Search results for: frequency index

Authors: Hsueh-Ching Wu

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Aims: This study investigated the longitudinal changes in BC were evaluated in patients with T2D who received carbohydrate-restricted diet education (CRDE), and the effects of age and sex on BC were analyzed. Design: This retrospective observational study was conducted between 2018 and 2021. A total of 6164 T2D patients were analyzed. Subjects with T2D who received CRDE (daily carbohydrate intake: 26-45%). A hierarchical linear model (HLM) was used to estimate the change amount and rate of change for the following variables in each group: body weight (BW), body mass index (BMI), body fat mass (BFM), percent body fat (PBF), appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM), and skeletal muscle index (SMI). Results: The BW, BMI, ASM, SMI and BFM of T2D patients who received CRDE for 3 years decreased with increasing age; PBF showed the opposite trend. The changes in BW, BMI, ASM, and SMI of patients older than 65 years were higher than those of patients younger than 65 years, and the annual rate of decline for males was higher than that for females. The annual change in BFM and PBF for both sexes changed from a downward trend before the age of 65 to a slow increase after the age of 65, and the slow increase rate for women was higher than that for men. Conclusion: Changes in body composition are associated with age and sex. BW and muscle tissue decrease with age, and attention must be paid to the rebound of adipose tissue after middle age. Patient or Public Contribution: The patient agreed to participate in a retrospective chart review during in the study period.

Keywords: body weight, body composition, carbohydrate-restricted diet, nursing, type 2 diabetes

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Authors: Zahra Tolou-Ghamari

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Objective: Health care associated with multiresistant pathogens is rising globally. It is well known that nosocomial infections increase hospital stay, morbidity, mortality, and disability. Therefore, the aim of this study was to define the occurrence of nosocomial infections in a tertiary hospital in Isfahan/Iran. Materials and Methods: The data were extracted from the official database of hospital nosocomial infections records that included 9152 vertical rows. For each patient, the reported infections were coded by number as UTI-SUTI; Code 55, VAE-PVAP; Code 56, BSI-LCBI Code 19, SSI-DIP; Code 14, and so on. For continuous variables, mean ± standard deviation and for categorical variables, the frequency was used. Results: The study population was 5542 patients, comprised of males (n=3282) and females (n=2260). With a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 99, the mean age in 5313 patients was 58.5 ± 19.1 years old. The highest reported nosocomial infections (n= 77%) were associated with the ages 30-80 years old. Sites of nosocomial infections in 87% were as: VAE-PVAP; 27.3%, VAE-IVAC; 7.7, UTI-SUTI; 29.5%, BSI-LCBI; 12.9%, SSI-DIP; 9.5% and other individual infection (13%) with the main pathogens klebsiella pneumonia, acinetobacter baumannii and staphylococcus. Conclusions: For an efficient surveillance system, adopting pharmacotherapy used antibiotics in terms of monotherapy or polypharmacy control policy, in addition to advanced infection control programs at regional and national levels in Iran recommended.

Keywords: infection, nosocomial, ventilator, blood stream, Isfahan, Iran

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Authors: Chen-Yu Tsai, Wen-Te Liu, Chen-Chen Lo, Kang Lo, Yin-Tzu Lin

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Background: Driving drowsiness related to insufficient or disordered sleep accounts for a major percentage of vehicular accidents. Sleep deprivation is the primary reason related to low sleep efficiency. Nevertheless, the mechanism of sleep deprivation induces driving fatigue to remain unclear. Objective: The objective of this study is to associate the relationship between insufficient sleep efficiency and driving fatigue. Methodologies: The physical condition while driving was obtained from the questionnaires to classify the state of driving fatigue. Sleep efficiency was quantified as the polysomnography (PSG), and the sleep stages were sentenced by the reregistered Technologist during examination in a hospital in New Taipei City (Taiwan). The independent T-test was used to investigate the correlation between sleep efficiency, sleep stages ratio, and driving drowsiness. Results: There were 880 subjects recruited in this study, who had been done polysomnography for evaluating severity for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) as well as completed the driver condition questionnaire. Four-hundred-eighty-four subjects (55%) were classified as fatigue group, and 396 subjects (45%) were served as the control group. The ratio of stage three sleep (N3) (0.032 ± 0.056) in fatigue group were significantly lower than the control group (p < 0.01). The significantly higher value of snoring index (242.14 ± 205.51 /hours) was observed in the fatigue group (p < 0.01). Conclusion: We observe the considerable correlation between deep sleep reduce and driving drowsiness. To avoid drowsy driving, the sleep deprivation, and the snoring events during the sleeping time should be monitored and alleviated.

Keywords: driving drowsiness, sleep deprivation, stage three sleep, snoring index

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Authors: M. Ezati Kooshki, A. Abbaszadeh Shahri

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A number of devices used to control seismic structures have been developed during the past decades. One of the effective ways to reduce seismic forces transmitted to the buildings is through the base isolation systems, but the use of these devices is currently limited to large and expensive buildings. This study was an attempt to introduce an effective and low cost way to protect of structures against grand motions by a semi base isolation system. In this new way, structures were not completely decoupled of bases and the natural frequency of structures was changed due to earthquake by changing the horizontal stiffness; therefore, ground excitation energy was dissipated before entering the structures. For analyzing the dynamic behavior, the new method used finite element software (ABAQUS 6-10-1). This investigation introduced a new package of semi base isolation devices with a new material constitutive, but common in automobile industries, seeking to evaluate the effects of additional new devices on the seismic response when compared with structures without additional devises for different ground motions. The proposed semi base isolation devices were applied to a one story frame and the time history analysis was conducted on the record of Kobe earthquake (1995). The results showed that the efficiency reduced the floor acceleration and displacement, as well as velocity.

