Academics & Design

This paper provides first ideas and considerations for designing and developing future technologies relevant for challenging privacy-preserving preventive applications of contact-less sensors. We introduce four use-cases: preventive detailed acquisition of fingerprints, coarse scans for fingerprint localisation, separation of overlapping fingerprints and age determination for manipulation detection and automatic securing of evidence. To enable and support these four use-cases in future, we suggest developing four techniques: coarse scans, detailed scans, separation and age determination of fingerprints. We derive a new definition for the separation from a forensic approach: presence detection of overlapping fingerprints, estimation of the number of fingerprints, separation and sequence (order) detection. We discuss main challenges for technical solutions enabling the suggested privacy-preserving use-cases combined with a brief summary of preliminary results from our first experiments. We analyse the legal principles and requirements for European law and the design of the usecases, which show tendencies for other countries.

Micrometre sized tantalum droplets were injected into a tokamak plasma by a controllable arcing gun located behind the wall. The trajectories of the ablating particles were photographed by a high speed camera. Various possible mechanisms which may explain the observed curvature of the particle paths are discussed. The migration of the ablated material in the tokamak was studied by post-mortem analysis of collector probes and limiters.

The edge plasma of the CASTOR-tokamak was investigated by Langmuir and collector probes. Te – values derived from both methods agree satisfactorily and are in the range from 15 eV to 45 eV, depending on the minor radius and the magnitude of the discharge current. However, the collector probe measurements indicate an anisotropic plasma and impurity flow in the edge plasma.

The effect of intrathecal pretreatment with pertussis toxin on the spinal antinociceptive effect of morphine, noradrenaline and L-baclofen was examined in rats implanted with chronic indwelling cannulas. Pretreatment with 0.25-0.75 p,g pertussis toxin for 2-7 days inhibited antinociception produced by intrathecal injection of all three agents in the tail flick test. Inhibition also occurred in the hot plate test, but was less pronounced than in the tail flick test. When doses of the three agents giving similar levels of antinociception were compared in a single group, the degree of inhibition of antinociception was comparable. Inhibition of the effect of noradrenaline was observed up to 14 days following pretreatment. The sensitivity of spinal antinociception to pertussis toxin suggests involvement of a guanine nucleotide regulatory protein in spinal actions of morphine, noradrenaline and L-baclofen. There is support in the literature for the additional involvement of adenylate cyclase in the action of morphine and noradrenaline but not of baclofen.

In Schwarz 1 an amino acid model for printing latent fingerprints to porous surfaces is introduced, motivated by the need for reproducibility tests of different development techniques for forensic investigations. However, this technique also enables the fabrication of artificial traces constituting a possible threat to security, motivating a need for research of appropriate detection techniques. In this paper a new framework for modelling the properties of a generic fingerprint examination process is introduced. Based on the framework, examination properties and detection properties are derived by a subjective evaluation. We suggest a first formalisation of exemplary properties, which can be easily extended to fit different needs. We present a first experimental setup limited to two printers and the Schwarz amino acid model using absorbing and non-absorbing material with first results to show tendencies and underline the necessity for further research.

Medical microrobots are distinguished from other robotic systems in that they must function in the human body. As such, they exhibit special characteristics of size, function, and materials choice. Recent advances have focused on fabrication techniques, locomotion at microscale environment, and targeted drug delivery. In this article, we will review these advances, and examine related developments in materials science, and strategies for wireless control systems for communication, as well as data acquisition and processing. We focus on medical microrobots made of soft materials (with an emphasis on polymers and hydrogels), which are mechanically robust and deformable, offer tunable biophysical properties, and are highly biocompatible. Integration of the four design elements of locomotion, feedback and control, functionality, and biocompatibility will be needed to develop a fully functioning medical microrobot with clinical utility in the human body, such as diagnostics and treatment of disease, maintenance of wellness, and improvement of overall performance.

This study assesses the levels of depression, anxiety, and delirium during admission to three adult critical care units (CCU) and the performance of CCU staff with respect to detection and treatment. During a 1-month period, 96 consecutive patients were evaluated on the first day of admission by an independent rater, using the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale and the Confusional Assessment Method. Frequency of alcohol use and demographic data were recorded. CCU teams rarely made diagnoses of anxiety, depression, or delirium. On at least one screening test, 29.2% of patients were positive. Delirium was present in 7.3%, depression in 13.7%, anxiety in 24%, and possible problem drinking in 37.9%. Although some form of psychiatric treatment was offered to 58%, there was low agreement between psychiatric diagnoses made by the independent rater and the diagnoses made and treatments used by CCU staff. This suggests that the CCU staff are using psychotropic medications without any clear documentation and perhaps clear understanding of the psychiatric diagnoses they are treating. In summary, we found high rates of psychiatric disorders in adult CCU patients but low rates of detection and only moderate rates of treatment by CCU staff.

The marine areas of Uruguay consist of the Río de la Plata estuary and the adjacent shelf and slope, part of the Subtropical Convergence Ecosystem. In this paper, the main advances in the knowledge of marine life in these areas (the known) are reviewed in order to discuss future lines of research (the unknown). Information has been separately analysed for the plankton, nekton, and benthos in each of 3 areas-the littoral, the shelfs and the "open ocean". Current knowledge of marine life is uneven among the groups and areas. In the case of the plankton, research has concentrated on the near-shore waters and focused on taxonomy and distribution. Little is known about the responses of organisms to environmental variability and about biological processes. The nekton of coastal and estuarine areas is better known, but, with shelf and slope assemblages, research has focused on exploited species. The main unknowns for the nekton are how trophodynamics, reproduction, and recruitment processes are linked to environmental variability and the effect of fisheries on community structure. Littoral benthos, in particular the macroinfauna of sandy beaches, is much better studied and spatial patterns of community distribution have been identified at different scales and in relation to environmental variables. Also, at the population level, there is information about distribution, responses to disturbances, dynamics, and the roles of biotic and abiotic factors in modulating population variability. Information is mainly lacking for the sub-tidal fringe and regarding the macro-ecology of population dynamics, the dispersive abilities of larval phases, and the effects of toxic blooms on suspension feeders. Knowledge of the benthos of estuaries and more so of the shelf and slope environments is rather scarce. For the latter two, faunal inventories are far from complete. Topics identified for future research include taxonomy, macro-scale community structure and its temporal variability in relation to environmental gradients, diverse aspects of population dynamics trophodynamics and the effects of human intervention on ecosystems. The incorporation of both experimental and modelling approaches is considered important for future investigations.

The distributions of phytoplankton taxa and biomass were recorded to assess their association to environmental variables in the Río de la Plata, a shallow and highly turbid estuary. Forty-seven CTD stations covering the whole estuary were sampled from 5 to 16 November 2001. At 31 stations, dissolved oxygen concentration, pH, and light intensity at 50 cm depth intervals were recorded in situ; also, samples were taken for measurement of dissolved nutrient levels (nitrate, ammonium, phosphate, and silicate), suspended particulate matter and particulate organic matter loads, chlorophyll (a, b, and c) concentration, and phytoplankton identification. Stations ordination (multi-dimensional scaling, MDS, analysis) on environmental data suggested two main groups (upper–middle and lower estuary) but stressed the gradual change of conditions along the ecosystem. MDS on pigment data suggested a tendency for higher biomass levels in the lower estuary; MDS based on species indicated two main groups corresponding to lower and upper–middle estuarine stations. Spearman rank correlations of environmental and pigment similarity matrices suggested that salinity, the ratio of mixed to photic depth, and nitrates were the variables best explaining pigments distribution; in turn, the variables best explaining species distribution were salinity and seston. Results suggest an overriding importance of salinity-light gradients in modulating biomass levels and species distribution in the Río de la Plata. This result is consistent with processes known to modulate phytoplankton distribution and production in other highly turbid estuaries.

Samples of soil, water, and sediments from industrial estates in Lagos were collected and analyzed for heavy metals and physicochemical composition. Bacteria that are resistant to elevated concentrations of metals (Cd2 + , Co2 + , Ni2 + , Cr6 + , and Hg2 + ) were isolated from the samples, and they were further screened for antibiotic sensitivity. The minimum tolerance concentrations (MTCs) of the isolates with dual resistance to the metals were determined. The physicochemistry of all the samples indicated were heavily polluted. Twenty-two of the 270 bacterial strains isolated showed dual resistances to antibiotics and heavy metals. The MTCs of isolates to the metals were 14 mM for Cd2 + , 15 mM for Co2 +  and Ni2 + , 17 mM for Cr6 + , and 10 mM for Hg2 + . Five strains (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Actinomyces turicensis, Acinetobacter junni, Nocardia sp., and Micrococcus sp.) resisted all the 18 antibiotics tested. Whereas Rhodococcus sp. and Micrococcus sp. resisted 15 mM Ni2 + , P. aeruginosa resisted 10 mM Co2 + . To our knowledge, there has not been any report of bacterial strains resisting such high doses of metals coupled with wide range of antibiotics. Therefore, dual expressions of antibiotics and heavy-metal resistance make the isolates, potential seeds for decommissioning of sites polluted with industrial effluents rich in heavy metals, since the bacteria will be able to withstand in situ antibiosis that may prevail in such ecosystems.