| 1. |
- Alvfors, Per, 1954-, et al.
(author)
-
Research and development challenges for Swedish biofuel actors – three illustrative examples : Improvement potential discussed in the context of Well-to-Tank analyses
- 2010
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Currently biofuels have strong political support, both in the EU and Sweden. The EU has, for example, set a target for the use of renewable fuels in the transportation sector stating that all EU member states should use 10% renewable fuels for transport by 2020. Fulfilling this ambition will lead to an enormous market for biofuels during the coming decade. To avoid increasing production of biofuels based on agriculture crops that require considerable use of arable area, focus is now to move towards more advanced second generation (2G) biofuels that can be produced from biomass feedstocks associated with a more efficient land use. Climate benefits and greenhouse gas (GHG) balances are aspects often discussed in conjunction with sustainability and biofuels. The total GHG emissions associated with production and usage of biofuels depend on the entire fuel production chain, mainly the agriculture or forestry feedstock systems and the manufacturing process. To compare different biofuel production pathways it is essential to conduct an environmental assessment using the well-to-tank (WTT) analysis methodology. In Sweden the conditions for biomass production are favourable and we have promising second generation biofuels technologies that are currently in the demonstration phase. In this study we have chosen to focus on cellulose based ethanol, methane from gasification of solid wood as well as DME from gasification of black liquor, with the purpose of identifying research and development potentials that may result in improvements in the WTT emission values. The main objective of this study is thus to identify research and development challenges for Swedish biofuel actors based on literature studies as well as discussions with the the researchers themselves. We have also discussed improvement potentials for the agriculture and forestry part of the WTT chain. The aim of this study is to, in the context of WTT analyses, (i) increase knowledge about the complexity of biofuel production, (ii) identify and discuss improvement potentials, regarding energy efficiency and GHG emissions, for three biofuel production cases, as well as (iii) identify and discuss improvement potentials regarding biomass supply, including agriculture/forestry. The scope of the study is limited to discussing the technologies, system aspects and climate impacts associated with the production stage. Aspects such as the influence on biodiversity and other environmental and social parameters fall beyond the scope of this study. We find that improvement potentials for emissions reductions within the agriculture/forestry part of the WTT chain include changing the use of diesel to low-CO2-emitting fuels, changing to more fuel-efficient tractors, more efficient cultivation and manufacture of fertilizers (commercial nitrogen fertilizer can be produced in plants which have nitrous oxide gas cleaning) as well as improved fertilization strategies (more precise nitrogen application during the cropping season). Furthermore, the cultivation of annual feedstock crops could be avoided on land rich in carbon, such as peat soils and new agriculture systems could be introduced that lower the demand for ploughing and harrowing. Other options for improving the WTT emission values includes introducing new types of crops, such as wheat with higher content of starch or willow with a higher content of cellulose. From the case study on lignocellulosic ethanol we find that 2G ethanol, with co-production of biogas, electricity, heat and/or wood pellet, has a promising role to play in the development of sustainable biofuel production systems. Depending on available raw materials, heat sinks, demand for biogas as vehicle fuel and existing 1G ethanol plants suitable for integration, 2G ethanol production systems may be designed differently to optimize the economic conditions and maximize profitability. However, the complexity connected to the development of the most optimal production systems require improved knowledge and involvement of several actors from different competence areas, such as chemical and biochemical engineering, process design and integration and energy and environmental systems analysis, which may be a potential barrier.
|
|
| 2. |
- Alvfors, Per, et al.
(author)
-
Research and development challenges for Swedish biofuel actors – three illustrative examples
- 2010
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Currently biofuels have strong political support, both in the EU and Sweden. The EU has, for example, set a target for the use of renewable fuels in the transportation sector stating that all EU member states should use 10% renewable fuels for transport by 2020. Fulfilling this ambition will lead to an enormous market for biofuels during the coming decade. To avoid increasing production of biofuels based on agriculture crops that require considerable use of arable area, focus is now to move towards more advanced second generation (2G) biofuels that can be produced from biomass feedstocks associated with a more efficient land use.Climate benefits and greenhouse gas (GHG) balances are aspects often discussed in conjunction with sustainability and biofuels. The total GHG emissions associated with production and usage of biofuels depend on the entire fuel production chain, mainly the agriculture or forestry feedstock systems and the manufacturing process. To compare different biofuel production pathways it is essential to conduct an environmental assessment using the well-to-tank (WTT) analysis methodology. In Sweden the conditions for biomass production are favourable and we have promising second generation biofuels technologies that are currently in the demonstration phase. In this study we have chosen to focus on cellulose based ethanol, methane from gasification of solid wood as well as DME from gasification of black liquor, with the purpose of identifying research and development potentials that may result in improvements in the WTT emission values. The main objective of this study is thus to identify research and development challenges for Swedish biofuel actors based on literature studies as well as discussions with the the researchers themselves. We have also discussed improvement potentials for the agriculture and forestry part of the WTT chain. The aim of this study is to, in the context of WTT analyses, (i) increase knowledge about the complexity of biofuel production, (ii) identify and discuss improvement potentials, regarding energy efficiency and GHG emissions, for three biofuel production cases, as well as (iii) identify and discuss improvement potentials regarding biomass supply, including agriculture/forestry. The scope of the study is limited to discussing the technologies, system aspects and climate impacts associated with the production stage. Aspects such as the influence on biodiversity and other environmental and social parameters fall beyond the scope of this study. We find that improvement potentials for emissions reductions within the agriculture/forestry part of the WTT chain include changing the use of diesel to low-CO2-emitting fuels, changing to more fuel-efficient tractors, more efficient cultivation and manufacture of fertilizers (commercial nitrogen fertilizer can be produced in plants which have nitrous oxide gas cleaning) as well as improved fertilization strategies (more precise nitrogen application during the cropping season). Furthermore, the cultivation of annual feedstock crops could be avoided on land rich in carbon, such as peat soils and new agriculture systems could be introduced that lower the demand for ploughing and harrowing. Other options for improving the WTT emission values includes introducing new types of crops, such as wheat with higher content of starch or willow with a higher content of cellulose. From the case study on lignocellulosic ethanol we find that 2G ethanol, with co-production of biogas, electricity, heat and/or wood pellet, has a promising role to play in the development of sustainable biofuel production systems. Depending on available raw materials, heat sinks, demand for biogas as vehicle fuel and existing 1G ethanol plants suitable for integration, 2G ethanol production systems may be designed differently to optimize the economic conditions and maximize profitability. However, the complexity connected to the development of the most optimal production systems require improved knowledge and involvement of several actors from different competence areas, such as chemical and biochemical engineering, process design and integration and energy and environmental systems analysis, which may be a potential barrier. Three important results from the lignocellulosic ethanol study are: (i) the production systems could be far more complex and intelligently designed than previous studies show, (ii) the potential improvements consist of a large number of combinations of process integration options wich partly depends on specific local conditions, (iii) the environmental performance of individual systems may vary significantly due to systems design and local conditons.From the case study on gasification of solid biomass for the production of biomethane we find that one of the main advantages of this technology is its high efficiency in respect to converting biomass into fuels for transport. For future research we see a need for improvements within the gas up-grading section, including gas cleaning and gas conditioning, to obtain a more efficient process. A major challenge is to remove the tar before the methanation reaction. Three important results from the biomethane study are: (i) it is important not to crack the methane already produced in the syngas, which indicates a need for improved catalysts for selective tar cracking, (ii) there is a need for new gas separation techniques to facilitate the use of air oxidation agent instead of oxygen in the gasifier, and (iii) there is a need for testing the integrated process under realistic conditions, both at atmospheric and pressurized conditions. From the case study on black liquor gasification for the production of DME we find that the process has many advantages compared to other biofuel production options, such as the fact that black liquor is already partially processed and exists in a pumpable, liquid form, and that the process is pressurised and tightly integrated with the pulp mill, which enhances fuel production efficiency. However, to achieve commercial status, some challenges still remain, such as demonstrating that materials and plant equipment meet the high availability required when scaling up to industrial size in the pulp mill, and also proving that the plant can operate according to calculated heat and material balances. Three important results from the DME study are: (i) that modern chemical pulp mills, having a potential surplus of energy, could become important suppliers of renewable fuels for transport, (ii) there is a need to demonstrate that renewable DME/methanol will be proven to function in large scale, and (iii) there is still potential for technology improvements and enhanced energy integration. Although quantitative improvement potentials are given in the three biofuel production cases, it is not obvious how these potentials would affect WTT values, since the biofuel production processes are complex and changing one parameter impacts other parameters. The improvement potentials are therefore discussed qualitatively. From the entire study we have come to agree on the following common conclusions: (i) research and development in Sweden within the three studied 2G biofuel production technologies is extensive, (ii) in general, the processes, within the three cases, work well at pilot and demonstration scale and are now in a phase to be proven in large scale, (iii) there is still room for improvement although some processes have been known for decades, (iv) the biofuel production processes are complex and site specific and process improvements need to be seen and judged from a broad systems perspective (both within the production plant as well as in the entire well-to-tank perspective), and (v) the three studied biofuel production systems are complementary technologies. Futher, the process of conducting this study is worth mentioning as a result itself, i.e. that many different actors within the field have proven their ability and willingness to contribute to a common report, and that the cooperation climate was very positive and bodes well for possible future collaboration within the framework of the f3 center. Finally, judging from the political ambitions it is clear that the demand for renewable fuels will significantly increase during the coming decade. This will most likely result in opportunities for a range of biofuel options. The studied biofuel options all represent 2G biofuels and they can all be part of the solution to meet the increased renewable fuel demand.
