Search results for: basal metabolic rate

Authors: Deniz Dincel, Sena Ardicli, Hale Samli, Mustafa Ogan, Faruk Balci

Abstract:

The aim of the study was to determine the effects of some environmental and genetic factors on growth, fertility traits, milk yield and composition in Saanen goats. For this purpose, the total of 173 Saanen goats and kids were investigated for growth, fertility and milk traits in Marmara Region of Turkey. Fertility parameters (n=70) were evaluated during two years. Milk samples were collected during the lactation and the milk yield/components (n=59) of each goat were calculated. In terms of CSN3 and AGPAT6 gene; the genotypes were defined by PCR-RFLP. Saanen kids (n=86-112) were measured from birth to 6 months of life. The birth, weaning, 60ᵗʰ, 90ᵗʰ, 120ᵗʰ and 180tᵗʰ days of average live weights were calculated. The effects of maternal age on pregnancy rate (p < 0.05), birth rate (p < 0.05), infertility rate (p < 0.05), single born kidding (p < 0.001), twinning rate (p < 0.05), triplet rate (p < 0.05), survival rate of kids until weaning (p < 0.05), number of kids per parturition (p < 0.01) and number of kids per mating (p < 0.01) were found significant. The impacts of year on birth rate (p < 0.05), abortion rate (p < 0.001), single born kidding (p < 0.01), survival rate of kids until weaning (p < 0.01), number of kids per mating (p < 0.01) were found significant for fertility traits. The impacts of lactation length on all milk yield parameters (lactation milk, protein, fat, totally solid, solid not fat, casein and lactose yield) (p < 0.001) were found significant. The effects of age on all milk yield parameters (lactation milk, protein, fat, total solid, solid not fat, casein and lactose yield) (p < 0.001), protein rate (p < 0.05), fat rate (p < 0.05), total solid rate (p < 0.01), solid not fat rate (p < 0.05), casein rate (p < 0.05) and lactation length (p < 0.01), were found significant too. However, the effect of AGPAT6 gene on milk yield and composition was not found significant in Saanen goats. The herd was found monomorphic (FF) for CSN3 gene. The effects of sex on live weights until 90ᵗʰ days of life (birth, weaning and 60ᵗʰ day of average weight) were found significant statistically (p < 0.001). The maternal age affected only birth weight (p < 0,001). The effects month at birth on all of the investigated day [the birth, 120ᵗʰ, 180ᵗʰ days (p < 0.05); the weaning, 60ᵗʰ, 90ᵗʰ days (p < 0,001)] were found significant. The birth type was found significant on the birth (p < 0,001), weaning (p < 0,01), 60ᵗʰ (p < 0,01) and 90ᵗʰ (p < 0,01) days of average live weights. As a result, screening the other regions of CSN3, AGPAT6 gene and also investigation the phenotypic association of them should be useful to clarify the efficiency of target genes. Environmental factors such as maternal age, year, sex and birth type were found significant on some growth, fertility and milk traits in Saanen goats. So consideration of these factors could be used as selection criteria in dairy goat breeding.

Keywords: fertility, growth, milk yield, Saanen goats

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: R. Marandi, H. Shahrir, T. Nejad Ghaffar Borhani, M. Kamaruddin

Abstract:

In the present study, a steady state population balance model was developed to predict the polymer particle size distribution (PSD) in ethylene gas phase fluidized bed olefin polymerization reactors. The multilayer polymeric flow model (MPFM) was used to calculate the growth rate of a single polymer particle under intra-heat and mass transfer resistance. The industrial plant data were used to calculate the growth rate of polymer particle and the polymer PSD. Numerical simulations carried out to describe the influence of effective monomer diffusion coefficient, polymerization rate and initial catalyst size on the catalyst particle growth and final polymer PSD. The results present that the intra-heat and mass limitation is important for the ethylene polymerization, the growth rate of particle and the polymer PSD in the fluidized bed reactor. The effect of the agglomeration on the PSD is also considered. The result presents that the polymer particle size distribution becomes broader as the agglomeration exits.

Keywords: population balance, olefin polymerization, fluidized bed reactor, particle size distribution, agglomeration

Procedia PDF Downloads 316

Authors: R. S. Rajpurohit, N. C. Santhi Srinivas, Vakil Singh

Abstract:

Asymmetric stress cycling leads to accumulation of plastic strain which is called as ratcheting strain. The problem is generally associated with nuclear fuel cladding materials used in nuclear power plants and pressurized pipelines. In the present investigation, asymmetric stress controlled fatigue tests were conducted with three different parameters namely, mean stress, stress amplitude and stress rate (keeping two parameters constant and varying third parameter) to see the plastic strain accumulation and its effect on fatigue life and deformation behavior of Zircaloy-2 at 400°C. The tests were conducted with variable mean stress (45-70 MPa), stress amplitude (95-120 MPa) and stress rate (30-750 MPa/s) and tested specimens were characterized using transmission and scanning electron microscopy. The experimental results show that with the increase in mean stress and stress amplitude, the ratcheting strain accumulation increases with reduction in fatigue life. However, increase in stress rate leads to improvement in fatigue life of the material due to small ratcheting strain accumulation. Fractographs showed a decrease in area fraction of fatigue failed region.

