End-of-life impacts of pervasive computing

RFID technology is one of the forerunners of pervasive computing, and as such is expected to play an important role in many applications of daily life, especially in the form of smart labels. However, market investigations and a material analysis of a smart label shows that the use of smart labels does not considerably affect the recycling or disposal of packaging materials, if precautionary measures are taken, such as eco-design and, where necessary process modifications. Today in industrialized countries end-of-life information and communication technology (ICT) equipment is processed separately from other waste streams, given its material composition and appliance size. The waste management processes studied are municipal solid waste incineration and recycling of glass, paper, cardboard, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and aluminum.     

IL-2 adenovector-transduced autologous tumor cells induce antitumor immune responses in patients with neuroblastoma

In many different murine models, the immunogenicity of tumor cells can be increased by transduction with a range of immunostimulatory genes, inducing an immune response that causes regression of pre-existing unmodified tumor cells. To investigate the relevance of these animal models to pediatric malignancy, we used autologous unirradiated tumor cells transduced with an adenovirus-IL-2 to immunize 10 children with advanced neuroblastoma. In a dose-escalation study, we found that this tumor immunogen induced a moderate local inflammatory response consisting predominantly of CD4(+) T lymphocytes, and a systemic response, with a rise in circulating CD25(+) and DR+ CD3(+) T cells. Patients also made a specific antitumor response, manifest by an IgG antitumor antibody and increased cytotoxic T-cell killing of autologous tumor cells. Clinically, five patients had tumor responses after the tumor immunogen alone (one complete tumor response, one partial response, and three with stable disease). Four of these five patients were shown to have coexisting antitumor cytotoxic activity, as opposed to only one of the patients with nonresponsive disease. These results show a promising correlation between preclinical observations and clinical outcome in this disease, and support further exploration of the approach for malignant diseases of children.     

Image Analysis of Representative Food Structures: Application of the Bootstrap Method

ABSTRACT:  Images (for example, photomicrographs) are routinely used as qualitative evidence of the microstructure of foods. In quantitative image analysis it is important to estimate the area (or volume) to be sampled, the field of view, and the resolution. The bootstrap method is proposed to estimate the size of the sampling area as a function of the coefficient of variation (CV _Bn ) and standard error (SE _Bn ) of the bootstrap taking sub-areas of different sizes. The bootstrap method was applied to simulated and real structures (apple tissue). For simulated structures, 10 computer-generated images were constructed containing 225 black circles (elements) and different coefficient of variation (CV _image ). For apple tissue, 8 images of apple tissue containing cellular cavities with different CV _image  were analyzed. Results confirmed that for simulated and real structures, increasing the size of the sampling area decreased the CV _Bn  and SE _Bn . Furthermore, there was a linear relationship between the CV _image  and CV _{Bn .} For example, to obtain a CV _Bn  = 0.10 in an image with CV _image  = 0.60, a sampling area of 400 × 400 pixels (11% of whole image) was required, whereas if CV _image  = 1.46, a sampling area of 1000 × 100 pixels (69% of whole image) became necessary. This suggests that a large-size dispersion of element sizes in an image requires increasingly larger sampling areas or a larger number of images.     

Stability of quinoa flour proteins (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) during storage

The amino acid composition and the physicochemical and functional properties of quinoa flour proteins (QFP) were evaluated during storage (at 20, 30 and 40 °C). Quinoa flour showed a protein content of 14.2 ± 0.1 g 100 g⁻¹ and high levels of essential amino acids as lysine. SDS–PAGE of the QFP presented ten major band, and native-PAGE of the QFP showed similar banding; there was a little variation due to time-temperature. TCA-protein solubility variation (%) was small and the values of water activity were low, a non-significant endogenous hydrolysis was observed. Differential scanning calorimetry flour analysis allowed determining two endotherms, starch and protein. Important structural changes of protein soluble fractions were not detected by UV and fluorescence spectroscopy due to temperature and time of storage. It was found during storage time loss of protein solubility and water absorption. These changes could be to influence in the manufacture of quinoa flour based products. For avoid changes in these functional properties (solubility and water holding capacity), quinoa flour can be stored at ambient temperature (between 20 and 30 °C) and packed in double kraft paper bags (2 months).     

A structural optimization approach in process synthesis—II : Heat recovery networks

Several formulations of the transshipment model from Operations Research are proposed for the optimal synthesis of heat exchanger networks. The linear programming versions are used for predicting the minimum utility cost, and can handle restricted matches and multiple utilities. The mixed-integer programming version yields minimum utility cost networks in which the number of units is minimized, while allowing stream splitting and selection of most preferred matches. It is shown that the transshipment models can also be incorporated easily within a mixed-integer programming approach for synthesizing chemical processing systems. Several numerical examples are presented which show that the proposed models are computationally very efficient.