P2Care: A dynamic peer-to-peer network for collaboration in personalized healthcare service delivery

In the healthcare domain, the quality of personalized service delivery is strongly tied with collaboration among multiple stakeholders for accurate and reliable access to a variety of distributed and heterogeneous information and services. Existing healthcare information systems lack collaboration since they offer limited accessibility to resources and pose many restrictions in terms of scalability and flexibility. In this work, we propose P2Care, a decentralized, dynamic, scalable and self-organized network that exploits the functionalities of the structured peer-to-peer networks in order to provide collaboration. P2Care provides efficient ubiquitous access to medical information by organizing participating entities into groups according to common characteristics and interests. It incorporates enhanced lookup mechanisms with low response time and signaling overhead. The performance of the P2Care system has been evaluated through simulations. A prototype application demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed system for cooperation and collaboration in order to facilitate personalized service delivery.     

MicroRNA Profiling of B Cell Subsets from Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients Reveals Promising Novel Biomarkers

MicroRNAs control the differentiation and function of B cells, which are considered key elements in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, a common micro(mi)RNA signature has not emerged since published data includes patients of variable ethnic background, type of disease, and organ involvement, as well as heterogeneous cell populations. Here, we aimed at identifying a miRNA signature of purified B cells from renal and non-renal severe SLE patients of Latin American background, a population known to express severe disease. Genome-wide miRNA expression analyses were performed on naive and memory B cells and revealed two categories of miRNA signatures. The first signature represents B cell subset-specific miRNAs deregulated in SLE: 11 and six miRNAs discriminating naive and memory B cells of SLE patients from healthy controls (HC), respectively. Whether the miRNA was up or down-regulated in memory B cells as compared with naive B cells in HC, this difference was abolished in SLE patients, and vice versa. The second signature identifies six miRNAs associated with specific pathologic features affecting renal outcome, providing a further understanding for SLE pathogenesis. Overall, the present work provided promising biomarkers in molecular diagnostics for disease severity as well as potential new targets for therapeutic intervention in SLE.     

A grid-based facilities allocation approach with safety and optimal heat exchanger networks synthesis

A new approach is presented to determine optimal layout of facilities where toxic releases may occur in an existing or new facility. The land area is divided in equally sized rectangular grids, where each grid contains up to one facility surrounded by streets. Some facilities may produce hot and/or cold streams and the associated heat exchangers network (HEN) is simultaneously optimized with the layout problem. The three dimensions of geographical allocation points for each generated stream are included in the model. No additional cost for geographical allocation of heating and cooling services is considered since every facility is expected to contain these services regardless of their use in the HEN. The toxic effect is estimated via probit functions and its associated risk reduction results in providing safety to the combined HEN-facility layout problem. The grid-based allocation eliminates numerical difficulties appearing with conventional non-overlapping and Euclidian distance equations.     

Optimal scheduling of single stage batch plants with direct heat integration

This paper addresses the multi-objective optimization problem arising in the operation of heat integrated batch plants, where makespan and utility consumption are the two conflicting objectives. A new continuous-time MILP formulation with general precedence variables is proposed to simultaneously handle decisions related to timing, product sequencing, heat exchanger matches (selected from a two-stage superstructure) and their heat loads. It features a complex set of timing constraints to synchronize heating and cooling tasks, derived from Generalized Disjunctive Programming. Through the solution of an industrial case study from a vegetable oil refinery, we show that major savings in utilities can be achieved while generating the set of Pareto optimal solutions through the ɛ-constraint method.     

初创型团队异质性与团队创新的关系:基于团队外部知识网络的视角

目的探索基于团队外部知识网络视角来考察年龄异质性和专业异质性对初创型异质性团队创新的作用。方法采用问卷调查的方法。对102个初创型团队进行调查。结果在初创型团队中,年龄异质性和专业异质性均能提升团队创新,外部知识网络利用强度和广度在年龄异质性促进团队创新的过程中承担中介作用,外部知识网络利用强度在专业异质性促进团队创新的过程中承担中介作用。结论在初创型团队中,年龄异质性通过提升外部知识网络利用促进团队创新,专业异质性通过提升外部知识网络利用强度促进团队创新。     