Keywords: semi base isolation system, finite element, natural frequency, horizontal stiffness

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Authors: Adhara Puspa Noorita, Azkiyatin Nailil M., Rita Aryanti, Sushanti Nuraini, Pujiati Abbas, Suparmi

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T-Dabuto is a tea made from leaves and fruits of parijoto (Madinella speciosa L.), which flavonoid, saponin and tanin contained in that tea are reported have diarrhea-caused antibacterial activity. However, the in vivo antidiarrhea effect have not clear yet. This study was conducted to determine the effect of T-DABUTO to faecal characteristics in male Balb/C-mice induced oleum ricini. Experimental research with post-test only control group design was conducted using 35 young male mice strain Balb-C which was divided into 5 groups. All groups were induced by 0.7 ml/ head of oleum ricini and 3 hours later followed by aquadest for first group, while the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th group were treated by T-DABUTO solution with 75 mg/kgBW, 150 mg/kgBW, 300 mg/kgBW, and 600 mg/kgBW respectively as 0.7 ml/ head/ 0.5 hous for 8 hours. Feces collected were used to identify the frequency, absorbtion diameter and fecal weight. T-DABUTO on dose 75 mg/kg BW has the highest antidiarrhea activity which the mean of frequency defecation, water feacal absorbsion and feacal weight were 1.71±0.95 times, 0.38±0.49 mm, 0.43±0.28 mg, respectively. The T-DABUTO treatment did not influence the body weight of diarrheal mice. The T-DABUTO is potential as one of natural diarrhea tratment, especially in children.

Keywords: diarrhea, flavonid, tannin, saponin

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Authors: H. Tounsadi, A. Khalidi, M. Abdennouri, N. Barka

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The objective of this study was to produce high quality activated carbons from Diplotaxis harra biomass by potassium hydroxide activation and their application for heavy metals removal. To reduce the number of experiments, full factorial experimental design at two levels were carried out to occur optimal preparation conditions and better conditions for the removal of cadmium and cobalt ions from aqueous solutions. The influence of different variables during the activation process, such as carbonization temperature, activation temperature, activation time and impregnation ratio (g KOH/g carbon) have been investigated, and the best production conditions were determined. The experimental results showed that removal of cadmium and cobalt ions onto activated carbons was more sensitive to methylene blue index instead of iodine number. Although, the removal of cadmium and cobalt ions is more influenced by activation temperature with a negative effect followed by the impregnation ratio with a positive impact. Based on the statistical data, the best conditions for the removal of cadmium and cobalt by prepared activated carbons have been established. The maximum iodine number and methylene blue index obtained under these conditions and the greater sorption capacities for cadmium and cobalt were investigated. These sorption capacities were greater than those of a commercial activated carbon used in water treatment.

Keywords: activated carbon, cadmium, cobalt, Diplotaxis harra, experimental design, potassium hydroxide

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Authors: R. Harman Dwi, Ryan Avirsa, P. Abraham Ivan

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Understanding of temperatures in the past, present, and future temperatures can be possible to do by analysis abundance of fossil foraminifera. This research was conducted in Sambipitu Formation, Ngalang River, Nglipar, Gunung Kidul Regency. The research method is divided into 3 stages: 1) study of literature, research based on previous researchers, 2) spatial, observation and sampling every 5-10 meters, 3) descriptive, analyzing samples consisting of a 10-gram sample weight, washing sample using 30% peroxide, biostratigraphy analysis, paleotemperature analysis using abundance of fossil, diversity analysis using Simpson diversity index method, and comparing current temperature data. There are two phases based on the appearance of Globorotalia menardii and Pulleniatina obliqueculata pointed to Phase Tropical Area, and the appearance of fossil Globigerinoides ruber and Orbulina universa fossil shows the phase of Subtropical Area. Paleotemperatur based on the appearance of Globorotalia menardii, Globigerinoides trilobus, Globigerinoides ruber, Orbulina universa, and Pulleniatina obliqueculata pointed to Warm Water Area and Warm Water Area (average surface water approximate 25°C).

Keywords: abundance, biostratigraphy, Simpson diversity index method, paleotemperature

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Authors: Ow Tze Weng, Suhaila Isaak, Yusmeeraz Yusof

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The trend of health care screening devices in the world is increasingly towards the favor of portability and wearability, especially in the most common electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring system. This is because these wearable screening devices are not restricting the patient’s freedom and daily activities. While the demand of low power and low cost biomedical system on chip (SoC) is increasing in exponential way, the front end ECG sensors are still suffering from flicker noise for low frequency cardiac signal acquisition, 50 Hz power line electromagnetic interference, and the large unstable input offsets due to the electrode-skin interface is not attached properly. In this paper, a high performance CMOS amplifier for ECG sensors that suitable for low power wearable cardiac screening is proposed. The amplifier adopts the highly stable folded cascode topology and later being implemented into RC feedback circuit for low frequency DC offset cancellation. By using 0.13 µm CMOS technology from Silterra, the simulation results show that this front end circuit can achieve a very low input referred noise of 1 pV/√Hz and high common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of 174.05 dB. It also gives voltage gain of 75.45 dB with good power supply rejection ratio (PSSR) of 92.12 dB. The total power consumption is only 3 µW and thus suitable to be implemented with further signal processing and classification back end for low power biomedical SoC.

