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Visualization of numerical results in computer communications is very important such that some very small differences are sometimes crucial, distinguishable, and descriptive for comparison among some state-of-the-art techniques. For the issue of data quality evaluation and compression rates in internet of multimedia things, there are many metrics traditionally, for instance, peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) is strongly able to describe non-sensitive (and relatively ambiguous) results of mean square error and since PSNR is normally between 10 and 100 for most of the lossy techniques, it can plotted with using any graphical/visualization tool. However, the results of compression rates for aggregation techniques may be a little complicated on which using a non-flexible mathematical operator like logarithm may have an unsuitable effect with ignoring the small differences while plotting the results. The aim behind this paper is to introduce a new metric entitled average capacity index (ACI), as a non-linear visualization approach/scaling mechanism, to be usable in evaluating capacity results of data hiding and aggregation algorithms based on bar charts. Some examples with synthetic and real data will show that the proposed metric outperforms the existing conventional tools in terms of statistical measures and visual presentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the impacts to soil thermal properties during and after biocementation via microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) method on silty silica sand specimens with varying fines content (0%, 5%, and 15%) were investigated. Firstly, calcium conversion was measured after each pulse; then, the MICP-treated specimens were tested for cementation uniformity. The evolution of thermal conductivity of silty soils with the MICP treatment was assessed using a thermocouple probe. The results show that thermal conductivity of silty saturated sands increased by 17% for specimens treated to 9.7% CaCO3. The improvement in thermal conductivity was attributed to the formation of calcium carbonate bridges binding the soil grains together. The results suggested that the thermal conductivity of silty soil depends on water content, the number of treatment pulses, and the treatment uniformity through the soil specimen. Presence of fines content in the soil was found to play an important role in the distribution and uniformity of biocementation through the soil specimen. However, no statistically significant difference in the thermal conductivity values of MICP-treated specimens with different fines content was observed (p>0.05). The average calcium carbonate content ranged between 10.7% and 7.2% for the soils with 0% and 15% fines content, respectively. The findings of this research could be used to improve the efficiency of geothermal boreholes and other energy geostructures using MICP by improving thermal conductivity of dry and partially saturated soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of spatial variability on the liquefaction prediction and liquefaction-induced ground failure of a soil profile with thinly interbedded layer of sand and clay was examined using simplified procedures and fully coupled two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear dynamic analysis (NDA). The Palinurus Road site in Christchurch, New Zealand, subjected to the 2010 Darfield and 2011 Christchurch events, was selected for the analyses. The liquefaction vulnerability of the site was estimated using one-dimensional (1D) liquefaction vulnerability indices (LVIs), and the results were compared with the results of NDAs and field observations. Spatially correlated random fields conditioned on corrected cone penetration tests (CPTs) were generated based on sand-like and claylike portions of the interbedded soil profile. CPT data were corrected for the thin-layer and transition zone effects. The generated random fields were assigned to the interbedded layer of the stochastic model to examine the effect of spatial variability on the system dynamic response, cross-interaction between layers, and liquefaction-induced diffusion during the evolution of liquefaction and postliquefaction. The potential of sediment ejecta manifestation using the artesian flow potential (AFP) and ejecta potential index (EPI) also was investigated for the stochastic models and compared with those of deterministic models. This study demonstrates the value of advanced 2D NDA modeling with realistic soil spatial variability for understanding inconsistent ejecta predictions from simplified tools. The approach can guide future refinements to assessment procedures and provide insights into key factors controlling manifestation in complex stratified sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Probiotic strains have the potential to modulate immune responses, reduce intestinal inflammation, normalize intestinal mucosal function and decrease allergic reactions. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effect of oral probiotic supplements containing Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus coagulans spores on clinical symptoms, haematological factors and immune responses to allergic contact dermatitis in dogs induced by dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB). Methods: DNCB was injected subcutaneously into the scapular region of 20 healthy adult dogs of both sexes, divided into four groups, to induce experimental allergic contact dermatitis. Dogs in Group 1 received food without probiotics or medication. Oral prednisolone was administered to Group 2 for 30 days at a dosage of 0.25 mg/kg every other day. The dogs in Group 3 were treated with a combination of oral prednisolone and probiotics. The dogs in Group 4 were fed daily with a mixture of 109B. subtilis and B. coagulans bacteria for 30 days. The immune system responses and related gene expression were analysed in the treated animals. Results: The administration of probiotics for 30 days resulted in a reduction in clinical symptoms and duration of wound repair. The probiotics treatment also significantly increased the serum bactericidal effects against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. It enhanced both the classic and alternative activity of the complement, as well as lysozyme activity. Additionally, the probiotics led to higher total immunoglobulin levels and significant reductions in anti‐trypsin and C‐reactive protein levels. Furthermore, the expression of IgE, induction of interferon‐gamma and IL‐4 genes were also reduced. Conclusions: According to the results, B. subtilis and B. coagulans can be further investigated as a viable alternative to corticosteroids in treating allergic contact dermatitis in dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper addresses a new robust control scheme for tracking control of the robot manipulators. This algorithm employs time delay estimation (TDE) technique in combination with backstepping control strategy. The suggested control scheme has no dependency on the robot dynamic model and knowing the bound of the inertia matrix is enough to develop this controller. To develop the idea, at first the boundedness of the TDE errors is analyzed by Lyapunov‐Krasovskii approach. Next, the proposed TDE based adaptive backstepping nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (ABNTSMC) algorithm is developed. In this way, a novel adaptive‐robust term is employed to defeat the chattering phenomenon. Moreover, the closed‐loop stability of the system is proven through Lyapunov second approach. Fast transient response, supreme robustness, and chattering‐free as the premier specifications are gained employing the proposed control algorithm. The efficiency of the suggested control scheme is illustrated through some simulations on an industrial robot and the results are compared with some other control algorithms. Finally, the practical effectiveness of the proposed TDE based control algorithm is verified through some experiments on a parallelogram robot manipulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appropriate prediction of horizontal earth pressure against retaining walls can lead to a safer and more efficient design of such structures. Retaining walls are among the structures in which the arching phenomenon plays an essential role in distributing horizontal earth pressure. In this research, based on the limit equilibrium condition and considering the arching effect, a new theoretical method is proposed to estimate the earth pressure against a battered wall under translation movement with a cohesive-frictional backfill soil. A parametric study is conducted for assessing the effect of the surcharge pressure, cohesion, internal friction angle, wall–soil friction angle, and wall inclination on lateral earth pressure. In addition, a series of numerical models is employed to implement the finite difference method. The development of shear bands