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Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) has become a major cause of blindness in recent years. Diabetic patients should be screened on a regular basis for early detection, which can help them avoid blindness. Furthermore, the number of diabetic patients undergoing these screening procedures is rapidly increasing, resulting in increased workload for ophthalmologists. An efficient screening system that assists ophthalmologists in DR diagnosis saves ophthalmologists a lot of time and effort. To address this issue, an automatic DR detection screening system is required to improve diagnosis speed and detection accuracy. Appropriate treatment can be provided to patients to prevent vision loss if the severity levels of DR are accurately diagnosed in the early stages. A growing number of screening systems for DR diagnosis have been developed in recent years using various deep learning models, and the majority of the published work did not include any optimization algorithm in the neural network for severity classification. The use of an optimization algorithm with the necessary hyper parameter tuning will improve the model's performance. Considering this as motivation, we proposed a five-phase DFNN-LOA model. The DFNN-LOA algorithm presented here has five phases: (i) pre-processing, (ii) optic disc detection, (iii) segmentation, (iv) feature extraction, and (v) severity classification. The proposed model's experimental analysis is carried out on the MESSIDOR dataset. The experimental results show that the proposed DFNN-LOA model has superior characteristics, with maximum accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, PPV, and NPV of 97.6%, 98.4%, 90.7%, 96.5%, 94.6%, and 97.1%, respectively.

The objective of this study was to examin.e the effect of six weeks plyometric training program and ability to improve the arms strength in baseball and volleyball players. A total no. of baseball 20 players, volleyball 20 players and control group 20 players selected by simple random sampling method from which participated in intercollegiate level served as subjects of Ahmednagar district. Study was restricted to six weeks plyometric exercise training program. The experimental group implement program to the players by the concerned proper instructions also pre & post test data collected. Statically analyzed by using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and group means were compared. The study concludes better improvement in arm strength of male baseball players compared than volleyball male players.

In this paper modeling and simulation has been studied by means of impact of energy generated by using wind turbine. The strength conversion primarily depends on the wind velocity and swept area. When design wind structures it’s very important to recognize predicted electricity and electricity output for calculating financial viability. Wind turbine performance depends on wind speed, air density, air pressure, temperature and length of blade. The modeling and simulation method is used to analyze the overall performance of wind turbine.

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by a high blood glucose concentration, i.e., hyperglycemia or caused by insulin deficiency, often combined with insulin resistance. In the Present study, the antidiabetic and antioxidant activity of the methanolic extract of Tagetes patula flower heads was screened out in rodent models. The pharmacological evaluation was carried out using 200 and 400 mg/kg, b.w. The in-vivo antidiabetic activity was performed in streptozotocin, dexamethasone- induced diabetic models and oral glucose tolerance test. Metformin hydrochloride was used as a standard. The parameters like blood glucose levels, insulin levels, homeostasis assessment of insulin resistance, insulin sensitivity, and fasting glucose-insulin ratio were estimated in these models. The in-vitro antioxidant activity of methanolic extract of Tagetes patula was performed by using hydroxyl radical scavenging assay and Ascorbic acid was used as a standard. The preliminary phytochemical screening of Tagetes patula revealed the presence of phytoconstituents like alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, phenols, carbohydrates, triterpenoids, and tannins. The extract showed a significant decrease in the elevated blood glucose levels in streptozotocin, dexamethasone-induced diabetic models, and also in the oral glucose tolerance test. The extract prevented insulin resistance and significantly increased insulin sensitivity in the dexamethasone-induced model. The various phytochemical constituents like alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, and phenols might be responsible for lowering the blood glucose levels in the animal models mentioned above. The extract showed significant scavenging activity against hydroxyl free radicals. From the above outcomes, it is flawless that the methanolic extract of Tagetes patula has antidiabetic and antioxidant activities.

A four-field mixed variational principle is proposed for large deformation analysis of Kirchhoff rods with a $C^0$ mixed FE approximations. The core idea behind the approach is to introduce a one-parameter family of points (the centerline) and a separate one-parameter family of orthonormal frames (the Cartan moving frame) that are specified independently. The curvature and torsion of the curve are related to the relative rotation of neighboring frames. The relationship between the frame and the centerline is then enforced at the solution step using a Lagrange multiplier (which plays the role of section force). Well known frames like the Frenet-Serret are defined only using the centerline, which demands higher-order smoothness for the centerline approximation. Decoupling the frame from the position vector of the base curve leads to a description of torsion and curvature that is independent of the position information, thus allowing for simpler interpolations. This approach is then cast in the language of exterior calculus. In this framework, the strain energy may be interpreted as a differential form leading to the natural force-displacement (velocity) pairing. The four-field mixed variational principle we propose has frame, differential forms, and position vector as input arguments. While the position vector is interpolated linearly, the frames are interpolated as piecewise geodesics on the rotation group. Similarly, consistent interpolation schemes are also adopted to obtain finite dimensional approximations for other differential forms aswell. Using these discrete approximations, a discrete mixed variational principle is laid out which is then numerically extremized. The discrete approximation is then applied to benchmark problems, our numerical studies reveal an impressive performance of the proposed method without numerical instabilities or locking.

Additional file 1. Additional tables.

Localization of target emitters using multiple simultaneous directional cosine (DC) measurements are popular and extremely useful in radar and sonar surveillance systems. Underwater localization, classification, and target tracking using hydrophone with limited bandwidth constraints is a challenging problem. In limited bandwidth applications, quantizing the measurements is an efficient way of representing measurements. The DC measurements are usually in the range of −1 to +1, the quantization of DC leads to inaccuracy in the estimated values. This paper presents the localization problem with quantized DC measurements in densely populated targets scenario. The localization achieved using two different estimation techniques: the least-squares (LS) triangulation and the Quasi newton (QN) method. Further, to explicitly study the quantization effect, we have used linear and optimal quantization techniques to quantize the DC measurements. The performance of the localization is quantified using the position root mean square error (PRMSE).

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) has become a major cause of blindness in recent years. Diabetic patients should be screened on a regular basis for early detection, which can help them avoid blindness. Furthermore, the number of diabetic patients undergoing these screening procedures is rapidly increasing, resulting in increased workload for ophthalmologists. An efficient screening system that assists ophthalmologists in DR diagnosis saves ophthalmologists a lot of time and effort. To address this issue, an automatic DR detection screening system is required to improve diagnosis speed and detection accuracy. Appropriate treatment can be provided to patients to prevent vision loss if the severity levels of DR are accurately diagnosed in the early stages. A growing number of screening systems for DR diagnosis have been developed in recent years using various deep learning models, and the majority of the published work did not include any optimization algorithm in the neural network for severity classification. The use of an optimization algorithm with the necessary hyper parameter tuning will improve the model's performance. Considering this as motivation, we proposed a five-phase DFNN-LOA model. The DFNN-LOA algorithm presented here has five phases: (i) pre-processing, (ii) optic disc detection, (iii) segmentation, (iv) feature extraction, and (v) severity classification. The proposed model's experimental analysis is carried out on the MESSIDOR dataset. The experimental results show that the proposed DFNN-LOA model has superior characteristics, with maximum accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, PPV, and NPV of 97.6%, 98.4%, 90.7%, 96.5%, 94.6%, and 97.1%, respectively.

Biometric recognition is a trending technology that uses unique characteristics data to identify or verify/authenticate security applications. Amidst the classically used biometrics, voice and face attributes are the most propitious for prevalent applications in day-to-day life because they are easy to obtain through restrained and user-friendly procedures. The pervasiveness of low-cost audio and face capture sensors in smartphones, laptops, and tablets has made the advantage of voice and face biometrics more exceptional when compared to other biometrics. For many years, acoustic information alone has been a great success in automatic speaker verification applications. Meantime, the last decade or two has also witnessed a remarkable ascent in face recognition technologies. Nonetheless, in adverse unconstrained environments, neither of these techniques achieves optimal performance. Since audio-visual information carries correlated and complementary information, integrating them into one recognition system can increase the system’s performance. The vulnerability of biometrics towards presentation attacks and audio-visual data usage for the detection of such attacks is also a hot topic of research. This paper made a comprehensive survey on existing state-of-the-art audio-visual recognition techniques, publicly available databases for benchmarking, and Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) algorithms. Further, a detailed discussion on challenges and open problems is presented in this field of biometrics. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 3

In this work, we propose an automatic mesh generation algorithm, FlowMesher, which can be used to generate unstructured meshes for mesh domains in any shape with minimum (or even no) user intervention. The approach can generate high-quality simplex meshes directly from scanned images in OBJ format in 2D and 3D or just from a line drawing in 2-D. Mesh grading can be easily controlled also. The FlowMesher is robust and easy to be implemented and is useful for a variety of applications including surgical simulators. The core idea of the FlowMesher is that a mesh domain is considered as an "airtight container" into which fluid particles are "injected" at one or multiple selected interior points. The particles repel each other and occupy the whole domain somewhat like blowing up a balloon. When the container is full of fluid particles and the flow is stopped, a Delaunay triangulation algorithm is employed to link the fluid particles together to generate an unstructured mesh (which is then optimized using a combination of automated mesh smoothing and element removal in 3D). The performance of the FlowMesher is demonstrated by generating meshes for several 2D and 3D mesh domains including a scanned image of a bone.

In the present study, the synthesis of benzimdazolyl 2-amino-1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives (5a-j) and their in vitro anticancer activities against HeLa, MCF7, A549, and HEK293 cell lines were reported. Compound 5f showed most promising anticancer activity with IC50 values 4.68 ± 0.04, 4.16 ± 0.02, 5.40 ± 0.08 µM against the HeLa, MCF-7, and A549 cell lines respectively. Compounds 5b and 5e have also shown excellent anticancer activity with IC50 values 6.07 ± 0.028, 5.30 ± 0.09, 7.16 ± 0.061 µM and 7.56 ± 0.073, 7.20 ± 0.048, 11.30 ± 0.018 µM against the HeLa, MCF-7, and A549 cell lines respectively. The rest of the compounds displayed moderate to good anticancer activity. The tested compounds were nontoxic to normal HEK293 cell lines, and even the more active compounds (5b, 5e, and 5f) also less toxic on HEK-293 cells. Molecular docking results of the synthesized compounds with the target EGFR protein were also discussed.

