Literary Techniques of Marquez’s Literary Discourse

The literary techniques of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novels deal with his literary devices and figurative language which he has applied in his novels. These devices basically serve as socio-symbolic mediations that relate the literary text to his culture. For this reason, Marquez has immensely applied the figurative elements in his novels, making a bridge between his works and the world to which he belongs. These elements can be thus interpreted by taking into consideration the cultural aspects of his society. Hence, this article surveys the figurative dimensions of his novels and the intention here is mainly to decode the figurative elements such as metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole and other symbolic components of his literary discourse

Assessment of energy storage systems as a reserve provider in stochastic network constrained unit commitment

Recently, the provision of the reserve from energy storage systems (ESSs) is introduced as a source for ancillary services to address the uncertainties of renewable power generations. The performance of ESSs is analysed while they are applied as a provider of regulation reserves. It has been revealed that previous stochastic models neglect the impact of corrective dispatches, related to the provision of regulation reserves, on the energy level stored in the ESSs, which can lead to large deviations. This study coordinates the stored energy of ESSs to be feasible regarding the dispatches in the base schedule and rescheduling within scenarios. Also, the wind speed fluctuations are considered as the source of uncertainty, and scenarios of wind energy are generated using the Weibull distribution function. The IEEE 24-Bus standard test system is applied for the examination of the proposed model. The results show that the proposed model can manage the performance of ESSs in rescheduling within scenarios, while the coordinated reserve provision of ESSs can remove the concerns about insufficient stored energy of ESSs

Do Patients with Penetrating Abdominal Stab Wounds Require Laparotomy?

Background: The optimal management of hemodynamically stable asymptomatic patients with anterior abdominal stab wounds (AASWs) remains controversial. The goal is to identify and treat injuries in a safe cost-effective manner. Common evaluation strategies are local wound exploration (LWE), diagnostic peritoneal lavage (DPL), serial clinical assessment (SCAs) and computed tomography (CT) imaging. Making a decision about the right time to operate on a patient with a penetrating abdominal stab wound, especially those who have visceral evisceration, is a continuing challenge. Objectives: Until the year 2010, our strategy was emergency laparotomy in patients with penetrating anterior fascia and those with visceral evisceration. This survey was conducted towards evaluating the results of emergency laparotomy. So, better management can be done in patients with penetrating abdominal stab wounds. Patients and Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was performed on patients with abdominal penetrating trauma who referred to Al- Zahra hospital in Isfahan, Iran from October 2000 to October 2010. It should be noted that patients with abdominal blunt trauma, patients under 14 years old, those with lateral abdomen penetrating trauma and patients who had unstable hemodynamic status were excluded from the study. Medical records of patients were reviewed and demographic and clinical data were collected for all patients including: age, sex, mechanism of trauma and the results of LWE and laparotomy. Data were analyzed with PASW v.20 software. All data were expressed as mean ± SD. The distribution of nominal variables was compared using the Chi-squared test. Also diagnostic index for LWE were calculated. A two-sided P value less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: During the 10 year period of the study, 1100 consecutive patients with stab wounds were admitted to Al-Zahra hospital Isfahan, Iran. In total, about 150 cases had penetrating traumas in the anterior abdomen area. Sixty-three (42%) patients were operated immediately due to shock, visceral evisceration or aspiration of blood via a nasogastric tube on admission. Organ injury was seen in 78% of patients with visceral evisceration. Among these 87 cases, 29 patients’ (33.3%) anterior fascia was not penetrated in LWE. So, they were observed for several hours and discharged from the hospital without surgery. While for the remaining 58 patients (66.6%), whose LWE detected penetration of anterior abdominal fascia, laparotomy was performed which showed visceral injuries in 11 (18%) cases. Conclusions: All in all, 82 percent of laparotomies in patients with penetrated anterior abdominal fascia without visceral evisceration, who had no signs of peritoneal irritation, were negative. So, we recommended further evaluation in these patients. However, visceral evisceration is an indication for exploratory laparotomy, since in our study; the majority of patients had organ damages

Bi-Level Decomposition Approach for Coordinated Planning of an Energy Hub With Gas-Electricity Integrated Systems

Integrationof multiple energy systemsand the presence of smart energy hubs have provided increased flexibility and improved efficiency for the system. In this article, a bi-level decomposition approach (BLDA) is presented for coplanning of electricity and gas networks as well as the energy hub in distribution networks. The proposed multistage planning determines the investment candidates with optimum capacity for the components of integrated systems. Due to the complexity and nonlinearity of the models and energy subsystems interactions, the expansion planning problem is a difficult task with many limitations, especially for large-scale systems. To overcome these obstacles, achieve an optimum response and reduce computation time, a mixed integer linear programming model and a new BLDA methodology are developed in this article. Moreover, to evaluate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed approach, the interactions among the energy systems are simulated in a large-scale distribution system and the results are compared.© 2022 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