Keywords: asymmetric cyclic loading, ratcheting fatigue, mean stress, stress amplitude, stress rate, plastic strain

Procedia PDF Downloads 246

Authors: Omar bin Mihat

Abstract:

The number of sudden deaths is increasing over the past years. These deaths occur not during physical activities but upon cessation. Post-mortem confirms these deaths as cardiac arrest non-specifically. Congenital heart disease is a condition undiagnosed whereby only surface upon physical exertion leading to sudden death is unavoidable. Channelopathy, a condition that refers to any disease from the defect in iron-channel function, particularly the sodium-potassium pump, during the cessation of the exercise can be controlled. The derivation of heart rate return (HRrtn) is a procedure of a control cooling down process according to the heart rate (HR). Empirically, potassium rises linearly with intensity and falls sharply upon abrupt cessation of exertion, resulting in fatal arrhythmia due to hypokalaemia. It is vital that the flux of potassium should be maintained within the normal range during physical activities. To achieve this, the dosage of physical exertion (exercise) should be identified. Various percentages of the intensity of maximum heart rate (MHR) will precipitate different adaptations and remodeling of various organs. 70% of MHR will surface physiological adaptations, including enhancement of endurance, fitness level, and general health, and there was no significant rise of serum potassium (K+) during the entire phase of the treadmill brisk walk at a different rate of perceived exertion (RPE) from the subject of various fitness background. There was also no significant rise in blood pressure (BP) during the entire phase of the treadmill brisk walk, substantiating 70% MHR is the safe dosage across different parameters of health and fitness level.

Keywords: potassium, maximal heart rate, exercise dosage, fitness level

Procedia PDF Downloads 48

Authors: Chayarat Tantanasarit, Sandhya Babel

Abstract:

Green mussels (Perna viridis) can effectively remove nutrients from seawater through their filtration process. This study aims to estimate 'net' nutrient removal rate by green mussel through calculation of nutrient uptake and release. Nutrients (carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus) uptake was calculated based on the mussel filtration rate. Nutrient release was evaluated from carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus released as mussel feces. By subtracting nutrient release from nutrient uptake, net nutrient removal by green mussel can be found as 3302, 380 and 124 mg/year/indv. Mass balance model was employed to simulate nutrient removal in actual green mussel farming conditions. Mussels farm area, seawater flow rate and amount of mussels were considered in the model. Results show that although larger quantity of green mussel farms lead to higher nutrient removal rate, the maximum green mussel cultivation should be taken into consideration as nutrients released through mussel excretion can strongly affect marine ecosystem.

Keywords: carbon, ecretion, filtration, nitrogen, phosphorus

Procedia PDF Downloads 381

Authors: Rishikesh Yadav, Ramakanta Meher, Vishnu Narayan Mishra

Abstract:

The main aim of this article is to investigate the statistical convergence of the summation of integral type operators and to obtain the weighted statistical convergence. The rate of statistical convergence by means of modulus of continuity and function belonging to the Lipschitz class are also studied. We discuss the convergence of the defined operators by graphical representation and put a better rate of convergence than the Szasz-Mirakjan-Kantorovich operators. In the last section, we extend said operators into bivariate operators to study about the rate of convergence in sense of modulus of continuity and by means of Lipschitz class by using function of two variables.

Keywords: The Szasz-Mirakjan-Kantorovich operators, statistical convergence, modulus of continuity, Peeters K-functional, weighted modulus of continuity

Procedia PDF Downloads 191

Authors: Kina Kim

Abstract:

Background: There are two types of interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) in use for the detection of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-tube (QFT-GIT) and T-SPOT.TB. There are some reports that IGRA results are affected by the patient's age. This study aims to compare the results of both IGRA tests according to age groups. Methods: We reviewed 54,882 samples referred to an independent reference laboratory (Seegene Medical Foundation, Seoul, Korea) for the diagnosis of LTBI from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021. This retrospective study enrolled 955 patients tested using QFT-GIT and 53,927 patients tested using T-SPOT.TB. The results of both IGRAs were divided in three age groups (0-9, 10-17, and ≥18-year old). The positive rates and the indeterminate rates between QFT-GIT and T-SPOT.TB were compared. We also evaluated the differences in positive and indeterminate rates by age-group. Results: The positive rate of QFT-GIT was 20.1% (192/955) and that of T-SPOT.TB was 8.7% (4704/53927) in overall patients. The positive rates of QFT-GIT in individuals aged 0-9, 10-17, and over 18-year old were 15.4%, 13.3%, and 22.0%, respectively. The positive rates of T-SPOT.TB were 8.9%, 2.0% and 8.8%,in each agegroup, respectively.The overall prevalence of indeterminate results was 2.1% (20/955) of QFT-GIT and 0.5% (270/53927) of T-SPOT.TB. The indeterminate rates of QFT-GIT in individuals aged 0-9, 10-17, and over 18 years were 0.4%, 6.7%, and 2.6%, respectively. The indeterminate rate of T-SPOT.TB were 0.5%, 0.7% and 0.5%,in each age group, respectively. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that T-SPOT.TB has a lower rate of positive results in overall patients and a lower rate of indeterminate results than those of QFT-GIT. The highest positive rate was found in the over 18 years group for QFT-GIT, but the positive rates of T-SPOT.TB was not significantly different among groups by age. QFT-GIT showed variable and higher indeterminate rates according to age group, but T-SPOT.TB showed lower rates in all age groups(<1%).

