Capillary zone electrophoresis investigation of interactions between granulocyte-colony stimulating factor and dextran sulfate/carrageenan oligosaccharide

The interactions between granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) and dextran sulfate/kappa-carrageenan oligosaccharide were studied by capillary zone electrophoresis. Dextran sulfate could strongly interact with G-CSF and the complex was detected. The binding constant and stoichiometry were determined to be 1.2x10(6) (mol/L)(-1) and 3:1, respectively. However, the interaction between K-carrageenan oligosaccharide and G-CSF was not found.

Resolution prediction and optimization of temperature programme in comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography

A model is developed for predicting the resolution of interested component pair and calculating the optimum temperature programming condition in the comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC x GC). Based on at least three isothermal runs, retention times and the peak widths at half-height on both dimensions are predicted for any kind of linear temperature-programmed run on the first dimension and isothermal runs on the second dimension. The calculation of the optimum temperature programming condition is based on the prediction of the resolution of "difficult-to-separate components" in a given mixture. The resolution of all the neighboring peaks on the first dimension is obtained by the predicted retention time and peak width on the first dimension, the resolution on the second dimension is calculated only for the adjacent components with un-enough resolution on the first dimension and eluted within a same modulation period on the second dimension. The optimum temperature programming condition is acquired when the resolutions of all components of interest by GC x GC separation meet the analytical requirement and the analysis time is the shortest. The validity of the model has been proven by using it to predict and optimize GC x GC temperature programming condition of an alkylpyridine mixture. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Feature Selection based on Rough Sets and Particle Swarm Optimization

X. Wang, J. Yang, X. Teng, W. Xia, and R. Jensen. Feature Selection based on Rough Sets and Particle Swarm Optimization. Pattern Recognition Letters, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 459-471, 2007.

Fuzzy rules from ant-inspired computation

M. Galea and Q. Shen. Fuzzy rules from ant-inspired computation. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, pages 1691-1696, 2004.

Linguistic hedges for ant-generated rules

M. Galea and Q. Shen. Linguistic hedges for ant-generated rules. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, pages 9105-9112, 2006.

Dedicated global optimization search for ground state silica nanoclusters: (SiO2)(N) (N=6-12)

Flikkema, E., & Bromley, S. T. (2004). Dedicated global optimization search for ground state silica nanoclusters: (SiO2)(N) (N=6-12). Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 108 (28), 9638-9645. RAE2008

Optimization of physical and optical properties of biodegradable edible films based on pea starch and guar gum

The influence of process variables (pea starch, guar gum and glycerol) on the viscosity (V), solubility (SOL), moisture content (MC), transparency (TR), Hunter parameters (L, a, and b), total color difference (ΔE), yellowness index (YI), and whiteness index (WI) of the pea starch based edible films was studied using three factors with three level Box–Behnken response surface design. The individual linear effect of pea starch, guar and glycerol was significant (p < 0.05) on all the responses. However, a value was only significantly (p < 0.05) affected by pea starch and guar gum in a positive and negative linear term, respectively. The effect of interaction of starch × glycerol was also significant (p < 0.05) on TR of edible films. Interaction between independent variables starch × guar gum had a significant impact on the b and YI values. The quadratic regression coefficient of pea starch showed a significant effect (p < 0.05) on V, MC, L, b, ΔE, YI, and WI; glycerol level on ΔE and WI; and guar gum on ΔE and SOL value. The results were analyzed by Pareto analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the second order polynomial models were developed from the experimental design with reliable and satisfactory fit with the corresponding experimental data and high coefficient of determination (R2) values (>0.93). Three-dimensional response surface plots were established to investigate the relationship between process variables and the responses. The optimized conditions with the goal of maximizing TR and minimizing SOL, YI and MC were 2.5 g pea starch, 25% glycerol and 0.3 g guar gum. Results revealed that pea starch/guar gum edible films with appropriate physical and optical characteristics can be effectively produced and successfully applied in the food packaging industry.

