The general expectation is that the traffic in the cities will be almost optimal when the collective behaviour of autonomous vehicles will determine the traffic. Each member of the collective of ...autonomous vehicles tries to adapt to the changing environment, therefore together they execute decentralised autonomous adaptation by exploiting real-time information about their environment. The routing of these vehicles needs proper computer science models to be able to develop the best information technology for their control. We review different traffic flow models in computer science, and we evaluate their usefulness and applicability to autonomous vehicles. The classical game theory model implies flow level decision making in route selection. Non-cooperative autonomous vehicles may produce unwanted traffic patterns. Improved decentralised autonomous adaptation techniques try to establish some kind of coordination among autonomous vehicles, mainly through intention awareness. The aggregation of the intentions of autonomous vehicles may help to predict future traffic situations. The novel intention-aware online routing game model points out that intention-awareness helps to avoid that the traffic generated by autonomous vehicles be worse than the traffic indicated by classical traffic flow models. The review helps to make the first steps towards research on global level control of autonomous vehicles by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the different formal models. The review also highlights the importance of research on intention-awareness and intention-aware traffic flow prediction methods.
•Organic Rankine cycle for waste heat recovery at low temperature (<140 °C) was studied.•Effect of composition of working fluids on the process parameters was investigated.•Butanes and their mixtures ...showed better results than pentanes.•Significant reduction in the carbon dioxide emissions was achieved.
This paper summarizes the results of a study aimed at using isobutane, butane, isopentane and pentane as working fluid of an organic Rankine cycle utilizing heat of an air cooler. Ranking of different working fluids based on the maximum achievable power output, cycle efficiency, heat recovery, required heat exchanger area, attainable CO2 emission reduction, and payback period was performed. By applying pure components, the extractable turbine power varied in the range of 452–678 kW and the CO2 emission reduction potential was in the range of 723–1085 t/y in which isobutane provided the best results. Economic calculation involving both the capital and operating expenditures was conducted, which showed that the estimated payback periods were between 3.4 and 4.6 years with the best result of butane. The results of calculations that were obtained by using working fluids composed from pairs of light hydrocarbons showed that the extractable turbine power was higher for mixtures of butanes than those for butanes/pentanes and pentane mixtures. Based on the payback period, the hydrocarbon mixtures were composed from isobutane/butane in 25:75 and 50:50, and butane/pentane in 75:25 mass ratios that can be applied as favourable working fluids.
This chapter provides an overview of the Zebrafish International Resource Center (ZIRC) aquaculture systems, husbandry, and live fish shipping methods. The ZIRC has a recirculating water system with ...mechanical and biological filtration in its main fish facility, and a flow-through water system for its quarantine room. I describe basic husbandry methods for breeding, rearing larvae, feeding and shipping of fish. Whereas the procedures presented here are merely an overview and only the most essential methods are included, they offer starting points to set up, develop, refine, or troubleshoot methods in other fish facilities.
Cell-derived or extracellular vesicles, including microparticles and exosomes, are abundantly present in body fluids such as blood. Although such vesicles have gained strong clinical and scientific ...interest, their detection is difficult because many vesicles are extremely small with a diameter of less than 100 nm, and, moreover, these vesicles have a low refractive index and are heterogeneous in both size and composition. In this review, we focus on the relatively high throughput detection of vesicles in suspension by flow cytometry, resistive pulse sensing, and nanoparticle tracking analysis, and we will discuss their applicability and limitations. Finally, we discuss four methods that are not commercially available: Raman microspectroscopy, micro nuclear magnetic resonance, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and anomalous SAXS. These methods are currently being explored to study vesicles and are likely to offer novel information for future developments.
Metaplastic breast carcinoma (MBC) is a rare type of breast cancer that has basal-like characteristics and is perceived to have poorer prognosis when compared with conventional no specific ...type/ductal carcinomas (ductal/NST). However, current data on MBC are largely derived from small case series or population-based reports. This study aimed to assess the clinicopathological features and outcome of MBC identified through an international multicentre collaboration.
A large international multicentre series of MBC (no=405) with histological confirmation and follow-up information has been included in this study. The prognostic value of different variables and outcome has been assessed and compared with grade, nodal status and ER/HER2 receptor-matched ductal/NST breast carcinoma.
The outcome of MBC diagnosed in Asian countries was more favourable than those in Western countries. The outcome of MBC is not different from matched ductal/NST carcinoma but the performance of the established prognostic variables in MBC is different. Lymph node stage, lymphovascular invasion and histologic subtype are associated with outcome but tumour size and grade are not. Chemotherapy was associated with longer survival, although this effect was limited to early-stage disease. In this study no association between radiotherapy and outcome was identified. Multivariate analysis of MBC shows that histologic subtype is an independent prognostic feature.
This study suggests that MBC is a heterogeneous disease. Although the outcome of MBC is not different to matched conventional ductal/NST breast carcinoma, its behaviour is dependent on the particular subtype with spindle cell carcinoma in particular has an aggressive biological behaviour. Management of patients with MBC should be based on validated prognostic variables.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer worldwide. Diagnosing breast cancer relies on clinical examination, imaging and biopsy. A core-needle biopsy enables a morphological and biochemical ...characterization of the cancer and is considered the gold standard for breast cancer diagnosis. A histopathological examination uses high-resolution microscopes with outstanding contrast in the 2D plane, but the spatial resolution in the third, Z-direction, is reduced. In the present paper, we propose two high-resolution table-top systems for phase-contrast X-ray tomography of soft-tissue samples. The first system implements a classical Talbot-Lau interferometer and allows to perform ex-vivo imaging of human breast samples with a voxel size of 5.57 μm. The second system with a comparable voxel size relies on a Sigray MAAST X-ray source with structured anode. For the first time, we demonstrate the applicability of the latter to perform X-ray imaging of human breast specimens with ductal carcinoma in-situ. We assessed image quality of both setups and compared it to histology. We showed that both setups made it possible to target internal features of breast specimens with better resolution and contrast than previously achieved, demonstrating that grating-based phase-contrast X-ray CT could be a complementary tool for clinical histopathology.
Parallel Pathways: The Year in Hungary Major, Ágnes; Varga, Zoltán Z
Biography (Honolulu),
2021, 2021-00-00, 20210101, Letnik:
44, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Once the censorship of the Communist regime was lifted, representatives of different but equally repressed social groups in Hungary started to share the traumas they had endured during the twentieth ...century's tumultuous history, including the loss of two-thirds of the country after the Treaty of Trianon in 1921; World War II and the massacre of Hungarian Jews; the Communist regime's terror and the repression of the 1956 revolution; and the existence of an extended network of secret informants and the corruption of a large part of Hungarian public life during the decades of state socialism. Given the historical, social, and ideological diversity of these communities, the work of reconciling the past by fostering mutual empathy and understanding-and by creating a commonly accepted national narrative-still remains unfinished. ...disappointment with testimonial literature's purported function of collective healing is often accompanied by reservations about the artistic merits of autobiographical works that focus almost exclusively on content, privileging the representational function of the writing over its literary qualities. ...perhaps more interestingly, an important number of hybrid autobiographical forms has invaded the book market, including posthumous publications of unfinished, fragmented manuscripts of autobiographical works, life story interviews of well-known public figures, and edited collections of previously published writing evoking more or less personal subjects. By doing so, MGP connects the private and public spheres of his life, and apologetically, he explains that the secret police blackmailed him into reporting on his entourage, threatening the public revelation of his hidden sexual orientation. ...1961, homosexuality was criminalized in Hungary, and for a long time after it was treated as a serious social and moral deviance.
This paper studies
Budapest Diary
(1996), a cross-genre autobiographical work by Susan Suleiman, a renowned Hungarian-born scholar in comparative literature. Suleiman’s life writing offers ...particularly interesting reading possibilities; it allows us to study recent theoretical issues from historical traumas to multicultural and multi-linguistic identity constructions. My paper focuses on how Suleiman examines her past as a literary critic and expert on the modern novel, how her theoretical background as a comparatist formed and fashioned her autobiographical project. A close reading of her
Budapest Diary
reveals not only the generic patterns, the narrative and poetical means borrowed from her literary formation but also theories that enable the author to analyze her past, the social, cultural and historical determinations manifested in her life story. My interpretation devotes special attention to the image of Eastern-Europe developed in Suleiman’s autobiographical work. I analyze the way the work of the author, who returned to her homeland as an adult, seeks not only to find the reasons for burying the past burdened with collective historical traumas, but also tries to discover the regional components of identity, of the cultural otherness of East-Central Europe. The paper aims to show how collective and personal stakes are intertwined in the difficult process of reacquiring her Hungarian past in the light of her relationship with her parents (especially with her mother), and that of the history of Jewish people in Eastern Europe during the 20
th
century.
In vitro assays could replace animal experiments in drug screening and disease modeling, but have shortcomings in terms of functional readout. Force-generating engineered heart tissues (EHT) provide ...simple automated measurements of contractile function. Here we evaluated the response of EHTs to hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) and the effect of known cardiocytoprotective molecules. EHTs from neonatal rat heart cells were incubated for 24 h in EHT medium. Then they were subjected to 180 min hypoxia (93% N2, 7% CO2) and 120 min reoxygenation (40% O2, 53% N2, 7% CO2), change of medium and additional follow-up of 48 h. Time-matched controls (40% O2, 53% N2, 7% CO2) were run for comparison. The following conditions were applied during H/R: fresh EHT medium (positive control), the NO-donor S-nitroso-N-acetyl-D,L-penicillamine (SNAP, 10(-7), 10(-6), 10(-5) M) or the guanylate cyclase activator brain type natriuretic peptide (BNP, 10(-9), 10(-8), 10(-7) M). Frequency and force of contraction were repeatedly monitored over the entire experiment, pH, troponin I (cTnI), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and glucose concentrations measured in EHT medium. Beating activity of EHTs in 24 h-medium ceased during hypoxia, partially recovered during reoxygenation and reached time-control values during follow-up. H/R was accompanied by a small increase in LDH and non-significant increase in cTnI. In fresh medium, some EHTs continued beating during hypoxia and all EHTs recovered faster during reoxygenation. SNAP and BNP showed small but significant protective effects during reoxygenation. EHTs are applicable to test potential cardioprotective compounds in vitro, monitoring functional and biochemical endpoints, which otherwise could be only measured by using in vivo or ex vivo heart preparations. The sensitivity of the model needs improvement.
Home Care services are notoriously difficult to deliver efficiently, due to the heterogeneity of the involved actors and the usual co-morbidity of the patients assisted at home. The K4Care platform ...proposes an agent-based three-layered architecture aimed at addressing these two issues and facilitate the provision of these services. The development of the platform was supported by a methodology to help the automation of the modelling and implementation of the multi-agent system. The intelligent agents of the platform, which personify the Home Care domain actors, have the capability to guide the execution of administrative and medical processes, driving the flux of knowledge and control among all the involved professionals, simplifying their interactions and capturing new medical knowledge emerging from physicians. The platform also provides tools that allow medical practitioners to develop personalised treatments, adapted to the clinical and social circumstances of each patient and based on the standard international recommendations for the most frequent Home Care pathologies. The paper describes the architecture of the system, how personalised treatments are created, and how they are executed through the co-ordinated work of agents. A comparison with other relevant guideline execution systems and an evaluation of the actual state of the work are also provided.
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