Search results for: Cases analysis

Authors: Basavaraj V. Patil, Uday Chakkingal, T. S. Prasanna Kumar

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Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) is currently being widely investigated because of its potential to produce ultrafine grained microstructures in metals and alloys. A sound knowledge of the plastic deformation and strain distribution is necessary for understanding the relationships between strain inhomogeneity and die geometry. Considerable research has been reported on finite element analysis of this process, assuming threedimensional plane strain condition. However, the two-dimensional models are not suitable due to the geometry of the dies, especially in cylindrical ones. In the present work, three-dimensional simulation of ECAP process was carried out for six outer corner radii (sharp to 10 mm in steps of 2 mm), with channel angle 105¶Çü▒, for strain hardening aluminium alloy (AA 6101) using ABAQUS/Standard software. Strain inhomogeneity is presented and discussed for all cases. Pattern of strain variation along selected radial lines in the body of the workpiece is presented. It is found from the results that the outer corner has a significant influence on the strain distribution in the body of work-piece. Based on inhomogeneity and average strain criteria, there is an optimum outer corner radius.

Keywords: Equal Channel Angular Pressing, Finite Element Analysis, strain inhomogeneity, plastic equivalent strain, ultra fine grain size, aluminium alloy 6101.

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Authors: Samit Ari, Goutam Saha

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Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been extensively used for classification of heart sounds for its discriminative training ability and easy implementation. However, it suffers from overparameterization if the number of nodes is not chosen properly. In such cases, when the dataset has redundancy within it, ANN is trained along with this redundant information that results in poor validation. Also a larger network means more computational expense resulting more hardware and time related cost. Therefore, an optimum design of neural network is needed towards real-time detection of pathological patterns, if any from heart sound signal. The aims of this work are to (i) select a set of input features that are effective for identification of heart sound signals and (ii) make certain optimum selection of nodes in the hidden layer for a more effective ANN structure. Here, we present an optimization technique that involves Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) and QR factorization with column pivoting (QRcp) methodology to optimize empirically chosen over-parameterized ANN structure. Input nodes present in ANN structure is optimized by SVD followed by QRcp while only SVD is required to prune undesirable hidden nodes. The result is presented for classifying 12 common pathological cases and normal heart sound.

Keywords: ANN, Classification of heart diseases, murmurs, optimization, Phonocardiogram, QRcp, SVD.

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Authors: Raluca Iulia Iulian

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The question of interethnic and interreligious conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia receives much attention within the framework of the international context created after 1991 because of the impact of these conflicts on the security and the stability of the region of Balkans and of Europe. This paper focuses on the rationales leading to the declaration of independence by Kosovo according to ethnic and religious criteria and analyzes why these same rationales were not applied in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The approach undertaken aims at comparatively examining the cases of Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the same time, it aims at understanding the political decision making of the international community in the case of Kosovo. Specifically, was this a good political decision for the security and the stability of the region of Balkans, of Europe, or even for global security and stability? This research starts with an overview on the European security framework post 1991, paying particular attention to Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It then presents the theoretical and methodological framework and compares the representative cases. Using the constructivism issue and the comparative methodology, it arrives at the results of the study. An important issue of the paper is the thesis that this event modifies the principles of international law and creates dangerous precedents for regional stability in the Balkans.

Keywords: Interethnic and interreligious conflict, security andstability, superpower.

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Authors: Yogi Satrya Aryadinata, Anne Laurent, Michel Sala

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Gradual patterns have been studied for many years as they contain precious information. They have been integrated in many expert systems and rule-based systems, for instance to reason on knowledge such as “the greater the number of turns, the greater the number of car crashes”. In many cases, this knowledge has been considered as a rule “the greater the number of turns → the greater the number of car crashes” Historically, works have thus been focused on the representation of such rules, studying how implication could be defined, especially fuzzy implication. These rules were defined by experts who were in charge to describe the systems they were working on in order to turn them to operate automatically. More recently, approaches have been proposed in order to mine databases for automatically discovering such knowledge. Several approaches have been studied, the main scientific topics being: how to determine what is an relevant gradual pattern, and how to discover them as efficiently as possible (in terms of both memory and CPU usage). However, in some cases, end-users are not interested in raw level knowledge, and are rather interested in trends. Moreover, it may be the case that no relevant pattern can be discovered at a low level of granularity (e.g. city), whereas some can be discovered at a higher level (e.g. county). In this paper, we thus extend gradual pattern approaches in order to consider multiple level gradual patterns. For this purpose, we consider two aggregation policies, namely horizontal and vertical.