inside the backfill and the changes in earth pressure behind the wall are studied. The outcomes of the suggested analytical solution are compared with the numerical data as well as with some other theories. It is concluded that the proposed method is applicable to a wide range of cohesive-frictional soils retained with walls, covering a variety of batter angles and face frictional conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the effect of Neurotec® herbal capsule (100 mg twice a day for 3 months) on the tinnitus symptoms in comparison with the placebo. Design: A double‐blind randomised clinical trial. Setting: Otolaryngology clinic of Baqiyatallah Hospital. Participants: Patients suffering from subjective tinnitus. Main Outcome Measures: Pure tone audiometry was measured at.5, 1, 2, 4 and 6 kHz frequencies before and after the third month of intervention. In addition, Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) questionnaire as well as visual analogue scale (VAS) for tinnitus loudness, daily annoyance, daily life or sleep disturbance, daily perception and mood alteration were evaluated. Results: Finally, 103 (69 males and 34 females) patients with a mean age of 51.33 ± 13.91 years were analysed. In contrast with control group, patients in intervention group showed a remarkable decrease in THI score after 3 months of treatment (p <.05). Although both groups had improvements in VAS scores, mood disturbance, daily tinnitus perception and daily life alteration scores were only improved in the intervention group. The mean pure tone air and bone conduction were not significantly different between the control and the intervention group at baseline and 3 months after the intervention at.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz (p >.05). Conclusion: A 3‐month treatment with Neurotec capsules in addition to patient education is of benefit for managing symptoms in patients with chronic tinnitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), or concussion, can lead to persistent cognitive and functional symptoms that impede quality of life to a varying extent. This condition is referred to as post-concussive syndrome (PCS). Sleep disturbances are part of it but their distribution among different genders remains scarcely investigated. This pilot cross-sectional anonymous web-based survey interviewed volunteer 18–55 years old participants with a recent (i.e., less than 5 years) reported history of mTBI. Questionnaires related to persistent post-concussive symptoms (PPCS; Rivermead post-concussion symptoms questionnaire), sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) and daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale) were administered as part of the survey. Ninety-one participants' responses were analysed (61 female; 30 male); 43% of them suffered from post-concussive syndrome, 60% reported poor sleep quality and 34% experienced excessive daytime sleepiness. The proportion of PPCS was significantly higher in female participants as compared to males (female: 57%; male: 13%; Fisher's exact test p < 0.001). Excessive daytime sleepiness was also significantly more present in females (female: 44%; male: 13%; p < 0.001) whereas poor sleep quality was present in similar proportions between females and males (female: 66%; male: 50%; p = 0.176). Even though based on a relatively small sample, these findings highlight important gender differences that should be accounted for in PPCS medical care and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an automated, model-free, data-driven method for the safe tuning of PID cascade controller gains based on Bayesian optimization. The optimization objective is composed of data-driven performance metrics and modeled using Gaussian processes. The safety requirement is imposed via a barrier-like term in the objective, which is introduced to account for operational changes in the system. We further introduce a data-driven constraint that captures the stability requirements from system data. Numerical evaluation shows that the proposed approach outperforms relay feedback autotuning and quickly converges to the global optimum, thanks to a tailored stopping criterion. We demonstrate the performance of the method through simulations and experiments. For experimental implementation, in addition to the introduced safety constraint, we integrate a method for automatic detection of the critical gains and extend the optimization objective with a penalty depending on the proximity of the current candidate points to the critical gains. The resulting automated tuning method optimizes system performance while ensuring stability and standardization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of centrifuge experiments were conducted to identify different internal failure modes of a group of soil-cement (SC) columns (e.g., shearing and tension due to bending) under combined effects of embankment loading and liquefaction-induced lateral spreading. The results were also used to investigate how an increase in the flexural/shear strength of SC columns (using high-strength steel reinforcement bars) can affect their ability to limit settlements or deformations. The centrifuge experiments included two centrifuge tests of liquefiable foundation reinforced by SC columns with and without high-strength steel reinforcement cores during strong earthquake loading. It was found that during and after cracking of the SC columns, shear and tilting failure is the prominent failure mechanism. The test results showed that increasing the flexural capacity of SC columns can reduce the potential for earthquake-induced liquefaction and associated damage. Compared with conventional SC columns, reinforced soil-cement (RSC) columns are more effective in providing confinement for the soil under the embankment during strong shaking events, resulting in lower shaking-induced pore-water pressure and a reduction in the lateral deformation of the soil and embankment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of nonlinear deformation analyses of an embankment on a spatially variable, liquefiable foundation soil reinforced with spatially variable soil-cement (SC) wall. The objective is to evaluate the merit of employing stochastic modeling approaches, such as spatially correlated random fields, relative to deterministic analysis with uniform properties for the soil and SC wall. Spatial variability, which is specified by mean, coefficient of variation (COV), and scale of fluctuation (SOF), can significantly influence the seismic performance of soils and embankments. The numerical analysis was first validated using data from a dynamic centrifuge test conducted at the Center for Geotechnical Modeling at University of California, Davis. Analyses were performed for different sets of realization of the foundation soil and SC wall as well as the range of the length and strength of SC wall and peak base acceleration. Simulation results of the stochastic models with spatially Gaussian random field were examined and compared with the results of the experiment with an emphasis on the crest vertical displacement, berm horizontal displacement, and contours of shear strain in the embankment, foundation soil, and SC wall. The results revealed that the representative percentile of unconfined compressive strength (qucs) in the range of 35th–50th percentile needed to be used in a uniform model to estimate the median of crest and berm displacement in spatially variable SC wall-supported embankment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication after liver transplantation (LT) that is independently associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of administering gelatin‐low dose albumin versus albumin on renal function and other early outcomes in LT. Methods: This randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 140 patients undergoing LT from brain death donors. Patients were randomly assigned to two groups: albumin or modified gelatin with albumin. Blood samples were collected before (T0) and on the first (T1), second (T2), third (T3), fifth (T4), and last day of hospitalization (T5) after LT for the detection of laboratory parameters, including renal and liver function tests. Results: The incidence of AKT on the basis of RIFLE criteria was 31.42% in the gelatin group (R: 59.10%, I: 36.40%, and F: 4.50%) and 25.71% in the albumin group (R: 66.70%, I: 27.80%, and F: 5.50%) (p =.845). Two patients in the gelatin and one in the albumin groups required renal replacement therapy (RRT). There was no significant difference between groups when the trends of changes in renal and liver function parameters were assessed during the study period (T0–T5). Furthermore, the incidence of complications was similar across groups. Conclusion: This study showed that modified gelatin could be used without inappropriate outcomes on renal function in patients with normal preoperative kidney function tests undergoing LT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study