| 1. |
- Ahlström, Christer, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Assessment of Suspected Aortic Stenosis by Auto Mutual Information Analysis of Murmurs
- 2007
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Ingår i: Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2007. EMBS 2007. - 9781424407873 ; , s. 1945-1948
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mild sclerotic thickening of the aortic valve affects 25% of the population, and the condition causes aortic valve stenosis (AS) in 2% of adults above 65 years. Echocardiography is today the clinical standard for assessing AS. However, a cost effective and uncomplicated technique that can be used for decision support in the primary health care would be of great value. In this study, recorded phonocardiographic signals were analyzed using the first local minimum of the auto mutual information (AMI) function. The AMI method measures the complexity in the sound signal, which is related to the amount of turbulence in the blood flow and thus to the severity of the stenosis. Two previously developed phonocardiographic methods for assessing AS severity were used for comparison, the murmur energy ratio and the sound spectral averaging technique. Twenty-nine patients with suspected AS were examined with Doppler echocardiography. The aortic jet velocity was used as a reference of AS severity, and it was found to correlate with the AMI method, the murmur energy ratio and the sound spectral averaging technique with the correlation coefficient R = 0.82, R = 0.73 and R = 0.76, respectively.
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| 2. |
- Ahlström, Christer, et al.
(författare)
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Feature Extraction for Systolic Heart Murmur Classification
- 2006
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Ingår i: Annals of Biomedical Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0090-6964 .- 1573-9686. ; 34:11, s. 1666-1677
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Heart murmurs are often the first signs of pathological changes of the heart valves, and they are usually found during auscultation in the primary health care. Distinguishing a pathological murmur from a physiological murmur is however difficult, why an “intelligent stethoscope” with decision support abilities would be of great value. Phonocardiographic signals were acquired from 36 patients with aortic valve stenosis, mitral insufficiency or physiological murmurs, and the data were analyzed with the aim to find a suitable feature subset for automatic classification of heart murmurs. Techniques such as Shannon energy, wavelets, fractal dimensions and recurrence quantification analysis were used to extract 207 features. 157 of these features have not previously been used in heart murmur classification. A multi-domain subset consisting of 14, both old and new, features was derived using Pudil’s sequential floating forward selection (SFFS) method. This subset was compared with several single domain feature sets. Using neural network classification, the selected multi-domain subset gave the best results; 86% correct classifications compared to 68% for the first runner-up. In conclusion, the derived feature set was superior to the comparative sets, and seems rather robust to noisy data.
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| 3. |
- Glimelius, Bengt, et al.
(författare)
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U-CAN : a prospective longitudinal collection of biomaterials and clinical information from adult cancer patients in Sweden.
- 2018
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Ingår i: Acta Oncologica. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0284-186X .- 1651-226X. ; 57:2, s. 187-194
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Progress in cancer biomarker discovery is dependent on access to high-quality biological materials and high-resolution clinical data from the same cases. To overcome current limitations, a systematic prospective longitudinal sampling of multidisciplinary clinical data, blood and tissue from cancer patients was therefore initiated in 2010 by Uppsala and Umeå Universities and involving their corresponding University Hospitals, which are referral centers for one third of the Swedish population.Material and Methods: Patients with cancer of selected types who are treated at one of the participating hospitals are eligible for inclusion. The healthcare-integrated sampling scheme encompasses clinical data, questionnaires, blood, fresh frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue specimens, diagnostic slides and radiology bioimaging data.Results: In this ongoing effort, 12,265 patients with brain tumors, breast cancers, colorectal cancers, gynecological cancers, hematological malignancies, lung cancers, neuroendocrine tumors or prostate cancers have been included until the end of 2016. From the 6914 patients included during the first five years, 98% were sampled for blood at diagnosis, 83% had paraffin-embedded and 58% had fresh frozen tissues collected. For Uppsala County, 55% of all cancer patients were included in the cohort.Conclusions: Close collaboration between participating hospitals and universities enabled prospective, longitudinal biobanking of blood and tissues and collection of multidisciplinary clinical data from cancer patients in the U-CAN cohort. Here, we summarize the first five years of operations, present U-CAN as a highly valuable cohort that will contribute to enhanced cancer research and describe the procedures to access samples and data.
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| 4. |
- Kullberg, Joel, et al.
(författare)
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Automated Assessment of Whole-Body Adipose Tissue Depots From Continuously Moving Bed MRI : A Feasibility Study
- 2009
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Ingår i: Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. - : Wiley. - 1053-1807 .- 1522-2586. ; 30:1, s. 185-193
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PURPOSE: To present an automated algorithm for segmentation of visceral, subcutaneous, and total volumes of adipose tissue depots (VAT, SAT, TAT) from whole-body MRI data sets and to investigate the VAT segmentation accuracy and the reproducibility of all depot assessments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Repeated measurements were performed on 24 volunteer subjects using a 1.5 Tesla clinical MRI scanner and a three-dimensional (3D) multi-gradient-echo sequence (resolution: 2.1 x 2.1 x 8 mm(3), acquisition time: 5 min 15 s). Fat and water images were reconstructed, and fully automated segmentation was performed. Manual segmentation of the VAT reference was performed by an experienced operator. RESULTS: Strong correlation (R = 0.999) was found between the automated and manual VAT assessments. The automated results underestimated VAT with 4.7 +/- 4.4%. The accuracy was 88 +/- 4.5% and 7.6 +/- 5.7% for true positive and false positive fractions, respectively. Coefficients of variation from the repeated measurements were: 2.32 % +/- 2.61%, 2.25% +/- 2.10%, and 1.01% +/- 0.74% for VAT, SAT, and TAT, respectively. CONCLUSION: Automated and manual VAT results correlated strongly. The assessments of all depots were highly reproducible. The acquisition and postprocessing techniques presented are likely useful in obesity related studies.
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| 5. |
- Kullberg, Joel, et al.
