Search results for: random routing optimization technique

Authors: Peter Fedichev

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We studied fundamental aspects of aging to develop a mathematical model of gene regulatory network. We show that aging manifests itself as an inherent instability of gene network leading to exponential accumulation of regulatory errors with age. To validate our approach we studied age-dependent omic data such as transcriptomes, metabolomes etc. of different model organisms and humans. We build a computational platform based on our model to identify the targets and biomarkers of aging to design new drugs against aging and age-related diseases. As biomarkers of aging, we choose the rate of aging and the biological age since they completely determine the state of the organism. Since rate of aging rapidly changes in response to an external stress, this kind of biomarker can be useful as a tool for quantitative efficacy assessment of drugs, their combinations, dose optimization, chronic toxicity estimate, personalized therapies selection, clinical endpoints achievement (within clinical research), and death risk assessments. According to our model, we propose a method for targets identification for further interventions against aging and age-related diseases. Being a biotech company, we offer a complete pipeline to develop an anti-aging drug-candidate.

Keywords: aging, longevity, biomarkers, senescence

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Authors: Mahendrasingh J. Pawar, M. D. Gaoner

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Ta-doped Nb2O5 (Ta content 0.5-2% mole fraction) nanoparticles in the range of 20-40 nm were synthesized by combustion technique. The crystalline phase, morphology and size of the nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-vis spectroscopy. The specific surface area of the nanoparticles was measured by nitrogen adsorption (BET analysis). The undoped Nb2O5 nanoparticles were found to have the particles size in the range of 50−80 nm. The photocatalytic performance of the samples was characterized by degrading 20 mg/L toluene under UV−Vis irradiation. The results show that the Ta-doped Nb2O5 nanoparticles exhibit a significant increase in photocatalytic performance over the undoped Nb2O5 nanoparticles, and the Nb2O5 nanoparticles doped with 1.5% Ta and calcined at 450°C show the best photocatalytic performance.

Keywords: Nb2O5, Ta-doped Nb2O5, photodegradation of Toluene, combustion method

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Authors: M. Macchiaroli, V. Pellecchia, L. Dolores

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The water supply for production users (craft, commercial, industrial), understood as the set of water supply and wastewater collection services becomes an increasingly felt problem in a water scarcity regime. In fact, disputes are triggered between the different social parties for the fair and efficient use of water resources. Within this aspect, the problem arises of the different pricing of services between civil users and production users. Of particular interest is the question of defining the tariff classes depending on consumption levels. If for civil users, this theme is strongly permeated by social profiles (a topic dealt with by the author in a forthcoming research contribution) connected with the inalienability of the right to have water and with the reconciliation of the needs of the weakest groups of the population, for consumers in the production sector the logic adopted by the manager may be inspired by criteria of greater corporate rationality. This work illustrates the Italian regulatory framework and shows an optimization model of tariff classes in the production sector that reconciles the public objective of sustainable use of the resource and the needs of a production system in search of recovery after the depressing effects caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: decision making, economic evaluation, urban water management, water tariff

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Authors: Hugo Daneluzzo, Christelle Rabbat, Alan Jean-Marie

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Water electrolysis is one of the most advanced technologies for producing hydrogen and can be easily combined with electricity from different sources. Under the influence of electric current, water molecules can be split into oxygen and hydrogen. The production of hydrogen by water electrolysis favors the integration of renewable energy sources into the energy mix by compensating for their intermittence through the storage of the energy produced when production exceeds demand and its release during off-peak production periods. Among the various electrolysis technologies, anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolyser cells are emerging as a reliable technology for water electrolysis. Modeling and simulation are effective tools to save time, money, and effort during the optimization of operating conditions and the investigation of the design. The modeling and simulation become even more important when dealing with multiphysics dynamic systems. One of those systems is the AEM electrolysis cell involving complex physico-chemical reactions. Once developed, models may be utilized to comprehend the mechanisms to control and detect flaws in the systems. Several modeling methods have been initiated by scientists. These methods can be separated into two main approaches, namely equation-based modeling and graph-based modeling. The former approach is less user-friendly and difficult to update as it is based on ordinary or partial differential equations to represent the systems. However, the latter approach is more user-friendly and allows a clear representation of physical phenomena. In this case, the system is depicted by connecting subsystems, so-called blocks, through ports based on their physical interactions, hence being suitable for multiphysics systems. Among the graphical modelling methods, the bond graph is receiving increasing attention as being domain-independent and relying on the energy exchange between the components of the system. At present, few studies have investigated the modelling of AEM systems. A mathematical model and a bond graph model were used in previous studies to model the electrolysis cell performance. In this study, experimental data from literature were simulated using OpenModelica using bond graphs and mathematical approaches. The polarization curves at different operating conditions obtained by both approaches were compared with experimental ones. It was stated that both models predicted satisfactorily the polarization curves with error margins lower than 2% for equation-based models and lower than 5% for the bond graph model. The activation polarization of hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) and oxygen evolution reactions (OER) were behind the voltage loss in the AEM electrolyzer, whereas ion conduction through the membrane resulted in the ohmic loss. Therefore, highly active electro-catalysts are required for both HER and OER while high-conductivity AEMs are needed for effectively lowering the ohmic losses. The bond graph simulation of the polarisation curve for operating conditions at various temperatures has illustrated that voltage increases with temperature owing to the technology of the membrane. Simulation of the polarisation curve can be tested virtually, hence resulting in reduced cost and time involved due to experimental testing and improved design optimization. Further improvements can be made by implementing the bond graph model in a real power-to-gas-to-power scenario.

