We report the fabrication of a planar, silicon-based, monolithically integrated micro laminar flow fuel cell (μLFFC) using standard MEMS and IC-compatible fabrication technologies. The μLFFC operates ...with acid supported solutions of formic acid and potassium permanganate, as a fuel and oxidant respectively. The micro-fuel cell design features two in-plane anodic and cathodic microchannels connected via a bridge to confine the diffusive liquid–liquid interface away from the electrode areas and to minimize crossover. Palladium high-active-surface-area catalyst was selectively integrated into the anodic microchannel by electrodeposition, whereas no catalyst was required in the cathodic microchannel. A three-dimensional (3D) diffusion-convection model was developed to study the behavior of the diffusion zone and to extract appropriate cell-design parameters and operating conditions. Experimentally, we observed peak power densities as high as 26mWcm−2 when operating single cells at a flow rate of 60μLmin−1 at room temperature. The miniature membraneless fuel cell design presented herein offers potential for on-chip power generation, which has long been prohibited by integration complexities associated with the membrane.
•Irrigation event affects the energy consumption of irrigation networks.•A new expert system has been developed to predict the irrigation events occurrence.•GAs have been used to optimize the ...different parameters that make up the DT.•The model has been calibrated and tested in a real irrigation district.•The new model has been able to predict the 100 % of the irrigation events.
Irrigation water demand is highly variable and depends on farmers’ decision about when to irrigate. Their decision affects the performance of the irrigation networks. An accurate daily prediction of irrigation events occurrence at farm scale is a key factor to improve the management of the irrigation districts and consequently the sustainability of the irrigated agriculture. In this work, a hybrid heuristic methodology that combines Decision Trees and Genetic Algorithm has been developed to find the optimal decision tree to model farmer’s behaviour, predicting the occurrence of irrigation events. The methodology has been tested in a real irrigation district and results showed that the optimal models developed have been able to predict between 68% and 100% of the positive irrigation events and between 93% and 100% of the negative irrigation events.
In 2008, a European registry of relapsed acute promyelocytic leukemia was established by the European LeukemiaNet. Outcome data were available for 155 patients treated with arsenic trioxide in first ...relapse. In hematological relapse (n=104), 91% of the patients entered complete hematological remission (CR), 7% had induction death and 2% resistance, 27% developed differentiation syndrome and 39% leukocytosis, whereas no death or side effects occurred in patients treated in molecular relapse (n=40). The rate of molecular (m)CR was 74% in hematological and 62% in molecular relapse (P=0.3). All patients with extramedullary relapse (n=11) entered clinical and mCR. After 3.2 years median follow-up, the 3-year overall survival (OS) and cumulative incidence of second relapse were 68% and 41% in hematological relapse, 66% and 48% in molecular relapse and 90 and 11% in extramedullary relapse, respectively. After allogeneic or autologous transplantation in second CR (n=93), the 3-year OS was 80% compared with 59% without transplantation (n=55) (P=0.03). Multivariable analysis demonstrated the favorable prognostic impact of first remission duration ⩾1.5 years, achievement of mCR and allogeneic or autologous transplantation on OS of patients alive after induction (P=0.03, P=0.01, P=0.01) and on leukemia-free survival (P=0.006, P<0.0001, P=0.003), respectively.
Purpose:
Compressed sensing is a technique used to accelerate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) acquisition without compromising image quality. While it has proven particularly useful in dynamic ...imaging procedures such as cardiac cine, very few authors have applied it to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The purpose of the present study was to check whether the prior image constrained compressed sensing (PICCS) algorithm, which is based on an available prior image, can improve the statistical maps in fMRI better than other strategies that also exploit temporal redundancy.
Methods:
PICCS was compared to spatiotemporal total variation (TTV) and k‐t FASTER, since they have already demonstrated high performance and robustness in other MRI applications, such as cardiac cine MRI and resting state fMRI, respectively. The prior image for PICCS was the average of all undersampled data. Both PICCS and TTV were solved using the split Bregman formulation. K‐t FASTER algorithm relies on matrix completion to reconstruct the undersampled k‐spaces. The three algorithms were evaluated using two datasets with high and low signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR)—BOLD contrast—acquired in a 7 T preclinical MRI scanner and retrospectively undersampled at various rates (i.e., acceleration factors). The authors evaluated their performance in terms of the sensitivity/specificity of BOLD detection through receiver operating characteristic curves and by visual inspection of the statistical maps.