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| 3. |
- Alvors, Per, et al.
(author)
-
Research and development challenges for Swedish biofuel actors – three illustrative examples : Improvement potential discussed in the context of Well-to-Tank analyses
- 2010
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Currently biofuels have strong political support, both in the EU and Sweden. The EU has, for example, set a target for the use of renewable fuels in the transportation sector stating that all EU member states should use 10% renewable fuels for transport by 2020. Fulfilling this ambition will lead to an enormous market for biofuels during the coming decade. To avoid increasing production of biofuels based on agriculture crops that require considerable use of arable area, focus is now to move towards more advanced second generation (2G) biofuels that can be produced from biomass feedstocks associated with a more efficient land use.Climate benefits and greenhouse gas (GHG) balances are aspects often discussed in conjunction with sustainability and biofuels. The total GHG emissions associated with production and usage of biofuels depend on the entire fuel production chain, mainly the agriculture or forestry feedstock systems and the manufacturing process. To compare different biofuel production pathways it is essential to conduct an environmental assessment using the well-to-tank (WTT) analysis methodology.In Sweden the conditions for biomass production are favourable and we have promising second generation biofuels technologies that are currently in the demonstration phase. In this study we have chosen to focus on cellulose based ethanol, methane from gasification of solid wood as well as DME from gasification of black liquor, with the purpose of identifying research and development potentials that may result in improvements in the WTT emission values. The main objective of this study is thus to identify research and development challenges for Swedish biofuel actors based on literature studies as well as discussions with the the researchers themselves. We have also discussed improvement potentials for the agriculture and forestry part of the WTT chain. The aim of this study is to, in the context of WTT analyses, (i) increase knowledge about the complexity of biofuel production, (ii) identify and discuss improvement potentials, regarding energy efficiency and GHG emissions, for three biofuel production cases, as well as (iii) identify and discuss improvement potentials regarding biomass supply, including agriculture/forestry. The scope of the study is limited to discussing the technologies, system aspects and climate impacts associated with the production stage. Aspects such as the influence on biodiversity and other environmental and social parameters fall beyond the scope of this study.We find that improvement potentials for emissions reductions within the agriculture/forestry part of the WTT chain include changing the use of diesel to low-CO2-emitting fuels, changing to more fuel-efficient tractors, more efficient cultivation and manufacture of fertilizers (commercial nitrogen fertilizer can be produced in plants which have nitrous oxide gas cleaning) as well as improved fertilization strategies (more precise nitrogen application during the cropping season). Furthermore, the cultivation of annual feedstock crops could be avoided on land rich in carbon, such as peat soils and new agriculture systems could be introduced that lower the demand for ploughing and harrowing. Other options for improving the WTT emission values includes introducing new types of crops, such as wheat with higher content of starch or willow with a higher content of cellulose.From the case study on lignocellulosic ethanol we find that 2G ethanol, with co-production of biogas, electricity, heat and/or wood pellet, has a promising role to play in the development of sustainable biofuel production systems. Depending on available raw materials, heat sinks, demand for biogas as vehicle fuel and existing 1G ethanol plants suitable for integration, 2G ethanol production systems may be designed differently to optimize the economic conditions and maximize profitability. However, the complexity connected to the development of the most optimal production systems require improved knowledge and involvement of several actors from different competence areas, such as chemical and biochemical engineering, process design and integration and energy and environmental systems analysis, which may be a potential barrier.Three important results from the lignocellulosic ethanol study are: (i) the production systems could be far more complex and intelligently designed than previous studies show, (ii) the potential improvements consist of a large number of combinations of process integration options wich partly depends on specific local conditions, (iii) the environmental performance of individual systems may vary significantly due to systems design and local conditons.From the case study on gasification of solid biomass for the production of biomethane we find that one of the main advantages of this technology is its high efficiency in respect to converting biomass into fuels for transport. For future research we see a need for improvements within the gas up-grading section, including gas cleaning and gas conditioning, to obtain a more efficient process. A major challenge is to remove the tar before the methanation reaction.Three important results from the biomethane study are: (i) it is important not to crack the methane already produced in the syngas, which indicates a need for improved catalysts for selective tar cracking, (ii) there is a need for new gas separation techniques to facilitate the use of air oxidation agent instead of oxygen in the gasifier, and (iii) there is a need for testing the integrated process under realistic conditions, both at atmospheric and pressurized conditions.From the case study on black liquor gasification for the production of DME we find that the process has many advantages compared to other biofuel production options, such as the fact that black liquor is already partially processed and exists in a pumpable, liquid form, and that the process is pressurised and tightly integrated with the pulp mill, which enhances fuel production efficiency. However, to achieve commercial status, some challenges still remain, such as demonstrating that materials and plant equipment meet the high availability required when scaling up to industrial size in the pulp mill, and also proving that the plant can operate according to calculated heat and material balances. Three important results from the DME study are: (i) that modern chemical pulp mills, having a potential surplus of energy, could become important suppliers of renewable fuels for transport, (ii) there is a need to demonstrate that renewable DME/methanol will be proven to function in large scale, and (iii) there is still potential for technology improvements and enhanced energy integration.Although quantitative improvement potentials are given in the three biofuel production cases, it is not obvious how these potentials would affect WTT values, since the biofuel production processes are complex and changing one parameter impacts other parameters. The improvement potentials are therefore discussed qualitatively. From the entire study we have come to agree on the following common conclusions: (i) research and development in Sweden within the three studied 2G biofuel production technologies is extensive, (ii) in general, the processes, within the three cases, work well at pilot and demonstration scale and are now in a phase to be proven in large scale, (iii) there is still room for improvement although some processes have been known for decades, (iv) the biofuel production processes are complex and site specific and process improvements need to be seen and judged from a broad systems perspective (both within the production plant as well as in the entire well-to-tank perspective), and (v) the three studied biofuel production systems are complementary technologies. Futher, the process of conducting this study is worth mentioning as a result itself, i.e. that many different actors within the field have proven their ability and willingness to contribute to a common report, and that the cooperation climate was very positive and bodes well for possible future collaboration within the framework of the f3 center.Finally, judging from the political ambitions it is clear that the demand for renewable fuels will significantly increase during the coming decade. This will most likely result in opportunities for a range of biofuel options. The studied biofuel options all represent 2G biofuels and they can all be part of the solution to meet the increased renewable fuel demand.
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| 4. |
- Ekstrand, Jan, et al.
(author)
-
Upper extremity injuries in male elite football players
- 2013
-
In: Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy. - : Springer Verlag (Germany). - 0942-2056 .- 1433-7347. ; 21:7, s. 1626-1632
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- To investigate the epidemiology of upper extremity injuries in male elite football players and to describe their characteristics, incidence and lay-off times. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanBetween 2001 and 2011, 57 male European elite football teams (2,914 players and 6,215 player seasons) were followed prospectively. Time-loss injuries and exposure to training and matches were recorded on individual basis. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanIn total, 11,750 injuries were recorded, 355 (3 %) of those affected the upper extremities giving an incidence of 0.23 injuries/1,000 h of football. The incidence in match play was almost 7 times higher than in training (0.83 vs. 0.12 injuries/1,000 h, rate ratio 6.7, 95 % confidence interval 5.5-8.3). As much as 32 % of traumatic match injuries occurred as a result of foul play situations. Goalkeepers had a significantly higher incidence of upper extremity injuries compared to outfield players (0.80 vs. 0.16 injuries/1,000 h, rate ratio 5.0, 95 % confidence interval 4.0-6.2). The average absence due to an upper extremity injury was 23 +/- A 34 days. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanUpper extremity injuries are uncommon among male elite football players. Goalkeepers, however, are prone to upper extremity injury, with a five times higher incidence compared to outfield players. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanII.
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| 5. |
- Eriksson, Henrik, et al.