(författare)
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Gastric bypass promotes more lipid mobilization than a similar weight loss induced by low-calorie diet
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Obesity. - : Hindawi Limited. - 2090-0708 .- 2090-0716. ; 2011, s. 959601-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background.Recently, we found large reductions in visceral and subcutaneous fat one month after gastric bypass (GBP), without any change in liver fat content.Purpose.Firstly to characterize weight loss-induced lipid mobilization after one month with preoperative low-calorie diet (LCD) and a subsequent month following GBP, and secondly, to discuss the observations with reference to our previous published findings after GBP intervention alone.Methods.15 morbidly obese women were studied prior to LCD, at GBP, and one month after GBP. Effects on metabolism were measured by magnetic resonance techniques and blood tests.Results.Body weight was similarly reduced after both months (mean: -8.0 kg, n = 13). Relative body fat changes were smaller after LCD than after GBP (-7.1 ± 3.6% versus -10 ± 3.2%, P = .029, n = 13). Liver fat fell during the LCD month (-41%, P = .001, n = 13) but was unaltered one month after GBP (+12%).Conclusion.Gastric bypass seems to cause a greater lipid mobilization than a comparable LCD-induced weight loss. One may speculate that GBP-altered gastrointestinal signalling sensitizes adipose tissue to lipolysis, promoting the changes observed.
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| 6. |
- Murray-Tortarolo, Guillermo, et al.
(författare)
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The dry season intensity as a key driver of NPP trends
- 2016
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Ingår i: Geophysical Research Letters. - 1944-8007. ; 43:6, s. 2632-2639
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We analyze the impacts of changing dry season length and intensity on vegetation productivity and biomass. Our results show a wetness asymmetry in dry ecosystems, with dry seasons becoming drier and wet seasons becoming wetter, likely caused by climate change. The increasingly intense dry seasons were consistently correlated with a decreasing trend in net primary productivity (NPP) and biomass from different products and could potentially mean a reduction of 10–13% in NPP by 2100. We found that annual NPP in dry ecosystems is particularly sensitive to the intensity of the dry season, whereas an increase in precipitation during the wet season has a smaller effect. We conclude that changes in water availability over the dry season affect vegetation throughout the whole year, driving changes in regional NPP. Moreover, these results suggest that usage of seasonal water fluxes is necessary to improve our understanding of the link between water availability and the land carbon cycle.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Abdulla, Maysaa, et al.
(författare)
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Prognostic impact of abdominal lymph node involvement in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
- 2020
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Ingår i: European Journal of Haematology. - : Wiley. - 0902-4441 .- 1600-0609. ; 104:3, s. 207-213
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: The prognostic value of site of nodal involvement in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) is mainly unknown. We aimed to determine the prognostic significance of nodal abdominal involvement in relation to tumour cell markers and clinical characteristics of 249 DLBCL patients in a retrospective single-centre study.METHODS: Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen and thorax revealed pathologically enlarged abdominal lymph nodes in 156 patients, while in 93 patients there were no pathologically enlarged lymph nodes in the abdomen. In 81 cases, the diagnosis of DLBCL was verified by histopathological biopsy obtained from abdominal lymph node.RESULTS: Patients with abdominal nodal disease had inferior lymphoma-specific survival (P = .04) and presented with higher age-adjusted IPI (P < .001), lactate dehydrogenase (P < .001) and more often advanced stage (P < .001), bulky disease (P < .001), B symptoms (P < .001), and double expression of MYC and BCL2 (P = .02) compared to patients without nodal abdominal involvement, but less often extranodal involvement (P < .02). The worst outcome was observed in those where the abdominal nodal involvement was verified by histopathological biopsy.CONCLUSION: Diffuse large B-cell lymphomas patients with abdominal nodal disease had inferior outcome and more aggressive behaviour, reflected both in clinical and biological characteristics.
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| 9. |
- Ahlström, Christer, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing Aortic Stenosis using Sample Entropy of the Phonocardiographic Signal in Dogs
- 2008
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Ingår i: IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. - 0018-9294 .- 1558-2531. ; 55:8, s. 2107-2109
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In aortic valve stenosis (AS), heart murmurs arise as an effect of turbulent blood flow distal to the obstructed valves. With increasing AS severity, the flow becomes more unstable, and the ensuing murmur becomes more complex. We hypothesize that these hemodynamic flow changes can be quantified based on the complexity of the phonocardiographic (PCG) signal. In this study, sample entropy (SampEn) was investigated as a measure of complexity using a dog model. Twenty-seven boxer dogs with various degrees of AS were examined with Doppler echocardiography, and the peak aortic flow velocity (Vmax) was used as a reference of AS severity. SampEn correlated to Vmax with R = 0.70 using logarithmic regression. In a separate analysis, significant differences were found between physiologic murmurs and murmurs caused by AS (p < 0.05), and the area under a receiver operating characteristic curve was calculated to 0.96. Comparison with previously presented PCG measures for AS assessment showed improved performance when using SampEn, especially for differentiation between physiological murmurs and murmurs caused by mild AS. Studies in patients will be needed to properly assess the technique in humans.
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
- Ahlström, Christer, et al.
(författare)
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Chaotic dynamics of respiratory sounds
- 2006
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Ingår i: Chaos, Solitons & Fractals. - : Elsevier BV. - 0960-0779 .- 1873-2887. ; 29:5, s. 1054-1062
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a growing interest in nonlinear analysis of respiratory sounds (RS), but little has been done to justify the use of nonlinear tools on such data. The aim of this paper is to investigate the stationarity, linearity and chaotic dynamics of recorded RS. Two independent data sets from 8 + 8 healthy subjects were recorded and investigated. The first set consisted of lung sounds (LS) recorded with an electronic stethoscope and the other of tracheal sounds (TS) recorded with a contact accelerometer. Recurrence plot analysis revealed that both LS and TS are quasistationary, with the parts corresponding to inspiratory and expiratory flow plateaus being stationary. Surrogate data tests could not provide statistically sufficient evidence regarding the nonlinearity of the data. The null hypothesis could not be rejected in 4 out of 32 LS cases and in 15 out of 32 TS cases. However, the Lyapunov spectra, the correlation dimension (D2) and the Kaplan-Yorke dimension (DKY) all indicate chaotic behavior. The Lyapunov analysis showed that the sum of the exponents was negative in all cases and that the largest exponent was found to be positive. The results are partly ambiguous, but provide some evidence of chaotic dynamics of RS, both concerning LS and TS. The results motivate continuous use of nonlinear tools for analysing RS data. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 12. |
- Ahlström, Christer, et al.
