Search results for: Patient State index

Authors: Leila Jafari, Viliam Makis, Akram Khaleghei G.B.

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In this paper, we present a maintenance model of a two-unit series system with economic dependence. Unit#1 which is considered to be more expensive and more important, is subject to condition monitoring (CM) at equidistant, discrete time epochs and unit#2, which is not subject to CM has a general lifetime distribution. The multivariate observation vectors obtained through condition monitoring carry partial information about the hidden state of unit#1, which can be in a healthy or a warning state while operating. Only the failure state is assumed to be observable for both units. The objective is to find an optimal opportunistic maintenance policy minimizing the long-run expected average cost per unit time. The problem is formulated and solved in the partially observable semi-Markov decision process framework. An effective computational algorithm for finding the optimal policy and the minimum average cost is developed, illustrated by a numerical example.

Keywords: Condition-Based Maintenance, Semi-Markov Decision Process, Multivariate Bayesian Control Chart, Partially Observable System, Two-unit System.

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Authors: Surajit Debnath, Soma Addya

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Human genome is not only the evolutionary summation of all advantageous events, but also houses lesions of deleterious foot prints. A single gene mutation sometimes may express multiple consequences in numerous tissues and a linear relationship of the genotype and the phenotype may often be obscure. ß Thalassemia minor, a transfusion independent mild anaemia, coupled with environment among other factors may articulate into phenotypic pleotropy with Hypocholesterolemia, Vitamin D deficiency, Tissue hypoxia, Hyper-parathyroidism and Psychological alterations. Occurrence of Pancreatic insufficiency, resultant steatorrhoea, Vitamin-D (25-OH) deficiency (13.86 ngm/ml) with Hypocholesterolemia (85mg/dl) in a 30 years old male ß Thal-minor patient (Hemoglobin 11mg/dl with Fetal Hemoglobin 2.10%, Hb A2 4.60% and Hb Adult 84.80% and altered Hemogram) with increased Para thyroid hormone (62 pg/ml) & moderate Serum Ca+2 (9.5mg/ml) indicate towards a cascade of phenotypic pleotropy where the ß Thalassemia mutation ,be it in the 5’ cap site of the mRNA , differential splicing etc in heterozygous state is effecting several metabolic pathways. Compensatory extramedulary hematopoiesis may not coped up well with the stressful life style of the young individual and increased erythropoietic stress with high demand for cholesterol for RBC membrane synthesis may have resulted in Hypocholesterolemia.Oxidative stress and tissue hypoxia may have caused the pancreatic insufficiency, leading to Vitamin D deficiency. This may in turn have caused the secondary hyperparathyroidism to sustain serum Calcium level. Irritability and stress intolerance of the patient was a cumulative effect of the vicious cycle of metabolic compromises. From these findings we propose that the metabolic deficiencies in the ß Thalassemia mutations may be considered as the phenotypic display of the pleotropy to explain the genetic epidemiology. According to the recommendations from the NIH Workshop on Gene-Environment Interplay in Common Complex Diseases: Forging an Integrative Model, study design of observations should be informed by gene-environment hypotheses and results of a study (genetic diseases) should be published to inform future hypotheses. Variety of approaches is needed to capture data on all possible aspects, each of which is likely to contribute to the etiology of disease. Speakers also agreed that there is a need for development of new statistical methods and measurement tools to appraise information that may be missed out by conventional method where large sample size is needed to segregate considerable effect. A meta analytic cohort study in future may bring about significant insight on to the title comment.

Keywords: Genetic disease, Genetic epidemiology, Heterozygous, Phenotype, Pleotropy, ß Thalassemia minor, Metabolic compromises.

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Authors: I. Laurence Aroquiaraj, K. Thangavel

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Breast region segmentation is an essential prerequisite in computerized analysis of mammograms. It aims at separating the breast tissue from the background of the mammogram and it includes two independent segmentations. The first segments the background region which usually contains annotations, labels and frames from the whole breast region, while the second removes the pectoral muscle portion (present in Medio Lateral Oblique (MLO) views) from the rest of the breast tissue. In this paper we propose hybridization of Connected Component Labeling (CCL), Fuzzy, and Straight line methods. Our proposed methods worked good for separating pectoral region. After removal pectoral muscle from the mammogram, further processing is confined to the breast region alone. To demonstrate the validity of our segmentation algorithm, it is extensively tested using over 322 mammographic images from the Mammographic Image Analysis Society (MIAS) database. The segmentation results were evaluated using a Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Hausdroff Distance (HD), Probabilistic Rand Index (PRI), Local Consistency Error (LCE) and Tanimoto Coefficient (TC). The hybridization of fuzzy with straight line method is given more than 96% of the curve segmentations to be adequate or better. In addition a comparison with similar approaches from the state of the art has been given, obtaining slightly improved results. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Keywords: X-ray Mammography, CCL, Fuzzy, Straight line.

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Authors: T. Lantharthong, N. Rugthaicharoencheep

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This paper presents an efficient algorithm for optimization of radial distribution systems by a network reconfiguration to balance feeder loads and eliminate overload conditions. The system load-balancing index is used to determine the loading conditions of the system and maximum system loading capacity. The index value has to be minimum in the optimal network reconfiguration of load balancing. A method based on Tabu search algorithm, The Tabu search algorithm is employed to search for the optimal network reconfiguration. The basic idea behind the search is a move from a current solution to its neighborhood by effectively utilizing a memory to provide an efficient search for optimality. It presents low computational effort and is able to find good quality configurations. Simulation results for a radial 69-bus system with distributed generations and capacitors placement. The study results show that the optimal on/off patterns of the switches can be identified to give the best network reconfiguration involving balancing of feeder loads while respecting all the constraints.

Keywords: Network reconfiguration, Distributed generation Capacitor placement, Load balancing, Optimization technique

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Authors: A. Ghasemipanah, R. Ziaie Moayed, H. Niroumand

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Improving the geotechnical properties of soil has always been one of the issues in geotechnical engineering. Traditional materials have been used to improve and stabilize soils to date, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Although the soil stabilization by adding materials such as cement, lime, bitumen, etc. is one of the effective methods to improve the geotechnical properties of soil, but nanoparticles are one of the newest additives which can improve the loose soils. This research is intended to study the effect of adding nanobentonite on soil engineering properties, especially the unconfined compression strength and maximum dry unit weight, using clayey soil with low liquid limit (CL) from Kerman (Iran). Nanobentonite was mixed with soil in three different percentages (i.e. 3, 5, 7% by weight of the parent soil) with different curing time (1, 7 and 28 days). The unconfined compression strength, liquid and plastic limits and plasticity index of treated specimens were measured by unconfined compression and Atterberg limits test. It was found that increase in nanobentonite content resulted in increase in the unconfined compression strength, liquid and plastic limits of the clayey soil and reduce in plasticity index.

Keywords: Nanobentonite particles, clayey soil, unconfined compression stress, soil improvement.

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Authors: A. Preetha Priyadharshini, S. B. M. Priya

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In this paper, we consider the MU-MISO downlink scenario, under imperfect channel state information (CSI). The main issue in imperfect CSI is to keep the probability of each user achievable outage rate below the given threshold level. Such a rate outage constraints present significant and analytical challenges. There are many probabilistic methods are used to minimize the transmit optimization problem under imperfect CSI. Here, decomposition based large deviation inequality and Bernstein type inequality convex restriction methods are used to perform the optimization problem under imperfect CSI. These methods are used for achieving improved output quality and lower complexity. They provide a safe tractable approximation of the original rate outage constraints. Based on these method implementations, performance has been evaluated in the terms of feasible rate and average transmission power. The simulation results are shown that all the two methods offer significantly improved outage quality and lower computational complexity.

Keywords: Imperfect channel state information, outage probability, multiuser- multi input single output.

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Authors: Shi Qi Koo, Ahmad Beng Hong Kueh

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In the present work, the finite element formulation for the investigation of the effects of a localized interfacial degeneration on the dynamic behavior of the [90°/0°] laminated composite plate employing the state-space technique is performed. The stiffness of the laminate is determined by assembling the stiffnesses of subelements. This includes an introduction of an interface layer adopting the virtually zero-thickness formulation to model the interfacial degeneration. Also, the kinematically consistent mass matrix and proportional damping have been formulated to complete the free vibration governing expression. To simulate the interfacial degeneration of the laminate, the degenerated areas are defined from the center propagating outwards in a localized manner. It is found that the natural frequency, damped frequency and damping ratio of the plate decreases as the degenerated area of the interface increases. On the contrary, the loss factor increases correspondingly.

Keywords: Dynamic finite element, localized interface degeneration, proportional damping, state-space modeling.