Keywords: Gradual Pattern.

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Authors: Saimir Heta, Kers Kapa, Rialda Xhizdari, Ilma Robo

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Despite the existence of different dental specialties, the dentist-patient relationship is unique, in the very fact that the treatment is performed by one doctor and the patient identifies the malpractice presented as part of that doctor's practice; this is in complete contrast to cases of medical treatments where the patient can be presented to a team of doctors, to treat a specific pathology. The rules of dental ethics are almost the same as the rules of medical ethics. The appearance of dental malpractice affects exactly this two-party relationship, created on the basis of professionalism, without deviations in this direction, between the dentist and the patient, but with very narrow individual boundaries, compared to cases of medical malpractice. Malpractice can have different reasons for its appearance, starting from professional negligence, but also from the lack of professional knowledge of the dentist who undertakes the dental treatment. It should always be seen in perspective that we are not talking about the individual - the dentist who goes to work with the intention of harming their patients. Malpractice can also be a consequence of the impossibility, for anatomical or physiological reasons of the tooth under dental treatment, to realize the predetermined dental treatment plan. On the other hand, the dentist himself is an individual who can be affected by health conditions, or have vices that affect the systemic health of the dentist as an individual, which in these conditions can cause malpractice. So, depending on the reason that led to the appearance of malpractice, the method of treatment from a legal point of view also varies, for the dentist who committed the malpractice, evaluating the latter if the malpractice came under the conditions of applying the rules of dental ethics. The deviation from the predetermined dental plan is the minimum sign of malpractice and the latter should not be definitively related only to cases of difficult dental treatments. The identification of the reason for the appearance of malpractice is the initial element, which makes the difference in the way of its treatment, from a legal point of view, and the involvement of the dentist in the assessment of the malpractice committed, must be based on the legislation in force, which must be said to have their specific changes in different states. Malpractice should be referred to, or included in the lectures or in the continuing education of professionals, because it serves as a method of obtaining professional experience in order not to repeat the same thing several times, by different professionals.

Keywords: Dental ethics, malpractice, negligence, legal basis, continuing education, dental treatments.

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Authors: L.Tahmooresnejad, M.A.Shafia, R.Salami

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Technology transfer is a common method for companies to acquire new technology and presents both challenges and substantial benefits. In some cases especially in developing countries, the mere possession of technology does not guarantee a competitive advantage if the appropriate infrastructure is not in place. In this paper, we identify the localization factors needed to provide a better understanding of the conditions necessary for localization in order to benefit from future technology developments. Our theoretical and empirical analyses allow us to identify several factors in the technology transfer process that affect localization and provide leverage in enhancing capabilities and absorptive capacity.The impact factors are categorized within different groups of government, firms, institutes and market, and are verified through the empirical survey of a technology transfer experience. Moreover, statistical analysis has allowed a deeper understanding of the importance of each factor and has enabled each group to prioritize their organizational policies to effectively localize their technology.

Keywords: Absorption Capacity, Adaptation, Technology Transfer, Technology Localization

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Authors: Kozo Tanigawa, Toshihiko Sasama, Kenichi Takahashi, Takao Kawamura, Kazunori Sugahara

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In recent years, the number of the cases of information leaks is increasing. Companies and Research Institutions make various actions against information thefts and security accidents. One of the actions is adoption of the crime prevention system, including the monitoring system by surveillance cameras. In order to solve difficulties of multiple cameras monitoring, we develop the automatic human tracking system using mobile agents through multiple surveillance cameras to track target persons. In this paper, we develop the monitor which confirms mobile agents tracing target persons, and the simulator of video picture analysis to construct the tracking algorithm.

Keywords: Human tracking, mobile agent, monitoring, simulate.

