Search results for: size effects

Authors: Wei Ji

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This study was conducted in the Kansas City metropolitan area of the United States, which has experienced significant urban sprawling in recent decades. The remote sensing of land cover changes in this area spanned over four decades from 1972 through 2010. The project was implemented in two stages: the first stage focused on detection of long-term trends of urban land cover change, while the second one examined how to detect the coupled effects of human impact and climate change on urban landscapes. For the first-stage study, six Landsat images were used with a time interval of about five years for the period from 1972 through 2001. Four major land cover types, built-up land, forestland, non-forest vegetation land, and surface water, were mapped using supervised image classification techniques. The study found that over the three decades the built-up lands in the study area were more than doubled, which was mainly at the expense of non-forest vegetation lands. Surprisingly and interestingly, the area also saw a significant gain in surface water coverage. This observation raised questions: How have human activities and precipitation variation jointly impacted surface water cover during recent decades? How can we detect such coupled impacts through remote sensing analysis? These questions led to the second stage of the study, in which we designed and developed approaches to detecting fine-scale surface waters and analyzing coupled effects of human impact and precipitation variation on the waters. To effectively detect urban landscape changes that might be jointly shaped by precipitation variation, our study proposed “urban wetscapes” (loosely-defined urban wetlands) as a new indicator for remote sensing detection. The study examined whether urban wetscape dynamics was a sensitive indicator of the coupled effects of the two driving forces. To better detect this indicator, a rule-based classification algorithm was developed to identify fine-scale, hidden wetlands that could not be appropriately detected based on their spectral differentiability by a traditional image classification. Three SPOT images for years 1992, 2008, and 2010, respectively were classified with this technique to generate the four types of land cover as described above. The spatial analyses of remotely-sensed wetscape changes were implemented at the scales of metropolitan, watershed, and sub-watershed, as well as based on the size of surface water bodies in order to accurately reveal urban wetscape change trends in relation to the driving forces. The study identified that urban wetscape dynamics varied in trend and magnitude from the metropolitan, watersheds, to sub-watersheds in response to human impacts at different scales. The study also found that increased precipitation in the region in the past decades swelled larger wetlands in particular while generally smaller wetlands decreased mainly due to human development activities. These results confirm that wetscape dynamics can effectively reveal the coupled effects of human impact and climate change on urban landscapes. As such, remote sensing of this indicator provides new insights into the relationships between urban land cover changes and driving forces.

Keywords: urban land cover, human impact, climate change, rule-based classification, across-scale analysis

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Authors: Jenny Lee

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Fat Studies is emerging as an interdisciplinary area of study, intersecting with Gender Studies, Sociology, Human Development and the Creative Arts. A focus on weight loss, and, therefore, fat hatred, has resulted in a form of discriminatory institutional practice that impacts women in the Western world. This focus is sanctioned by a large dieting industry, medical associations, the media, and at times, government initiatives. This paper will discuss the emergence of the so-called ‘Obesity Epidemic’ in Australia and the Western world and the stereotypes that thin equals healthy and fat equals unhealthy. This paper will argue that, for those with a health focus, ‘Health at every size’ is a more effective principle, which involves striving for healthy living, without a focus on weight loss. This discussion will contextualise an autoethnographic exploration of how fat acceptance and Health at Every Size can be encouraged through fat activism and fat political art. As part of this paper, a selection of the recent performance, writing and art in Australia will be presented, including Aquaporko, the fat femme synchronised swim team and VaVaBoomBah, the Melbourne fat burlesque performances.

Keywords: activism, fat, health, obesity, performance

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Authors: Voss Harrigan, Korey Carter, Mohammad Reza Shaeri

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Detrimental effects of lunar dust on space hardware, spacesuits, and astronauts’ health have been already identified during Apollo missions. Developing effective dust mitigation technologies is critically important for successful space exploration and related missions in NASA applications. In this study, an electrostatic cleaning system (ECS) integrated with a negatively ionized Thunderon brush was developed to mitigate small-sized lunar dust particles with diameters ranging from 0.04 µm to 35 µm, and the mean and median size of 7 µm and 5 µm, respectively. It was found that the frequency pulses of the negative ion generator caused particles to stick to the Thunderon bristles and repel between the pulses. The brush was used manually to ensure that particles were removed from areas where the ECS failed to mitigate the lunar simulant. The acquired data demonstrated that the developed system removed over 91-96% of the lunar dust particles. The present study was performed as a proof-of-concept to enhance the cleaning performance of ECSs by integrating a brushing process. Suggestions were made to further improve the performance of the developed technology through future research.

