-In this paper we compare the cascade mechanisms of signal amplification in biological and electrical engineering systems, and show that they share the capacity to considerably amplify signals, and respond to signal changes both quickly and completely, which effectively preserves the form of the input signal. For biological systems, these characteristics are crucial for efficient and reliable cellular signalling. We show that this highly-efficient biological mechanism of signal amplification that has naturally evolved is mathematically fully equivalent with some man-developed amplifiers, which indicates parallels between biological evolution and successful technology development.

The growth of poultry meat production is increasing industrial waste quantities every year. Feathers represent a huge part of the waste, and international directives and restrictions prevent landfilling of such biodegradable materials with high burning values. Furthermore, with their unique properties, poultry waste feathers are already a reliable resource for many byproducts, such as keratin extraction, fibres, hydrogel production, etc., all trying to achieve a high-added value. However, mass reduction of waste feathers into useful applications, such as development of alternative building materials, is also an important aspect. To take advantage of feathers’ thermal insulation capabilities, sound damping, and biodegradability, we worked towards mixing waste feathers with wood residues (wood shavings, dust, and mixed residues) for production of composite fibreboards, comparable to the market’s medium density fibreboards. The emphasis was to evaluate waste poultry feathers as the component of natural insulation composites, along with mixed waste wood residues, to improve their mechanical properties. Various composite fibreboards with different shares of wood and feathers were produced and tested for mechanical, thermal, and acoustic properties, and biodegradability, with comparison to typical particle boards on the market. The addition of waste feather fibres into the fibreboards` structure improved thermal insulation properties, and the biodegradability of fibreboards, but decreased their bending strength. The sound transition acoustic loss results of the presented combination fibreboards with added feathers improved at mid and high frequencies. Finally, production costs are estimated based on small scale laboratory experiments of feather processing (cleaning and drying), with the assumption of cost reduction in cases of large industrial application.

The fast-growing incidence of skin cancer, especially melanoma, is the guiding principle for intense development of various digital image-capturing devices providing easier recognition of melanoma by dermatologists. Handheld and digital dermoscopy, following of mole changes with smartphones and digital analysing of mole images, is based on evaluation of the colours, shape and deep structures in the skin moles. Incorrect colour information of an image, under- or overexposed images, lack of sharpness and low resolution of the images, can lead to melanoma misdiagnosis. The purpose of our study was to determine the colour error in the image according to the given lighting conditions and different camera settings. We focused on measuring the image quality parameters of smartphones and high-resolution cameras to compare them with the results of state-of-the-art dermoscopy device systems. We applied standardised measuring methods. The spatial frequency response method was applied for measuring the sharpness and resolution of the tested camera systems. Colour images with known reference values were captured from the test target, to evaluate colour error as a CIELAB (Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage) ΔE*ab colour difference as seen by a human observer. The results of our measurements yielded two significant findings. First, all tested cameras produced inaccurate colours when operating in automatic mode, and second, the amount of sharpening was too intensive. These deficiencies can be eliminated through adjusting the camera parameters manually or by image post-production. The presented two-step camera calibration procedure improves the colour accuracy of captured clinical and dermoscopy images significantly.

SummaryBackground: Disease registries rely on consistent electronic data capturing (EDC) pertinent to their objectives; either by using existing electronic data as far as available, or by implementing specific software solutions.Objectives: To describe the current practice of an international disease registry (European Surveillance System on Contact Allergies, ESSCA, www.essca-dc.org) against different state of the art approaches for EDC.Methods: Since 2002, ESSCA is collecting data, currently from 53 departments in 12 countries. Departmental EDC software ranges from spreadsheets to comprehensive “patch test software” based on a relational database. In the Erlangen data centre, such diverse data is imported, converted to a common format, quality checked and pooled for scientific analyses.Results: Feed-back to participating departments for quality control is provided by standardised reports. Varying author teams publish scientific analyses addressing the objective of contact allergy surveillance.Conclusions: Although ESSCA represents a historically grown, heterogeneous network and not one unified approach to EDC, some of its features have contributed to its viability in the last 12 years and may be useful to consider for similar investigator-initiated networks.

Background A considerable share of patients tested with a baseline patch test series respond with a positive reaction to more than one allergen, and some associations between synchronous positive reactions to distinct baseline patch allergens have been described in the literature. Objectives To evaluate the prevalence of sensitization to haptens of the European baseline series as well as the prevalence of oligosensitization and polysensitization and the most significant associated positive patch test reactions in Slovenia. Methods Patch testing data collected by the Slovenian E‐Surveillance System from January 2008 to December 2017 were retrospectively analysed. Results Of a total of 15 171 patients analysed, 39.29% showed at least one positive reaction. The highest prevalences were noted for metals (nickel[II]sulfate hexahydrate: 16.33%) and fragrances (fragrance mix I: 6.70%). The correlation analysis showed the strongest correlation between mercapto mix and 2‐mercaptobenzothiazole (61.2%), fragrance Mix II and hydroxyisohexyl 3‐cyclohexene carboxaldehyde (50.5%), and potassium dichromate and cobalt(II) chloride hexahydrate (33.3%). Conclusions Sensitization prevalences to the most common haptens were described, and their strongest correlations on a national level quantified. A comparison with other European results confirms already known associations between allergens in terms of cross‐reactivity.