Logistics are a key factor for manufacturing companies in developed countries to better exploit their competitive advantages of proximity to market and flexibility. In order to improve the management ...of a logistics/distribution center, this paper proposes the use of control methods based on Multi-Agent Systems enhanced with Radio-Frequency Identification. However, the best way to demonstrate the benefits of using these solutions, is to apply them to a real company; but, naturally, this is impractical. In this paper, an experimental platform composed of a 3D simulation combined with a physical miniature model is used to illustrate the proposed control methods. The set-up described here has been assembled in the AUTOLOG laboratory at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain. The design of the platform is somewhat generic, allowing adaptation to different distribution problems, but has been inspired on a real local facility. The objective of this system is to provide a test-bench to experiment with multidisciplinary theories, techniques, and algorithms that can be grouped into four areas: automation and robotics, instrumentation and control, production planning, and logistics and distribution.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most prevalent cancer in children, and despite considerable progress in treatment outcomes, relapses still pose significant risks of mortality and long-term ...complications. To address this challenge, we employed a supervised machine learning technique, specifically random survival forests, to predict the risk of relapse and mortality using array-based DNA methylation data from a cohort of 763 pediatric ALL patients treated in Nordic countries. The relapse risk predictor (RRP) was constructed based on 16 CpG sites, demonstrating c-indexes of 0.667 and 0.677 in the training and test sets, respectively. The mortality risk predictor (MRP), comprising 53 CpG sites, exhibited c-indexes of 0.751 and 0.754 in the training and test sets, respectively. To validate the prognostic value of the predictors, we further analyzed two independent cohorts of Canadian (n = 42) and Nordic (n = 384) ALL patients. The external validation confirmed our findings, with the RRP achieving a c-index of 0.667 in the Canadian cohort, and the RRP and MRP achieving c-indexes of 0.529 and 0.621, respectively, in an independent Nordic cohort. The precision of the RRP and MRP models improved when incorporating traditional risk group data, underscoring the potential for synergistic integration of clinical prognostic factors. The MRP model also enabled the definition of a risk group with high rates of relapse and mortality. Our results demonstrate the potential of DNA methylation as a prognostic factor and a tool to refine risk stratification in pediatric ALL. This may lead to personalized treatment strategies based on epigenetic profiling.
The present study deals with the ability of an atmospheric pressure air plasma torch (APPT) treatment to remove lubricant pollutants coming from machining processes on steel surfaces. This effect has ...been characterized by contact angle measurements, gravimetric analysis and reflection absorption infrared reflectance spectroscopy (RAIR-FTIR). Attending to the initial results of the investigation, further surface analysis has been done by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In order to define the benefits of cleaning for adhesive bonding processes, pull-off tests were performed on all the coupons. Experimental data show the effectiveness of APPT to achieve not only a high rate of surface lubricant layer elimination, thus cleaning the metal samples by means of a solvent free and fast treatment, but also a remarkable improvement on the substrate adhesive bonding strength.
•We study the effectiveness of APPT on the cleaning of steel samples with lubricant.•We optimize the working parameters in order to set a complete procedure.•We fully characterize chemical changes induced on treated coupons (XPS, CA, FTIR).•Low treatment rates yield high pollutant loss, independently from distance.•Adhesion strength was highly improved, cleaning and activation could be assured.
Summary
Objective
Pathogenic variants in SCN8A have been associated with a wide spectrum of epilepsy phenotypes, ranging from benign familial infantile seizures (BFIS) to epileptic encephalopathies ...with variable severity. Furthermore, a few patients with intellectual disability (ID) or movement disorders without epilepsy have been reported. The vast majority of the published SCN8A patients suffer from severe developmental and epileptic encephalopathy (DEE). In this study, we aimed to provide further insight on the spectrum of milder SCN8A‐related epilepsies.
Methods
A cohort of 1095 patients were screened using a next generation sequencing panel. Further patients were ascertained from a network of epilepsy genetics clinics. Patients with severe DEE and BFIS were excluded from the study.
Results
We found 36 probands who presented with an SCN8A‐related epilepsy and normal intellect (33%) or mild (61%) to moderate ID (6%). All patients presented with epilepsy between age 1.5 months and 7 years (mean = 13.6 months), and 58% of these became seizure‐free, two‐thirds on monotherapy. Neurological disturbances included ataxia (28%) and hypotonia (19%) as the most prominent features. Interictal electroencephalogram was normal in 41%. Several recurrent variants were observed, including Ile763Val, Val891Met, Gly1475Arg, Gly1483Lys, Phe1588Leu, Arg1617Gln, Ala1650Val/Thr, Arg1872Gln, and Asn1877Ser.
Significance
With this study, we explore the electroclinical features of an intermediate SCN8A‐related epilepsy with mild cognitive impairment, which is for the majority a treatable epilepsy.
