and probe were designed using Custom Primers-OligoPerfectTMDesigner (ThermoFisherScientific, Waltham, MA, USA). They were also assayed for hairpin formation and degree of primer-dimer formation with Multiple Primer Analyzer ( ThermoFisherScientific, Watham, MA, USA). The eight different ATCC Acanthamoeba species were obtained, and DNA was extracted using the Qiagen Mini DNA extraction kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). The DNA of Acanthamoeba species were analyzed using newly designed primer and probe set in real-time PCR assay. The early definitive laboratory diagnosis of Acanthamoeba Keratitis and the rapid initiation of suitable therapy is necessary for clinical prognosis. The results of the study have been showed that new primer and probes could be used for detection and distinguish for Acanthamoeba species. These new developing methods are helpful for diagnosis of Acanthamoeba Keratitis.

Keywords: Acathamoeba Keratitis, Acanthamoeba species, fast diagnosis, Real-Time PCR

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Authors: Abdullah Alnutayfat, Alexander Sutin

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One of the most important types of renewable energy resources is wind energy which can be produced by wind turbines. The blades of the wind turbine are exposed to the pressure of the harsh environment, which causes a significant issue for the wind power industry in terms of the maintenance cost and failure of blades. One of the reliable methods for blade inspection is the vibroacoustic structural health monitoring (SHM) method which examines information obtained from the structural vibrations of the blade. However, all vibroacoustic SHM techniques are based on comparing the structural vibration of intact and damaged structures, which places a practical limit on their use. Methods for nonlinear vibroacoustic SHM are more sensitive to damage and cracking and do not need to be compared to data from the intact structure. This paper presents the Vibro-Acoustic Modulation (VAM) method based on the modulation of high-frequency (probe wave) by low-frequency loads (pump wave) produced by the blade rotation. The blade rotation alternates bending stress due to gravity, leading to crack size variations and variations in the blade resonance frequency. This method can be used with the classical SHM vibration method in which the blade is excited by piezoceramic actuator patches bonded to the blade and receives the vibration response from another piezoceramic sensor. The VAM modification of this method analyzes the spectra of the detected signal and their sideband components. We suggest the VAM model as the simple mechanical oscillator, where the parameters of the oscillator (resonance frequency and damping) are varied due to low-frequency blade rotation. This model uses the blade vibration parameters and crack influence on the blade resonance properties from previous research papers to predict the modulation index (MI).

Keywords: wind turbine blades, damaged detection, vibro-acoustic structural health monitoring, vibro-acoustic modulation

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Authors: Osvaldo N. Oliveira Jr.

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The control of molecular architecture inherent in some experimental methods to produce nanostructured films has had great impact on devices of various types, including sensors and biosensors. The self-assembly monolayers (SAMs) and the electrostatic layer-by-layer (LbL) techniques, for example, are now routinely used to produce tailored architectures for biosensing where biomolecules are immobilized with long-lasting preserved activity. Enzymes, antigens, antibodies, peptides and many other molecules serve as the molecular recognition elements for detecting an equally wide variety of analytes. The principles of detection are also varied, including electrochemical methods, fluorescence spectroscopy and impedance spectroscopy. In this presentation an overview will be provided of biosensors made with nanostructured films to detect antibodies associated with tropical diseases and HIV, in addition to detection of analytes of medical interest such as cholesterol and triglycerides. Because large amounts of data are generated in the biosensing experiments, use has been made of computational and statistical methods to optimize performance. Multidimensional projection techniques such as Sammon´s mapping have been shown more efficient than traditional multivariate statistical analysis in identifying small concentrations of anti-HIV antibodies and for distinguishing between blood serum samples of animals infected with two tropical diseases, namely Chagas´ disease and Leishmaniasis. Optimization of biosensing may include a combination of another information visualization method, the Parallel Coordinate technique, with artificial intelligence methods in order to identify the most suitable frequencies for reaching higher sensitivity using impedance spectroscopy. Also discussed will be the possible convergence of technologies, through which machine learning and other computational methods may be used to treat data from biosensors within an expert system for clinical diagnosis.