Keywords: CMOS, ECG, amplifier, low power

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Authors: H. Soltani, J. Hadfield, M. Redmond, D. S. Nobes

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The passage of oil droplets through a vertical mini-slot were investigated in this study. Oil-in-water emulsion can undergo coalescence of finer oil droplets forming droplets of a size that need to be considered individually. This occurs in a number of industrial processes and has important consequences at a scale where both body and surfaces forces are relevant. In the study, two droplet diameters of smaller than the slot width and a relatively larger diameter where the oil droplet can interact directly with the slot wall were generated. To monitor fluid motion, a particle shadow velocimetry (PSV) imaging technique was used to study fluid flow motion inside and around a single oil droplet rising in a net co-flow. The droplet was a transparent canola oil and the surrounding working fluid was glycerol, adjusted to allow a matching of refractive index between the two fluids. Particles seeded in both fluids were observed with the PSV system allowing the capture of the velocity field both within the droplet and in the surrounds. The effect of droplet size on the droplet internal circulation was observed. Part of the study was related the potential generation of flow structures, such as von Karman vortex shedding already observed in rising droplets in infinite reservoirs and their interaction with the mini-channel. Results show that two counter-rotating vortices exist inside the droplets as they pass through slot. The vorticity map analysis shows that the droplet of relatively larger size has a stronger internal circulation.

Keywords: rising droplet, rectangular orifice, particle shadow velocimetry, match refractive index

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Authors: Leonard D. Agana, Wendell Ace Dela Cruz, Arjan C. Lingaya, Bonifacio T. Doma Jr.

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The purpose of this paper is to study the predict the fuel performance parameters, which include drivability index (DI), vapor lock index (VLI), and vapor lock potential using distillation curve and Reid vapor pressure (RVP) of dual alcohol-gasoline fuel blends. Distillation curve and Reid vapor pressure were predicted using artificial neural networks (ANN) with macroscopic properties such as boiling points, RVP, and molecular weights as the input layers. The ANN consists of 5 hidden layers and was trained using Bayesian regularization. The training mean square error (MSE) and R-value for the ANN of RVP are 91.4113 and 0.9151, respectively, while the training MSE and R-value for the distillation curve are 33.4867 and 0.9927. Fuel performance analysis of the dual alcohol–gasoline blends indicated that highly volatile gasoline blended with dual alcohols results in non-compliant fuel blends with D4814 standard. Mixtures of low-volatile gasoline and 10% methanol or 10% ethanol can still be blended with up to 10% C3 and C4 alcohols. Intermediate volatile gasoline containing 10% methanol or 10% ethanol can still be blended with C3 and C4 alcohols that have low RVPs, such as 1-propanol, 1-butanol, 2-butanol, and i-butanol. Biography: Graduate School of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering and Sciences, Mapua University, Muralla St., Intramuros, Manila, 1002, Philippines

Keywords: dual alcohol-gasoline blends, distillation curve, machine learning, reid vapor pressure

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Authors: Renato Morbidelli, Carla Saltalippi, Alessia Flammini, Tommaso Picciafuoco, Corrado Corradini

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A considerable part of rainfall data to be used in the hydrological practice is available in aggregated form within constant time intervals. This can produce undesirable effects, like the underestimate of the annual maximum rainfall depth, Hd, associated with a given duration, d, that is the basic quantity in the development of rainfall depth-duration-frequency relationships and in determining if climate change is producing effects on extreme event intensities and frequencies. The errors in the evaluation of Hd from data characterized by a coarse temporal aggregation, ta, and a procedure to reduce the non-homogeneity of the Hd series are here investigated. Our results indicate that: 1) in the worst conditions, for d=ta, the estimation of a single Hd value can be affected by an underestimation error up to 50%, while the average underestimation error for a series with at least 15-20 Hd values, is less than or equal to 16.7%; 2) the underestimation error values follow an exponential probability density function; 3) each very long time series of Hd contains many underestimated values; 4) relationships between the non-dimensional ratio ta/d and the average underestimate of Hd, derived from continuous rainfall data observed in many stations of Central Italy, may overcome this issue; 5) these equations should allow to improve the Hd estimates and the associated depth-duration-frequency curves at least in areas with similar climatic conditions.

Keywords: central Italy, extreme events, rainfall data, underestimation errors

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Authors: Javad Vaezi, Ashraf Mohammadzadeh, Behjatalomoluk Ajami, Azin Vaezi, Aradokht Vaezi

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Introduction: Neonatal period is the first developing phase after birth, followed by different developmental processes up to the age of puberty. A neonate may be born with different oral lesions. The aim of this study was to evaluate oral lesions in newborns at Mashhad Imam Reza Hospital, which belongs to Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: In this cross–sectional descriptive study, 600 newborns were observed during 2.5 months in 2001. The total oral cavity, including the soft palate, hard palate, tongue, alveolar ridge, and oral cavity floor, was examined with a tongue blade and light. Results: Results showed that 52.6% of newborns (316 cases) had oral lesions. 0.66% cases had natal and neonatal teeth, 0.5% cases had congenital epulis, 1.8% cases were with ankyloglossia, 41.5% cases with Epstein’s pearls, 22.3% cases with Bohn nodules and 0.16% case with exostosis. There were no cases of cleft lip or cleft palate. The most frequent oral lesion observed was Epstein’s pearls. Conclusion: Our study showed that the prevalence of natal teeth in the city of Mashhad was more than in other countries except for Bohn nodule and Epstein’s pearls, which occurred less frequently than in other countries.

Keywords: newborn, oral lesion, epidemiology, frequency

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Authors: Jianghua Chen

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Sustainable urban development requires the coordination of economic growth and resource environment, and industrial transformation and upgrading is the key link. Based on the decoupling theory and the improved decoupling decomposition model, the quantitative evaluation and comprehensive analysis of the degree of decoupling between resource consumption and economic development in Jiangsu Province are conducted using the data related to the resource consumption and economic growth of the secondary and tertiary industries in Jiangsu Province from 2013 to 2018, as a way of exploring the sustainable development path of industrial transformation in Jiangsu Province. The results show that from the decoupling status, the degree of decoupling of economic development of the secondary industry to the required coke resources, water resources, and human resources is gradually deepening, and the decoupling index of economic development of the tertiary industry to the required water resources is fluctuating; from the perspective of the driving factors, the technological effect is the main driving factor to decouple the economic growth of Jiangsu Province to the resources, and the structural effect has a significant impact on the driving index of the decoupling of economic growth of the secondary and tertiary industries to the consumption of resources in Jiangsu Province. Finally, we discuss the difficulties of industrial transformation and layout faced by Jiangsu Province at present.