Keywords: lunar dust mitigation, electrostatic cleaning system, Brushing, Thunderon brush, cleaning rate

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Authors: Ala Abobakr Abdulhafidh Al-Dubai

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Bone loss has risen due to fractures, surgeries, and traumatic injuries. Scientists and engineers have worked over the years to find solutions to heal and accelerate bone regeneration. The bone grafting technique has been utilized, which projects significant improvement in the bone regeneration area. An extensive study is essential on the relation between the mechanical properties of bone scaffolds and the pore size of the scaffolds, as well as the relation between the mechanical properties of bone scaffolds with the development of bioactive coating on the scaffolds. In reducing the cost and time, a mechanical simulation analysis is beneficial to simulate both relations. Therefore, this study highlights the simulated mechanical analyses on three-dimensional (3D) polylactic acid (PLA) scaffolds at two different pore sizes (P: 400 and 600 μm) and two different internals distances of (D: 600 and 900 μm), with and without the presence of hydroxyapatite (HA) coating. The 3D scaffold models were designed using SOLIDWORKS software. The respective material properties were assigned with the fixation of boundary conditions on the meshed 3D models. Two different loads were applied on the PLA scaffolds, including side loads of 200 N and vertical loads of 2 kN. While only vertical loads of 2 kN were applied on the HA coated PLA scaffolds. The PLA scaffold P600D900, which has the largest pore size and maximum internal distance, generated the minimum stress under the applied vertical load. However, that same scaffold became weaker under the applied side load due to the high construction gap between the pores. The development of HA coating on top of the PLA scaffolds induced greater stress generation compared to the non-coated scaffolds which is tailorable for bone implantation. This study concludes that the pore size and the construction of HA coating on bone scaffolds affect the mechanical strength of the bone scaffolds.

Keywords: hydroxyapatite coating, bone scaffold, mechanical simulation, three-dimensional (3D), polylactic acid (PLA).

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Authors: Rabia Qusien

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New media has emerged as a significant force in the society which connects people across the globe. Where new media brought many advantages for its users, there is a darker aspect of new technology in the form of cyberbullying. Researcher has employed survey method to reach to its targeted audience. Sample of 604 respondents was selected from one of metropolitan city of Pakistan Lahore to collect the data. Equal sample from both genders was selected to apply gender analysis. Results of this study indicate that cyber bullying is having significant psychological and educational effects. Females face more cyber bullying incidents as compared to males so they face more severe effects of cyber bullying. A comprehensive analysis of managing strategies depicts that mostly youth tries to handle this issue personally but at times they seek the support of their family and friends when they face severe issues. Due to privacy concerns females get more upset and they are more likely to seek social support from friends and family.

Keywords: cyber bullying, cyber victims, educational impacts, psychological impacts

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Authors: Navneet Dabra, Baljinder Kaur, Lakhbir Singh, V. Annapu Reddy, R. Nath, Dae-Yong Jeong, Jasbir S. Hundal

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The ferroelectric properties of fused potassium nitrate (KNO3)- polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) composite films have been investigated. The composite films of KNO3-PVA have been prepared by solvant cast technique and then fused over the brass substrate. The ferroelectric hysteresis loops (P-E) have been obtained at room temperature using modified Sawyer-Tower circuit. Percentage of back switching and differential dielectric constant has been derived from P-V loops. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) studies confirm the formation of ferroelectric phase (phase III) in these composite films. The AFM and FE-SEM studies have been used to study the surface morphology of these composite films. The values of remanemt polarization, coercive field, back switching, crystallite size, lattice parameters, and surface roughness have been estimated and correlated.

Keywords: ferroelectric polymer composite, remanemt polarization, back switching, crystallite size, lattice parameters and surface roughness

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Authors: L. Steponavičiūtė, L. Steponavičienė

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Despite the rapid nanotechnology progress and recognition, its potential impact in ecosystems and health of humans is still not fully known. In this paper, the study of ecotoxicological dangers of nanomaterials is presented. By chemical reduction method, silver (AgNPs) and gold (AuNPs) nanoparticles were synthesized, characterized and used in experiments to examine their impact on microorganisms (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans) and terrestrial flora (Phaseolus vulgaris and Lepidium sativum). The results collected during experiments with terrestrial flora show tendentious growth stimulations caused by gold nanoparticles. In contrast to these results, silver nanoparticle solutions inhibited growth of beans and garden cress, compared to control samples. The results obtained from experiments with microorganisms show similarities with ones collected from experiments with terrestrial plants. Samples treated with AuNPs of size 13 nm showed stimulation in the growth of the colonies compared with 3,5 nm size nanoparticles.

Keywords: nanomaterials, ecotoxicology, nanoparticles, ecosystems

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Authors: N. D. Iswarya, M. A. Maluk Mohamed, N. Vijaya

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Grid is infrastructure that allows the deployment of distributed data in large size from multiple locations to reach a common goal. Scheduling data intensive applications becomes challenging as the size of data sets are very huge in size. Only two solutions exist in order to tackle this challenging issue. First, computation which requires huge data sets to be processed can be transferred to the data site. Second, the required data sets can be transferred to the computation site. In the former scenario, the computation cannot be transferred since the servers are storage/data servers with little or no computational capability. Hence, the second scenario can be considered for further exploration. During scheduling, transferring huge data sets from one site to another site requires more network bandwidth. In order to mitigate this issue, this work focuses on incorporating cognitive science in scheduling. Cognitive Science is the study of human brain and its related activities. Current researches are mainly focused on to incorporate cognitive science in various computational modeling techniques. In this work, the problem solving approach of human brain is studied and incorporated during the data intensive scheduling in grid environments. Here, a cognitive engine is designed and deployed in various grid sites. The intelligent agents present in CE will help in analyzing the request and creating the knowledge base. Depending upon the link capacity, decision will be taken whether to transfer data sets or to partition the data sets. Prediction of next request is made by the agents to serve the requesting site with data sets in advance. This will reduce the data availability time and data transfer time. Replica catalog and Meta data catalog created by the agents assist in decision making process.