Alzheimer disease (AD) is usually accompanied by two prominent pathological features, cerebral accumulation of amyloid-�� (A��) plaques and presence of MAPT/tau neurofibrillary tangles. Dysregulated clearance of A�� largely contributes to its accumulation and plaque formation in the brain. Macroautophagy/autophagy is a lysosomal degradative process, which plays an important role in the clearance of A��. Failure of autophagic clearance of A�� is currently acknowledged as a contributing factor to increased accumulation of A�� in AD brains. In this study, we have identified crocetin, a pharmacologically active constituent from the flower stigmas of Crocus sativus, as a potential inducer of autophagy in AD. In the cellular model, crocetin induced autophagy in N9 microglial and primary neuron cells through STK11/LKB1 (serine/threonine kinase 11)-mediated AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) pathway activation. Autophagy induction by crocetin significantly increased A�� clearance in N9 cells. Moreover, crocetin crossed the blood-brain barrier and induced autophagy in the brains��� hippocampi of wild-type male C57BL/6 mice. Further studies in transgenic male 5XFAD mice, as a model of AD, revealed that one-month treatment with crocetin significantly reduced A�� levels and neuroinflammation in the mice brains and improved memory function by inducing autophagy that was mediated by AMPK pathway activation. Our findings support further development of crocetin as a pharmacological inducer of autophagy to prevent, slow down progression, and/or treat AD. Abbreviations: A��: amyloid-��; ABCB1/P-gp/P-glycoprotein: ATP-binding cassette, subfamily B (MDR/TAP), member 1; AD: Alzheimer disease; AMPK/PRKAA: AMP-activated protein kinase; APP: amyloid beta (A4) precursor protein; ATG: autophagy related; BBB: blood-brain barrier; BECN1: beclin 1, autophagy related; CAMKK2/CaMKK��: calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase 2, beta; CSE: Crocus sativus extract; CTSB: cathepsin B; EIF4EBP1: eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E binding protein 1; GFAP: glial fibrillary acidic protein; GSK3B/GSK3��: glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta; Kp: brain partition coefficient; LRP1: low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1; MAP1LC3B/LC3B: microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 beta; MAP2: microtubule-associated protein 2; MAPK/ERK: mitogen-activated protein kinase; MAPT/tau: microtubule-associated protein tau; MTT: 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide; MTOR: mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase; MWM: Morris water maze; NFKB/NF-��B: nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer in B cells; NMDA: N-methyl-d-aspartic acid; RPTOR: regulatory associated protein of MTOR; RPS6KB1/p70S6K: ribosomal protein S6 kinase 1; SQSTM1: sequestosome 1; SRB: sulforhodamine B; STK11/LKB1: serine/threonine kinase 11; TFEB: transcription factor EB; TSC2: TSC complex subunit 2; ULK1: unc-51 like kinase 1.

Background: After the recent introduction of GnRH antagonists in ovarian stimulation, OCP has been used for cycle scheduling purposes. Cycle programming has become more difficult with the use of GnRH antagonists, as stimulation initiation is dependent on the occurrence of menstruation. To overcome this limitation in the GnRH antagonist protocol, patients can be offered the use of pretreatment with oral contraceptive pills (OCP). Objective: To evaluate the effect of oral contraceptive pills (OCP) pretreatment on pregnancy rate in GnRH antagonist cycles. Design: Observational cohort study. Setting: Observational study performed at Sri Ramachandra institute of higher education & research Chennai. Patients: Total 115 patients included in the study from January 2019 to December 2019. All patients divided into two groups, oral contraceptives pretreated group (n-64) and oral contraceptives non treated group (n-51). Results: All oral contraceptives pretreated patients required significantly higher dose of gonadotropins (4745±1476 versus 3659±1230;P

47, XYY syndrome is one of the most common sex chromosomal anomaly found in humans after Klinfelter syndrome (47, XXY). It is frequently associated with infertility in males. This syndrome has an extra Y chromosome (XYY) due to non-disjunction of the Y chromosome in paternal meiotic II. The presence of an extra Y chromosome causes hormonal disbalance in the gonads that responsible for abnormal function of human chorionic gonadotropin. In our case of infertile men with severe oligozoospermia that also confirm by conventional cytogenetic analysis of the peripheral blood lymphocytes revealed the constitutional karyotype of 47, XYY. This report is likely to be helpful for counselling and early management of such infertile males.

A thermal/optical carbon analyzer (TOA), normally used for quantification of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) speciation networks, was adapted to dir...

We present results from a high-resolution chemical ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (HRToF-CIMS), operated with two different thermal desorption inlets, designed to characterize the gas and aerosol composition. Data from two field campaigns at forested sites are shown. Particle volatility distributions are estimated using three different methods: thermograms, elemental formulas, and measured partitioning. Thermogram-based results are consistent with those from an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) with a thermal denuder, implying that thermal desorption is reproducible across very different experimental setups. Estimated volatilities from the detected elemental formulas are much higher than from thermograms since many of the detected species are thermal decomposition products rather than actual SOA molecules. We show that up to 65% of citric acid decomposes substantially in the FIGAERO–CIMS, with ∼20% of its mass detected as gas-phase CO2, CO, and H2O. Once thermal decomposition effects on the det...

