Search results for: continuous inventory

Authors: Sami I. Jafar, Sami A. Ajeel, Zaman A. Abdulwahab

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The turbine blades used in electric power plants are made of low alloy steel type 52. These blades will be subjected to fatigue and also at other times to fatigue corrosion with aging time. Due to their continuous exposure to cyclic rotational stresses in corrosive steam environments, The current research aims to deal with this problem using the laser cladding method for low alloy steel type 52, which works to re-compose the metallurgical structure and improve the mechanical properties by strengthening the resulting structure, which leads to an increase in fatigue and wears resistance, therefore, an increase in the life of these blades is observed.

Keywords: fatigue, fatigue corrosion, turbine blades, laser cladding

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Authors: Nazeef, Suleiman, Umar, Danladi Muhammad, Ja'afar Ali, Zaliha Adamu Umar

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The population dynamics of Auchenoglanis occidentalis from the Dadin-Kowa reservoir were studied. Population dynamic parameters such as growth, mortality and recruitment patterns were analyzed using length frequency data over a 12-month period employing FiSAT II software. Findings revealed that LWR (b - constant) = 2.88, K = 0.72 -yr., L∞ = 40.91 cm and Tmax = 3.57 years and Ɵ’ = 3.14. Mortality indices revealed that natural mortality (M = 1.39), fishing mortality (F = 0.22) and exploitation ratio (E = 0.14), Lc/L∞ = 0.48, Emax = 0.64, while Lopt = 26.4 cm. Uni-modal recruitment peak observed with Lm = 27.3 cm. A restocking program is suitable to ensure its continuous existence as it seems to have a low population.

Keywords: fish population dynamics, auchenoglanis occidentalis, FISAT II, natural mortality

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Authors: Malathi Iyer, Jayesh Vaidya

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The demographic dividend of India will last for thirty years from now. However, reduction in birth rate, an increase in working population, improvements in medicine and better health practices lead to an ever-expanding elderly population, bringing additional burden to the economy and putting an end to the demographic dividend. To reap the dividend India needs to train the youth for employability. The need of the hour is to improve their life skills which lead the youth to become industrious and have continuous employment. The study will be conducted in perceiving the skill gaps that exist in commerce students for employability. The analysis results indicate the relation between the core study and the right skills for the workforce, with the steps that are taken to open the window for the demographic dividend.

Keywords: demographic dividend, life skills, employability, workforce

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Authors: Gizem Akcan, Erdinc Ozturk

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When it is examined as historically, it has caught attention that homosexual people try to behave as heterosexual or come out to have a place in community. Homosexual people have identity confusion during identity development, they have high levels of need for absolute truth and their psychological well being is affected negatively because of high levels of need for absolute truth and they have problems about self concept clarity. People who have problems about self concept clarity have problems on problem solving and show lots of symptoms of stress. People who have clear self concept use healthier coping strategies to solve problems. The purpose of this study is to show whether need for absolute truth predicts problem solving and symptoms of stress via mediator effect of self concept clarity or not on homosexual men. The participants of this study were 200 homosexual men. The ages of participants were 20-50. In addition, Demographic Information Form, Self Concept Clarity Scale, Need for Absolute Truth Scale, Stres Self-Assessment Checklist and Problem Solving Inventory were applied to the participants. The assessment of the data was made with confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling analysis. According to the results of this study, need for absolute truth predicts problem solving and symptoms of stress via mediator effect of self concept clarity on homosexual men.

Keywords: need for absolute truth, self concept clarity, symptoms of stress, problem solving

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Authors: Maier Dorin, Maier Andreea

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Today, any organization - regardless of the specific activity - must be prepared to face continuous radical changes, innovation thus becoming a condition of survival in a globalized market. Not all managers have an overall view on the real size of necessary innovation potential. Unfortunately there is still no common (and correct) understanding of the term of innovation among managers. Moreover, not all managers are aware of the need for innovation. This article highlights and analyzes a series of models of innovation processes and their evolution. The models analyzed encompass both the strategic level and the operational one within an organization, indicating performance innovation on each landing. As the literature review shows, there are no easy answers to the innovation process as there are no shortcuts to great results. Successful companies do not have a silver innovative bullet - they do not get results by making one or few things better than others, they make everything better.

