Some Necessary Conditions and a General Sufficiency Condition for the Validity of A Gilmore-Gomory Type Patching Scheme for the Traveling

One of the most celebrated polynomially solvable cases of the TSP is the Gilmore-Gomory TSP. The patching scheme for the problem developed by Gilmore and Gomory has several interesting features. Its generalization, called the GG-scheme, has been studied by several researchers and polynomially testable sufficiency conditions for its validity have been given, leading to polynomial schemes for large subclasses of the TSP. A good characterization of the subclass of the TSP for which the GG-scheme produces an optimal solution, is an outstanding open problem of both theoretical and practical significance. We give some necessary conditions and a new, polynomially testable sufficiency condition for the validity of the GG-scheme that properly includes all previously known such conditions. Key words: Traveling salesman problem, Gilmore-Gomory TSP, Patching Scheme, Polynomially solvable case

Fundamental Role of Neurochemicals Aberration in the Pathogenesis of Autism Spectrum Disorders

AIM: The aim of this research was to establish the perturbation of reliable biomarkers implicated in the pathophysiology of autism to help in the early diagnosis and to be as targets in the treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in children and to spotlight into the complex crosstalk between these biomarkers. PATIENS AND METHODS: This study included 90 autistic children aged from 2 to 7 years old, who were classified into two groups, the atypical autism of 30 children and the childhood autism. The childhood autism group was further divided into mild-moderate autism group and severe autism group each of 30 children. The control group included 30 matched healthy children. All the participants were subjected to full psychiatric examinations, psychological investigations, and biochemical measurements, including gamma-aminobutaric acid (GABA), serotonin, dopamine (DA) in plasma, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in serum. RESULTS: The autistic groups showed a highly significant increase in GABA, serotonin, DA, and BDNF levels compared to the control. Of note, the levels of GABA, DA, and BDNF were significantly increased with the increased disease severity. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation between BDNF levels and both GABA and DA levels in the childhood autism group has been recorded. CONCLUSION: The present clinical setting provides new insight into the fundamental role of BDNF in the brain of autistic children as any alterations of its level due to GABA increment cause change in serotonin and DA levels which have empirical evidence in the pathophysiology of ASD. The results received in this research, create a fertile base for the setup of particular targets in the intervention of this ailment

EFFECTS OF NON-LINEAR MAGNETIC CHARGE ON INDUCTION FURNACE OPERATION DURING THE HEATING CYCLE

This research studying the electromagnetic behavior of the induction furnace when its core is a magnetic material taking into consideration the effect of the non-linear dependence of the magnetic flux induced in it due to the applied magnetizing force. Since the magnetic characteristics are severely affected by temperature rise in a non-linear way, so as the specific electric resistance of the charge material, this work deals with studying the effect of temperature on the non-linear characteristics of a magnetic core simultaneously with that on the specific electric resistance to show the electromagnetic behavior of the furnace during heating operation. The distribution of the current density, flux density and the magnetizing force at different temperatures inside the furnace and on the charge surfaces are determined for different temperatures. Also the flux distribution is plotted at these cases. This study will be the base for future work on the electromagnetic-thermal coupled analysis for the induction furnace

Investigation of eighth-grade students' understanding of the slope of the linear function

This study aimed to investigate eighth-grade students' difficulties and misconceptions and their performance of translation between the different representation modes related to the slope of linear functions. The participants were 115 Turkish eighth-grade students in a city in the eastern part of the Black Sea region of Turkey. Data was collected with an instrument consisting of seven written questions and a semi-structured interview protocol conducted with six students. Students' responses to questions were categorized and scored. Quantitative data was analyzed using the SPSS 17.0 statistical packet program with cross tables and one-way ANOVA. Qualitative data obtained from interviews was analyzed using descriptive analytical techniques. It was found that students' performance in articulating the slope of the linear function using its algebraic representation form was higher than their performance in using transformation between graphical and algebraic representation forms. It was also determined that some of them had difficulties and misunderstood linear function equations, graphs, and slopes and could not comprehend the connection between slope and the x- and y-intercepts

Structural, thermal, optical and dielectric studies of Dy3+: B2O3-ZnO-PbO-Na2O-CaO glasses for white LEDs application

Dy3+-doped borate glasses with nominal composition (60-x) B2O3-10 ZnO-10 PbO-10 Na2O-10 CaO-(x) Dy2O3 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mol%) were prepared by the melt quenching technique. The XRD and SEM confirm the amorphous nature of the glasses and through EDAX, all the related elements were found in the synthesized glasses. The vibrations of metal cations such as Pb2+ and Zn2+, B–O–B bond bending vibrations from pentaborate groups, bending vibrations of BO3 triangles, and stretching vibrations of tetrahedral BO4− units etc. are identified from the respective FTIR and Raman spectra including the non-hygroscopic nature of the synthesized glasses. The TGA and DSC measurements were performed to study thermal properties, where ΔT >100 °C (ΔT = Tx – Tg) for all the glasses. Among all the Dy3+-doped glasses, the 0.75 mol% Dy3+-doped glass shows the highest PL intensity with four emissions, where the two transitions corresponding to 4F9/2 → 6H15/2 (blue) and 4F9/2 → 6H13/2 (yellow) are observed more intense than the others. The CIE chromaticity (x,y) coordinates for BZPNCDy 0.1 mol% glass are (0.398, 0.430), close to the white light region in the CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram. The dielectric properties of the 0.75 mol% Dy3+-doped glass such as dielectric constant, dielectric loss and AC conductivity were studied in the various frequencies and temperature