Keywords: hydrogen production, anion-exchange membrane, electrolyzer, mathematical modeling, multiphysics modeling

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Authors: Shumaila Ehtisham

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In Statistical Distribution Theory, considering an additional parameter to classical distributions is a usual practice. In this study, a new distribution referred to as α-Power Pareto distribution is introduced by including an extra parameter. Several properties of the proposed distribution including explicit expressions for the moment generating function, mode, quantiles, entropies and order statistics are obtained. Unknown parameters have been estimated by using maximum likelihood estimation technique. Two real datasets have been considered to examine the usefulness of the proposed distribution. It has been observed that α-Power Pareto distribution outperforms while compared to different variants of Pareto distribution on the basis of model selection criteria.

Keywords: α-power transformation, maximum likelihood estimation, moment generating function, Pareto distribution

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Authors: J. Y. Heo, H. G. Sung

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Numerical simulations have been performed for assessment of compressibility correction of two-equation turbulence models suitable for large scale separation flows perturbed by pintle strokes. In order to take into account pintle movement, a sliding mesh method was applied. The chamber pressure, mass flow rate, and thrust have been analyzed, and the response lag and sensitivity at the chamber and nozzle were estimated for a movable pintle. The nozzle performance for pintle reciprocating as its insertion and extraction processes, were analyzed to better understand the dynamic performance of the pintle nozzle.

Keywords: pintle, sliding mesh, turbulent model, compressibility correction

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Authors: Timothy Wale Olaosebikan

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The most active resource in any organization is the manpower. Every other resource remains inactive unless there is competent manpower to handle them. Manpower training is needed to enhance productivity and overall performance of the organizations. This is due to the recognition of the important role of manpower training in attainment of organizational goals. Corporate Compliance conjures visions of an incomprehensible matrix of laws and regulations that defy logic and control by even the most seasoned manpower training professionals. Similarly, corporate compliance can be viewed as one of the most significant problems faced in manpower training process for any organization, therefore, commands relevant attention and comprehension. Consequently, this study investigated the nexus between manpower training and corporate compliance. Collection of data for the study was effected through the use of questionnaire with a sample size of 265 drawn by stratified random sampling. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study show that about 75% of the respondents agree that there is a strong relationship between manpower training and corporate compliance, which brings out the organizational attainment from any training process. The findings further show that most organisation do not totally comply with the rules guiding manpower training process thereby making the process less effective on organizational performance, which may affect overall profitability. The study concludes that formulation and compliance of adequate rules and guidelines for manpower trainings will produce effective results for both employees and the organization at large. The study recommends that leaders of organizations, industries, and institutions must ensure total compliance on the part of both the employees and the organization to manpower training rules. Organizations and stakeholders should also ensure that strict policies on corporate compliance to manpower trainings form the heart of their cardinal mission.

Keywords: corporate compliance, manpower training, nexus, rules and guidelines

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Authors: Ikhlas Ahmed, Jamillah Zamoon

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The human receptor for advanced glycation end product is a plasma membrane receptor with an intrinsically disordered region. The protein consists of three extracellular domains, a single membrane spanning transmembrane domain, and a cytosolic domain which is intrinsically disordered and responsible for signaling. The disordered nature of the cytosolic domain allows it to be dynamic in solution. This receptor self-associates to higher forms. The association is triggered by ligand, metal or by the extracellular domain. Fluorescence spectroscopy technique is used to test the self-association of the different concentrations of the cytosolic domain. This work has concluded that the cytosolic domain of this receptor also self-associates. Moreover, the self-association does not require ligand or metal.