Keywords: resource consumption, economic growth, industrial transformation, decoupling theory

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Authors: Nurcihan Hacioglu, Cigdem Gul, Murat Tosunoglu

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In this article, the antibiogram and heavy metal resistance profile of the bacteria isolated from total 34 studied animals (Pelophylax ridibundus = 12, Mauremys rivulata = 14, Natrix natrix = 8) captured around the Biga Stream, are described. There was no database information on antibiogram and heavy metal resistance profile of bacteria from these area’s amphibians and reptiles. In this study, a total of 200 bacteria were successfully isolated from cloaca and oral samples of the aquatic amphibians and reptiles as well as from the water sample. According to Jaccard’s similarity index, the degree of similarity in the bacterial flora was quite high among the amphibian and reptile species under examination, whereas it was different from the bacterial diversity in the water sample. The most frequent isolates were A. hydrophila (31.5%), B. pseudomallei (8.5%), and C. freundii (7%). The total numbers of bacteria obtained were as follows: 45 in P. ridibundus, 45 in N. natrix 30 in M. rivulata, and 80 in the water sample. The result showed that cefmetazole was the most effective antibiotic to control the bacteria isolated in this study and that approximately 93.33% of the bacterial isolates were sensitive to this antibiotic. The Multiple Antibiotic Resistances (MAR) index indicated that P. ridibundus (0.95) > N. natrix (0.89) > M. rivulata (0.39). Furthermore, all the tested heavy metals (Pb+2, Cu+2, Cr+3, and Mn+2) inhibit the growth of the bacterial isolates at different rates. Therefore, it indicated that the water source of the animals was contaminated with both antibiotic residues and heavy metals.

Keywords: bacteriological quality, amphibian, reptile, antibiotic, heavy metal resistance

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Authors: Bharath Anantharamaiah, Tomas Bouda, Elke Deckers, Stijn Jonckheere, Wim Desmet, Juan J. Garcia

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Automotive tyres are gaining importance recently in terms of their noise emission, not only with respect to reduction in noise, but also their perception and detection. Tyres exhibit a mechanical noise generation mechanism up to 1 kHz. However, owing to the fact that tyre is a composite of several materials, it has been difficult to model it using finite elements to predict noise at high frequencies. The currently available FE models have a reliability of about 500 Hz, the limit which, however, is not enough to perceive the roughness or sharpness of noise from tyre. These noise components are important in order to alert pedestrians on the street about passing by slow, especially electric vehicles. In order to model tyre noise behaviour up to 1 kHz, its dynamic behaviour must be accurately developed up to a 1 kHz limit using finite elements. Materials play a vital role in modelling the dynamic tyre behaviour precisely. Since tyre is a composition of several components, their precise definition in finite element simulations is necessary. However, during the tyre manufacturing process, these components are subjected to various pressures and temperatures, due to which these properties could change. Hence, material definitions are better described based on the tyre responses. In this work, the hyperelasticity of tyre component rubbers is calibrated, using the design of experiments technique from the tyre characteristic responses that are measured on a stiffness measurement machine. The viscoelasticity of rubbers are defined by the Prony series for rubbers, which are determined from the loss factor relationship between the loss and storage moduli, assuming that the rubbers are excited within the linear viscoelasticity ranges. These values of loss factor are measured and theoretically expressed as a function of rubber shore hardness or hyperelasticities. From the results of the work, there exists a good correlation between test and simulation vibrational transfer function up to 1 kHz. The model also allows flexibility, i.e., the frequency limit can also be extended, if required, by calibrating the Prony parameters of rubbers corresponding to the frequency of interest. As future work, these tyre models are used for noise generation at high frequencies and thus for tyre noise perception.

Keywords: tyre dynamics, rubber materials, prony series, hyperelasticity

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Authors: Anett Nagy, Anna Maria Beke, Rozsa Graf, Magda Kalmar

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Premature birth involves developmental risks – the earlier the baby is born and the lower its birth weight, the higher the risks. The developmental outcomes for immature, low birth weight infants are hard to predict. Our aim is to identify the factors influencing infant and preschool-age development in very low birth weight (VLBW) and extremely low birth weight (ELBW) preterms. Sixty-one subjects participated in our longitudinal study, which consisted of thirty VLBW and thirty-one ELBW children. The psychomotor development of the infants was assessed using the Brunet-Lezine Developmental Scale at the corrected ages of one and two years; then at three years of age, they were tested with the WPPSI-IV IQ test. Birth weight, gestational age, perinatal complications, gender, and maternal education, were added to the data analysis as independent variables. According to our assessments, our subjects as a group scored in the average range in each subscale of the Brunet-Lezine Developmental Scale. The scores were the lowest in language at both measurement points. The children’s performances improved between one and two years of age, particularly in the domain of coordination. At three years of age the mean IQ test results, although still in the average range, were near the low end of it in each index. The ELBW preterms performed significantly poorer in Perceptual Reasoning Index. The developmental level at two years better predicted the IQ than that at one year. None of the measures distinguished the genders.