Keywords: innovation, innovation process, business success, models of innovation

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Authors: Vadim Kulikov

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The classical Stroop effect is the phenomenon that it takes more time to name the ink color of a printed word if the word denotes a conflicting color than if it denotes the same color. Over the last 80 years, there have been many variations of the experiment revealing various mechanisms behind semantic, attentional, behavioral and perceptual processing. The Stroop task is known to exhibit asymmetry. Reading the words out loud is hardly dependent on the ink color, but naming the ink color is significantly influenced by the incongruent words. This asymmetry is reversed, if instead of naming the color, one has to point at a corresponding color patch. Another debated aspects are the notions of automaticity and how much of the effect is due to semantic and how much due to response stage interference. Is automaticity a continuous or an all-or-none phenomenon? There are many models and theories in the literature tackling these questions which will be discussed in the presentation. None of them, however, seems to capture all the findings at once. A computational model is proposed which is based on the philosophical idea developed by the author that the mind operates as a collection of different information processing modalities such as different sensory and descriptive modalities, which produce emergent phenomena through mutual interaction and coherence. This is the framework theory where ‘framework’ attempts to generalize the concepts of modality, perspective and ‘point of view’. The architecture of this computational model consists of blocks of neurons, each block corresponding to one framework. In the simplest case there are four: visual color processing, text reading, speech production and attention selection modalities. In experiments where button pressing or pointing is required, a corresponding block is added. In the beginning, the weights of the neural connections are mostly set to zero. The network is trained using Hebbian learning to establish connections (corresponding to ‘coherence’ in framework theory) between these different modalities. The amount of data fed into the network is supposed to mimic the amount of practice a human encounters, in particular it is assumed that converting written text into spoken words is a more practiced skill than converting visually perceived colors to spoken color-names. After the training, the network performs the Stroop task. The RT’s are measured in a canonical way, as these are continuous time recurrent neural networks (CTRNN). The above-described aspects of the Stroop phenomenon along with many others are replicated. The model is similar to some existing connectionist models but as will be discussed in the presentation, has many advantages: it predicts more data, the architecture is simpler and biologically more plausible.

Keywords: connectionism, Hebbian learning, artificial neural networks, philosophy of mind, Stroop

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Authors: Elyas Akbari, Jafar Hasani, Newsha Dehestani, Mohammad Khaleghi, Alireza Moradi

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The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of emotional experience induction in the mirror neurons systems (MNS) activity with regard to the spectrum of depressive symptoms. For this purpose, at first stage, 449 students of Kharazmi University of Tehran were selected randomly and completed the second version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). Then, 36 students with standard Z-score equal or above +1.5 and equal or equal or below -1.5 were selected to construct two groups of high and low spectrum of depressive symptoms. In the next stage, the basic activity of MNS was recorded (mu wave) before presenting the positive and negative emotional video clips by Electroencephalography (EEG) technique. The findings related to emotion induction (neutral, negative and positive emotion) demonstrated that the activity of recorded mirror neuron areas had a significant difference between the depressive and non-depressive groups. These findings suggest that probably processing of negative emotions in depressive individuals is due to the idea that the mirror neurons in motor cortex matched up the activity of cognitive regions with the person’s schema. Considering the results of the present study, it could be said that the MNS provides a substrate where emotional disorders can be studied and evaluated.

Keywords: emotional experiences, mirror neurons, depressive symptoms, negative and positive emotion

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Authors: Raya A. Jones

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This paper interrogates online representations of robot companions for children, including promotional material by manufacturers, media articles and technology blogs. The significance of the study lies in its contribution to understanding attitudes to robots. The prospect of childcare robots is particularly controversial ethically, and is associated with emotive arguments. The sampled material is restricted to relatively recent posts (the past three years) though the analysis identifies both continuous and changing themes across the past decade. The method extrapolates social representations theory towards examining the ways in which information about robotic products is provided for the general public. Implications for social acceptance of robot companions for the home and robot ethics are considered.

