Oftentimes the etiological diagnostic differentiation between viral and bacterial infections is problematic, while clinical management decisions need to be made promptly upon admission. Thus, alternative rapid and sensitive diagnostic approaches need to be developed. Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) or phagocytes act as major players in the defense response of the host during an episode of infection, and thereby undergo functional changes that differ according to the infections. PMNs functional activity can be characterized by quantification and localization of respiratory burst production and assessed by chemiluminescent (CL) byproduct reaction. We have assessed the functional states of PMNs of patients with acute infections in a luminol-amplified whole blood system using the component CL approach. In this study, blood was drawn from 69 patients with fever (>38 °C), and diagnosed as mainly viral or bacterial infections in origin. Data mining algorithms (C4.5, Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Naïve Bayes) were used to induce classification models to distinguish between clinical groups. The model with the best predictive accuracy was induced using C4.5 algorithm, resulting in 94.7% accuracy on the training set and 88.9% accuracy on the testing set. The method demonstrated a high predictive diagnostic value and may assist the clinician one day in the distinction between viral and bacterial infections and the choice of proper medication.

Curing reactions of linear vinyl terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane) with a four functional hydride silane crosslinker at various stoichiometric ratios, were studied by wave propagation at ultrasonic frequencies . Longitudinal wave velocity was found to be sensitive to the covalent endlinking, and gel point in these systems.The observed changes in longitudinal wave velocity during the reaction are governed by changes in the bulk modulus of the system.

The formation of well characterized poly-dimethylsiloxane networks has been studied by means of an acoustic interferometer. The hydrosilation reaction used to form these networks was followed by infra red spectroscopy. The relative changes in velocity of the ultrasonic longitudinal waves propagating through the system are found to be very sensitive to gelation and to the density of crosslinks. Due to our simultaneous kinetic and ultrasonic studies it was possible to relate the changes in acoustic properties of the curing system directly to the cure state.