Green Parallel Metaheuristics: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation

Fecha de lectura de Tesis Doctoral 14 mayo 2020Green parallel metaheuristics (GPM) is a new concept we want to introduce in this thesis. It is an idea inspired by two facts: (i) parallel metaheuristics could help as unique tools to solve optimization problems in energy savings applications and sustainability, and (ii) these algorithms themselves run on multiprocessors, clusters, and grids of computers and then consume energy, so they need an energy analysis study for their different implementations over multiprocessors. The context for this thesis is to make a modern and competitive effort to extend the capability of present intelligent search optimization techniques. Analyzing the different sequential and parallel metaheuristics considering its energy consumption requires a deep investigation of the numerical performance, the execution time for efficient future designing to these algorithms. We present a study of the speed-up of the different parallel implementations over a different number of computing units. Moreover, we analyze and compare the energy consumption and numerical performance of the sequential/parallel algorithms and their components: a jump in the efficiency of the algorithms that would probably have a wide impact on the domains involved.El Instituto Egipcio en Madrid, dependiente del Gobierno de Egipto

Narrative as Memory: A Reading of Nuruddin Farah’s Trilogy Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship

The hallmark of the three novels forming Nuruddin Farah’s trilogy Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship is the fact that they share several tales of recurrent symbolic departure and return. This cyclical nature of Farah’s narrative foregrounds the collective traumatic past that Farah’s narrative embodies. In three chapters, the trilogy is analysed in the light of the writings of some Trauma Studies theorists such as Anne Whitehead, Cathy Caruth, Marianne Hirsch, and Dominick LaCapra. The first chapter examines the theoretical foundation of reading trauma in Farah’s narrative. Even though the chapter relies on trauma theory that is exclusively influenced by Western traumas, it seeks to adapt this theory to the understanding of a non-Western collective trauma experience. Moreover, an emphasis is placed on deploying psychoanalytical and historical writings on trauma to achieve an understanding of its literary aspect rather than using fiction to develop the pre-existing psychoanalytical and historical readings of trauma. Chapter Two, on the other hand, provides an application of the theoretical views presented in the preceding chapter. The second chapter explores the deployment of two particular literary devices – intertextuality and repetition – in the context of trauma narrative and how they re-create trauma in their own distinct way. Chapter Three focuses primarily on Farah’s characters and their problematic relationship with both the perception of time and memory-keeping. The chapter emphasizes that there is a complete identification between the teller of the memory and the memory told. This reading of Sweet and Sour Milk, Sardines and Close Sesame detangles the tension arising from the narrativisation of trauma from one end and the elements which engage in narrating it (language and characters) from the other

Off versus On pump coronary artery bypass grafting; a single-center experience

Background: The debate about on-pump vs. off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) continues. The present study compared the short-term outcomes after off-pump vs. on-pump CABG. Methods: The study was conducted on 67 patients who underwent CABG from 2021 to 2022. Patients were divided into two groups according to the CABG technique. Group 1 included 33 patients who underwent off-pump CABG, and Group 2 included 34 patients who underwent on-pump CABG. The study outcomes were operative time, hospital complications, and mortality. Results: On-pump patients were significantly older than off-pump patients (64.78±7.12 vs. 59.09±6.29; p= 0.004). There were no differences in comorbidities, presenting symptoms, or ejection fraction between groups. Operative time was significantly shorter in off-pump patients (227.47±13.73 vs. 321.12±27.49; p< 0.001). Blood transfusion was lower in off-pump patients (1.06± 0.311 vs. 1.79± 0.25; p< 0.001). Bleeding was lower in off-pump patients (0.81±0.13 vs. 0.91±0.20 ml, p= 0.01). Off-pump patients had significantly shorter ICU (3.5±2.6 vs. 4.9±4.7; p<0.001) and hospital stay (7.6±4.8 vs. 9.5±6.1; p<0.001). No patient had reexploration for bleeding, wound infection, or mortality in our series. One patient had renal impairment in the on-pump group (p>0.99). Conclusion: Off-pump and on-pump CABG seem to be safe approaches for managing coronary artery disease in our institution. Off-pump could be superior to on-pump CABG regarding shorter ICU and hospital stay. Studies with data from a large number of patients are recommended