Results:
With high SNR studies, PICCS performed similarly to the state‐of‐the‐art algorithms TTV and k‐t FASTER and provided consistent BOLD signal at the ROI. In scenarios with low SNR and high acceleration factors, PICCS still provided consistent maps and higher sensitivity/specificity than TTV, whereas k‐t FASTER failed to provide significant maps.
Conclusions:
The authors performed a comparison between three reconstructions (PICCS, TTV, and k‐t FASTER) that exploit temporal redundancy in fMRI. The prior‐based algorithm, PICCS, preserved BOLD activation and sensitivity/specificity better than TTV and k‐t FASTER in noisy scenarios. The PICCS algorithm can potentially reach an acceleration factor of ×8 and still provide BOLD contrast in the ROI with an area under the curve over 0.99.
Studies that analyze the epidemiology and risk factors for invasive fungal disease (IFD) after engraftment in alloSCT are few in number. This single-center retrospective study included 404 alloSCT ...adult recipients surviving >40 days who engrafted and were discharged without prior IFD. All patients who received ⩾20 mg/day of prednisone were assigned to primary oral prophylaxis (itraconazole or low-dose voriconazole). The primary end point was the cumulative incidence (CI) of probable/proven IFD using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and Mycoses Study Group (EORTC/MSG) criteria. The independent prognostic factors after multivariate analyses were used to construct a post-engraftment IFD risk score. The 1-year CI of IFD was 11%. The non-relapse mortality was 40% in those developing IFD and 16% in those who did not. The intent-to-treat analysis showed that 17% of patients abandoned the assigned prophylaxis. Age >40 years, ⩾1 previous SCT, pre-engraftment neutropenia >15 days, extensive chronic GVHD and CMV reactivation were independent risk factors. The post-engraftment IFD score stratified patients into low risk (0-1 factor, CI 0.7%), intermediate risk (2 factors, CI 9.9%) and high risk (3-5 factors, CI 24.7%) (P<0.0001). The antifungal prophylaxis strategy failed to prevent post-engraftment IFD in 11% of alloSCT. Our risk score could be useful to implement risk-adapted strategies using antifungal prophylaxis after engraftment.
Serum uric acid (sUA) control is of key relevance in tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) prevention as it correlates with both TLS and renal event risk. We sought to determine whether febuxostat fixed dose ...achieves a better sUA control than allopurinol while preserving renal function in TLS prevention.
Patients with hematologic malignancies at intermediate to high TLS risk grade were randomized to receive febuxostat or allopurinol, starting 2 days before induction chemotherapy, for 7–9 days. Study treatment was blinded, whereas daily dose (low/standard/high containing allopurinol 200/300/600 mg, respectively, or fixed febuxostat 120 mg) depended on the investigator's choice. The co-primary end points, sUA area under curve (AUC sUA1–8) and serum creatinine change, were assessed from baseline to day 8 and analyzed through analysis of covariance with two-sided overall significance level of 5%. Secondary end points included treatment responder rate, laboratory and clinical TLS incidence and safety.
A total of 346 patients (82.1% intermediate TLS risk; 82.7% assigned to standard dose) were randomized. Mean AUC sUA1–8 was 514.0±225.71 versus 708.0±234.42 mgxh/dl (P < 0.0001) in favor of febuxostat. Mean serum creatinine change was -0.83 ± 26.98% and -4.92 ± 16.70% for febuxostat and allopurinol, respectively (P = 0.0903). No differences among secondary efficacy end points were detected. Drug-related adverse events occurred in 6.4% of patients in both arms.
In the largest adult trial carried out in TLS prevention, febuxostat achieved a significant superior sUA control with one fixed dose in comparison to allopurinol with comparable renal function preservation and safety profile.
NCT01724528.
The increasing demand and price for energy are affecting all economic sectors, including irrigated agriculture. This sector has undergone substantial transformations to improve water use efficiency ...by adapting its open-channel distribution systems to pressurized networks, which entail greater energy consumption and hence higher energy costs. Farmers are therefore demanding measures to reduce energy costs and ensure the profitability of their farms. In this paper, previous energy optimization models focusing on network sectoring (WEBSOM) and critical points control (WECPM) are improved by incorporating an electricity tariff module that considers different energy prices according to the hour of the day and the day of the year. The model permits determining the minimum energy cost affected by different operation conditions of the network. The methodology has been analyzed in an irrigation network located in southern Spain in which different operation scenarios were evaluated: operation with and without sectors and with and without critical points control. The results show that adopting measures to improve the operation of critical points in months of peak energy demand and operation by sectors in the others leads to a 13Â % cost savings compared to the baseline scenario where only pressure heads at the pumping stations are optimized. The proposed model is a decision-making support system that integrates alternative irrigation network operation scenarios with the structure of the electricity tariff.