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Authors: M. Chaichanyut, S. Tungjitkusolmun

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This research is presented with microwave (MW) ablation by using the T-Prong monopole antennas. In the study, three-dimensional (3D) finite-element methods (FEM) were utilized to analyse: the tissue heat flux, temperature distributions (heating pattern) and volume destruction during MW ablation in liver cancer tissue. The configurations of T-Prong monopole antennas were considered: Three T-prong antenna, Expand T-Prong antenna and Arrow T-Prong antenna. The 3D FEMs solutions were based on Maxwell and bio-heat equations. The microwave power deliveries were 10 W; the duration of ablation in all cases was 300s. Our numerical result, heat flux and the hotspot occurred at the tip of the T-prong antenna for all cases. The temperature distribution pattern of all antennas was teardrop. The Arrow T-Prong antenna can induce the highest temperature within cancer tissue. The microwave ablation was successful when the region where the temperatures exceed 50°C (i.e. complete destruction). The Expand T-Prong antenna could complete destruction the liver cancer tissue was maximized (6.05 cm³). The ablation pattern or axial ratio (Widest/length) of Expand T-Prong antenna and Arrow T-Prong antenna was 1, but the axial ratio of Three T-prong antenna of about 1.15.

Keywords: Liver cancer, T-Prong antenna, Finite element, Microwave ablation.

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Authors: Vahid Zeinoddini-Meimand, Mehdi Ghassemieh, Jalal Kiani

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This paper explains the results of an investigation on the analysis of flush end plate steel connections by means of finite element method. Flush end plates are a highly indeterminate type of connection, which have a number of parameters that affect their behavior. Because of this, experimental investigations are complicated and very costly. Today, the finite element method provides an ideal method for analyzing complicated structures. Finite element models of these types of connections under monotonic loading have previously been investigated. A numerical model, which can predict the cyclic behavior of these connections, is of critical importance, as dynamic experiments are more costly. This paper summarizes a study to develop a three-dimensional finite element model that can accurately capture the cyclic behavior of flush end plate connections. Comparisons between FEM results and experimental results obtained from full-scale tests have been carried out, which confirms the accuracy of the finite element model. Consequently, design equations for this connection have been investigated and it is shown that these predictions are not precise in all cases. The effect of end plate thickness and bolt diameter on the overall behavior of this connection is discussed. This research demonstrates that using the appropriate configuration, this connection has the potential to form a plastic hinge in the beam--desirable in seismic behavior.

Keywords: Flush end plate connection, moment-rotation diagram, finite element method, moment frame, cyclic loading.

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Authors: V. Durmus, M. Uydaci

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In order to prevent overburdened courts, rising costs of litigation, and lengthy trial resolutions, the Law on Mediation for Civil Disputes was enacted, which was aimed at defining the procedure and guiding principles for dispute resolutions under Civil Law, in 2012. This “Mediation Code” also applies for civil healthcare disputes in Turkey. Aside from mediation, reconciliation, governed by Articles 253-255 of Criminal Procedure Law, has emerged as an alternative way to resolve criminal medical disputes, but the difference between mediation and conciliation is mostly procedural. This article deals with mediation in Turkish health law and aspect of medical malpractice mediation in Turkey. In addition, this study examines the issue of mediation in health law from both a legal and normative point of view, including codes of mediation which regulate both the structural and professional practice of mediation providers. As a result, although there is not official record about success rate of medical malpractice litigations and malpractice mediation in Turkey, it is widely accepted that the success rate for medical malpractice cases is relatively low compared to other personal injury cases even if it is generally considered that medical malpractice case filings have gradually increased recently. According to the Justice Ministry’s Department of Mediation in Turkey, 719 civil disputes have referred to mediators since 2013 (when the first mediation law came into force) with a 98% success rate.

Keywords: Malpractice mediation, medical disputes, reconciliation, health litigation, Turkish Health Law.

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Authors: Mei-Se Chien, Chien-Chiang Lee, Sin-Jie Cai

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The main purpose of this paper is to investigate thelong-run equilibrium and short-run dynamics of international housing prices when macroeconomic variables change. We apply the Pedroni’s, panel cointegration, using the unbalanced panel data analysis of 33 countries over the period from 1980Q1 to 2013Q1, to examine the relationships among house prices and macroeconomic variables. Our empirical results of panel data cointegration tests support the existence of a cointegration among these macroeconomic variables and house prices. Besides, the empirical results of panel DOLS further present that a 1% increase in economic activity, long-term interest rates, and construction costs cause house prices to respectively change 2.16%, -0.04%, and 0.22% in the long run.Furthermore, the increasing economic activity and the construction cost would cause strongerimpacts on the house prices for lower income countries than higher income countries.The results lead to the conclusion that policy of house prices growth can be regarded as economic growth for lower income countries. Finally, in America region, the coefficient of economic activity is the highest, which displays that increasing economic activity causes a faster rise in house prices there than in other regions. There are some special cases whereby the coefficients of interest rates are significantly positive in America and Asia regions.