Keywords: data grid, grid workflow scheduling, cognitive artificial intelligence

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Authors: M. Nageswara Rao, V. S. N. K. Chaitanya, K. Amarendranath

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This paper presents an optimal allocation and sizing of Distributed Generation (DG) in Radial Distribution Network (RDN) for total power loss minimization and enhances the voltage profile of the system. The two main important part of this study first is to find optimal allocation and second is optimum size of DG. The locations of DGs are identified by Analytical expressions and crow search algorithm has been employed to determine the optimum size of DG. In this study, the DG has been placed on single and multiple allocations.CSA is a meta-heuristic algorithm inspired by the intelligent behavior of the crows. Crows stores their excess food in different locations and memorizes those locations to retrieve it when it is needed. They follow each other to do thievery to obtain better food source. This analysis is tested on IEEE 33 bus and IEEE 69 bus under MATLAB environment and the results are compared with existing methods.

Keywords: analytical expression, distributed generation, crow search algorithm, power loss, voltage profile

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Authors: Samaneh Nabavi, Hadi Shirzad, Somayeh Khanjani, Shirin Jalili

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Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductor nanocrystals that exhibit intrinsic optical and electrical properties that are size dependent due to the quantum confinement effect. Quantum confinement is brought about by the fact that in bulk semiconductor material the electronic structure consists of continuous bands, and that as the size of the semiconductor material decreases its radius becomes less than the Bohr exciton radius (the distance between the electron and electron-hole) and discrete energy levels result. As a result QDs have a broad absorption range and a narrow emission which correlates to the band gap energy (E), and hence QD size. QDs can thus be tuned to give the desired wavelength of fluorescence emission.Due to their unique properties, QDs have attracted considerable attention in different scientific areas. Also, they have been considered for forensic applications in recent years. The ability of QDs to fluoresce up to 20 times brighter than available fluorescent dyes makes them an attractive nanomaterial for enhancing the visualization of latent fingermarks, or poorly developed fingermarks. Furthermore, the potential applications of QDs in the detection of nitroaromatic explosives, such as TNT, based on directive fluorescence quenching of QDs, electron transfer quenching process or fluorescence resonance energy transfer have been paid to attention. DNA analysis is associated tightly with forensic applications in molecular diagnostics. The amount of DNA acquired at a criminal site is inherently limited. This limited amount of human DNA has to be quantified accurately after the process of DNA extraction. Accordingly, highly sensitive detection of human genomic DNA is an essential issue for forensic study. QDs have also a variety of advantages as an emission probe in forensic DNA quantification.

Keywords: forensic science, quantum dots, DNA typing, explosive sensor, fingermark analysis

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Authors: Ausra Turcinskaite-Balciuniene, Jonas Balciunas, Gediminas Merkys

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The problematic of gender and socioeconomic status biased differences in academic motivation patterns is discussed. Gender identity is understood according to symbolic interactionism perspective: as a result of reflected appraisals, social comparisons, self-attributions, and identifications, shaped by social environment and family context. The effects of socioeconomic status on academic motivation are conceptualized according to Bourdieu’s habitus concept, reflecting the role of unconscious and internalized cultural signals, proper to low and high socioeconomic status family contexts. Since families differ by various socioeconomic features, the hypothesis about possible impact of parents’ socioeconomic status on their children’s academic motivation interfering with gender socialization effects is held. The survey, aiming to seize gender differences in academic motivation and self-recorded improvement-oriented efforts as a result of socialization processes operating in the families of low and high socioeconomic status, was designed. The results of Lithuanian higher education students’ survey are presented and discussed.

Keywords: academic motivation, gender, socialization, socioeconomic status

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Authors: O. V. Vyazovska

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Behavioral efficiency is one of the main principles to be successful in nature. Accuracy of visual discrimination is determined by the attention, learning experience, and memory. In the experimental condition, pigeons’ responses to visual stimuli presented on the screen of the monitor are behaviorally manifested by pecking or not pecking the stimulus, by the number of pecking, reaction time, etc. The higher the probability of rewarding is, the more likely pigeons will respond to the stimulus. We trained 8 pigeons (Columba livia) on a stagewise go/no-go visual discrimination task.16 visual stimuli were created from all possible combinations of four binary dimensions: brightness (dark/bright), size (large/small), line orientation (vertical/horizontal), and shape (circle/square). In the first stage, we presented S+ and 4 S-stimuli: the first that differed in all 4-dimensional values from S+, the second with brightness dimension sharing with S+, the third sharing brightness and orientation with S+, the fourth sharing brightness, orientation and size. Then all 16 stimuli were added. Pigeons rejected correctly 6-8 of 11 new added S-stimuli at the beginning of the second stage. The results revealed that pigeons’ behavior at the beginning of the second stage was controlled by probabilities of rewarding for 4 dimensions learned in the first stage. More or fewer mistakes with dimension discrimination at the beginning of the second stage depended on the number S- stimuli sharing the dimension with S+ in the first stage. A significant inverse correlation between the number of S- stimuli sharing dimension values with S+ in the first stage and the dimensional learning rate at the beginning of the second stage was found. Pigeons were more confident in discrimination of shape and size dimensions. They made mistakes at the beginning of the second stage, which were not associated with these dimensions. Thus, the received results help elucidate the principles of dimensional stimulus control during learning compound multidimensional visual stimuli.