Burning of peatlands is estimated to be a large source of gas-phase non-methane organic compounds and organic aerosol to the atmosphere. However, little is known about the chemical characteristics of intermediate-volatility and semi-volatile organic compounds (I/SVOC) emitted from peat combustion. Quantifying I/SVOC emissions and their subsequent transformation to secondary organic aerosol (SOA) is critical for elucidating biomass-burning (BB) SOA contributions to ambient aerosol concentrations and reducing uncertainties in aerosol radiative forcing from local to global scales. In this study, we provide one of the first estimates of the emissions of eighty-seven different polar I/SVOCs (I/SV-POCs) in both gas- and particle-phases from the laboratory combustion of peat from Alaska and Florida, USA and Pskov region of Russia. The measured I/SV-POCs include alkanoic, alkenoic, alkanedioic, substituted benzoic, resin, methoxy, and aromatic dicarboxylic acids, methoxy phenols, and anhydrous sugars. To understand the phase-partitioning behavior of the I/SV-POCs, the data is presented in two-dimensional volatility-oxidation state, volatility-solubility, and chemical partitioning space diagrams. For all fuels, methoxy phenols and C $$_{6}$$ –C $$_{10}$$ alkanoic acids have the highest gas-phase mass emissions factors. Levoglucosan, a commonly used organic marker for BB, is the most abundant particle-phase I/SV-POC by mass. Alkanoic acids (C $$_{10}$$ –C $$_{20})$$ , alkanedioic acids with carbon number

This paper examines the impact of various key determinants on return on equity (ROE) on Nifty fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) index constituents. The determinants that are taken for study are fixed assets turnover ratio, total assets turnover ratio, return on assets (ROA), debt-equity ratio, interest coverage ratio, inventory turnover ratio, tax efficiency ratio and net profit margin. For the purpose of the study Nifty FMCG index constituents has been taken into consideration which comprises of 15 companies under it. To measure the impact of these variables or determinants secondary data has been analyzed quantitatively using correlation and regression analysis in order to know about the association of variables with ROE, taking it as a dependent variable and the determinants as independent variable. The results obtained from the analysis emphasize the strong connection between return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) as well as between total assets turnover ratio and return on equity (ROE).

This paper empirically examines the Internet of Things (IoT) and its implementation on the business and manufacturing process, in the Bosch which is situated in Bangalore. This report has been developed as a guiding framework and conducted a series of research activities, including in-person workshops, virtual working group sessions, interviews of key thought leaders, and a survey of employ of Bosch manufacturing plant. Types of IoT application, IoT suite and IoT cloud-enabled software and the methods of IoT which is considered by the Bosch manufacturing process. Where Just in Time (JIT), Kaizon, Pokea-Yoke and Kanban are the major method of manufacturing process and to understand the impact of it by using chi square, which is focused more in this research and the use of IoT at bosch manufacturing in Bangalore.

An important part of the information gathering and data analysis is to find out what people think about, either a product or an entity. Twitter is an opinion rich social networking site. The posts or tweets from this data can be used for mining people's opinions. The recent surge of activity in this area can be attributed to the computational treatment of data, which made opinion extraction and sentiment analysis easier. This paper classifies tweets into positive and negative sentiments, but instead of using traditional methods or preprocessing text data here we use the distributed representations of words and sentences to classify the tweets. We use Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) Networks, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Artificial Neural Networks. The first two are used on Distributed Representation of words while the latter is used on the distributed representation of sentences. This paper achieves accuracies as high as 81%. It also suggests the best and optimal ways for creating distributed representations of words for sentiment analysis, out of the available methods., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 6 tables

The resolution of mass spectrometers is often insufficient to conclusively identify all peaks that may be present in recorded spectra. Here, we present new methods to extract consistent molecular and bulk level chemical information by constrained fitting of series of complex organic mass spectra with multiple overlapping peaks. Possible individual peaks in a group of overlapping peaks are identified by both defining a chemical space and by free peak fitting. If simply all possible formulas from the chemical space would be used to fit each peak, the result would not be well constrained. The free peak fitting algorithm provides information about likely peak locations. A new algorithm then reconciles the results of both methods and produces a final peak list for use in subsequent fitting, while using all available experimental constraints. Comparison to ultra-high resolution data suggests that the real peak density is substantially higher than can be resolved with the instrument resolution. Bulk chemical properties such as carbon number (nC) and carbon oxidation state (OS C ) can be calculated from the fit results. For mixtures of compounds dominated by C, H, O and N, bulk properties can be reliably extracted, even though some formula assignments may remain uncertain. This ability to retrieve correct bulk parameters even if not all assigned formulas are correct originates from the relationship between mass defects of individual peaks and the chemical parameters under our CHON composition assumptions. Retrieving consistent bulk parameters across series of many mass spectra is essential for extracting time trends, e.g. for field measurements taking place over several weeks. We illustrate the fitting method using a sample data set from a chemical ionization mass spectrometer with a resolution of approximately 4000 (M/dM), operated using acetate reagent ions. Spectral simulation experiments validate the analysis method by showing good agreement of intensities for many specific ions, as well as for bulk chemical parameters. An alternative method to directly extract bulk chemical information from the raw spectra without the need of any peak assignment or peak fitting is also introduced, which shows good agreement with the peak fitting results. The latter method can be applied very rapidly without the need for complex analysis procedures, e.g. as a quick online diagnostic during data acquisition.

