Adaptive Light Control System

An adaptive traffic light system for crossroads is to be developed with the control being the data obtained through fixed cameras attached to the light system. The control itself is to be adaptive as there is no need for collecting data during the time when there is no traffic at all. Thus the problem is to collect data adaptively and control the light system accordingly. The idea, of course, is not to have people wait for unnecessary amount of time along the way, while there is no traffic across roads. Though looks rather reasonable, a very good adaptive strategy and an accompanying algorithm need to be developed. The study group is asked for such an algorithm

Mutational Spectrum of the MEFV Gene in AA Amyloidosis Associated With Familial Mediterranean Fever

WOS: 000382833300002PubMed ID: 27225717Introduction. Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a recessively inherited disease which is characterized by recurrent episodic fever, abdominal pain, and polyserositis. It is caused by mutations in the MEFV gene, encoding the pyrin protein. The most important complication of FMF is secondary (AA) amyloidosis that leads to kidney failure. This study aimed to identify the frequency and distribution of MEFV mutations in Turkish patients with FMF-associated AA amyloidosis. Materials and Methods. A total of 57 patients with FMF-associated AA amyloidosis and 60 healthy controls were included in this study. We analyzed the MEFV gene for E148Q, M694V, M680I, and V726A mutations and R202Q variant by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism methods. Results. The male-female ratio was 0.72. The mean age of the patients was 29.8 +/- 12.8 years. Among the patients, the rate of the MEFV mutations was found to be 77.2%. The most frequently observed genotype was homozygous M694V mutation, which was present in 17 patients (29.8%, P <.001), followed by compound heterozygous M680I/ M694V (14.3%, P =.01). The R202Q allele frequencies were significantly different between patients and control group (P =.02; odds ratio, 0.53; 95% confidence interval, 0.30 to 0.94). Conclusions. In this study, mutation analysis of MEFV gene confirmed that the most frequent mutation was homozygous M694V genotype. R202Q may be important in patients with FMF-associated AA amyloidosis. Thus, it is suggested that investigation of R202Q should be considered as a genetic test for Turkish FMF patients

Integrating cognitive presence strategies: A professional development training for K-12 teachers

For K-12 teachers to improve effective teaching skills, cognitive presence (CP) integration into teaching and learning process is of utmost value. CP strategy training can serve as a facilitating component in supporting K-12 teachers’ instructional capacity. This study presents findings of a teacher professional development training aiming CP strategy implementation at K-12 level. Following a mixed-method methodology, the present research was carried out with 53 teachers from four different campuses and grade levels, who were guided to implement CP strategies in their teaching context. The data sources were CP-integrated lesson plans, trainers’ feedback on these lesson plans, teacher responses on a questionnaire. The data collection methods were utilizing an end-of-the-training questionnaire directed to teachers, lesson plan evaluation through a CP rubric, content analysis of trainer feedback on lesson plans and revised lesson plans. Results unveiled that this professional development training designed and implemented for K-12 teachers led to significantly positive changes in teachers’ CP strategy integration into lesson plans regardless of levels, subjects or topics. This study could also provide important contributions to designing teacher professional development training for researchers, practitioners and teacher trainers, particularly in CP dimension. © 2023 by authors; licensee CEDTECH by Bastas, CY

Prognostic Factors in Operated Early Stage Lung Cancer Patients- Retrospective Single Center Data

Aim: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 85% of all lung cancers. Although curative treatment is surgery in the early stages, disease relapse is common. In this study, we retrospectively evaluated the prognostic factors and outcomes of operated NSCLC cases.Materials and Methods: Retrospective analysis of data from 166 patients with early stage NSCLC who presented after surgery and treated and followed in our clinic between 2006-2018 was performed. Histopathologic features and clinical findings were investigated as prognostic factors.The findings were analyzed using SPSS.Results: At the time of diagnosis, median age was 61 (39-82) and 84% of the patients were male. Most common pathologic subtype was adenocarcinoma. Median disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were 76 months (%95CI:32.1-110.0) and 87 months (95%CI:59.8-114.1). ). In multivariate analysis, presence of vascular invasion was found to be independent prognostic factors for both DFS and OS (HR:2.5 and 2.3, respectively). Adenocarcinoma solid pattern was only associated with worse disease-free survival (HR: 1.7).Conclusion: In our study, we showed that the presence of vascular invasion and solid-type adenocarcinoma is associated with poor survival

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources

We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30 kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101 sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles at high transverse momenta in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV

The azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in PbPb collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV is measured with the CMS detector at the LHC over an extended transverse momentum (pt) range up to approximately 60 GeV. The data cover both the low-pt region associated with hydrodynamic flow phenomena and the high-pt region where the anisotropies may reflect the path-length dependence of parton energy loss in the created medium. The anisotropy parameter (v2) of the particles is extracted by correlating charged tracks with respect to the event-plane reconstructed by using the energy deposited in forward-angle calorimeters. For the six bins of collision centrality studied, spanning the range of 0-60% most-central events, the observed v2 values are found to first increase with pt, reaching a maximum around pt = 3 GeV, and then to gradually decrease to almost zero, with the decline persisting up to at least pt = 40 GeV over the full centrality range measured.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO