Search results for "Enhancement."

Timing performance of the silicon PET insert probe

2010

Simulation indicates that PET image could be improved by upgrading a conventional ring with a probe placed close to the imaged object. In this paper, timing issues related to a PET probe using high-resistivity silicon as a detector material are addressed. The final probe will consist of several (four to eight) 1-mm thick layers of silicon detectors, segmented into 1 x 1 mm(2) pads, each pad equivalent to an independent p + nn+ diode. A proper matching of events in silicon with events of the external ring can be achieved with a good timing resolution. To estimate the timing performance, measurements were performed on a simplified model probe, consisting of a single 1-mm thick detector with 2…

Overcoming the barrier of CD8+ T cells: Two types of nano-sized carriers for siRNA transport

2019

Abstract Bioengineering immune cells via gene therapy offers treatment opportunities for currently fatal viral infections. Also cell therapeutics offer most recently a breakthrough technology to combat cancer. These primary human cells, however, are sensitive to toxic influences, which make the utilization of optimized physical transfection techniques necessary. The otherwise commonly applied delivery agents such as LipofectamineⓇ or strongly cationic polymer structures are not only unsuitable for in vivo experiments, but are also highly toxic to immune cells. This study aimed to improve the design of polymeric carrier systems for small interfering RNA, which would allow efficient internali…

UNA CONFIGURAZIONE SMART HERITAGE PER I CONTESTI EURO-MEDITERRANEI

La ricerca intende proporre una strategia urbana e tecnologica costituita da elementi smart che sviluppino una capacità di progettazione tecnologica integrata su scala urbana ed edilizia, sovrapponendo al disegno della città smart contemporanea quella della valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale attraverso le nuove Tecnologie dell’Informazione e della Comunicazione (TIC). Attraverso la schedatura di alcune esperienze smart di appendici che raccolgono le strategie urbane di recupero più significative e di un glossario finale con i termini ricorrenti nel settore, la Dottoranda propone un punto di vista del modello Smart City che si lega al tema della valorizzazione urbana fornendo a pianific…

Do Narcissists Self-Enhance? Disentangling the Associations Between Narcissism and Positive Versus Enhanced Self-Views Across Aspects of Narcissism, …

2020

Across psychological disciplines, grandiose narcissism and self-enhancement have been treated as two closely related constructs. However, empirical research has not yielded conclusive insights about their association: It is currently unclear whether self-views of narcissistic individuals are more enhanced, in comparison with some criterion value, or whether their self-views are simply more positive than those of less narcissistic individuals. We aimed to clarify this fundamental issue with regard to (a) different aspects of narcissism (narcissistic admiration and rivalry), (b) different content domains of self-views (agency and communion), and (c) different criteria against which self-perc…

Solunto: dalla conoscenza alla conservazione

2016

Per l’antica città di Solunto (Santa Flavia-Palermo), solo alla fine del XVIII sec., inizia un processo di analisi finalizzato alla sua conservazione, mediante tutela e restauro, che prosegue fino ai nostri giorni. Pertanto il mio saggio vuole essere un contributo per conoscere e meglio conservare questo patrimonio rappresentato da materiali e strutture, attraverso continue cure, al fine di assicurare vita alla vita delle testimonianze, per la nostra generazione, ma soprattutto per quelle che ci seguiranno. To the ancient city of Solunto (Santa Flavia-Palermo), only in the late Eighteenth century, begins a process of analysis aimed at its preservation, through protection and restoration, wh…

Physical Methods for Enhancing Oral Mucosal Delivery: Sonophoresis, Iontophoresis and Electroporation

2015

The need for more rapid onset of action and improved absorption of medications has resulted in great development of drug delivery technologies. Transmucosal drug delivery offers a convenient route of administration for a variety of clinical indications. Unfortunately, the wide variability in structure of the oral mucosal tissues could constitute a key factor in drug penetration and absorption. To circumvent this obstacle and to increase the drug flux through the mucosal membranes, different approaches to permeation enhancement are used. This chapter describes the most significant aspects of the physical techniques widely used such as sonophoresis, iontophoresis, and electroporation. These p…

Speech Activity Detection under Adverse Noisy Conditions at Low SNRs

2021

Speech originating from the noisy environments degrades the speech quality and intelligibility, thus reducing the human perceived Quality of Experience (QoE). For example, surveillance using drone during natural catastrophe needs an efficient speech recognition device to recognise the speech of the frozen human in presence of drone noise to save their life. Therefore, it often requires to pre-process the noisy speech in order to reduce the noise artifacts and enhance the speech. This paper detects the speech activity using Voice Activity Detection (VAD). The VAD distinguishes speech activity (speech presence) and speech inactivity (silence/noise) by extracting the speech features and compar…

Comparison of magnetic resonance imaging of inhaled SF6 with respiratory gas analysis

2008

Magnetic resonance imaging of inhaled fluorinated inert gases ((19)F-MRI) such as sulfur hexafluoride (SF(6)) allows for analysis of ventilated air spaces. In this study, the possibility of using this technique to image lung function was assessed. For this, (19)F-MRI of inhaled SF(6) was compared with respiratory gas analysis, which is a global but reliable measure of alveolar gas fraction. Five anesthetized pigs underwent multiple-breath wash-in procedures with a gas mixture of 70% SF(6) and 30% oxygen. Two-dimensional (19)F-MRI and end-expiratory gas fraction analysis were performed after 4 to 24 inhaled breaths. Signal intensity of (19)F-MRI and end-expiratory SF(6) fraction were evaluat…

Strong Emission Enhancement in pH‐Responsive 2:2 Cucurbit[8]uril Complexes

2019

Organic fluorophores, particularly stimuli-responsive molecules, are very interesting for biological and material sciences applications, but frequently limited by aggregation- and rotation-caused photoluminescence quenching. A series of easily accessible bipyridinium fluorophores, whose emission is quenched by a twisted intramolecular charge-transfer (TICT) mechanism, is reported. Encapsulation in a cucurbit[7]uril host gave a 1:1 complex exhibiting a moderate emission increase due to destabilization of the TICT state inside the apolar cucurbituril cavity. A much stronger fluorescence enhancement is observed in 2:2 complexes with the larger cucurbit[8]uril, which is caused by additional con…

Boolean operations with implicit and parametric representation of primitives using R-functions

2005

We present a new and efficient algorithm to accurately polygonize an implicit surface generated by multiple Boolean operations with globally deformed primitives. Our algorithm is special in the sense that it can be applied to objects with both an implicit and a parametric representation, such as superquadrics, supershapes, and Dupin cyclides. The input is a constructive solid geometry tree (CSG tree) that contains the Boolean operations, the parameters of the primitives, and the global deformations. At each node of the CSG tree, the implicit formulations of the subtrees are used to quickly determine the parts to be transmitted to the parent node, while the primitives' parametric definition …