(author)
-
3D Animation and Programmable 2D Graphics for Visualization of Simulations in OpenModelica
- 2008
-
In: Proceedings from the 49th Scandinavian Conference on Simulation and Modeling, 2008. - www.scansims.org : Scandinavian Simulation Society. - 825794632X - 9788257946326 ; , s. 10-
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper describes recent work on visualization of simulation results from simulating Modelica models in Open-Modelica. A new 3D graphics package with interactive animation and a new flexible programmable 2D graphicshave been added to OpenModelica. The 2D graphics package provides very flexible usage, either directly from asimulation, from the electronic book client OMNotebook, or programmable graphics, called directly from aModelica model.
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| 6. |
- Gawel, Danuta, et al.
(author)
-
A validated single-cell-based strategy to identify diagnostic and therapeutic targets in complex diseases
- 2019
-
In: Genome Medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1756-994X. ; 11
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Genomic medicine has paved the way for identifying biomarkers and therapeutically actionable targets for complex diseases, but is complicated by the involvement of thousands of variably expressed genes across multiple cell types. Single-cell RNA-sequencing study (scRNA-seq) allows the characterization of such complex changes in whole organs. Methods: The study is based on applying network tools to organize and analyze scRNA-seq data from a mouse model of arthritis and human rheumatoid arthritis, in order to find diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Diagnostic validation studies were performed using expression profiling data and potential protein biomarkers from prospective clinical studies of 13 diseases. A candidate drug was examined by a treatment study of a mouse model of arthritis, using phenotypic, immunohistochemical, and cellular analyses as read-outs. Results: We performed the first systematic analysis of pathways, potential biomarkers, and drug targets in scRNA-seq data from a complex disease, starting with inflamed joints and lymph nodes from a mouse model of arthritis. We found the involvement of hundreds of pathways, biomarkers, and drug targets that differed greatly between cell types. Analyses of scRNA-seq and GWAS data from human rheumatoid arthritis (RA) supported a similar dispersion of pathogenic mechanisms in different cell types. Thus, systems-level approaches to prioritize biomarkers and drugs are needed. Here, we present a prioritization strategy that is based on constructing network models of disease-associated cell types and interactions using scRNA-seq data from our mouse model of arthritis, as well as human RA, which we term multicellular disease models (MCDMs). We find that the network centrality of MCDM cell types correlates with the enrichment of genes harboring genetic variants associated with RA and thus could potentially be used to prioritize cell types and genes for diagnostics and therapeutics. We validated this hypothesis in a large-scale study of patients with 13 different autoimmune, allergic, infectious, malignant, endocrine, metabolic, and cardiovascular diseases, as well as a therapeutic study of the mouse arthritis model. Conclusions: Overall, our results support that our strategy has the potential to help prioritize diagnostic and therapeutic targets in human disease.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Ling Lundström, Maria, et al.
(author)
-
Fecal Biomarkers of Neutrophil and Eosinophil Origin Reflect the Response to Biological Therapy and Corticosteroids in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- 2023
-
In: Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2155-384X. ; 14:8
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Introduction: Fecal calprotectin (FC) is anoninvasive tool for examining response to biologics in inflammatory boweldisease (IBD), but its performance in relation to other novel fecal markers of various cellular origins is unknown.Methods: We performed a prospective multicenter cohort study and included patients with active IBD who provided a fecal sample at initiation of biological therapy. Levels of FC, myeloperoxidase (MPO), human neutrophil lipocalin (HNL), and eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN) were analyzed and related to clinical remission status at 3 months. Changes in levels of markers at 3 months were calculated, and the impact of concomitant use of corticosteroids at baseline was estimated.Results: In patients achieving clinical remission (n = 27), a decrease in levels of FC (P = 0.005), MPO (P < 0.001), HNL (P < 0.001), and EDN (P < 0.001) was observed, whereas no significant decrease was seen in patients not achieving remission (n = 39). There was a significant difference in the change in the level of MPO (P = 0.01) and HNL (P = 0.02) between patients achieving clinical remission and those who did not, but changes in FC and EDN could not differentiate between these groups. Patients with concomitant systemic corticosteroids at inclusion had lower levels of HNL (P = 0.01) and EDN (P < 0.001) at baseline, compared with patients without corticosteroids.Discussion: Fecal MPO, HNL, and EDN are all promising biomarkers for assessing the treatment outcome of biologics in patients with IBD. Fecal levels of EDN and HNL are significantly affected by corticosteroids indicating a greater sensitivity to the effects of corticosteroids compared with levels of FC and MPO.
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| 9. |
- Magnusson, Patrik K. E., et al.
(author)
-
The Swedish Twin Registry : establishment of a biobank and other recent developments
- 2013
-
In: Twin Research and Human Genetics. - Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press. - 1832-4274 .- 1839-2628. ; 16:1, s. 317-329
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Swedish Twin Registry (STR) today contains more than 194,000 twins and more than 75,000 pairs have zygosity determined by an intra-pair similarity algorithm, DNA, or by being of opposite sex. Of these, approximately 20,000, 25,000, and 30,000 pairs are monozygotic, same-sex dizygotic, and opposite-sex dizygotic pairs, respectively. Since its establishment in the late 1950s, the STR has been an important epidemiological resource for the study of genetic and environmental influences on a multitude of traits, behaviors, and diseases. Following large investments in the collection of biological specimens in the past 10 years we have now established a Swedish twin biobank with DNA from 45,000 twins and blood serum from 15,000 twins, which effectively has also transformed the registry into a powerful resource for molecular studies. We here describe the main projects within which the new collections of both biological samples as well as phenotypic measures have been collected. Coverage by year of birth, zygosity determination, ethnic heterogeneity, and influences of in vitro fertilization are also described.
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
- Abdulla, Aree, et al.
(author)
-
Platelets regulate P-selectin expression and leukocyte rolling in inflamed venules of the pancreas
- 2012
-
In: European Journal of Pharmacology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1879-0712 .- 0014-2999. ; 682:1-3, s. 153-160
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent data suggest that platelets regulate inflammatory changes and tissue damage in acute pancreatitis although the role of platelets in leukocyte-endothelium interactions in the pancreatic microcirculation is not known. The aim of this study was to define the impact of platelets on leukocyte rolling and adhesion in acute pancreatitis. Acute pancreatitis was induced in C57BL/6 mice by caerulein challenge. Mice were treated with an a anti-GP1b alpha (CD42b) antibody, which depletes platelets, or a control antibody before caerulein. Leukocyte rolling and adhesion were determined by the use of intravital fluorescence microscopy 18 h after the last dose of caerulein. In separate experiments, leukocyte-endothelium interactions were determined before and after administration of an anti-P-selectin, anti-PSGL-1 and a control antibody in mice with caerulein pancreatitis. Circulating platelet-neutrophil aggregates and pancreatic P-selectin mRNA were quantified 1 and 6 h respectively after caerulein challenge. Caerulein administration increased leukocyte and platelet interactions in the pancreatic microvasculature, increased tissue damage and expression of P-selectin mRNA in the pancreas as well as platelet-neutrophil complexes in the circulation. Notably, platelet depletion markedly reduced caerulein-provoked leukocyte rolling and adhesion in postcapillary venules. Interestingly, depletion of platelets significantly decreased caerulein-induced gene expression of P-selectin in the pancreas. Moreover, immunoneutralization of P-selectin and PSGL-1 abolished leukocyte rolling in the pancreatic venules triggered by caerulein. Our novel findings demonstrate that platelets regulate leukocyte rolling in acute pancreatitis via induction of P-selectin, which was critical in supporting leukocyte rolling in inflamed venules of the pancreas. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 14. |
- Abdulla, Aree, et al.
(author)
-
Role of platelets in experimental acute pancreatitis.
- 2011
-
In: British Journal of Surgery. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1365-2168 .- 0007-1323. ; 98, s. 93-103
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND:: Platelets not only control thrombosis and haemostasis but may also regulate inflammatory processes. Acute pancreatitis (AP) is characterized by changes in both coagulation and proinflammatory activities. The role of platelets in AP is not yet known. METHODS:: AP was induced in C57BL/6 mice by repeated caerulein administration (50 µg/kg intraperitoneally). Mice received a platelet-depleting or control antibody before caerulein challenge. Neutrophil infiltration, myeloperoxidase (MPO) and macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP) 2 levels, acinar cell necrosis and haemorrhage in the pancreas, as well as serum amylase activity, were determined 24 h after caerulein injection. In an alternative model of pancreatitis, L-arginine (4 g/kg intraperitoneally) was given twice with an interval of 1 h and tissue samples were taken after 72 h [Correction added after online publication 29 September 2010: in the preceding sentence, 4 mg/kg was corrected to 4 g/kg]. RESULTS:: Caerulein administration increased acinar cell necrosis, neutrophil infiltration, focal haemorrhage and serum amylase levels. Platelet depletion reduced acinar cell necrosis, haemorrhage and serum amylase levels in AP. Depletion of platelets decreased caerulein-induced MPO levels and neutrophil recruitment in the pancreas. Platelet depletion abolished caerulein-induced MIP-2 generation in the pancreas and circulation. The effects of platelet depletion on necrosis, neutrophils and MPO levels were confirmed in L-arginine-induced pancreatitis. CONCLUSION:: Platelets play a crucial role in AP by regulating neutrophil infiltration, most likely mediated by MIP-2 production in the pancreas. Copyright © 2010 British Journal of Surgery Society Ltd. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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| 15. |
- Adolfsson, Daniel, 1992-, et al.