Keywords: preterm, extremely low birth-weight, perinatal complication, psychomotor development, intelligence, follow-up

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Authors: Sadeq Al Yaari, Fayza Al Hammadi, Nassr Almaflehi, Ayman Al Yaari, Adham Al Yaari, Montaha Al Yaari, Aayah Al Yaari, Sajedah Al Yaari

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Background: The language of EFL learners is of special interests to linguists. Little research has been tackled on issues concerning English Discourse Markers (EDMs) among Saudi EFL learners. Aims: Employing a corpus-based descriptive analysis, the current study attempts at detecting EDMs in the talk of Saudi EFL learners, their frequency, use, usage, etc., in comparison to other EFL learners as well as native speakers. Methods: Two hundreds Saudi EFL learners were randomly selected from 20 public and private schools (ten students from each school) across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Subjects were individually recorded while they were studying English in class. Recordings were then linguistically and statistically analyzed by the researchers. Conclusion: Results illustrate that EDMs “and”, “but” and “also” are the most frequent EDMs in the talk of Saudi EFL learners. These devices are randomly used by Saudi EFL learners who mix their use (appropriateness) with usage (correctedness) due to the influence of their L1 (Arabic). In compare to other EFL learners (native and non-native), Saudi EFL learners use less EDMs. These results confirmed the claims that EFL learners use EDMs less than native speakers. This paper, although preliminary in nature, can help arrive a better understanding of using EDMs by Saudi EFL learners. Further, it can also assist in getting appropriate insights into the way how these EDMs are used in Arab Gulf countries. The researchers decided to conduct an in-depth study into the use of EDMs in the oral work of Saudi EFL learners.

Keywords: English discourse markers, Saudi EFL learners, use, usage, frequency, native speakers

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Authors: Aboozar Dehghan, S. Sharifi, S. A. Dehghan, Ali Aliabadi, Arash Esfandiari

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Ultrasonography is a safe, available and particular method in diagnostic imaging science. In ultrasonography most of body soft tissue imaged in B mode display. Iranian Qashqaeian sheep is an old and domestic breed in Zagros mountain area in central plateau of Iran. Population of this breed in Fars state (study location) is 250000 animals. Gestation age detection in sheep was performed by ultarasonography in Kivircik breed in 2010 in turkey. In this study 5 adult, clinically healthy, Iranian ewes and 1 Iranian ram were selected. We measured biparital diameter that thickened part of fetal skull include (BPD), trunk diameter (TD), fetal heart diameter(FHD), intercostals space of fetus (ICS) and fetal heart rate per minute (FHR) weekly after day 60 after pregnancy. Inguinal area in both sides shaved and cleaned by alcohol 70 degree and covered by enough copulating gel. Trans abdominal Ultarasonography was performed by a convex multi frequency transducer with 2.5-5 MHz frequency. Data were collected and analyzed by on way Annova method in Spss15 software. Mean of BPD, TD, FHD and ICS in day 60 were 14.58, 25.92, 3.53, 2.3mm. FHR can measure on day 109 to 150. TD after day 109 cannot displayed in 1 frame in scanning. Ultrasonography in sheep pregnancy is a particular method. Using this study can help in theriogeniologic disease that affected fetal growth. Differentiating between various sheep breed is a functional result of this study.

Keywords: qashqaeian sheep, fetometry, ultrasonography

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Authors: Qiong Hu

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From old English to modern English, the gender category has changed from grammatical gender system to natural gender system. The word classes that reflected gender has changed from pronouns, adjectives, and numerals in old English to only pronouns in modern English. In present-day English, the third person singular pronouns are the only paradigm that keeps an intact gender. 'He' and 'they' used as epicene pronouns are one of the two commonest phenomena of gender disagreement (the other being those against the natural gender). Considering the convenience of corpus concordance, epicene pronoun usage is selected in this study in which the anaphors are restricted to possessives (eg. his, their), and the antecedents are restricted to compound indefinite pronouns (eg. someone, somebody). Factors like writing form (eg. someone vs. some one), the semantics of the prefixes (eg. some- vs. any-), and suffixes (eg. -one vs. -body), as well as frequency, are taken into consideration. Statistics indicate that 'their' is increasingly used as the epicene pronoun compared with the decline of 'his' (when both writing forms are considered). This is influenced by social factors such as feminist movement, as well as the semantics and frequency of antecedents. Their (plural) used in anaphoric reference to various indefinite pronouns (singular in form) can also be treated as number variation in third person pronouns, and the trend that 'their' in place of his can also be treated as a change in number category. Among different candidates for the gender-neutral function, 'their' is proven to be the most promising one based on the diachronic data. This does not reject any new competitors in the future which still remains to be seen.

Keywords: language variation and change, epicene pronouns, gender, number

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Authors: Akshay B. Pawar, Rohit Y. Parasnis

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Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a widely used indicator of the regulation between the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the cardiovascular system. Besides being non-invasive, it also has the potential to predict mortality in cases involving critical injuries. The gold standard method for determining HRV is based on the analysis of RR interval time series extracted from ECG signals. However, because it is much more convenient to obtain photoplethysmogramic (PPG) signals as compared to ECG signals (which require the attachment of several electrodes to the body), many researchers have used pulse cycle intervals instead of RR intervals to estimate HRV. They have also compared this method with the gold standard technique. Though most of their observations indicate a strong correlation between the two methods, recent studies show that in healthy subjects, except for a few parameters, the pulse-based method cannot be a surrogate for the standard RR interval- based method. Moreover, the former tends to overestimate short-term variability in heart rate. This calls for improvements in or alternatives to the pulse-cycle interval method. In this study, besides the systolic peak-peak interval method (PP method) that has been studied several times, four recent PPG-based techniques, namely the first derivative peak-peak interval method (P1D method), the second derivative peak-peak interval method (P2D method), the valley-valley interval method (VV method) and the tangent-intersection interval method (TI method) were compared with the gold standard technique. ECG and PPG signals were obtained from 10 young and healthy adults (consisting of both males and females) seated in the armchair position. In order to de-noise these signals and eliminate baseline drift, they were passed through certain digital filters. After filtering, the following HRV parameters were computed from PPG using each of the five methods and also from ECG using the gold standard method: time domain parameters (SDNN, pNN50 and RMSSD), frequency domain parameters (Very low-frequency power (VLF), Low-frequency power (LF), High-frequency power (HF) and Total power or “TP”). Besides, Poincaré plots were also plotted and their SD1/SD2 ratios determined. The resulting sets of parameters were compared with those yielded by the standard method using measures of statistical correlation (correlation coefficient) as well as statistical agreement (Bland-Altman plots). From the viewpoint of correlation, our results show that the best PPG-based methods for the determination of most parameters and Poincaré plots are the P2D method (shows more than 93% correlation with the standard method) and the PP method (mean correlation: 88%) whereas the TI, VV and P1D methods perform poorly (<70% correlation in most cases). However, our evaluation of statistical agreement using Bland-Altman plots shows that none of the five techniques agrees satisfactorily well with the gold standard method as far as time-domain parameters are concerned. In conclusion, excellent statistical correlation implies that certain PPG-based methods provide a good amount of information on the pattern of heart rate variation, whereas poor statistical agreement implies that PPG cannot completely replace ECG in the determination of HRV.