Summary
There is an interest in the nuclear degraded sperm subpopulation because, although it is present in a low percentage in all semen samples, patient groups such as varicocele and rearranged ...genome carriers show high levels of these degraded spermatozoa. This study is designed with two objectives in mind: first, incubations of H2O2 and nuclease on DTT‐treated and untreated samples to show the aetiology of this subpopulation and second, assessment of the correlation between the protamine ratio and nuclear degraded spermatozoa. A very high increase in the nuclear degraded subpopulation has been found with nuclease incubation, and it is even higher when it has been merged with nuclear decompaction using DTT. Alternatively, incubation with H2O2 with and without DTT did not show such a significant increase in nuclear degraded spermatozoa. The protamine ratio correlated with this subpopulation, showing, in patients, that poor nuclear compaction would turn the sperm susceptible to degradation. Then, the assessment of nuclear degraded spermatozoa might not be only a measure of DNA degradation but also an indicator of chromatin compaction in the spermatozoa. Different patient groups would fit this model for sperm nuclear degradation, such as varicocele patients, who show a high percentage of immature spermatozoa and nuclear degraded spermatozoa, and reorganised genome carriers, where reorganisation might also cause poor chromatin compaction on the sperm nucleus.
Contraction in intraplate areas is still poorly understood relative to similar deformation at plate margins. In order to contribute to its comprehension, we study the Patagonian broken foreland (PBF) ...in South America whose evolution remains controversial. Time constraints of tectonic events and structural characterization of this belt are limited. Also, major causes of strain location in this orogen far from the plate margin are enigmatic. To unravel tectonic events, we studied the Cenozoic sedimentary record of the central sector of the Patagonian broken foreland (San Bernardo fold and thrust belt, 44°30′S-46°S) and the Andes (Meseta de Chalia, 46°S) following an approach involving growth-strata detection, U-Pb geochronology and structural modeling. Additionally, we elaborate a high resolution analysis of the effective elastic thickness (Te) to examine the relation between intraplate contraction location and variations in lithospheric strength. The occurrence of Eocene growth-strata (~44–40Ma) suggests that contraction in the Andes and the Patagonian broken foreland was linked to the Incaic phase. Detection of synextensional deposits suggests that the broken foreland collapsed partially during Oligocene to early Miocene. During middle Miocene times, the Quechua contractional phase produced folding of Neogene volcanic rocks and olistostrome deposition at ~17Ma. Finally, the presented Te map shows that intraplate contraction related to Andean phases localized preferentially along weak lithospheric zones (Te<15km). Hence, the observed strain distribution in the PBF appears to be controlled by lateral variations in the lithospheric strength. Variations in this parameter could be related to thermo-mechanical weakening produced by intraplate rifting in Paleozoic-Mesozoic times.
Display omitted
•Times and location of deformation in the Patagonian broken foreland remain enigmatic.•Description of syntectonic units unravels Cenozoic intraplate tectonics in Patagonia.•Deformation located in low elastic thickness areas far from the plate margin•Previous intraplate extensional events could have weakened the foreland lithosphere.
A 2-rotaxane Zn2−Au+ made from a dumbbell component ended by Zn(II) porphyrin stoppers and a ring component incorporating a Au(III) porphyrin has been assembled in 13% yield using the transition ...metal templating route. 1H NMR studies show that its conformation in solution is very different from those of its complexes with Cu+, Ag+, and Li+. In particular, removal of the templating metal resulted in a changeover of the molecule, the threaded macrocycle undergoing a pirouetting motion placing the Au(III) porphyrin in the cleft formed by the two Zn(II) porphyrin stoppers. At room temperature, the changeover could be either complete or partial, depending on the solvent used. Photoinduced electron transfer from one of the Zn(II) porphyrins to the Au(III) porphyrin of the macrocycle was evidenced in the case of the free rotaxane and its Cu(I) complex, Zn2Cu+Au+ . In the former case, the photoinduced electron transfer process could be clearly resolved for an extended conformation that is characterized by the Zn(II) porphyrins pointing far from the Au(III) porphyrin electron acceptor, and accounting for 30% of the total in acetonitrile at room temperature. In both Zn2Cu+Au+ and Zn2−Au+ rotaxanes, the charge-separated state, in which the Zn(II) porphyrin is a cation radical and the Au(III) porphyrin a neutral radical, was generated at a rate of 5 × 109 s-1 and disappeared at a rate of 2 × 108 s-1. In the case of Zn2Cu+Au+ , the primary step is very likely energy transfer from the Zn(II) porphyrin singlet excited state to the MLCT state of the central Cu(I) complex, followed by an electron transfer from the excited Cu(I) unit to the Au(III) porphyrin and a successive charge shift from the Zn(II) porphyrin to the oxidized Cu(II) complex. 2-rotaxane Zn2−Au+ , in which no bond pathway can be identified between the donor and the acceptor, is a typical case of electron transfer involving molecular fragments connected by mechanical bonds.
The 2017 Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations of the central source in M87 have led to the first measurement of the size of a black-hole shadow. This observation offers a new and clean ...gravitational test of the black-hole metric in the strong-field regime. We show analytically that spacetimes that deviate from the Kerr metric but satisfy weak-field tests can lead to large deviations in the predicted black-hole shadows that are inconsistent with even the current EHT measurements. We use numerical calculations of regular, parametric, non-Kerr metrics to identify the common characteristic among these different parametrizations that control the predicted shadow size. We show that the shadow-size measurements place significant constraints on deviation parameters that control the second post-Newtonian and higher orders of each metric and are, therefore, inaccessible to weak-field tests. The new constraints are complementary to those imposed by observations of gravitational waves from stellar-mass sources.
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