Passivation of porous silicon sensors is a critical issue for achieving high sensitivity and selectivity toward biomolecule targets that may be detected in complex physiologic solution. Without appropriate passivation...
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For personal identification the use of fingerprint identification systems is mostly common. First step for an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) is the segmentation of fingerprint from the acquired ima...
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For personal identification the use of fingerprint identification systems is mostly common. First step for an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) is the segmentation of fingerprint from the acquired image. Extraction of region of interest (ROI) from the desired fingerprint impression is the main purpose of segmentation. In this paper, we present a new technique for fingerprint segmentation using morphological operations and modified gradient based technique. The distinct feature of our technique is that it gives high accuracy for fingerprint segmentation even for low quality fingerprint images. The proposed algorithm is applied on standard fingerprint databases, FVC2002 and FVC2004. Experimental results demonstrate the improved performance of the proposed scheme.
An electronic device for electrical stimulation and measurement of the skin impedance is described. The device allows to program any type of waveform for stimulating the skin. Two investigative experiments were perfor...
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An electronic device for electrical stimulation and measurement of the skin impedance is described. The device allows to program any type of waveform for stimulating the skin. Two investigative experiments were performed to assess the effects of different electrical pulse shapes in the pain sensation and in the measured electrical impedance values. The selective fibers stimulation was studied with two waveforms: quasi-trapezoidal and regular square pulse. Both waveforms had the same energy. Tests were performed by analyzing the pain intensity and skin impedance variation for these signals. The results showed that the pain intensity during the stimulation could be minimized using the proposed quasi-trapezoidal pulse. Moreover a slight difference in the skin impedance was also observed. The proposed device can be used as a tool for testing arbitrary signals in order to find out the best pattern for the selective stimulation of the human skin.
Enhanced rates of oxide growth have been observed on silicon when exposed to high-energy x-ray irradiation. This observed effect could potentially be utilized for remote total ionizing dose-sensing applications.
Enhanced rates of oxide growth have been observed on silicon when exposed to high-energy x-ray irradiation. This observed effect could potentially be utilized for remote total ionizing dose-sensing applications.
Wireless sensor networks can be used in habitat monitoring for detecting fire, in disaster for helping rescue teams and in agriculture for sensing humidity. Node localization is essential for some important sensor net...
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Wireless sensor networks can be used in habitat monitoring for detecting fire, in disaster for helping rescue teams and in agriculture for sensing humidity. Node localization is essential for some important sensor network applications. Despite the high relative accuracy of some localization algorithms, node localization is still an opened research area, due to the physical phenomena such as attenuation, reflection, diffraction, scattering and so forth. The current developed algorithms have different accuracy when are tested under dissimilar environments. We propose to use Smart Beacon Nodes (SBNs) to infer the Obstruction Level Indicator over an occupied area, then, use this indicator for estimating the distance among nodes. In our experimental simulation, SBNs decrease the node localization error of Triangular Centroid Localization and Weighted Centroid Localization up to 18%.
Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a food allergy-associated disease characterized by esophageal eosinophilia and associated inflammation. EoE has become increasingly common in industrialized countries. However, curren...
Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a food allergy-associated disease characterized by esophageal eosinophilia and associated inflammation. EoE has become increasingly common in industrialized countries. However, current management strategies, such as treatment with swallowed steroids and dietary restrictions, are nonspecific or negatively impact the quality of life of EoE patients. In addition, use of more specific therapies that target immunoglobulin E (IgE) and interleukin (IL)-5 have been largely unsuccessful in ameliorating EoE. Thus, there is an urgent need to identify novel, specific immunological pathways that underlie the pathogenesis of EoE that could be targeted to treat this disease. Recently, a genome-wide association study identified that EoE is associated with a gain-of-function polymorphism in the gene that encodes thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP). TSLP is an IL-7 family member cytokine that promotes allergic inflammation by eliciting T helper type 2 cytokine responses, IgE production, and the expansion of a distinct population of basophils . However, whether TSLP directly promotes allergic inflammation in the esophagus and the mechanisms by which TSLP might contribute to the pathogenesis of EoE remain unknown. Here, we describe a new murine model of experimental EoE-like disease that was used to investigate the role of TSLP in allergic inflammation of the esophagus. Murine experimental EoE-like disease developed independently of IgE but was dependent on TSLP-elicited basophils. Critically, therapeutic antibody-mediated neutralization of TSLP or depletion of basophil populations ameliorated established EoE-like disease in mice. Finally, elevated TSLP levels and exaggerated basophil responses were observed in esophageal biopsies from EoE patients, and a gain-of-function polymorphism in TSLP correlated with increased basophil responses in patients with EoE. Together, these data indicate that TSLP-elicited basophil responses may play a key role in medi
Node failures in Wireless Sensor Networks composed by static sensor nodes are common due to the nature of the sensor devices and the usually harsh environments in which they are deployed. Node failures can diminish th...
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Background: Negated biomedical events are often ignored by text-mining applications;however, such events carry scientific significance. We report on the development of BioN∅T, a database of negated sentences that can ...
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This paper consists in a novel transport protocol description for Delay-Tolerant Networks and Disruption Tolerant Networks (both DTN). This protocol was designed to offer a better information delivery rate in DTNs sce...
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This paper consists in a novel transport protocol description for Delay-Tolerant Networks and Disruption Tolerant Networks (both DTN). This protocol was designed to offer a better information delivery rate in DTNs scenarios. Fountain codes techniques are used to achieve our needs. The performance results were tested taking into account the hosts buffer size, the TTL (Time To Live) of the messages and the amount of redundant information generated into the network. A better delivery rate and performance were achieved using the proposed protocol.
This paper describes a design of an educational platform for a mobile learning architecture, which is a state of the an topic in distance education. The product will allow users to interact in an efficient, flexible, ...
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This paper describes a design of an educational platform for a mobile learning architecture, which is a state of the an topic in distance education. The product will allow users to interact in an efficient, flexible, and transparent fashion with a web-based education environment, in this case Module Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment （Moodle）, using Android mobile devices. In order to provide a strong and lasting architecture, the Service Oriented Architecture （SOA） methodology is used given that it allows easy software re-utilization as well as integration of heterogeneous services. The architecture is based on web services implemented with Representational State Transfer （REST）, as it has been demonstrated to be lighter and less consuming than other protocols, for devices with limited resources such as mobile devices. Web services provide the communication means between the server side and the client side of the architecture, whereas agents are used to deliver the services itself. The authors propose the development of an environment that facilitates the integration of various educational resources to support m-learning. An important aspect of the proposal is the offering of a tool to provide customized alerts for students and teachers, enabling them to remain updated about activities taking place in the courses.
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