On the Effectiveness of Genetic Search in Combinatorial Optimization

In this paper, we study the efficacy of genetic algorithms in the context of combinatorial optimization. In particular, we isolate the effects of cross-over, treated as the central component of genetic search. We show that for problems of nontrivial size and difficulty, the contribution of cross-over search is marginal, both synergistically when run in conjunction with mutation and selection, or when run with selection alone, the reference point being the search procedure consisting of just mutation and selection. The latter can be viewed as another manifestation of the Metropolis process. Considering the high computational cost of maintaining a population to facilitate cross-over search, its marginal benefit renders genetic search inferior to its singleton-population counterpart, the Metropolis process, and by extension, simulated annealing. This is further compounded by the fact that many problems arising in practice may inherently require a large number of state transitions for a near-optimal solution to be found, making genetic search infeasible given the high cost of computing a single iteration in the enlarged state-space.

TCP Optimization through FEC, ARQ and Transmission Power Tradeoffs

TCP performance degrades when end-to-end connections extend over wireless connections-links which are characterized by high bit error rate and intermittent connectivity. Such link characteristics can significantly degrade TCP performance as the TCP sender assumes wireless losses to be congestion losses resulting in unnecessary congestion control actions. Link errors can be reduced by increasing transmission power, code redundancy (FEC) or number of retransmissions (ARQ). But increasing power costs resources, increasing code redundancy reduces available channel bandwidth and increasing persistency increases end-to-end delay. The paper proposes a TCP optimization through proper tuning of power management, FEC and ARQ in wireless environments (WLAN and WWAN). In particular, we conduct analytical and numerical analysis taking into "wireless-aware" TCP) performance under different settings. Our results show that increasing power, redundancy and/or retransmission levels always improves TCP performance by reducing link-layer losses. However, such improvements are often associated with cost and arbitrary improvement cannot be realized without paying a lot in return. It is therefore important to consider some kind of net utility function that should be optimized, thus maximizing throughput at the least possible cost.

Statistical method of modeling and optimization for wireless sensor nodes with different interconnect technologies and substrates

A comparison study was carried out between a wireless sensor node with a bare die flip-chip mounted and its reference board with a BGA packaged transceiver chip. The main focus is the return loss (S parameter S11) at the antenna connector, which was highly depended on the impedance mismatch. Modeling including the different interconnect technologies, substrate properties and passive components, was performed to simulate the system in Ansoft Designer software. Statistical methods, such as the use of standard derivation and regression, were applied to the RF performance analysis, to see the impacts of the different parameters on the return loss. Extreme value search, following on the previous analysis, can provide the parameters' values for the minimum return loss. Measurements fit the analysis and simulation well and showed a great improvement of the return loss from -5dB to -25dB for the target wireless sensor node.

Energy harvesting system design and optimization for wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are becoming widely adopted for many applications including complicated tasks like building energy management. However, one major concern for WSN technologies is the short lifetime and high maintenance cost due to the limited battery energy. One of the solutions is to scavenge ambient energy, which is then rectified to power the WSN. The objective of this thesis was to investigate the feasibility of an ultra-low energy consumption power management system suitable for harvesting sub-mW photovoltaic and thermoelectric energy to power WSNs. To achieve this goal, energy harvesting system architectures have been analyzed. Detailed analysis of energy storage units (ESU) have led to an innovative ESU solution for the target applications. Battery-less, long-lifetime ESU and its associated power management circuitry, including fast-charge circuit, self-start circuit, output voltage regulation circuit and hybrid ESU, using a combination of super-capacitor and thin film battery, were developed to achieve continuous operation of energy harvester. Low start-up voltage DC/DC converters have been developed for 1mW level thermoelectric energy harvesting. The novel method of altering thermoelectric generator (TEG) configuration in order to match impedance has been verified in this work. Novel maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuits, exploring the fractional open circuit voltage method, were particularly developed to suit the sub-1mW photovoltaic energy harvesting applications. The MPPT energy model has been developed and verified against both SPICE simulation and implemented prototypes. Both indoor light and thermoelectric energy harvesting methods proposed in this thesis have been implemented into prototype devices. The improved indoor light energy harvester prototype demonstrates 81% MPPT conversion efficiency with 0.5mW input power. This important improvement makes light energy harvesting from small energy sources (i.e. credit card size solar panel in 500lux indoor lighting conditions) a feasible approach. The 50mm × 54mm thermoelectric energy harvester prototype generates 0.95mW when placed on a 60oC heat source with 28% conversion efficiency. Both prototypes can be used to continuously power WSN for building energy management applications in typical office building environment. In addition to the hardware development, a comprehensive system energy model has been developed. This system energy model not only can be used to predict the available and consumed energy based on real-world ambient conditions, but also can be employed to optimize the system design and configuration. This energy model has been verified by indoor photovoltaic energy harvesting system prototypes in long-term deployed experiments.