(författare)
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Detection of the 3rd Heart Sound using Recurrence Time Statistics
- 2006
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Ingår i: Proc. 31st IEEE Int. Conf. on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, Toulouse, France, 2006. - 9781424404681 ; , s. 1040-1043
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The 3rd heart sound (S3) is normally heard during auscultation of younger individuals, but it is also common in many patients with heart failure. Compared to the 1st and 2nd heart sounds, S3 has low amplitude and low frequency content, making it hard to detect (both manually for the physician and automatically by a detection algorithm). We present an algorithm based on a recurrence time statistic which is sensitive to changes in a reconstructed state space, particularly for detection of transitions with very low energy. Heart sound signals from ten children were used in this study. Most S3 occurrences were detected (98 %), but the amount of false extra detections was rather high (7% of the heart cycles). In conclusion, the method seems capable of detecting S3 with high accuracy and robustness.
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| 13. |
- Ahlström, Christer, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Distinguishing Innocent Murmurs from Murmurs caused by Aortic Stenosis by Recurrence Quantification Analysis
- 2006
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Ingår i: ROCEEDINGS OF WORLD ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, VOL 18. - Canakkale, Turkey : World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (W A S E T). ; , s. 40-45
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is sometimes difficult to differentiate between innocent murmurs and pathological murmurs during auscultation. In these difficult cases, an intelligent stethoscope with decision support abilities would be of great value. In this study, using a dog model, phonocardiographic recordings were obtained from 27 boxer dogs with various degrees of aortic stenosis (AS) severity. As a reference for severity assessment, continuous wave Doppler was used. The data were analyzed with recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) with the aim to find features able to distinguish innocent murmurs from murmurs caused by AS. Four out of eight investigated RQA features showed significant differences between innocent murmurs and pathological murmurs. Using a plain linear discriminant analysis classifier, the best pair of features (recurrence rate and entropy) resulted in a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 88%. In conclusion, RQA provide valid features which can be used for differentiation between innocent murmurs and murmurs caused by AS.
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| 14. |
- Ahlström, Christer, et al.
(författare)
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Heart sound cancellation from lung sound recordings using recurrence time statistics and nonlinear prediction
- 2005
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Ingår i: IEEE Signal Processing Letters. - : Institutionen för medicinsk teknik. - 1070-9908 .- 1558-2361. ; 12:12, s. 812-815, s. 812-815
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Heart sounds (HS) obscure the interpretation of lung sounds (LS). This letter presents a new method to detect and remove this undesired disturbance. The HS detection algorithm is based on a recurrence time statistic that is sensitive to changes in a reconstructed state space. Signal segments that are found to contain HS are removed, and the arising missing parts are replaced with predicted LS using a nonlinear prediction scheme. The prediction operates in the reconstructed state space and uses an iterated integrated nearest trajectory algorithm. The HS detection algorithm detects HS with an error rate of 4% false positives and 8% false negatives. The spectral difference between the reconstructed LS signal and an LS signal with removed HS was 0.34/spl plusmn/0.25, 0.50/spl plusmn/0.33, 0.46/spl plusmn/0.35, and 0.94/spl plusmn/0.64 dB/Hz in the frequency bands 20-40, 40-70, 70-150, and 150-300 Hz, respectively. The cross-correlation index was found to be 99.7%, indicating excellent similarity between actual LS and predicted LS. Listening tests performed by a skilled physician showed high-quality auditory results.
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| 15. |
- Ahlström, Christer, 1977-
(författare)
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Nonlinear phonocardiographic Signal Processing
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis work has been to develop signal analysis methods for a computerized cardiac auscultation system, the intelligent stethoscope. In particular, the work focuses on classification and interpretation of features derived from the phonocardiographic (PCG) signal by using advanced signal processing techniques.The PCG signal is traditionally analyzed and characterized by morphological properties in the time domain, by spectral properties in the frequency domain or by nonstationary properties in a joint time-frequency domain. The main contribution of this thesis has been to introduce nonlinear analysis techniques based on dynamical systems theory to extract more information from the PCG signal. Especially, Takens' delay embedding theorem has been used to reconstruct the underlying system's state space based on the measured PCG signal. This processing step provides a geometrical interpretation of the dynamics of the signal, whose structure can be utilized for both system characterization and classification as well as for signal processing tasks such as detection and prediction. In this thesis, the PCG signal's structure in state space has been exploited in several applications. Change detection based on recurrence time statistics was used in combination with nonlinear prediction to remove obscuring heart sounds from lung sound recordings in healthy test subjects. Sample entropy and mutual information were used to assess the severity of aortic stenosis (AS) as well as mitral insufficiency (MI) in dogs. A large number of, partly nonlinear, features was extracted and used for distinguishing innocent murmurs from murmurs caused by AS or MI in patients with probable valve disease. Finally, novel work related to very accurate localization of the first heart sound by means of ECG-gated ensemble averaging was conducted. In general, the presented nonlinear processing techniques have shown considerably improved results in comparison with other PCG based techniques.In modern health care, auscultation has found its main role in primary or in home health care, when deciding if special care and more extensive examinations are required. Making a decision based on auscultation is however difficult, why a simple tool able to screen and assess murmurs would be both time- and cost-saving while relieving many patients from needless anxiety. In the emerging field of telemedicine and home care, an intelligent stethoscope with decision support abilities would be of great value.