Keywords: House prices, Macroeconomic Variables, Panel cointegration, Dynamic OLS.

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Authors: Seongmin Yim, Hyun-Kyu Kang

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As a part of evaluation system for R&D program, the Korean government has applied feasibility analysis since 2008. Various professionals put forth a great effort in order to catch up the high degree of freedom of R&D programs, and make contributions to evolving the feasibility analysis. We analyze diverse R&D programs from various viewpoints, such as technology, policy, and Economics, integrate the separate analysis, and finally arrive at a definite result; whether a program is feasible or unfeasible. This paper describes the concept and method of the feasibility analysis as a decision making tool. The analysis unit and content of each criterion, which are key elements in a comprehensive decision making structure, are examined

Keywords: Decision Making of New Government R&D Program, Feasibility Analysis Study

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Authors: A. Mohamed Mydeen, Pallapa Venkataram

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The learning process needs to be so pervasive to impart the quality in acquiring the knowledge about a subject by making use of the advancement in the field of information and communication systems. However, pervasive learning paradigms designed so far are system automation types and they lack in factual pervasive realm. Providing factual pervasive realm requires subtle ways of teaching and learning with system intelligence. Augmentation of intelligence with pervasive learning necessitates the most efficient way of representing knowledge for the system in order to give the right learning material to the learner. This paper presents a method of representing knowledge for Pervasive Toolroom Maintenance System (PTMS) in which a learner acquires sublime knowledge about the various kinds of tools kept in the toolroom and also helps for effective maintenance of the toolroom. First, we explicate the generic model of knowledge representation for PTMS. Second, we expound the knowledge representation for specific cases of toolkits in PTMS. We have also presented the conceptual view of knowledge representation using ontology for both generic and specific cases. Third, we have devised the relations for pervasive knowledge in PTMS. Finally, events are identified in PTMS which are then linked with pervasive data of toolkits based on relation formulated. The experimental environment and case studies show the accuracy and efficient knowledge representation of toolkits in PTMS.

Keywords: Generic knowledge representation, toolkit, toolroom, pervasive computing.

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Authors: Hossein Heidari Tabrizi, Azizeh Chalak, Hossein Enayat

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The present study seeks to investigate the application of expansion strategy in Persian subtitles of English crime movies. More precisely, this study aims at classifying the different types of expansion used in subtitles as well as investigating the appropriateness or inappropriateness of the application of each type. To achieve this end, three movies; namely, The Net (1995), Contact (1997) and Mission Impossible 2 (2000), available with Persian subtitles, were selected for the study. To collect the data, the above mentioned movies were watched and those parts of the Persian subtitles in which expansion had been used were identified and extracted along with their English dialogs. Then, the extracted Persian subtitles were classified based on the reason that led to expansion in each case. Next, the appropriateness or inappropriateness of using expansion in the extracted Persian subtitles was descriptively investigated. Finally, an equivalent not containing any expansion was proposed for those cases in which the meaning could be fully transferred without this strategy. The findings of the study indicated that the reasons range from explicitation (explicitation of visual, co-textual and contextual information), mistranslation and paraphrasing to the preferences of subtitlers. Furthermore, it was found that the employment of expansion strategy was inappropriate in all cases except for those caused by explicitation of contextual information since correct and shorter equivalents which were equally capable of conveying the intended meaning could be posited for the original dialogs.

Keywords: Audiovisual translation, English crime movies, expansion strategies, Persian subtitles.

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Authors: Laila Seada, Hanan Oreiby, Fawaz Al Rashid, Ashraf Negm

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Background and Objective: In most areas of the world, the incidence of thyroid cancer has been increasing over the last decade, mostly due to a combination of early detection of the neoplasm resulting from sensitive procedures and increased population exposure to radiation and unrecognized carcinogens. Methods: Cases of thyroid cancer have been retrieved from the cancer registry at King Khalid Hospital during the period from August 2012 to April 2016. Age, gender and histopathologic types have been recorded. Results: Thyroid carcinoma ranked as the second most common malignancy in females (25%) after breast cancer (31%). It constituted 20.8% of all newly diagnosed cancer cases. As for males, it ranked the 4^th type of malignancy after gastrointestinal cancer, lymphomas and soft tissue sarcomas. Mean age for females and males was 38.7 +/- 13.2 and 60.25 +/- 11.5 years, respectively, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (p value = 0.0001). Fifty-five (82%) were papillary carcinomas including 10 follicular variant of papillary (FVPC), and eight papillary micro carcinomas (PMC) and two tall cell/oncocytic variants. Follicular carcinomas constituted two (3.1%), while two (3.1%) were anaplastic, and two (3.1%) were medullary. Conclusion: Thyroid cancer incidence in Hail is ranking as the 2^nd most common female malignancy similar to other regions in the Kingdom. However, this high incidence contrasts with much lower rates worldwide.