intended to trigger the immune response to cancer cells by using antibodies conjugated with bacterial antigens. The protein membrane of the MCF7 cell line was extracted and specific antibodies against cell membrane antigens was produced in rabbits. The specific antibodies were purified using chromatography methods and linked to E. coli antigens or doxorubicin using Diethylenetriamine pentaacetate (DTPA) linker. After confirmation of the conjugation process using SDS-PAGE and ATR-FTIR methods, the MCF7 and HUVEC cells were treated with various concentrations of the prepared conjugated antibodies along with human serum. The toxicity of each treatment against MCF7 and HUVEC cells was evaluated using the MTT assay. Also, polylactic acid scaffolds that contain 10×104 MCF7 cells were surgically placed in the peritoneal cavity of the rats. After treatment of each group, induction of the inflammatory responses was evaluated on stained histological sections of the scaffolds. The lowest cytotoxic doses of the antigen conjugated-antibody, doxorubicin-conjugated-antibody was 4 and 1 μg/mL, respectively. Doxorubicin conjugated antibodies displayed greater toxicity on both MCF7 and HUVEC cells. The in vivo finding revealed that the inflammatory cells were significantly higher in treating animals with antigen conjugated-antibody. The current synthetic agent stimulated the serum toxicity and induced an inflammatory response to MCF7 cell lines. Targeting of the bacterial antigens on tumor sites by immune system elements, could limit the growth of the tumor cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stabilizing piles are considered a prevailing and very effective method of reinforcing slopes. Considering the widespread application of stabilizing piles, many recent studies are devoted to pile-stabilized soil slopes. However, investigation on infinite slopes is very limited. In the present study, the stability of pile-stabilized infinite slopes was investigated by a series of physical modeling under pseudo-static loading, through a beam-type geotechnical centrifuge machine. A tilting table was used to apply pseudo-static loading on the slope models under a constant centrifugal acceleration of 45 g. The models were instrumented using miniature pressure cells, potentiometers, and monitoring cameras. The results of this study confirmed the development of stress arches behind the stabilizing piles. Based on the experimental data, it was concluded that the slope angle has an inverse power relation with the pile spacing. For the material used in this study, a pile spacing of 6.7 times the pile diameter was appropriate for doubling the stable slope angle. Since the results of this study are limited to a specific soil and test conditions, further investigation including numerical modeling is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution of earth pressure surrounding a tunnel is one of the most critical factors in designing tunnel support systems. In this study, a physical modeling setup has been designed and constructed to simulate the excavation procedure of a full-face circular tunnel. Silica sand was used with four different densities and three different cover-to-tunnel diameter ratios. The full-face excavation was simulated with a variation of tunneling-induced volume loss. The variations of earth pressure around the tunnel were measured by means of a series of miniature soil pressure cells. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), as a non-destructive image processing technique, was used to monitor the deformation of the soil surrounding the tunnel. The results obtained from both pressure cells and PIV showed that soil arching developed around the tunnel. As tunnel convergence increased, a loosened zone appeared above the tunnel, surrounded by a stress arch. It was discovered that there is a direct relationship between the height of the loosened zone and the depth of the tunnel. A linear equation has been established for the estimation of the height of the loosened zone, which has a direct influence on the design of the support system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People's need for healthcare capacity has become increasingly critical as the elderly population continues to grow in most communities. Approximately 25–47% of seniors fall annually, and early detection of poor balance can significantly reduce their risk. Automated fall detection with big data analytics is key to maintaining the safety of the elderly in smart cities. Visible image systems (VIS) in smart buildings, on the other hand, visible image systems (VIS) in smart buildings may compromise the privacy of seniors by enabling technologies for intelligent big data analytics (IBDA). Thermal imaging (TI) is less obtrusive than visual imaging and can be used in combination with machine vision to perform a wide range of IBDAs. In this study, we present a novel two-step method for detecting falls in TI frames using deep learning (DL). As the first step, tracking tools are used to locate people's locations. A novel modified deep transfer learning (TL) technique is used to classify the trajectory created by the tracking approach for people who are at risk of falling. Fall detection by the IBDA will be connected to the Internet of medical things (IoMT) and used as smart technology in the process of big data-assisted pervasive surveillance and health analytics. According to an analysis of the publicly available thermal fall dataset, our method outperforms traditional fall detection methods, with an average error of less than 3%. Additionally, IoMT platforms facilitate data processing, real-time monitoring and healthcare management. Our smart scheme for using big data analytics to enable intelligent decisions is compatible with the various spaces and provides a comfortable and safe environment for current and future elderly people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In robust combinatorial optimization, we would like to find a solution that performs well under all realizations of an uncertainty set of possible parameter values. How we model this uncertainty set has a decisive influence on the complexity of the corresponding robust problem. For this reason, budgeted uncertainty sets are often studied, as they enable us to decompose the robust problem into easier subproblems. We propose a variant of discrete budgeted uncertainty for cardinality-based constraints or objectives, where a weight vector is applied to the budget constraint. We show that while the adversarial problem can be solved in linear time, the robust problem becomes NP-hard and not approximable. We discuss different possibilities to model the robust problem and show experimentally that despite the hardness result, some models scale relatively well in the problem size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the conservation efforts for the white stork in central Iran, specifically in the Bishe-Dalan Wetland. The white stork is at risk due to collisions with power lines and electrocution. In response to reports of stork electrocutions, the Birds and Power Lines Committee recommended actions to prevent electrocutions and save nests. The mitigation project involved reconfiguring power lines to be bird-friendly, installing nest platforms on power poles, and raising public awareness through workshops. The project has been successful so far, with no electrocutions and all nest platforms being used by breeding pairs. [Extracted from the article]

A narrow backfill refers to the limited space behind a retaining wall, constructed in front of an existing structure or rock face. It is known that the use of the classical analytical methods, developed for infinite half-spaces, is not appropriate for narrow backfills. In this study, the limit-equilibrium analysis with bilinear planar slip surfaces is employed and a theoretical methodology is proposed for the estimation of the active earth pressure inside a narrow backfill, considering the soil arching effect. The suggested approach can estimate the distribution of vertical, horizontal, and shear stresses everywhere inside the narrow backfill. It is observed that, as expected, the distribution of earth pressure against the retaining wall is curvilinear due to the arching effect. The influence of the backfill width, surcharge pressure, backfill internal friction, wall–soil interface friction, and rock face–soil interface friction on the earth pressure distribution is studied. The proposed methodology provides acceptable results when compared with pre-existing analytical and numerical studies. Therefore, the suggested approach can be used for the analysis of narrow backfill retaining walls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Atorvastatin is considered as lipid reductive drugs with anti-inflammatory and pleotherapic effects in coronary artery bypass graph (CABG).Aim: This study is conducted to evaluate the effects of atorvastatin in CABG.Setting and Design: Patients with a coronary