Tariff War (Lashkaripour, JIE)

Replication material for "Measuring the Cost of a Global Tariff War: A Sufficient Statistics Approach

Some Inequalities Involving Laplace Transformation

. In this paper, we prove some integral inequalities, where the right hand side of some inequalities involve the Laplace transformatio

Numerical Study on Low Reynolds Mixing ofT-Shaped Micro-Mixers with Obstacles

Micromixers are one of the most crucial components of Lab-On-a-Chip devices with the intention of mixing and dispersion of reagents like small molecules and particles. The challenge facing micromixers is typically insufficient mixing efficiency in basic designs, which results in longer microchannels. Therefore, it is desirable to increase mixing efficiency, in order to decrease mixing length, which enables miniaturization of Lab-On-Chip devices.  This study investigates two different designs of a passive T-shaped micromixer employing several rectangular obstacles and grooves to monitor mixing efficiency with geometry change, while keeping the Reynolds number under 2. The mixing performance of these geometries is studied by numerical study and it was implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics environment. It was clarified that T-shaped micromixer with obstacles and grooved micromixer improved mixing efficiency of the basic design by 37.2% and 43.8%, respectively. Also, it was shown that this increase in mixing efficiency was due to the development of transversal component of flow caused by the obstacles and grooves

(α, β)-Monotone Variational Inequalities Over Arbitrary Product Sets

The purpose of this paper is to introduce some new concept and extend the usual ones are introduced for variational inequality problems over arbitrary product sets. Our result can be viewed as an extension of the results obtained by Igor V. Konnov [Relatively monotone variational inequalities over product sets, Operation research letters 28(2001), 21-26]. Moreover the results of this paper can be consider as a new version of the main results in [1

Modafinil for treatment of amphetamine/ methamphetamine dependence: The randomized double - blined clinical trial

Background: Using methamphetamine and its dependence is a serious public health problem worldwide. In Iran about 50 of hospital beds are occupied due to psychosis or mental disorder complications related to methamphetamine dependence, which seriously affects patients' admission to psychiatric hospitals. Objectives: The current studyaimedto evaluate the effectiveness of modafinil for treating patients withamphetaminedependence. PatientsandMethods: In the current clinical trial study, 50 male patients withamphetamineandmethamphetaminedependence, who had referred to addiction treatment clinic of Baharan psychiatry hospital in Zahedan, Eastern Iran, were studied. The participants were followed for 12 weeks. The random sampling method was used and patients were divided to two groups of modafinil receivers and placebo, based on blocks permutation. To evaluate the consumption of amphetamine/methamphetamine, urinary screening for methamphetamine was conducted in the beginning of the study and every week during the study period. The drug craving and level of dependence were measured by Visual Analogue Scale of Craving (VAS) and Addiction Severity Index (ASI), respectively. At the end of the follow-up period, data were analyzed using t-test and Chi-square test by SPSS ver. 18. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 29.5 ± 6.4 years. The results of urinary screening for methamphetamine were positive for 52.8 and 55.1 of the subjects in the modafinil receivers and placebo groups, respectively. The mean scores of drug craving were 76.2 ± 9.0 and 81.0 ± 8.2 for the modafinil receivers and placebo groups, respectively (P = 0.064). The mean of reduction in dependence level scores were 5.6±2.7 and 2.0±1.1 for the modafinil receivers and placebo groups, respectively (P = 0.001). Conclusions: The results of the current studyshowedthat modafinilwaswell-tolerated but not effective in reducing the level of consumption (number of negative urinary tests for amphetamine-methamphetamine). Modafinil was effective in reduction of severity addiction to amphetamine-methamphetamine. © 2016, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences

Size-controlled droplet generation in a microfluidic device for rare DNA amplification by optimizing its effective parameters

