Parenteral nutrition in oncologic patients]

A B16 melanoma-specific CD8+ T cell line (AB1) was established from the spleen cells of C57BL/6 mice cured of B16 melanoma with interleukin (IL)-12 treatment. The AB1 line exclusively used T cell receptor Vbeta11. The AB1 cells exhibited a cytolytic activity against both syngeneic B16 melanoma and allogeneic P815 mastocytoma, whereas a cold inhibition assay revealed specificity of the AB1 cells against B16 melanoma. Their lostability to kill a class I loss variant of B16 melanoma was restored by the transfection of H-2Kb gene. In addition, their interferon (IFN)-gamma production was significantly suppressed by the addition of anti-H-2Kb monoclonal antibody, and RT-PCR analysis showed that the AB1 line expressed the mRNA encoding IFN-gamma, but not IL-4 or IL-10. The experiment using synthetic peptides of tyrosinase-related protein-2 (TRP-2) revealed that the AB1 cells could recognize TRP-2(181-188) peptide. Moreover, the AB1 cells showed an in vivo antitumor effect against established pulmonary metastases of B16 melanoma. Overall, these results indicate that the Tc1-type Vbeta11+ AB1 cells exert an antitumor activity against syngeneic B16 melanoma through recognition of TRP-2(181-188) peptide in an H-2Kb-restricted manner.     

Fatty acid composition of seed oil triglycerides inCoincya (Brassicaceae)

Oil and triglyceride contents and fatty acid composition were determined for seeds in nine taxa belonging to the genusCoincya (Brassicaceae) on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). The oil content ranges from 11.1 to 24.6%, triglycerides from 68.7 to 88.5%. The major fatty acids were erucic (24.6–30.5%), linolenic (17.7–27.7%), linoleic (13.9–24.6%) and oleic acid (12.3–21.8%).     

Microplastic and other anthropogenic microparticles in water and sediments of Lake Simcoe

Microplastics (plastic particles <5 mm in size) have been reported in ecosystems worldwide and have been shown to cause adverse negative impacts on organisms. This study provides the first report of microplastics and other anthropogenic microparticles in the surface waters and sediments of Lake Simcoe in Ontario, Canada, a popular recreational and fishing lake. Surface waters (low volume grabs and manta trawls) and sediments were sampled from eight sites to determine microparticle abundances and character (size, morphology, material identity). Concentrations ranged from 0 to 0.7 particles/L in surface water grab samples, 0.4–1.3 particles/m³ in manta trawl samples, and 8.3–1070 particles/kg in sediment samples. Spectroscopic analysis confirmed that 72% of particles were anthropogenic, with 64% unambiguously identified as microplastics. However, confirmed microplastic concentrations were approximately 6–7 times lower than unadjusted counts in sediments, demonstrating the importance of verifying and adjusting reported values. Fibers were only quantified and characterized in surface water grab samples and sediments, and were the most common morphology, accounting for 82% and 89% of anthropogenic particles, respectively. Fragments were most common in manta trawl samples (75%, excluding fibers) and consisted predominantly of polyethylene (41%) and polypropylene (22%). The influence of proximity to urban centers and prevailing winds on the distribution of microplastics was apparent in surface water manta trawls. Microplastics and other anthropogenic microparticles are present in Lake Simcoe but at lower abundances than at locations impacted by larger population centers in other large freshwater lakes such as Lakes Ontario and Erie of the Great Lakes.     

Deploying deep learning approaches to left ventricular non-compaction measurement

The Journal of Supercomputing - Left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC) is a rare cardiomyopathy characterized by abnormal trabeculations in the left ventricle cavity. Although traditional computer...     

Automatic recognition fingerspelling gestures in multiple languages for a communication interface for the disabled

This paper presents the design and evaluation of a multi-lingual fingerspelling recognition module that is designed for an information terminal. Through the use of multimodal input and output methods, the information terminal acts as a communication medium between deaf and blind people. The system converts fingerspelled words to speech and vice versa using fingerspelling recognition, fingerspelling synthesis, speech recognition and speech synthesis in Czech, Russian, and Turkish languages. We describe an adaptive skin color based fingersign recognition system with a close to real-time performance and present recognition results on 88 different letters signed by five different signers, using above four hours of training and test videos.     