Keywords: LTBI, IGRA, QFT-GIT, T-SPOT. TB

Procedia PDF Downloads 99

Authors: Larbi Hammadi, N. Boudjenane, N. Benhallou, R. Houjedje, R. Reffis, M. Belhadri

Abstract:

Many of clays exhibited the thixotropic behavior in which, the apparent viscosity of material decreases with time of shearing at constant shear rate. The structural kinetic model (SKM) was used to characterize the thixotropic behavior of two different kinds of clays used in fabrication of ceramic. Clays selected for analysis represent the fluid and semisolid clays materials. The SKM postulates that the change in the rheological behavior is associated with shear-induced breakdown of the internal structure of the clays. This model for the structure decay with time at constant shear rate assumes nth order kinetics for the decay of the material structure with a rate constant.

Keywords: ceramic, clays, structural kinetic model, thixotropy, viscosity

Procedia PDF Downloads 392

Authors: Liqun Zou, Ling Wang, Xiaoli Chen

Abstract:

Objective: Through the questionnaire about emergency nurses’ knowledge and attitudes regarding pain management to understand whether they are well mastered and practiced the related knowledge about pain management, providing a reference for continuous improvement of the quality of nursing care in acute pain and for improving the effect of management on emergency pain patients. Method: The Chinese version questionnaire about KASRP (knowledge and attitudes survey regarding pain) was handed out to 132 emergency nurses to do a study about the knowledge and attitude of pain management. Meanwhile, SPSS17.0 was used to do a descriptive analysis and variance analysis on collected data. Results: The emergency nurses’ correct answer rate about KASRP questionnaire is from 25% to 65% and the average correct rate is (44.65 + 7.85)%. In addition, there are 10 to 26 items being given the right answer. Therefore, the average correct items are (17.86 ± 3.14). Moreover, there is no statistical significant on the differences about the correct rate for different age, gender and work experience to answer; however, the difference of the correct rate in different education background and the professional title is significant. Conclusion: There is a remarkable lack of knowledge and attitude towards pain management in emergency nurses, whose basic knowledge of pain is sufficient. Besides, there is a deviation between the knowledge of pain management and clinical practice, which needs to be improved.

Keywords: emergency nurse, pain, KASRP questionnaire, pain management

Procedia PDF Downloads 235

Authors: Mansour Hadji Hosseinlou, Alireza Mahdavi

Abstract:

Transportation is one of any society's needs which have developed after improving economically and socially and is one of civilization symbols today. Although it is so useful for human, it leads to many serious harms and injuries. The development of communication system and building new roads has resulted in increasing the rate of accidents; therefore, in practice, this increasing rate has decreased the advantages of transportation. Traffic accidents are one of the causes of death, serious financial and bodily harms and its significant social, economic and cultural consequences threatens the societies seriously. Iran's ground transportation system is one of the most eventful transportation systems in the world and mortality rate and financial harms cost too much for the country in national aspect. Therefore, we have presented a data collection by referring to recorded statistics of the accidents occurred in freeways from 2013 to 2015. These statistics are recorded in different related databases, generally police and road transportation system. The data is separated and arranged in tables and after preparing, processing and prioritizing the factors, the achieved collection is presented to the departments, managers and researchers to help them suggest practical solutions.

Keywords: freeways’ accidents, humane causes, death, tiredness, drowsiness

Procedia PDF Downloads 180

Authors: Chakrit Chotamonsak

Abstract:

This study was analyzed changes in temperature and precipitation extremes in northern Thailand for the period 1981-2011.The study includes an analysis of the average and trends of changes in temperature and precipitation using 22 climate indices, related to the intensity, frequency and duration of extreme climate events. The results showed that the averaged trend of maximum, minimum and mean temperature is likely to increase over the study area in rate of 0.5, 0.9 and 0.7 °C in last 30 years. Changes in temperature at nighttime, then rising at a rate higher daytime is resulting to decline of diurnal temperature range throughout the area. Trend of changes in average precipitation during the year 1981-2011 is expected to increase at an average rate of 21%. The intensity of extreme temperature events is increasing almost all station. In particular, the changes of the night were unusually hot has intensified throughout the region. In some provinces such as Chiang Mai and Lampang are likely be faced with the severity of hot days and hot nights in increasing rate. Frequency of extreme temperature events are likely to increase each station, especially hot days, and hot nights are increasing at a rate of 2.38 and 3.58 days per decade. Changes in the cold days and cold nights are declining at a rate of 0.82 and 3.03 days per decade. The duration of extreme temperature events is expected to increase the events hot in every station. An average of 17.8 days per decade for the number of consecutive cold winter nights likely shortens the rate of 2.90 days per decade. The analysis of the precipitation indices reveals the intensity of extreme precipitation is increasing almost across the region. The intensify expressed the heavy rain in one day (Rx1day) and very heavy rain accumulated in 5 days (RX5day) which is likely to increase, and very heavy rainfall is likely to increase in intensity. Frequency of extreme precipitation events is likely to increase over the station. The average frequency of heavy precipitation events increased xxx days per decade. The duration of extreme precipitation events, such as the consecutive dry days are likely to reduce the numbers almost all station while the consecutive wet days tends to increase and decrease at different numbers in different areas.