Versatility and portability of microfluidic devices play a dominant role in their widespread use by researchers. Droplet-based microfluidic devices have been extensively used due to their precise control over sample volume, and ease of manipulating and addressing each droplet on demand. Droplet-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) devices are particularly desirable in single DNA amplification. If the droplets are small enough to contain only one DNA molecule, single molecule amplification becomes possible, which can be advantageous in several cases such as early cancer detection. In this work, flow-focusing microfluidic droplet generation's parameters are numerically investigated and optimized for generating the smallest droplet possible, while considering fabrication limits. Taguchi design of experiment method is used to study the effects of key parameters in droplet generation. By exploiting this approach, a droplet with a radius of 111nm is generated using a 3μm orifice. Since the governing physics of the droplet generation process is not totally understood yet, by means of analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis, a generalized linear model (GLM) is proposed to predict the droplet radius, given the values of eight major parameters affecting the droplet size. The proposed model shows a correlation of 95.3% and 64.95% for droplets of radius greater than and lower than 5μm, respectively. Finally, the source of this variation of behavior in different size scales is identified

Multi-criteria optimization of curved and baffle-embedded micromixers for bio-applications

Micromixers are key components of microfluidic devices in many bio-applications namely, cell analysis, nanoparticle synthesis, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The shared challenges in designing a micromixer are low mixing efficiency or/and high-pressure drop. Improving one of these performance parameters is usually concurrent with deteriorating in the other. In biological contexts, further constraints like compatibility or viability in shear stress and pressure add to the complications of mixer designing. Exploiting the layout optimization method to design passive micromixers decreases dependence on the experience of designers. In this paper, a curved micromixer was studied with obstacles to create normal advection and curved microchannels to generate Dean vortices. Five geometric parameters including radius of microchannel, angle of baffles, height of baffles, thickness of baffles, and aspect ratio of the channel were considered as design parameters. The mixing efficiency and the pressure drop in the mixing channel were designated as the design objectives and evaluated for biologically-pertinent Reynolds numbers of 3, 27, and 81, through the integration of 3D Navier–Stokes and convection–diffusion equations in a CFD platform. Design nodes were systematically appointed by Taguchi design of experiments method and a polynomial response surface model was fitted on these points to develop continuous approximation functions for mixing index and pressure drop based on design parameters. Finally, a multi-objective genetic algorithm was performed to find the Pareto-optimal population and draw it in a multi-criteria diagram. The accuracy of this Pareto front prediction was verified by CFD simulation to be a maximum 3% error for mixing index and 7% error for pressure drop. The diagram helps designers glean the data needed for a trade-off between each criterion by a quick reflection on this diagram and design a mixer that best fits their requirements

THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MIND-READING AND EMOTIONAL RECOGNITION ABILITIES OF SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS AND THEIR HEALTHY SIBLINGS

Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder and one of the most common problems of the people suffering from this disorder is a decline in their cognitive abilities. Recognition of facial expressions is one of the aspects of human’s social cognition. Many symptoms of schizophrenic patients may be related to some of their cognitive disabilities in attribution of their mental states to themselves and others. The present study is aimed at examining the abilities of mind-reading and recognition of emotional states in schizophrenic patients and their healthy siblings in a comparative way. This is a case control study in which 30 patients (15 male and 15 female) hospitalized in Baharan Psychiatry Hospital of Zahedan in 2013 with an average age of 34.63 and 30 healthy siblings of schizophrenic patients (15 male and 15 female) with an average age of 30.56 were selected using convenience sampling. Neuropsychological test of Reading the Mind in the Eyes and the Neurological test of Pictures of Facial Affects were used to collect data. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS software, indices of descriptive statistics and statistical t-test. The results indicated that schizophrenic patients are less able than their healthy siblings in mind-reading ability (t = 6.79, df=58, p<0. 05). Also a comparison between the emotional recognition scores of schizophrenic patients and their healthy siblings showed a significant difference (t = 8.666, df=58, p<0.05). The results show that nonverbal behaviors, processing and emotion recognition are among variables in schizophrenic patients. Thus, reinforcement and improvement of cognitive and social skills can be used in therapeuti