Search results for "Agent"
showing 10 items of 8904 documents
Essential oil variability in a collection of Ocimum basilicum L. (basil) cultivars.
2016
Ocimum basilicum L. (Lamiaceae) is an aromatic plant of great tradition in the Mediterranean area. Its economic importance is growing up determining an expansion of cultivation. This paper evaluated the morphological traits, the chemical profiles, and antibacterial activity of 21 cultivars of basil belonging to Ê»Genoveseʼ, Ê»Napoletanoʼ, and Ê»Purple basilʼ types. The cultivars were characterized by different growth rate and morphological traits. The chemical composition of the oils analyzed by GC and GC/MS analysis, supported by the PCA analysis, underlined the strong influence of chemotype. It is noteworthy that estragole, never present in Genovese and purple basil types, occurred in …
Colorimetic biosensing dispositive based on reagentless hybrid biocomposite: Application to hydrogen peroxide determination
2016
Abstract An efficient approach to enhance the performance of colorimetric biosensors has been developed. The biosensor is based on the co-immobilization of the reagent 3,3′,5,5′-teramethylbencidine (TMB) and the enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP) in a PDMS-TEOS-SiO2NPs support. The HRP, in presence of H2O2, catalyzes the oxidation of TMB, producing a blue color. The generated biosensor, doped with the substrate (TMB) and the enzyme (HRP) (entrapped or adsorbed), has been used to determine H2O2 in real samples. Firstly, the immobilization of TMB and HRP in the composite has been studied in order to find the best suitable configuration. The kinetic parameters Vmax (maximum reaction rate) and…
Comparative assessment of a foam-based method for ISCO of coal tar contaminated unsaturated soils
2019
Abstract In situ delivery of liquid reagents in vadose zone is limited by gravity and soil anisotropy. A new foam-based delivery method of persulfate (PS) solutions in unsaturated soils was previously shown to overcome these limitations. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the efficiency of this method regarding contaminant removal. Hence, the comparative oxidation of 200 mg.kg−1 coal tar artificially contaminated soils with thermally activated PS was carried out after PS-delivery using foam, surfactant solution and pure water. The foam-based method was compared in unfavorable conditions to the reference methods. Especially, in the latter, soil and oxidant solutions were thoroughly mix…
Self-assembled multivalent (SAMul) ligand systems with enhanced stability in the presence of human serum
2019
Self-assembled cationic micelles are an attractive platform for binding biologically-relevant polyanions such as heparin. This has potential applications in coagulation control, where a synthetic heparin rescue agent could be a useful replacement for protamine, which is in current clinical use. However, micelles can have low stability in human serum and unacceptable toxicity profiles. This paper reports the optimi- sation of self-assembled multivalent (SAMul) arrays of amphiphilic ligands to bind heparin in competitive conditions. Specifically, modification of the hydrophobic unit kinetically stabilises the self-assembled nanostructures, preventing loss of binding ability in the presence of…
Usability and acceptability assessment of an empathic virtual agent to prevent major depression
2016
In Human-Computer Interaction, the adaptation of the content and the way of how this content is communicated to the users in interactive sessions is a critical issue to promote the acceptability and usability of any computational system. We present a user-adapted interactive platform to identify and provide an early intervention for symptoms of depression and suicide. In particular, we describe the work performed to assess users' system acceptability and usability. An empathic Virtual Agent is the main interface with the user, and it has been designed to generate the appropriate dialogues and emotions during the interactions according to the detected user's specific needs. This personalizat…
Bleaching efficacy of at home 16% carbamide peroxide. A long-term clinical follow-up study.
2019
OBJECTIVE To assess the whitening efficacy of a 16% carbamide peroxidase (CP) gel after 42 months of clinical follow-up. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective clinical study was carried out involving 95 participants. CP 16% was applied for 90 minutes a day for 4 weeks using individualized trays. Tooth color was assessed using spectrophotometry at baseline, 1 week after the end of treatment, and every 6 months until completing 42 months of follow-up. Color parameters were compared using analysis of variance for repeated measures. The analysis by teeth groups was performed using two-way ANOVA. RESULTS The mean baseline L* was 81.7 ± 5.2 versus 83.6 ± 8.8 after 42 months (P<.01). L* showed a d…
Advances in Practical Applications of Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, and Sustainability: The PAAMS Collection
2015
This volume presents the papers that have been accepted for the 2015 special sessions of the 13th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, held at University of Salamanca, Spain, at 3rd-5th June, 2015: Agents Behaviours and Artificial Markets (ABAM); Agents and Mobile Devices (AM); Multi-Agent Systems and Ambient Intelligence (MASMAI); Web Mining and Recommender systems (WebMiRes); Learning, Agents and Formal Languages (LAFLang); Agent-based Modeling of Sustainable Behavior and Green Economies (AMSBGE); Emotional Software Agents (SSESA) and Intelligent Educational Systems (SSIES). The volume also includes the paper accepted for the Doctoral Conso…
Stealthy Attacks in Cloud-Connected Linear Impulsive Systems
2018
This paper studies a security problem for a class cloud-connected multi-agent systems, where autonomous agents coordinate via a combination of short-range ad-hoc commu- nication links and long-range cloud services. We consider a simplified model for the dynamics of a cloud-connected multi- agent system and attacks, where the states evolve according to linear time-invariant impulsive dynamics, and attacks are modeled as exogenous inputs designed by an omniscent attacker that alters the continuous and impulsive updates. We propose a definition of attack detectability, characterize the existence of stealthy attacks as a function of the system parameters and attack properties, and design a fami…
Distributed adaptive leader–follower and leaderless consensus control of a class of strict-feedback nonlinear systems : a unified approach
2020
In this paper, distributed adaptive consensus for a class of strict-feedback nonlinear systems under directed topology condition is investigated. Both leader–follower and leaderless cases are considered in a unified framework. To design distributed controller for each subsystem, a local compensatory variable is generated based on the signals collected from its neighbors. Such a technique enables us to solve the leader–follower consensus and leaderless consensus problems in a unified framework. And it further allows us to treat the leaderless consensus as a special case of the leader–follower consensus. For leader–follower consensus, the assumption that the leader trajectory is linearly para…
Intelligent virtual manufacturing cell formation in cloud-based design and manufacturing
2018
Abstract Cloud-based design and manufacturing (CBDM) can presumably stimulate greater intelligence in cloud-based models. This paper assumes that cloud-based design for cellular manufacturing can be referred to as a multiscale, uncertain, and dynamic service-oriented network where a set of CAD parts, modelled by set of features, can be manufactured in intelligent virtual manufacturing cells under certain constraints. Using the concepts of the holon and the attractor, integrating the uncertainty in the modelling of part design and part–manufacturing network, an approach to address intelligent virtual manufacturing cell formation in CBDM is proposed. The powerful role of the CAD features is e…