(author)
-
A Submap per Perspective : Selecting Subsets for SuPer Mapping that Afford Superior Localization Quality
- 2019
-
In: 2019 European Conference on Mobile Robots (ECMR). - : IEEE. - 9781728136059
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper targets high-precision robot localization. We address a general problem for voxel-based map representations that the expressiveness of the map is fundamentally limited by the resolution since integration of measurements taken from different perspectives introduces imprecisions, and thus reduces localization accuracy.We propose SuPer maps that contain one Submap per Perspective representing a particular view of the environment. For localization, a robot then selects the submap that best explains the environment from its perspective. We propose SuPer mapping as an offline refinement step between initial SLAM and deploying autonomous robots for navigation. We evaluate the proposed method on simulated and real-world data that represent an important use case of an industrial scenario with high accuracy requirements in an repetitive environment. Our results demonstrate a significantly improved localization accuracy, up to 46% better compared to localization in global maps, and up to 25% better compared to alternative submapping approaches.
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| 16. |
- Adolfsson, Daniel, 1992-, et al.
(author)
-
CFEAR Radarodometry - Conservative Filtering for Efficient and Accurate Radar Odometry
- 2021
-
In: IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2021). - : IEEE. - 9781665417143 - 9781665417150 ; , s. 5462-5469
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents the accurate, highly efficient, and learning-free method CFEAR Radarodometry for large-scale radar odometry estimation. By using a filtering technique that keeps the k strongest returns per azimuth and by additionally filtering the radar data in Cartesian space, we are able to compute a sparse set of oriented surface points for efficient and accurate scan matching. Registration is carried out by minimizing a point-to-line metric and robustness to outliers is achieved using a Huber loss. We were able to additionally reduce drift by jointly registering the latest scan to a history of keyframes and found that our odometry method generalizes to different sensor models and datasets without changing a single parameter. We evaluate our method in three widely different environments and demonstrate an improvement over spatially cross-validated state-of-the-art with an overall translation error of 1.76% in a public urban radar odometry benchmark, running at 55Hz merely on a single laptop CPU thread.
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| 17. |
- Adolfsson, Daniel, 1992-, et al.
(author)
-
CorAl : Introspection for robust radar and lidar perception in diverse environments using differential entropy
- 2022
-
In: Robotics and Autonomous Systems. - : Elsevier. - 0921-8890 .- 1872-793X. ; 155
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Robust perception is an essential component to enable long-term operation of mobile robots. It depends on failure resilience through reliable sensor data and pre-processing, as well as failure awareness through introspection, for example the ability to self-assess localization performance. This paper presents CorAl: a principled, intuitive, and generalizable method to measure the quality of alignment between pairs of point clouds, which learns to detect alignment errors in a self-supervised manner. CorAl compares the differential entropy in the point clouds separately with the entropy in their union to account for entropy inherent to the scene. By making use of dual entropy measurements, we obtain a quality metric that is highly sensitive to small alignment errors and still generalizes well to unseen environments. In this work, we extend our previous work on lidar-only CorAl to radar data by proposing a two-step filtering technique that produces high-quality point clouds from noisy radar scans. Thus, we target robust perception in two ways: by introducing a method that introspectively assesses alignment quality, and by applying it to an inherently robust sensor modality. We show that our filtering technique combined with CorAl can be applied to the problem of alignment classification, and that it detects small alignment errors in urban settings with up to 98% accuracy, and with up to 96% if trained only in a different environment. Our lidar and radar experiments demonstrate that CorAl outperforms previous methods both on the ETH lidar benchmark, which includes several indoor and outdoor environments, and the large-scale Oxford and MulRan radar data sets for urban traffic scenarios. The results also demonstrate that CorAl generalizes very well across substantially different environments without the need of retraining.
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| 18. |
- Adolfsson, Daniel, 1992-, et al.
(author)
-
CorAl – Are the point clouds Correctly Aligned?
- 2021
-
In: 10th European Conference on Mobile Robots (ECMR 2021). - : IEEE.
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In robotics perception, numerous tasks rely on point cloud registration. However, currently there is no method that can automatically detect misaligned point clouds reliably and without environment-specific parameters. We propose "CorAl", an alignment quality measure and alignment classifier for point cloud pairs, which facilitates the ability to introspectively assess the performance of registration. CorAl compares the joint and the separate entropy of the two point clouds. The separate entropy provides a measure of the entropy that can be expected to be inherent to the environment. The joint entropy should therefore not be substantially higher if the point clouds are properly aligned. Computing the expected entropy makes the method sensitive also to small alignment errors, which are particularly hard to detect, and applicable in a range of different environments. We found that CorAl is able to detect small alignment errors in previously unseen environments with an accuracy of 95% and achieve a substantial improvement to previous methods.
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| 19. |
- Adolfsson, Daniel, 1992-, et al.
(author)
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Lidar-Level Localization With Radar? The CFEAR Approach to Accurate, Fast, and Robust Large-Scale Radar Odometry in Diverse Environments
- 2023
-
In: IEEE Transactions on robotics. - : IEEE. - 1552-3098 .- 1941-0468. ; 39:2, s. 1476-1495
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article presents an accurate, highly efficient, and learning-free method for large-scale odometry estimation using spinning radar, empirically found to generalize well across very diverse environments—outdoors, from urban to woodland, and indoors in warehouses and mines—without changing parameters. Our method integrates motion compensation within a sweep with one-to-many scan registration that minimizes distances between nearby oriented surface points and mitigates outliers with a robust loss function. Extending our previous approach conservative filtering for efficient and accurate radar odometry (CFEAR), we present an in-depth investigation on a wider range of datasets, quantifying the importance of filtering, resolution, registration cost and loss functions, keyframe history, and motion compensation. We present a new solving strategy and configuration that overcomes previous issues with sparsity and bias, and improves our state-of-the-art by 38%, thus, surprisingly, outperforming radar simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and approaching lidar SLAM. The most accurate configuration achieves 1.09% error at 5 Hz on the Oxford benchmark, and the fastest achieves 1.79% error at 160 Hz.
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| 20. |
- Adolfsson, Daniel, 1992-, et al.
(author)
-
Oriented surface points for efficient and accurate radar odometry
- 2021
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents an efficient and accurate radar odometry pipeline for large-scale localization. We propose a radar filter that keeps only the strongest reflections per-azimuth that exceeds the expected noise level. The filtered radar data is used to incrementally estimate odometry by registering the current scan with a nearby keyframe. By modeling local surfaces, we were able to register scans by minimizing a point-to-line metric and accurately estimate odometry from sparse point sets, hence improving efficiency. Specifically, we found that a point-to-line metric yields significant improvements compared to a point-to-point metric when matching sparse sets of surface points. Preliminary results from an urban odometry benchmark show that our odometry pipeline is accurate and efficient compared to existing methods with an overall translation error of 2.05%, down from 2.78% from the previously best published method, running at 12.5ms per frame without need of environmental specific training.
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| 21. |
- Adolfsson, Daniel, 1992-
(author)
-
Robust large-scale mapping and localization : Combining robust sensing and introspection
- 2023
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The presence of autonomous systems is rapidly increasing in society and industry. To achieve successful, efficient, and safe deployment of autonomous systems, they must be navigated by means of highly robust localization systems. Additionally, these systems need to localize accurately and efficiently in realtime under adverse environmental conditions, and within considerably diverse and new previously unseen environments.This thesis focuses on investigating methods to achieve robust large-scale localization and mapping, incorporating robustness at multiple stages. Specifically, the research explores methods with sensory robustness, utilizing radar, which exhibits tolerance to harsh weather, dust, and variations in lighting conditions. Furthermore, the thesis presents methods with algorithmic robustness, which prevent failures by incorporating introspective awareness of localization quality. This thesis aims to answer the following research questions:How can radar data be efficiently filtered and represented for robust radar odometry? How can accurate and robust odometry be achieved with radar? How can localization quality be assessed and leveraged for robust detection of localization failures? How can self-awareness of localization quality be utilized to enhance the robustness of a localization system?While addressing these research questions, this thesis makes the following contributions to large-scale localization and mapping: A method for robust and efficient radar processing and state-of-the-art odometry estimation, and a method for self-assessment of localization quality and failure detection in lidar and radar localization. Self-assessment of localization quality is integrated into robust systems for large-scale Simultaneous Localization And Mapping, and rapid global localization in prior maps. These systems leverage self-assessment of localization quality to improve performance and prevent failures in loop closure and global localization, and consequently achieve safe robot localization.The methods presented in this thesis were evaluated through comparative assessments of public benchmarks and real-world data collected from various industrial scenarios. These evaluations serve to validate the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed approaches. As a result, this research represents a significant advancement toward achieving highly robust localization capabilities with broad applicability.