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Authors: Seyed Abolhasan Naeini, Seyed Mohammad Reza Hosseini

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The measured soil suction values when related to water content is called suction-water content relationship (SWR) or soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) and forms the basis of unsaturated soil behavior assessment. The SWCC can be measured or predicted based on soil index properties such as grain-size distribution and plasticity index. In this paper, the SWCC of clean and contaminated clayey soil classified as clay with low plasticity (CL) are presented. Laboratory studies were conducted on virgin (disturbed-uncontaminated soil collected from vicinity of Tehran oil refinery) soil and soil samples simulated to varying degrees of contamination with crude oil (i.e., 3, 6, and 9% by dry weight of soil) to compare the results before and after contamination. Laboratory tests were conducted using a device which is capable of measuring volume change and pore pressures. The soil matric suction at the ends of samples controlled by using the axis translation technique. The results show that contamination with crude oil facilitates the movement of water and reduces the soil suction.

Keywords: Axis translation technique, clayey soil, contamination, crude oil, soil-water characteristic curve.

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Authors: Zayed N. Alsulami, Asma F. Aldosseri, Ahmed S. Ezziden, Abdulrahman K. Alonazi

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Children are more susceptible to medication errors than adults. Medication administration process is the last stage in the medication treatment process and most of the errors detected in this stage. Little research has been undertaken about medication errors in children in the Middle East countries. This study was aimed to evaluate how the paediatric nurses adhere to the medication administration policy and also to identify any medication preparation and administration errors or any risk factors. An observational, prospective study of medication administration process from when the nurses preparing patient medication until administration stage (May to August 2014) was conducted in Saudi Arabia. Twelve paediatric nurses serving 90 paediatric patients were observed. 456 drug administered doses were evaluated. Adherence rate was variable in 7 steps out of 16 steps. Patient allergy information, dose calculation, drug expiry date were the steps in medication administration with lowest adherence rates. 63 medication preparation and administration errors were identified with error rate 13.8% of medication administrations. No potentially life-threating errors were witnessed. Few logistic and administrative factors were reported. The results showed that the medication administration policy and procedure need an urgent revision to be more sensible for nurses in practice. Nurses’ knowledge and skills regarding to the medication administration process should be improved.

Keywords: Double checking, Medication administration errors, Medication safety, Nurses.

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Authors: Chiu-Wen Chen, Chih-Feng Chen, Cheng-Di Dong

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The distribution, enrichment, accumulation, and potential ecological risk of copper (Cu) in the surface sediments of northern Kaohsiung Harbor, Taiwan were investigated. Sediment samples from 12 locations of northern Kaohsiung Harbor were collected and characterized for Cu, aluminum, water content, organic matter, total nitrogen, total phosphorous, total grease and grain size. Results showed that the Cu concentrations varied from 6.9–244 mg/kg with an average of 109±66 mg/kg. The spatial distribution of Cu reveals that the Cu concentration is relatively high in the river mouth region, and gradually diminishes toward the harbor entrance region. This indicates that upstream industrial and municipal wastewater discharges along the river bank are major sources of Cu pollution. Results from the enrichment factor and geo-accumulation index analyses imply that the sediments collected from the river mouth can be characterized between moderate and moderately severe degree enrichment and between none to medium and moderate accumulation of Cu, respectively. However, results of potential ecological risk index indicate that the sediment has low ecological potential risk.

Keywords: Accumulation, ecological risk, enrichment, copper, sediment.

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Authors: Chiung-Ju Huang, Yuan-Hong Ho

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This paper develops the fiscal health index of 21 local governments in Taiwan over the 1984 to 2010 period. A quantile regression analysis was used to explore the extent that economic variables, political budget cycles, and legislative checks and balances, impact different quantiles of fiscal health index for a country over a sample period of time. Our findings suggest that local governments at the lower quantile are significantly benefited from political budget cycles and the increase in central government revenues, while legislative effective checks and balances and the increase in central government expenditures have a significantly negative effect on local fiscal health. When local governments are in the upper tail of the distribution, legislative checks and balances and growth in macroeconomics have significant and adverse effects on the fiscal health of local governments. However, increases in central government revenues have significant and positive effects on the health status of local government in Taiwan.

Keywords: Fiscal health, political budget cycles, legislative checks and balances, quantile regression.

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Authors: Rihab Gam, Anis Sakly, Faouzi M'sahli

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A new strategy of control is formulated for chaos synchronization of non-identical chaotic systems with different orders using the Borne and Gentina practical criterion associated with the Benrejeb canonical arrow form matrix, to drift the stability property of dynamic complex systems. The designed controller ensures that the state variables of controlled chaotic slave systems globally synchronize with the state variables of the master systems, respectively. Numerical simulations are performed to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method.