bypass graph procedure in Nemazee hospital in Shiraz were divided into two 50-groups receiving high-dose (80 mg) and low-dose (20 mg) atorvastatin.Materials and Methods: Troponin I, creatinine kinase-MB (CK-MB), atrial fibrillation (AF) after CABG, duration of mechanical ventilation, inotrope duration of consumption, blood sugar profile, liver and renal function, death during 30 days of CABG, MACE (major advance cardiac events) during admission in ICU, and 1 month follow up were surveyed.Statistical Analysis: Collected data were analyzed by independent and paired t-test and Chi square.Results: AST was increased, ALT, ALK-P after CABG were decreased, and urine volume in the second day of admission in ICU was increased in the high-dose group. There was an increase and following decrease in blood sugar of patients in the high-dose after CABG. An inflammatory marker after CABG was raised in both groups, ck-mb had an increase, and then followed by a reduction. Troporin had no significant differences between groups. Patients with high-dose atorvastatin had better glomerular filtration rate and renal performance. Along with decreasing AF in the case group, hemodynamics' disorder reduced and there was less bleeding.Conclusion: According to the above, it seems that a short-time prescription of high dose of atorvastatin in CABG can lead to better renal function, decreasing of arrhythmia and AF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two centrifuge model tests were used to examine the effect of soil interlayering on the measured cone-penetration resistance in a layered soil model. The first centrifuge model included four soil profiles: two uniform loose and dense soil profiles and two two-layer sand profiles of loose over dense and dense over loose sands. The other centrifuge model involved a layer of loose or dense sand with varying thickness between overlying and underlying layers of low-plasticity clayey silt. Multiple cone-penetration soundings were performed using cone penetrometers with diameters of 6 and 10 mm. The results showed that the measured tip resistance in layered soils as well as the sensing and development distances depend on sand layer thickness and stiffness contrast between the subsequent soil layers. The results of these experiments were compared with the results obtained from analytical and numerical solutions. The results provide insights on the effect of thin-layer presence on cone tip measurements and an archived data set for evaluating design procedures and numerical analysis methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Model Predictive Control can cope with conflicting control objectives in building energy managements. In terms of user satisfaction, visual comfort has been proven in several studies to be a crucial factor, however thermal comfort is typically considered the only important aspect. Besides human well-being, visual comfort strongly impacts the productivity of the occupants in offices. Therefore, from an economic point of view, it is essential to include visual comfort in Model Predictive Control for buildings. In this paper semi-linear support vector machine is applied to learn suitable models for visual comfort measured by Daylight Glare Probability. The resulting model is incorporated into a Model Predictive Control framework, together with an autoregressive exogenous model accounting for the thermal dynamics of the building. The approach is validated through an extensive numerical case study, and the benefits of including visual comfort and blind control in the Model Predictive Control problem are evaluated. We observe that the proposed Model Predictive Control scheme ensures both the thermal and visual comfort constraints at the expense of 2.2 % to 7.2% higher energy consumption compared to the benchmark Model Predictive Control configuration, which considers only the thermal comfort constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we propose a performance-based autotuning method for cascade control systems, where the parameters of a linear axis drive motion controller from two control loops are tuned jointly. Using Bayesian optimization as all parameters are tuned simultaneously, the method is guaranteed to converge asymptotically to the global optimum of the cost. The data-efficiency and performance of the method are studied numerically for several training configurations and compared numerically to those achieved with classical tuning methods and to the exhaustive evaluation of the cost. On the real system, the tracking performance and robustness against disturbances are compared experimentally to nominal tuning. The numerical study and the experimental data both demonstrate that the proposed automated tuning method is efficient in terms of required tuning iterations, robust to disturbances, and results in improved tracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research was conducted to improve the mechanical properties of pure titanium, in which a composite reinforced with reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanosheets was fabricated using spark plasma sintering (SPS) method and was subjected to severe plastic deformation (SPD) process at room temperature with simple shear extrusion (SSE). Its mechanical properties were investigated in terms of tensile and yield strengths applying tension and hardness tests. Moreover, characterizations were accomplished through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) equipped with EDS, light microscopy (LM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The obtained results revealed that the grain growth was observed for all the samples in the annealing step, yet the elongation in the highest percentage of RGO was severely limited. Following SSE, the grain size decreased in the severe plastic deformation and consequently, mechanical properties of composite improved. In this regard, the hardness improved from 373 HV after SPS to 536.5 HV after two passes of SSE for composite reinforced by 0.1% RGO; moreover, tensile strength enhanced up to 969 MPa. This nanocomposite might be utilized in diverse fields, particularly in bio applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to introduce some new findings toward multimedia and communication aspects of Video-SAR imaging systems. The first suggestion is a modified frame rate computation considering all systematic design, signal, and data processing characteristics. In addition to the conventional radar models, we propose new conditions on how to take the multimedia requirements into account to respond to the radar and multimedia demands simultaneously. Since Video-SAR is eventually used by an end user, the Video-SAR designers must follow the temporal resolution requirements through the frame rate for both aspects of radar and multimedia systems. To do this, an integrated procedure is suggested to include all the required conditions. The second finding of this research is focused on the issue of data aggregation and multisource compression in Video-SAR. The proposed approach is an upper bound for aggregation ability of all the data hiding-based aggregators. This bound is found with using measurement of unoccupied space in the host image/frame. Besides, some numerical examples are provided to explain the computation of frame rate while there are different scenarios in a practical Video-SAR system. Also, we compute the unoccupied space for a radar frame compared to an optical sample to reveal the inherent characteristics of the Video-SAR data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgrounds. Cisplatin (CP) still is a novel choice for solid tumor therapy, but it is accompanied with the side effect of nephrotoxicity. Hydration may reduce the risk of CP-induced nephrotoxicity, while the issue is still challenging. In this study, five types of hydration protocols including saline, mannitol, dextrose saline, saline plus furosemide, and saline plus mannitol were examined in both sexes of rats during CP therapy. Methods. Seventy-six male and female Wistar rats in 14 groups of experiments were subjected to CP therapy, and five types of hydration protocols were implemented, and the induced nephrotoxicity was evaluated via biochemical markers, kidney function parameters, and pathology investigation. Results. Male and female rats had different responses to hydration protocol types. The higher mortality rate was seen in female rats that received mannitol or dextrose hydration types. In addition, the serum levels of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr) and sodium excretion fraction (ENa%) increased and the clearance of Cr (ClCr) decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in female rats hydrated with saline plus furosemide or mannitol plus saline-treated groups. The worsened condition in male rats is observed in the mannitol hydration group with a significant decrease of ClCr and significant increase of serum BUN and Cr and ENa% (P < 0.05). The higher kidney tissue damage score (KTDS) in the mentioned groups verified the findings. Conclusion. Hydration with mannitol or dextrose promotes the risk of nephrotoxicity during CP therapy with more intensity on the female. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The use of biomarkers has become increasingly important in the diagnosis and treatment of several malignancies, including breast cancer. Among the established biomarkers, receptor tyrosine-protein kinase erbB-2 (HER-2/ neu) has been found to be of a predictive and prognostic role in breast cancer patients. Method: 94 patients with primary breast cancer were enrolled in our prospective study between 2016 and 2017. 5 cc clot blood samples were taken for serum HER- 2/neu testing at the time of diagnosis of breast cancer. The patients' demographic data, tumor characteristics, including tumor size, tumor grade, presence of lymph node involvement, and stage, hormone receptor, and tissue HER-2/neu status of the subjects were recorded following tumor removal. Results: All of the patients were female with the age range of 27 to 80 years (the mean of age was 49.66. 36 patients (38.3%) had positive tissue HER-2 results and 58 (61.7%) had negative results. In those with high level serum HER-2 ECD, 28(77.7%) had positive tissue HER-2 and 8(22.2%) had negative results. Moreover, in the patients with low level serum HER-2 ECD, 8(13.7%) had positive tissue HER-2 and 50(86.2%) had negative results with the sensitivity of 77.7% and specificity of 86.2%. HER2 ECD levels were highly concordant with tissue HER2 status, with a P value of less than 0.001, which was considered to be statistically significant. Among different clinicopathologic variables, serum and tissue HER-2/nu were significantly correlated with only tumor grade. Conclusion: A significantly increased release of HER2 ECD levels may accurately predict tumor HER2 status as detected with immunohistochemistry and/or in situ hybridizations studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental issues such as water scarcity are typically multidimensional problems, and resolving them requires a systems-based approach and socio-technical innovations. This article applies the "Problem-oriented Innovation System (PIS)" as a new approach to resolve water scarcity problem. In Iran, this has not been the case as natural water scarcity along with decades of mismanagement has turned water scarcity into a national crisis and caused several interrelated socioeconomic problems. Using case study, in this article, Iran's water scarcity is analyzed to see how the PIS is able to help resolve this problem. Results indicate that the inefficient management and monitoring the water scarcity and lack of appropriate standardization and tariffs are the most important system failures of the water scarcity PIS in Iran. Also, the most important policy implications are moving toward decentralization in water management based on a participatory approach and establishing a national drought monitoring system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of epidural anaesthesia with lidocaine in combination with general anaesthesia with propofol on some immunologic indices in dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy. Twelve adult dogs were anesthetized with propofol (induction: 7 mg/kg; maintenance: 0.4 mg/kg/min) and were then allocated into either groups of epidural saline (control) or epidural lidocaine (4 mg/kg; treatment). All the included animals underwent ovariohysterectomy operation. The immune responses, hematologic parameters and cortisol levels were assessed in the predetermined intervals. Evaluation of the innate immunity revealed higher significant levels in the bactericidal, lysozyme and myeloperoxidase activities at 4 hours after surgery in the treatment. In the humoral immunity, the total immunoglobulin level was significantly higher in the treatment. In the assessment of cellular immunity, higher significant values were detected in the delayed skin sensitivity to phytohemagglutinine injection after 48 and 72 hours in the treatment. Moreover, higher significant levels were observed in the number and percentage of lymphocytes as well as an increase in the percentage of monocytes in the treatment at 4 hours after the operation. Notably, the cortisol hormone in the treatment was lower than control at 4 hours of the surgery. In conclusion, epidural anaesthesia with lidocaine when added to general anaesthesia with propofol attenuated the suppression of the innate and cellular immune responses produced by anaesthesia and surgery in the dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, pervasive vision through synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging sensors is a crucial part of air-borne and space-borne platforms to reach the concept of internet of multimedia things over satellites and visual flying ad-hoc networks. SAR sensors always need high-performance data reconstruction techniques to provide quality of experience for end-users of the distributed surveillance nodes and ensuring reliable decision-making in the autonomous vehicles. Using prior information in SAR image reconstruction, improves the quality of reconstructed image. Many sparse regularization methods use pre information terms in which the image is sparsely presented based on a predefined dictionary. However, if the desired features of the real image have not a sparse representation based on the predefined dictionary, image reconstruction with enhanced interested features will be failed. Dictionary learning to better adapt with the underlying scene can lead to better image reconstruction. On the other hand, using the idea of dictionary learning in the image reconstruction problem, and considering that the data used to train the dictionary may be incomplete and noisy, will create limitations for this method. In this paper, a new idea based on the use of an overcomplete dictionary consisting of a learned dictionary and a predefined dictionary (pre-learned dictionary) for SAR image reconstruction problem is presented. Developing the necessary mathematical relations and providing the framework for SAR image reconstruction based on the use of the overcomplete pre-learned dictionary, to simultaneously enhance the features considered in advance and the features associated with the image, from incomplete and noisy SAR raw data is presented in this article. We also present an iterative algorithm for solving the corresponding optimization problem. Simulation results based on the real data of TerraSAR-X and the Lynx airborne system show the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is a major cause of disability and, if left untreated, can increase the risk of suicide. Evidence on the determinants of depression is incomplete, making it challenging to interpret results across studies. This study aims to identify the social, economic, environmental, political, and technological factors influencing the great recession in Iran. The study was conducted in two parts. The first step involved a literature review to identify the factors, using PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science for the search. The reference lists of all identified articles were reviewed to find relevant studies, and the extracted information was summarized and reported descriptively. The second steps involved compiling and consulting 14 experts from different fields, using a framework analysis method. Twenty-four articles were used as primary sources of information, and a total of 28 factors were found to exist. After removing duplicates and related factors, 19 of these were subsequently declared as factors, resulting in a total of 36 determinants being identified. Most of these factors belong to the social category. The health policies implemented have a significant impact on disease risk factors and ultimately their occurrence. Political decisions and policy-making processes play a crucial role in all areas, particularly in addressing disease risk factors. Severe depression can disrupt all aspects of the healthcare system, underscoring the importance of access to care. Policies concerning physical education, transportation, nutrition, employment, green spaces, recreational facilities, and tobacco are vital in this context. The influence of health policies on disease risk factors and disease occurrence is profound. Severe depression can have far-reaching effects on the healthcare system, emphasizing the critical need for access to care. The formulation of policies to combat depression must be thoroughly evaluated in terms of economic, political, social, technological, and environmental factors. The findings suggest that addressing social inequalities and emphasizing the role of political action, as highlighted by the social determinants of health, should be top priorities in addressing depression. Efforts to prevent depression should incorporate ecological approaches that consider the impact of the socioeconomic environment on depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deinterleaving