This paper studies the application of Innnitesimal Perturbation Analysis (IPA) to gradient estimation of loss-related performance measures in a class of Continuous Flow Models (CFM). We observe that CFM's constitute a suitable application domain for IPA, and show that IPA estimators of loss-related performance measures can be computed by algorithms requiring modest computational resources. Furt...

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is a severe fungal infection with a high mortality rate. The incidence of IPA is on the rise due to an increase in the number of patients undergoing transplants and receiving chemotherapy and immunosuppressive therapy. Diagnosis is challenging due to the non-specific nature of symptoms. Voriconazole is the mainstay of therapy. We present a case of an elder...

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is a common infection in immunocompromised patients with hematological malignancies or allogenic stem cell transplantation, and is less frequent in the context of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Mucociliary activity impairment, immunosuppression due to the inhibition of alveolar macrophages and neutrophils by steroids, and receiving broad-spe...

Selecting the most appropriate methodology for research as a doctoral student is one of the most important yet difficult decisions. Not only should the methodology suit the research question, it is important that it resonates with the philosophy of one’s discipline and produces needed results that will contribute to knowledge. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is an approach to qua...

Background: Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is an infection that primarily affects immunocompromised hosts, including hematological patients and stem-cell transplant recipients. The diagnosis of IPA remains challenging, making desirable the availability of new specific biomarkers. High-throughput methods now allow us to interrogate the immune system for multiple markers of inflammation w...

Kinases are important therapeutic targets in oncology due to their frequent deregulation in cancer. Typical ATP-competitive kinase inhibitors, however, also inhibit off-target kinases that could lead to drug toxicity. Allosteric inhibitors represent an alternative approach to achieve greater kinase selectivity, although examples of such compounds are few. Here, we elucidate the mechanism of act...

Two ER membrane-resident transmembrane kinases, IRE1 and PERK, function as stress sensors in the unfolded protein response. IRE1 also has an endoribonuclease activity, which initiates a non-conventional mRNA splicing reaction, while PERK phosphorylates eIF2α. We engineered a potent small molecule, IPA, that binds to IRE1's ATP-binding pocket and predisposes the kinase domain to oligomerization,...

Background We evaluated the utility of galactomannan (GM) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) for the diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in nonneutropenic patients. Methods A total of 183 patients were included in the final analysis. Bronchoscopies and the detection of GM in BALF were all performed on them. Results Ten cases of IPA were diagnosed. ROC data demonstrated t...

A 12-year retrospective analysis was done to identify and evaluate in detail cases of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) caused by Aspergillus terreus. We identified 13 A. terreus infections among 133 total cases of confirmed invasive aspergillosis; 11 were IPA and 2 were primary peritoneal infections. Of the 11 patients with IPA, 7 developed neutropenia during hospitalization, and the rema...

The Intelligent Parking Assistant (IPA) system helps the user chose, find and pay for parking. IPA automatically fetches parking lot information from a relevant service, automatically assesses if the vehicle is stopped, evaluates if stopped inside a payed parking lot, and automatically initiates payment for the parking. IPA is published via the MOBiNET platform: A European-wide ITS platform off...