Keywords: acceptance of robots, childcare robots, ethics, social representations

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Authors: Chia-Ling Li

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The scope of this article includes the production of 10,000 metric tons of non-phthalate per annum. The production process will include hydrogenation, separation, purification, and recycling of unprocessed feedstock. Based on experimental data, conversion and selectivity were chosen as reaction model parameters. The synthesis and separation processes of non-phthalate and phthalate were established by using Aspen Plus software. The article will be divided into six parts: estimation of physical properties, integration of production processes, purification case study, utility consumption, economic feasibility study and identification of bottlenecks. The purities of products was higher than 99.9 wt. %. Process parameters have important guiding significance to the commercialization of hydrogenation of phthalate.

Keywords: economic analysis, hydrogenation, non-phthalate, process simulation

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Authors: Rajeev Kumar Bedi, Jaswinder Singh, Sunil Kumar Gupta

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The demand for cloud storage is increasing because users want continuous access their data. Cloud Storage revolutionized the way how users access their data. A lot of cloud storage service providers are available as DropBox, G Drive, and providing limited free storage and for extra storage; users have to pay money, which will act as a burden on users. To avoid the issue of limited free storage, the concept of Multi Cloud Storage introduced. In this paper, we will discuss the limitations of existing Multi Cloud Storage systems for mobile devices.

Keywords: cloud storage, data privacy, data security, multi cloud storage, mobile devices

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Authors: Akat Sordum Owen

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This paper focuses on the interface between the phonemes and the orthography of Kānà, an endangered language spoken in Khānà and Tàì Local Government Areas of Rivers State of Nigeria. Kānà is one of the four languages (others being Gòkānà, Bāān Ògóì and Ẹ́lẹ́mẹ́) of Ogonoid (i.e. Ogoni group of languages) located in the Cross River branch of Benue-Congo phylum. A good number of scholars, including Ikoro (1996) and Vobnu (2001) agree on the phonemes inventory of the language but differ on the choice of the letters of the orthography. Whereas many scholars on the language accept that the language is alphabetic and satisfactory with respect to the use of Latin (English) alphabetic orthography with emphasis on phoneme-grapheme relation, some other scholars tend to uphold that the complex consonants in the phonemic chart should be treated as a consonant cluster in the alphabet. This paper argues that consonant clusters occur at syntactic (and morphological) levels with regard to certain items in order to produce desired pronunciations and spellings. Each consonant in a cluster is identical and can be used with other letters to produce a different word. The data was obtained from scholarly writings on the language, by interviews and our intuition as a native speaker of the language. It is believed that this study will trigger further research into the orthography of Kānà and other tonal languages, such as Igbo and Yoruba having similar features in order to reanalyze the number of letters in the alphabets of those languages.

Keywords: KANA, phonemes, orthography, letters

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Authors: Taylan Kabbani, Ekrem Duman

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The design of adaptive systems that take advantage of financial markets while reducing the risk can bring more stagnant wealth into the global market. However, most efforts made to generate successful deals in trading financial assets rely on Supervised Learning (SL), which suffered from various limitations. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) offers to solve these drawbacks of SL approaches by combining the financial assets price "prediction" step and the "allocation" step of the portfolio in one unified process to produce fully autonomous systems capable of interacting with its environment to make optimal decisions through trial and error. In this paper, a continuous action space approach is adopted to give the trading agent the ability to gradually adjust the portfolio's positions with each time step (dynamically re-allocate investments), resulting in better agent-environment interaction and faster convergence of the learning process. In addition, the approach supports the managing of a portfolio with several assets instead of a single one. This work represents a novel DRL model to generate profitable trades in the stock market, effectively overcoming the limitations of supervised learning approaches. We formulate the trading problem, or what is referred to as The Agent Environment as Partially observed Markov Decision Process (POMDP) model, considering the constraints imposed by the stock market, such as liquidity and transaction costs. More specifically, we design an environment that simulates the real-world trading process by augmenting the state representation with ten different technical indicators and sentiment analysis of news articles for each stock. We then solve the formulated POMDP problem using the Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3) algorithm, which can learn policies in high-dimensional and continuous action spaces like those typically found in the stock market environment. From the point of view of stock market forecasting and the intelligent decision-making mechanism, this paper demonstrates the superiority of deep reinforcement learning in financial markets over other types of machine learning such as supervised learning and proves its credibility and advantages of strategic decision-making.