Keywords: climate extreme, temperature extreme, precipitation extreme, Northern Thailand

Procedia PDF Downloads 268

Authors: Pablo Cid Galache, Laura Zamorano Bonilla

Abstract:

Mauriac syndrome (MS) is a rare complication of type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1). It is rela-ted to low insulin concentrations. Therefore is a complication mainly found in developing countries. The main clinical features are hepatomegaly, edema, growth and puberty delay, and the presence of elevated transaminases and serum lipids. The MS incidence is de-creasing due to the new types of insulin and intensive glycemic control. Therefore is a rare diagnosis in Europe nowadays, being described mainly in developing countries or with so-cioeconomic limitations to guarantee an adequate management of diabetes. Edema secondary to fluid retention is a rare complication of insulin treatment, especially in young patients. Its severity is variable and is mainly related to the start of a proper treatment and the improvement in glycemic control after diagnosis or after periods of poor metabolic control. Edema resolves spontaneously without requiring treatment in most cases. The Pediatric Endocrinology Unit of Hospital Motril could diagnose a 14-year-old girl who presented very poor metabolic control during the last 3 years as a consequence of the socioeconomic conditions of the country of origin during the last years. Presents up to 4 admissions for ketoacidosis during the last 12 months. After the family moved to Spain our patient began to be followed up in our Hospital. Initially presented glycated hemoglobin figures of 11%. One week after the start of treatment, the patient was admitted in the emergency room due to the appearance of generalized edema and pain in the limbs. The main laboratory abnormalities include: blood glucose 225mg/dl; HbA1C 10.8% triglycerides 543 mg/dl, total cholesterol 339 mg/dl (LDL 225) GOT 124 U/l, GPT 89U/l. Abdominal ultrasound shows mild hepatomegaly and no signs of ascites were shown. The patient presented a progressive improvement with resolution of the edema and analitical abnormalities during the next two weeks. During admission, the family received diabetes education, achieving adequate glycemic control at discharge. Nowadays the patient has a good glycemic control having glycated hemoglobin levels around 7%.

Keywords: Mauriac, diabetes, complication, developing countries

Procedia PDF Downloads 37

Authors: Mustafa Sertçelik, Turan Çalban, Hacali Necefoğlu, Sabri Çolak

Abstract:

In this study, Chevreul’s salt solubility and its dissolution kinetics in ammonium chloride solutions were investigated. Chevreul’s salt that we used in the studies was obtained by using the optimum conditions (ammonium sulphide concentration; 0,4 M, copper sulphate concentration; 0,25 M, temperature; 60°C, stirring speed; 600 rev/min, pH; 4 and reaction time; 15 mins) determined by T. Çalban et al. Chevreul’s salt solubility in ammonium chloride solutions and the kinetics of dissolution were investigated. The selected parameters that affect solubility were reaction temperature, concentration of ammonium chloride, stirring speed, and solid/liquid ratio. Correlation of experimental results had been achieved using linear regression implemented in the statistical package program statistica. The effect of parameters on Chevreul’s salt solubility was examined and integrated rate expression of dissolution rate was found using kinetic models in solid-liquid heterogeneous reactions. The results revealed that the dissolution rate of Chevreul’s salt was decreasing while temperature, concentration of ammonium chloride and stirring speed were increasing. On the other hand, dissolution rate was found to be decreasing with the increase of solid/liquid ratio. Based on result of the applications of the obtained experimental results to the kinetic models, we can deduce that Chevreul’s salt dissolution rate is controlled by diffusion through the ash (or product layer). Activation energy of the reaction of dissolution was found as 74.83 kJ/mol. The integrated rate expression along with the effects of parameters on Chevreul's salt solubility was found to be as follows: 1-3(1-X)2/3+2(1-X)= [2,96.1013.(CA)3,08 .(S/L)-038.(W)1,23 e-9001,2/T].t

Keywords: Chevreul's salt, copper, ammonium chloride, ammonium sulphide, dissolution kinetics

Procedia PDF Downloads 290

Authors: Hamid Ghasemzadeh- Nava, Maziar Kaveh Baghbadorani, Amin Tamadon

Abstract:

Considering response of uterus to ecbolic effect of oxytocin near the time of parturition, this study was done for investigating the effect of prophylactic administration of this hormone on duration of fetal membrane retention, time interval to first detectable estrus, time interval to first service, and conception rate at first service in cases of both normal parturition and dystocia. For this reason cows with (n=18) and without (n=18) dystocia assigned randomly to treatment (n=12) or control (n=6) groups and received intramuscular injection of 100 IU of oxytocin or 10 mL of normal saline respectively. Further observations and investigations indicate that duration of fetal retention is significantly shorter in treatment group cows compared to control groups, regardless of having dystocia (P=0.002) or normal spontaneous calving (P=0.001). The same trend exists for conception rate at first service in which cows in treatment groups had significantly higher conception rate (CR) in comparison to cows in control groups with (P=0.0003) or without dystocia (P=0.017). The time interval to first detected heat and first service didn’t show any difference between groups.

Keywords: conception rate, oxytocin, RFM, time to first service

Procedia PDF Downloads 420

Authors: Jiaqi Huang, Lu Jin

Abstract:

Pervious concrete features with high water permeability rate. However, due to the lack of fine aggregates, the compressive strength is usually lower than other conventional concrete products. Optimization of pervious concrete mix design has long been recognized as an effective mechanism to achieve high compressive strength while maintaining desired permeability rate. In this paper, a Gibbs Sampling based algorithm is proposed to approximate the optimal mix design to achieve a high compressive strength of pervious concrete. We prove that the proposed algorithm efficiently converges to the set of global optimal solutions. The convergence rate and accuracy depend on a control parameter employed in the proposed algorithm. The simulation results show that, by using the proposed approach, the system converges to the optimal solution quickly and the derived optimal mix design achieves the maximum compressive strength while maintaining the desired permeability rate.