Keywords: Synchronization, Non-identical chaotic systems, Different orders, Arrow form matrix.

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Authors: Carey Curtis

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There is a renewed interest in land use transport integration as a means of achieving sustainable accessibility. Such accessibility requires designing more than simply the transport network; it also requires attention to place (built form). Transitoriented development would appear to capture many of the criteria deemed important in land use transport integration. In Perth, Australia, there have been planning policies for the past 20 years requiring transit-oriented development around railway stations throughout the metropolitan area. While the policy intent, particularly at the State level, is clear the implementation of policy has been fairly ineffective. The first part of this paper provides an examination of state and local government planning and transport policies, evaluating them using a set of land use transport integration criteria considered all encompassing. This provides some insight into the extent of state and local government capacity to deliver land use transport integration. The second part of this paper examines the extent of implementation by examining existing and proposed land use around station precincts throughout metropolitan Perth. The findings of this research suggest that the capacity of state and local government to deliver land use transport integration is reasonable in a planning policy sense. Implementation, despite long policy lead times, has been lacking. It appears to be more effective where local planning controls have been suspended with new redevelopment authorities given powers to develop land around railway stations.

Keywords: Transit-oriented development, sustainable transport, transport policy.

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Authors: T. O. Olwal, K. Djouani, B. J. van Wyk, Y. Hamam, P. Siarry, N. Ntlatlapa

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Multi-Radio Multi-Channel (MRMC) systems are key to power control problems in wireless mesh networks (WMNs). In this paper, we present asynchronous multiple-state based power control for MRMC WMNs. First, WMN is represented as a set of disjoint Unified Channel Graphs (UCGs). Second, each network interface card (NIC) or radio assigned to a unique UCG adjusts transmission power using predicted multiple interaction state variables (IV) across UCGs. Depending on the size of queue loads and intra- and inter-channel states, each NIC optimizes transmission power locally and asynchronously. A new power selection MRMC unification protocol (PMMUP) is proposed that coordinates interactions among radios. The efficacy of the proposed method is investigated through simulations.

Keywords: Asynchronous convergence, Multi-Radio Multi-Channel (MRMC), Power Selection Multi-Radio Multi-Channel Unification Protocol (PMMUP) and Wireless Mesh Networks(WMNs)

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Authors: Dali Zhang, Baoqun Yin, Hongsheng Xi

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In this paper, we propose a single sample path based algorithm with state aggregation to optimize the average rewards of singularly perturbed Markov reward processes (SPMRPs) with a large scale state spaces. It is assumed that such a reward process depend on a set of parameters. Differing from the other kinds of Markov chain, SPMRPs have their own hierarchical structure. Based on this special structure, our algorithm can alleviate the load in the optimization for performance. Moreover, our method can be applied on line because of its evolution with the sample path simulated. Compared with the original algorithm applied on these problems of general MRPs, a new gradient formula for average reward performance metric in SPMRPs is brought in, which will be proved in Appendix, and then based on these gradients, the schedule of the iteration algorithm is presented, which is based on a single sample path, and eventually a special case in which parameters only dominate the disturbance matrices will be analyzed, and a precise comparison with be displayed between our algorithm with the old ones which is aim to solve these problems in general Markov reward processes. When applied in SPMRPs, our method will approach a fast pace in these cases. Furthermore, to illustrate the practical value of SPMRPs, a simple example in multiple programming in computer systems will be listed and simulated. Corresponding to some practical model, physical meanings of SPMRPs in networks of queues will be clarified.

Keywords: Singularly perturbed Markov processes, Gradient of average reward, Differential reward, State aggregation, Perturbed close network.

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Authors: M. Bahgat, H. Hanafy, H. Al-Tassan

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Cluster formation is an essential phenomenon during direct reduction processes at shaft furnaces. Decreasing the reducing temperature to avoid this problem can cause a significant drop in throughput. In order to prevent sticking of pellets, a coating material basically inactive under the reducing conditions prevailing in the shaft furnace, should be applied to cover the outer layer of the pellets. In the present work, steel dust is used as coating material for iron ore pellets to explore dust coating effectiveness and determines the best coating conditions. Steel dust coating is applied for iron ore pellets in various concentrations. Dust slurry concentrations of 5.0-30% were used to have a coated steel dust amount of 1.0-5.0 kg per ton iron ore. Coated pellets with various concentrations were reduced isothermally in weight loss technique with simulated gas mixture to the composition of reducing gases at shaft furnaces. The influences of various coating conditions on the reduction behavior and the morphology were studied. The optimum reduced samples were comparatively applied for sticking index measurement. It was found that the optimized steel dust coating condition that achieve higher reducibility with lower sticking index was 30% steel dust slurry concentration with 3.0 kg steel dust/ton ore.