Keywords: Thyroid, Hail, papillary, micro carcinoma.

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Authors: Osama H. Ghazal

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The intension in this work is to investigate the effect of different fuels type on engine performance for different engine speed. Brake Power, Brake Torque, and specific fuel consumption were calculated and presented to show the effect of varying fuel type on them for all cases considered. A special program used to carry out the calculations. A simulation model for one-cylinder spark ignition engine has been built and calculated.

The analysis of the results shows that for methanol the power increases about 30% at 1000 rpm and 16% at 6000 rpm comparing with methane. For the same compared fuels the increment in fuel consumption is about 100% at 1000 rpm and 115% at 6000 rpm. The increment in brake thermal efficiency for gasoline is around 11% comparing with methane at 1000 rpm and 7% for methanol comparing with methane at 4000 rpm.

Keywords: Natural gas fuel, spark ignition engines, performance, engine simulation.

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Authors: Ramesh K. Sunkaria

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The linear methods of heart rate variability analysis such as non-parametric (e.g. fast Fourier transform analysis) and parametric methods (e.g. autoregressive modeling) has become an established non-invasive tool for marking the cardiac health, but their sensitivity and specificity were found to be lower than expected with positive predictive value <30%. This may be due to considering the RR-interval series as stationary and re-sampling them prior to their use for analysis, whereas actually it is not. This paper reviews the non-linear methods of HRV analysis such as correlation dimension, largest Lyupnov exponent, power law slope, fractal analysis, detrended fluctuation analysis, complexity measure etc. which are currently becoming popular as these uses the actual RR-interval series. These methods are expected to highly accurate cardiac health prognosis.

Keywords: chaos, nonlinear dynamics, sample entropy, approximate entropy, detrended fluctuation analysis.

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Authors: Tlili-Guiassa Yamina

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Many natural language expressions are ambiguous, and need to draw on other sources of information to be interpreted. Interpretation of the e word تعاون to be considered as a noun or a verb depends on the presence of contextual cues. To interpret words we need to be able to discriminate between different usages. This paper proposes a hybrid of based- rules and a machine learning method for tagging Arabic words. The particularity of Arabic word that may be composed of stem, plus affixes and clitics, a small number of rules dominate the performance (affixes include inflexional markers for tense, gender and number/ clitics include some prepositions, conjunctions and others). Tagging is closely related to the notion of word class used in syntax. This method is based firstly on rules (that considered the post-position, ending of a word, and patterns), and then the anomaly are corrected by adopting a memory-based learning method (MBL). The memory_based learning is an efficient method to integrate various sources of information, and handling exceptional data in natural language processing tasks. Secondly checking the exceptional cases of rules and more information is made available to the learner for treating those exceptional cases. To evaluate the proposed method a number of experiments has been run, and in order, to improve the importance of the various information in learning.

Keywords: Arabic language, Based-rules, exceptions, Memorybased learning, Tagging.

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Authors: Ola A. Nassr, Ali M. Abd Alridha, Rua A. Naser, Rasha S. Abbas