Using chemical ionization mass spectrometry to detect particle-phase acids (acid-CIMS) and aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS) measurements from Colorado, USA, and two studies in Hyytiala, Finland, we quantify the fraction of organic aerosol (OA) mass that is composed of molecules with acid functional groups (facid). Molecules containing one or more carboxylic acid functionality contributed approximately 29% (45-51%) of the OA mass in Colorado (Finland). Organic acid mass concentration correlates well with AMS m/z 44 (primarily CO2+), a commonly used marker for highly oxidized aerosol. Using the average empirical relationship between AMS m/z 44 and organic acids in these three studies, together with m/z 44 data from 29 continental northern hemispheric (NH) AMS datasets, we estimate that molecules containing carboxylic acid functionality constitute on average 28% (range 10-50%) of NH continental OA mass with typically higher values at rural/remote sites and during summer and lower values at urban sites and during winter.

Hundreds of gas- and particle-phase organic acids were measured in a rural ponderosa pine forest in Colorado, USA, during BEACHON-RoMBAS (Bio-hydro-atmosphere interactions of Energy, Aerosols, Carbon, H2O, Organics & Nitrogen – Rocky Mountain Biogenic Aerosol Study). A recently developed micro-orifice volatilization impactor high-resolution time-of-flight chemical ionization mass spectrometer (MOVI-HRToF-CIMS) using acetate (CH3C(O)O−) as the reagent ion was used to selectively ionize and detect acids semicontinuously from 20 to 30 August 2011, with a measurement time resolution of ~1.5 h. At this site 98% of the organic acid mass is estimated to be in the gas phase, with only ~2% in the particle phase. We investigated gas–particle partitioning, quantified as the fraction in the particle phase (Fp), of C1–C18 alkanoic acids, six known terpenoic acids, and bulk organic acids vs. carbon number. Data were compared to the absorptive partitioning model and suggest that bulk organic acids at this site follow absorptive partitioning to the organic aerosol mass. The rapid response (

We look for an enhancement of the correspondence model of peridynamics with a view to eliminating the zero-energy deformation modes. Since the non-local integral definition of the deformation gradient underlies the problem, we initially look for a remedy by introducing a class of localizing corrections to the integral. Since the strategy is found to afford only a reduction, and not complete elimination, of the oscillatory zero-energy deformation, we propose in the sequel an alternative approach based on the notion of sub-horizons. A most useful feature of the last proposal is that the setup, whilst providing the solution with the necessary stability, deviates only marginally from the original correspondence formulation. We also undertake a set of numerical simulations that attest to the remarkable efficacy of the sub-horizon based methodology., Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures

Here, we report an unusual cause of ventricular tachycardia which had developed following pseudoephedrine intake. A 55 year old male patient was admitted to the emergency department with complaints of sustained palpitation. Monitorization records revealed ventricular tachycardia of 214 beats per minute. He had been suffering upper respiratory tract symptoms for the last two days. Palpitation had started an hour later following the ingestion of cold remedy drug, which included pseudoephedrine, and serious dyspnea gradually occurred. He had ischemic heart disease and peripheral arterial disease but he did not have a history of arrhythmia, any palpitation, diabetes mellitus or hypertension. Initially, lidocaine and later amiodorone infusion was administered but medical cardioversion was not successful. Sinus rhythm was provided after electrical cardioversion with 200 joule. Thereafter the patient was stable.

The incidence of small bowel tumors is increasing over time. Until recently, their diagnosis was delayed and it was often reached only at the time of surgery. New diagnostic tools, such as capsule endoscopy, device-assisted enteroscopy, and dedicated small bowel cross-sectional imaging techniques, have been introduced recently in clinical practice. The combination of these tools allows medical practitioners to detect small bowel tumors at an early stage and to reach a definite diagnosis before surgery, thus enabling minimally invasive treatments.

We describe a new instrument, chemical ionization (CI) high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ToFMS) coupled to a micro-orifice volatilization impactor (MOVI-HRToF-CIMS). The MOVI-HRToF-CIMS instrument is unique in that, within a compact field-deployable package, it provides (1) quantifiable molecular-level information for both gas and particle-phase organic species on timescales ranging from ≤1 s for gases to 10–60 min for particle-phase compounds that can be used to efficiently probe oxidation and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation mechanisms, and (2) relative volatility information of the detected compounds simultaneously estimated using the programmed thermal desorption information obtained from the MOVI. We demonstrate the capabilities of a prototype instrument using known test compounds and complex mixtures generated from the oxidation of biogenic and anthropogenic hydrocarbons. We present spectra obtained using both negative and positive ion CI with acetate (CH3C(O)O−) and protona...