Keywords: clinical diagnosis, information visualization, nanostructured films, layer-by-layer technique

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Authors: Nader Nciri, Suil Song, Namho Kim, Namjun Cho

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Properties and compositions of bitumen and bitumen-derived liquids have significant influences on the selection of recovery, upgrading and refining processes. Optimal process conditions can often be directly related to these properties. The end uses of bitumen and bitumen products are thus related to their compositions. Because it is not possible to conduct a complete analysis of the molecular structure of bitumen, characterization must be made in other terms. The present paper focuses on physico-chemical analysis of two different types of bitumens. These bitumen samples were chosen based on: the original crude oil (sand oil and crude petroleum), and mode of process. The aim of this study is to determine both the manufacturing effect on chemical species and the chemical organization as a function of the type of bitumen sample. In order to obtain information on bitumen chemistry, elemental analysis (C, H, N, S, and O), heavy metal (Ni, V) concentrations, IATROSCAN chromatography (thin layer chromatography-flame ionization detection), FTIR spectroscopy, and 1H NMR spectroscopy have all been used. The characterization includes information about the major compound types (saturates, aromatics, resins and asphaltenes) which can be compared with similar data for other bitumens, more importantly, can be correlated with data from petroleum samples for which refining characteristics are known. Examination of Asphalt Ridge froth bitumen showed that it differed significantly from representative petroleum pitches, principally in their nonhydrocarbon content, heavy metal content and aromatic compounds. When possible, properties and composition were related to recovery and refining processes. This information is important because of the effects that composition has on recovery and processing reactions.

Keywords: froth bitumen, oil sand, asphalt ridge, petroleum pitch, thin layer chromatography-flame ionization detection, infrared spectroscopy, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

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Authors: Manaranjan Pradhan, Shailaja Grover, U. Dinesh Kumar

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Farming community in India, as well as other parts of the world, is one of the highly stressed communities due to reasons such as increasing input costs (cost of seeds, fertilizers, pesticide), droughts, reduced revenue leading to farmer suicides. Lack of integrated farm advisory system in India adds to the farmers problems. Farmers need right information during the early stages of crop’s lifecycle to prevent damage and loss in revenue. In this paper, we use deep learning techniques to develop an early warning system for detection of crop diseases using images taken by farmers using their smart phone. The research work leads to building a smart assistant using analytics and big data which could help the farmers with early diagnosis of the crop diseases and corrective actions. The classical approach for crop disease management has been to identify diseases at crop level. Recently, ImageNet Classification using the convolutional neural network (CNN) has been successfully used to identify diseases at individual plant level. Our model uses convolution filters, max pooling, dense layers and dropouts (to avoid overfitting). The models are built for binary classification (healthy or not healthy) and multi class classification (identifying which disease). Transfer learning is used to modify the weights of parameters learnt through ImageNet dataset and apply them on crop diseases, which reduces number of epochs to learn. One shot learning is used to learn from very few images, while data augmentation techniques are used to improve accuracy with images taken from farms by using techniques such as rotation, zoom, shift and blurred images. Models built using combination of these techniques are more robust for deploying in the real world. Our model is validated using tomato crop. In India, tomato is affected by 10 different diseases. Our model achieves an accuracy of more than 95% in correctly classifying the diseases. The main contribution of our research is to create a personal assistant for farmers for managing plant disease, although the model was validated using tomato crop, it can be easily extended to other crops. The advancement of technology in computing and availability of large data has made possible the success of deep learning applications in computer vision, natural language processing, image recognition, etc. With these robust models and huge smartphone penetration, feasibility of implementation of these models is high resulting in timely advise to the farmers and thus increasing the farmers' income and reducing the input costs.