Keywords: visual go/no go discrimination, selective attention, dimensional stimulus control, pigeon

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Authors: Burak Dik, Oguzhan Avci, Irmak Dik, Emre Bahcivan

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The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of alone and combined administration of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) vaccine with Corynebacterium cutis lysate (CCL) on the hematology and biochemistry parameters levels in sheep. CCL and PPR vaccine changes cell and organ activity. In this study, 12 ewes were divided into equal groups; first group; PPR vaccine was applied only one time 1 mL subcutan of armpit on 6 sheep, and the second group; CCL (1 mL) and PPR vaccine (1 mL) combination were applied only one time subcutan of armpit on 6 sheep. Blood samples were collected before treatment (0. hour, control) and after treatment (1, 3, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days) from the sheep. Plasma and serum samples were evaluated for hematology and biochemistry parameters and there were statistically significant in sheep. In conclusion, combined usage of PPR vaccine with CCL may not influence cells and organs. Repeated CCL treatment with vaccine can create hepatotoxic, renal and bone marrow effects in sheep.

Keywords: Corynebacterium cutis lysate, hematology, peste des petits ruminants, vaccine

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Authors: Ren-Jy Ben, Jo-Chi Jao, Chiu-Ya Liao, Ya-Ru Tsai, Lain-Chyr Hwang, Po-Chou Chen

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Cancer is still one of the serious diseases threatening the lives of human beings. How to have an early diagnosis and effective treatment for tumors is a very important issue. The animal carcinoma model can provide a simulation tool for the study of pathogenesis, biological characteristics and therapeutic effects. Recently, drug delivery systems have been rapidly developed to effectively improve the therapeutic effects. Liposome plays an increasingly important role in clinical diagnosis and therapy for delivering a pharmaceutic or contrast agent to the targeted sites. Liposome can be absorbed and excreted by the human body, and is well known that no harm to the human body. This study aimed to compare the therapeutic effects between encapsulated (doxorubicin liposomal, LipoDox) and un-encapsulated (doxorubicin, Dox) anti-tumor drugs using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Twenty-four New Zealand rabbits implanted with VX2 carcinoma at left thigh were classified into three groups: control group (untreated), Dox-treated group and LipoDox-treated group, 8 rabbits for each group. MRI scans were performed three days after tumor implantation. A 1.5T GE Signa HDxt whole body MRI scanner with a high resolution knee coil was used in this study. After a 3-plane localizer scan was performed, Three-Dimensional (3D) Fast Spin Echo (FSE) T2-Weighted Images (T2WI) was used for tumor volumetric quantification. And Two-Dimensional (2D) spoiled gradient recalled echo (SPGR) dynamic Contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI was used for tumor perfusion evaluation. DCE-MRI was designed to acquire four baseline images, followed by contrast agent Gd-DOTA injection through the ear vein of rabbits. Afterwards, a series of 32 images were acquired to observe the signals change over time in the tumor and muscle. The MRI scanning was scheduled on a weekly basis for a period of four weeks to observe the tumor progression longitudinally. The Dox and LipoDox treatments were prescribed 3 times in the first week immediately after VX2 tumor implantation. ImageJ was used to quantitate tumor volume and time course signal enhancement on DCE images. The changes of tumor size showed that the growth of VX2 tumors was effectively inhibited for both LipoDox-treated and Dox-treated groups. Furthermore, the tumor volume of LipoDox-treated group was significantly lower than that of Dox-treated group, which implies that LipoDox has better therapeutic effect than Dox. The signal intensity of LipoDox-treated group is significantly lower than that of the other two groups, which implies that targeted therapeutic drug remained in the tumor tissue. This study provides a radiation-free and non-invasive MRI method for therapeutic monitoring of targeted liposome on an animal tumor model.

Keywords: doxorubicin, dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, lipodox, magnetic resonance imaging, VX2 tumor model

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Authors: Aline Giardin

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Introduction: This review addresses the relationship between physical education and mental health and its main objective is to discuss the meanings that circulate in Psychiatric Hospitalization Units and Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS) about the presence of physical education teachers and the practices developed by Them within these services. Material and methods: It is based on the theoretical contribution of the Psychiatric Reform and is methodologically inspired by the Bibliographic Review. Objectives: The objective of this review was to identify the main scientific evidence on the effects of physical activity on the main psychological aspects associated with mental health during the hospitalization process. Results: It was observed that physical activity has beneficial effects in the psychological, social and cognitive aspects, being thus a fundamental aspect of the lifestyle in promoting a healthy and successful treatment. In studies evaluating the effects of physical activity on mental health, the most frequently evaluated outcomes include anxiety, depression, and health-related quality of life (eg, self-esteem and self-efficacy). Evidence from epistemological studies indicates that the level of physical activity is positively associated with good mental health, when mental health is defined as good mood, general well-being and decreased symptoms. Conclusion: It is necessary to intervene and a greater interest of the professionals of physical education in the treatment with the people with mental disorders so that the negative symptoms are modified, through the aid of the physical activity, by better quality of life, physical condition, nutritional state and A healthy emotional appearance.