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| 22. |
- Adolfsson, Daniel, 1992-, et al.
(author)
-
TBV Radar SLAM - Trust but Verify Loop Candidates
- 2023
-
In: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. - : IEEE. - 2377-3766. ; 8:6, s. 3613-3620
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Robust SLAM in large-scale environments requires fault resilience and awareness at multiple stages, from sensing and odometry estimation to loop closure. In this work, we present TBV (Trust But Verify) Radar SLAM, a method for radar SLAM that introspectively verifies loop closure candidates. TBV Radar SLAM achieves a high correct-loop-retrieval rate by combining multiple place-recognition techniques: tightly coupled place similarity and odometry uncertainty search, creating loop descriptors from origin-shifted scans, and delaying loop selection until after verification. Robustness to false constraints is achieved by carefully verifying and selecting the most likely ones from multiple loop constraints. Importantly, the verification and selection are carried out after registration when additional sources of loop evidence can easily be computed. We integrate our loop retrieval and verification method with a robust odometry pipeline within a pose graph framework. By evaluation on public benchmarks we found that TBV Radar SLAM achieves 65% lower error than the previous state of the art. We also show that it generalizes across environments without needing to change any parameters. We provide the open-source implementation at https://github.com/dan11003/tbv_slam_public
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| 23. |
- Alamia, Alberto, 1984, et al.
(author)
-
Fuel Quality Analysis for Biogas Utilization in Heavy Duty Dual Fuel Engines
- 2012
-
In: World BioEnergy 2012 - conference in Jönköping , May 2012. ; , s. 1-
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The perspective of using gas form biomass gasification as fuel for dual fuel (DF) engines, without refine it all the way to synthetic natural gas (SNG) has been investigated. The initial gas from gasification contains of a blend of various components which are not commonly present in natural gas (NG). The operability of these components in a heavy duty DF engine has been assessed and compared to those of NG. Three parameters have been used to define the quality of the fuel: Lower Heating Value (LHV), Methane Number (MN) and Lower Flammability Limit (LFL).
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| 24. |
- Alamia, Alberto, 1984, et al.
(author)
-
Fuel Quality Analysis for Biogas Utilization in Heavy Duty Dual Fuel Engines
- 2012
-
In: 20th European Biomass conference & exhibition - Milan -June 2012. - 9788889407547 ; , s. 5-
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Internal combustion engines using oil-derived fuels are dominating the heavy transportation sector today. However, the climate issue and security of supply drive the development towards new fuels and engine technologies. In the short term, Natural Gas (NG) is expected to have a dominant role, due to its high availability and a favourable H/C ratio. Thereafter, it is expect an introduction of biofuels of second and third generations. In this scenario the engine suppliers need to develop engines for various fuels of both fossil and renewable origin. One possibility is the Dual Fuel engine (DF), which uses a Diesel pilot to ignite a gas mixture and, it can be used for natural gas of various qualities as well as synthetic natural gas (SNG). To obtain significant share of second and third generation biofuels into the transportation sector a key process is gasification of the raw solid biomass to gas, as it can offer high production capacity and high efficiency. One interesting biofuel is SNG and at present there are a number of projects focusing on SNG production through gasification of biomass to be fed to the NG grid. However, this is a rather advanced and several stage process. The initial gas from the gasification before the gas is upgraded to CH4 (SNG) contains of a blend of various gas components such as H2, CO, CO2, CH4 and fractions of C2H2, C2H4, C3H6, and C3H8, as well as, longer hydrocarbons. The upgrading takes place in many process steps, where each step involves a cost and loss of energy. The question raised is if there are more efficient routs to introduce biomass derived gas than refine it all the way to SNG, from a well to wheel (WTW) perspective? The first step in such an analysis is to investigate how different gas mixtures could meet emission limits, together with the required performance of efficiency and load. This issue has been addressed in this work, where the operability in DF engines using gaseous fuels with a variation in fuel quality has been investigated. The operability has a key role in the optimization of the WTW efficiency, since it influences both the production process and the combustion in the engine. The definition of fuel quality for gaseous fuels to be used in gas engines is still not in place and proper legislation and standards are not available. Here, three parameters which are fundamental for a proper combustion in a DF engine: the Methane Number (MN), the Lower Flammability Limit (LFL) and the Lower Heating Value (LHV) have been studied. All parameters influence the combustion performance in the DF engine of the Port-injected type, which is more sensitive to the fuel quality than the Direct-injected type. The components available from biomass gasification were evaluated together with those from different NG compositions on the European market. Specific relations between the composition and fuel quality parameters have been derived, which can be used as starting point for future well to wheel analysis.
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| 25. |
- Alamia, Alberto, 1984, et al.
(author)
-
Well-to-wheel analysis of bio-methane via gasification, in heavy duty engines within the transport sector of the European Union
- 2016
-
In: Applied Energy. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-9118 .- 0306-2619. ; 170, s. 445-454
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Bio-methane from biomass gasification (bio-methane) is expected to play a major role as a biofuel in the heavy transport sector, since the production process has reached the technical maturity required for large-scale exploitation, and the fact that bio-methane can be distributed through the compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chains. Assuming that the burning of biomass is climate-neutral, we compared the well-to-wheel (WtW) emissions from the use of bio-methane in heavy duty engines with those from currently used fossil alternatives: CNG, LNG, and diesel. The well-to-tank (WtT) analysis of bio-methane is based on the case study of the new GoBiGas plant in Gothenburg (Sweden), which is the largest bio-methane plant in the world currently in operation. Finally, tank-to-wheel (TtW) section compares three different state-of-the-art heavy duty gas engines: a spark-ignited (SI) gas engine; a dual fuel (DF) engine; and a high-pressure direct injection (HPDI) engine.The WtT emissions for compressed bio-methane (bio-CNG) and liquefies bio-methane (bio-LNG) were estimated at 21.5 [gCO2e/MJbioCNG] and 26.2 [gCO2e/MJbioLNG]. As compared to diesel the WtW emissions from bio-methane were reduced by 60-67%, 43-47%, and 64% when used in SI, DF, and HPDI engines, respectively. HPDI and DF are the most efficient technologies for the utilization of biomass, reducing emissions by 39 gCO2e and 33-36 gCO2e per MJ of biomass, respectively, compared with the diesel case, whereas the SI engine gave an emissions saving of 29-31 gCO2e.
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| 26. |
- Alhashimi, Anas, 1978-, et al.
(author)
-
BFAR – Bounded False Alarm Rate detector for improved radar odometry estimation
- 2021
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents a new detector for filtering noise from true detections in radar data, which improves the state of the art in radar odometry. Scanning Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radars can be useful for localisation and mapping in low visibility, but return a lot of noise compared to (more commonly used) lidar, which makes the detection task more challenging. Our Bounded False-Alarm Rate (BFAR) detector is different from the classical Constant False-Alarm Rate (CFAR) detector in that it applies an affine transformation on the estimated noise level after which the parameters that minimize the estimation error can be learned. BFAR is an optimized combination between CFAR and fixed-level thresholding. Only a single parameter needs to be learned from a training dataset. We apply BFAR tothe use case of radar odometry, and adapt a state-of-the-art odometry pipeline (CFEAR), replacing its original conservative filtering with BFAR. In this way we reduce the state-of-the-art translation/rotation odometry errors from 1.76%/0.5◦/100 m to 1.55%/0.46◦/100 m; an improvement of 12.5%.
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| 27. |
- Anckarsäter, Henrik, 1966, et al.
(author)
-
The Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS).
- 2011
-
In: Twin Research and Human Genetics. - : Cambridge University Press (CUP). - 1832-4274 .- 1839-2628. ; 14:6, s. 495-508
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS) is an ongoing longitudinal twin study targeting all twins born in Sweden since July 1, 1992. Since 2004, parents of twins are interviewed regarding the children's somatic and mental health and social environment in connection with their 9th or 12th birthdays (CATSS-9/12). By January 2010, 8,610 parental interviews concerning 17,220 twins had been completed, with an overall response rate of 80%. At age 15 (CATSS-15) and 18 (CATSS-18), twins and parents complete questionnaires that, in addition to assessments of somatic and mental health, include measures of personality development and psychosocial adaptation. Twin pairs in CATSS-9/12 with one or both twins screening positive for autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, tic disorders, developmental coordination disorder, learning disorders, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and/or eating problems have been followed with in-depth questionnaires on family, social environment and personality, and subsequently by clinical assessments at age 15 together with randomly selected population controls, including 195 clinically assessed twin pairs from the first 2 year cohorts (CATSS-15/DOGSS). This article describes the cohorts and study groups, data collection, and measures used. Prevalences, distributions, heritability estimates, ages at onset, and sex differences of mental health problems in the CATSS-9/12, that were analyzed and found to be overall comparable to those of other clinical and epidemiological studies. The CATSS study has the potential of answering important questions on the etiology of childhood mental health problems and their role in the development of later adjustment problems.