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| 16. |
- Ahlström, Christer, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Thresholding distance plots using true recurrence points
- 2006
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Ingår i: Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, 2006. ICASSP 2006. - : IEEE. - 142440469X ; , s. 688-691
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recurrence plots (RP) visualize multi-dimensional state spaces and represent the recurrence of states of a system. Recurrence points can be divided into true recurrence points and false recurrence points (also called sojourn points). We introduce the true recurrence point recurrence plot, TRP, a variant of the traditional RP excluding the sojourn points. This is a cleaned up RP free from recurrence points originating from tangential motion, and hence a more robust representation of unstable periodic orbits. The method is demonstrated with three simple systems, a periodic sine wave, a quasi-periodic torus and the x-component of the chaotic Lorenz system
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| 17. |
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| 18. |
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| 19. |
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| 20. |
- Ahlström, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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A Survey of the Role of Thermodynamics and Transport Properties in ChE University Education in Europe and the USA
- 2010
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Ingår i: Chemical Engineering Education. - : Chemical Engineering Department, University of Florida. - 0009-2479. ; 44:1, s. 35-43
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Thermodynamics and Transport Properties (TTP) is a central subject in the majority of chemical engineering curricula worldwide and it is thus of interest to know how it is taught today in various countries if chemical engineering education is to be improved. A survey of graduate thermodynamics education in the USA was performed a few years ago by Visco et al. [1] but as far as we know no systematic study of the undergraduate thermodynamics education has been performed, at least in recent years. In the present study, a survey about TTP education in Europe and the USA is presented. Results were obtained from nearly twenty different European countries and the USA and in total answers from about 150 universities were used for this study. The study is performed under the auspices of the Working Party of Thermodynamics and Transport Properties of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering. The survey was performed using a web based surveying system for which invitations were sent out to the universities by local representatives who were responsible for one or more countries each. Of the universities that answered more than 70 % offer BSc education 65 % offer MSc education and 55 % offer PhD education. Most universities offer at least two courses of thermodynamics. The following discussion is mainly based on the first two (undergraduate) courses reported. Half of these are taught to chemical engineers exclusively whereas the rest are taught with other branches of engineering, mainly mechanical and / or process engineering. In general two sets of course lengths were observed, corresponding either to a full semester of full time studies or to quarter of a semester. Most courses are centered around lectures and exercise classes with little or no laboratory work whereas home assignments are given in the vast majority (70-80 %) of the courses. The first course is mainly centered around the first and second law of thermodynamics whereas the second course is frequently more concentrated on phase equilibria. Both of these courses are mainly comprising of classical thermodynamics whereas the molecular interpretation often is touched upon. An analysis of the differences between thermodynamics education in Europe and the USA in presently being undertaken and results from this will also be presented. An investigation of the use of thermodynamics within industry is also on-going within the Working Party and results will be reported in the near future. [1] S.K.Dube, D.P. Visco, Chem. Eng. Ed., 2005, 258-263.
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| 21. |
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| 22. |
- Ahlström, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Computer Simulations of Vapor-Liquid-Liquid Equilibria Involving Hydrocarbons and Water
- 2008
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Institute for Chemical Engineering, 2008, CHPC National Meeting, Durban, South Africa, December 9-10, 2008, AlChe Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, November 15-21, 2008.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 23. |
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| 24. |
- Ahlström, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Fältövningarnas metod
- 2009
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Ingår i: Tankar om fälttåg. - Stockholm : Försvarshögskolan. - 9789189683174 ; , s. 13-19
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 25. |
- Ahlström, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Water absorption in polymers
- 2010
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this work two different examples of water absorbtion in polymers are studied by Monte Carlo simulations. Both of them are of large technical and commercial impotance. The first example is the water absorption in polyethylene cables where the water absorption plays a crucial role in the degradation of the cable insulation and thus should be as low as possible. The second example is bio-based superabsorbents made from denatured protein where water absorption capability is the prime desired property. Methods Gibbs Ensemble Monte Carlo simulations [1] were used to study the hydration of polymers. All simulations are performed with two boxes, one of which is filled with water at the start of the simulation, whereas the other contains polymer molecules and possible ions. The polymer molecules are not allowed to swap boxes whereas the water molecules are allowed to do so thus constituting an osmotic Gibbs ensemble [2]. For the polyethylene a connectivity-altering algorithm was used whereas the protein molecules were simulated using a side-chain regrowth model in addition to traditional Monte Carlo moves. For the polyethylene, the TraPPE [3] force field was used and the protein molecules, the Amber force field [4] was used. Water was modelled using simple point charge models [5]. Electrostatic interactions are treated using Ewald summation methods. The protein molecules were of different amino acid compositions and in different conformations, e.g., β-turns and random coils obtained using the amorphous cell method[6]. Studies were made with different degrees of charging on, e.g., lysine side chains mimicking different ionization states. Results The studies of polyethylene revealed the importance of ions left from the polymerisation catalyst for the absorbtion of water and the concomitant degradation of polyethylene cable insulation. Also the absorption properties of the protein molecules is strongly related to the presence of charged groups and fully charged protein molecules absorb large amounts of water. However, neither native nor denatured protein molecules show superabsorbing properties (i.e. absorbing hundreds of times their own mass) as they show in experimental studies and the reasons for this discrepancy will be discussed. References 1. A.Z. Panagiotopoulos, Mol. Phys. 61, 813 (1987). 2. E. Johansson, K. Bolton, D.N. Theodorou, P. Ahlström, J. Chem. Phys., 126, 224902 (2007). 3. M.G. Martin, and J.I. Siepmann, J. Phys. Chem. B, 103, 4508-4517 (1999). 4. W.D. Cornell, P. Cieplak, C.I. Bayly, I.R. Gould, K.M. Merz Jr, D.M. Ferguson, D.C. Spellmeyer, T. Fox, J.W. Caldwell, P.A. Kollman (1995). J. Am. Chem. Soc. 117, 5179–5197. 5. H. J. C. Berendsen, J. P. M. Postma and W. F. van Gunsteren, in Intermolecular Forces, B. Pullman, ed. (Reidel, Dordrecht, 1981) p. 331; H. J. C. Berendsen, J. R. Grigera and T. P. Straatsma, J. Phys. Chem. 91, 6269 (1987). 6. D.N. Theodorou, U.W. Suter, Macromolecules, 18, 1467 (1985).
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| 26. |
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| 27. |
- Almquist, Joachim, 1980, et al.
(författare)
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Overexpressing cell systems are a competitive option to primary adipocytes when predicting in vivo potency of dual GPR81/GPR109A agonists
- 2018
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Ingår i: European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. - : Elsevier BV. - 0928-0987 .- 1879-0720. ; 114, s. 155-165
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mathematical models predicting in vivo pharmacodynamic effects from in vitro data can accelerate drug discovery, and reduce costs and animal use. However, data integration and modeling is non-trivial when more than one drug-target receptor is involved in the biological response. We modeled the inhibition of non-esterified fatty acid release by dual G-protein-coupled receptor 81/109A (GPR81/GPR109A) agonists in vivo in the rat, to estimate the in vivo EC50 values for 12 different compounds. We subsequently predicted those potency estimates using EC 50 values obtained from concentration-response data in isolated primary adipocytes and cell systems overexpressing GPR81 or GPR109A in vitro. A simple linear regression model based on data from primary adipocytes predicted the in vivo EC50 better than simple linear regression models based on in vitro data from either of the cell systems. Three models combining the data from the overexpressing cell systems were also evaluated: two piecewise linear models defining logical OR- and AND-circuits, and a multivariate linear regression model. All three models performed better than the simple linear regression model based on data from primary adipocytes. The OR-model was favored since it is likely that activation of either GPR81 or GPR109A is sufficient to deactivate the cAMP pathway, and thereby inhibit non-esterified fatty acid release. The OR-model was also able to predict the in vivo selectivity between the two receptors. Finally, the OR-model was used to predict the in vivo potency of 1651 new compounds. This work suggests that data from the overexpressing cell systems are sufficient to predict in vivo potency of GPR81/GPR109A agonists, an approach contributing to faster and leaner drug discovery.