Keywords: convergence, Gibbs Sampling, high compressive strength, optimal mix design, pervious concrete

Procedia PDF Downloads 161

Authors: Ahmad Abdi, M. Golzadeh Gangeraj, Alireza Barari, S. Shirali, S. Amini

Abstract:

Aims: Diabetes is one of the common metabolic diseases in the world that has the dire adverse effects such as nephropathy, retinopathy and cardiovascular problems. Pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical strategies for control and treatment of diabetes are provided. Exercise and nutrition as non-drug strategies for the prevention and control of diabetes are considered. Exercises may increase oxidative stress and myocardium injury, thus it is necessary to take nutrition strategies to help diabetic athletes. Methods: This study was a semi-experimental research. Therefore, 24 men with type 2 diabetes were selected and randomly divided in four groups (1. control, 2. saffron extract, 3. aerobic exercises, 4. compound aerobic exercises and saffron extract). Saffron extract with 100 mg/day was used. Aerobic exercises, three days a week, for eight weeks, with 55-70% of maximum heart rate were performed. At the end, levels of Heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (HFABP) and Troponin T were measured. Data were analyzed by Paired t, One-way ANOVA and Tukey tests. Results: The serum Troponin T increased significantly in saffron extract, aerobic exercises and compound saffron extract -aerobic exercises in type 2 diabetic men(P=0.024, P =0.013, P=0.005 respectively). Saffron extract consumption (100 mg/day) and aerobic exercises did not significantly influence the serum HFABP (P =0.365, P =0.188 respectively). But serum HFABP decreased significantly in compound saffron extract -aerobic exercises group (P =0.003). Conclusions: Raised cardiac Troponin T and HFABP concentration accepted as the standard biochemical markers for the diagnosis of cardiac injury. Saffron intake may beneficially protect the myocardium from injuries. Compound saffron extract -aerobic exercises can decrease levels of Troponin T and HFABP in men with type 2 diabetes.

Keywords: Saffron, aerobic exercises, type 2 diabetes, HFABP, troponin T

Procedia PDF Downloads 253

Authors: Mohammadreza Ashouri, Majid Bayatian

Abstract:

Analysis of fire data is a way for the implementation of any plan to improve the level of safety in cities. Such an analysis is able to reveal signs of changes in a given period and can be used as a measure of safety. The information of about 66,341 fires (from 2002 to 2012) released by Tehran Safety Services and Fire-Fighting Organization and data on the population and the number of households provided by Tehran Municipality and the Statistical Yearbook of Iran were extracted. Using the data, the fire changes, the rate of injuries, and mortality rate were determined and analyzed. The rate of injuries and mortality rate of fires per one million population of Tehran were 59.58% and 86.12%, respectively. During the study period, the number of fires and fire stations increased by 104.38% and 102.63%, respectively. Most fires (9.21%) happened in the 4th District of Tehran. The results showed that the recorded fire data have not been systematically planned for fire prevention since one of the ways to reduce injuries caused by fires is to develop a systematic plan for necessary actions in emergency situations. To determine a reliable source for fire prevention, the stages, definitions of working processes and the cause and effect chains should be considered. Therefore, a comprehensive statistical system should be developed for reported and recorded fire data.

Keywords: fire statistics, fire analysis, accident prevention, Tehran

Procedia PDF Downloads 167

Authors: Enrique Barbieri

Abstract:

The basic disease-spread model described by three states denoting the susceptible (S), infectious (I), and removed (recovered and deceased) (R) sub-groups of the total population N, or SIR model, has been considered. Heuristic mitigating action profiles of the pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical types may be developed in a control design setting for the purpose of reducing the transmission rate or improving the recovery rate parameters in the model. Even though the transmission and recovery rates are not control inputs in the traditional sense, a linear observer and feedback controller can be tuned to generate an asymptotic estimate of the transmission rate for a linearized, discrete-time version of the SIR model. Then, a set of mitigating actions is suggested to steer the basic reproduction number toward unity, in which case the disease does not spread, and the infected population state does not suffer from multiple waves. The special case of piecewise constant transmission rate is described and applied to a seventh-order SEIQRDP model, which segments the population into four additional states. The offline simulations in discrete time may be used to produce heuristic policies implemented by public health and government organizations.

Keywords: control of SIR, observer, SEIQRDP, disease spread

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Dake Xiong, Ben Hankamer, Ian Ross

Abstract:

The most urgent challenge of our time is to replace the depleting resources of fossil fuels by sustainable environmentally friendly alternatives. Hydrogen is a promising CO2-neutral fuel for a more sustainable future especially when produced photo-biologically. Hydrogen can be photosynthetically produced in unicellular green alga like Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, catalysed by the inducible highly active and bidirectional [FeFe]-hydrogenase enzymes (HydA). However, evolutionary and physiological constraints severely restrict the hydrogen yield of algae for industrial scale-up, mainly due to its competition among other metabolic pathways on photosynthetic electrons. Among them, a major challenge to be resolved is the inferior competitiveness of hydrogen production (catalysed by HydA) with NADPH production (catalysed by ferredoxin-NADP+-reductase (FNR)), which is essential for cell growth and takes up ~95% of photosynthetic electrons. In this work, the in vivo hydrogen production efficiency of mutants with ferredoxin-hydrogenase (Fd*-HydA1*) fusion protein construct, where the electron donor ferredoxin (Fd*) is fused to HydA1* and expressed in the model organism C. reinhardtii was investigated. Once Fd*-HydA1* fusion gene is expressed in algal cells, the fusion enzyme is able to draw the redistributed photosynthetic electrons and use them for efficient hydrogen production. From preliminary data, mutants with Fd*-HydA1* transgene showed a ~2-fold increase in the photosynthetic hydrogen production rate compared with its parental strain, which only possesses the native HydA in vivo. Therefore, a solid method of having more efficient hydrogen production in microalgae can be achieved through the expression of the synthetic enzymes.

Keywords: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, ferredoxin, fusion protein, hydrogen production, hydrogenase

Procedia PDF Downloads 242

Authors: Allan F. F. Alves, Fernando A. Bacchim Neto, Guilherme Giacomini, Marcela de Oliveira, Ana L. M. Pavan, Maria E. D. Rosa, Diana R. Pina

Abstract:

Stroke is a worldwide concern, only in Brazil it accounts for 10% of all registered deaths. There are 2 stroke types, ischemic (87%) and hemorrhagic (13%). Early diagnosis is essential to avoid irreversible cerebral damage. Non-enhanced computed tomography (NECT) is one of the main diagnostic techniques used due to its wide availability and rapid diagnosis. Detection depends on the size and severity of lesions and the time spent between the first symptoms and examination. The Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) is a subjective method that increases the detection rate. The aim of this work was to implement an image segmentation system to enhance ischemic stroke and to quantify the area of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke lesions in CT scans. We evaluated 10 patients with NECT examinations diagnosed with ischemic stroke. Analyzes were performed in two axial slices, one at the level of the thalamus and basal ganglion and one adjacent to the top edge of the ganglionic structures with window width between 80 and 100 Hounsfield Units. We used different image processing techniques such as morphological filters, discrete wavelet transform and Fuzzy C-means clustering. Subjective analyzes were performed by a neuroradiologist according to the ASPECTS scale to quantify ischemic areas in the middle cerebral artery region. These subjective analysis results were compared with objective analyzes performed by the computational algorithm. Preliminary results indicate that the morphological filters actually improve the ischemic areas for subjective evaluations. The comparison in area of the ischemic region contoured by the neuroradiologist and the defined area by computational algorithm showed no deviations greater than 12% in any of the 10 examination tests. Although there is a tendency that the areas contoured by the neuroradiologist are smaller than those obtained by the algorithm. These results show the importance of a computer aided diagnosis software to assist neuroradiology decisions, especially in critical situations as the choice of treatment for ischemic stroke.

Keywords: ischemic stroke, image processing, CT scans, Fuzzy C-means

Procedia PDF Downloads 347

Authors: J. S. Rudas, J. M. Gutiérrez Cabeza, A. Corz Rodríguez, L. M. Gómez, A. O. Toro

Abstract:

The prediction of the wear rate of rubbing pairs has attracted the interest of many researchers for years. It has been recently proposed that the sliding wear rate can be inferred from the calculation of the energy rate dissipated by the tribological pair. In this paper some of the dissipative mechanisms present in a pin-on-disc configuration are discussed and both analytical and numerical calculations are carried out. Three dissipative mechanisms were studied: First, the energy release due to temperature gradients within the solid; second, the heat flow from the solid to the environment, and third, the energy loss due to abrasive damage of the surface. The Finite Element Method was used to calculate the dynamics of heat transfer within the solid, with the aid of commercial software. Validation the FEM model was assisted by virtual and laboratory experimentation using different operating points (sliding velocity and geometry contact). The materials for the experiments were Ti6Al4V alloy and Tungsten Carbide (WC-Co). The results showed that the sliding wear rate has a linear relationship with the energy dissipation flow. It was also found that energy loss due to micro-cutting is relevant for the system. This mechanism changes if the sliding velocity and pin geometry are modified though the degradation coefficient continues to present a linear behavior. We found that the less relevant dissipation mechanism for all the cases studied is the energy release by temperature gradients in the solid.

Keywords: degradation, dissipative mechanism, dry sliding, entropy, friction, wear

Procedia PDF Downloads 490

Authors: Tetyana Baydyk, Ernst Kussul, Sandra Bonilla Meza

Abstract:

There are many articles that attempt to establish the role of different facial fragments in face recognition. Various approaches are used to estimate this role. Frequently, authors calculate the entropy corresponding to the fragment. This approach can only give approximate estimation. In this paper, we propose to use a more direct measure of the importance of different fragments for face recognition. We propose to select a recognition method and a face database and experimentally investigate the recognition rate using different fragments of faces. We present two such experiments in the paper. We selected the PCNC neural classifier as a method for face recognition and parts of the LFW (Labeled Faces in the Wild) face database as training and testing sets. The recognition rate of the best experiment is comparable with the recognition rate obtained using the whole face.