Keywords: fluorescence spectroscopy, hRAGE, IDP, Self-association

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Authors: Rohollah Asadian Kohestani, Nazanin Sedghi

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As the number of banks and financial institutions working in Iran has been significantly increased, the attracting and retaining customers and encouraging them to continually use the modern banking services have been important and vital issues. Therefore, there would be a serious competition without a deep perception of consumers and fitness of banking services with their needs in the current economic conditions of Iran. It should be noted that concepts such as 'brand equity' is defined based on the view of consumers; however, it is also focused by shareholders, competitors and other beneficiaries of a firm in addition to bank and its consumers. This study examines the impact of brand equity on the competitive advantage in the banking industry as intensive competition between brands of different banks leads to pay more attention to the brands. This research is based on the Aaker’s model examining the impact of four dimensions of brand equity on the competitive advantage of private banks in Behshahr city. Moreover, conducting an applied research and data analysis has been carried out by a descriptive method. Data collection was done using literature review and questionnaire. A 'simple random' methodology was selected for sampling staff of banks while sampling methodology to select consumers of banks was the distribution of questionnaire between staff and consumers of five private banks including Tejarat, Mellat, Refah K., Ghavamin and, Tose’e Ta’avon banks. Results show that there is a significant relationship between brand equity and their competitive advantage. In this research, software of SPSS 16 and LISREL 8.5, as well as different methods of descriptive inferential statistics for analyzing data and test hypotheses, were employed.

Keywords: brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand equity, competitive advantage

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Authors: Jorge A. Ruiz-Vanoye, Ocotlán Díaz-Parra, Alejandro Fuentes-Penna, José J. Hernández-Flores, Edith Olaco Garcia

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The Project Scheduling Problem (PSP) is a generic name given to a whole class of problems in which the best form, time, resources and costs for project scheduling are necessary. The PSP is an application area related to the project management. This paper aims at being a guide to understand PSP by presenting a survey of the general parameters of PSP: the Resources (those elements that realize the activities of a project), and the Activities (set of operations or own tasks of a person or organization); the mathematical models of the main variants of PSP and the algorithms used to solve the variants of the PSP. The project scheduling is an important task in project management. This paper contains mathematical models, resources, activities, and algorithms of project scheduling problems. The project scheduling problem has attracted researchers of the automotive industry, steel manufacturer, medical research, pharmaceutical research, telecommunication, industry, aviation industry, development of the software, manufacturing management, innovation and technology management, construction industry, government project management, financial services, machine scheduling, transportation management, and others. The project managers need to finish a project with the minimum cost and the maximum quality.

Keywords: PSP, Combinatorial Optimization Problems, Project Management; Manufacturing Management, Technology Management.

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Authors: Randy Price, Harbir Antil, Rainald Löhner, Fumiya Togashi

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Chemically reacting flows are common in engineering applications such as hypersonic flow, combustion, explosions, manufacturing process, and environmental assessments. The number of reactions in combustion simulations can exceed 100, making a large number of flow and combustion problems beyond the capabilities of current supercomputers. Motivated by this, deep neural networks (DNNs) will be introduced with the goal of eventually replacing the existing chemistry software packages with DNNs. The DNNs used in this paper are motivated by the Residual Neural Network (ResNet) architecture. In the continuum limit, ResNets become an optimization problem constrained by an ODE. Such a feature allows the use of ODE control techniques to enhance the DNNs. In this work, DNNs are constructed, which update the species un at the nᵗʰ timestep to uⁿ⁺¹ at the n+1ᵗʰ timestep. Parallel DNNs are trained for each species, taking in uⁿ as input and outputting one component of uⁿ⁺¹. These DNNs are applied to multiple species and reactions common in chemically reacting flows such as H₂-O₂ reactions. Experimental results show that the DNNs are able to accurately replicate the dynamics in various situations and in the presence of errors.