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| 28. |
- Axmon, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Chronic Respiratory Disorders and Their Treatment among Older People with Intellectual Disability and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder in Comparison with the General Population
- 2017
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Ingår i: Healthcare. - : MDPI AG. - 2227-9032. ; 5:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Respiratory disorders are common among people with intellectual disabilities (ID). However, few studies have investigated these disorders among older people with ID. We identified 7936 people, aged 55+ years, with ID and a reference cohort from the general population. Data on diagnoses of chronic respiratory disorders, with a focus on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), were collected, as was information on health care visits due to such disorders. We also added data on the prescription of drugs for obstructive airway diseases. Whereas the risk of having at least one diagnosis of asthma during the study period was similar in the two cohorts, people with ID were less likely than the general population to have been diagnosed with COPD. The same was found for health care visits due to asthma and COPD, respectively. The patterns of drug prescription were similar among people with ID and the general population, with the exception of adrenergics for systemic use, which were more commonly prescribed to people with ID. Thus, older people with ID do not seem to have an increased risk of asthma or COPD. Moreover, the indications are that when diagnosed with any of these disorders, they receive treatment adapted to their particular needs.
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| 29. |
- Axmon, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Prevalence and treatment of diabetes mellitus and hypertension among older adults with intellectual disability in comparison with the general population
- 2017
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Ingår i: BMC Geriatrics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2318. ; 17
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus and hypertension are risk factors for cardiovascular disease, which is the most common cause of death in the world. People with intellectual disability (ID) have been reported to have high rates of both these disorders. The aim of this study was to describe and compare prevalence ratios of diabetes mellitus and hypertension between older adults with ID and their age peers in the general population, and to describe and compare treatment patterns in these two groups.METHODS: This is a Swedish register-based study, in which we established a cohort of people aged 55+ years and who had received support for those with ID in 2012 (n = 7936). We also established a same-sized referent cohort from the general population matched by sex and year of birth. Information on diagnoses of diabetes mellitus and hypertension, and prescription of drugs for these disorders, were collected from national registers for the period 2006-2012. The two cohorts were compared using generalized linear models (GLM).RESULTS: People with ID were 20% more likely than the general population to have a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, and 26% more likely to have prescription of drugs for diabetes mellitus. People in the general population were 81% more likely to have a diagnosis of hypertension, and 9% more likely to have a prescription of drugs for hypertension. Among those with diabetes, ID was associated with higher occurrence of prescription of insulin combination drugs and sulfonylureas, but lower occurrence of prescription of dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP) 4-inhibitors and exenatide/liraglutide. Among those with hypertension, ID was associated with higher occurrence of prescription of diuretics, but lower occurrence of prescription of calcium channel blockers and angiotensin II antagonists.CONCLUSIONS: Treatment regimens among people with ID tended to include older types of medication compared with what was prescribed in the general population. To ensure that this is medically appropriate and not due to failure to update the treatment regimen, it is important to investigate if the people with ID and diabetes mellitus or hypertension are subjected to the same regular drug reviews that are recommended for older adults in general.
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| 30. |
- Barua, Shaibal, et al.
(författare)
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Automated EEG Artifact Handling with Application in Driver Monitoring
- 2018
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Ingår i: IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics. - : IEEE. - 2168-2194 .- 2168-2208. ; 22:5, s. 1350-1361
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Automated analyses of electroencephalographic (EEG) signals acquired in naturalistic environments is becoming increasingly important in areas such as brain computer interfaces and behaviour science. However, the recorded EEG in such environments is often heavily contaminated by motion artifacts and eye movements. This poses new requirements on artifact handling. The objective of this paper is to present an automated EEG artifacts handling algorithm which will be used as a pre-processing step in a driver monitoring application. The algorithm, named ARTE (Automated aRTifacts handling in EEG), is based on wavelets, independent component analysis and hierarchical clustering. The algorithm is tested on a dataset obtained from a driver sleepiness study including 30 drivers and 540 30-minute 30-channel EEG recordings. The algorithm is evaluated by a clinical neurophysiologist, by quantitative criteria (signal quality index, mean square error, relative error and mean absolute error), and by demonstrating its usefulness as a pre-processing step in driver monitoring, here exemplified with driver sleepiness classification. All results are compared with a state of the art algorithm called FORCe. The quantitative and expert evaluation results show that the two algorithms are comparable and that both algorithms significantly reduce the impact of artifacts in recorded EEG signals. When artifact handling is used as a pre-processing step in driver sleepiness classification, the classification accuracy increased by 5% when using ARTE and by 2% when using FORCe. The advantage with ARTE is that it is data driven and does not rely on additional reference signals or manually defined thresholds, making it well suited for use in dynamic settings where unforeseen and rare artifacts are commonly encountered.
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| 31. |
- Barua, Shaibal, 1982-
(författare)
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Intelligent Driver Mental State Monitoring System Using Physiological Sensor Signals
- 2015
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Driving a vehicle involves a series of events, which are related to and evolve with the mental state (such as sleepiness, mental load, and stress) of the driv- er. These states are also identified as causal factors of critical situations that can lead to road accidents and vehicle crashes. These driver impairments need to be detected and predicted in order to reduce critical situations and road accidents. In the past years, physiological signals have become conven- tional measures in driver impairment research. Physiological signals have been applied in various studies to identify different levels of mental load, sleepiness, and stress during driving.This licentiate thesis work has investigated several artificial intelligence algorithms for developing an intelligent system to monitor driver mental state using physiological signals. The research aims to measure sleepiness and mental load using Electroencephalography (EEG). EEG signals, if pro- cessed correctly and efficiently, have potential to facilitate advanced moni- toring of sleepiness, mental load, fatigue, stress etc. However, EEG signals can be contaminated with unwanted signals, i.e., artifacts. These artifacts can lead to serious misinterpretation. Therefore, this work investigates EEG arti- fact handling methods and propose an automated approach for EEG artifact handling. Furthermore, this research has also investigated how several other physiological parameters (Heart Rate (HR) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) from the Electrocardiogram (ECG), Respiration Rate, Finger Tem- perature (FT), and Skin Conductance (SC)) to quantify drivers’ stress. Dif- ferent signal processing methods have been investigated to extract features from these physiological signals. These features have been extracted in the time domain, in the frequency domain as well as in the joint time-frequency domain using wavelet analysis. Furthermore, data level signal fusion has been proposed using Multivariate Multiscale Entropy (MMSE) analysis by combining five physiological sensor signals. Primarily Case-Based Reason- ing (CBR) has been applied for drivers’ mental state classification, but other Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques such as Fuzzy Logic, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) have been investigat- ed as well.For drivers’ stress classification, using the CBR and MMSE approach, the system has achieved 83.33% classification accuracy compared to a human expert. Moreover, three classification algorithms i.e., CBR, an ANN, and a SVM were compared to classify drivers’ stress. The results show that CBR has achieved 80% and 86% accuracy to classify stress using finger tempera- ture and heart rate variability respectively, while ANN and SVM reached an accuracy of less than 80%.