Keywords: the stock market, deep reinforcement learning, MDP, twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient, sentiment analysis, technical indicators, autonomous agent

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Authors: Jesus David Argueta Moreno, Justa Rufina Martel, Edith Gabriela Carrasco

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The Central American Coffee small, medium, and large corporations search for excellence, sustainability, and continuous improvement, triggers in a still unknown scale the Local expansion, crusading, and franchising strategies towards a more suitable commercial opportunity, where the dynamics of the Central American business displacement can be explained through the markets permeability traits. By considering the previously mentioned, the present study aims to evaluate the franchising potentialities offered by Central American Coffee business scenario, in order to explain dynamics of the business demography phenomena and its relevance on the Central American competitiveness landscape.

Keywords: competitiveness, franchising, business demography, Central American Coffee

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Authors: Wookyong Kwon, Sangmoon Lee

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In this paper, a sampled-data model predictive tracking control method is presented for mobile robots which is modeled as constrained continuous-time linear parameter varying (LPV) systems. The presented sampled-data predictive controller is designed by linear matrix inequality approach. Based on the input delay approach, a controller design condition is derived by constructing a new Lyapunov function. Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented method.

Keywords: model predictive control, sampled-data control, linear parameter varying systems, LPV

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Authors: Silvia Riva, Ezekiel Chinyio

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Introduction: Workers in different sectors are prone to stress at varying levels. They also respond to stress in different ways. An inspiration was to study stress development amongst workers in a work dangerous setting (Construction Industry) as well as how they cope with specific stress incidences. Objective: The overarching objective of the study was to study and correlate between stress and coping strategies. The research was conducted in an organizational industrial setting, and its findings on the coping actions of construction workers are reported in this article. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted with 80 participants aged 18-62. These were working for three different construction organizations in the West Midland region of the UK. Their coping actions were assessed using the COPE Inventory (Carver, 2013) instrument while the level of stress was assessed by the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, 1994). Results: Out of 80 workers (20 female, 25%, mean age 40.66), positive reinterpretation (M=4.15, SD=2.60) and active coping (M=4.18, SD=2.55) were the two most adaptive strategies reported by the workers while the most frequent maladaptive behavior was mental disengagement (M=3.62, SD=2.25). Among the maladaptive tactics, alcohol and drug abuse was a significant moderator in stress reactions (t=6.12, p=.000). Conclusion: Some maladaptive strategies are adopted by construction workers to cope with stress. So, it could be argued that programs of stress prevention and control in the construction industry have a basis to develop solutions that can improve and strengthen effective interventions when workers are stressed or getting stressed.

Keywords: coping, organization, strategies, stress

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Authors: Jincan Li, Mingyu Gao, Zhiwei He, Yuxiang Yang, Zhongfei Yu, Yuanyuan Liu

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Building an appropriate motion model is crucial for trajectory planning of robots and determines the operational quality directly. An adaptive acceleration and deceleration motion planning based on trigonometric functions for the end-effector of 6-DOF robots in Cartesian coordinate system is proposed in this paper. This method not only achieves the smooth translation motion and rotation motion by constructing a continuous jerk model, but also automatically adjusts the parameters of trigonometric functions according to the variable inputs and the kinematic constraints. The results of computer simulation show that this method is correct and effective to achieve the adaptive motion planning for linear trajectories.