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| 28. |
- Andeer, Robin, et al.
(author)
-
Chanjo : Clincal grade sequence coverage analysis
- 2020
-
In: F1000 Research. - : F1000 Research Ltd. - 2046-1402. ; 9
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Coverage analysis is essential when analysing massive parallel sequencing (MPS) data. The analysis indicates existence of false negatives or positives in a region of interest or poorly covered genomic regions. There are several tools that have excellent performance when doing coverage analysis on a few samples with predefined regions. However, there is no current tool for collecting samples over a longer period of time for aggregated coverage analysis of multiple samples or sequencing methods. Furthermore, current coverage analysis tools do not generate customized coverage reports or enable exploratory coverage analysis without extensive bioinformatic skill and access to the original alignment files. We present Chanjo, a user friendly coverage analysis tool for persistent storage of coverage data, that, accompanied with Chanjo Report, produces coverage reports that summarize coverage data for predefined regions in an elegant manner. Chanjo Report can produce both structured coverage reports and dynamic reports tailored to a subset of genomic regions, coverage cut-offs or samples. Chanjo stores data in an SQL database where thousands of samples can be added over time, which allows for aggregate queries to discover problematic regions. Chanjo is well tested, supports whole exome and genome sequencing, and follows common UNIX standards, allowing for easy integration into existing pipelines. Chanjo is easy to install and operate, and provides a solution for persistent coverage analysis and clinical-grade reporting. It makes it easy to set up a local database and automate the addition of multiple samples and report generation. To our knowledge there is no other tool with matching capabilities. Chanjo handles the common file formats in genetics, such as BED and BAM, and makes it easy to produce PDF coverage reports that are highly valuable for individuals with limited bioinformatic expertise. We believe Chanjo to be a vital tool for clinicians and researchers performing MPS analysis.
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| 29. |
- Andersson, David, et al.
(author)
-
Co-morbidity and health care utilisation five years prior to diagnosis for depression : A register-based study in a Swedish population
- 2011
-
In: BMC Public Health. - : BioMed Central. - 1471-2458. ; 11, s. 552-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BackgroundDepressive disorders have been associated with a number of co-morbidities, and we hypothesized that patients with a depression diagnosis would be heavy users of health care services, not only when first evaluated for depression, but also for preceding years. The aim of this study was to investigate whether increased health care utilisation and co-morbidity could be seen during five years prior to an initial diagnosis of depression.MethodsWe used a longitudinal register-based study design. The setting comprised the general population in the county of Östergötland, south-east Sweden. All 2470 patients who were 20 years or older in 2006 and who received a new diagnosis of depression (F32 according to ICD-10) in 2006, were selected and followed back to the year 2001, five years before their depression diagnosis. A control group was randomly selected among those who were aged 20 years or over in 2006 and who had received no depression diagnosis during the period 2001-2006.ResultsPredictors of a depression diagnosis were a high number of physician visits, female gender, age below 60, age above 80 and a low socioeconomic status.Patients who received a diagnosis of depression used twice the amount of health care (e.g. physician visits and hospital days) during the five year period prior to diagnosis compared to the control group. A particularly strong increase in health care utilisation was seen the last year before diagnosis. These findings were supported with a high level of co-morbidity as for example musculoskeletal disorders during the whole five-year period for patients with a depression diagnosis.ConclusionsPredictors of a depression diagnosis were a high number of physician visits, female gender, age below 60, age above 80 and a low socioeconomic status. To find early signs of depression in the clinical setting and to use a preventive strategy to handle these patients is important.
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| 30. |
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| 31. |
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| 32. |
- Andreasson, Henrik, 1977-, et al.
(author)
-
Has something changed here? : Autonomous difference detection for security patrol robots
- 2007
-
In: 2007 IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems. - New York, NY, USA : IEEE. - 9781424409129 ; , s. 3429-3435
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents a system for autonomous change detection with a security patrol robot. In an initial step a reference model of the environment is created and changes are then detected with respect to the reference model as differences in coloured 3D point clouds, which are obtained from a 3D laser range scanner and a CCD camera. The suggested approach introduces several novel aspects, including a registration method that utilizes local visual features to determine point correspondences (thus essentially working without an initial pose estimate) and the 3D-NDT representation with adaptive cell size to efficiently represent both the spatial and colour aspects of the reference model. Apart from a detailed description of the individual parts of the difference detection system, a qualitative experimental evaluation in an indoor lab environment is presented, which demonstrates that the suggested system is able register and detect changes in spatial 3D data and also to detect changes that occur in colour space and are not observable using range values only.
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| 33. |
- Andreasson, Henrik, 1977-, et al.
(author)
-
Incorporating Ego-motion Uncertainty Estimates in Range Data Registration
- 2017
-
In: 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). - 9781538626825 - 9781538626832 ; , s. 1389-1395
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Local scan registration approaches commonlyonly utilize ego-motion estimates (e.g. odometry) as aninitial pose guess in an iterative alignment procedure. Thispaper describes a new method to incorporate ego-motionestimates, including uncertainty, into the objective function of aregistration algorithm. The proposed approach is particularlysuited for feature-poor and self-similar environments,which typically present challenges to current state of theart registration algorithms. Experimental evaluation showssignificant improvements in accuracy when using data acquiredby Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in industrial productionand warehouse environments.
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| 34. |
- Asklund, Ulf, et al.
(author)
-
The unified extensional versioning model
- 1999
-
In: System Configuration Management - 9th International Symposium, SCM 1999, Proceedings. - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - 1611-3349 .- 0302-9743. - 354066484X - 9783540664840 ; 1675, s. 100-122
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Versioning of components in a system is a well-researched field where various adequate techniques have already been established. In this paper, we look at how versioning can be extended to cover also the structural aspects of a system. There exist two basic techniques for versioning - intentional and extensional - and we propose a unified extensional versioning model for versioning of both components and structure in the same way. The unified model is described in detail and three different policies that can be implemented on top of the general model are exemplified/illustrated by three prototype tools constructed by the authors. The model is analysed with respect to the number of versions and con- figurations it generates and has to manage. Finally, the unified extensional model is compared to more traditional intentional models on some important parameters. The conclusions are that the unified model is indeed viable. It not only pro- vides the functionality offered by the intentional model with respect to flexibility during development and management of combinatoric complexity, but also offers a framework for management of configurations that enables systems to provide much more advanced support than is commonly available.
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| 35. |
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| 36. |
- Awla, Darbaz, et al.
(author)
-
Rho-kinase signalling regulates trypsinogen activation and tissue damage in severe acute pancreatitis.
- 2011
-
In: British Journal of Pharmacology. - : Wiley. - 1476-5381 .- 0007-1188. ; 162, s. 648-658
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background and purpose: Severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) is characterized by trypsinogen activation, infiltration of leucocytes and tissue necrosis but the intracellular signalling mechanisms regulating organ injury in the pancreas remain elusive. Rho-kinase is a potent regulator of specific cellular processes effecting several pro-inflammatory activities. Herein, we examined the role of Rho-kinase signalling in acute pancreatitis. Experimental approach: Pancreatitis was induced by infusion of taurocholate into the pancreatic duct in C57BL/6 mice. Animals were treated with a Rho-kinase inhibitor Y-27632 (0.5-5 mg kg(-1) ) before induction of pancreatitis. Key results: Taurocholate infusion caused a clear-cut increase in serum amylase, pancreatic neutrophil infiltration, acinar cell necrosis and oedema formation in the pancreas. Levels of pancreatic myeloperoxidase (MPO), macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2), trypsinogen activation peptide (TAP) and lung MPO were significantly increased, indicating local and systemic disease. Inhibition of Rho-kinase activity dose-dependently protected against pancreatitis. For example, 5 mg kg(-1) Y-27632 reduced acinar cell necrosis, leucocyte infiltration and pancreatic oedema by 90%, 89% and 58% respectively as well as tissue levels of MPO by 75% and MIP-2 by 84%. Moreover, Rho-kinase inhibition decreased lung MPO by 75% and serum amylase by 83%. Pancreatitis-induced TAP levels were reduced by 61% in Y-27632-treated mice. Inhibition of Rho-kinase abolished secretagogue-induced activation of trypsinogen in pancreatic acinar cells in vitro. Conclusions and Implications: Our novel data suggest that Rho-kinase signalling plays an important role in acute pancreatitis by regulating trypsinogen activation and subsequent CXC chemokine formation, neutrophil infiltration and tissue injury. Thus, these results indicate that Rho-kinase may constitute a novel target in the management of SAP.