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| 32. |
- Barua, Shaibal, 1982-
(författare)
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Multivariate Data Analytics to Identify Driver’s Sleepiness, Cognitive load, and Stress
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Driving a vehicle in a dynamic traffic environment requires continuous adaptation of a complex manifold of physiological and cognitive activities. Impaired driving due to, for example, sleepiness, inattention, cognitive load or stress, affects one’s ability to adapt, predict and react to upcoming traffic events. In fact, human error has been found to be a contributing factor in more than 90% of traffic crashes. Unfortunately, there is no robust, objective ground truth for determining a driver’s state, and researchers often revert to using subjective self-rating scales when assessing level of sleepiness, cognitive load or stress. Thus, the development of better tools to understand, measure and monitor human behaviour across diverse scenarios and states is crucial. The main objective of this thesis is to develop objective measures of sleepiness, cognitive load and stress, which can later be used as research tools, either to benchmark unobtrusive sensor solutions or when investigating the influence of other factors on sleepiness, cognitive load, and stress.This thesis employs multivariate data analysis using machine learning to detect and classify different driver states based on physiological data. The reason for using rather intrusive sensor data, such as electroencephalography (EEG), electrooculography (EOG), electrocardiography (ECG), skin conductance, finger temperature, and respiration is that these methods can be used to analyse how the brain and body respond to internal and external changes, including those that do not generate overt behaviour. Moreover, the use of physiological data is expected to grow in importance when investigating human behaviour in partially automated vehicles, where active driving is replaced by passive supervision.Physiological data, especially the EEG is sensitive to motion artifacts and noise, and when recorded in naturalistic environments such as driving, artifacts are unavoidable. An automatic EEG artifact handling method ARTE (Automated aRTifacts handling in EEG) was therefore developed. When used as a pre-processing step in the classification of driver sleepiness, ARTE increased classification performance by 5%. ARTE is data-driven and does not rely on additional reference signals or manually defined thresholds, making it well suited for use in dynamic settings where unforeseen and rare artifacts are commonly encountered. In addition, several machine-learning algorithms have been developed for sleepiness, cognitive load, and stress classification. Regarding sleepiness classification, the best achieved accuracy was achieved using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. For multiclass, the obtained accuracy was 79% and for binary class it was 93%. A subject-dependent classification exhibited a 10% improvement in performance compared to the subject-independent classification, suggesting that much can be gained by using personalized classifiers. Moreover, by embedding contextual information, classification performance improves by approximately 5%. In regard to cognitive load classification, a 72% accuracy rate was achieved using a random forest classifier. Combining features from several data sources may improve performance, and indeed, we observed classification performance improvement by 10%-20% compared to using features from a single data source. To classify drivers’ stress, using the Case-based reasoning (CBR) and data fusion approach, the system achieved an 83.33% classification accuracy rate.This thesis work encourages the use of multivariate data for detecting and classifying driver states, including sleepiness, cognitive load, and stress. A univariate data source often presents challenges, since features from a single source or one just aspect of the feature are not entirely reliable; Therefore, multivariate information requires accurate driver state detection. Often, driver states are a subjective experience, in which other contextual data plays a vital role. Thus, the implication of incorporating contextual information in the classification scheme is presented in this thesis work. Although there are several commonalities, physiological signals are modulated differently in different driver states; Hence, multivariate data could help detect multiple driver states simultaneously – for example, cognitive load detection when a person is under the influence of different levels of stress.
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| 33. |
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| 34. |
- Bjermo, Helena, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of n-6 PUFAs compared with SFAs on liver fat, lipoproteins, and inflammation in abdominal obesity : a randomized controlled trial
- 2012
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Ingår i: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. - : Elsevier BV. - 0002-9165 .- 1938-3207. ; 95:5, s. 1003-1012
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Replacing SFAs with vegetable PUFAs has cardiometabolic benefits, but the effects on liver fat are unknown. Increased dietary n-6 PUFAs have, however, also been proposed to promote inflammation-a yet unproven theory. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the effects of PUFAs on liver fat, systemic inflammation, and metabolic disorders. DESIGN: We randomly assigned 67 abdominally obese subjects (15% had type 2 diabetes) to a 10-wk isocaloric diet high in vegetable n-6 PUFA (PUFA diet) or SFA mainly from butter (SFA diet), without altering the macronutrient intake. Liver fat was assessed by MRI and magnetic resonance proton (1H) spectroscopy (MRS). Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type-9 (PCSK9, a hepatic LDL-receptor regulator), inflammation, and adipose tissue expression of inflammatory and lipogenic genes were determined. RESULTS: A total of 61 subjects completed the study. Body weight modestly increased but was not different between groups. Liver fat was lower during the PUFA diet than during the SFA diet [between-group difference in relative change from baseline; 16% (MRI; P < 0.001), 34% (MRS; P = 0.02)]. PCSK9 (P = 0.001), TNF receptor-2 (P < 0.01), and IL-1 receptor antagonist (P = 0.02) concentrations were lower during the PUFA diet, whereas insulin (P = 0.06) tended to be higher during the SFA diet. In compliant subjects (defined as change in serum linoleic acid), insulin, total/HDL-cholesterol ratio, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides were lower during the PUFA diet than during the SFA diet (P < 0.05). Adipose tissue gene expression was unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with SFA intake, n-6 PUFAs reduce liver fat and modestly improve metabolic status, without weight loss. A high n-6 PUFA intake does not cause any signs of inflammation or oxidative stress. Downregulation of PCSK9 could be a novel mechanism behind the cholesterol-lowering effects of PUFAs.