Keywords: kinematic constraints, motion planning, trigonometric function, 6-DOF robots

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Authors: Ria M. Caramoan, Analiza P. Rollon, Karl N. Vergel

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The Simple Interactive Models for Better Air Quality (SIM-air) is an integrated approach model that allows the available information to support the integrated urban air quality management. This study utilized the vehicular air pollution information system module of SIM-air for the assessment of vehicular emissions in Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, Philippines. The main objective of the study is to assess and predict the contribution of different types of vehicles to the vehicular emissions in terms of PM₁₀, SOₓ, and NOₓ at different policy and technology scenarios. For the base year 2017, the results show vehicular emissions of 735.46 tons of PM₁₀, 108.90 tons of SOₓ, and 2,101.11 tons of NOₓ. Motorcycle is the major source of particulates contributing about 52% of the PM₁₀ emissions. Meanwhile, Public Utility Jeepneys contribute 27% of SOₓ emissions and private cars using gasoline contribute 39% of NOₓ emissions. Ambient air quality monitoring was also conducted in the study area for the standard parameters of PM₁₀, S0₂, and NO₂. Results show an average of 88.11 µg/Ncm, 47.41 µg/Ncm and 22.54 µg/Ncm for PM₁₀, N0₂, and SO₂, respectively, all were within the DENR National Ambient Air Quality Guideline Values. Future emissions of PM₁₀, NOₓ, and SOₓ are estimated at different scenarios. Results show that in the year 2030, PM₁₀ emissions will be increased by 186.2%. NOₓ emissions and SOₓ emissions will also be increased by 38.9% and 5.5%, without the implementation of the scenarios.

Keywords: ambient air quality, emissions inventory, mobile air pollution, vehicular emissions

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Authors: Laggoun Chouki

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In this paper we present the design and mechanisms of the physics process and discuss the performances of continuous gas laser dynamics, based on molecules N2(v=1)→C02(001)(v=3). The main objectives of work in this area are, obtaining the high laser energies in short time durations needed for the feasibility studies the physical principles that can be used to make laser sources capable of delivering high average powers. We note that, in order to reach both objectives, one has to convert electrical or chemical energy into laser energy, using gaseous media. The process generating the wave excited, on the basis of the excited level vibration, Theoretical predictions are compared with experimental results. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by computer simulation.

Keywords: modelling, lasers, gas, numerical, nozzle

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Authors: Kumiko Inagaki

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Qualitative changes to the undergraduate education have recently become the focus of attention in Japan. This is occurring against the backdrop of declining birthrate and increasing university enrollment, as well as drastic societal changes of advance toward globalization and a knowledge-based society. This paper describes the cases of Japanese universities that promoted various forms of experiential learning around the theme of social participation. The opportunity of learning through practical experience, where students turn their attention to social problems and take pains to consider means of resolving them, creates opportunities to demonstrate “human power” applicable to all sorts of activities the following graduation, thereby guaranteeing students’ continuous growth throughout their careers.

Keywords: career education, experiential learning, subjective learning, university education

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Authors: S. Öcal, A. Erakgün, E. Yüksel, M. N. Deniz, E. Erhan, A. Çertuğ

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Background: Emergence agitation (EA) is defined as a dissociated state of consciousness during the early post-anesthesia period in which the child is inconsolable, irritable, uncompromising or uncooperative, typically thrashing, crying, moaning, or incoherent, and not recognizing or identifying familiar and known objects or people. Some studies found preoperative parental anxiety to be a predictor of EA. Methods: Seventy-four children, between the ages of 3-12 undergoing adenoidectomy/tonsillectomy at Ege University Hospital, were studied. Anesthesia was induced and maintained using 2% sevoflurane in 50% oxygen and 50% air following a premedicative dose of 0.5mg/kg oral midazolam. After the children were taken into the operating theater, the mothers were given the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) questionnaire. To evaluate EA, Post Anesthetic Emergence Delirium (PAED) score of the children were noted every 10min during the first 30min of the postoperative period. EA was defined with a highest PAED score of ≥ 10, and non-EA with a highest PAED score of ≤ 9. Results: In this study, the incidence of postoperative EA was 31% (34% under the age of 6 and 19% over). Mothers of children with EA were found not to be significantly more anxious on STAI compared to mothers of non-EA children. Conclusions: Contrary to some earlier studies, we were unable to find an association between preoperative parental anxiety and postoperative EA.