Keywords: analytics in agriculture, CNN, crop disease detection, data augmentation, image recognition, one shot learning, transfer learning

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Authors: Abdela Bulbula

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Background: Marek’s disease virus is a devastating infection, causing high morbidity and mortality in chickens in Ethiopia. Methods: The current study was conducted from March to November, 2021 with the general objective of performing antemortem and postmortem, isolation, and molecular detection of Marek’s disease virus from outbreak cases in southwestern Ethiopia. Accordingly, based on outbreak information reported from the study sites namely, Bedelle, Yayo, and Bonga towns in southwestern Ethiopia, 50 sick chickens were sampled. The backyard and intensive farming systems of chickens were included in the sampling and priorities were given for chickens that showed clinical signs that are characteristics of Marek’s disease. Results: By clinical examinations, paralysis of legs and wings, gray eye, loss of weight, difficulty in breathing, and depression were recorded on all chickens sampled for this study and death of diseased chickens was observed. In addition, enlargement of the spleen and gross lesions of the liver and heart were recorded during postmortem examination. The death of infected chickens was observed in both vaccinated and non-vaccinated flocks. Out of 50 pooled feather follicle samples, Marek’s disease virus was isolated from 14/50 (28%) by cell culture method and out of six tissue samples, the virus was isolated from 5/6(83.30%). By Real time polymerization chain reaction technique, which was targeted to detect the Meq gene, Marek’s disease virus was detected from 18/50 feather follicles which accounts for 36% of sampled chickens. Conclusion: In general, the current study showed that the circulating Marek’s disease virus in southwestern Ethiopia was caused by the oncogenic Gallid herpesvirus-2 (Serotype-1). Further research on molecular characterization of revolving virus in current and other regions is recommended for effective control of the disease through vaccination.

Keywords: Ethioi, Marek's disease, isolation, molecular

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Authors: S. M. Rashed Ul Islam, Shahina Tabassum, Afsana Anwar Miti

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Objective: HIV testing and counseling center (HTC) is an important component of the HIV/AIDS detection, prevention and control interventions. The service was first initiated at the Department of Virology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) since the first case detection in 1989. The present study aimed to describe the demographic profile among the attendees tested HIV positive. Methods: The present study was carried out among 219 HIV positive cases detected through screening at the Department of Virology of BSMMU during the year of 2012-2016. Data were collected through pre-structured written questionnaire during the counseling session. Data were expressed as frequency and percentages and analyzed using SPSS v20.0 program. Results: Out of 219 HIV cases detected, 77.6% were males, and 22.4% were females with a mean age (mean±SD) of 35.46±9.46 years. Among them, 70.7% belonged to the 26-45 age groups representing the sexually active age. The majority of the cases were married (86.3%) and 49.8% had primary level of education whereas, 8.7% were illiterate. Nearly 42% of cases were referred from Chittagong division (south-east part of the country) followed by Dhaka division (35.6%). The bulk of study population admitted to involvement in high-risk behaviour (90%) in the past and 42% of them had worked overseas. The Pearson Chi-square (χ2) analysis revealed significant relationship of gender with marital (χ2=7.88 at 2% level) and occupation status (χ2=120.48 at 6% level); however, no association was observed with risk behaviour and educational status. Recommendations: HIV risk behavior was found to be a prime source for HIV infection among the study population. So, there is need for health education and awareness program to bring about behavioral changes to halt the yearly increase of new cases in the country with special attention to our overseas workers on HIV/AIDS risk and safety.

Keywords: Bangladesh, health education, HIV testing and counseling (HTC), HIV/AIDS, risk behavior

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Authors: Nacera Yassa, Abdelmalek Saidoune, Ghania Ouadfel, Hamza Houassine

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The rapid advancement in electrical technologies has underscored the increasing importance of multiphase machines across various industrial sectors. These machines offer significant advantages in terms of efficiency, compactness, and reliability compared to their single-phase counterparts. However, early detection and diagnosis of electrical faults remain critical challenges to ensure the durability and safety of these complex systems. This paper presents an advanced analytical model for multiphase machines, with a particular focus on dual stator asynchronous machines. The primary objective is to develop a robust diagnostic tool capable of effectively detecting and locating electrical faults in these machines, including short circuits, winding faults, and voltage imbalances. The proposed methodology relies on an analytical approach combining electrical machine theory, modeling of magnetic and electrical circuits, and advanced signal analysis techniques. By employing detailed analytical equations, the developed model accurately simulates the behavior of multiphase machines in the presence of electrical faults. The effectiveness of the proposed model is demonstrated through a series of case studies and numerical simulations. In particular, special attention is given to analyzing the dynamic behavior of machines under different types of faults, as well as optimizing diagnostic and recovery strategies. The obtained results pave the way for new advancements in the field of multiphase machine diagnostics, with potential applications in various sectors such as automotive, aerospace, and renewable energies. By providing precise and reliable tools for early fault detection, this research contributes to improving the reliability and durability of complex electrical systems while reducing maintenance and operation costs.