Keywords: health mental, physical activity, benefits, treatment

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Authors: S. C. Gupta

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The wind flow over several buildings lying in close vicinity in urban areas generates flow interference effects causing problems related to pedestrian comfort and ventilation within the buildings. This promoted a lot of research interest in the recent years. Airflow over a building creates a positive pressure zone on the upstream side and negative pressure zones (cavities or eddy zones) on the roof and all other sides. Large eddy simulation model is used along with sub-grid-scale model to numerically simulate turbulence for this purpose. The basis of flow outside the building is the pressure difference (between the wind and building interior). Wind Tunnel models are fabricated and tested in the subsonic wind tunnel. Theoretical results are compared with the experimental data. Newer configuration is tried for favorable effects in recovering static pressure values. Results obtained are seen very encouraging. The proposed exhaustive research investigation through numerical simulations and the experimental work are described and some interesting findings are brought out.

Keywords: wind flow, buildings, static pressure wind tunnel testing, CFD

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Authors: Ruangdech Sirikit

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The purposes of this research were to study the variables affecting the quality assessment of mathematics subject in Thailand by using value-added analysis on TIMSS 2011. The data used in this research is the secondary data from the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), collected from 6,124 students in 172 schools from Thailand, studying only mathematics subjects. The data were based on 14 assessment tests of knowledge in mathematics. There were 3 steps of data analysis: 1) To analyze descriptive statistics 2) To estimate competency of students from the assessment of their mathematics proficiency by using MULTILOG program; 3) analyze value added in the model of quality assessment using Value-Added Model with Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) and 2 levels of analysis. The research results were as follows: 1. Student level variables that had significant effects on the competency of students at .01 levels were Parental care, Resources at home, Enjoyment of learning mathematics and Extrinsic motivation in learning mathematics. Variable that had significant effects on the competency of students at .05 levels were Education of parents and self-confident in learning mathematics. 2. School level variable that had significant effects on competency of students at .01 levels was Extra large school. Variable that had significant effects on competency of students at .05 levels was medium school.

Keywords: quality assessment, value-added model, TIMSS, mathematics, Thailand

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Authors: Da Tao, Tieyan Wang, Mingfu Qin

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While social robots have been increasingly developed and rapidly applied in our daily life, how robots should interact with humans is still an urgent problem to be explored. Appropriate use of interactive behavior is likely to create a good user experience in human-robot interaction situations, which in turn can improve people’s acceptance of robots. This paper aimed to systematically and quantitatively examine the effects of several important situational factors (i.e., interaction distance, interaction posture, and feedback style) on user experience during human-robot interaction. A three-factor mixed designed experiment was adopted in this study, where subjects were asked to interact with a social robot in different interaction situations by combinations of varied interaction distance, interaction posture, and feedback style. A set of data on users’ behavioral performance, subjective perceptions, and eye movement measures were tracked and collected, and analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance. The results showed that the three situational factors showed no effects on behavioral performance in tasks during human-robot interaction. Interaction distance and feedback style yielded significant main effects and interaction effects on the proportion of fixation times. The proportion of fixation times on the robot is higher for negative feedback compared with positive feedback style. While the proportion of fixation times on the robot generally decreased with the increase of the interaction distance, it decreased more under the positive feedback style than under the negative feedback style. In addition, there were significant interaction effects on pupil diameter between interaction distance and posture. As interaction distance increased, mean pupil diameter became smaller in side interaction, while it became larger in frontal interaction. Moreover, the three situation factors had significant interaction effects on user acceptance of the interaction mode. The findings are helpful in the underlying mechanism of user experience in human-robot interaction situations and provide important implications for the design of robot behavioral expression and for optimal strategies to improve user experience during human-robot interaction.

Keywords: social robots, human-robot interaction, interaction posture, interaction distance, feedback style, user experience

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Authors: Asma Ben Yaghlane, Mohamed Naceur Azaiez

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In this paper, we briefly introduce the concept of Poisson attacks in the case of defense/attack strategies where attacks are assumed to be continuous. We suggest a game model in which the attacker will combine both criteria of a sufficient confidence level of a successful attack and a reasonably small size of the estimation error in order to launch an attack. Here, estimation error arises from assessing the system failure upon attack using aggregate data at the system level. The corresponding error is referred to as aggregation error. On the other hand, the defender will attempt to deter attack by making one or both criteria inapplicable. The defender will build his/her strategy by both strengthening the targeted system and increasing the size of error. We will formulate the defender problem based on appropriate optimization models. The attacker will opt for a Bayesian updating in assessing the impact on the improvement made by the defender. Then, the attacker will evaluate the feasibility of the attack before making the decision of whether or not to launch it. We will provide illustrations to better explain the process.