How far can one compress digital fault records? Analysis of a matching pursuit-based algorithm

In this paper, we verify how far electric disturbance signals can be compressed without compromising the analysis of encoded fault records. A recently proposed compression algorithm, referred to as Damped Sinusoidal Matching Pursuit (DSMP) has the remarkable feature of obtaining both compact and physically interpretable representations. However, for fault analysis applications, one is primarily interested in how accurate can be the analysis performed on compressed signals, instead of evaluating mean-squared error figures. Unlike previous works in digital fault records compression, the performance of the DSMP compression method is evaluated using a protocol based on fault analysis procedures commonly performed by expert engineers. This protocol is applied for comparing the results obtained in the analysis of both uncompressed records and their compressed versions at different compression ratios. The results show that the DSMP is a reliable compression system since it achieves high compression ratios (6.4:1) without causing fault analysis misinterpretation.     

A fuzzy queue-aware routing approach for wireless mesh networks

Recent advances in Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have overcome the drawbacks of traditional wired and ad-hoc networks and now they are seen as a means of allowing last mile communications with quality level assurance in Future Multimedia Systems. However, new routing schemes are needed to provide end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) support for delay/loss/jitter-sensitive multimedia applications. The well-known OLSR (Optimized Link State Routing) protocol with ETX (Expected Transmission Count) metric brings many benefits to the path selection process, but has a drawback with regard to queue availability management, which reduces the system performance. This problem is caused when OLSR-EXT control messages are exchanged and the queues of mesh routers along the end-to-end communication path are overloaded. As a result, multimedia-related packets will suffer from loss/delay/jitter and the overall system performance will decrease. This paper proposes the Optimized Link State Routing-Fuzzy ETX Queue (OLSR-FEQ) protocol to overcome the limitations of OLSR-ETX regarding queue availability, QoS and QoE assurance. OLSR-FEQ optimizes network and user-based parameters by coordinating queue availability, QoS and fuzzy issues in the routing decision process as a way of allocating the best paths for multimedia applications. Performance evaluations were carried out with the Network Simulator (NS-2.34) to show the benefits of the proposed solution when compared with existing routing schemes, namely OLSR-ETX, OLSR-FLC, OLSR-MD and HWMP (IEEE 802.11s standard), regarding QoS (unsuccessful packet delivery and throughput) and QoE (PSNR, SSIM, VQM and MOS) parameters.     

Evaluating the influence of multiplexing schemes and buffer implementation on perceived VoIP conversation quality

This work presents a study of RTP multiplexing schemes, which are compared with the normal use of RTP, in terms of experienced quality. Bandwidth saving, latency and packet loss for different options are studied, and some tests of Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic are carried out in order to compare the quality obtained using different implementations of the router buffer. Voice quality is calculated using ITU R-factor, which is a widely accepted quality estimator. The tests show the bandwidth savings of multiplexing, and also the importance of packet size for certain buffers, as latency and packet loss may be affected. The customer’s experience improvement is measured, showing that the use of multiplexing can be interesting in some scenarios, like an enterprise with different offices connected via the Internet. The system is also tested using different numbers of samples per packet, and the distribution of the flows into different tunnels is found to be an important factor in order to achieve an optimal perceived quality for each kind of buffer. Grouping all the flows into a single tunnel will not always be the best solution, as the increase of the number of flows does not improve bandwidth efficiency indefinitely. If the buffer penalizes big packets, it will be better to group the flows into a number of tunnels. The router processing capacity has to be taken into account too, as the limit of packets per second it can manage must not be exceeded. The obtained results show that multiplexing is a good way to improve customer’s experience of VoIP in scenarios where many RTP flows share the same path.     

Optimal configuration of Energy-Efficient Ethernet

The IEEE 802.3az standard provides a new low power mode that Ethernet network interfaces can use to save energy when there is no traffic to transmit. Simultaneously with the final standard approval, several algorithms were proposed to govern the physical interface state transition between the normal active mode and the new low power mode. In fact, the standard leaves this sleeping algorithm unspecified to spur competition among different vendors and achieve the greatest energy savings. In this paper, we try to bring some light to the most well known sleeping algorithms, providing mathematical models for the expected energy savings and the average packet delay inflicted on outgoing traffic. We will then use the models to derive optimum configuration parameters for them under given efficiency constraints.     

Deformation of NiO single crystals below room temperature: dislocation configurations

NiO single crystals prepared by two crystal growth techniques (zone melting in an arc-image furnace and Verneuil crystallization have been deformed by compression along 001 at temperatures as low as 4.2 K, and the dislocation substructure observed by transmission electron microscopy. The Peierls mechanism has been suggested as the mechanism controlling the mechanical behaviour at the lower temperatures. The dislocations generated at cavities found in the zone-melted crystals may be responsible for the increase of the flow stress of these crystals compared with the Verneuil ones.