Keywords: faults, diagnosis, modelling, multiphase machine

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Authors: Amir Shahab Shahabi, Mohsen Hasirian

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Modern societies, marked by expansive Internet connectivity and the rise of e-commerce, are now integrated with digital platforms at an unprecedented level. The efficiency, speed, and accessibility of e-commerce have garnered a substantial consumer base. Against this backdrop, electronic banking has undergone rapid proliferation within the realm of online activities. However, this growth has inadvertently given rise to an environment conducive to illicit activities, notably electronic payment fraud, posing a formidable challenge to the domain of electronic banking. A pivotal role in upholding the integrity of electronic commerce and business transactions is played by electronic fraud detection, particularly in the context of credit cards which underscores the imperative of comprehensive research in this field. To this end, our study introduces an Attentional Bi-Stream Sequence Learner (AttBiSeL) framework that leverages attention mechanisms and recurrent networks. By incorporating bidirectional recurrent layers, specifically bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) layers, the proposed model adeptly extracts past and future transaction sequences while accounting for the temporal flow of information in both directions. Moreover, the integration of an attention mechanism accentuates specific transactions to varying degrees, as manifested in the output of the recurrent networks. The effectiveness of the proposed approach in automatic credit card fraud classification is evaluated on the European Cardholders' Fraud Dataset. Empirical results validate that the hybrid architectural paradigm presented in this study yields enhanced accuracy compared to previous studies.

Keywords: credit card fraud, deep learning, attention mechanism, recurrent neural networks

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Authors: R. Abdeldjebar, B. Labbaci, L. Missoum, B. Moudden, M. Djermane

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The basic components of a composite material made him very sensitive to damage, which requires techniques for detecting damage reliable and efficient. This work focuses on the detection of damage by vibration analysis, whose main objective is to exploit the dynamic response of a structure to detect understand the damage. The experimental results are compared with those predicted by numerical models to confirm the effectiveness of the approach.

Keywords: experimental, composite, vibration analysis, damage

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Authors: Christine Fräulin, Daniela Schurr, Hamed Shahidi Rad, Gerrit Waters, Günter Rinke, Roland Dittmeyer, Michael Nilles

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The reaction mechanisms of many liquid-phase reactions in organic chemistry have not yet been sufficiently clarified. Process conditions of several hundred degrees celsius and pressures to ten megapascals complicate the sampling and the determination of kinetic data. Space resolved in-situ measurements promises new insights. A non-invasive in-situ measurement technique has the advantages that no sample preparation is necessary, there is no change in sample mixture before analysis and the sampling do no lead to interventions in the flow. Thus, the goal of our research was the development of a contact-free spatially resolved measurement technique for kinetic studies of liquid phase reaction under process conditions. Therefore we used laser Raman spectroscopy combined with an optical transparent microchannel reactor. To show the performance of the system we choose the oxidation of cyclohexane as sample reaction. Cyclohexane oxidation is an economically important process. The products are intermediates for caprolactam and adipic acid, which are starting materials for polyamide 6 and 6.6 production. To maintain high selectivities of 70 to 90 %, the reaction is performed in industry at a low conversion of about six percent. As Raman spectroscopy is usually very selective but not very sensitive the detection of the small product concentration in cyclohexane oxidation is quite challenging. To meet these requirements, an optical experimental setup was optimized to determine the concentrations by laser Raman spectroscopy with respect to good detection sensitivity. With this measurement technique space resolved kinetic studies of uncatalysed and homogeneous catalyzed cyclohexane oxidation were carried out to obtain details about the reaction mechanism.