Keywords: face recognition, labeled faces in the wild (LFW) database, random local descriptor (RLD), random features

Procedia PDF Downloads 337

Authors: Tomas Vencurik, Jiri Nykodym

Abstract:

This study compares the intensity of game load among player positions and between the 1st and the 2nd half of the games. Two guards, three forwards, and three centers (female basketball players) participated in this study. The heart rate (HR) and its development were monitored during two competitive games. Statistically insignificant differences in the intensity of game load were recorded between guards, forwards, and centers below and above 85% of the maximal heart rate (HRmax) and in the mean HR as % of HRmax (87.81±3.79%, 87.02±4.37%, and 88.76±3.54%, respectively). Moreover, when the 1st and the 2nd half of the games were compared in the mean HR (87.89±4.18% vs. 88.14±3.63% of HRmax), no statistical significance was recorded. This information can be useful for coaching staff, to manage and to precisely plan the training process.

Keywords: game load, heart rate, player positions, the 1st, the 2nd half of the games

Procedia PDF Downloads 553

Authors: Mansouri Ouarda, Adbdennour Cherif, Boukarma Ziad

Abstract:

Environmental and biological monitoring are used for the evaluation of exposure to industrial chemicals, and provide a tool for assessing workers’ exposure to chemicals. The organs or tissues where the first biological effects can be observed with increasing amounts of lead toxicity. This study aims at evaluating the effect of the metal element-trace; lead, on the sex hormones in male workers, exposed to this metal on the level of the manufacturing plant of lead accumulators. The results indicate a significant reduction of the testosterone concentration in exposed workers compared to the control. However, the rate of LH was strongly increased at the individuals exposed to Pb. A significant difference concerning the rate of FSH, the hormone Prolactin and cortisol was recorded. The indicators of the lead poisoning indicate a very highly significant increase in the value of Pbs which vary between (142-796 µg/L) among which 50% of the workers present a high lead poisoning and the value of PPZ which vary between (43-554µg/L). The biochemical parameters show a significant increase in the rate of the créatinine, the urea and the acid urique. The hepatic results show no significant differentiation in the rate of TGO and TGP between both groups of study. However the rates of the enzyme phosphatase alkaline, triglyceride, and cholesterol a significant difference were registered.

Keywords: hormons, parameters, physilogical, Pbs, PPZ

Procedia PDF Downloads 364

Authors: Y. Galerkin, K. Soldatova, A. Drozdov

Abstract:

The 6th version of Universal modeling method for centrifugal compressor stage calculation is described. Identification of the new mathematical model was made. As a result of identification the uniform set of empirical coefficients is received. The efficiency definition error is 0,86 % at a design point. The efficiency definition error at five flow rate points (except a point of the maximum flow rate) is 1,22 %. Several variants of the stage with 3D impellers designed by 6th version program and quasi three-dimensional calculation programs were compared by their gas dynamic performances CFD (NUMECA FINE TURBO). Performance comparison demonstrated general principles of design validity and leads to some design recommendations.

Keywords: compressor design, loss model, performance prediction, test data, model stages, flow rate coefficient, work coefficient

Procedia PDF Downloads 402

Authors: Hongfang Ma, Mingchuan Zhou, Haitao Zhang, Weiyong Ying

Abstract:

One dimensional pseudo-homogenous modeling has been performed for methanol steam reforming reactor. The results show that the models can well predict the industrial data. The reactor had minimum temperature along axial because of endothermic reaction. Hydrogen productions and temperature profiles along axial were investigated regarding operation conditions such as inlet mass flow rate and mass fraction of methanol, inlet temperature of external thermal oil. Low inlet mass flow rate of methanol, low inlet temperature, and high mass fraction of methanol decreased minimum temperature along axial. Low inlet mass flow rate of methanol, high mass fraction of methanol, and high inlet temperature of thermal oil made cold point forward. Low mass fraction, high mass flow rate, and high inlet temperature of thermal oil increased hydrogen production. One dimensional models can be a guide for industrial operation.

Keywords: reactor, modeling, methanol, steam reforming

Procedia PDF Downloads 278

Authors: Shivan N. Hussein, Ihsan K. Zangana

Abstract:

A total of 2358 sheep and 532 goats were examined for the presence of macrocystis of Sarcocystis. For microcysts, different muscle tissues were randomly taken from 118 sheep and 110 goats. Macrocystis were examined through naked eye inspection, while microcysts were examined microscopically by using histopathology, pepsin digestion, mincing & squeezing, and muscle squash method. Overall prevalence of macrocystis was 1.2% in sheep and 2.6% in goats. The intensity rate of the cysts was 4 cysts/ gram in sheep & 3 cysts/ gram in goats, respectively, while the overall prevalence of microcysts in sheep and goats was 96.5%. The infection rate in sheep was 96.6% and in goats was 96.4%. The total intensity rate of microcysts was 32.4 cysts/ field in sheep and 16.8 cysts/ field in goats, respectively. Histopathological examination found different shapes, size, wall thickness, and intensity rates of microcysts in muscle tissues of sheep & goats. The pathological reaction showed mild to moderate granulocytosis, and mononuclear cells infiltrated surrounding the microcysts with necrotizing and degeneration of myofibrils. The largest average size of spindle and round shaped cysts (290 ± 89.7 x 76.1 ± 10 µm and 88.8 ± 10.3 µm) in goats and (127.2 ± 18.9 x 53.3 ± 5.4 µm and 74.4 ± 7.5 µm) in sheep, was detected in the esophageal muscle. Statistically, there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the prevalence of macrocystis in sheep and goats, while no significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed in the prevalence of microcysts between both animal species.