We present results of the first intercomparison of real-time instruments for gas/particle partitioning of organic species. Four recently-developed instruments that directly measure gas/particle partitioning in near-real time were deployed in Centreville, Alabama during the Southern Oxidant Aerosol Study (SOAS) in 2013. Two instruments were filter inlet for gases and aerosols high-resolution chemical ionization mass spectrometers (FIGAERO-HRToF-CIMS) with acetate (A-CIMS) and iodide (I-CIMS) ionization sources, respectively; the third was a semi-volatile thermal desorption aerosol GC-MS (SV-TAG); and the fourth was a high-resolution thermal desorption proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometer (HR-TD-PTRMS). Signals from these instruments corresponding to several organic acids were chosen for comparison. The campaign average partitioning fractions show good correlation. A similar level of agreement with partitioning theory is observed. Thus the intercomparison exercise shows promise for these new measurements, as well as some confidence on the measurement of low versus high particle-phase fractions. However, detailed comparison show several systematic differences that lie beyond estimated measurement errors. These differences may be due to at least eight different effects: (1) underestimation of uncertainties under low signal-to-noise; (2) inlet and/or instrument adsorption/desorption of gases; (3) differences in particle size ranges sampled; (4) differences in the methods used to quantify instrument backgrounds; (5) errors in high-resolution fitting of overlapping ion groups; (6) differences in the species included in each measurement due to different instrument sensitivities; and differences in (7) negative or (8) positive thermal decomposition (or ion fragmentation) artifacts. The available data are insufficient to conclusively identify the reasons, but evidence from these instruments and available data from an ion mobility spectrometer shows the particular importance of effects 6–8 in several cases. This comparison highlights the difficulty of this measurement and its interpretation in a complex ambient environment, and the need for further improvements in measurement methodologies, including isomer separation, and detailed study of the possible factors leading to the observed differences. Further intercomparisons under controlled laboratory and field conditions are strongly recommended. Copyright © 2017 American Association for Aerosol Research

The surface air warming over the Arctic has been almost twice as much as the global average in recent decades. In this region, unprecedented amount of smoldering peat fires have been identified as a major emission source of climate-warming agents. While much is known about greenhouse gas emissions from these fires, there is a knowledge gap on the nature of particulate emissions and their potential role in atmospheric warming. Here, we report the microphysical properties of aerosols emitted from controlled laboratory combustion of Alaskan and Siberian peatland samples. The emitted aerosols are brown carbon with negligible amount of black carbon content. Their mass absorption efficiencies lie in the range of 0.2–0.8 m2 g-1 at 405 nm and drop sharply to 0.03–0.07 m2 g-1 at 532 nm, characterized by a mean Ångström exponent of ≈ 9. Their top-of-atmosphere direct radiative forcing over bright surfaces is positive (warming), and their presence in the troposphere may influence photolysis driven chemistry.

Konferans Bildirisi -- Teorik ve Uygulamalı Mekanik Türk Milli Komitesi, 2015, Conference Paper -- Theoretical and Applied Mechanical Turkish National Committee, 2015, Günümüzde de gelişen tehditler karşısında daha etkin balistik koruma sağlayacak hafif ve yüksek performanslı zırhların geliştirilmesi kritik bir ihtiyaç haline gelmiş ve bu sahadaki yeni malzeme arayışları seramik ön yüzlü kompozit zırhları ön plana çıkarmıştır. Katmanlı yapıya sahip bu plakalar yüksek mukavemetleri ve yüksek rijitlikleri nedeniyle balistik sistemlerde yaygın olarak kullanılırlar. Ancak, katmanlardaki malzeme özelliklerinin ani olarak değişmesi nedeniyle ara yüzeylerde yüksek gerilmeler meydana gelir ve bu gerilmeler de katmanlar arasında ayrılmalara (delaminasyon) neden olur. Bu olumsuz etkiler fonksiyonel kademelendirilmiş malzemeler (FGM) kullanılarak azaltılabilir ya da ortadan kaldırılabilir. Bu çalışma ile farklı seramik bileşenlere sahip fonksiyonel kademelendirilmiş sandviç plakalarda balistik darbe yükleme altında meydana gelen hasar mekanizmaları ve deformasyonları deneysel olarak incelenmiştir., Today, the development of high-performance and light armors has become a critical requirement against emerging threats. The research for new materials in this field has brought ceramic-faced composite armors to the forefront. Layered composite structures are widely used in ballistic systems due to their high strength and high stiffness. An abrupt change in their material properties across an interface between discrete materials introduces large interlaminar stresses that could cause delamination. One way to overcome this adverse effect is to use a functionally graded material (FGM). The purpose of this study is to determine damage and deformation mechanisms of functionally graded sandwich plates, which have different ceramic components, under ballistic impact loads.