Keywords: Ironmaking, coating, steel dust, reduction.

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Authors: D. S. Jaya, G. P. Deepthi

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Groundwater is vital to the livelihoods and health of the majority of the people, since it provides almost the entire water resource for domestic, agricultural and industrial uses. Groundwater quality comprises the physical, chemical and bacteriological qualities. The present investigation was carried out to determine the physicochemical and bacteriological quality of the ground water sources in the residential areas of Karakulam Grama Panchayath in Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala state in India. Karakulam is located in the eastern suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram city. The major drinking water source of the residents in the study area is wells. The present study aims to assess the portability and irrigational suitability of groundwater in the study area. The water samples were collected from randomly selected dug wells and bore wells in the study area during post monsoon and pre monsoon seasons of the year 2014 after a preliminary field survey. The physical, chemical and bacteriological parameters of the water samples were analyzed following standard procedures. The concentration of heavy metals (Cd, Pb and Mn) in the acid digested water samples were determined by using an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The results showed that the pH of well water samples ranged from acidic to alkaline level. In majority of well water samples (>54 %) the iron and magnesium content were found high in both the seasons studied, and the values were above the permissible limits of WHO drinking water quality standards. Bacteriological analyses showed that 63% of the wells were contaminated with total coliforms in both the seasons studied. Irrigational suitability of groundwater was assessed by determining the chemical indices like Sodium Percentage (%Na), Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC), Permeability Index (PI), and the results indicate that the well water in the study area are good for irrigation purposes. Therefore, the study reveals the degradation of drinking water quality groundwater sources in Karakulam Grama Panchayath in Thiruvananthapuram District, Keralain terms of its chemical and bacteriological characteristics, and is not potable without proper treatment. In the study, more than 1/3rdof the well water samples tested were positive for total coliforms, and the bacterial contamination may pose threat to public health. The study recommends the need for periodic well water quality monitoring in the study area and to conduct awareness programs among the residents.

Keywords: Bacteriological, groundwater, irrigational suitability, physicochemical, potability.

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Authors: Zakir Husain, Neem Sagar, Neeraj Gupta

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Due to the increased penetration of renewable energy resources in the distribution system, the system is no longer passive in nature. In this paper, a steady state analysis of the distribution system has been done with the inclusion of wind generation. The modeling of wind turbine generator system and wind generator has been made to obtain the average active and the reactive power injection into the system. The study has been conducted on a IEEE-33 bus system with two wind generators. The present research work is useful not only to utilities but also to customers.

Keywords: Distributed generation, distribution network, radial network, wind turbine generating system.

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Authors: Chung-Chih Lin, Chien-Liang Wu

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The detection of the polymer melt state during manufacture process is regarded as an efficient way to control the molded part quality in advance. Online monitoring rheological property of polymer melt during processing procedure provides an approach to understand the melt state immediately. Rheological property reflects the polymer melt state at different processing parameters and is very important in injection molding process especially. An approach that demonstrates how to calculate rheological property of polymer melt through in-process measurement, using injection molding as an example, is proposed in this study. The system consists of two sensors and a data acquisition module can process the measured data, which are used for the calculation of rheological properties of polymer melt. The rheological properties of polymer melt discussed in this study include shear rate and viscosity which are investigated with respect to injection speed and melt temperature. The results show that the effect of injection speed on the rheological properties is apparent, especially for high melt temperature and should be considered for precision molding process.

Keywords: Injection molding, melt viscosity, shear rate, monitoring.