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| 37. |
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| 38. |
- Balasingam, Sadeshkumar, et al.
(author)
-
Patients With Concomitant Intra-articular Lesions at Index Surgery Deteriorate in Their Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score in the Long Term More Than Patients With Isolated Anterior Cruciate Ligament Rupture: A Study From the Swedish National Anterior Cruciate Ligament Register
- 2018
-
In: Arthroscopy. - : W B SAUNDERS CO-ELSEVIER INC. - 0749-8063 .- 1526-3231. ; 34:5, s. 1520-1529
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: To analyze and compare clinical outcomes after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction 5 and 10 years postsurgery between patients with concomitant intra-articular injuries and those with isolated ACL injury at reconstruction. Methods: Registrations were made using a web-based protocol by physicians for baseline and surgical data. Patients registered their Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) preoperatively and at 5 and 10 years postsurgery. The exclusion criteria for the present study were revisions of previously unregistered ACL surgeries, non-ACL surgeries, patients for whom 10-year follow-up data had not yet been collected, and the proportion of index surgeries that were revision or contralateral interventions. Results: There were 1,295 KOOS scores available for patients 5 years postsurgery, and 1,023 10 years postsurgery from a baseline of 2,751 index reconstructions. A deterioration between the 5-and 10-year scores was observed for patients with concomitant meniscus injury on the KOOS subscales for pain (P = .015), symptoms (P = .005), sport and recreation (P = .011), and knee-related quality of life (QoL) (P = .03) compared with patients with isolated ACL injury. Correspondingly, KOOS subscale score deterioration was seen for combined concomitant cartilage and meniscus injuries for pain (P = .005), symptoms (P = .009), sport and recreation (P = .006), and QoL (P amp;lt; .001). The largest deteriorations were found in sport and recreation (-5.9 points; confidence interval [CI] -10.1, -1.1) and QoL (-6.5 points; CI -10.3, -2.8) subscale scores for patients with concomitant meniscal and cartilage injuries. A similar pattern was not seen between patients with concomitant cartilage injury and isolated ACL injury. Conclusions: The present study reveals that concomitant meniscus injuries at the index operation, either in isolation or in combination with cartilage lesions, render a deterioration of scores on the KOOS outcome subscales for pain, sport and recreation, and quality of life between 5-and 10-year postsurgery follow-up of ACL-reconstructed patients. No such deterioration was seen for patients who had isolated ACL injury.
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| 39. |
- Barnkob, Rune, et al.
(author)
-
Measuring density and compressibility of white blood cells and prostate cancer cells by microchannel acoustophoresis
- 2011
-
In: 15th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences 2011, MicroTAS 2011. - 9781618395955 ; 1, s. 127-129
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present a novel method for the determination of density and compressibility of individual particles and cells undergoing microchannel acoustophoresis in an arbitrary 2D acoustic field. Our method is a critical advancement within acoustophoretic separation of biological cells, as the ability to determine the density and compressibility of individual cells enables the prediction and alteration of the separation outcome for a given cell mixture. We apply the method on white blood cells (WBCs) and DU145 prostate cancer cells (DUCs) aiming to improve isolation of circulating tumor cells from blood, an emerging tool in the monitoring and characterizing of metastatic cancer.
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| 40. |
- Berglund, Henrik, et al.
(author)
-
Symmetric Assumptions in the Theory of Disruptive Innovation : Theoretical & Managerial Implications
- 2012
-
In: Academy of Management Proceedings. - : Academy of Management.
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The literature on disruptive innovation has successfully explained why firms often encounter problems under conditions of discontinuous change. It states that incumbent firms fail to invest in new technologies when these are not demanded by their existing market, due to forces of resource dependency and the associated assumption that customers control firms’ internal resource allocation processes. While the problem of disruptive innovation has been convincingly described, there is still a need for managerial solutions. We argue that a main reason why such solutions are lacking can be found in the asymmetric assumptions made in the original theory of disruptive innovation. Specifically, the focal firm is treated as a collection of heterogeneous actors with different preferences, incentives and competencies, whereas firms in the surrounding environment are treated as if they contained no such heterogeneity. A consequence, the theory on disruptive innovation has described incumbents as controlled by their environment, but has failed to recognize that the environment can also be influenced. In this paper we argue that a more symmetric theory of disruptive innovation – i.e. one that treats all similar entities in the same way – raises opens up for a range of interesting managerial solutions to the innovator’s dilemma.
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| 41. |
- Berndt, Sonja I., et al.
(author)
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Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies 11 new loci for anthropometric traits and provides insights into genetic architecture
- 2013
-
In: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 45:5, s. 501-U69
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Approaches exploiting trait distribution extremes may be used to identify loci associated with common traits, but it is unknown whether these loci are generalizable to the broader population. In a genome-wide search for loci associated with the upper versus the lower 5th percentiles of body mass index, height and waist-to-hip ratio, as well as clinical classes of obesity, including up to 263,407 individuals of European ancestry, we identified 4 new loci (IGFBP4, H6PD, RSRC1 and PPP2R2A) influencing height detected in the distribution tails and 7 new loci (HNF4G, RPTOR, GNAT2, MRPS33P4, ADCY9, HS6ST3 and ZZZ3) for clinical classes of obesity. Further, we find a large overlap in genetic structure and the distribution of variants between traits based on extremes and the general population and little etiological heterogeneity between obesity subgroups.
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| 42. |
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| 43. |
- Björkman, Henrik, 1977-
(author)
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Alternative Methods for Assessment of Split Renal Function
- 2008
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Living kidney donation is a clinical situation with unique features in the sense that healthy individuals voluntarily expose themselves to certain risks and inconveniences. Therefore, eliminating as much of the associated discomfort as possible is crucial. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate whether it is possible to use the examination with computed tomography (CT), which is essential to the investigation, also for determining the ratio of the two kidneys’ function – the split renal function. If possible, an examination with gamma camera renography could be excluded from the work-up. To investigate this possibility, 27 subjects who had underwent CT and renography as part of kidney donor investigation were studied retrospectively. The quantity of contrast material in each kidney was considered proportional to that kidney’s function, and measurement was made in each of the two available contrast phases. The results were compared to the results from renography. A similar analysis was conducted in 38 patients investigated for suspected renal artery stenosis with CT and renography, including a study of an automatized method for the acquisition of data from CT. For further scrutiny, a respiratory triggered dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination was investigated in 26 individuals. Results of split renal function were compared with renography and with CT in a subgroup. To study the possibility of facilitating the data analysis with CT, a formula for approximation of the contrast attenuation was studied in 64 subjects. An analysis of the significance of choice of contrast phase was also conducted in 43 subjects. Unsatisfactory agreement with renography resulted from the CT analysis of previous donors, partly due to technical shortcomings. However, the technique was recognized to have a potential value. In the subsequent material, the settings were improved, with beneficial effects on the agreement. Respiratory-triggered MRI generated high quality examinations of renal uptake and excretion, with results harmonizing well with renography and CT. The approximation formula applied to CT resulted in higher accuracy for renal volume assessment than with the automatic method, and an acceptable agreement of the split renal function estimate. From the presented results, a revision of the current donor investigation protocol is suggested. CT gives sufficient information to exclude renography as a routine examination. In cases of uncertainty, renography is recommended for secondary evaluation.
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| 44. |
- Björkman, Henrik, et al.
(author)
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Split renal function in patients with suspected renal artery stenosis : a comparison between gamma camera renography and two methods of measurements with computed tomography
- 2006
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In: Acta Radiologica. - : SAGE Publications. - 0284-1851 .- 1600-0455. ; 47:1, s. 107-113
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- PURPOSE: To validate a method for calculating split renal function from computed tomography (CT) compared with gamma camera renography, and to test a new method for the measurement based on a volume-rendering technique. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty-eight patients, aged 65.7 +/- 11.6 (range 37.8-82.1) years, who had undergone both CT angiography and gamma camera renography for a suspected renal artery stenosis were included in this study. Split renal function was calculated from the CT examinations by measuring area and mean attenuation in the image slices of the kidneys, and also by measuring volume and mean attenuation from a 3D reconstruction of the kidneys. Gamma camera renography with 99mTc-MAG3 with or without captopril enhancement was used as a reference. RESULTS: The 2D CT method had good correlation with renography (r=0.93). Mean difference was 4.7 +/- 3.6 (0-12) percentage points per kidney. There was also excellent correlation between the two CT methods (r=1.00). CONCLUSION: CT is equivalent to renography in determining split renal function, and the measurement from the CT examination can be made more quickly and equally accurately with a 3D technique.