Keywords: attacker, defender, game theory, information

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Authors: Chengcao Sun, Cuili Yang, Shujun Li, Ruilin Xue, Liang Wang, Yongyong Xi, Dejia Li

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Backgrounds: Sulforaphane, one of the most important isothiocyanates in the human diet, is known to have chemopreventive and antioxidant activities in different tissues via activation of NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)-mediated induction of antioxidant/phase II enzymes, such as heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and NAD(P)H quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1). However, its effects on muscular dystrophy remain unknown. This work was undertaken to evaluate the effects of Sulforaphane on Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Methods: 4-week-old mdx mice were treated with SFN by gavage (2 mg/kg body weight per day) for 8 weeks. Blood was collected from eye socket every week, and tibial anterior, extensor digitorum longus, gastrocnemius, soleus, triceps brachii muscles and heart samples were collected after 8-week gavage. Force measurements and mice exercise capacity assays were detected. GSH/GSSG ratio, TBARS, CK and LDH levels were analyzed by spectrophotometric methods. H&E staining was used to analyze histological and morphometric of skeletal muscles of mdx mice, and Evas blue dye staining was made to detect sarcolemmal integrity of mdx mice. Further, the role of Sulforaphane on Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway was analyzed by ELISA, western blot and qRT-PCR. Results: Our results demonstrated that SFN treatment increased the expression and activity of muscle phase II enzymes NQO1 and HO-1 with Nrf2 dependent manner. SFN significantly increased skeletal muscle mass, muscle force (~30%), running distance (~20%) and GSH/GSSG ratio (~3.2 folds) of mdx mice, and decreased the activities of plasma creatine phosphokinase (CK) (~45%) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (~40%), gastrocnemius hypertrophy (~25%), myocardial hypertrophy (~20%) and MDA levels (~60%). Further, SFN treatment also reduced the central nucleation (~40%), fiber size variability, inflammation and improved the sarcolemmal integrity of mdx mice. Conclusions: Collectively, these results show that SFN can improve muscle function, pathology and protect dystrophic muscle from oxidative damage in mdx mice through Nrf2 signaling pathway, which indicate Nrf2 may have clinical implications for the treatment of patients with muscular dystrophy.

Keywords: sulforaphane, duchenne muscular dystrophy, Nrf2, oxidative stress

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Authors: T. Nalowa, L. Foncha, S. Eposi

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Prostate enlargement, prostate cancer are major global health problems affecting many men as they advance in age. It is highly recommended to encourage older men to get Prostate Specific Antigen test screening frequently. Conventional treatments like radiation, chemotherapy are associated with many side effects. And this situation is a call for concern. Traditional medicine is affordable, easily prepared with little or no side effects and it contains many phytochemicals. The study aims to find the cure for prostate cancer and prostate enlargement by extracting products from plant tissues of specific herbs to determine anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-hematuria properties. Descriptive statistical analysis was applied to describe the data process. The commonly used method of preparation was extraction. Overall, 40 patients were classified based on their medical conditions on their underlying user report. Rural communities in Fako are rich sources of plants with medicinal properties. The used plants consequently provide basic information and aid to investigate the cure of prostate cancer and prostate enlargement, with great significance.

Keywords: cancer, enlargement, metastases, prostate

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Authors: Karim Mohamed Fawzy Ghuiba, Alaa Aldeen Abd Al Hakeem Balbaa, Shams Elbaz

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Objectives: To compare between the effects continuous and pulsed ultrasound on pain and function in patient with knee osteoarthritis. Design: Randomized-Single blinded Study. Participants: 6 patients with knee osteoarthritis with mean age 53.66±3.61years, Altman Grade II or III. Interventions: Subjects were randomly assigned into two groups; Group A received continuous ultrasound and Group B received pulsed ultrasound. Outcome measures: Effects of pulsed and continuous ultrasound were evaluated by pain threshold assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS) scores and function assessed by the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities osteoarthritis index (WOMAC) scores. Results: There was no significant decrease in VAS and WOMAC scores in patients treated with pulsed or continuous ultrasound; and there were no significant differences between both groups. Conclusion: there is no difference between the effects of pulsed and continuous ultrasound in pain relief or functional outcome in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Keywords: knee osteoarthritis, pulsed ultrasound, ultrasound therapy, continuous ultrasound

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Authors: Fedorova Elena

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In this article, we draw a distinction between two important functions of public policy in private international law. The first function is widely recognized and relates to the prevention of application of foreign laws and enforcement of foreign court judgments whenever their effects are incompatible with the domestic legal system of the forum. This effectively protects sovereign rights of the forum state as it allows to resist against the undesirable effects of foreign law-making and law-enforcement policies. The second function is less obvious, but not less important. As the internal private legal relationships, international private relationships are usually governed by rules of public policy, to which the parties can not derogate by mutual agreement. Thefore, for international private law relations public policy has a different function than previously mentioned: in this case, the public policy acts as a defense against unacceptable effects of the party autonomy. Thus, this second function of public policy consists in the limitation of the party autonomy wich effects would be unacceptable for the local legal system. In the frame of this second function the author will analyse two types of public policy which can limit the party autonomy: « substantial » public policy (which regulates the substance of international legal relationship) and « conflictual » public policy (which regulates the party autonomy to choose the law applicable for the substance of relationship). The author provides an analysis of these functions of the public policy in the field of international contract law because of the important role of the principle of party autonomy for international contract relations.