Konferans Bildirisi -- Teorik ve Uygulamalı Mekanik Türk Milli Komitesi, 2015, Conference Paper -- Theoretical and Applied Mechanical Turkish National Committee, 2015, Sandviç yapılar, sahip oldukları yüksek performans özelliklerinin farklı malzeme kombinasyonları ile elde edildiği kompozit malzeme alanının özel bir uygulamasıdır. Konvansiyonel malzemelere göre sahip oldukları birçok üstün özellikleri ile oldukça geniş bir uygulama alanına (havacılık ve uzay, otomotiv, savunma, vs.) sahiptirler. Sandviç yapı elemanları, uygulama alanına yönelik istenilen özelliklere sahip olması açısından farklı yüzey plakaları ve çekirdek malzemelerinden oluşabilir. Sandviç yapılar, kullanım alanlarına bağlı olarak darbeli yüklemelere maruz kalabildikleri için düşük hızlı darbe cevabının belirlenmesi oldukça önemli bir rol oynamaktadır. Fonksiyonel kademelendirilmiş plakalar ile desteklenmiş bal peteği sandviç yapıların düşük hızlı darbe yükleri altındaki deformasyonları ve enerji sönümleme kabiliyetleri LS-DYNA® sonlu elemanlar programı kullanılarak araştırılmıştır. Sandviç yapı, Al/SiC fonksiyonel kademelendirilmiş kompozit yüzey plakaları ve Al 3003-H19 alaşımı bal peteğinden oluşmaktadır. Sandviç yapının darbe cevabı, fonksiyonel kademelendirilmiş destek plakalarının farklı malzeme kompozisyonu, vurucu kütlesinin sabit olduğu farklı çarpma enerjileri ve bal peteği çekirdek malzemesinin farklı hücre duvar kalınlıkları için incelenmiştir., Sandwich structures are specific applications of the composite materials whose high performance properties are obtained by different material combinations. They have quite extensive usage areas (aeronautics and aerospace, automotive, defense, etc.) with their several high quality properties compared with the conventional materials. Sandwich structures can be consisted of different facesheets and core materials in order to have required properties for the application areas. The determination of the low-velocity impact response of the sandwich structures has an important role by reason of their working areas with impulsive loadings. The deformations and energy absorption capability of the honeycomb sandwich structures reinforced by the functionally graded plates under low-velocity impact loads were investigated using explicit finite element software, LS-DYNA®. The sandwich structure was consisted of Al/SiC FG facesheets and Al 3003-H19 aluminum honeycomb core. The impact response of the sandwich structure was investigated in terms of different material compositions of the FG plates, impact energies and cell wall thickness of the honeycomb core.

We propose a novel approach to enhance the fingerprint image and extract features such as directional fields, minutiae and singular points reliably using a Hierarchical Markov Random Field Model. Unlike traditional fingerprint enhancement techniques, we use previously learned prior patterns from a set of clean fingerprints to restore a noisy one. We are able to recover the ridge and valley structure from degraded and noisy fingerprint images by formulating it as a hierarchical interconnected MRF that processes the information at multiple resolutions. The top layer incorporates the compatibility between an observed degraded fingerprint patch and prior training patterns in addition to ridge continuity across neighboring patches. A second layer accounts for spatial smoothness of the orientation field and its discontinuity at the singularities. Further layers could be used for incorporating higher level priors such as the class of the fingerprint. The strength of the proposed approach lies in its flexibility to model possible variations in fingerprint images as patches and from its ability to incorporate contextual information at various resolutions. Experimental results (both quantitative and qualitative) clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach.

We report a new field-deployable chemical ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (CI-TOFMS) for the direct measurement of trace gases in the atmosphere. We apply the technique to the measurement of gas-phase inorganic and organic acids via negative-ion proton transfer, using acetate as the reagent ion. A novel high pressure interface, incorporating two RF-only quadrupoles is used to efficiently focus ions through four stages of differential pumping before analysis with a compact TOFMS. The high ion-duty cycle (>20%) of the TOFMS, coupled to efficient production and transmission of ions in the high pressure interface results in a highly sensitive (>300 ions s−1 pptv−1) instrument capable of the fast measurement of atmospheric gases at trace levels. We demonstrate the efficient transfer and detection of both bare ions and ion-molecule clusters, and characterize the instrument during field measurements aboard the R/V Atlantis as part of the CalNex campaign during the spring of 2010. The in-field short-term precision is better than 5% at 1 pptv (pL/L), for 1-second averages. The detection limit (3σ, 1-second averages) of the current version of the CI-TOFMS, as applied to the in situ detection of gas-phase acids, is limited by the magnitude and variability in the background determination and was determined to be 4 pptv.

The main aim of this paper is to document the performance of $p$-refinement with respect to maximum principles and the non-negative constraint. The model problem is (steady-state) anisotropic diffusion with decay (which is a second-order elliptic partial differential equation). We considered the standard single-field formulation (which is based on the Galerkin formalism) and two least-squares-based mixed formulations. We have employed non-uniform Lagrange polynomials for altering the polynomial order in each element, and we have used $p = 1, ..., 10$. It will be shown that the violation of the non-negative constraint will not vanish with $p$-refinement for anisotropic diffusion. We shall illustrate the performance of $p$-refinement using several representative problems. The intended outcome of the paper is twofold. Firstly, this study will caution the users of high-order approximations about its performance with respect to maximum principles and the non-negative constraint. Secondly, this study will help researchers to develop new methodologies for enforcing maximum principles and the non-negative constraint under high-order approximations.