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| 45. |
- Björksved, Margitha, 1964-, et al.
(author)
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Open vs closed surgical exposure of palatally displaced canines: a comparison of clinical and patient-reported outcomes-a multicentre, randomized controlled trial
- 2021
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In: European Journal of Orthodontics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0141-5387 .- 1460-2210. ; 43:5, s. 487-497
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objectives: To compare treatment time, patients' perceptions during orthodontic treatment, dental fear and side effects, between open and closed surgical exposures in patients with palatally displaced canines (PDCs). Trial design: Multicentre, randomized controlled trial, with random 1:1 allocation of two parallel groups. Materials and methods: One hundred and twenty patients from three different orthodontic centres were randomized into one of the two intervention arms, open or closed surgical exposure. Both techniques had mucoperiosteal flaps raised and bone removed above the PDCs. In open exposure, tissue was removed above the canine, and glass ionomer - reaching above soft tissue - was built on the crown. The canine was then left to erupt spontaneously, prior to orthodontic alignment. At closed exposure, a chain was bonded to the canine and orthodontic traction was applied under the mucosa until eruption. Orthodontic alignment of the canines was undertaken after eruption into the oral cavity, with fixed appliances in both groups. All participants were treated according to intention to treat (ITT). Blinding: Due to the nature of this trial, only outcome assessors could be blinded to the intervention group. Results: One hundred and seventeen patients completed the trial. All PDCs were successfully aligned. Total treatment time was equal in the two techniques, mean difference -0.1 months (95% CI -3.2 to 2.9, P = 0.93). The closed group experienced more pain and discomfort during the active orthodontic traction. Dental fear, root resorption and periodontal status did not show any clinically significant differences between the groups. Generalizability: Results of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) can be generalized only to a similar population aged 9-16 years, if exclusion criteria are met. Conclusion: The closed exposure group experienced more pain and discomfort mostly during active orthodontic traction. All other studied outcomes were similar between the two exposure groups.
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| 46. |
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| 47. |
- Brownstein, Catherine A., et al.
(author)
-
An international effort towards developing standards for best practices in analysis, interpretation and reporting of clinical genome sequencing results in the CLARITY Challenge
- 2014
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In: Genome Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1465-6906 .- 1474-760X. ; 15:3, s. R53-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: There is tremendous potential for genome sequencing to improve clinical diagnosis and care once it becomes routinely accessible, but this will require formalizing research methods into clinical best practices in the areas of sequence data generation, analysis, interpretation and reporting. The CLARITY Challenge was designed to spur convergence in methods for diagnosing genetic disease starting from clinical case history and genome sequencing data. DNA samples were obtained from three families with heritable genetic disorders and genomic sequence data were donated by sequencing platform vendors. The challenge was to analyze and interpret these data with the goals of identifying disease-causing variants and reporting the findings in a clinically useful format. Participating contestant groups were solicited broadly, and an independent panel of judges evaluated their performance. Results: A total of 30 international groups were engaged. The entries reveal a general convergence of practices on most elements of the analysis and interpretation process. However, even given this commonality of approach, only two groups identified the consensus candidate variants in all disease cases, demonstrating a need for consistent fine-tuning of the generally accepted methods. There was greater diversity of the final clinical report content and in the patient consenting process, demonstrating that these areas require additional exploration and standardization. Conclusions: The CLARITY Challenge provides a comprehensive assessment of current practices for using genome sequencing to diagnose and report genetic diseases. There is remarkable convergence in bioinformatic techniques, but medical interpretation and reporting are areas that require further development by many groups.
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| 48. |
- Brynjólfsson, Siggeir Fannar, et al.
(author)
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An Antibody Against Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid Cells 1 (TREM-1) Dampens Proinflammatory Cytokine Secretion by Lamina Propria Cells from Patients with IBD.
- 2016
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In: Inflammatory bowel diseases. - 1536-4844. ; 22:8, s. 1803-11
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (TREM-1) is a potent amplifier of inflammation. Recently, the antimicrobial peptide PGLYRP-1 was shown to be the ligand of TREM-1. Here, the ability of an anti-TREM-1 antibody to dampen the release of proinflammatory cytokines by colon lamina propria cells (LPCs) from patients with IBD was investigated and correlated with PGLYRP-1 levels.Biopsies from patients with ulcerative colitis (UC, n = 45) or Crohn's disease (CD, n = 26) were compared with those from individuals undergoing colonoscopy for other reasons (n = 17). TREM-1 expression was analyzed on myeloid cells by flow cytometry. Cell culture experiments with LPCs were used to analyze PGLYRP-1 and inflammatory cytokine levels and assess the effect of anti-TREM-1 on cytokine secretion.The frequency of TREM-1-expressing neutrophils and recruited macrophages was higher in inflamed than in noninflamed biopsies. The PGLYRP-1 level in inflamed tissue was higher than in noninflamed tissue; it was produced primarily by neutrophils, and its level correlated with the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines. Secretion of myeloperoxidase, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, and interleukin-8 by LPCs stimulated with the potent TREM-1 agonist consisting of PGLYRP-1 complexed with peptidoglycan was reduced in the presence of anti-TREM-1. Moreover, a blocking effect of anti-TREM-1 was apparent when LPCs from a subset of inflamed individuals with elevated PGLYRP-1 were stimulated with killed bacteria.An anti-TREM-1 antibody can dampen secretion of proinflammatory cytokines in inflamed patients with elevated PGLYRP-1. Moreover, PGLYRP-1 + myeloperoxidase is a potential biomarker for predicting the effect of anti-TREM-1 therapy.
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| 49. |
- Cederlof, M., et al.
(author)
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Intellectual disability and cognitive ability in Darier disease: Swedish nation-wide study
- 2015
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In: British Journal of Dermatology. - Hoboken, USA : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0007-0963 .- 1365-2133. ; 173:1, s. 155-158
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background Darier disease is an autosomal dominant skin disorder caused by mutations in the ATP2A2 gene. Anecdotal reports suggest a relationship between Darier disease and intellectual disabilities, but these reports are based on small clinical samples and limited by absence of control populations. Objectives To examine the risk of intellectual disability and subclinical impairments in cognitive ability in Darier disease. Methods We conducted a matched cohort study based on Swedish Population-, Patient-and Conscript Registers. The risk of being diagnosed with intellectual disability was estimated in 770 individuals with Darier disease, compared with matched comparison individuals without Darier disease. Associations were examined with risk ratios from conditional logistic regressions. In addition, we analysed test-based cognitive ability data (i.e. IQ data) from the Swedish conscript examination, for a subset of patients without diagnosed intellectual disability. Results Individuals with Darier disease had a sixfold increased risk of being diagnosed with intellectual disability (risk ratio 6.2, 95% confidence interval 3.1-12.4). For conscripted individuals with Darier disease but no diagnosed intellectual disability, mean cognitive ability scores were about half a standard deviation lower than for comparison subjects. Conclusions Darier disease is associated with intellectual disability and subclinical impairments in cognitive ability. The Darier-causing mutations merit further attention in molecular genetic research on intellectual disability and cognitive ability.
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| 50. |
- Cushing, Kevin W., et al.
(author)
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Ultrasound Characterization of Microbead and Cell Suspensions by Speed of Sound Measurements of Neutrally Buoyant Samples
- 2017
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In: Analytical Chemistry. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0003-2700 .- 1520-6882. ; 89:17, s. 8917-8923
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present an experimental method including error analysis for the measurement of the density and compressibility of cells and microbeads; these being the two central material properties in ultrasound-based acoustophoretic applications such as particle separation, trapping, and up-concentration. The density of the microparticles is determined by using a neutrally buoyant selection process that involves centrifuging of microparticles suspended in different density solutions, CsCl for microbeads and Percoll for cells. The speed of sound at 3 MHz in the neutrally buoyant suspensions is measured as a function of the microparticle volume fraction, and from this the compressibility of the microparticles is inferred. Finally, from the obtained compressibility and density, the acoustic scattering coefficients and contrast factor of the microparticles are determined, and in a sensitivity analysis, the impact of the measurement errors on the computed acoustic properties is reported. The determination of these parameters and their uncertainties allow for accurate predictions of the acoustophoretic response of the microparticles. The method is validated by determining the density (0.1-1% relative uncertainty) and compressibility (1-3% relative uncertainty) of previously well-characterized polymer microbeads and subsequently applied to determine the density (0.1-1% relative uncertainty), compressibility (1% relative uncertainty), scattering coefficients, and acoustic contrast factors for nonfixed and fixed cells, such as red blood cells, white blood cells, DU-145 prostate cancer cells, MCF-7 breast cancer cells, and LU-HNSCC-25 head and neck squamous carcinoma cells in phosphate buffered saline. The results show agreement with published data obtained by other methods.
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