Keywords: in-situ laser raman spectroscopy, space resolved kinetic measurements, homogeneous catalysis, chemistry

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Authors: Mrinal Kanti Bhowmik, Usha Rani Gogoi Jr., Anjan Kumar Ghosh, Debotosh Bhattacharjee

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In the last few decades, breast thermography has achieved an average sensitivity and specificity of 90% for breast tumor detection. Breast thermography is a non-invasive, cost-effective, painless and radiation-free breast imaging modality which makes a significant contribution to the evaluation and diagnosis of patients, suspected of having breast cancer. An abnormal breast thermogram may indicate significant biological risk for the existence or the development of breast tumors. Breast thermography can detect a breast tumor, when the tumor is in its early stage or when the tumor is in a dense breast. The infrared breast thermography is very sensitive to environmental changes for which acquisition of breast thermography should be performed under strictly controlled conditions by undergoing some standard protocols. Several factors like air, temperature, humidity, etc. are there to be considered for characterizing thermal images as an imperative tool for detecting breast cancer. A detailed study of various breast thermogram acquisition protocols adopted by different researchers in their research work is provided here in this paper. After going through a rigorous study of different breast thermogram acquisition protocols, a new standard breast thermography acquisition setup is proposed here in this paper for proper and accurate capturing of the breast thermograms. The proposed breast thermogram acquisition setup is being built in the Radiology Department, Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC), Govt. of Tripura, Tripura, India. The breast thermograms are captured using FLIR T650sc thermal camera with the thermal sensitivity of 20 mK at 30 degree C. The paper is an attempt to highlight the importance of different critical parameters of breast thermography like different thermography views, patient preparation protocols, acquisition room requirements, acquisition system requirements, etc. This paper makes an important contribution by providing a detailed survey and a new efficient approach on breast thermogram capturing.

Keywords: acquisition protocol, breast cancer, breast thermography, infrared thermography

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Authors: Vivek B. Ravindran, Aravind Surapaneni, Rebecca Traub, Sarvesh K. Soni, Andrew S. Ball

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Parasitic diseases have a devastating, long-term impact on human health and welfare. More than two billion people are infected with soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), including the roundworms (Ascaris), hookworms (Necator and Ancylostoma) and whipworm (Trichuris) with majority occurring in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Despite its low prevalence in developed countries, the removal of STHs from wastewater remains crucial to allow the safe use of sludge or recycled water in agriculture. Conventional methods such as incubation and optical microscopy are cumbersome; consequently, the results drastically vary from person-to-person observing the ova (eggs) under microscope. Although PCR-based methods are an alternative to conventional techniques, it lacks the ability to distinguish between viable and non-viable helminth ova. As a result, wastewater treatment industries are in major need for radically new and innovative tools to detect and quantify STHs eggs with precision, accuracy and being cost-effective. In our study, we focus on the following novel and innovative techniques: -Recombinase polymerase amplification and Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (RPA-SERS) based detection of helminth ova. -Use of metal nanoparticles and their relative nanozyme activity. -Colorimetric detection, differentiation and enumeration of genera of helminth ova using hydrolytic enzymes (chitinase and lipase). -Propidium monoazide (PMA)-qPCR to detect viable helminth ova. -Modified assay to recover and enumerate helminth eggs from fresh raw sewage. -Transcriptome analysis of ascaris ova in fresh raw sewage. The aforementioned techniques have the potential to replace current conventional and molecular methods thereby producing a standard protocol for the determination and enumeration of helminth ova in sewage sludge.