Keywords: parental anxiety, emergence agittion, Post Anesthetic Emergence Delirium, anesthesia

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Authors: Mohamad Reza Khodabakhsh

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The present study investigated the effectiveness of attachment-based family therapy on maladaptive schemas and depressive symptoms of adolescence. This study was a quasi-experimental study, and a pre-test and post-test design with a control group were used. In this study, the study population included all adolescence. The sample consisted of 30 adolescents who were selected by the available sampling method. Then they were randomly divided into experimental (n = 15) and control (n = 15) groups. Data were collected in this study using the Beck Depression Inventory (1974) and the short form of Young's early maladaptive schema questionnaire (1988). After taking the pre-test, group implementation of family therapy based on attachment style was presented for 11 sessions of two and a half hours for two months in the experimental group. At the end of the sessions, both groups were retested, and the data were analyzed using analysis of covariance in SPSS-22 software. The results showed that attachment-based family therapy led to a significant reduction in maladaptive schemas, including emotional deprivation, rejection/abandonment, mistrust/abuse, social isolation, disability/shame, dependence/inadequacy, vulnerability/trauma, and depressive symptoms were compared to the control group. It can be concluded that this treatment has an effect on maladaptive schemas and symptoms of depression.

Keywords: attachment-based family therapy, maladaptive schemas, depressive symptoms, adolescence

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Authors: Ahmed Alghurabi, Mysara Mohyaldinn, Shiferaw Jufar, Obai Younis, Abdullah Abduljabbar

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Erosion modeling equations were typically acquired from regulated experimental trials for solid particles entrained in single-phase or multi-phase flows. Evidently, those equations were later employed to predict the erosion damage caused by the continuous impacts of solid particles entrained in streamflow. It is also well-known that the particle impact angle and velocity do not change drastically in gas-sand flow erosion prediction; hence an accurate prediction of erosion can be projected. On the contrary, high-density fluid flows, such as water flow, through complex geometries, such as sand screens, greatly affect the sand particles’ trajectories/tracks and consequently impact the erosion rate predictions. Particle tracking models and erosion equations are frequently applied simultaneously as a method to improve erosion visualization and estimation. In the present work, computational fluid dynamic (CFD)-based erosion modeling was performed using a commercially available software; ANSYS Fluent. The continuous phase (water flow) behavior was simulated using the realizable K-epsilon model, and the secondary phase (solid particles), having a 5% flow concentration, was tracked with the help of the discrete phase model (DPM). To accomplish a successful erosion modeling, three erosion equations from the literature were utilized and introduced to the ANSYS Fluent software to predict the screen wire-slot velocity surge and estimate the maximum erosion rates on the screen surface. Results of turbulent kinetic energy, turbulence intensity, dissipation rate, the total pressure on the screen, screen wall shear stress, and flow velocity vectors were presented and discussed. Moreover, the particle tracks and path-lines were also demonstrated based on their residence time, velocity magnitude, and flow turbulence. On one hand, results from the utilized erosion equations have shown similarities in screen erosion patterns, locations, and DPM concentrations. On the other hand, the model equations estimated slightly different values of maximum erosion rates of the wire-wrapped screen. This is solely based on the fact that the utilized erosion equations were developed with some assumptions that are controlled by the experimental lab conditions.