Keywords: chemical reacting flows, computational fluid dynamics, ODEs, residual neural networks, ResNets

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Authors: Jadwiga Klukow, Anna Ksykiewicz-Dorota

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An analysis of the distribution of nurses’ working time constitutes vital information for the management in planning employment. The objective of the study was to analyze the distribution of nurses’ working time in an emergency department. The study was conducted in an emergency department of a teaching hospital in Lublin, in Southeast Poland. The catalogue of activities performed by nurses was compiled by means of continuous observation. Identified activities were classified into four groups: Direct care, indirect care, coordination of work in the department and personal activities. Distribution of nurses’ working time was determined by work sampling observation (Tippett) at random intervals. The research project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee by the Medical University of Lublin (Protocol 0254/113/2010). On average, nurses spent 31% of their working time on direct care, 47% on indirect care, 12% on coordinating work in the department and 10% on personal activities. The most frequently performed direct care tasks were diagnostic activities – 29.23% and treatment-related activities – 27.69%. The study has provided information on the complexity of performed activities and utilization of nurses’ working time. Enhancing the effectiveness of nursing actions requires working out a strategy for improved management of the time nurses spent at work. Increasing the involvement of auxiliary staff and optimizing communication processes within the team may lead to reduction of the time devoted to indirect care for the benefit of direct care.

Keywords: emergency nurses, nursing care, workload, work sampling

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Authors: Ashwani Kumar Aggarwal

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NIR Light is non-ionizing and can pass easily through living tissues such as breast without any harmful effects. Therefore, use of NIR light for imaging the biological tissue and to quantify its optical properties is a good choice over other invasive methods. Optical tomography involves two steps. One is the forward problem and the other is the reconstruction problem. The forward problem consists of finding the measurements of transmitted light through the tissue from source to detector, given the spatial distribution of absorption and scattering properties. The second step is the reconstruction problem. In X-ray tomography, there is standard method for reconstruction called filtered back projection method or the algebraic reconstruction methods. But this method cannot be applied as such, in optical tomography due to highly scattering nature of biological tissue. A hybrid algorithm for reconstruction has been implemented in this work which takes into account the highly scattered path taken by photons while back projecting the forward data obtained during Monte Carlo simulation. The reconstructed image suffers from blurring due to point spread function. This blurred reconstructed image has been enhanced using a digital filter which is optimal in mean square sense.

Keywords: least-squares optimization, filtering, tomography, laser interaction, light scattering

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Authors: Wilson P. R. Malebye, Solly M. Seeletse

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Applicants for space in selection problems are usually compared subjectively, and the selection made are not reliable and often cannot be verified scientifically. The paper illustrates objective selection by involving a mathematical measure in selecting a candidate applying for a job, and then using other two independent measures, validates the choice made. The scientific process followed is SToR (SAW, TOPSIS, WP) in which Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) is used to select, and the TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) and weighted product (WP) are used to validate. A practical exercise was obtained from a factual selection problem in a recruitment task undertaken in an organization in which the authors consulted, and their Human Resources (HR) department wanted to check if their selection was justifiable. The result was that our approach was consistent and convincing to that HR, and theirs was not because our selection was satisfactory while theirs could not be corroborated using any method.

Keywords: candidate selection, SToR, SW, TOPSIS, WP

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Authors: Li-Xin Shi, Meng-Fei Hu, Song-Chuan Zhao

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Dense particle suspensions composed of mixtures of particles and fluid are omnipresent in natural phenomena and in industrial processes. Dense particle suspension under shear may lose its uniform state to large local density and stress fluctuations which challenge the mean-field description of the suspension system. However, it still remains largely debated and far from fully understood of the internal mechanism. Here, a dynamics of a non-Brownian suspension is explored under horizontal swirling excitations, where high-density patches appear when the excitation frequency is increased beyond a threshold. These density patches are self-assembled into a hexagonal pattern across the system with further increases in frequency. This phenomenon is underlined by the spontaneous growth of density waves (instabilities) along the flow direction, and the motion of these density waves preserves the circular path and the frequency of the oscillation. To investigate the origin of the phenomena, the constitutive relationship calibrated by independent rheological measurements is implemented into a simplified two-phase flow model. And the critical instability frequency in theory calculation matches the experimental measurements quantitatively without free parameters. By further analyzing the model, the instability is found to be closely related to the discontinuous shear thickening transition of the suspension. In addition, the long-standing density waves degenerate into random fluctuations when replacing the free surface with rigid confinement. It indicates that the shear-thickened state is intrinsically heterogeneous, and the boundary conditions are crucial for the development of local disturbance.

Keywords: dense suspension, instability, self-organization, density wave

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Authors: Sulaiman Al amro, Ali Alkhalifah

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The growing number of computer viruses and the detection of zero day malware have been the concern for security researchers for a large period of time. Existing antivirus products (AVs) rely on detecting virus signatures which do not provide a full solution to the problems associated with these viruses. The use of logic formulae to model the behaviour of viruses is one of the most encouraging recent developments in virus research, which provides alternatives to classic virus detection methods. In this paper, we proposed a comparative study about different virus detection techniques. This paper provides the advantages and drawbacks of different detection techniques. Different techniques will be used in this paper to provide a discussion about what technique is more effective to detect computer viruses.