Keywords: photoplethysmography, heart rate variability, correlation coefficient, Bland-Altman plot

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Authors: Richa Sinha, Mohammad Irfan Javed, Sanjay Singh

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Introduction: Good antimicrobial prescribing reduces length of stay in hospital, risk of adverse events, antimicrobial resistance, and unnecessary hospital expenditure. The aim of this prospective audit was to identify any problems with antimicrobial prescribing including documentation of the relevant aspects as well as appropriateness of antibiotics use. The audit was conducted on the surgical wards in a teaching hospital in the UK. Methods: Standards included the indication, duration, choice, and prescription of antibiotic should be in line with current Regional Guidelines and should be clearly documented on the prescription chart. There should be an entry in each patients’ medical record of the diagnosis and indication for each acute antibiotic prescription issued. All prescriptions should clearly document the route, frequency and dose of antibiotic. Data collection was done for 2 weeks in the month of March 2014. A proforma including all the questions above was completed for all the patients. The results were analysed using Excel. Results: 35 patients in total were selected for the audit. 85.7% of patients had indication of antibiotic documented on the prescription chart and 68.5% of patients had indication documented in the notes. The antibiotic used was in line with hospital guidelines in 45.7% of patients, however, in a further 28.5% of patients the reason for the antibiotic prescription was microbiology approved. Therefore, in total 74.2% of patients had been prescribed appropriate antibiotics. The duration of antibiotic was documented in 68.6% of patients and the antibiotic was reviewed in 37.1% of patients. The dose, frequency and route was documented clearly in 100% of patients. Conclusion: Overall, prescribing can be improved on the surgical wards in this hospital. Only 37.1% of patients had clear documentation of a review of antibiotics. It may be that antibiotics have been reviewed but this should be clearly highlighted on the prescription chart or the notes. Failure to review antibiotics can lead to poor patient care and antimicrobial resistance and therefore it is important to address this. It is also important to address the appropriateness of antibiotics as inappropriate antibiotic prescription can lead to failure of treatment as well as antimicrobial resistance. The good points from the audit was that all patients had clear documentation of dose, route and frequency which is extremely important in the administration of antibiotics. Recommendations from this audit included to emphasize good antimicrobial prescribing at induction (twice yearly), an antimicrobial handbook for junior doctors, and re-audit in 6 months time.

Keywords: prescribing, antimicrobial, indication, duration

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Authors: P. L. D. N. M. de Silva, S. G. Edirisinghe, R. Weerasuriya

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High peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is a concern of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based visible light communication (VLC) systems. Discrete Fourier Transform spread (DFT-s) OFDM is an alternative single carrier modulation scheme which would address this concern. Employing channel coding techniques is another mechanism to reduce the PAPR. Previous research has been conducted to study the impact of these techniques separately. However, to the best of the knowledge of the authors, no study has been done so far to identify the improvement which can be harnessed by hybridizing these two techniques for VLC systems. Therefore, this is a novel study area under this research. In addition, channel coding techniques such as Polar codes and Turbo codes have been tested in the VLC domain. However, other efficient techniques such as Hamming coding and Convolutional coding have not been studied too. Therefore, the authors present the impact of the hybrid of DFT-s OFDM and Channel coding (Hamming coding and Convolutional coding) on PAPR in VLC systems using Matlab simulations.

Keywords: convolutional coding, discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, hamming coding, peak-to-average power ratio, visible light communications

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Authors: Goran Sporiš, Dinko Vuleta, Stefan Lovro

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The purpose of the present study was to determine the associations between health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and physical activity (PA) in different domains. In this cross-sectional study, participants were 169 Croatian police officers (mean age 35.14±8.95 yrs, mean height 180.93±7.53 cm, mean weight 88.39±14.05 kg, mean body-mass index 26.90±3.39 kg/m2). The dependent variables were two general domains extracted from the HRQOL questionnaire: (1) physical component scale (PCS) and (2) mental component scale (MCS). The independent variables were job-related, transport, domestic and leisure-time PA, along with other factors: age, body-mass index, smoking status, psychological distress, socioeconomic status and time spent in sedentary behaviour. The associations between dependent and independent variables were analyzed by using multiple regression analysis. Significance was set up at p < 0.05. PCS was positively associated with leisure-time PA (β 0.28, p < 0.001) and socioeconomic status (SES) (β 0.16, p=0.005), but inversely associated with job-related PA (β -0.15, p=0.012), domestic-time PA (β -0.14, p=0.014), age (β -0.12, p=0.050), psychological distress (β -0.43, p<0.001) and sedentary behaviour (β -0.15, p=0.009). MCS was positively associated with leisure-time PA (β 0.19, p=0.013) and SES (β 0.20, p=0.002), while inversely associated with age (β -0.23, p=0.001), psychological distress (β -0.27, p<0.001) and sedentary behaviour (β -0.22, p=0.001). Our results added new information about the associations between domain-specific PA and both physical and mental component scale in police officers. Future studies should deal with the same associations in other stressful occupations.