Radio jets in NGC 1068 with e-MERLIN and VLA: structure and morphology

We present new high-sensitivity e-MERLIN and VLA radio images of the prototypical Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068 at 5, 10 and 21 GHz. We image the radio jet, from the compact components NE, C, S1 and S2 to the faint double-lobed jet structure of the NE and SW jet lobes. Furthermore, we map the jet between by combining e-MERLIN and VLA data for the first time. Components NE, C and S2 have steep spectra indicative of optically-thin non-thermal emission domination between 5 and 21 GHz. Component S1, which is where the AGN resides, has a flat radio spectrum. We report a new component, S2a, a part of the southern jet. We compare these new data with the MERLIN and VLA data observed in 1983, 1992 and 1995 and report a flux decrease by a factor of 2 in component C, suggesting variability of this jet component. With the high angular resolution e-MERLIN maps, we detect the bow shocks in the NE jet lobe that coincide with the molecular gas outflows observed with ALMA. The NE jet lobe has enough radio power considered to be responsible for driving out the dense molecular gas observed with ALMA around the same region

Crushing behaviour of plain weave composite hexagonal cellular structure

The tradition of fibre composite materials in energy absorbing tube applications has gained interest in structural collisions in the composite materials industry. Thus, the subject of this work is the experimental investigation to understand the effects of the failure initiator at the specimen’s edge, causing the increase in the specific absorbed energy (SEA), as well as the influence of the cellular structure composed of cells with small hexagonal angle exhibited high energy absorption capability. An extensive experimental investigation of an in plane crashing behavior of the composite hexagonal cellular structure between platen has been carried out. The cellular structure composed of hexagonal cells with angles varying between 45 and 60°. The materials used to accomplish the study are the plain weave E-glass fabric as a reinforcement and the epoxy resin system as a matrix. Furthermore, the specific energy absorption increases as the hexagonal angle increases

A survey of voice pathology surveillance systems based on internet of things and machine learning algorithms

The incorporation of the cloud technology with the Internet of Things (IoT) is significant in order to obtain better performance for a seamless, continuous, and ubiquitous framework. IoT has many applications in the healthcare sector, one of these applications is voice pathology monitoring. Unfortunately, voice pathology has not gained much attention, where there is an urgent need in this area due to the shortage of research and diagnosis of lethal diseases. Most of the researchers are focusing on the voice pathology and their finding is only to differentiating either the voice is normal (healthy) or pathological voice, where there is a lack of the current studies for detecting a certain disease such as laryngeal cancer. In this paper, we present an extensive review of the state-of-the-art techniques and studies of IoT frameworks and machine learning algorithms used in the healthcare in general and in the voice pathology surveillance systems in particular. Furthermore, this paper also presents applications, challenges and key issues of both IoT and machine learning algorithms in the healthcare. Finally, this paper highlights some open issues of IoT in healthcare that warrant further research and investigation in order to present an easy, comfortable and effective diagnosis and treatment of disease for both patients and doctors

Minocycline Synergizes with N-Acetylcysteine and Improves Cognition and Memory Following Traumatic Brain Injury in Rats

Background: There are no drugs presently available to treat traumatic brain injury (TBI). A variety of single drugs have failed clinical trials suggesting a role for drug combinations. Drug combinations acting synergistically often provide the greatest combination of potency and safety. The drugs examined (minocycline (MINO), N-acetylcysteine (NAC), simvastatin, cyclosporine A, and progesterone) had FDA-approval for uses other than TBI and limited brain injury in experimental TBI models. Methodology/Principal Findings: Drugs were dosed one hour after injury using the controlled cortical impact (CCI) TBI model in adult rats. One week later, drugs were tested for efficacy and drug combinations tested for synergy on a hierarchy of behavioral tests that included active place avoidance testing. As monotherapy, only MINO improved acquisition of the massed version of active place avoidance that required memory lasting less than two hours. MINO-treated animals, however, were impaired during the spaced version of the same avoidance task that required 24-hour memory retention. Coadministration of NAC with MINO synergistically improved spaced learning. Examination of brain histology 2 weeks after injury suggested that MINO plus NAC preserved white, but not grey matter, since lesion volume was unaffected, yet myelin loss was attenuated. When dosed 3 hours before injury, MINO plus NAC as single drugs had no effect on interleukin-1 formation; together they synergistically lowered interleukin-1 levels. This effect on interleukin-1 was not observed when th