Keywords: computer viruses, virus detection, signature-based, behaviour-based, heuristic-based

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Authors: Yanyan Zhang, Ziyu Diao, Zhentao Liu, Ruidong Yan

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The wear character of the main bearing is one of the critical indicators for the overhaul of an internal combustion engine, and the aim of this paper is to reveal the dynamic wear mechanism of the main bearings. A numerical simulation model combined multi-body dynamic equations of the engine, the average Reynolds equations of the bearing lubricant, asperity contact and wear model of the joint surfaces were established under typical operating conditions. The wear results were verified by experimental data, and then the influence of operating conditions, bearing clearance and cylinder pressure on the wear character of selected main bearings were analyzed. The results show that the contribution degree of different working conditions on the wear profile and depth of each bearing is obviously different, and the increase of joint clearance or cylinder pressure will accelerate the wear. The numerical model presented can be used to wear prognosis for joints and provide guidance for optimization design of sliding bearings.

Keywords: dynamic simulation, multi-body dynamics, sliding bearing, surface wear

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Authors: Manel Boulakoud, Abdelkader Chouaih, Fodil Hamzaoui

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In the present work we are interested in the determination of the Molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) in Z-3N(2-Ethoxyphenyl), 2-N’(2-Ethoxyphenyl) imino thiazolidin-4-one molecule by ab initio and Density Functional Theory (DFT) in the ground state. The MEP is related to the electronic density and is a very useful descriptor in understanding sites for electrophilic attack and nucleophilic reactions as well as hydrogen bonding interactions. First, geometry optimization was carried out using Hartree–Fock (HF) and DFT methods with 6-311G(d,p) basis set. In order to get more information on the molecule, its stability has been analyzed by natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis. Mulliken population analyses have been calculated. Finally, the molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) and HOMO-LUMO energy levels have been performed. The calculated HOMO and LUMO energies show also the charge transfer within the molecule. The energy gap obtained is about 4 eV which explain the stability of the studied compound. The obtained molecular electrostatic potential from the two methods confirms the nature of the electron charge transfer at the molecular shell and locate the electropositive part and the electronegative part in molecular scale of the title compound.

Keywords: DFT, ab initio, HOMO-LUMO, organic compounds

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Authors: Tayab D. Memon, Shahji Farooque, Marvi Deshi, Imtiaz Hussain Kalwar, B. S. Chowdhry

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Recently single-bit ternary FIR-like filter (SBTFF) hardware synthesize in FPGA is reported and compared with multi-bit FIR filter on similar spectral characteristics. Results shows that SBTFF dominates upon multi-bit filter overall. In this paper, an optimized adder module for ternary quantized sigma-delta modulated signal is presented. The adder is simulated using ModelSim for functional verification the area-performance of the proposed adder were obtained through synthesis in Xilinx and compared to conventional adder trees. The synthesis results show that the proposed adder tree achieves higher clock rates and lower chip area at higher inputs to the adder block; whereas conventional adder tree achieves better performance and lower chip area at lower number of inputs to the same adder block. These results enhance the usefulness of existing short word length DSP algorithms for fast and efficient mobile communication.

Keywords: short word length (SWL), DSP algorithms, FPGA, SBTFF, VHDL

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Authors: László Forró

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The organolead halide perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 and its derivatives are known to be very efficient light harvesters revolutionizing the field of solid-state solar cells. The major research area in this field is photovoltaic device engineering although other applications are being explored, as well. Recently, we have shown that nanowires of this photovoltaic perovskite can be synthesized which in association with carbon nanostructures (carbon nanotubes and graphene) make outstanding composites with rapid and strong photo-response. They can serve as conducting electrodes, or as central components of detectors. The performance of several miniature devices based on these composite structures will be demonstrated. Our latest findings on the guided growth of perovskite nanowires by solvatomorph graphoepitaxy will be presented. This method turned out to be a fairly simple approach to overcome the spatially random surface nucleation. The process allows the synthesis of extremely long (centimeters) and thin (a few nanometers) nanowires with a morphology defined by the shape of nanostructured open fluidic channels. This low-temperature solution-growth method could open up an entirely new spectrum of architectural designs of organometallic-halide-perovskite-based heterojunctions and tandem solar cells, LEDs and other optoelectronic devices. Acknowledgment: This work is done in collaboration with Endre Horvath, Massimo Spina, Alla Arakcheeva, Balint Nafradi, Eric Bonvin1, Andrzej Sienkievicz, Zsolt Szekrenyes, Hajnalka Tohati, Katalin Kamaras, Eduard Tutis, Laszlo Mihaly and Karoly Holczer The research is supported by the ERC Advanced Grant (PICOPROP670918).