In arid and semi-arid countries, the use of irrigation is essential to ensure agricultural production. Irrigation water use is expected to increase in the near future due to several factors such as ...the growing demand of food and biofuel under a probable climate change scenario. For this reason, the improvement of irrigation water use efficiency has been one of the main drivers of the upgrading process of irrigation systems in countries like Spain, where irrigation water use is around 70 % of its total water use. Pressurized networks have replaced the obsolete open-channel distribution systems and on farm irrigation systems have been also upgraded incorporating more efficient water emitters like drippers or sprinklers. Although pressurized networks have significant energy requirements, increasing operational costs. In these circumstances farmers may be unable to afford such expense if their production is devoted to low-value crops. Thus, in this work, a new approach of sustainable management of pressurized irrigation networks has been developed using multiobjective genetic algorithms. The model establishes the optimal sectoring operation during the irrigation season that maximize farmer’s profit and minimize energy cost at the pumping station whilst satisfying water demand of crops at hydrant level taking into account the soil water balance at farm scale. This methodology has been applied to a real irrigation network in Southern Spain. The results show that it is possible to reduce energy cost and improve water use efficiency simultaneously by a comprehensive irrigation management leading, in the studied case, to energy cost savings close to 15 % without significant reduction of crop yield.
The adoption of measures leading to higher efficiencies in the use of both water and energy in water distribution networks is strongly demanded. The methodology proposed combines a multi-objective ...approach and a financial analysis to determine de optimal design of pressurized irrigation networks which entails the minimization of both the investment cost and operational cost under three operating scenarios that incorporate energy saving strategies: 1- all hydrants operate simultaneously; 2- hydrants are grouped into sectors and irrigation turns are established; 3- the on-demand operation of the network is assumed. This methodology has been applied in a real irrigation network located in Southern Spain showing that the lowest overall design cost (investment and operational costs) is achieved in scenario 2. The comparison of the selected solutions in the three proposed scenarios with the current network design considering the total fulfillment of irrigation requirements showed that operational cost savings between 65% and 76% could be achieved.
•The Doñana area in Southeastern Spain has the largest concentration of strawberry producers in Europe.•Aiming at the efficient water use in the strawberry production, a three stages precision ...irrigation system has been designed.•The best irrigation emitters for strawberry cultivation has been selected.•The optimum irrigation pulse has been estimated based on lab and modeling techniques.•A precision irrigation system has been designed and installed in a commercial strawberry farm.
The Doñana area in Southwestern Spain has the largest concentration of strawberry producers in Europe. The annual yield, close to 300,000t, is mainly devoted to the international markets (more than 90%). Due to the high water demand of strawberries and to the environmental concerns of the destination countries, the maximization of water use efficiency is critical for the strawberry sector.
Aiming at the efficient water use in the strawberry production, a comprehensive drip irrigation system has been designed, according to precision irrigation principles. The system has been developed based on a three stages methodology. First, the irrigation process carried out by farmers has been assessed to identify inefficiencies in the irrigation system and management. Their performances have been evaluated using indicators such as the Relative Irrigation Supply (RIS), Strawberry Irrigation Water Applied (SWA) and Strawberry Water Footprint Applied (SWFA). The second phase is focused in an accurate irrigation scheduling based in precise crop water requirements estimation and the optimum irrigation pulse design. Finally, the irrigation system has been designed with the prevailing wisdom of meets the needs of the crop in a timely manner and as efficiently and as spatially uniformly as possible. The most appropriate drip irrigation emitters for the particular conditions of the strawberry production in the study area have been selected. The rest of the on-farm irrigation technologies required to control the system have been integrated, including soil water sensors, smart water meters, programmers, electrovalves and weather station. This precision irrigation system has been installed in a commercial strawberry farm during the irrigation season 2013–2014.
Also, an application for PC, mobiles and tablets has been developed to provide farmers practical information (e.g. irrigation times) for optimal irrigation scheduling.
PDF