Keywords: health, fitness, police force, relations

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Authors: Muhammad Usman, Munir Ahmed

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The demand of high-rise buildings has grown fast during the past decades. The design of these buildings by using RC core wall have been widespread nowadays in many countries. The RC core wall (RCCW) buildings encompasses central core wall and boundary columns joined through post tension slab at different floor levels. The core wall often provides greater stiffness as compared to the collective stiffness of the boundary columns. Hence, the core wall dominantly resists lateral loading i.e. wind or earthquake load. Non-linear response history analysis (NLRHA) procedure is the finest seismic design procedure of the times for designing high-rise buildings. The modern design tools for nonlinear response history analysis and performance based design has provided more confidence to design these structures for high-rise buildings. NLRHA requires selection and scaling of ground motions to match design spectrum for site specific conditions. Designers use several techniques for scaling ground motion records (time series). Time domain and frequency domain scaling are most commonly used which comprises their own benefits and drawbacks. Due to lengthy process of NLRHA, application of only one technique is conceivable. To the best of author’s knowledge, no consensus on the best procedures for the selection and scaling of the ground motions is available in literature. This research aims to provide the finest ground motion scaling technique specifically for designing 40 story high-rise RCCW buildings. Seismic response of 40 story RCCW building is checked by applying both the frequency domain and time domain scaling. Variable sites are selected in three critical seismic zones of Pakistan. The results indicates that there is extensive variation in seismic response of building for these scaling. There is still a need to build a consensus on the subjected research by investigating variable sites and buildings heights.

Keywords: 40-storied RC core wall building, nonlinear response history analysis, ground motions, time domain scaling, frequency domain scaling

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Authors: Imalka Wasana Rathnayaka, Rasheda Khanam, Mohammad Mafizur Rahman

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TheCOVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges to both the health and economic states in countries around the world. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of governments' decisions to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 through proposing policy directions to reduce its magnitude. The study is motivated by the ongoing coronavirus outbreaks and comprehensive policy responses taken by countries to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and reduce death rates. This study contributes to filling the knowledge by exploiting the long-term efficacy of extensive plans of governments. This study employs a Panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework. The panels incorporate both a significant number of variables and fortnightly observations from22 countries. The dependent variables adopted in this study are the fortnightly death rates and the rates of the spread of COVID-19. Mortality rate and the rate of infection data were computed based on the number of deaths and the number of new cases per 10000 people.The explanatory variables are fortnightly values of indexes taken to investigate the efficacy of government interventions to control COVID-19. Overall government response index, Stringency index, Containment and health index, and Economic support index were selected as explanatory variables. The study relies on the Oxford COVID-19 Government Measure Tracker (OxCGRT). According to the procedures of ARDL, the study employs (i) the unit root test to check stationarity, (ii) panel cointegration, and (iii) PMG and ARDL estimation techniques. The study shows that the COVID-19 pandemic forced immediate responses from policymakers across the world to mitigate the risks of COVID-19. Of the four types of government policy interventions: (i) Stringency and (ii) Economic Support have been most effective and reveal that facilitating Stringency and financial measures has resulted in a reduction in infection and fatality rates, while (iii) Government responses are positively associated with deaths but negatively with infected cases. Even though this positive relationship is unexpected to some extent in the long run, social distancing norms of the governments have been broken by the public in some countries, and population age demographics would be a possible reason for that result. (iv) Containment and healthcare improvements reduce death rates but increase the infection rates, although the effect has been lower (in absolute value). The model implies that implementation of containment health practices without association with tracing and individual-level quarantine does not work well. The policy implication based on containment health measures must be applied together with targeted, aggressive, and rapid containment to extensively reduce the number of people infected with COVID 19. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that economic support for income and debt relief has been the key to suppressing the rate of COVID-19 infections and fatality rates.

Keywords: COVID-19, infection rate, deaths rate, government response, panel data

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Authors: T. Garba, Y. Y. Babanyara, K. G. Ilellah, M. A. Modibbo, T. O. Quddus, M. J. Sani

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After the United Nation Convention on Desertification (UNCD) in 1977 which was preceded by extensive, regional, and local studies, and consultations with numerous scientists, decision-makers, and relevant institutions. Global Plan of Action to Combat Desertification (PACD) was formulated, endorsed by member Countries. The role of implementing PACD was vested with Governments of countries affected by desertification. The Federal Government of Nigeria as a signatory and World Bank funded and implement afforestation project aimed at combating desertification between 1988 and 1999. This research, therefore, applied remote sensing techniques to assess the effectiveness of the project. To achieve that a small portion of about 143,609 hectares was curved out from the project area. Normalized Difference of the Vegetative Index (NDVI) and Land Use Land Cover were derived from Landsat TM 1986, Landsat ETM 1999 and Nigeria Sat 1, 2007 of the project area. The findings show that there was an increase in cultivated area due to the project from 1986 through 1999 and 2007. This is further buttressed by the three NDVI imageries due to their high positive pixel value from 0.04 in 1986 to 0.22 in 1999 and to 0.32 in 2007 These signifies the gradual physical development of Afforestation project in the area. In addition, it was also verified by histograms of changes in vegetation which indicated an increased vegetative cover from 60,192 in 1986, to 102,476 in 1999 and then to 88,343 in 2007. The study concluded that Remote Sensing approach has actually confirmed that the project was indeed successful and effective.