Keywords: public policy, general theory of private international law, substantial public policy, conflictual public policy

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Authors: Monireh Movahedi

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Considering undesirable effects of chemical insecticides on environment and human health, most studies focused on insecticidal effects of plant materials. Here, the insecticidal effects of methanol, ethylacetat and n-Hexan extracts of Rosmarinus officinalis L. on larval stage of the cotton bollworm were studied. From each extract, six concentrations, including 5, 10, 20, 40 and 60 mg/ml were prepared and added on larval artificial diet. Moreover, solution of distilled water and tween 2% considered as check treatment. All experiments were done in laboratory temperature of 25±3 ºC, RH =50±10% and natural photoperiod during growing season. Each treatment had four replications and each replication carried out on 10 first instar larva with <24h age. Larval mortality was recorded 3 and 7 days after treat. Based on results, LC50 of methanol, ethylacetat and n-Hexan extracts of R. officinalis were 2.78, 15.87 and 15.70 ml/mg, respectively. On the other hand, antifeedant effect of methanol, ethylacetat and n-Hexan for R. officinalis estimated as 43.13%, 55.11% and 9.19%, respectively. All the obtained results revealed that methanol and ethylacetat extracts of R. officinalis are effective extracts for controlling the cotton bollworm population.

Keywords: Helocoverpa armigera, Rosemarinus officinalis, extract, methanol, ethylacetat, n-Hexan

Procedia PDF Downloads 171

Authors: F. Kantaş, D. Boyacı, C. Dinç

Abstract:

Exhaust systems plays an important role in thermal heat management. Exhaust manifold picks burned gas from engine and exhaust pipes transmit exhaust gas to muffler, exhaust gas is reacted chemically to avoid noxious gas and sound is reduced in muffler then gas is threw out with tail pipe from muffler. Exhaust gas flows out from tail pipe and this hot gas flows to many parts that available around tail pipe and muffler, like spare tire, transmission, pipes etc. These parts are heated by hot exhaust gas. Also vehicle on ride, external flow effects exhaust gas flow and exhaust gas behavior is changed. It's impossible to understand which parts are heated by hot exhaust gas in tests. To understand this phenomena, exhaust gas flow is solved in CFD also external flow due to vehicle movement must be solved with exhaust gas flow. Because external flow effects exhaust gas flow behavior with many parameters. This paper investigates external flow effects exhaust gas flow behavior and other critical parameters effect exhaust gas flow behavior, like different tail pipe design, exhaust gas mass flow in critic vehicle driving situations.

Keywords: exhaust, gas flow, vehicle, external flow

Procedia PDF Downloads 448

Authors: Nouacer Imane, Benalia Mokhtar, Djedid Mabrouk

Abstract:

The adsorption ability of a powdered activated carbons (PAC) derived from Luffa cylindrica investigated in an attempt to produce more economic and effective sorbents for the control of Cu(II) ion from industrial liquid streams. Carbonaceous sorbents derived from local luffa cylindrica, were prepared by chemical activation methods using ZnCl2 as activating reagents. Adsorption of Cu (II) from aqueous solutions was investigated. The effects of pH, initial adsorbent concentration, the effect of particle size, initial metal ion concentration and temperature were studied in batch experiments. The maximum adsorption capacity of copper onto grafted Luffa cylindrica fiber was found to be 14.23 mg/g with best fit for Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The values of thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy change, ∆H (-0.823 kJ/mol), entropy change, ∆S (-9.35 J/molK) and free energy change, ∆G (−1.56 kJ/mol) were also calculated. Adsorption process was found spontaneous and exothermic in nature. Finally, the luffa cylindrica has been evaluated by FTIR, MO and x-ray diffraction in order to determine if the biosorption process modifies its chemical structure and morphology, respectively. Luffa cylindrica has been proven to be an efficient biomaterial useful for heavy metal separation purposes that is not altered by the process.

Keywords: adsorption, cadmium, isotherms, thermodynamic, luffa sponge

Procedia PDF Downloads 249

Authors: Sabri Sudirman, Yuan-Hua Hsu, Zwe-Ling Kong

Abstract:

Male reproductive dysfunction is predominantly due to insulin resistance and hyperglycemia result in inflammation and oxidative stress. Furthermore, nanotechnology provides an alternative approach to improve the bioavailability of natural active food ingredients. Therefore, the aim of this study were to investigate nanoencapsulated triterpenoids from petri-dish cultured Antrodia cinnamomea (PAC) nanoparticles whether it could increase the bioavailability; in addition, the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects could more effectively ameliorate the reproductive function of diabetic male rats. First, PAC encapsulated in chitosan-silica nanoparticles (Nano-PAC) were prepared by biosilicification method. Scanning electron micrographs confirm the average particle size is about 30 nm, and the encapsulation efficiency is 83.7% by HPLC. Diabetic male Sprague-Dawley rats were induced by high fat diet (40% kcal from fat) and streptozotocin (35 mg/kg). Nano-PAC was administered by oral gavage in three doses (4, 8 and 20 mg/kg) for 6 weeks. Besides, metformin (300 mg/kg) and nanoparticles (Nano) were treated as the positive and negative control respectively. Results indicated that 4 mg/kg Nano-PAC administration for 6 weeks improved hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, and also reduced advanced glycation end products in plasma. In addition, 8 mg/kg Nano-PAC ameliorated morphological of testicular seminiferous tubules, sperm morphology and motility, reactive oxygen species production and mitochondrial membrane potential. Moreover, 20 mg/kg Nano-PAC restored reproductive endocrine system function and increased KiSS-1 level in plasma. In plasma or testis anti-oxidant superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase were increased whereas malondialdehyde, as well as pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and interferon-gamma, decreased. Most importantly, 8 mg/kg Nano-PAC down-regulated the oxidative stress induced c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling pathway. Our study successfully nanoencapsulated PAC to form nanoparticles and low-dose Nano-PAC improved diabetes-induced hyperglycemia, inflammation and oxidative stress to ameliorate the reproductive function of diabetic male rats.

Keywords: Antrodia cinnamomea, diabetes mellitus, male reproduction, nanoparticles

Procedia PDF Downloads 222

Authors: S. Gupta, R. Sarkar, S. Pathak, D. H. Kela, A. Pramanick, P. Talukdar

Abstract:

Low alloy quenched and tempered steels are typically used in cast railway components such as knuckles, yokes, and couplers. Since these components experience extensive impact loading during their service life, adequate impact toughness of these grades need to be ensured to avoid catastrophic failure of parts in service. Because of the general availability of Charpy V Test equipment, Charpy test is the most common and economical means to evaluate the impact toughness of materials and is generally used in quality control applications. With this backdrop, an experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of austenitizing temperature, soaking time and resultant grain size on the Charpy impact toughness and the related fracture mechanisms in a quenched and tempered low alloy steel, with the aim of optimizing the heat treatment parameters (i.e. austenitizing temperature and soaking time) with respect to impact toughness. In the first phase, samples were austenitized at different temperatures viz. 760, 800, 840, 880, 920 and 960°C, followed by quenching and tempering at 600°C for 4 hours. In the next phase, samples were subjected to different soaking times (0, 2, 4 and 6 hours) at a fixed austenitizing temperature (980°C), followed by quenching and tempering at 600°C for 4 hours. The samples corresponding to different test conditions were then subjected to instrumented Charpy tests at -40°C and energy absorbed were recorded. Subsequently, microstructure and fracture surface of samples corresponding to different test conditions were observed under scanning electron microscope, and the corresponding grain sizes were measured. In the final stage, austenitizing temperature, soaking time and measured grain sizes were correlated with impact toughness and the fracture morphology and mechanism.

Keywords: heat treatment, grain size, microstructure, retained austenite and impact toughness

Procedia PDF Downloads 338

Authors: Subal Kar, Madhuja Ghosh, Amitesh Kumar, Arijit Majumder

Abstract:

Complementary split-ring resonator (CSRR) loaded microstrip square patch antenna has been optimally designed with the help of high frequency structure simulator (HFSS). The antenna has been fabricated on the basis of the simulation design data and experimentally tested in anechoic chamber to evaluate its gain, bandwidth, efficiency and polarization characteristics. The CSRR loaded microstrip patch antenna has been found to realize significant size miniaturization (to the extent of 24%) compared to the conventional-type microstrip patch antenna both operating at the same frequency (5.2 GHz). The fabricated antenna could realize a maximum gain of 4.17 dB, 10 dB impedance bandwidth of 34 MHz, efficiency 50.73% and with maximum cross-pol of 10.56 dB down at the operating frequency. This practically designed antenna with its miniaturized size is expected to be useful for airborne and space borne applications at microwave frequency.

Keywords: split ring resonator, metamaterial, CSRR loaded patch antenna, microstrip patch antenna, LC resonator

Procedia PDF Downloads 359

Authors: Yulia Kasperskaya, Ramon Xifré

Abstract:

Budgetary procedures are considered to be important for countries’ fiscal performance. The objective of this paper is to analyze this relationship for the OECD countries in the wake of global economic crisis taking into consideration countries’ fiscal conditions and institutional arrangements. We test whether groups of countries that are fiscally different after the crisis differ in their use of budgetary procedures including performance budgeting, transparency mechanisms and medium-term expenditure framework. For this purpose, we classify OECD countries in two groups according to the variations, in debt to GDP ratio between 2008 and 2014. We then analyze the intensity of use of budget procedures taking into account countries’ economic conditions during the crisis. Our first finding is that there is no monotonic relationship between the intensity of use of these three budgetary procedures and enhanced fiscal performance. Countries showing similar fiscal performance scored differently in terms of on budgetary procedures. We, therefore, review the budgetary frameworks and trajectories of several countries that are fiscally sound. From this qualitative analysis, we derive a set of factors that may enhance the efficiency of budgetary procedures. This suggests that a given budgetary procedure may have different effects in different countries depending on their economic and administrative settings. Our results are thus in line with those studies that reject one-size-fits-all approaches.

Keywords: budget procedures, fiscal performance, OECD, performance budgeting

Procedia PDF Downloads 239