Keywords: macrocystis, microcysts, intensity rate, measurement size

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: Mustafa Metin Donma, Orkide Donma

Abstract:

Childhood obesity is an important clinical problem because it may lead to chronic diseases during the adulthood period of the individual. Obesity is a metabolic disease associated with low-grade inflammation. The liver occurs at the center of metabolic pathways. Adropin, fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21), and fetuin-A are hepatokines. Due to the immense participation of the liver in glucose metabolism, these liver-derived factors may be associated with insulin resistance (IR), which is a phenomenon discussed within the scope of obesity problems. The aim of this study is to determine the concentrations of adropin, FGF-21, and fetuin-A in childhood obesity, to point out possible differences between the obesity groups, and to investigate possible associations among these three hepatokines in obese and morbidly obese children. A total of one hundred and thirty-two children were included in the study. Two obese groups were constituted. The groups were matched in terms of mean ± SD values of ages. Body mass index values of obese and morbidly obese groups were 25.0 ± 3.5 kg/m² and 29.8 ± 5.7 kg/m², respectively. Anthropometric measurements including waist circumference, hip circumference, head circumference, and neck circumference were recorded. Informed consent forms were taken from the parents of the participants. The ethics committee of the institution approved the study protocol. Blood samples were obtained after overnight fasting. Routine biochemical tests, including glucose- and lipid-related parameters, were performed. Concentrations of the hepatokines (adropin, FGF-21, fetuin A) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Insulin resistance indices such as homeostasis model assessment for IR (HOMA-IR), alanine transaminase-to aspartate transaminase ratio (ALT/AST), diagnostic obesity notation model assessment laboratory index, diagnostic obesity notation model assessment metabolic syndrome index as well as obesity indices such as diagnostic obesity notation model assessment-II index, and fat mass index were calculated using the previously derived formulas. Statistical evaluation of the study data as well as findings of the study was performed by SPSS for Windows. Statistical difference was accepted significant when p is smaller than 0.05. Statistically significant differences were found for insulin, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels of the groups. A significant increase was observed for FGF-21 concentrations in the morbidly obese group. Higher adropin and fetuin-A concentrations were observed in the same group in comparison with the values detected in the obese group (p > 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the ALT/AST values of the groups. In all of the remaining IR and obesity indices, significantly increased values were calculated for morbidly obese children. Significant correlations were detected between HOMA-IR and each of the hepatokines. The highest one was the association with fetuin-A (r=0.373, p=0.001). In conclusion, increased levels observed in adropin, FGF-21, and fetuin-A have shown that these hepatokines possess increasing potential going from obese to morbid obese state. Out of the correlations found with the IR index, the most affected hepatokine was fetuin-A, the parameter possibly used as the indicator of the advanced obesity stage.

Keywords: adropin, fetuin A, fibroblast growth factor-21, insulin resistance, pediatric obesity

Procedia PDF Downloads 160

Authors: Lu Anne A. Godinez, May Claudine I. Gador, Preacious G. Gumolon, Louiechi Von R. Mendoza, Neil Bryan N. Moninio

Abstract:

Gender equality and women empowerment is the third of eight Millennium Development Goals. Understanding corruption’s linkages to gender equality issues and how it impacts women’s empowerment is part of the broader process of advancing women’s rights and understanding the gender dimensions of democratic governance. Taking a long view of political (corruption index) and the social (women empowerment) dimension — a view from 2015 to 2030, a context based forecast was conducted to forecast the ASEAN corruption index in the next 15 years, answering the question: “Does women political involvement decrease corruption rate index of ASEAN countries in the next 15 years?” The study have established that there will be an increase women political involvement in the ASEAN countries in the next 15 years that will cause a drop on corruption rate index. There will be a significant decline on corruption rate index in 2030. This change entails reform not only in the political aspect of progress, but to the social aspect as well. Finally, the political aspect is increasing at a constant rate however a double or triple increase of the social aspect is seen to be the key solution for corruption.

Keywords: women, women political involvement, corruption, gender equity index, economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment, control of corruption, regulatory quality, rule of law, voice and accountability government effectiveness, political stability and corruption perception index

Procedia PDF Downloads 397

Authors: Somayeh Azizi, Mohammad Hossein Ehsani, Amir Zareidoost

Abstract:

In this research, a technique has been developed to reduce the corrosion rate of magnesium (Mg) metal by creating Zr-Nb thin film coatings. In this regard, thin-film coatings of niobium (Nb) zirconium (Zr) double alloy are applied on pure Mg specimens under different processes conditions, such as the change of the substrate temperature, substrate bias, and coating thickness using the magnetron sputtering method. Then, deposited coatings are analyzed in terms of surface features via field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), thin-layer X-ray diffraction (GI-XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and corrosion tests. Also, nano-scratch tests were carried out to investigate the adhesion of the thin film. The results showed that the (Zr-Nb) thin films could control the degradation rate of Mg in the simulated body fluid (SBF). The nano-scratch studies depicted that the (Zr-Nb) thin films have a proper adhesion with the Mg substrate. Therefore, this technique could be used to enhance the corrosion resistance of bare Mg and could result in improving the performance of the biodegradable Mg implant for orthopedic applications.

Keywords: (Zr-Nb) thin film, magnetron sputtering, biodegradable Mg, degradation rate

Procedia PDF Downloads 103