or radar pulse separation is a very important goal in terms of radar sources for identifying and implementing electronic warfare systems. In order to separate radar pulses, parameters measured by electronic warfare receivers such as electronic warfare support measures (ESM) and electronic signals intelligence (ELINT) are used in pulse separation. This paper presents a multi-parameter improved method for separating the pulse sequence of radar signals based on time of arrival (TOA) processing with sorting the other pulse descriptor words (PDW) parameters. In the proposed method, after extracting all the pulse repetition intervals (PRIs) based on TOA, the parameters of the angle of arrival, pulse width and carrier frequency (RF) are being used in pulse sorting to separate the received interleaved pulse sequences. The sequential difference histogram (SDIF) algorithm or cumulative difference histogram (CDIF) algorithm is used to extract all pulse repetition intervals. Also, in order to separate the sequence of the received pulses from all surroundings emitters, in addition to matching the potential PRI among the TOAs of the pulses and the similarity measurement in the other parameters of the pulse sequence (pulse sorting) have been used. This proposed algorithm is implemented in the integrated and complete design for deinterleaving of the radar pulses. The proposed method by considering low-cost computing sources considers a fast and low-complexity solution that can be used for edge-enabled distributed processors in aerial radar platforms as edge devices for military/combat unmanned aerial vehicles or networked missiles. The simulation results show that our method is completely effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional, nonlinear, finite-difference analyses were used to investigate the stability of an embankment supported by spatially variable soil–cement columns. This study evaluated the improvement/merit of employing stochastic modeling approaches, such as spatially correlated random fields, relative to deterministic analysis, which commonly neglects spatial variability. The spatial variability, which is specified by mean, coefficient of variation (COV) and autocorrelation distance (R), can significantly influence the performance of the treated in situ soils and the overlying structure. Reliability analyses with three types of spatial variable soil–cement columns were conducted using a COV value of 0.6 for the soil–cement strength, and the effects of the autocorrelation distance were evaluated. Gaussian spatially correlated random field models (stochastic models) with 100 realizations for each case were used in a strength-reduction analysis to determine the failure surface and safety factor. Results of the models with uniform material properties were compared with each of the stochastic model realizations. ANOVA was used to analyze the statistical difference between the means of safety factors. The stochastic distributions of safety factors and consequences of spatial variability on the failure mode of columns and embankment, and implications for engineering practice were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Atorvastatin is considered as lipid reductive drugs with anti-inflammatory and pleotherapic effects in coronary artery bypass graph (CABG). Aim: This study is conducted to evaluate the effects of atorvastatin in CABG. Setting and Design: Patients with a coronary bypass graph procedure in Nemazee hospital in Shiraz were divided into two 50-groups receiving high-dose (80 mg) and low-dose (20 mg) atorvastatin. Materials and Methods: Troponin I, creatinine kinase-MB (CK-MB), atrial fibrillation (AF) after CABG, duration of mechanical ventilation, inotrope duration of consumption, blood sugar profile, liver and renal function, death during 30 days of CABG, MACE (major advance cardiac events) during admission in ICU, and 1 month follow up were surveyed. Statistical Analysis: Collected data were analyzed by independent and paired t-test and Chi square. Results: AST was increased, ALT, ALK-P after CABG were decreased, and urine volume in the second day of admission in ICU was increased in the high-dose group. There was an increase and following decrease in blood sugar of patients in the high-dose after CABG. An inflammatory marker after CABG was raised in both groups, ck-mb had an increase, and then followed by a reduction. Troporin had no significant differences between groups. Patients with high-dose atorvastatin had better glomerular filtration rate and renal performance. Along with decreasing AF in the case group, hemodynamics' disorder reduced and there was less bleeding. Conclusion: According to the above, it seems that a short-time prescription of high dose of atorvastatin in CABG can lead to better renal function, decreasing of arrhythmia and AF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to extract optimal location for cultivating orange trees. In order to reach this goal, a combination of Dempster-Shafer theory (DST) and cloud computing is proposed. The DST method is applied to make weights for input parameters, and cloud computing is used for creating a cost-effective integrated solution on collected information of different geographic regions. To do this, eight parameters including minimum and maximum temperatures, aspect, elevation, growing degree days, rainfall, relative humidity, solar radiation and slope are incorporated to determine the most optimal region for orange cultivation. Moreover, interpolation maps for each parameter are determined with using the inverse distance weighting model in a geographic information system software. The DST model as a novel method for the determination of land suitability is eventually applied in the MATLAB software environment to complete the performance evaluation. Three confidence levels are set as 99.5%, 99% and 95% such that the final results for each confidence level are compared accordingly. It will be shown that the proposed method is successful in predicting suitable locations for the cultivation of oranges by generating different maps at various degrees of confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The current study was planned to evaluate the effect of dexamethasone treated monocytes, which carry antigens, on the immune system responses. • Treatment of macrophage with 10-5 M of dexamethasone for 48 h increased the IL-10 and TGF-β and reduced TNF-α and IL-1 gene expressions. • The highest antigens were determined in treated macrophages five days after treatment. • The effects of dexamethasone on metabolism and differentiation of monocytes was depended on the dose, time, and duration of the treatment. The characteristics of M2 macrophages suggest immunotherapeutic approaches for inducing immunological tolerance. The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of Dexamethasone (Dex) treatment on monocytes polarization and its impact on immune responses. The monocytes were extracted from the rat's blood samples. The effects of Dex concentration and treatment duration on monocyte viability, phagocytosis of rabbit red blood cell (RRBC) antigens, and cytokine gene expression were evaluated using MTT, ELISA, and Real-Time PCR analysis, respectively. The monocytes treated with Dex were injected into the rats as an autograft. The effects of the grafted cells were assessed on immune responses, monocyte differentiation, and pathological lesions, in comparison to the control groups. Treatment of monocytes with 10-5 M of Dex for 48 h increased the expression of IL-10 and TGF-β genes, while reducing the expression of TNF-α and IL-1 genes. The monocytes treated with antigen and Dex showed higher CD206 gene expression compared to CD80. The cells that were treated with Dex had the highest concentration of antigens after five days. Administration of the grafted cells to the animals has some significant effects on innate immune responses and no impact on pathological lesions. The group that received cells treated with Dex and antigen experienced a significant decrease in anti-RBC antibody titers. Additionally, there was a significant difference in the expression of cytokine genes and M2 differentiation markers among the groups that were evaluated. The effects of Dex on the viability and differentiation of monocytes depend on the dosage, timing, and duration of the treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploratory experiments including a series of flume and geotechnical tests were conducted to assess the effects of fines content and relative density on the erosion and recession of predominantly sandy beach and bluff. The beach and bluff were constructed using soils of four fines contents, 0, 5%, 10%, and 15%, at two relative densities of 39% and 68%, and were exposed to varying water levels and wave heights. The results indicated that the increase of fines content reduced the bluff recession rate. This reduction was more pronounced for looser soil, where a 5% fines content resulted in a nearly 24% reduction in the recession rate. The dominant failure mode for looser soils with 0% and 5% fines contents was shear failure. On the other hand, for the bluffs with fines content higher than 5%, as well as those with the denser soil, tensile failure occurred. The data resulted in the establishment of an empirical relationship for the recession rate as a function of fines content and relative density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), as the most common type of primary liver cancer (accounting for 70% - 90% of all liver cancers), is the seventh most common malignancy worldwide. Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are a specific group of enzymes that are responsible for the detoxification of carcinogens. According to the available literature, genetic variations in this group of enzymes may be associated with the risk of HCC. In this study, we aimed to assess the association of GSTM1 and GSTT1 null deletions and GSTP1 rs1695 polymorphism with the risk of HCC. Methods: We systematically searched electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, using appropriate keywords to gather relevant data until March 2019. Studies that met the inclusion criteria were included in the meta-analysis, using either fixed- or random-effects models based on the presence of heterogeneity. Results: This meta-analysis pooled 19 studies for GSTM1 null deletions, 14 studies for GSTT1 null deletions, and five studies for GSTP1 rs1695 polymorphism. In terms of heterogeneity, the pooled odds ratio (OR) was calculated in a random-effects model for both Asian and non-Asian populations. HCC was found to be associated with GSTM1 null deletions (OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.00 - 1.58, P = 0.05) and GSTT1 null deletions (OR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.10 - 1.74, P = 0.005); however, no significant association was found between HCC and GSTP1 rs1695 polymorphism (OR = 1.14, 95% CI: 0.86 - 1.50, P = 0.36). Conclusions: We found that GSTM1 and GSTT1 null deletions increased the risk of HCC; however, the GSTP1 rs1695 polymorphism did not have a similar effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of the direct and indirect sequelae caused by wearing conventional complete dentures and investigation of their relationship with these factors: gender, age, educational level, systemic diseases, medications, xerostomia, the person who made the denture, chief complaint of patients, duration of denture wearing (24 hours a day), cleaning methods of dentures and condition of the old dentures. Materials and Methods: Forty-seven patients with old conventional complete dentures, who referred to dentistry faculty of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, participated in this study. Data were obtained by using a questionnaire-interview and clinical examination and were analyzed with chi- squared test (P<0.05). Results: 3 denture related lesions showed in 42.55% of the patients and only 2 patients did not have any lesions. Resorbed residual ridge (27.7%) was the most common and hyper keratosis (2.7%) was the uncommon sequelae. The Denture Irritation Hyperplasia (DIH) was significantly higher in patients with lower educational level. Denture stomatitis was the most common mucosal lesion in the participants who suffered from xerostomia. Conclusion: The patients should be educated about the importance of periodic examination in order to diagnose early mucosal lesions and repairing the dentures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The best service mechanism in multimedia wireless sensor networks can be achieved based on the multimedia traffic flow by developing a proper simulation algorithm process model, to be a trustable indication for real implementations, which is proposed in this article, together with the algorithm model outcome analysis. The quality estimation of the proposed mechanism is investigated by simulating real data transmission and obtaining the integral criterion of the processed mechanism, to determine the queue formation and loading control. Accordingly, it was proved that the first-in first-out algorithm is not useful as a flow algorithm; however, it is regarded as suitable to be considered as the benchmark algorithm when compared with the other algorithms such as priority queue, custom queue, fair queuing, and weighted fair queuing algorithms. Finally, each algorithm's advantages and disadvantages were verified and the best usage conditions according to certain parameters, such as packet loss probability, average time delay, and jitter, were declared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study evaluated the effects of the maternal immune system stimulation or suppression during the pregnancy on the development of the neonate's immune system. Methods: A total of 20 female rats were divided into four groups. The groups were treated using Leishmania major, Salmonella typhimurium, Tacrolimus, and sterilized normal saline. The animals were mated after 3-time treatments. The neonate's humoral immune response, total body, thymus, liver, spleen weight, and histology were determined in this study. Results: The spleen's mean weight of the two-month-old samples showed a significant reduction in the Salmonella group; in addition, the Tacrolimus group had a significant reduction in liver mean weight. The Salmonella and Tacrolimus groups showed a significant reduction (P≤0.05) in the anti-sheep red blood cells antibody titer. Conclusion: Stimulation or suppression of the immune responses during the pregnancy has significant effects on the neonate's immune responses, spleen, liver, and thymus development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the expected rate of convergence to consensus in an asymmetric network represented by a weighted directed graph. The initial state of the network is represented by a random vector and the expectation is taken with respect to the random initial condition of the network. The proposed convergence rate is described in terms of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix of the network graph. The generalized power iteration algorithm is then introduced based on the Krylov subspace method to compute the proposed expected convergence rate in a centralized fashion. To this end, the Laplacian matrix of the network is transformed to a new matrix such that existing techniques can be used to find the eigenvalue representing the expected convergence rate of the network. The convergence analysis of the centralized algorithm is performed with a prescribed upper bound on the approximation error of the algorithm. A distributed version of the centralized algorithm is then developed using the notion of consensus observer. The efficiency of the algorithms is subsequently demonstrated by simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although contrast is a major issue in overall quality assessment of an image, existing contrast evaluators with a reasonable performance are currently scarce. Here, we propose a learning-based blind/no-reference (NR) image quality assessment (IQA) model, a dubbed histogram eigen-feature-based contrast score (HEFCS) for evaluating image contrast. This research seeks for the inter-relationship between contrast degradation and relevant image histogram features. We introduce “eigen-histograms,” which are the eigenvectors of the set of image patches’ histograms. We found that the randomness of image eigen-histograms and the amplitude of corresponding eigenvalues can reliably reflect the changes in image contrast. Employing these characteristics leads to contrast-aware HEF vectors, which are used to compute the contrast score through a prediction model trained using support vector regression. Extensive analysis and cross validation are performed with five contrast relevant image databases, and the HEFCS performance results are compared with a collection of full-reference (FR), reduced-reference (RR), and NR measures. Despite its simplicity and low computational complexity, the HEFCS performs better than all competing NR-IQA models and also stands among the three best performers of FR and RR models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, industrial video synthetic aperture radars (ViSARs) are widely used for aerial remote sensing and surveillance systems in smart cities. A main challenge of a group of networked ViSAR sensors in an IoT-based environment is low bandwidth of wireless links for communicating big video data. In this research, we propose a non-linear statistical estimator for adaptive reconstruction of compressed ViSAR data. Our proposed reconstruction filter is based on an adaptively generated non-linear weight mask of spatial observations. It can strongly outperform several conventional and well-known reconstruction filters for three different video samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ischemic postconditioning is a novel strategy for attaining cardioprotection. Remarkable