Search results for "design [accelerator]"
showing 10 items of 594 documents
Evaluation of the MGDRx eyebag treatment in young and older subjects with dry eye symptoms
2021
Summary Objectives This study aims to evaluate the relationship between application of the MGDRx thermal eyebag and dry eye signs and symptoms in young and older subjects and to compare the results between the two groups. Methods Thirty young, healthily volunteers between 18 and 31 years of age (23.95 ± 3.94 years) and thirty older subjects between 61 and 90 years of age (77.97 ± 8.11 years) participated in this study. Ocular surface parameters were assessed using the Oculus Keratograph 5 M, following the guidelines of the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Dry Eye Workshop II Diagnostic Methodology report. Only subjects with a positive score on at least one questionnaire and an initial Non-Invas…
A Bio-Inspired Cognitive Agent for Autonomous Urban Vehicles Routing Optimization
2017
Autonomous urban vehicle prototypes are expected to be efficient even in not explicitly planned circumstances and dynamic environments. The development of autonomous vehicles for urban driving needs real-time information from vehicles and road network to optimize traffic flows. In traffic agent-based models, each vehicle is an agent, while the road network is the environment. Cognitive agents are able to reason on the perceived data, to evaluate the information obtained by reasoning, and to learn and respond, preserving their self-sufficiency, independency, self-determination, and self-reliance. In this paper, a bio-inspired cognitive agent for autonomous urban vehicles routing optimization…
Can technical, functional and structural characteristics of dental units predict Legionella pneumophila and Pseudomonas aeruginosa contamination?
2011
Legionella pneumophila and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are common colonizers of water environments, particularly dental unit waterlines. The aim of this study was to assess whether the technical, functional and structural characteristics of dental units can influence the presence and the levels of opportunistic pathogens. Overall, 42 water samples were collected from dental units in a teaching hospital in Palermo, Italy, including 21 samples from the 21 taps supplied by the municipal water distribution system and 21 samples from oral rinsing cups at 21 dental units. L. pneumophila was present in 16 out of 21 water samples (76.2%) from dental units, and the median concentration was higher in samp…
Aminoacid zwitterions in solution : Geometric, energetic, and vibrational analysis using density functional theory-continuum model calculations
1998
Glycine and alanine aminoacids chemistry in solution is explored using a hybrid three parameters density functional (B3PW91) together with a continuum model. Geometries, energies, and vibrational spectra of glycine and alanine zwitterions are studied at the B3PW91/6-31+G∗∗ level and the results compared with those obtained at the HF and MP2/6-31+G∗∗ levels. Solvents effects are incorporated by means of an ellipsoidal cavity model with a multipolar expansion (up to sixth order) of the solute’s electrostatic potential. Our results confirm the validity of the B3PW91 functional for studying aminoacid chemistry in solution. Taking into account the more favorable scaling behavior of density funct…
Development of a new indole derivative dry powder for inhalation for the treatment of biofilm-associated lung infections
2022
The aim of this work was to produce an inhalable dry powder formulation of a new anti-biofilm compound (SC38). For this purpose, chitosan was used as a polymeric carrier and l-leucine as a dispersibility enhancer. SC38 was entrapped by spray-drying into previously optimized chitosan microparticles. The final formulation was fully characterized in vitro in terms of particle morphology, particle size and distribution, flowability, aerodynamic properties, anti-biofilm activity and effects on lung cell viability. The SC38-loaded chitosan microparticles exhibited favorable aerodynamic properties with emitted and respirable fractions higher than 80 % and 45 % respectively. The optimized formulati…
Multi-disciplinary, Inter-disciplinary, Anti-disciplinary. Transition Knowledges in Design Education
2023
The environmental issues are recently proving to be the center and the connecting element of all the states of crisis, only apparently diversified (energy, political, migration); after the lucid forward-looking analysis of Maldonado in the 70s, the vision proposed in 2019 by the exhibition Broken Nature opens new spaces to the “design hope” activated by design, emphasizing the broad responsibility that the designer must take on contemporary challenges. The complex scenarios of the “transition” (environmental, cultural, productive) are also based on the ability of disciplinary encroachment and on the most radical forms of “anti-disciplinary” innovation, which in some cases opens to design fo…
Branch-Price-and-Cut for the Soft-Clustered Capacitated Arc-Routing Problem
2021
The soft-clustered capacitated arc-routing problem (SoftCluCARP) is a variant of the classical capacitated arc-routing problem. The only additional constraint is that the set of required edges, that is, the streets to be serviced, is partitioned into clusters, and feasible routes must respect the soft-cluster constraint, that is, all required edges of the same cluster must be served by the same vehicle. In this article, we design an effective branch-price-and-cut algorithm for the exact solution of the SoftCluCARP. Its new components are a metaheuristic and branch-and-cut-based solvers for the solution of the column-generation subproblem, which is a profitable rural clustered postman tour …
A comparison of two different formulations for Arc Routing Problems on Mixed graphs
2006
[EN] Arc routing problems on mixed graphs have been modelled in the literature either using just one variable per edge or associating to each edge two variables, each one representing its traversal in the corresponding direction. In this paper, and using the mixed general routing problem as an example, we compare theoretical and computationally both formulations as well as the lower bounds obtained from them using Linear Programming based methods. Extensive computational experiments, including some big and newly generated random instances, are presented.
On the impact of safety requirements, energy prices and investment costs in street lighting refurbishment design
2018
Abstract Street lighting is an indispensable feature for the night landscape of cities. It is important for road safety, users visual comfort, crime prevention and to augment the perceived personal safety. Realize and maintain an adequate street lighting service is very expensive for municipalities with significant impact on their budgets. For this reason, special attention should be paid to the design of new street lighting systems and to the refurbishment of existing ones, since many of them are inadequate. In light of this it is very important to implement street lighting designs that fulfil lighting requirements avoiding energy waste and light pollution and, at the same time, result eco…
The Studio: Reflections and Issues Arising
1999
An advanced Telematic Studio was built at the University of Jyvaskyla to combine the latest technologies for local and distributed work and/or meetings. The objectives were to combine leading edge technologies with ethnographic design principles derived from CSCW and HCI to support a broad range of activities. We informed the design by studies of similar facilities on other sites. The Studio is popular, and it is easy to give glowing accounts of its use. Nevertheless, over three years a significant number of problems have arisen with both technologies and uses. Some of these are local. Others may be generalisable to any ‘cooperative building’. For example: problems with videoconferencing; i…