Keywords: afforestation, desertification, landsat, vegetative index, remote sensing

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Authors: A. Djoudi, R. Djibaou, H. A. Reguieg Yssaad

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Our study focuses on the study of a bacteria belonging to Pseudomonas solubilizing tricalcium phosphate. They were isolated from rhizosphere of a variety of broad bean grown in salt-affected soils (electrical conductivity between 4 and 8 mmhos/cm) of the irrigated perimeter of Mina in northwestern Algeria. Isolates which have advantageous results in the calcium phosphate solubilization index test were subjected to identification using API20 then used to re-inoculate the same soil in pots experimentation to assess the effects of inoculation on the growth of the broad bean (Vicia faba). Based on the results obtained from the in-vitro tests, two isolates P5 and P8 showed a significant effect on the solubilization of tricalcium phosphate with an index I estimated at 314% and 283% sequentially. According to the results of in-vivo tests, the inoculation of the soil with P5 and P8 were significantly and positively influencing the growth in biometric parameters of the broad bean. Inoculation with strain P5 has promoted the growth of the broad bean in stem height, stem fresh weight and stem dry weight of 108.59%, 115.28%, 104.33%, respectively. Inoculation with strain P8 has fostered the growth of the broad bean stem fresh weight of 112.47%. The effect of Pseudomonas on the development of Vicia faba is considered as an interesting process by which PGPR can increase biological production and crop protection.

Keywords: Pseudomonas, Vicia faba, promoting of plant growth, solubilization tricalcium phosphate

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Authors: Todd Zhou, Mikhail Yurochkin

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Out-of-distribution (OOD) detection is receiving increasing amounts of attention in the machine learning research community, boosted by recent technologies, such as autonomous driving and image processing. This newly-burgeoning field has called for the need for more effective and efficient methods for out-of-distribution generalization methods. Without accessing the label information, deploying machine learning models to out-of-distribution domains becomes extremely challenging since it is impossible to evaluate model performance on unseen domains. To tackle this out-of-distribution detection difficulty, we designed a model selection pipeline algorithm and developed a model selection framework with different impurity and randomness measurements to evaluate and choose the best-performing models for out-of-distribution data. By exploring different randomness scores based on predicted probabilities, we adopted the out-of-distribution entropy and developed a custom-designed score, ”CombinedScore,” as the evaluation criterion. This proposed score was created by adding labeled source information into the judging space of the uncertainty entropy score using harmonic mean. Furthermore, the prediction bias was explored through the equality of opportunity violation measurement. We also improved machine learning model performance through model calibration. The effectiveness of the framework with the proposed evaluation criteria was validated on the Folktables American Community Survey (ACS) datasets.

Keywords: model selection, domain generalization, model fairness, randomness measurements, bias index

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Authors: Rida Wanbha Nongbri, Sabuj Kumar Mandal

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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2016-2030 were adopted in response to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which focused on access to sustainable water and sanitations. For over a decade, water has been a significant subject that is explored in various facets of life. Our day-to-day life is significantly impacted by water poverty at the socio-economic level. Reducing water poverty is an important policy challenge, particularly in emerging economies like India, owing to its population growth, huge variation in topology and climatic factors. To design appropriate water policies and its effectiveness, a proper measurement of water poverty is essential. In this backdrop, this study uses the Alkire Foster (AF) methodology to estimate a multidimensional water poverty index for India at the household level. The methodology captures several attributes to understand the complex issues related to households’ water deprivation. The study employs two rounds of Indian Human Development Survey data (IHDS 2005 and 2012) which focuses on 4 dimensions of water poverty including water access, water quantity, water quality, and water capacity, and seven indicators capturing these four dimensions. In order to quantify water deprivation at the household level, an AF dual cut-off counting method is applied and Multidimensional Water Poverty Index (MWPI) is calculated as the product of Headcount Ratio (Incidence) and average share of weighted dimension (Intensity). The results identify deprivation across all dimensions at the country level and show that a large proportion of household in India is deprived of quality water and suffers from water access in both 2005 and 2012 survey rounds. The comparison between the rural and urban households shows that higher ratio of the rural households are multidimensionally water poor as compared to their urban counterparts. Among the four dimensions of water poverty, water quality is found to be the most significant one for both rural and urban households. In 2005 round, almost 99.3% of households are water poor for at least one of the four dimensions, and among the water poor households, the intensity of water poverty is 54.7%. These values do not change significantly in 2012 round, but we could observe significance differences across the dimensions. States like Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh are ranked the most in terms of MWPI, whereas Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Chandigarh are ranked the lowest in 2005 round. Similarly, in 2012 round, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa rank the highest in terms of MWPI, whereas Goa, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh rank the lowest. The policy implications of this study can be multifaceted. It can urge the policy makers to focus either on the impoverished households with lower intensity levels of water poverty to minimize total number of water poor households or can focus on those household with high intensity of water poverty to achieve an overall reduction in MWPI.

Keywords: .alkire-foster (AF) methodology, deprivation, dual cut-off, multidimensional water poverty index (MWPI)

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Authors: Jiamin Huang, Shuliang Gui, Zengshan Tian, Fei Yan, Xiaodong Wu

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In recent years, with the rapid development of radio frequency technology, the differences between radar sensing and wireless communication in terms of receiving and sending channels, signal processing, data management and control are gradually shrinking. There has been a trend of integrated communication radar sensing. However, most of the existing radar imaging technologies based on communication signals are combined with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, which does not conform to the practical application case of the integration of communication and radar. Therefore, in this paper proposes a high-precision imaging method using communication signals based on the imaging mechanism of inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging. This method makes full use of the structural characteristics of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal, so the sidelobe effect in distance compression is removed and combines radon transform and Fractional Fourier Transform (FrFT) parameter estimation methods to achieve ISAR imaging of non-cooperative targets. The simulation experiment and measured results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the method, and prove its broad application prospects in the field of intelligent transportation.

Keywords: integration of communication and radar, OFDM, radon, FrFT, ISAR

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