IoT-Based Data Size Minimization Using Cluster-Based-Similarity- Elimination

This paper proposes a new redundancy reduction approach for continuous data flow from IoT devices based on minimizing the size of IoT data using a novel cluster-based-similarity-elimination algorithm. The continuously flowing data from IoT devices are characterized by the existence of redundant records. This redundancy not only leads to the overfitting of models but also requires a large processing power because of the large number of records. Feature selection is a technique used to partially reduce the data and thus redundancy, however, this is not sufficient. Removing redundant data is considered of utmost importance because as smart city scenarios are implemented, flow data generation requires more advanced analytics to deal with the evolution and regrowth of the IoT environment. Thus, this study aims to minimize processing time while maintaining the best accuracy by minimizing data similarity, therefore addressing the overfitting problem, and saving time. The proposed approach minimizes the data size, considering the number of tuples. The effectiveness of the proposed approach was validated using various classification algorithms and evaluation metrics. The results show a significant improvement compared with traditional approaches, resulting in a reduction in the real-time classification execution time to only 9% of the original time. This approach can be used to optimize data size and achieve accurate results with a fast execution time while also addressing overfitting issues

Current Trends and Future Perspectives of Antimutagenic Agents

Mutation is the process leading to heritable changes in DNA caused mainly by internal and external factors. Recently, studies on mutagenic agents have been increased due to increasing in mutation-related disease. The antimutagenic effect is desired to prevent mutation on genes or to inactivate the mutagenic agent. It seems that the interest in antimutagenic substances displaying multiple mechanisms of action will be an important trend in the research and development of new antimutagenic compounds in the near future. Therefore, this chapter displays various possible mechanisms of action for antimutagenic agent and introduces different types of antimutagens, natural and synthetic, that are considered very important

Apoptotic Inhibitors as Therapeutic Targets for Cell Survival

Apoptosis has revealed an essential function in the development or prevention of oncogenic transformation in the body; however, programmed cell death (PCD) must be tightly controlled since deregulated cell death is involved in the development of a large number of different pathologies. Apoptosis can be decreased in pathological states such as in cancer and autoimmunity or elevated such as in stroke, neurodegeneration, retinal cell death, myocardial and liver ischemia, inflammatory diseases such as sepsis, osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and asthma. Different types of apoptotic inhibitors will be discussed in this chapter displaying their mechanism of action, which have been reported to be therapeutic targets for cell survival or at least limiting cell death. These inhibitors are classified according to their nature into natural antiapoptotic proteins that present mainly in the cell and synthetic small molecule inhibitors that are widely used to protect against overexpression of apoptosis mediators and, in turn, to prevent corresponding diseases

Effect of Abdominal Massage on Gastrointestinal Complications and Intra-Abdominal Pressure of Critical-Enteral-Feed Patients: A Randomized Control Trial

Background: critically ill patient need a nursing practice that can enhance him to get all benefits of enteral feeding and overlapping the GI complications and maintain the intra-abdominal pressure.Objective: This work aimed to explore the effect of abdominal massage on gastrointestinal complications and intra-abdominal pressure of critical- enteral-feed patients.  Methods: A randomized controlled trial was applied on 74 eligibly enteral-fed patients at Trauma and General ICUs. Of these, the trail was completed on sixty patients who distributed randomly to equal intervention and control groups. The manipulation was two times for 15mins of abdominal massage for five days. The effect was measured on enteral feeding complications (GRV, abdominal circumference and distention, vomiting) and intra-abdominal pressure as compared with control group who didn't receive the massage.Results: the GRV difference between the massage group and control group subjects was statistically significant (P<0.001) in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th days indicating higher GRV among control group. The abdominal circumference between the five days was not significantly in the two groups. The difference between the two groups in relation to the distension was statistically significant (p < 0.05) in day 3, 4 and5. None of intervention patients were vomited along the study period (5days) in compared to 5% of control patients without statistical significant. Conclusions: The abdominal massage was significantly effective in lowering GRV, preventing distension and avoiding vomiting. Besides, the abdominal massage maintained the IAP without any statistical significant support. Therefore, it is recommended that this practice can be applied as a caring procedure in the daily ICU care program. Keywords: abdominal massage, gastrointestinal complications, intra-abdominal pressure, enteral-fed patients DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/64-05 Publication date:July 31st 201