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Background: Excessive and inappropriate use of antimicrobial agents among hospitalized patients remains an important patient safety and public health issue worldwide. Not only does this behavior incur unnecessary cost but it is also associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study is to obtain an insight into the prescribing patterns of antibiotics in surgical and medical wards, to help identify a scope for improvement in service delivery. Method: A simple point prevalence survey included a convenience sample of 200 patients admitted to medical and surgical wards in a government teaching hospital in Baghdad between October 2017 and April 2018. Data were collected by a trained pharmacy intern using a standardized form. Patient’s demographics and details of the prescribed antibiotics, including dose, frequency of dosing and route of administration, were reported. Patients were included if they had been admitted at least 24 hours before the survey. Patients under 18 years of age, having a diagnosis of cancer or shock, or being admitted to the intensive care unit, were excluded. Data were checked and entered by the authors into Excel and were subjected to frequency analysis, which was carried out on anonymized data to protect patient confidentiality. Results: Overall, 88.5% of patients (n=177) received 293 antibiotics during their hospital admission, with a small variation between wards (80%-97%). The average number of antibiotics prescribed per patient was 1.65, ranging from 1.3 for medical patients to 1.95 for surgical patients. Parenteral third-generation cephalosporins were the most commonly prescribed at a rate of 54.3% (n=159) followed by nitroimidazole 29.4% (n=86), quinolones 7.5% (n=22) and macrolides 4.4% (n=13), while carbapenems and aminoglycosides were the least prescribed together accounting for only 4.4% (n=13). The intravenous route was the most common route of administration, used for 96.6% of patients (n=171). Indications were reported in only 63.8% of cases. Culture to identify pathogenic organisms was employed in only 0.5% of cases. Conclusion: Broad-spectrum antibiotics are prescribed at an alarming rate. This practice may provoke antibiotic resistance and adversely affect the patient outcome. Implementation of an antibiotic stewardship program is warranted to enhance the efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness of antimicrobial agents.

Keywords: Acute care, antibiotic misuse, Iraq, prescribing.

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Authors: Christos Bouras, Eirini Stergiou, Charitini Karakostaki, Vasileios Tzanos, Vasileios Kokkinos

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Wind power represents a major pathway to curtailing greenhouse gas emissions and thus reducing the rate of climate change. A wind turbine runs practically emission-free for 20 years, representing one of the most environmentally sustainable sources of energy. Nevertheless, environmental and biodiversity concerns can often slow down or halt the deployment of wind farms due to local public opposition. This opposition is often fuelled by poor relationships between wind energy stakeholders and civil society, which in many cases led to conflictual protests and property damage. In this context, addressing these concerns is essential in order to facilitate the proliferation of wind farms in Europe and the phase-out of fossil fuels from the energy mix. The aim of this study is to identify a number of good practices and cases to avoid increasing biodiversity protection at all stages of wind farms’ lifecycle in three participating countries, namely Greece, Latvia, and Poland. The results indicate that although available technological solutions are already being exploited worldwide, in these countries, there is still room for improvement. To address this gap, a set of policy recommendations is proposed to accomplish the wind energy targets in the near future while simultaneously mitigating the pertinent biodiversity risks.

Keywords: Biodiversity protection, environmental impact, social acceptance, wind energy.

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Authors: H. Djaara, M. Yahia, H. Bousselsela, N Khelif, A. Zidani, S. Benbia.

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Von Willebrand-s disease is the most common inherited bleeding disorder in humans, it caused by qualitative abnormalities of the von Willebrand factor (vWF). Our objective is to determine the prevalence of this disease at part of the Algerian population in the East and the South by a biological diagnosis based on specific biological tests (automated platelet count, the bleeding time (TS), the time of cephalin + activator (TCA), measure of the prothrombin rate (TP), vWF rate and factor VIII rate, Molecular electrophoresis of vWF multimers in agarose gel in the presence of SDS). Four patients of type III or severe Willebrand-s disease were found on 200 suspect cases. All cases are showed a deficit in vWF rate (< 5%), and factor VIII (P<0, 0001), and lengthening very significantly high of the TCA (P<0, 0001) and of the bleeding time (P<0,0001), with a normal blood platelet rate (P=0,7433) and a normal prothrombin rate (P=0,5808), an absence of all the multimers of vWF in plasma patients. The severe Willebrand-s disease is not only one pathology of primary haemostasis, but it can be accompanied by coagulation-s anomaly due to deficit in factor VIII. At this studied population, von Willebrand-s disease is less frequent (2%) than other hemorrhagic syndromes identified by the differential diagnosis like the thrombocytopenia (36%).

Keywords: Von Willebrand's disease, differential diagnosis, von Willebrand factor, factor VIII, biological diagnosis, thrombocytopenia.