A suggested prototype for assessing bone health

Background- Osteoporosis is becoming a health concern worldwide. Considering the fact that prevention plays an important role in reducing the burden of this silent disease and in view of the limited resources available, many countries have adopted certain programs to fight osteoporosis through shifting their attention towards at-risk individuals. The Iranian Multicenter Osteoporosis Study (IMOS) is one of these programs. The program aims to assess bone health and the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in different parts of Iran with various altitudes, latitudes and lifestyle habits in a way that the results could be generalized to the country. Method- The present article presents the protocol used in the third phase of the study. It was designed based on the experiences gathered in the previous phases to overcome the shortcomings particularly subject loss. The questionnaire applied in this study was developed based on a thorough literature review of the risk factors and secondary causes of osteoporosis and was approved by an expert panel. It should be added that while the majority of the existing studies aim to study a certain aspect of osteoporosis, the present protocol provides the information needed for policy makers and researchers to study different osteoporosis-related issues. Conclusion- The authors believe the protocol, to be implemented with small modifications, can help policymakers in different parts of the world, particularly developing countries, gather accurate information on different aspects of bone health at the national level. © 2015, Academy of Medical Sciences of I.R. Iran. All rights reserved

Exploring potential gains of mobile sector-coupling energy systems in heavily constrained networks

The coincidence of high levels of variable, non-dispatchable generation from renewable energy sources (RESs) and congested electricity networks imposes significant constraint payments (CP) on electricity system operators (ESOs) which ultimately is charged to the customers. This paper is inspired by this challenge and proposes an integrated electricity, gas, and transportation energy system taking advantage of power-to-gas (P2G) facilities and electricity/gas storage devices to enhance operational efficiency. It proposes mobile gas storage systems (MGSs) that can store and carry liquid hydrogen or liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the load points or remote locations without access to the gas network. So, the green energy of RESs in the form of gases can be injected, transported, and reutilized in the natural gas network or stored in MGS facilities. Besides, the mobile electricity storage system (MES) can directly store the redundant electricity produced by RESs, and the railway transportation system carries both the MESs and MGSs to the load point of electrical and gas systems. The proposed model reflects CP to wind in the marketing phase and considers incentives for the hydrogen-burning generators. Also, a stochastic platform is employed to capture the inherent uncertainties in the predicted values of the load and RESs’ generation. The model is formulated as a mixed-integer second-order cone programming problem and tested on an IEEE 118-bus system integrated with a 14-node gas network and a railway system. The result shows that employing the multi-vector energy system (MVES) elements reduces the total operational cost by 47%, and the CP to wind is reduced by 99.8% by absorbing almost the whole green energy of wind farms while relieving congestion in the electrical grid

An update of spectrum and frequency of GJB2 mutations causing hearing loss in the south of Iran: A literature review

OBJECTIVE: Mutations in the GJB2 gene are a major cause of autosomal recessive non-syndromic HL (ARNSHL) in many populations. Previous studies have estimated the average frequency of GJB2 mutations to be between 16 and 18% in Iran, but would vary among different ethnic groups. Here, we have taken together and reviewed results from our three previous publications and data from search other published mutation reports to provide a comprehensive collection of data for GJB2 mutations and HL in the south of Iran. METHODS: In all, 447 unrelated families were included and analyzed for the prevalence and type of the GJB2 gene mutations. RESULTS: Totally, the frequency of GJB2 mutations was found to be 11.5% in the southern provinces studied which is significantly lower than that identified in Northern populations of Iran, and also a southwest to southeast Iranian gradient in the frequency of GJB2 mutations is suggested. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the importance of establishing prevalence, based on the local population for screening and diagnostic programs of live births in Ira

Comparing research investment to United Kingdom institutions and published outputs for tuberculosis, HIV and malaria: A systematic analysis across 1997-2013

Background: The "Unfinished Agenda" of infectious diseases is of great importance to policymakers and research funding agencies that require ongoing research evidence on their effective management. Journal publications help effectively share and disseminate research results to inform policy and practice. We assess research investments to United Kingdom institutions in HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and analyse these by numbers of publications and citations and by disease and type of science. Methods: Information on infection-related research investments awarded to United Kingdom institutions across 1997-2010 were sourced from funding agencies and individually categorised by disease and type of science. Publications were sourced from the Scopus database via keyword searches and filtered to include only publications relating to human disease and containing a United Kingdom-based first and/or last author. Data were matched by disease and type of science categories. Investment (United Kingdom pounds) and publications were compared to generate an 'investment per publication' metric; similarly, an 'investment per citation' metric was also developed as a measure of the usefulness of research. Results: Total research investment for all three diseases was £1.4 billion, and was greatest for HIV (£651.4 million), followed by malaria (£518.7 million) and tuberculosis (£239.1 million). There were 17,271 included publications, with 9,322 for HIV, 4,451 for malaria, and 3,498 for tuberculosis. HIV publications received the most citations (254,949), followed by malaria (148,559) and tuberculosis (100,244). According to UK pound per publication, tuberculosis (£50,691) appeared the most productive for investment, compared to HIV (£61,971) and malaria (£94,483). By type of science, public health research was most productive for HIV (£27,296) and tuberculosis (£22,273), while phase I-III trials were most productive for malaria (£60,491). According to UK pound per citation, tuberculosis (£1,797) was the most productive area for investment, compared to HIV (£2,265) and malaria (£2,834). Public health research was the most productive type of science for HIV (£2,265) and tuberculosis (£1,797), whereas phase I-III trials were most productive for malaria (£1,713). Conclusions: When comparing total publications and citations with research investment to United Kingdom institutions, tuberculosis research appears to perform best in terms of efficiency. There were more public health-related publications and citations for HIV and tuberculosis than other types of science. These findings demonstrate the diversity of research funding and outputs, and provide new evidence to inform research investment strategies for policymakers, funders, academic institutions, and healthcare organizations.Infectious Disease Research Networ