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Large-scale Applications (large-scale + application)
Selected AbstractsTissue responses against immunoisolating alginate-PLL capsules in the immediate posttransplant periodJOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL MATERIALS RESEARCH, Issue 3 2002Paul de Vos Abstract Alginate-polylysine (PLL) capsules are commonly applied for immunoisolation of living cells for the treatment of a wide variety of diseases. Large-scale application of the technique, however, is hampered by insufficient biocompatibility of the capsules with failure of the grafts as a consequence. Most studies addressing biocompatibility issues of alginate-PLL capsules have focused on the degree of overgrowth on the capsules after graft failure and not on the reaction against the capsules in the immediate posttransplant period. Therefore, capsules were implanted in the peritoneal cavity of rats and retrieved 1, 5, and 7 days later for histological examination and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis for evaluation of chemical changes at the capsule surface. After implantation, the nitrogen signal increased from 5% on day 0, to 8.6% on day 7, illustrating protein adsorption on the capsule's surface. This increase in protein content of the membrane was accompanied by an increase in the percentage of overgrown capsules from 0.5 ± 0.3% on day 1 to 3.3 ± 1.6% on day 7. The cellular overgrowth was composed of monocytes/macrophages, granulocytes, fibroblasts, erythrocytes, multinucleated giant cells, and basophils. This overgrowth was not statical as generally assumed but rather dynamic as illustrated by our observation that at day 1 after implantation we mainly found monocytes/macrophages and granulocytes that on later time points were substituted by fibroblasts. As the inflammatory reaction predictably interfere with survival of encapsulated cells, efforts should be made to suppress activities or recruitment of inflammatory cells. These efforts may be temporary rather than permanent because most inflammatory cells have disappeared after 2 weeks of implantation. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 62: 430,437, 2002 [source] Microbial Fuel Cells in Relation to Conventional Anaerobic Digestion TechnologyENGINEERING IN LIFE SCIENCES (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2006H. Pham Abstract Conventional anaerobic digestion based bioconversion processes produce biogas and have as such been widely applied for the production of renewable energy so far. An innovative technology, based on the use of microbial fuel cells, is considered as a new pathway for bioconversion processes towards electricity. In comparison with conventional anaerobic digestion, the microbial fuel cell technology holds some specific advantages, such as its applicability for the treatment of low concentration substrates at temperatures below 20,°C, where anaerobic digestion generally fails to function. This provides some specific application niches of the microbial fuel cell technology where it does not compete with but complements the anaerobic digestion technology. However, microbial fuel cells still face important limitations in terms of large-scale application. The limitations involve the investment costs, upscale technical issues and the factors limiting the performance, both in terms of anodic and cathodic electron transfer. Research to render the microbial fuel cell technology more economically feasible and applicable should focus on reactor configuration, power density and the material costs. [source] Treatment Acceptability of Healthcare Services for Children with Cerebral PalsyJOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 5 2007Norm Dahl Background, Although treatment acceptability scales in intellectual and developmental disabilities research have been used in large- and small-scale applications, large-scale application has been limited to analogue (i.e. contrived) investigations. This study extended the application of treatment acceptability by assessing a large sample of care givers' perceptions of treatment for children with cerebral palsy (CP) in a real-world setting and tested if responses differed across child characteristics, type of medical service or respondent demographics. Method, One hundred and fifty four care givers' for children with CP rated the acceptability of treatments and related medical services by clinicians working in a multi-disciplinary children's specialty setting using Kazdin's (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 13, 1980, 259) Treatment Evaluation Inventory. Results, There were significant (P < 0.05) differences between male and female respondents' ratings of treatment acceptability. There were no other significant differences for caregiver ratings in relation to child characteristics, type of appointment, severity of CP or other respondent demographic characteristics. Conclusion, Mothers and fathers of children with developmental disabilities may differ in their perceptions of the acceptability of medical treatment services for children with developmental disabilities. Future studies addressing treatment acceptability should expand the scope of demographic information assessed and include items specific to the roles respondents have in providing and coordinating therapeutic regimens for their children's medical needs. [source] Revitalizing modifiability of legacy assetsJOURNAL OF SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE AND EVOLUTION: RESEARCH AND PRACTICE, Issue 4-5 2004Niels Veerman Abstract The modifiability of Cobol legacy code is discussed and an approach is proposed to improve the modifiability using automatic restructuring transformations. An algorithm is presented that enables the application of these transformations to large industrial Cobol systems. The transformations were adapted to a system of 80,000 lines of code by extending them with new transformations and transformation patterns. The resulting source code is analysed and discussed. Two case studies (over 5 million lines of code in total) with real-life Cobol programs show the large-scale application of the transformations. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Direct olive oil analysis by low-temperature plasma (LTP) ambient ionization mass spectrometryRAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 19 2009Juan F. García-Reyes A fast, reagentless, and direct method is presented for the mass spectrometric analysis of olive oil without any sample pretreatment whatsoever. An ambient ionization technique, the low-temperature plasma (LTP) probe, based on dielectric barrier discharge, is used to detect both minor and trace components (free fatty acids, phenolics and volatiles) in raw untreated olive oil. The method allows the measurement of free fatty acids (the main quality control parameter used to grade olive oil according to quality classes), selected bioactive phenolic compounds, and volatiles. The advantages and limitations of the direct analysis of extremely complex mixtures by the ambient ionization/tandem mass spectrometry combination are discussed and illustrated. The data presage the possible large-scale application of direct mass spectrometric analysis methods in the characterization of olive oil and other foodstuffs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Engraftment of Adult Porcine Islet Xenografts in Diabetic Nonhuman Primates Through Targeting of Costimulation PathwaysAMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 10 2007K. Cardona Recent advances in human allogeneic islet transplantation have established ,-cell replacement therapy as a potentially viable treatment option for individuals afflicted with Type 1 diabetes. Two recent successes, one involving neonatal porcine islet xenografts transplanted into diabetic rhesus macaques treated with a costimulation blockade-based regimen and the other involving diabetic cynomolgus monkeys transplanted with adult porcine islet xenografts treated with an alternative multidrug immunosuppressive regimen have demonstrated the feasibility of porcine islet xenotransplantation in nonhuman primate models. In the current study, we assessed whether transplantation of adult porcine islet xenografts into pancreatectomized macaques, under the cover of a costimulation blockade-based immunosuppressive regimen (CD28 and CD154 blockade), could correct hyperglycemia. Our findings suggest that the adult porcine islets transplanted into rhesus macaques receiving a costimulation blockade-based regimen are not uniformly subject to hyperacute rejection, can engraft (2/5 recipients), and have the potential to provide sustained normoglycemia. These results provide further evidence to suggest that porcine islet xenotransplantation may be an attainable strategy to alleviate the islet supply crisis that is one of the principal obstacles to large-scale application of islet replacement therapy in the treatment of Type 1 diabetes. [source] Analytical Model for Predicting Thermal Bridge Effects due to Vacuum Insulation Panel Barrier Envelopes,BAUPHYSIK, Issue 1 2008Martin Tenpierik ir. arch. Because of a necessity for sustainability and thus for a reduction of the amount of primary energy generated with fossil fuels, vacuum insulation panels (VIP) have recently caught the attention of practitioners in the building industry. The reduction of layer thickness may be considered among the most promising features for large-scale application of VIPs in buildings. The high barrier laminate (or casing) with relatively high thermal conductivity envelops the core material, thus introducing a thermal bridge at the panel edges and corners. Especially for barrier laminates containing ,thick' metal foils, the thermal bridge effect needs to be considered thoughtfully. In this contribution analytical models are presented which on the one hand allow rapid estimation of the VIP's overall thermal performance and on the other hand show the influence of material and geometric parameters on this performance. The analytical models are validated through numerical simulations. Rechenmodell zur Vorhersage von Wärmebrückeneffekten an der Hülle aus Hochbarrierefolien von Vakuum-Isolations-Paneelen (VIP). Aufgrund der Notwendigkeit von nachhaltigem Bauen und Energieeinsparung wird zunehmend der Einsatz von Vakuum-Isolations-Paneelen (VIP) zur Wärmedämmung im Bauwesen erwogen, insbesondere ist damit die erhebliche Reduzierung der Wärmedämmschichtdicke möglich. Die Umhüllung aus Hochbarrierefolien erfordert allerdings die Berücksichtigung der Wärmebrückenwirkung. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt Berechnungsmodelle vor, welche einerseits die schnelle Abschätzung des thermischen Verhaltens von VIP-Elementen ermöglichen und andererseits den Einfluss der Geometrie und Konstruktion der Elemente aufzeigen. Die Berechnungsmodelle wurden anhand von Simulationen validiert. [source] Yardsticks for industrial tomographyGEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 4 2008A. Vesnaver ABSTRACT Seismic tomography has been developed and applied for decades in seismological applications and for basic research purposes. During the last decade, large-scale applications in the oil and gas industry became standard as tomostatics and velocity modelling for pre-stack depth migration. In this paper, I take a snapshot of some current industrial applications, quantifying practical aspects by yardsticks such as data and model size and I try to draw a road map for the current decade. [source] Isolation of Solid Solution Phases in Size-Controlled LixFePO4 at Room TemperatureADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS, Issue 3 2009Genki Kobayashi Abstract State-of-the-art LiFePO4 technology has now opened the door for lithium ion batteries to take their place in large-scale applications such as plug-in hybrid vehicles. A high level of safety, significant cost reduction, and huge power generation are on the verge of being guaranteed for the most advanced energy storage system. The room-temperature phase diagram is essential to understand the facile electrode reaction of LixFePO4 (0,<,x,<,1), but it has not been fully understood. Here, intermediate solid solution phases close to x,=,0 and x,=,1 have been isolated at room temperature. Size-dependent modification of the phase diagram, as well as the systematic variation of lattice parameters inside the solid-solution compositional domain closely related to the electrochemical redox potential, are demonstrated. These experimental results reveal that the excess capacity that has been observed above and below the two-phase equilibrium potential is largely due to the bulk solid solution, and thus support the size-dependent miscibility gap model. [source] Facile One-Step Fabrication of Ordered Organic Nanowire FilmsADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 41 2009Chengyi Zhang Squaraine nanowires self-organize into a well-ordered film through a simple solvent-evaporation process at the dichloromethane/water interface. The film can be transferred onto various substrates or stacked layer-by-layer into a multilayered structure. This one-step approach offers a low-cost method for producing scalable films of aligned organic nanowires suitable for large-scale applications. [source] Applications of Catalytic Asymmetric Sulfide Oxidations to the Syntheses of Biologically Active SulfoxidesADVANCED SYNTHESIS & CATALYSIS (PREVIOUSLY: JOURNAL FUER PRAKTISCHE CHEMIE), Issue 1 2005Julien Legros Abstract Optically active sulfoxides are important compounds for medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry. Driven by the increasing demand for efficient, selective and environmentally friendly industrial processes, several catalytic methodologies have been developed in recent years for the stereoselective oxidation of sulfides for the preparation of biologically active sulfoxides. Both small-scale approaches to the problem as well as some large-scale applications that are already in industrial use are described in this review. [source] Fast algorithm for the solution of large-scale non-negativity-constrained least squares problemsJOURNAL OF CHEMOMETRICS, Issue 10 2004Mark H. Van Benthem Abstract Algorithms for multivariate image analysis and other large-scale applications of multivariate curve resolution (MCR) typically employ constrained alternating least squares (ALS) procedures in their solution. The solution to a least squares problem under general linear equality and inequality constraints can be reduced to the solution of a non-negativity-constrained least squares (NNLS) problem. Thus the efficiency of the solution to any constrained least square problem rests heavily on the underlying NNLS algorithm. We present a new NNLS solution algorithm that is appropriate to large-scale MCR and other ALS applications. Our new algorithm rearranges the calculations in the standard active set NNLS method on the basis of combinatorial reasoning. This rearrangement serves to reduce substantially the computational burden required for NNLS problems having large numbers of observation vectors. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Lanczos and the Riemannian SVD in information retrieval applicationsNUMERICAL LINEAR ALGEBRA WITH APPLICATIONS, Issue 4 2005Ricardo D. Fierro Abstract Variations of the latent semantic indexing (LSI) method in information retrieval (IR) require the computation of singular subspaces associated with the k dominant singular values of a large m × n sparse matrix A, where k,min(m,n). The Riemannian SVD was recently generalized to low-rank matrices arising in IR and shown to be an effective approach for formulating an enhanced semantic model that captures the latent term-document structure of the data. However, in terms of storage and computation requirements, its implementation can be much improved for large-scale applications. We discuss an efficient and reliable algorithm, called SPK-RSVD-LSI, as an alternative approach for deriving the enhanced semantic model. The algorithm combines the generalized Riemannian SVD and the Lanczos method with full reorthogonalization and explicit restart strategies. We demonstrate that our approach performs as well as the original low-rank Riemannian SVD method by comparing their retrieval performance on a well-known benchmark document collection. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Electrical performance evaluation of low-concentrating non-imaging photovoltaic concentratorPROGRESS IN PHOTOVOLTAICS: RESEARCH & APPLICATIONS, Issue 5 2008Tapas K Mallick Abstract Second generation prototype photovoltaic facades of reduced costs incorporating devices with optically concentrating elements (PRIDE) incorporate 6,mm wide ,Saturn' solar cells at the absorber of the dielectric concentrator. The concentrators were made using injection moulding technique with potential to manufacture in large-scale applications. Four different concentrator panels have been experimentally verified at outdoors to identify the non-identical current,voltage (I,V) curves. The I,V curve, fill factor and solar to electrical conversion efficiency of four PRIDE concentrator modules have been evaluated from the 24 manufactured in the ,IDEOCONTE' project. The maximum solar to electrical conversion efficiency and the fill factor of the PRIDE concentrator were 9·1 and 70%, respectively. The mismatch loss of the ,unit concentrators' has been identified that occurred due to the lack of bonding between the concentrator unit and the solar cell and the rear glass. The average power concentration ratio of PRIDE concentrators manufactured by the improved method was 2·10 compared to a similar non-concentrating panel and the optical efficiency of the PRIDE system was 83%. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] State of the art of carbon molecular sieves supported on tubular ceramics for gas separation applicationsASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Issue 1 2010Kelly Briceño Abstract During recent years, research into alternative power generation and less polluting vehicles has been directed towards the fabrication of compact and efficient devices using hydrogen fuel cells. As a compact viable proposal, membrane reactors (MR) have been studied as means of providing a fuel cell with an on-board supply device for pure hydrogen streams obtained by reforming hydrocarbons. However, the development of MRs is strongly dependant on the membrane having high permeation flux and high selectivity ratios towards H2 in a mixture of gases. To meet this need, carbon membranes are proposed materials, which have pores that are the same size as the kinetic diameters of syngases. These would provide an alternative to polymers, metals and ceramics in MR applications. Moreover, a tubular shape is a highly recommended configuration for achieving a compact and large reaction surface area. However, it is not easy to obtain a supported and amorphous carbon layer from polymer pyrolysis because the fabrication methods, the type of precursor material, characteristics of the support and pyrolysis conditions are all closely connected. The combination of all these factors and the stability problems of carbon membranes have limited the use of carbon molecular sieves (CMS) in large-scale applications. This review attempts to provide an overview of the use of carbon membranes in MRs for gas separation. It also reviews the advances in the materials, fabrication methods and characterisation techniques of specific supported carbon molecular sieve membranes that have been supported on tubular carriers so they can take advantage of the high permeation and selectivity values previously reported for unsupported CMS. Copyright © 2009 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||