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Authors: Ahmed Mostafa, Mohamed Mahmoud, Nesreen H. Hafez, Mohamed Fahim

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This retrospective study includes 60 patients with pre-invasive breast cancer. Aim of the study: Evaluation of premalignant lesions of the breast (DCIS), different treatment methods and outcome. Patients and methods: 60 patients with DCIS were studied from the period between 2005 to 2012, for 38 patients the primary surgical method was wide local resection (WLE) (63.3%) and the other cases (22 patients, 36.7%) had mastectomy, fourteen cases from those who underwent local excision received radiotherapy, while no adjuvant radiotherapy was given for those who underwent mastectomy. In case of hormonal receptor positive DCIS lesions hormonal treatment (Tamoxifen) was given after local control. Results: No difference in overall survival between mastectomy & breast conserving therapy (wide local excision and adjuvant radiotherapy), however local recurrence rate is higher in case of breast conserving therapy, also no role of Axillary evacuation in case of DCIS. The use of hormonal therapy decreases the incidence of local recurrence by about 98%. Conclusion: The main management of DCIS is local treatment (wide local excision and radiotherapy) with hormonal treatment in case of hormone receptor positive lesions.

Keywords: Ductal carcinoma in situ, surgical treatment, radiotherapy, breast conserving therapy, hormonal treatment.

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Authors: F. J. Moral García, P. Valiente González, F. López Rodríguez

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Ground-level tropospheric ozone is one of the air pollutants of most concern. It is mainly produced by photochemical processes involving nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in the lower parts of the atmosphere. Ozone levels become particularly high in regions close to high ozone precursor emissions and during summer, when stagnant meteorological conditions with high insolation and high temperatures are common. In this work, some results of a study about urban ozone distribution patterns in the city of Badajoz, which is the largest and most industrialized city in Extremadura region (southwest Spain) are shown. Fourteen sampling campaigns, at least one per month, were carried out to measure ambient air ozone concentrations, during periods that were selected according to favourable conditions to ozone production, using an automatic portable analyzer. Later, to evaluate the ozone distribution at the city, the measured ozone data were analyzed using geostatistical techniques. Thus, first, during the exploratory analysis of data, it was revealed that they were distributed normally, which is a desirable property for the subsequent stages of the geostatistical study. Secondly, during the structural analysis of data, theoretical spherical models provided the best fit for all monthly experimental variograms. The parameters of these variograms (sill, range and nugget) revealed that the maximum distance of spatial dependence is between 302-790 m and the variable, air ozone concentration, is not evenly distributed in reduced distances. Finally, predictive ozone maps were derived for all points of the experimental study area, by use of geostatistical algorithms (kriging). High prediction accuracy was obtained in all cases as cross-validation showed. Useful information for hazard assessment was also provided when probability maps, based on kriging interpolation and kriging standard deviation, were produced.

Keywords: Kriging, map, tropospheric ozone, variogram.

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Authors: Osama H. Ghazal, Isam H. Qasem , M.Riyad H. Abdelkader

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the intension in this work is to investigate the effect of different bending manifold pipes on engine performance for different engine speed. Power, Torque, and BSFC were calculated and presented to show the effect of varying bending pipes angles on them for all cases considered. A special program used to carry out the calculations. A simulation model for 4-cylinders spark ignition engine with turbocharger has been built and calculated. The analysis of the results shows that for 120o angle the torque increases about 40% at 3000 rpm and 25% at 4000 rpm without changing in fuel consumption. For 90o angle the increment in torque is about 10 %. For the same bending angle the increment in brake power is around 40% at 3000 rpm and 25% at 4000 rpm. The increment in fuel consumption is about 12% for 60o and 30% for 90o between (6000- 7000) rpm.

Keywords: bending pipes, inlet manifold, spark ignition engines, performance

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Authors: Assad Maalouf, Lunjin Lu, James Lynott

Abstract:

We present a taint analysis that can automatically detect when string operations result in a string that is free of taints, where all the tainted patterns have been removed. This is an improvement on the conservative behavior of previous taint analyzers, where a string operation on a tainted string always leads to a tainted string unless the operation is manually marked as a sanitizer. The taint analysis is built on top of a string analysis that uses finite state automata to approximate the sets of values that string variables can take during the execution of a program. The proposed approach has been implemented as an extension of FlowDroid and experimental results show that the resulting taint analyzer is much more precise than the original FlowDroid.

Keywords: Android, static analysis, string analysis, taint analysis.

