Search results for " envelope"
showing 10 items of 253 documents
Demonstration of antibodies to the surface (anti-p41) and core proteins (anti-p24) of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in individuals positive …
1987
Diagnosis of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) relies on the demonstration of antibody to this virus. Occasionally, the combined analysis of sera using ELISA and western blot reveals false-positive results. We have compared a newly developed test to detect antibodies to the core (anti-p24) and surface (anti-p41) proteins of HIV with the established tests described above. Anti-p24 and anti-p41 were negative in three individuals positive for anti-HIV by ELISA and immunoblot; they had a low risk to acquire HIV infection and were clinically and immunologically normal and suspected false positive previously. In 62 individuals at risk, anti-p41 was always positive while anti-p…
Acoustics of snoring and automatic snore sound detection in children
2017
Objective Acoustic analyses of snoring sounds have been used to objectively assess snoring and applied in various clinical problems for adult patients. Such studies require highly automatized tools to analyze the sound recordings of the whole night's sleep, in order to extract clinically relevant snore- related statistics. The existing techniques and software used for adults are not efficiently applicable to snoring sounds in children, basically because of different acoustic signal properties. In this paper, we present a broad range of acoustic characteristics of snoring sounds in children (N = 38) in comparison to adult (N = 30) patients. Approach Acoustic characteristics of the signals we…
Active Translucent Envelopes in Warm and Hot Areas – An innovative multifunctional, dry-assembled components for BIPV
2014
International directives that regulates buildings energy efficiency and environmental sustainability establish strict parameters for the construction of a new generation of “Zero Energy Buildings” indicating transmittance limits for building envelope components and encouraging the use of renewable sources. In this sense, the PV sector aims at the definition of novel efficient solutions for the integration in the building envelope, standing out for their multifunctional features. After an overview on the main PV technologies and building integrated applications, focusing on semi-transparent envelope solutions, the paper shows the results of a research carried out at the Department of Archite…
Experimental evaluation of the durability of innovative cementitious coatings: photocatalytic activity and colour
2012
Today, in a world context characterized by high pollution levels and increasingly limited natural resources, even in the building sector, focusing on environmental issues, through energy saving and a more rational use of these resources, both during construction and management, is fundamental. An important contribution in this direction is given by the knowledge of the durability of products and building components, especially when innovative products are applied and no information are available on the reliability and service life. The research concerns the evaluation of the durability of cement-based photocatalytic coatings ("rasanti" in the Italian diction), containing different types of …
Curves with no tritangent planes in space and their convex envelopes
1990
M. H. Freedman ([3]) proved that for a generic subset of closed curves in ~ 3 with nonvanishing curvature and torsion the number of t r i tangent planes is even and finite. He also guessed, for each even number s _> 0, the existence of an open subset A8 of closed curves with nonvanishing curvature and torsion such tha t each curve in A8 has exact ly s t r i t angent planes. A question tha t can be asked in this context is: Which curves with nonvanishing curvature and torsion have no t r i tangent planes? An example of such a curve is given by the (1,2)-curve on the torus with rat io a, 3 < a < 5 (see [2]). For a generi c curve, we give a pa r t i a l answer to this question here by finding …
Façade Solar Control and Shading Strategies for Buildings in the Mediterranean Region
2020
With the pressing need for holistic solutions that can help in overcoming the imminent environmental and resources crises, a call for the conservation of natural resources and sustainable strategies is needed. Sustainable strategies allow for the mitigation against the impact of climate change on the environment while, simultaneously, seeking the health and comfort of users. Another environmental issue that is worthy of the attention of the scientific research community is the reduction of resources consumption, through the implementation of sustainable development concepts and the use of renewable sources of energy generation. These two aforementioned paradigms are both intrinsic in nature…
Evolutionary dynamics of the E1-E2 viral populations during combination therapy in non-responder patients chronically infected with hepatitis C virus…
2012
Abstract Half of the patients chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 fail to respond to pegylated interferon alpha (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) therapy. This study assesses the effects of treatment on the evolution of the E1–E2 viral region in non-responder patients infected with HCV-1b. Twenty-three HCV-1b chronically infected patients were studied retrospectively, including 19 non-responders to PEG-IFN/RBV therapy (11 null-responders and 8 relapsers) in the study group, and 4 untreated patients in the control group. Genetic and phylogenetic analyses of the E1–E2 viral populations were performed at baseline and at the time of treatment failure to assess changes in ge…
The role of positive selection in hepatitis C virus
2008
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major health problem worldwide, infecting an estimated 170 million people. In this study, we have employed a large data set of sequences (14,654 sequences from between 25 and 100 clone sequences per analyzed region and per patient) from 67 patients infected with HCV genotype 1 (23 subtype 1a and 44 subtype 1b). For all patients, a sample prior to combined therapy with alpha interferon plus ribavirin was available, whereas for some patients additional samples after 6 or 12 months of treatment were also available. Twenty-seven patients responded to treatment (12 subtype 1a and 15 subtype 1b) and forty patients did not respond to treatment (11 subtype 1a vs. 29 sub…
Using evolutionary tools to refine the new hypervariable region 3 within the envelope 2 protein of hepatitis C virus
2007
Abstract The envelope 2 protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV) presents three hypervariable regions, named HVR1, HVR2 and HVR3, in which the presence of antigenic sites has been described. Genetic variability in these regions may reflect the generation of escape mutants as a consequence of the immune response. Therefore, these regions would tend to accumulate amino acid changes along the infection process, an effect that could be accelerated by antiviral treatments. In this study, we have analyzed the E1–E2 region of 23 HCV patients non-responders to antiviral treatment, 7 of which were infected with subtype 1a, 15 with subtype 1b, and 1 with a new HCV-1 subtype, before and after 6 and/or 12 mo…
Molecular epidemiology of a hepatitis C virus outbreak in a hemodialysis unit.
2005
ABSTRACT We analyzed a hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission case in the hemodialysis unit of a private clinic by sequencing two genome regions of virus isolates from a number of patients attending this unit and some external controls. The analysis of 337 nucleotides (nt) in the NS5B region did not provide enough resolution to ascertain which patients were actually involved in the outbreak and the potential source. Nevertheless, this region allowed the exclusion of several patients as putative sources of the transmission case based on their genotypes and phylogenetic relationships. On the other hand, the analysis of several 472-nt-long clone sequences per sample in a more rapidly evolving re…