Konferans Bildirisi -- Teorik ve Uygulamalı Mekanik Türk Milli Komitesi, 2010, Conference Paper -- Theoretical and Applied Mechanical Turkish National Committee, 2010, Bu çalışmada, fonksiyonel kademelendirilmiş dairesel plakalann düşük hizlı çarpma yükleri altindaki elasto-plastik davramslanmn teorik ve deneysel olarak belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Kademelendirilmiş bölgedeki lokal malzeme özelliklerinin hesaplanmaslnda mikromekanik model olarak Mori-Tanaka semasi kullanıldı. Elasto-plastik analizlerde fonksiyonel kademelendirilmiş malzemelerin elasto-plastik davranıslarını modelleyebilen TTO model kullanıdı. Saylsal analizler için sonlu elemanlar metodu kullanıldı ve sonlu elemanlar metodu problemimize LS-DYNA sonlu elemanlar yazılımı yardımı ile uygulandı. Daha sonra, deneysel olarak katmanlama yöntemiyle üretilen farklı kompozisyonel gradyantlara sahip fonksiyonel kademelendirilmiş dairesel plakalann düşük hizlı darbe dayamm testleri yapıldı ve aynı şartlarda elde edilen teorik ve deneysel veriler mukayese edildi, In this study, elasto-plastic behaviors of functionally graded circular plates were investigated under low velocity impact loads both numerically and experimentally. The locally effective material properties were evaluated using homogenization method that is based on the MoriTanaka scheme. The TTO (Tamura-Tomota-Ozowa) model which relates the uniaxial stress and strain of a two phase composite to the corresponding average uniaxial stresses and strains of the two constituent materials were used for the elasto-plastic analysis. A finite element program LS-DYNA was used for the numerical analysis. After, functionally graded circular plates have different material compositions were manufactured with powder stacking method, and then low speed impact tests were carried out. Experimental results were compared to numerical results in order to improve the numerical model.

BACKGROUND: The objectives of these laboratory experiments were: (1) to assess bromoxynil sorption,mineralization, bound residue formation and extractable residue persistence in a Dundee silt loam collected from 0–2 cm and 2–10 cm depths under continuous conventional tillage and no-tillage; (2) to assess the effects of autoclaving on bromoxynilmineralization and bound residue formation; (3) to determine the partitioning of non-extractable residues; and (4) to ascertain the effects of bromoxynil concentration on extractable and bound residues andmetabolite formation. RESULTS: BromoxynilKd values rangedfrom 0.7 to1.4 Lkg−1 andwerepositively correlatedwith soilorganic carbon.Cumulative mineralization (38.5% ± 1.5), bound residue formation (46.5% ± 0.5) and persistence of extractable residues (T1/2 < 1 day) in non-autoclaved soils were independent of tillage and depth. Autoclaving decreased mineralization and bound residue formation 257-fold and 6.0-fold respectively. Bromoxynil persistence in soil was rate independent (T1/2 < 1 day), and the majority of non-extractable residues (87%) were associated with the humic acid fraction of soil organicmatter. CONCLUSIONS: Irrespective of tillage or depth, bromoxynil half-life in native soil is less than 1 day owing to rapid incorporation of the herbicide into non-extractable residues. Bound residue formation is governed principally by biochemical metabolite formation and primarily associated with soil humic acids that are moderately bioavailable for mineralization. These data indicate that the risk of off-site transport of bromoxynil residues is low owing to rapid incorporation into non-extractable residues.

The design and fabrication of a state of the art high temperature top seeded solution growth (HTTSSG) unit with seed and crucible rotation options is discussed. Crystals from solid solutions of high viscosity could be grown using the setup. The fabricated setup is used to grow high optical quality single crystals of cesium lithium borate with dimensions 50x40x40 mm(3) for frequency conversion of ir to UV laser through harmonic generation.

Thin films of $Cd_{1-x}Mn_xS$ $(0\leq x \leq 0.5)$ were prepared on window glass substrates by resistive vacuum thermal evaporation. All the films were deposited at 300 K and the films annealed at 373 K, 473 K and 573 K for 1 hour in a vacuum of $10^{-6} m$. bar. The as-deposited and the annealed films were characterized by EDAX, XRD, AFM, electrical conductivity and Hall Effect studies.

The performance and impact of a decentralized biomass gasifier-based power generation system in an unelectrified village are presented. In Hosahalli village, Karnataka, India, lighting, drinking water, irrigation water and flour-milling services are provided using power derived from the biomass gasifier-based power generation system. The system consists of a 20 kW gasifier-engine generator system with all the accessories for fuel processing and electricity distribution.The biomass power system has functioned for over 14 years (1988–2004) in Hosahalli village (population of 218 during 2003), meeting all the electricity needs of the village. Lighting and piped drinking water supply using biomass electricity, was provided for over 85% of the days during the past six years. The fuel, operation and maintenance cost ranged from Rs 5.85/kWh at a load of 5 kW to Rs 3.34/kWh at a load of 20 kW. Technical, social, economic and management-related lessons learnt are presented here.

This article 'New rice cultivars tolerant of complete submergence' appeared in the International Rice Research Notes series, created by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to expedite communication among scientists concerned with the development of improved technology for rice and rice-based systems. The series is a mechanism to help scientists keep each other informed of current rice research findings. The concise scientific notes are meant to encourage rice scientists to communicate with one another to obtain details on the research reported.

This article 'Pelalu Vadlu- a fine-grained gall midge-tolerant rice variety' appeared in the International Rice Research Notes series, created by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to expedite communication among scientists concerned with the development of improved technology for rice and rice-based systems. The series is a mechanism to help scientists keep each other informed of current rice research findings. The concise scientific notes are meant to encourage rice scientists to communicate with one another to obtain details on the research reported.