Nuclear Structure of Positive Parity Levels in 15N As Studied by Inelastic Electron Scattering

High resolution measurements of inelastic electron scattering cross sections from the states in 15N (gas target of 99% 15N enrichment) up to 23.5 MeV excitation have been performed at NIKHEF-K Amsterdam. The measurements were carried out at 70, 130, 300, and 430 MeV incident electron energy with an angular range from 40 to 98.5 covering a momentum transfer region between 0.5 and 3.2 fm-1. The data of the present experiment together with the existing data obtained at a scattering angle of 18

Case-Based Reasoning Tools from Shells to Object-Oriented Frameworks

A Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) tool is software that can be used to develop several applications that require cased-based reasoning methodology. CBR shells are kind of application generators with graphical user interface. They can be used by non-programmer users but the extension or integration of new components in these tools is not possible. In this paper we analyzed three CBR object-oriented framework development environments CBR*Tools, CAT-CBR, and JColibri. These frameworks work as open software development environment and facilitate the reuse of their design as well as implementations

On dynamical net-charge fluctuations within a hadron resonance gas approach

The dynamical net-charge fluctuations (${\nu}_{dyn}$) in different particle ratios $K/{\pi}$, $K/p$, and $p/{\pi}$ are calculated from the hadron resonance gas (HRG) model and compared with STAR central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=7.7-200~$GeV and NA49 central Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=6.3-17.3~$GeV. The three charged-particle ratios ($K/{\pi}$, $K/p$, and $p/{\pi}$) are determined as total and average of opposite and average of same charges. We find an excellent agreement between the HRG calculations and the experimental measurements, especially from STAR beam energy scan (BES) program, while the strange particles in the NA49 experiment at lower Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) energies are not reproduced by the HRG approach. We conclude that the utilized HRG version seems to take into consideration various types of correlations including strong interactions through the heavy resonances and their decays especially at BES energies.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Advances in High Energy Physic

Agents for Smart Power Grids

The future of electricity systems will compose of small-scale generation and distribution where end-users will be active participants with localized energy management systems that are able to interact on a free energy market. Software agents will most likely control power assets and interact together to decide the best and safest configuration of the power grid system. This paper presents a design of agents that can be deployed in real-time with capabilities that include optimization of resources, intensive computation, and appropriate decision-making. Jordan 51-bus system has been used for simulation with a total generation capacity of 4050 MW of which 230 MW represents renewable energy. The economic analyses demonstrated the use of smart grid technologies with 2016 generation—load profiles for nominal liquified gas (NLG) prices and ±20% sensitivity analysis. The results have shown variations in the range of 1% in the price of MWh with smart grid technologies. These variations are mainly driven by the fact that agents shift power generation to renewable power plants to produce maximum power at peak hours. As a result, there is a positive economic impact in both NLG ± 20% sensitivity analysis, due to the fact that agents coordinate to better displace expensive thermal generation with renewable generation. It is evident that renewable resources compensate for power at peak times and provide economic benefits and savings

Distribution of the HIV resistance CCR5-Δ32 allele among Egyptians and Syrians

A mutant allele of the β-chemokine receptor gene CCR5 bearing a 32-basepair (bp) deletion that prevents cell invasion by the primary transmitting strain of HIV-1 has recently been characterized. Individuals homozygous for the mutation are resistant to infection, even after repeated high-risk exposure, but this resistance appears not absolute, as isolated cases of HIV-positive deletion homozygotes are emerging. The consequence of the heterozygous state is not clear, but it may delay the progression to AIDS in infected individuals. In order to evaluate the frequency distribution of CCR5-Δ32 polymorphism among Egyptians, a total of 200 individuals (154 from Ismailia and 46 from Sinai) were tested. Only two heterozygous individuals from Ismailia carried the CCR5-Δ32 allele (0.6%), and no homozygous (Δ32/Δ32) individuals were detected among the tested samples. The presence of the CCR5-Δ32 allele among Egyptians may be attributed to the admixture with people of European descent. Thus we conclude that the protective deletion CCR5-Δ32 is largely absent in the Egyptian population. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

High frequency of the D allele of the angiotensin-converting enzyme gene in Arabic populations

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene in humans has an insertion-deletion (I/D) polymorphic state in intron 16 on chromosome 17q23. This polymorphism has been widely investigated in different populations due to its association with the renin-angiotensin system. However, similar studies for Arab populations are limited. This study addresses the distribution of the ACE gene polymorphism in three Arab populations (Egyptians, Jordanians and Syrians).</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The polymorphisms of ACE gene were investigated using polymerase chain reaction for detection of an I/D mutation. The results showed a high frequency of the ACE <it>D </it>allele among the three Arab populations, Egyptians (0.67), Jordanians (0.66) and Syrians (0.60), which is similar to those obtained from previous studies for Arab populations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The relationship between ACE alleles and disease in these three Arab populations is still not known, but the present results clearly suggest that geographic origin should be carefully considered in the increasing number of studies on the association between ACE alleles and disease etiology. This study adds to the data showing the wide variation in the distribution of the ACE alleles in different populations and highlights that great care needs to be taken when interpreting clinical data on the association of the ACE alleles with different diseases.</p

Finite Element Analysis of Steel Quenching Process

The finite element method (FEM) is employed to investigate the residual stress state and the variation of internal stresses in the St5O cylinder bar quenched from 600 to O°C. Thermal analysis is first performed to obtain the cooling curves for the core and surface of the bar, this is followed by a full structural analysis. The results obtained from the computer simulation are compared with those experimentally determined values that are available in the literature and there appears to be a good measure of agreement. The study found that at the initial stages of the quenching process, the residual stresses were tensile at the surface and compressive in the core, however, towards the end of the quenching process, the tensile residual stresses switched to the core and compressive residual stresses at the surface

Fuzzy Rules Optimization in Fuzzy Expert System for Machinability Data Selection: Genetic Algorithms Approach

Machinability data selection is complex and cannot be easily formulated by any mathematical model to meet design specification. Fuzzy logic is a good approach to solve such problems. Fuzzy rules optimization is always a problems for a complex fuzzy rules from more than 10 thousand combinations. (Wong et aL 1997) developed fuzzy models for machinability data selection. There are more than 2 x 1029 possible sets of rules for each model. Situation would be more complicated if further increase the number of inputs and/or outputs. The fuzzy rules were selected by trial and error and intuition in reference (Wong et aL 1997). Genetic optimization is suggested in this paper to further optimizing the fuzzy rules optimization with genetic algorithms has been developed. Weighted centroid method is used for output defuzzi fication to save processing time. Comparisons between the results of the new models and the previously published literatures are made