Application of integrated soft computing techniques for optimisation of hybrid CO2 laser–MIG welding process

In this paper, artificial neural networks (ANNs), genetic algorithm (GA), simulated annealing (SA) and Quasi Newton line search techniques have been combined to develop three integrated soft computing based models such as ANN–GA, ANN–SA and ANN–Quasi Newton for prediction modelling and optimisation of welding strength for hybrid CO₂ laser–MIG welded joints of aluminium alloy. Experimental dataset employed for the purpose has been generated through full factorial experimental design. Laser power, welding speeds and wires feed rate are considered as controllable input parameters. These soft computing models employ a trained ANN for calculation of objective function value and thereby eliminate the need of closed form objective function. Among 11 tested networks, the ANN with best prediction performance produces maximum percentage error of only 3.21%. During optimisation ANN–GA is found to show best performance with absolute percentage error of only 0.09% during experimental validation. Low value of percentage error indicates efficacy of models. Welding speed has been found as most influencing factor for welding strength.     

Data-driven model reduction-based nonlinear MPC for large-scale distributed parameter systems

Model predictive control (MPC) has been effectively applied in process industries since the 1990s. Models in the form of closed equation sets are normally needed for MPC, but it is often difficult to obtain such formulations for large nonlinear systems. To extend nonlinear MPC (NMPC) application to nonlinear distributed parameter systems (DPS) with unknown dynamics, a data-driven model reduction-based approach is followed. The proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method is first applied off-line to compute a set of basis functions. Then a series of artificial neural networks (ANNs) are trained to effectively compute POD time coefficients. NMPC, using sequential quadratic programming is then applied. The novelty of our methodology lies in the application of POD's highly efficient linear decomposition for the consequent conversion of any distributed multi-dimensional space-state model to a reduced 1-dimensional model, dependent only on time, which can be handled effectively as a black-box through ANNs. Hence we construct a paradigm, which allows the application of NMPC to complex nonlinear high-dimensional systems, even input/output systems, handled by black-box solvers, with significant computational efficiency. This paradigm combines elements of gain scheduling, NMPC, model reduction and ANN for effective control of nonlinear DPS. The stabilization/destabilization of a tubular reactor with recycle is used as an illustrative example to demonstrate the efficiency of our methodology. Case studies with inequality constraints are also presented.     

Local weather prediction system for a heating plant using cognitive approaches

Present-day requirements emphasize the need of saving energy. It relates mainly to industrial companies, where the minimization of energy consumption is one of their most important tasks they face. In our paper, we deal with the design of the so-called weather prediction system (WPS) for the needs of a heating plant. The primary task of such a WPS is timely predicting expected heat consumption to prepare the technology characterized by long delays in advance. Heat prediction depends primarily on weather so the crucial part of WPS is the weather, especially temperature, prediction. However, a prediction system needs a variety of further data, too. Therefore, WPS must be regarded as a complex system, including data collection, its processing, own prediction and eventual decision support. This paper gives the overview about existing data processing systems and prediction methods and then it describes a concrete design of a WPS with distributed data measuring points (stations), which are processed using a structure of neural networks based on multilayer perceptrons (MLP) with a combination of fuzzy logic. Based on real experiments we show that also such simple means as MLPs are able to solve complex problems. The paper contains a basic methodology for designing similar WPS, too.     

Design,characterization and control of SMA springs-based multi-modal tactile display device for biomedical applications

Tactile display is recently attracting much attention in the field of human–computer interaction. There is a strong need for such a device especially for applications in which the touch feeling is lost, such as surgeons who are willing to feel the tissue hardness during laparoscopic surgeries. In this paper, a novel multi-modal tactile display device which can display both surface shape and stiffness of an object is introduced. The conceptual design is built upon using two springs, made of Shape Memory Alloys (SMA), for displaying shape and stiffness. The design parameters of this device are selected based on the spatial resolution of human finger and the elasticity range of the soft tissue. The display device is simulated using Finite Element Method (FEM) to study the effect of design parameters on the resulting stiffness. Simulation results show that the device can display stiffness of an object independent of its shape display. The experimental setup is built and used for the characterization and control of the SMA springs. Experimental results show that the device can display a stiffness range of (35–110) N/m and elongation up to 5 mm.