Creating customer value from data: foundations and archetypes of analytics-based services

Electronic Markets - The digital transformation offers new opportunities for organizations to expand their existing service portfolio in order to achieve competitive advantages. A popular way to...     

Mechanism of femtosecond laser induced ultrafast demagnetization in ultrathin film magnetic multilayers

Journal of Materials Science - Ever since its discovery ultrafast demagnetization has remained one of the most intriguing research areas in magnetism. Here, we demonstrate that in [Co (tCo)/Pd...     

A fuzzy-weighted Gaussian kernel-based machine learning approach for body fat prediction

Obesity is a critical public health problem associated with various complications and diseases. Accurate prediction of body fat is crucial for diagnosing obesity. Various measurement methods, including underwater weighing, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, bioelectrical impedance analysis, magnetic resonance imaging, air displacement plethysmography, and near infrared interactance, have been used to assess body fat. These measurement methods, however, require special equipment associated with high-cost tests. The aim of this study is to investigate the use of machine learning-based models to accurately predict the body fat percentage. Considering the fact that off-the-shelf machine learning-based models are typically sensitive to noise data, we propose a fuzzy-weighted Gaussian kernel-based Relative Error Support Vector Machine (RE-SVM) for body fat prediction. We first design a fuzzy-weighted operation, which applies fuzzy weights to the error constraints of the RE-SVM, to alleviate the influence of noise data. Next, we also apply the fuzzy weights to improve the Gaussian kernel by considering the importance of different samples. Computational experiments and statistical tests conducted confirm that our proposed approach is able to significantly outperform other models being compared for body fat prediction across different performance metrics used. The proposed approach offers a viable alternative for diagnosing obesity when high-cost measurement methods are not available.

     

A systematic study on the synthesis of nanosized Y zeolite without using organic structure-directing agents: control of Si/Al ratio

Journal of Porous Materials - Nanosized Y zeolite is a material which could potentially be used as an adsorbent or catalyst in the oil industry thanks to its increased high external area and...     

Asymmetric Disulfanylbenzamides as Irreversible and Selective Inhibitors of Staphylococcus aureus Sortase A

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most frequent causes of nosocomial and community-acquired infections, with drug-resistant strains being responsible for tens of thousands of deaths per year. S. aureus sortase A inhibitors are designed to interfere with virulence determinants. We have identified disulfanylbenzamides as a new class of potent inhibitors against sortase A that act by covalent modification of the active-site cysteine. A broad series of derivatives were synthesized to derive structure-activity relationships (SAR). In vitro and in silico methods allowed the experimentally observed binding affinities and selectivities to be rationalized. The most active compounds were found to have single-digit micromolar K_i values and caused up to a 66 % reduction of S. aureus fibrinogen attachment at an effective inhibitor concentration of 10 μM. This new molecule class exhibited minimal cytotoxicity, low bacterial growth inhibition and impaired sortase-mediated adherence of S. aureus cells.     

Aggregation-Induced Emission in a Flexible Phosphine Oxide and its Zn(II) Complexes—A Simple Approach to Blue Luminescent Materials

Easily accessible blue-emitting materials are in the focus of ongoing research, as they still lack the efficiency and lifetime of their red and green counterparts. The new multidentate phosphine oxide ligands and two respective ZnCl₂ complexes presented here combine a straightforward synthesis with high yields and show interesting luminescent properties. The free ligand exhibits blue luminescence in the crystalline state, but not in amorphous films or diluted solution. In contrast, the Zn(II) complexes shows intense blue luminescence in the crystalline state as well as in amorphous thin films and in solution. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy measurements show luminescence lifetimes of 3–6 ns indicative of fluorescence. By combining the experimental data with quantum chemical calculations, we propose a model where the conformation of the molecule is restricted, either via the crystal environment, aggregation, or the steric fixation by the coordinating central atom, blocking the nonradiative relaxation from the excited into the ground electronic state. However, this nonradiative relaxation is still possible in the gas phase via elongation of a P C bond. These results may provide a general mechanism to explain the luminescence properties in a whole class of organic phosphine oxides.