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Authors: Orkide Donma, Mustafa M. Donma

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Obesity may lead to growing serious health problems throughout the world. Vitamin D appears to play a role in cardiovascular and metabolic health. Vitamin D deficiency may add to derangements in human metabolic systems, particularly those of children. Childhood obesity is associated with an increased risk of chronic and sophisticated diseases. The aim of this study is to investigate associations as well as possible differences related to parameters affected by obesity and their relations with vitamin D status in obese (OB) and morbid obese (MO) children. This study included a total of 78 children. Of them, 41 and 37 were OB and MO, respectively. WHO BMI-for age percentiles were used for the classification of obesity. The values above 99 percentile were defined as MO. Those between 95 and 99 percentiles were included into OB group. Anthropometric measurements were recorded. Basal metabolic rates (BMRs) were measured. Vitamin D status is determined by the measurement of 25-hydroxy cholecalciferol [25- hydroxyvitamin D3, 25(OH)D] using high-performance liquid chromatography. Vitamin D status was evaluated as deficient, insufficient and sufficient. Values < 20.0 ng/ml, values between 20-30 ng/ml and values > 30.0 ng/ml were defined as vitamin D deficient, insufficient and sufficient, respectively. Optimal 25(OH)D level was defined as ≥ 30 ng/ml. SPSSx statistical package program was used for the evaluation of the data. The statistical significance degree was accepted as p < 0.05. Mean ages did not differ between the groups. Significantly increased body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (C) and neck C as well as significantly decreased fasting blood glucose (FBG) and vitamin D values were observed in MO group (p < 0.05). In OB group, 37.5% of the children were vitamin D deficient, and in MO group the corresponding value was 53.6%. No difference between the groups in terms of lipid profile, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and insulin values was noted. There was a severe statistical significance between FBG values of the groups (p < 0.001). Important correlations between BMI, waist C, hip C, neck C and both SBP as well as DBP were found in OB group. In MO group, correlations only with SBP were obtained. In a similar manner, in OB group, correlations were detected between SBP-BMR and DBP-BMR. However, in MO children, BMR correlated only with SBP. The associations of vitamin D with anthropometric indices as well as some lipid parameters were defined. In OB group BMI, waist C, hip C and triglycerides (TRG) were negatively correlated with vitamin D concentrations whereas none of them were detected in MO group. Vitamin D deficiency may contribute to the complications associated with childhood obesity. Loss of correlations between obesity indices-DBP, vitamin D-TRG, as well as relatively lower FBG values, observed in MO group point out that the emergence of MetS components starts during obesity state just before the transition to morbid obesity. Aside from its deficiency state, associations of vitamin D with anthropometric measurements, blood pressures and TRG should also be evaluated before the development of morbid obesity.

Keywords: Children, morbid obesity, obesity, vitamin D.

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Authors: Salwa Hagag Abdelaziz, Dorria Salem, Hoda Zaki, Suzan Atteya

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Early detection of breast cancer saves many thousands of lives each year via application of mammography and genetic screening and many more lives could be saved if nurses are involved in breast care screening practices. So, the aim of the study was to identify nurse's role in early detection of breast cancer through mammography and genetic screening and its impact on patient's outcome. In order to achieve this aim, 400 women above 40 years, asymptomatic were recruited for mammography and genetic screening. In addition, 50 nurses and 6 technologists were involved in the study. A descriptive analytical design was used. Five tools were utilized: sociodemographic, mammographic examination and risk factors, women's before, during and after mammography, items relaying to technologists, and items related to nurses were also obtained. The study finding revealed that 3% of women detected for malignancy and 7.25% for fibroadenoma. Statistically significant differences were found between mammography results and age, family history, genetic screening, exposure to smoke, and using contraceptive pills. Nurses have insufficient knowledge about screening tests. Based on these findings the present study recommended involvement of nurses in breast care which is very important to in force population about screening practices.

Keywords: Early detection, Genetic Screening, Mammography.

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Authors: M. Ali, K. Alam, E. Ohioma

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This paper presents a numerical investigation on the behavior of fiber reinforced polymer composite tubes (FRP) under thermomechanical coupled loading using finite element software ABAQUS and a special add-on subroutine, CZone. Three cases were explored; pure mechanical loading, pure thermal loading, and coupled thermomechanical loading. The failure index (Tsai-Wu) under all three loading cases was assessed for all plies in the tube walls. The simulation results under pure mechanical loading showed that composite tube failed at a tensile load of 3.1 kN. However, with the superposition of thermal load on mechanical load on the composite tube, the failure index of the previously failed plies in tube walls reduced significantly causing the tube to fail at 6 kN. This showed 93% improvement in the load carrying capacity of the composite tube in present study. The increase in load carrying capacity was attributed to the stress effects of the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) on the laminate as well as the inter-lamina stresses induced due to the composite stack layup.

Keywords: Thermal, mechanical, composites, square tubes.