Keywords: photovoltaics, perovskite, nanowire, photodetector

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Authors: Byoung-Hee Lee

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Wireless battery charger with adaptive rapid charging algorithm is proposed. The proposed wireless charger adopts voltage regulation technique to reduce the number of power conversion steps. Moreover, based on battery models, an adaptive rapid charging algorithm for Li-ion batteries is obtained. Rapid-charging performance with the proposed wireless battery charger and the proposed rapid charging algorithm has been experimentally verified to show more than 70% charging time reduction compared to conventional constant-current constant-voltage (CC-CV) charging without the degradation of battery lifetime.

Keywords: wireless, battery charger, adaptive, rapid-charging

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Authors: Jennifer Leach, Umashanger Thayasivam

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The use of technology has benefited society in more ways than one ever thought possible. Unfortunately, though, as society’s knowledge of technology has advanced, so has its knowledge of ways to use technology to manipulate people. This has led to a simultaneous advancement in the world of fraud. Machine learning techniques can offer a possible solution to help decrease this advancement. This research explores how the use of various machine learning techniques can aid in detecting fraudulent activity across two different types of fraudulent data, and the accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 were recorded for each method. Each machine learning model was also tested across five different training and testing splits in order to discover which testing split and technique would lead to the most optimal results.

Keywords: data science, fraud detection, machine learning, supervised learning

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Authors: Tsegaw Abebe, Temesgen Abebe

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Land degradation is one of a serious environmental challenge in Ethiopia and is one of the major underlying causes for declining agricultural productivity. The Ethiopia government realized the significance of environmental restoration specifically on deforested and degraded land after the 1973 and 1984/85 major famines that struck the country. Among the various conservation strategies, the establishment of area exclosures have been regarded as an effective response to halt and reverse the problems of land degradation. There are limited studies in Ethiopia dealing how the conversion of free grazing lands and degraded lands by closures increase biomass accumulation. However, these studies are not sufficient to conclude about the strength of area closures to restore degraded vegetations at the diverse agro-ecological condition. The overall objective of this study was, therefore, to assess and evaluate the usefulness of area closure technique in enhancing rehabilitation of degraded ecosystem and thereby increase the natural capital in the study site (southern Ethiopia). Woody plant species were collected from area exclosure for eight year and adjacent degraded land with similar landscape positions using systematic sampling plot design technique. Woody species diversity was determined by Shannon diversity. Comparative assessment result of woody plant species analysis showed that the density of woody species in the exclosure and degraded site were 778 and 222 individuals per hectare, respectively. A total of 16 woody species, representing 12 families were recorded in the study site. Out of the 12 families, all were recorded in the exclosure while 5 were recorded in the degraded site. Out of the 16 species, 15 were recorded in the exclosure while six were in the degraded site. A total of 10 species were recorded in the exclosure, which were absent in the degraded site. Similarly, one species was recorded in the degraded site which was not present in the exclosure. The results showed that protecting of degraded site from human and animal disturbances promotes woody plant species regenerations and productivity Apart from increasing woody plant species, the local communities have benefited from the exclosure in the form of both products (grass harvesting) and services (ecological). Due to this reason the local communities have positive attitudes and contribute a lot for the success of enclosures in the study site. The present study clearly showed that area closure interventions should be oriented towards managing and improving the productivity of the degraded land, in such a way that both the need for conservation of biodiversity and environmental sustainability, and the demands of the local people for biomass resources can be achieved.