Keywords: CFD simulation, erosion rate prediction, material loss due to erosion, water-sand flow

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Authors: S. A. Faizi, S. Yoshitomi

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The optimal design procedure of buckling restrained braces (BRBs) in reinforced concrete (RC) building structures can provide the distribution of horizontal stiffness of BRBs at each story, which minimizes story drift response of the structure under the constraint of specified total stiffness of BRBs. In this paper, a simple rule is proposed to convert continuous horizontal stiffness of BRBs into sectional sizes of BRB which are available from standardized section list assuming realistic structural design stage.

Keywords: buckling restrained brace, building engineering, optimal damper placement, structural engineering

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Authors: Amanda de Oliveira Ferreira Leite, Ana Luiza del Pino Ferreira, Bruna Garcez Correa, Janaíne de Souza Mello, Marla Manquevich, Mirna Wetters Portuguez

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Objective: We sought to investigate a neuropsychological intervention focused on improving cognition, psychological aspects, and quality of life of elderly people with mild cognitive impairment. Method: A controlled and randomized study, blind to the evaluator, was executed. We evaluated 78 elderly people, divided into the neuropsychological and control groups, through a semi-structured interview, Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination, Katz Index, Lawton and Brody Scale, Geriatric Depression Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Personal Development Scale, WHOQOL-bref and WHOQOL--old. Results: After the intervention, the neuropsychological group showed improvement in the cognitive subtests and in the total score, reduction in the frequency of symptoms associated with anxiety and depression, better psychological well-being, and quality of life. The research highlights useful intervention strategies for improving the general condition of these patients and rehabilitating damaged areas. Conclusion: We concluded that there is a relationship between neuropsychological intervention and improvement in cognitive and psychological performance, as well as in the quality of life in elderly people with mild cognitive impairment.

Keywords: aging, mild cognitive impairment, neuropsychology, quality of life

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Authors: Ali Kassem, Esam Nada, Amro Abdelhamed, Shigeo Horie

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Objective: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with macrovascular complications, including coronary artery disease (CAD), and microvascular complications that contribute to the pathogenesis of erectile dysfunction (ED). On the other hand, silent myocardial ischemia (SMI) is more common in diabetic patients and is a strong predictor of cardiac events and mortality in diabetic and non-diabetic patients. Recently, Multidetector computed tomographic coronary angiography (MDCT-CA) has become a reliable non-invasive imaging modality for screening diabetic patients for SMI. We aim to evaluate the presence of SMI using (MDCT-CA) in patients with type 2DM having ED. Methods: This study evaluated 20 patients (mean age 61.45 ± 10.7 years), with DM and ED without any history of angina or angina equivalent. ED was tested with the Sexual Health Inventory for Men score, erection hardness score (EHS), and maximal penile circumferential change by an erect meter. Results: Of twenty studied patients, coronary artery stenosis was detected in 13 (65%) patients in the form of one-vessel disease (n = 6, 30%), two-vessel disease (n = 2, 10%), and three-vessel disease (n = 5, 25%). Maximum coronary artery stenosis was positively correlated with age (P < 0.016,) and negatively correlated with EHS (P <04). Multivariate regression analysis using age and EHS showed that age was the only independent predictor of SMI (P <04). Conclusion: MDCT-CA is a useful tool to identify SMI in patients with diabetes mellitus and ED. One should consider the possibility of SMI especially in elderly patients with DM who have ED.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus, erectile dysfunction, microvascular, silent ischemia

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Authors: Parul Bhalla, Sarvesh Palria

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Wetlands are areas of land that are either temporarily or permanently covered by water. Wetlands exhibit enormous diversity according to their genesis, geographical location, water regime and chemistry, dominant plants and soil or sediment characteristics. The spatial and temporal characteristics of wetland in terms of turbidity and aquatic vegetation could serve as guiding tool, in conservation prioritization of wetlands. The aquatic vegetation in the wetland is an indicator of the trophic status of the wetland which has a bearing on the water quality, the turbidity level in any wetland is indicative of the quality of the water in it. To conserve and manage wetland resources, it is important to have inventory of wetland and its catchment. Fateh Sagar wetland in Udaipur city is the one of the important wetland for tourism industry and other economic activities in the region. Realizing the importance of the wetland, the present study has been taken up with the specific objective of delineation and characterization of Fateh Sagar wetland in terms of turbidity and aquatic vegetation, using high resolution satellite data such as Cartosat and LISS IV multi-temporal data, which will efficiently bring out the changes in water spread and quality parameters. The catchment of wetland has been also characterized for various features. The study leads in to takes necessary steps to conserve the wetland and its resources.