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Authors: Ibrahim M. S. Shnawa

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Attempts were made to identify anuran glial cells. They were found as nervous tissue resident. Having stage dependent morphotype changes, whereby, appeared as an ovoid to oval in resting state and amoeboid mrophotypes in activated state, stained fairly with methylene blue and take up Pelikane blue 10% aqueous solution, as well as having the ability to phagocytize heat killed Staphylococcus aureus. They were delineated from the migrating peripheral monocytes by morphotypic and morphometeric differences. Such criteria were consistence with glial cells. Thus, the anuran glial cells are being identified in the frog Rana ridibunda Pallas 1771 and this animal can be of use as a simple model for the immunobiology of glial cells.

Keywords: Amoeboid cell, bacterial phagocytosis, Glial cells, Resting.

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Authors: Lidon Lashley

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This paper presents how the social model of disability can be used to reshape inclusive education practices in Guyana. Inclusive education in Guyana is metamorphosizing but still firmly held in the tenets of the Medical Model of Disability which influences the experiences of children with Special Education Needs and/or Disabilities (SEN/D). An ethnographic approach to data gathering was employed in this study. Qualitative data were gathered from the voices of children with and without SEN/D as well as their mainstream teachers to present the interplay of discourses and subjectivities in the situation. The data were analyzed using Adele Clarke's situational analysis. The data suggest that it is possible but will be challenging to fully contextualize and adopt Loreman's synthesis and Booths and Ainscow's Index in the two mainstream schools studied. In addition, the data paved the way for the presentation of the 'Southern Inclusive Education Framework for Guyana' and its support tool 'The Inclusive Checker created for Southern mainstream primary classrooms'.

Keywords: Social Model of Disability, Medical Model of Disability, subjectivities, metamorphosis, special education needs, postcolonial Guyana, Quasi-inclusion practices, Guyanese cultural challenges, mainstream primary schools, Loreman's Synthesis, Booths and Ainscow's Index.

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Authors: V. Thulasi Bai, Srivatsa S. K.

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Deaths from cardiovascular diseases have decreased substantially over the past two decades, largely as a result of advances in acute care and cardiac surgery. These developments have produced a growing population of patients who have survived a myocardial infarction. These patients need to be continuously monitored so that the initiation of treatment can be given within the crucial golden hour. The available conventional methods of monitoring mostly perform offline analysis and restrict the mobility of these patients within a hospital or room. Hence the aim of this paper is to design a Portable Cardiac Telemedicine System to aid the patients to regain their independence and return to an active work schedule, there by improving the psychological well being. The portable telemedicine system consists of a Wearable ECG Transmitter (WET) and a slightly modified mobile phone, which has an inbuilt ECG analyzer. The WET is placed on the body of the patient that continuously acquires the ECG signals from the high-risk cardiac patients who can move around anywhere. This WET transmits the ECG to the patient-s Bluetooth enabled mobile phone using blue tooth technology. The ECG analyzer inbuilt in the mobile phone continuously analyzes the heartbeats derived from the received ECG signals. In case of any panic condition, the mobile phone alerts the patients care taker by an SMS and initiates the transmission of a sample ECG signal to the doctor, via the mobile network.

Keywords: WET, ECG analyzer, Bluetooth, mobilecellular network, high risk cardiac patients.

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Authors: Ahmet C. Kutlu, Seçkin Polat

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Organizational structure of the Turkish state universities is a form of bureaucracy, a high efficient system in rational and formal control. According to the dimensional approach bureaucracy can occur in an organization in a degree, as some bureaucracy characteristics can be stronger than others. In addition, the units of an organization due to their different specific characteristic properties can perceive the bureaucracy differently. In the study, Hall-s Organizational Inventory, which was developed for evaluating the degree of bureaucratization from the dimensional perspective, is used to find out if there is a difference in the perception of the bureaucracy between the academicians working in three different departments and two faculties in the same university.

Keywords: Degree of bureaucratization, Hall's Organizational Inventory, perceived bureaucracy.

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Authors: Sallehan Ismail, Mahyuddin Ramli

Abstract:

This study examined the properties of fresh and hardened concretes as influenced by the moisture state of the coarse recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) after surface treatment. Surface treatment was performed by immersing the coarse RCA in a calcium metasilicate (CM) solution. The treated coarse RCA was maintained in three controlled moisture states, namely, air-dried, oven-dried, and saturated surface-dried (SSD), prior to its use in a concrete mix. The physical properties of coarse RCA were evaluated after surface treatment during the first phase of the experiment to determine the density and the water absorption characteristics of the RCA. The second phase involved the evaluation of the slump, slump loss, density, and compressive strength of the concretes that were prepared with different proportions of natural and treated coarse RCA. Controlling the moisture state of the coarse RCA after surface treatment was found to significantly influence the properties of the fresh and hardened concretes. 