Keywords: degraded land, exclosure, land restoration, woody vegetation

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Authors: Siobhan O’Shea, Sangeetha Vijaysri Nair, Hee Cheol Kim, Charles Thomas Nugent, Cheuk Yan William Tong, Sam Douthwaite, Andrew Worlock

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The Aptima® HIV-1 Quant Dx Assay is a fully automated assay on the Panther system. It is based on Transcription-Mediated Amplification and real time detection technologies. This assay is intended for monitoring HIV-1 viral load in plasma specimens and for the detection of HIV-1 in plasma and serum specimens. Nine-hundred and seventy nine specimens selected at random from routine testing at St Thomas’ Hospital, London were anonymised and used to compare the performance of the Aptima HIV-1 Quant Dx assay and Roche COBAS® AmpliPrep/COBAS® TaqMan® HIV-1 Test, v2.0. Two-hundred and thirty four specimens gave quantitative HIV-1 viral load results in both assays. The quantitative results reported by the Aptima Assay were comparable those reported by the Roche COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 Test, v2.0 with a linear regression slope of 1.04 and an intercept on -0.097. The Aptima assay detected HIV-1 in more samples than the Roche assay. This was not due to lack of specificity of the Aptima assay because this assay gave 99.83% specificity on testing plasma specimens from 600 HIV-1 negative individuals. To understand the reason for this higher detection rate a side-by-side comparison of low level panels made from the HIV-1 3rd international standard (NIBSC10/152) and clinical samples of various subtypes were tested in both assays. The Aptima assay was more sensitive than the Roche assay. The good sensitivity, specificity and agreement with other commercial assays make the HIV-1 Quant Dx Assay appropriate for both viral load monitoring and detection of HIV-1 infections.

Keywords: HIV viral load, Aptima, Roche, Panther system

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Authors: Kunthida Kulprateepunya, Napat Boontiam, Bunthita Phuasa, Chatsuda Kankayant, Bantoeng Polsawat, Sumran Poontong

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Frailty is the thin line between good health and illness. The syndrome is more common in the elderly who transition from strong to weak. (Vulnerability). Fragility can prevent and promote healthy recovery before it goes into disability. This research and development aim to analyze the situation analysis of frailty of the elderly, develop a program, and evaluate the effect of a health promotion program to prevent and solve the problem of frailty among the elderly. The research consisted of 3 phases: 1) analysis of the frailty situation, 2) development of a model, 3) evaluation of the effectiveness of the model. Samples were 328, 122 elderlies using the multi-stage random sampling method. The research instrument was a frailty questionnaire use of the five symptoms, the main characteristics were muscle weakness, slow walking, low physical activity. Fatigue and unintentional weight loss, criteria frailty use more than or equal to three or more symptoms are frailty. Data were analyzed by descriptive and t-test dependent test statistics. The findings showed three parts. First, frailty in the elderly was 23.05 percentage and 56.70% pre-frailty. Second, it was development of a health promotion program to prevent and solve the problem of frailty the elderly with a combination of Nine-Square Exercise, Elastic Band Exercise, Elastic Coconut Shell. Third, evaluation of the effectiveness of the model by comparison of the elderly's get up and go test, the average time before using the program was 14.42 and after using the program was 8.57. It was statistically significant at the .05 level. In conclusion, the findings can used to develop guidelines to promote the health of the frailty elderly.

Keywords: elderly, fragile, nine-square exercise, elastic coconut shell

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Authors: S. Mahovic Poljacek, T. Tomasegovic, T. Cigula, D. Donevski, R. Szentgyörgyvölgyi, S. Jakovljevic

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In this paper, a degradation of the photopolymeric material (PhPM), used as printing plate in the flexography reproduction technique, caused by accelerated aging has been observed. Since the basis process for production of printing plates from the PhPM is a radical cross-linking process caused by exposing to UV wavelengths, the assumption was that improper storage or irregular handling of the PhPM plate can change the surface and structure characteristics of the plates. Results have shown that the aging process causes degradation in the structure and changes in the surface of the PhPM printing plate.

Keywords: aging process, artificial treatment, flexography, photopolymeric material (PhPM)

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Authors: Christopher G. Harris, Guy D. Eslick

Abstract:

Purpose: Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) is a known risk factor for breast cancer of unclear significance when detected in association with invasive carcinoma. This meta-analysis aims to determine the impact of LCIS on local recurrence risk for individuals with breast cancer treated with breast conservation therapy to help guide appropriate treatment strategies. Methods: We identified relevant studies from five electronic databases. Studies were deemed suitable for inclusion where they compared patients with invasive breast cancer and concurrent LCIS to those with breast cancer alone, all patients underwent breast conservation therapy (lumpectomy with adjuvant radiation therapy), and local recurrence was evaluated. Recurrence data were pooled by use of a random effects model. Results: From 1488 citations screened by our search, 8 studies were deemed suitable for inclusion. These studies comprised of 908 cases and 10638 controls. Median follow-up time was 90 months. There was a significantly increased overall risk of local breast cancer recurrence for individuals with LCIS in association with breast cancer following breast conservation therapy [pOR 1.87; 95% CI 1.14-3.04; p = 0.012]. The risk of local recurrence was non-significantly increased at 5 [pOR 1.09; 95% CI 0.48-2.48; p = 0.828] and 10 years [pOR 1.90; 95% CI 0.89-4.06; p = 0.096]. Conclusions: Individuals with LCIS in association with invasive breast cancer have an increased risk of local recurrence following breast conservation therapy. This supports consideration of aggressive local control of LCIS by way of completion mastectomy or re-excision for certain high-risk patients.