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| 35. |
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| 36. |
- Bolton, Kim, et al.
(författare)
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Beräkningsteknik
- 2009
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Ingår i: Vetenskap för profession. - : Högskolan i Borås. - 1654-6520. - 9789185659494 ; :10, s. 63-68
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 37. |
- Bolton, Kim, et al.
(författare)
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Simulation of water clusters in vapour, alkanes and polyethylenes
- 2009
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Ingår i: Molecular Simulation. - : Taylor & Francis Ltd.. - 0892-7022 .- 1029-0435. ; 35:10/11, s. 888-896
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Gibbs Ensemble Monte Carlo (GEMC) technique has been used to study the clustering of water in vapour, alkanes and polyethylene, where the water clusters are in equilibrium with liquid phase water. The effect of an external electric field and ionic impurities on the clustering of water in the hydrocarbons (alkanes and polyethylene) has also been studied. The simulations of water clustering in polyethylene were made more efficient by using a connectivity altering osmotic Gibbs ensemble method. It was found that trends in the size distribution of water clusters in the hydrocarbons are similar to those found in the pure vapour, but that fewer and smaller clusters are formed as the length of the hydrocarbon chain increased. Also, large external electric fields decrease the solubility of water in hydrocarbons, whereas the presence of ionic species dramatically increases the solubility.
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| 38. |
- Börjesson, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Molecular modelling of oxygen and water permeation in polyethylene
- 2013
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Ingår i: Polymer. - : Elsevier. - 0032-3861 .- 1873-2291. ; 54:12, s. 2988-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations were performed to calculate solubility, S, and diffusion, D, coefficients of oxygen and water in polyethylene, and to obtain a molecular-level understanding of the diffusion mechanism. The permeation coefficient, P, was calculated from the product of S and D. The AMBER force field, which yields the correct polymer densities under the conditions studied, was used for the simulations, and it was observed that the results were not sensitive to the inclusion of atomic charges in the force field. The simulated S for oxygen and water are higher and lower than experimental data, respectively. The calculated diffusion coefficients are in good agreement with experimental data. Possible reasons for the discrepancy in the simulated and experimental solubilities, which results in discrepancies in the permeation coefficients, are discussed. The diffusion of both penetrants occurs mainly by large amplitude, infrequent jumps of the molecules through the polymer matrix.
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| 39. |
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| 40. |
- Eboh, Francis Chinweuba, et al.
(författare)
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Estimating the specific exergy of municipal solid waste
- 2016
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Ingår i: Energy Science & Engineering. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2050-0505. ; 4:3, s. 217-231
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A new model for predicting the specific chemical exergy of municipal solid waste (MSW) is presented; the model is based on the content of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine on a dry ash-free basis (daf). The proposed model was obtained from estimations of the higher heating value (HHV) and standard entropy of MSW using statistical analysis. The ultimate analysis of 56 different parts of MSW was used for the derivation of the HHV expression. In addition, 30 extra parts were used for validation. One hundred and seventeen relevant organic substances that represented the main constituents in MSW were used for derivation of the standard entropy of solid waste. The substances were divided into different waste fractions, and the standard entropies of each waste fraction and for the complete mixture were calculated. The specific chemical exergy of inorganic matter in the waste was also investigated by considering the inorganic compounds in the ash. However, as a result of the extremely low value calculated, the exergy of inorganic matter was ignored. The results obtained from the HHV model show a good correlation with the measured values and are comparable with other recent and previous models. The correlation of the standard entropy of the complete waste mixture is less accurate than the correlations of each individual waste fraction. However, the correlations give similar results for the specific chemical exergy, indicating that HHV has a greater impact when estimating the specific exergy of solid waste than entropy.
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| 41. |
- Eboh, Francis Chinweuba, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluating improvements in a waste-to-energy combined heat and power plant
- 2019
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Ingår i: Case Studies in Thermal Engineering. - : Elsevier. - 2214-157X.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Evaluation of different alternatives for enhancement in a waste combustion process enables adequate decisions to be made for improving its efficiency. Exergy analysis has been shown be an effective tool in assessing the overall efficiency of a system. However, the conventional exergy method does not provide information of the improvements possible in a real process. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate state-of-the art techniques applied in a municipal solid-waste fired heat and power plant. The base case plant is evaluated first; the results are then used to decide upon which technical modifications should be introduced and they are thereafter evaluated. A modified exergy-based method is used to discover the improvement potential of both the individual components and the overall base case plant. The results indicate that 64% of exergy destruction in the overall process can theoretically be improved. The various modifications selected involve changing the bed material, using a gasifier followed by a gas boiler and incorporating a more durable material into the boiler walls. In addition, changing the heating medium of the incoming air (from steam to flue gas) along with a reduction in the stack temperature and the integration of flue gas condensation were considered for utilizing the exergy in the flue gases. The modification involving gasifier, gas boiler and flue gas condensation proved to be the best option, with the highest exergy efficiency increment of 21%.
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| 42. |
- Eboh, Francis Chinweuba, et al.
(författare)
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Exergy Analysis of Solid Fuel-Fired Heat and Power Plants: A Review
- 2017
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Ingår i: Energies. - Basel, Switzerland : MDPI. - 1996-1073.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The growing demand for energy is particularly important to engineers with respect to how the energy produced by heat and power plants can be used efficiently. Formerly, performance evaluation of thermal power plants was done through energy analysis. However, the energy method does not account for irreversibilities within the system. An effective method to measure and improve efficiency of thermal power plant is exergy analysis. Exergy analysis is used to evaluate the performance of a system and its main advantage is enhancement of the energy conversion process. It helps identify the main points of exergy destruction, the quantity and causes of this destruction, as well as show which areas in the system and components have potential for improvements. The current study is a comprehensive review of exergy analyses applied in the solid fuels heat and power sector, which includes coal, biomass and a combination of these feedstocks as fuels. The methods for the evaluation of the exergy efficiency and the exergy destruction are surveyed in each part of the plant. The current review is expected to advance understanding of exergy analysis and its usefulness in the energy and power sectors: it will assist in the performance assessment, analysis, optimization and cost effectiveness of the design of heat and power plant systems in these sectors.
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| 43. |
- Eboh, Francis Chinweuba, et al.
(författare)
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Method of Estimating Absolute Entropy of Municipal Solid Waste
- 2016
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Ingår i: World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Environmental, Chemical, Ecological, Geological and Geophysical Engineering. - 2010-3778. ; 10:7, s. 689-694
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Entropy, as an outcome of the second law of thermodynamics, measures the level of irreversibility associated with any process. The identification and reduction of irreversibility in the energy conversion process helps to improve the efficiency of the system. The entropy of pure substances known as absolute entropy is determined at an absolute reference point and is useful in the thermodynamic analysis of chemical reactions; however, municipal solid waste (MSW) is a structurally complicated material with unknown absolute entropy. In this work, an empirical model to calculate the absolute entropy of MSW based on the content of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, and chlorine on a dry ash free basis (daf) is presented. The proposed model was derived from 117 relevant organic substances which represent the main constituents in MSW with known standard entropies using statistical analysis. The substances were divided into different waste fractions; namely, food, wood/paper, textiles/rubber and plastics waste and the standard entropies of each waste fraction and for the complete mixture were calculated. The correlation of the standard entropy of the complete waste mixture derived was found to be somsw= 0.0101C + 0.0630H + 0.0106O + 0.0108N + 0.0155S + 0.0084Cl (kJ.K-1.kg) and the present correlation can be used for estimating the absolute entropy of MSW by using the elemental compositions of the fuel within the range of 10.3% ≤ C ≤ 95.1%, 0.0% ≤ H ≤ 14.3%, 0.0% ≤ O ≤ 71.1%, 0.0 ≤ N ≤ 66.7%, 0.0% ≤ S ≤ 42.1%, 0.0% ≤ Cl ≤ 89.7%. The model is also applicable for the efficient modelling of a combustion system in a waste-to-energy plant.
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| 44. |
- Erdtman, Edvin, et al.
(författare)
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A molecular-level computational study of the diffusion and solubility of water and oxygen in carbonaceous polyethylene nanocomposites
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of Polymer Science Part B. - : Wiley. - 0887-6266 .- 1099-0488. ; 54:5, s. 589-602
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate the effect on the solubility, diffusion, and permeability of water and oxygen when adding graphene or single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) to polyethylene (PE). When compared with pure PE, addition of graphene lowered the solubility of water, whereas at lower temperatures, the oxygen solubility increased because of the oxygen–graphene interaction. Addition of SWCNTs lowered the solubility of both water and oxygen when compared with pure PE. A detailed analysis showed that an ordered structure of PE is induced near the additive surface, which leads to a decrease in the diffusion coefficient of both penetrants in this region. The addition of graphene does not change the permeation coefficient of oxygen (in the direction parallel to the filler) and, in fact, may even increase this coefficient when compared with pure PE. In contrast, the water permeability is decreased when graphene is added to PE. The addition of SWCNTs decreases the permeability of both penetrants. Graphene can consequently be added to selectively increase the solubility and permeation of oxygen over water, at least at lower temperatures. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016, 54, 589–602
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| 45. |
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| 46. |
- Erdtman, Edvin, et al.
(författare)
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Computational modeling of Protein based super-absorbents from waste
- 2011
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Hydrogels are used for various applications, for example as transporters in drug delivery, in control lenses, and as superabsorbent material in diapers.[1] Most synthetic produced hydrogels are based on synthetic polymers. Even though they are efficient and cheap, they are not biodegradable and sometimes even toxic. To produce more environmental friendly and biodegradable superabsorbent polymers (Bio- SAPs), other building blocks can be used, such as polysaccharides[2] and various protein structures, for example fish shells[3], collagen[4], soy protein[5] and egg protein[6]. Experimental studies at the University of Boras show that it is possible to produce Bio-SAPs from by-products of ethanol production from ligno-cellulose.[2, 6, 7] 2. Method We have studied the absorption properties of protein structures in silico as a comparison to experimental studies. The NPT Gibbs Ensemble Monte Carlo (GEMC) simulation scheme with two phases is used in order to calculate the absorption capacity of the protein. Pure water was simulated in the first GEMC-phase and the peptide in the second phase. The simulations were made with SPC/E water model [8] and the AMBER99 atomistic force field for the peptides [9]. Furthermore, mesoscopic studies with coarse grained force fields have been done. To facilitate faster computations, we used cell lists for the atom-atom interactions, configurational bias algorithm to build the water molecules and the peptide side-chains, and the cavity bias algorithm [10] for molecule insertions. Model peptides have been studied with varying secondary structure, temperature and protonation (pH). We also plan to study how cross-links affect the absorption. One of the peptides we study is a 20 amino acid long peptide called SSP1.[11] This peptide is designed to form a fibrous structure a hydrogel, and its structure is well defined. We have also studied a peptide which changes secondary structure when changing the pH, and concentration.[12] This makes it possible to compare absorption properties with respect to the secondary structure. 3. Conclusion We have simulated peptides with the Gibbs Ensemble Monte Carlo scheme in order to study the water absorption rate dependent of structure, charge, pH and temperature. This information is useful when developing new biodegradable superabsorbent materials.
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| 47. |
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| 48. |
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| 49. |
- Fisher, Joshua B., et al.
(författare)
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African tropical rainforest net carbon dioxide fluxes in the twentieth century
- 2013
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Ingår i: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 1471-2970 .- 0962-8436. ; 368:1625, s. 9-20120376
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The African humid tropical biome constitutes the second largest rainforest region, significantly impacts global carbon cycling and climate, and has undergone major changes in functioning owing to climate and land-use change over the past century. We assess changes and trends in CO2 fluxes from 1901 to 2010 using nine land surface models forced with common driving data, and depict the inter-model variability as the uncertainty in fluxes. The biome is estimated to be a natural (no disturbance) net carbon sink (−0.02 kg C m−2 yr−1 or −0.04 Pg C yr−1, p < 0.05) with increasing strength fourfold in the second half of the century. The models were in close agreement on net CO2 flux at the beginning of the century (σ1901 = 0.02 kg C m−2 yr−1), but diverged exponentially throughout the century (σ2010 = 0.03 kg C m−2 yr−1). The increasing uncertainty is due to differences in sensitivity to increasing atmospheric CO2, but not increasing water stress, despite a decrease in precipitation and increase in air temperature. However, the largest uncertainties were associated with the most extreme drought events of the century. These results highlight the need to constrain modelled CO2 fluxes with increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations and extreme climatic events, as the uncertainties will only amplify in the next century.
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| 50. |
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