Keywords: Moisture state, recycled concrete aggregate, surface treatment.

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Authors: Md Monir Hossain, Anne Staples, Kuya Takami, Tomonari Furukawa

Abstract:

Tire noise has a significant impact on ride quality and vehicle interior comfort, even at low frequency. Reduction of tire noise is especially important due to strict state and federal environmental regulations. The primary sources of tire noise are the low frequency structure-borne noise and the noise that originates from the release of trapped air between the tire tread and road surface during each revolution of the tire. The frequency response of the tire changes at low and high frequency. At low frequency, the tension and bending moment become dominant, while the internal structure and local deformation become dominant at higher frequencies. Here, we analyze tire response in terms of deformation and rolling velocity at low revolution frequency. An Abaqus FEA finite element model is used to calculate the static and dynamic response of a rolling tire under different rolling conditions. The natural frequencies and mode shapes of a deformed tire are calculated with the FEA package where the subspace-based steady state dynamic analysis calculates dynamic response of tire subjected to harmonic excitation. The analysis was conducted on the dynamic response at the road (contact point of tire and road surface) and side nodes of a static and rolling tire when the tire was excited with 200 N vertical load for a frequency ranging from 20 to 200 Hz. The results show that frequency has little effect on tire deformation up to 80 Hz. But between 80 and 200 Hz, the radial and lateral components of displacement of the road and side nodes exhibited significant oscillation. For the static analysis, the fluctuation was sharp and frequent and decreased with frequency. In contrast, the fluctuation was periodic in nature for the dynamic response of the rolling tire. In addition to the dynamic analysis, a steady state rolling analysis was also performed on the tire traveling at ground velocity with a constant angular motion. The purpose of the computation was to demonstrate the effect of rotating motion on deformation and rolling velocity with respect to a fixed Newtonian reference point. The analysis showed a significant variation in deformation and rolling velocity due to centrifugal and Coriolis acceleration with respect to a fixed Newtonian point on ground.

Keywords: Natural frequency, rotational motion, steady state rolling, subspace-based steady state dynamic analysis.

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Authors: Nnamdi N. Omehe, Chibuzo Emeruwa

Abstract:

ZnIn2Se4 and ZnIn2Te4 are vacancy defect materials whose properties have been investigated using Density Functional Theory (DFT) framework. The pseudopotential method in conjunction with the LDA+U technique and the Projector Augmented Wave (PAW) was used to calculate the electronic band structure, total density of state, and the partial density of state; while the norm-conserving pseudopotential was used to calculate the dielectric response function with scissors shift. Both ZnIn2Se4 and ZnIn2Te4 were predicted to be semiconductors with energy band gap of 1.66 eV and 1.33 eV respectively, and they both have direct energy band gap at the gamma point of high symmetry. The topmost valence subband for ZnIn2Se4 and ZnIn2Te4 has an energy width of 5.7 eV and 6.0 eV respectively. The calculations of partial density of state (PDOS) show that for ZnIn2Se4, the top of the valence band is dominated by Se-4p orbital, while the bottom of the conduction band is composed of In-5p, In-5s, and Zn-4s states. PDOS for ZnIn2Te4, shows that the top of the valence band is mostly of Te-5p states, while its conduction band bottom is composed mainly of Zn-4s, Te-5p, Te-5s, and In-5s states. Dielectric response function calculation yielded (0) of 11.9 and 36 for ZnIn2Se4 and ZnIn2Te4 respectively.

Keywords: Optoelectronic, Dielectric Response Function, LDA+U, band structure calculation.

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Authors: Yong-Jun Kim, Jae-Hyun Ro, Chang-Bin Ha, Hyoung-Kyu Song

Abstract:

Because current wireless communication requires high reliability in a limited bandwidth environment, this paper proposes the variable modulation scheme based on the codebook. The variable modulation scheme adjusts transmission power using the codebook in accordance with channel state. Also, if the codebook is composed of many bits, the reliability is more improved by the proposed scheme. The simulation results show that the performance of proposed scheme has better reliability than the the performance of conventional scheme.

Keywords: MIMO-OFDM, variable modulation, codebook, channel state.

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