Pharmacotherapy optimization in older patients by a structured clinical pharmacist assessment and intervention

Introduction: Older individuals are particularly vulnerable to potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP), drug related problems (DRPs) and adverse drug reactions (ADRs). A number of different interventions have been proposed to address these issues. However to-date there is a paucity of well-designed trials examining the impact of such interventions. Therefore the aims of this work were to: (i) establish a baseline PIP prevalence both nationally and internationally using the STOPP, Beers and PRISCUS criteria, (ii) identify the most comprehensive method of assessing PIP in older individuals, (iii) develop a structured pharmacist intervention supported by a computer decisions support system (CDSS) and (iv) examine the impact of this intervention on prescribing and incidence of ADRs. Results: This work identified high rates of PIP across all three healthcare settings in Ireland, 84.7% in the long term care, 70.7% in secondary care and 43.3% in primary care being reported. This work identified that for a comprehensive assessment of prescribing to be undertaken, an amalgamation of all three criteria should be deployed simultaneously. High prevalences of DRPs and PIP in older hospitalised individuals were identified. With 82.0% and 76.3% of patients reported to have at least one DRP or PIP instance respectively. The structured pharmacist intervention demonstrated a positive impact on prescribing, with a significant reduction MAI scores being reported. It also resulted in the intervention patients’ having a reduced risk of experiencing an ADR when compared to the control patients (absolute risk reduction of 6.8 (95% CI 1.5% - 12.3%)) and the number needed to treat = 15 (95% CI 8 - 68). However the intervention was found to have no significant effect on length of stay or mortality rate. Conclusion: This work shows that PIP is highly prevalent in older individuals across three healthcare settings in Ireland. This work also demonstrates that a structured pharmacist intervention support by a dedicated CDSS can significantly improve the appropriateness of prescribing and reduce the incidence of ADRs in older acutely ill hospitalised individuals.

Investigation of population genetic structure and mating system in the ant Pheidole pallidula

The origin of eusociality in haplo-diploid organisms such as Hymenoptera has been mostly explained by kin selection. However, several studies have uncovered decreased relatedness values within colonies, resulting primarily from multiple queen matings (polyandry) and/or from the presence of more than one functional queen (polygyny). Here, we report on the use of microsatellite data for the investigation of sociogenetic parameters, such as relatedness, and levels of polygyny and polyandry, in the ant Pheidole pallidula. We demonstrate, through analysis of mother-offspring combinations and the use of direct sperm typing, that each queen is inseminated by a single male. The inbreeding coefficient within colonies and the levels of relatedness between the queens and their mate are not significantly different from zero, indicating that matings occur between unrelated individuals. Analyses of worker genotypes demonstrate that 38% of the colonies are polygynous with 2-4 functional queens, and suggest the existence of reproductive skew, i.e. unequal respective contribution of queens to reproduction. Finally, our analyses indicate that colonies are genetically differentiated and form a population exhibiting significant isolation-by-distance, suggesting that some colonies originate through budding.

