Dutch Robotics 2010 adult-size team description

This document presents the 2010 edition of the team Dutch Robotics from The Netherlands. Our team gathers three Dutch technical universities, namely Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology and University of Twente, and the commercial company Philips. We contribute an adult-size humanoid robot TUlip, which is designed based on theory of the limit cycle walking developed in our earlier research. The key of our theory is that stable periodic walking gaits can be achieved even without high-bandwidth robot position control. Our control approach is based on simultaneous position and force control. For accurate force control, we make use of the Series Elastic Actuation. The control software of TUlip is based on the Darmstadt’s RoboFrame, and it runs on a PC104 computer with Linux Xenomai. The vision system consists of two wide-angle cameras, each interfaced with a dedicated Blackfin processor running vision algorithms, and a wireless networking interface

Dutch Robotics 2011 adult-size team description

This document presents the 2011 edition of the team Dutch Robotics from The Netherlands. Our team gathers three Dutch technical universities, namely Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology and University of Twente, and the commercial company Philips. We contribute an adult-size humanoid robot TUlip, which is designed based on theory of the limit cycle walking developed in our earlier research. The key of our theory is that stable periodic walking gaits can be achieved even without high-bandwidth robot position control. Our control approach is based on simultaneous position and force control. For accurate force control, we make use of the Series Elastic Actuation. The control software of TUlip is based on the Darmstadt’s RoboFrame, and it runs on a PC104 computer with Linux Xenomai. The vision system consists of two wide-angle cameras, each interfaced with a dedicated Blackfin processor running vision algorithms, and a wireless networking interface

Dispersion of torsional waves in initially stressed multilayered circular cylinders

Within the framework of a piecewise homogeneous body model, with the use of the three-dimensional linearized theory of elastic waves in initially stressed bodies, the propagation of torsional waves in prestressed multilayered circular cylinders is investigated. The elasticity relations for cylinder components are given through the Murnaghan potential. The influence of variations in the geometric and mechanical parameters of the cylinders on the dispersion curves is analyzed

Predicting Epidemic Diseases using Mathematical Modelling of SIR

Epidemic diseases such as Tuberculosis (TB), AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and CCHF (Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever) remain as a major global health problem. For example, in 2012, an estimated 8.6 million people developed TB and 1.3 million died from the disease reported by WHO (including 320 000 deaths among HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) positive people) in the world. However, the presence of immunodeficiency such as in HIV positive cases helps TB to occur and to be contagious. Hence, to decrease the number of patients with TB lessens the socioeconomical burden, and, to prevent the people from TB as well as TB/HIV and MDR-TB (multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis) are of importance. Taking appropriate precautions in fighting epidemic diseases begins primarily with making predictions. In this respect, although the diagnosis and cure are known for some epidemic diseases, it is evident that a fighting program must depend on predictable cases. Therefore an investigation on an epidemic disease in framework of the mathematical modelling is indispensable and can potentially lead to better ways to analyze, forecast, and prevent epidemics. In this study, to help with all these concerns, we aimed to predict the effects of epidemic of TB including HIV positive patients, as well as of AIDS and CCHF in terms of number of infected people in Turkey by using the mathematical modelling of SIR. Here, we showed that SIR (susceptible-infected-recovered) Model can be used for such epidemic diseases

Quercetin inhibits swarming motility and activates biofilm production of Proteus mirabilis possibly by interacting with central regulators, metabolic status or active pump proteins

PubMedID: 30668324Background: Via its virulence factors such as swarm differentiation, biofilm and hemolysin production, urease enzyme, Proteus mirabilis causes urinary tract infections (UTIs), especially in complicated cases. Anti-pathogenic compounds attenuate the virulence of bacteria without showing ‘cidal’ activity and carry the potential to be used in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Purpose: Search for anti-pathogenic effects of quercetin, which is a widely known and biologically active phytochemical, on Proteus mirabilis was the purpose of this study. In this context, the potential inhibitory activity of quercetin on swarming motility and biofilm production of a wild-type strain, P. mirabilis HI4320, was investigated in both phenotypically and genotypically. Methods: Quercetin's effect on swarming motility was examined on LB agar plates, containing quercetin at various concentrations, by measuring the swarming diameter. The effect on biofilm formation, on the other hand, was analyzed by staining the formed biofilm of the bacterium, exposed to quercetin at various concentrations, with crystal violet and reading spectrophotometrically. Differences in expression levels of selected genes involved in swarming regulation were determined by real-time reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) to evaluate the mechanism of inhibitory action on swarming. Further investigations were carried out repeating swarming assays with the clones that derived from the wild-type strain by a TA system kit for direct one-step cloning and overexpressing the relevant genes. Results: Our study revealed that quercetin inhibited swarming motility while activating biofilm production of P. mirabilis in direct proportion to the dose. Although all selected genes are inhibited in the same manner in liquid medium, and no significant differences could be detected in solid medium as demonstrated by RT-qPCR, experiments repeated with the clones overexpressing flhC (a component of flagellar transcriptional activator), speB (an agmatinase enzyme) and ompF (an outer membrane porin) genes showed that the respective clones could restore swarming, compensating for the inhibitory effect of quercetin. Conclusion: Quercetin's inhibitory effect on P. mirabilis swarming was possibly due to interactions with components of swarming regulators, the genes expressing polyamine coding enzymes that trigger swarm differentiation, or active pump proteins. © 2018216S357This work was supported by TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) (Grant number: 216S357 ). Authors thank Mobley Research Laboratory (Ann Arbor, USA) for supplying the wild-type strain used in the study

Factors affecting treatment success in community-acquired pneumonia

Background/aim: Treatment failure in hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia is a major cause of mortality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the factors affecting treatment success in community-acquired pneumonia. Materials and methods: A total of 537 patients (mean age: 66.1 ± 15.8 years, 365 males) registered to the Turkish Thoracic Society Pneumonia Database were analyzed. Of these, clinical improvement or cure, defined as treatment success, was achieved in 477, whereas 60 patients had treatment failure and/or died. Results: Lower numbers of neutrophils (5989.9 ± 6237.3 vs. 8495.6 ± 7279.5/mm3), higher blood urea levels (66.1 ± 42.1 vs. 51.2 ± 38.2 mg/dL), higher Pneumonia Severity Index (PSI) scores (123.3 ± 42.6 vs. 96.3 ± 32.9), higher CURB-65 scores (2.7 ± 1.2 vs. 2.2 ± 0.9), lower PaO2/FiO2 ratios (216.3 ± 86.8 vs. 269.9 ± 65.6), and the presence of multilobar (33.3% vs. 16.4%) and bilateral (41.7% vs. 18.9%) radiologic infiltrates were related to treatment failure. The PSI score and PaO2/FiO2 ratio were independent parameters affecting treatment results in multivariate linear regression analysis (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The risk of treatment failure is high in patients with severe pneumonia and with respiratory failure. Effective treatment and close monitoring are required for these cases. © TÜBİTAK