Keywords: colorimetry, helminth, PMA-QPCR, nanoparticles, RPA, viable

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Authors: C. Vázquez, L. M. Gigirey, C. P. del Oro, S. Seoane

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Early detection of visual problems plays a key role in the aging process. However, although vision problems are common among older people, the percentage of aging people who perform regular optometric exams is low. In fact, uncorrected refractive errors are one of the main causes of visual impairment in this group of the population. Purpose: To evaluate functional vision of older residents in order to show the urgent need of visual screening programs in Galician nursing homes. Methodology: We examined 364 older adults aged 65 years and over. To measure vision of the daily living, we tested distance and near presenting visual acuity (binocular visual acuity with habitual correction if warn, directional E-Snellen) Presenting near vision was tested at the usual working distance. We defined visual impairment (distance and near) as a presenting visual acuity less than 0.3. Exclusion criteria included immobilized residents unable to reach the USC Dual Sensory Loss Unit for visual screening. Association between categorical variables was performed using chi-square tests. We used Pearson and Spearman correlation tests and the variance analysis to determine differences between groups of interest. Results: 23,1% of participants have visual impairment for distance vision and 16,4% for near vision. The percentage of residents with far and near visual impairment reaches 8,2%. As expected, prevalence of visual impairment increases with age. No differences exist with regard to the level of functional vision between gender. Differences exist between age group respect to distance vision, but not in case of near vision. Conclusion: prevalence of visual impairment is high among the older people tested in this pilot study. This means a high percentage of older people with limitations in their daily life activities. It is necessary to develop an effective vision screening program for early detection of vision problems in Galician nursing homes.

Keywords: functional vision, elders, aging, nursing homes

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Authors: Azar Sharafianpor, Hossein Rassi, Fahimeh Nemati Mansur

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Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the most important cause of death in industrialized and developing countries such as Iran. The most important risk factors for the CVD, genetic factors and chronic infectious agents, such as Helicobacter pylori, can be mentioned. The TNFα gene is one of the most important anti-inflammatory cytokines that can affect the sensitivity, efficacy, and ability of the immune response to chronic infections. Some TNF-α gene polymorphisms, including the replacement of the G nucleotide G with A at position 308 in the promoter region of TNF-α, increase the transcription of cytokines in the target cells and thus predispose a person to chronic infections. This study examines the TNF-α 308 polymorphism and its association with Helicobacter pylori infection in this disease. This study was a case-control study in which 154 patients were examined as cases or patients with symptoms of myocardial infarction or angina and 160 as controls or healthy subjects. All of the subjects at different ages were given venous blood and age, BMI, cholesterol, LDL, and HDL were determined. DNA was extracted from the specimens, and the cagA gene from H. pylori and the TNF-α-308 polymorphism were determined by PCR in patients and healthy subjects. Statistical analysis was performed with Epi Info software. The results showed that the frequency of H. pylori infection in the patients and healthy group were 53.23% (82 out of 154) and 47.5% (76 out of 160). There was no significant difference in H. pylori outbreak between the two groups. The frequencies of TNF-α-308 genotype for GG, GA, and AA in patients were 0.17, 0.49, and 0.34, respectively, whereas for controls 0.47, 0.35, and 0.18 for GG, GA, and AA, respectively. The frequency of genotype analysis of TNF-α-308 polymorphisms in both patients and healthy groups showed that there was a significant difference in the frequency of genotypes and the AA genotype was higher in the affected individuals. Also, there was a significant relationship between the genotype and the contamination with H. pylori and changes in cholesterol, LDL, and HDL levels were observed. The results of the study indicate that H. pylori detection in individuals with AA genotype in people under 50 years of age can play an important role in early diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori, TNFα gene, cardiovascular diseases, TNFα-308 polymorphism

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Authors: Vanessa Roulet, Marc Turini, Juliane Hey, Stéphanie Bord-Romeu, Emilie Bonzom, Mahmoud Badawi, Mohammed-Amine Chakir, Valérie Simon, Vanessa Viotti, Jérémie Gautier, Françoise Le Boulaire, Catherine Coignard, Claire Vincent, Sandrine Greaume, Isabelle Voisin