Keywords: breast cancer, breast conservation therapy, lobular carcinoma in situ, lobular neoplasia, local recurrence, meta-analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: M. Pomianek, M. Piszczek, M. Maciejewski

Abstract:

The binocular eye tracking technology is increasingly being used in industry, entertainment and marketing analysis. In the case of virtual reality, eye tracking systems are already the basis for user interaction with the environment. In such systems, the high accuracy of determining the user's eye fixation point is very important due to the specificity of the virtual reality head-mounted display (HMD). Often, however, there are unknown errors occurring in the used eye tracking technology, as well as those resulting from the positioning of the devices in relation to the user's eyes. However, can the virtual environment itself influence estimation errors? The paper presents mathematical analyses and empirical studies of the determination of the fixation point and errors resulting from the change in the size of the pupil in response to the intensity of the displayed scene. The article contains both static laboratory tests as well as on the real user. Based on the research results, optimization solutions were proposed that would reduce the errors of gaze estimation errors. Studies show that errors in estimating the fixation point of vision can be minimized both by improving the pupil positioning algorithm in the video image and by using more precise methods to calibrate the eye tracking system in three-dimensional space.

Keywords: eye tracking, fixation point, pupil size, virtual reality

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: M. Kharrat, G. Moreau, Z. Aboura

Abstract:

The latest advances in the weaving industry, combined with increasingly sophisticated means of materials processing, have made it possible to produce complex 3D composite structures. Mainly used in aeronautics, composite materials with 3D architecture offer better mechanical properties than 2D reinforced composites. Nevertheless, these materials require a good understanding of their behavior. Because of the complexity of such materials, the damage mechanisms are multiple, and the scenario of their appearance and evolution depends on the nature of the exerted solicitations. The AE technique is a well-established tool for discriminating between the damage mechanisms. Suitable sensors are used during the mechanical test to monitor the structural health of the material. Relevant AE-features are then extracted from the recorded signals, followed by a data analysis using pattern recognition techniques. In order to better understand the damage scenarios of interlock composite materials, a multi-instrumentation was set-up in this work for tracking damage initiation and development, especially in the vicinity of the first significant damage, called macro-damage. The deployed instrumentation includes video-microscopy, Digital Image Correlation, Acoustic Emission (AE) and micro-tomography. In this study, a multi-variable AE data analysis approach was developed for the discrimination between the different signal classes representing the different emission sources during testing. An unsupervised classification technique was adopted to perform AE data clustering without a priori knowledge. The multi-instrumentation and the clustered data served to label the different signal families and to build a learning database. This latter is useful to construct a supervised classifier that can be used for automatic recognition of the AE signals. Several materials with different ingredients were tested under various solicitations in order to feed and enrich the learning database. The methodology presented in this work was useful to refine the damage threshold for the new generation materials. The damage mechanisms around this threshold were highlighted. The obtained signal classes were assigned to the different mechanisms. The isolation of a 'noise' class makes it possible to discriminate between the signals emitted by damages without resorting to spatial filtering or increasing the AE detection threshold. The approach was validated on different material configurations. For the same material and the same type of solicitation, the identified classes are reproducible and little disturbed. The supervised classifier constructed based on the learning database was able to predict the labels of the classified signals.

Keywords: acoustic emission, classifier, damage mechanisms, first damage threshold, interlock composite materials, pattern recognition

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: M. Bouinoun, M. Bouhadef

Abstract:

The present study is concerned with the problem of determining the shape of the free surface flow in a hydraulic channel which has an uneven bottom. For the mathematical formulation of the problem, the fluid of the two-dimensional irrotational steady flow in water is assumed inviscid and incompressible. The solutions of the nonlinear problem are obtained by using the usual conformal mapping theory and Hilbert’s technique. An experimental study, for comparing the obtained results, has been conducted in a hydraulic channel (subcritical regime and supercritical regime).

Keywords: free-surface flow, experiments, numerical method, uneven bottom, supercritical regime, subcritical regime

Procedia PDF Downloads 372