Keywords: aquatic vegetation, catchment, turbidity status, wetland

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Authors: U. B. Zubair, A. Kiyani

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Introduction: Depressive illness predispose individuals to a lot of physical and mental health issues. Anxiety and substance use disorders have been studied widely as comorbidity. Biological symptoms also now considered part of the depressive spectrum. Cognitive abilities also decline or get affected and need to be looked into in detail in depressed patients. Objective: To determine the prevalence of cognitive decline among patients with major depressive illness and analyze the associated socio-demographic factors. Methods: 190 patients of major depressive illness were included in our study to determine the presence of cognitive decline among them. Depression was diagnosed by a consultant psychiatrist by using the ICD-10 criteria for major depressive disorder. British Columbia Cognitive Complaints Inventory (BC-CCI) was the psychometric tool used to determine the cognitive decline. Sociodemographic profile was recorded and the relationship of various factors with cognitive decline was also ascertained. Findings: 70% of the patients suffering from depression included in this study showed the presence of some degree of cognitive decline, while 30% did not show any evidence of cognitive decline when screened through BCCCI. Statistical testing revealed that the female gender was the only socio-demographic parameter linked significantly with the presence of cognitive decline. Conclusion: Decline in cognitive abilities was found in a significant number of patients suffering from major depression in our sample population. Screening for this parameter f mental function should be done in depression clinics to pick it early.

Keywords: depression, cognitive decline, prevalence, socio-demographic factors

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Authors: Jianwen Li, Hongfang Ma, Weixin Qian, Haitao Zhang, Weiyong Ying

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Methanol-to-propylene conversion was carried out in a continuous-flow fixed-bed reactor over nano-sized HZSM-5 zeolites. The HZSM-5 catalysts were synthesized with different Si/Al ratio and silicon sources, and treated with NaOH. The structural property, morphology, and acidity of catalysts were measured by XRD, N₂ adsorption, FE-SEM, TEM, and NH₃-TPD. The results indicate that the increment of Si/Al ratio decreased the acidity of catalysts and then improved propylene selectivity, while silicon sources had slight impact on the acidity but affected the product distribution. The desilication after alkali treatment could increase intracrystalline mesopores and enhance propylene selectivity.

Keywords: alkali treatment, HZSM-5, methanol-to-propylene, synthesis condition

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Authors: Carlos Alberto Riveros, Edwin Fabián García, Javier Enrique Rivero

Abstract:

The measured data obtained from sensors in continuous monitoring of civil structures are mainly used for modal identification and damage detection. Therefore when modal identification analysis is carried out the quality in the identification of the modes will highly influence the damage detection results. It is also widely recognized that the usefulness of the measured data used for modal identification and damage detection is significantly influenced by the number and locations of sensors. The objective of this study is the numerical implementation of two widely known optimum sensor placement methods in beam-like structures

Keywords: optimum sensor placement, structural damage detection, modal identification, beam-like structures.

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Authors: Mahbub C. Mishu, Venktesh N. Dubey, Tamas Hickish, Jonathan Cole

Abstract:

Pressure ulcer is a common problem for today's healthcare industry. It occurs due to external load applied to the skin. Also when the subject is immobile for a longer period of time and there is continuous load applied to a particular area of human body,blood flow gets reduced and as a result pressure ulcer develops. Body support surface has a significant role in preventing ulceration so it is important to know the characteristics of support surface under loading conditions. In this paper we have presented mathematical models of different types of viscoelastic materials and also we have shown the validation of our simulation results with experiments.

Keywords: pressure ulcer, viscoelastic material, mathematical model, experimental validation

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