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Background: Beckman Coulter, Inc. has recently developed fully automated assays for the detection of HBsAg on a new immunoassay platform. The objective of this European multicenter study was to evaluate the performance of the ACCESS HBsAg and ACCESS HBsAg Confirmatory assays† on the recently CE-marked DxI 9000 ACCESS Immunoassay Analyzer. Methods: The clinical specificity of the ACCESS HBsAg and HBsAg Confirmatory assays was determined using HBsAg-negative samples from blood donors and hospitalized patients. The clinical sensitivity was determined using presumed HBsAg-positive samples. Sample HBsAg status was determined using a CE-marked HBsAg assay (Abbott ARCHITECT HBsAg Qualitative II, Roche Elecsys HBsAg II, or Abbott PRISM HBsAg assay) and a CE-marked HBsAg confirmatory assay (Abbott ARCHITECT HBsAg Qualitative II Confirmatory or Abbott PRISM HBsAg Confirmatory assay) according to manufacturer package inserts and pre-determined testing algorithms. False initial reactive rate was determined on fresh hospitalized patient samples. The sensitivity for the early detection of HBV infection was assessed internally on thirty (30) seroconversion panels. Results: Clinical specificity was 99.95% (95% CI, 99.86 – 99.99%) on 6047 blood donors and 99.71% (95%CI, 99.15 – 99.94%) on 1023 hospitalized patient samples. A total of six (6) samples were found false positive with the ACCESS HBsAg assay. None were confirmed for the presence of HBsAg with the ACCESS HBsAg Confirmatory assay. Clinical sensitivity on 455 HBsAg-positive samples was 100.00% (95% CI, 99.19 – 100.00%) for the ACCESS HBsAg assay alone and for the ACCESS HBsAg Confirmatory assay. The false initial reactive rate on 821 fresh hospitalized patient samples was 0.24% (95% CI, 0.03 – 0.87%). Results obtained on 30 seroconversion panels demonstrated that the ACCESS HBsAg assay had equivalent sensitivity performances compared to the Abbott ARCHITECT HBsAg Qualitative II assay with an average bleed difference since first reactive bleed of 0.13. All bleeds found reactive in ACCESS HBsAg assay were confirmed in ACCESS HBsAg Confirmatory assay. Conclusion: The newly developed ACCESS HBsAg and ACCESS HBsAg Confirmatory assays from Beckman Coulter have demonstrated high clinical sensitivity and specificity, equivalent to currently marketed HBsAg assays, as well as a low false initial reactive rate. †Pending achievement of CE compliance; not yet available for in vitro diagnostic use. 2023-11317 Beckman Coulter and the Beckman Coulter product and service marks mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Beckman Coulter, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Keywords: dxi 9000 access immunoassay analyzer, hbsag, hbv, hepatitis b surface antigen, hepatitis b virus, immunoassay

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Authors: C. Bolakis, I. S. Karanasiou, D. Grbovic, G. Karunasiri, N. Uzunoglu

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A new approach for efficient detection of THz radiation in biomedical imaging applications is proposed. A double-layered absorber consisting of a 32 nm thick aluminum (Al) metallic layer, located on a glass medium (SiO2) of 1 mm thickness, was fabricated and used to design a fine-tuned absorber through a theoretical and finite element modeling process. The results indicate that the proposed low-cost, double-layered absorber can be tuned based on the metal layer sheet resistance and the thickness of various glass media taking advantage of the diversity of the absorption of the metal films in the desired THz domain (6 to 10 THz). It was found that the composite absorber could absorb up to 86% (a percentage exceeding the 50%, previously shown to be the highest achievable when using single thin metal layer) and reflect less than 1% of the incident THz power. This approach will enable monitoring of the transmission coefficient (THz transmission ‘’fingerprint’’) of the biosample with high accuracy, while also making the proposed double-layered absorber a good candidate for a microbolometer pixel’s active element. Based on the aforementioned promising results, a more sophisticated and effective double-layered absorber is under development. The glass medium has been substituted by diluted poly-si and the results were twofold: An absorption factor of 96% was reached and high TCR properties acquired. In addition, a generalization of these results and properties over the active frequency spectrum was achieved. Specifically, through the development of a theoretical equation having as input any arbitrary frequency in the IR spectrum (0.3 to 405.4 THz) and as output the appropriate thickness of the poly-si medium, the double-layered absorber retains the ability to absorb the 96% and reflects less than 1% of the incident power. As a result, through that post-optimization process and the spread spectrum frequency adjustment, the microbolometer detector efficiency could be further improved.

Keywords: bio-imaging, fine-tuned absorber, fingerprint, microbolometer

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Authors: Rishabh Beri, Sahil Shah

Abstract:

We have applied a range of filters and processing in order to extract out the various features of the football game, like the field lines of a football field. Another important aspect was the detection of the players in the field and tagging them according to their teams distinguished by their jersey colours. This extracted information combined about the players and field helped us to create a virtual field that consists of the playing field and the players mapped to their locations in it.

Keywords: Detect, Football, Players, Virtual

Procedia PDF Downloads 331

Authors: Katarzyna Lubecka, Kirsty Flower, Megan Beetch, Lucinda Kurzava, Hannah Buvala, Samer Gawrieh, Suthat Liangpunsakul, Tracy Gonzalez, George McCabe, Naga Chalasani, James M. Flanagan, Barbara Stefanska

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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most prevalent type of primary liver cancer, is the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Late onset of clinical symptoms in HCC results in late diagnosis and poor disease outcome. Approximately 85% of individuals with HCC have underlying liver cirrhosis. However, not all cirrhotic patients develop cancer. Reliable early detection biomarkers that can distinguish cirrhotic patients who will develop cancer from those who will not are urgently needed and could increase the cure rate from 5% to 80%. We used Illumina-450K microarray to test whether blood DNA, an easily accessible source of DNA, bear site-specific changes in DNA methylation in response to HCC before diagnosis with conventional tools (pre-diagnostic). Top 11 differentially methylated sites were selected for validation by pyrosequencing. The diagnostic potential of the 11 pyrosequenced probes was tested in blood samples from a prospective cohort of cirrhotic patients. We identified 971 differentially methylated CpG sites in pre-diagnostic HCC cases as compared with healthy controls (P < 0.05, paired Wilcoxon test, ICC ≥ 0.5). Nearly 76% of differentially methylated CpG sites showed lower levels of methylation in cases vs. controls (P = 2.973E-11, Wilcoxon test). Classification of the CpG sites according to their location relative to CpG islands and transcription start site revealed that those hypomethylated loci are located in regulatory regions important for gene transcription such as CpG island shores, promoters, and 5’UTR at higher frequency than hypermethylated sites. Among 735 CpG sites hypomethylated in cases vs. controls, 482 sites were assigned to gene coding regions whereas 236 hypermethylated sites corresponded to 160 genes. Bioinformatics analysis using GO, KEGG and DAVID knowledgebase indicate that differentially methylated CpG sites are located in genes associated with functions that are essential for gene transcription, cell adhesion, cell migration, and regulation of signal transduction pathways. Taking into account the magnitude of the difference, statistical significance, location, and consistency across the majority of matched pairs case-control, we selected 11 CpG loci corresponding to 10 genes for further validation by pyrosequencing. We established that methylation of CpG sites within 5 out of those 10 genes distinguish cirrhotic patients who subsequently developed HCC from those who stayed cancer free (cirrhotic controls), demonstrating potential as biomarkers of early detection in populations at risk. The best predictive value was detected for CpGs located within BARD1 (AUC=0.70, asymptotic significance ˂0.01). Using an additive logistic regression model, we further showed that 9 CpG loci within those 5 genes, that were covered in pyrosequenced probes, constitute a panel with high diagnostic accuracy (AUC=0.887; 95% CI:0.80-0.98). The panel was able to distinguish pre-diagnostic cases from cirrhotic controls free of cancer with 88% sensitivity at 70% specificity. Using blood as a minimally invasive material and pyrosequencing as a straightforward quantitative method, the established biomarker panel has high potential to be developed into a routine clinical test after validation in larger cohorts. This study was supported by Showalter Trust, American Cancer Society (IRG#14-190-56), and Purdue Center for Cancer Research (P30 CA023168) granted to BS.

Keywords: biomarker, DNA methylation, early detection, hepatocellular carcinoma

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