evidence from various in vitro and in vivo animal and human studies have shown significant opioid-induced cardioprotection against myocardial ischemia/ reperfusion (I/R) injury. The purpose of this study was to assess the cardioprotective effect of sufentanil against I/R injury after on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Methods: Between June 2016 and July 2017, 80 consecutive patients with triple-vessel disease undergoing on-pump CABG were enrolled in this prospective randomized study. The patients assigned to the sufentanil group received a single dose of sufentanil (0.2 µg/kg diluted with 50 cc of saline) 5 minutes before the removal of the aorta cross-clamp, with the sufentanil injected via a cardioplegia needle into the aortic root. In the control group, the same volume of normal saline was injected as a placebo. Cardiac enzymes, the inotrope score, and the outcome data were compared between the 2 groups. Results: The mean age of the patients was 60.48±7.50 years (range=41-69 y), and men comprised 65.0% of the study population. The levels of CK-MB and cardiac troponin I were significantly lower in the sufentanil group (P<0.001). The amount of inotrope use (P<0.001), the incidence of atrial fibrillation (P=0.014), electrical shock (P=0.007), and the mechanical ventilation time (P<0.001) decreased in the sufentanil group compared with the control group. However, the use of intra-aortic balloon pumps (P=0.247) and the ICU length of stay (P=0.867) were not significantly different between the 2 groups. Conclusion: The injection of a single dose of sufentanil into the aortic root prior to aorta cross-clamp removal diminished cardiac injury during on-pump CABG in our patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation of ground behavior due to tunneling is a key factor in designing and construction of tunnels, especially in soft grounds. In this study, a physical model setup has been designed and constructed to simulate the excavation procedure of a full-face circular tunnel. Silica sand was used with four different densities and three different cover to tunnel diameter ratios. Full-face excavation was simulated with variation of the tunneling-induced volume loss. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique was employed to monitor the ground deformation throughout the excavation process. A new empirical equation is introduced to predict the maximum ground settlement as a function of ground relative density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast and automated recognizing of abnormal behaviors in crowded scenes is significantly effective in increasing public security. The traditional procedure of recognizing abnormalities in the Web of Thing (WoT) platform comprises monitoring the activities and describing the crowd properties such as density, trajectory, and motion pattern from the visual frames. Accordingly, incorporating real-time security monitoring based on the WoT platform and machine learning algorithms would significantly enhance the influential detection of abnormal behaviors in the crowds. This paper addresses various automatic and real-time surveillance methods for abnormal event detection to recognize the dynamic crowd behavior in security applications. The critical aspect of security and protection of public places is that we cannot manually monitor the unpredictable and complex crowded environments. The abnormal behavior algorithms have attempted to improve efficiency, robustness against pixel occlusion, generalizability, computational complexity, and execution time. Similar to the state-of-the-art abnormal behavior detection of crowded scenes, we broadly classified methods into different categories such as tracking, classification based on handcrafted extracted features, classification based on deep learning, and hybrid approaches. Hybrid and deep learning methods have been found to have more satisfactory results in the classification stage. A set of video frames called Motion Emotion Dataset (MED) is employed in this study to examine the various conditions governing these methods. Incorporating an appropriate real-time approach with considering WoT platform can facilitate the analysis of crowd and individuals' behavior for security screening of abnormal events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most prevalent medical conditions, in both humans and animals. People with diabetes mellitus often experience slower than normal wound healing, making it a serious health concern. This study investigates the effect of M2 differentiated macrophages on full‐thickness wound healing in white Westar rats exposed to streptozocin 70 mg/kg. A full‐thickness skin defect with dimensions of 2 × 2 cm was created on the back of all the animals, and their blood sugar was simultaneously assessed. The monocytes were isolated from blood samples using the plastic adherence method and were exposed to dexamethasone (5–10 μ) for 24 h. Subsequently, they were washed with PBS and incubated in fresh cell culture medium for 5 days. The differentiated M2 cells were injected into four points of the experimental ulcers of the treatment group. Macroscopic and microscopic changes were evaluated and compared over a period of two weeks between the test and control groups. The infusion of these cells a few days after wounding enhances wound healing parameters significantly, as evidenced by an increase in germinating tissue formation, wound contraction, inflammation reduction, and collagen increase in the treated group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A 2D analytical solution was developed to estimate the stress field in sandy soil. • The induced stresses exhibit non-linear distribution due to soil arching. • The effect of soil properties on vertical stress was investigated analytically. • New equations introduced to calculate the height of arching and loosened zones. • Using the developed solution, a safe and economical support system can be designed. The soil mass above the tunnel generally yields due to the tunnel volume loss. Depending on the amount of the volume loss, soil unit weight, overburden height and internal friction angle, a stress arching zone and a loosened zone can be formed above the tunnel. In this study, a two-dimensional stress field resulting from the tunnel volume loss inside the soil mass above the tunnel is investigated analytically. By presenting an analytical solution in rectangular coordinates, new equations were developed to evaluate and estimate the magnitude of vertical, horizontal and shear stress components inside the soil mass. The vertical stress changes resulting from the tunnel volume loss were analyzed and the height of the arching zone and the loosened zone above the tunnel were determined. In addition, a parametric study was conducted to evaluate the effect of soil unit weight, soil internal friction angle, surcharge on the ground surface and overburden depth on the stress distribution in the soil above the tunnel. The results showed that depending on the depth of the tunnel and the strength of the surrounding soil, the arching and loosened zones may or may not be created. In order to validate the proposed solution, the vertical stress distribution along the tunnel crest has been compared with some experimental and numerical data. It can be stated that the proposed solution provides relatively good approximations for the vertical stress component. The results of this research show that a safe and economical support system for tunnels in sandy ground can be designed using the proposed solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hemoglobinopathies, such as β-thalassemia, and sickle cell disease (SCD) are caused by abnormal structure or reduced production of β-chains and affect millions of people worldwide. Hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPFH) is a condition which is naturally occurring and characterized by a considerable elevation of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) in adult red blood cells. Individuals with compound heterozygous β-thalassemia or SCD and HPFH have milder clinical symptoms. So, HbF reactivation has long been sought as an approach to mitigate the clinical symptoms of β-thalassemia and SCD. Using CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing strategy, we deleted a 200bp genomic region within the human erythroid-specific BCL11A (B-cell lymphoma/leukemia 11A) enhancer in KU-812, KG-1, and K562 cell lines. In our study, deletion of 200bp of BCL11A erythroid enhancer including GATAA motif leads to strong induction of γ-hemoglobin expression in K562 cells, but not in KU-812 and KG-1 cells. Altogether, our findings highlight the therapeutic potential of CRISPR-Cas9 as a precision genome editing tool for treating β-thalassemia. In addition, our data indicate that KU-812 and KG-1 cell lines are not good models for studying HbF reactivation through inactivation of BCL11A silencing pathway. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]