Design Optimization and Security For Communication Networks

In this work we introduce a new mathematical tool for optimization of routes, topology design, and energy efficiency in wireless sensor networks. We introduce a vector field formulation that models communication in the network, and routing is performed in the direction of this vector field at every location of the network. The magnitude of the vector field at every location represents the density of amount of data that is being transited through that location. We define the total communication cost in the network as the integral of a quadratic form of the vector field over the network area. With the above formulation, we introduce a mathematical machinery based on partial differential equations very similar to the Maxwell's equations in electrostatic theory. We show that in order to minimize the cost, the routes should be found based on the solution of these partial differential equations. In our formulation, the sensors are sources of information, and they are similar to the positive charges in electrostatics, the destinations are sinks of information and they are similar to negative charges, and the network is similar to a non-homogeneous dielectric media with variable dielectric constant (or permittivity coefficient). In one of the applications of our mathematical model based on the vector fields, we offer a scheme for energy efficient routing. Our routing scheme is based on changing the permittivity coefficient to a higher value in the places of the network where nodes have high residual energy, and setting it to a low value in the places of the network where the nodes do not have much energy left. Our simulations show that our method gives a significant increase in the network life compared to the shortest path and weighted shortest path schemes. Our initial focus is on the case where there is only one destination in the network, and later we extend our approach to the case where there are multiple destinations in the network. In the case of having multiple destinations, we need to partition the network into several areas known as regions of attraction of the destinations. Each destination is responsible for collecting all messages being generated in its region of attraction. The complexity of the optimization problem in this case is how to define regions of attraction for the destinations and how much communication load to assign to each destination to optimize the performance of the network. We use our vector field model to solve the optimization problem for this case. We define a vector field, which is conservative, and hence it can be written as the gradient of a scalar field (also known as a potential field). Then we show that in the optimal assignment of the communication load of the network to the destinations, the value of that potential field should be equal at the locations of all the destinations. Another application of our vector field model is to find the optimal locations of the destinations in the network. We show that the vector field gives the gradient of the cost function with respect to the locations of the destinations. Based on this fact, we suggest an algorithm to be applied during the design phase of a network to relocate the destinations for reducing the communication cost function. The performance of our proposed schemes is confirmed by several examples and simulation experiments. In another part of this work we focus on the notions of responsiveness and conformance of TCP traffic in communication networks. We introduce the notion of responsiveness for TCP aggregates and define it as the degree to which a TCP aggregate reduces its sending rate to the network as a response to packet drops. We define metrics that describe the responsiveness of TCP aggregates, and suggest two methods for determining the values of these quantities. The first method is based on a test in which we drop a few packets from the aggregate intentionally and measure the resulting rate decrease of that aggregate. This kind of test is not robust to multiple simultaneous tests performed at different routers. We make the test robust to multiple simultaneous tests by using ideas from the CDMA approach to multiple access channels in communication theory. Based on this approach, we introduce tests of responsiveness for aggregates, and call it CDMA based Aggregate Perturbation Method (CAPM). We use CAPM to perform congestion control. A distinguishing feature of our congestion control scheme is that it maintains a degree of fairness among different aggregates. In the next step we modify CAPM to offer methods for estimating the proportion of an aggregate of TCP traffic that does not conform to protocol specifications, and hence may belong to a DDoS attack. Our methods work by intentionally perturbing the aggregate by dropping a very small number of packets from it and observing the response of the aggregate. We offer two methods for conformance testing. In the first method, we apply the perturbation tests to SYN packets being sent at the start of the TCP 3-way handshake, and we use the fact that the rate of ACK packets being exchanged in the handshake should follow the rate of perturbations. In the second method, we apply the perturbation tests to the TCP data packets and use the fact that the rate of retransmitted data packets should follow the rate of perturbations. In both methods, we use signature based perturbations, which means packet drops are performed with a rate given by a function of time. We use analogy of our problem with multiple access communication to find signatures. Specifically, we assign orthogonal CDMA based signatures to different routers in a distributed implementation of our methods. As a result of orthogonality, the performance does not degrade because of cross interference made by simultaneously testing routers. We have shown efficacy of our methods through mathematical analysis and extensive simulation experiments.