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Authors: A. Vairis, M. Petousis, B. Kandyla, C. Chrisoulakis

Abstract:

The human knee joint has a three dimensional geometry with multiple body articulations that produce complex mechanical responses under loads that occur in everyday life and sports activities. To produce the necessary joint compliance and stability for optimal daily function various menisci and ligaments are present while muscle forces are used to this effect. Therefore, knowledge of the complex mechanical interactions of these load bearing structures is necessary when treatment of relevant diseases is evaluated and assisting devices are designed. Numerical tools such as finite element analysis are suitable for modeling such joints in order to understand their physics. They have been used in the current study to develop an accurate human knee joint and model its mechanical behavior. To evaluate the efficacy of this articulated model, static load cases were used for comparison purposes with previous experimentally verified modeling works drawn from literature.

Keywords: biomechanics, finite element modeling, knee joint

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Authors: Rani Astya, S.C. Sharma

Abstract:

The wireless adhoc network is comprised of wireless node which can move freely and are connected among themselves without central infrastructure. Due to the limited transmission range of wireless interfaces, in most cases communication has to be relayed over intermediate nodes. Thus, in such multihop network each node (also called router) is independent, self-reliant and capable to route the messages over the dynamic network topology. Various protocols are reported in this field and it is very difficult to decide the best one. A key issue in deciding which type of routing protocol is best for adhoc networks is the communication overhead incurred by the protocol. In this paper STAR a table driven and DSR on demand protocols based on IEEE 802.11 are analyzed for their performance on different performance measuring metrics versus varying traffic CBR load using QualNet 5.0.2 network simulator.

Keywords: Adhoc networks, wireless networks, CBR, routingprotocols, route discovery, simulation, performance evaluation, MAC, IEEE 802.11, STAR, DSR

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Authors: Manjunath M. S., K. Vasudeva Karanth, N. Yagnesh Sharma

Abstract:

It is well known that surface enhancements play an important role in augmenting the thermal performance of flat plate solar collector. In this paper, an attempt is made to explain in a comparative way the effect of surface geometry of solar collector having dimple geometry with that of a flat plate solar collector of the same size. A CFD analysis was carried out for the two cases, subjected to a constant heat flux of 600W/m2 and 1000W/m2. It can be inferred from the study that the absorber plate temperature shows a rise of average surface temperature of about 50C for the dimple solar collector when compared to a flat plate solar collector. Most importantly, the average exit water temperature shows a marked improvement of about 5.50C for a dimple solar collector as compared to that of a flat plate solar collector.

Keywords: CFD, dimple-collector, flat-plate-collector, surface-enhancement, thermal-performance.

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Authors: Kaltima Phichai, Pornchanoke Pragrobpondee, Thaweesak Khumpart, Samorn Hirunpraditkoon

Abstract:

The paper provides biomasses characteristics by proximate analysis (volatile matter, fixed carbon and ash) and ultimate analysis (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen) for the prediction of the heating value equations. The heating value estimation of various biomasses can be used as an energy evaluation. Thirteen types of biomass were studied. Proximate analysis was investigated by mass loss method and infrared moisture analyzer. Ultimate analysis was analyzed by CHNO analyzer. The heating values varied from 15 to 22.4MJ kg-1. Correlations of the calculated heating value with proximate and ultimate analyses were undertaken using multiple regression analysis and summarized into three and two equations, respectively. Correlations based on proximate analysis illustrated that deviation of calculated heating values from experimental heating values was higher than the correlations based on ultimate analysis.

Keywords: Heating value equation, Proximate analysis, Ultimate analysis.

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Authors: Iman I. Salama, Samia M. Sami, Somaia I. Salama, Zeinab N. Said, Thanaa M. Rabah, Aida M. Abdel-Mohsin

Abstract:

This is a national community based project to evaluate effectiveness of HBV vaccination program in prevention of infection. HBV markers were tested in the sera of 3600 vaccinated children. Infected children were followed up for 1 year. Prevalence of HBV infection was 0.39 % (0.28% positive for anti-HBc, 0.03% positive for HBsAg and 0.08% positive for both). One year later, 50% of positive anti-HBc children turned negative with sustained positivity for positive HBsAg cases. HBV infection was significantly higher at age above 9 years (0.6%) compared to 0.2% at age 3-9 years and 0% at younger age (P<0.05). Logistic analysis revealed that predictors for HBV infection were history of blood transfusion, regular medical injection, and family history of either HBV infection or drug abuse (adjusted odds ratios 6.2, 5.6, 7.6 & 19.1 respectively). HBV vaccination program produced adequate protection. Adherence to infection control measures and safe blood transfusion are recommended.

Keywords: Children, Egypt, HBV Infection, HBV Vaccine.

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