11,389 research outputs found
Aerodynamic analysis of Speedo Fastskin-I Swimsuit
Swimming is one of the most energy intensive sporting events, where a winner is decided by a short margin. The winning time margin can be increased by various means, including engineered outfits within the game's regulations. In swimming, apart from optimisation of the swimmer's body, an appropriately devised swimsuit can play a significant role in reducing the drag, thereby enhancing the winning time margin. The main motivation for undertaking this study stems from the increasing levels of technical sophistication in the swimsuits that are claimed by the manufacturers for performance enhancement. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to undertake an experimental study with microscopic illustration of the swimsuit fabric, and its effects on aerodynamic properties. The study utilised a commercial swimsuit under stretched and un-stretched conditions of fabric morphology, and their impact on aerodynamic drag. This study was conducted using a wind tunnel for a range of Reynolds numbers. The simplified body shape was used to determine the aerodynamic drag. The finding of this study illustrates that there is a significant difference between the aerodynamic drag for the stretched and un-stretched surface morphology of the Speedo FS-I swimsuit. Furthermore, the microscopic analysis of the stretched and un-stretched fabric was undertaken to extend our undertstanding
The DC Electrical Conduction Mechanism of Heat-treated Plasma-polymerized Diphenyl (PPDP) Thin Films
Transfer Learning with Deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for Pneumonia Detection using Chest X-ray
Pneumonia is a life-threatening disease, which occurs in the lungs caused by
either bacterial or viral infection. It can be life-endangering if not acted
upon in the right time and thus an early diagnosis of pneumonia is vital. The
aim of this paper is to automatically detect bacterial and viral pneumonia
using digital x-ray images. It provides a detailed report on advances made in
making accurate detection of pneumonia and then presents the methodology
adopted by the authors. Four different pre-trained deep Convolutional Neural
Network (CNN)- AlexNet, ResNet18, DenseNet201, and SqueezeNet were used for
transfer learning. 5247 Bacterial, viral and normal chest x-rays images
underwent preprocessing techniques and the modified images were trained for the
transfer learning based classification task. In this work, the authors have
reported three schemes of classifications: normal vs pneumonia, bacterial vs
viral pneumonia and normal, bacterial and viral pneumonia. The classification
accuracy of normal and pneumonia images, bacterial and viral pneumonia images,
and normal, bacterial and viral pneumonia were 98%, 95%, and 93.3%
respectively. This is the highest accuracy in any scheme than the accuracies
reported in the literature. Therefore, the proposed study can be useful in
faster-diagnosing pneumonia by the radiologist and can help in the fast airport
screening of pneumonia patients.Comment: 13 Figures, 5 tables. arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:2003.1314
Instability of dilute granular flow on rough slope
We study numerically the stability of granular flow on a rough slope in
collisional flow regime in the two-dimension. We examine the density dependence
of the flowing behavior in low density region, and demonstrate that the
particle collisions stabilize the flow above a certain density in the parameter
region where a single particle shows an accelerated behavior. Within this
parameter regime, however, the uniform flow is only metastable and is shown to
be unstable against clustering when the particle density is not high enough.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jpn.; Fig. 2 replaced;
references added; comments added; misprints correcte
A (Running) Bolt for New Reasons
We construct a four-parameter family of smooth, horizonless, stationary
solutions of ungauged five-dimensional supergravity by using the
four-dimensional Euclidean Schwarzschild metric as a base space and
"magnetizing" its bolt. We then generalize this to a five-parameter family
based upon the Euclidean Kerr-Taub-Bolt. These "running Bolt" solutions are
necessarily non-static. They also have the same charges and mass as a
non-extremal black hole with a classically-large horizon area. Moreover, in a
certain regime their mass can decrease as their charges increase. The existence
of these solutions supports the idea that the singularities of non-extremal
black holes are resolved by low-mass modes that correct the singularity of the
classical black hole solution on large (horizon-sized) scales.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX; v2: minor changes, references adde
Traditional utilization of wild date palm (Phoenix sylvestris Roxb) in rural Bangladesh: An approach to sustainable biodiversity management
The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com.A study was conducted to explore the traditional utilization pattern and indigenous management practices of wild date palm (Phoenix sylvestris Roxb) in the rural agrarian regions of Bangladesh. A multistage sampling method with 10% intensity and a semi-structured questionnaire were used for the study. The farmers manage the palm mainly for sap production with which sugar based secondary goods are manufactured. The sap is either used fresh as drink or after some sort of processing as molasses and/or alcoholic beverage. Seven diversified sites support the palm as its habitat and most palms (20.40%) occur in orchards. Besides growing naturally, the palm is also established in orchards using the wildings as the staple planting material. Although the medium category farmers own most of the palms (33%), a considerable portion (28.68%) of it is managed by the landless farmers, who earn a substantial livelihood from the palms. The farmers practice their own indigenous wisdom in every stage of the palm’s maintenance from planting through tapping for sap collection to the processing of products. If managed more scientifically on a sustainable basis with the collaboration of farmers’ indigenous knowledge, this familiar palm could be able to support the rural economy of the country to a great extent. Side by side, it would also be able to contribute to the richness of biodiversity in the region.ArticleJournal of Forestry Research. 19(3):245-251 (2008)journal articl
Intelligent Controlling Simulation of Traffic Flow in a Small City Network
We propose a two dimensional probabilistic cellular automata for the
description of traffic flow in a small city network composed of two
intersections. The traffic in the network is controlled by a set of traffic
lights which can be operated both in fixed-time and a traffic responsive
manner. Vehicular dynamics is simulated and the total delay experienced by the
traffic is evaluated within specified time intervals. We investigate both
decentralized and centralized traffic responsive schemes and in particular
discuss the implementation of the {\it green-wave} strategy. Our investigations
prove that the network delay strongly depends on the signalisation strategy. We
show that in some traffic conditions, the application of the green-wave scheme
may destructively lead to the increment of the global delay.Comment: 8 pages, 10 eps figures, Revte
Cost-utility analysis of robotic-assisted radical cystectomy for bladder cancer compared to open radical cystectomy in the United Kingdom
BACKGROUND: Bladder cancer is the tenth most common cancer in the United Kingdom. Currently, open radical cystectomy (ORC) is the gold standard. Due to the risk of complications and a 2.3-8% mortality rate1, there is growing interest in the use of robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC). The aim of this study is to perform a cost-utility analysis, comparing RARC to ORC for bladder cancer patients from the perspective of the National Health Service England. METHODS: A three-stage decision tree: surgery, post-surgery transfusions and complications, in a 90-day time horizon, was produced to simulate possible pathways of patients. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was calculated based on data derived from current literature. Multiple univariate sensitivity analysis was carried out to evaluate influences of varying costs of RARC and ORC on the ICER. RESULTS: The ICER for RARC compared to ORC resulted in £25,536/QALY. At the lower threshold of £20,000/QALY, RARC resulted in a negative NMB (£-4,843.32) and at the upper threshold of £30,000/QALY, a positive NMB (£624.61) compared to ORC. Threshold analysis showed that the intervention costs of £13,497 and £14,403 are met at the lower and upper threshold respectively. The univariate sensitivity analysis showed that the intervention costs of RARC or ORC, and the probabilities of complications, had the greatest impact on the ICER. CONCLUSION: As the resultant ICER did not fall below the £20,000/QALY threshold, our study did not provide a definitive recommendation for RARC for bladder cancer. Negative values for the NMB at the lower threshold indicated the intervention was not feasible from a cost perspective. At the upper threshold of £30,000/QALY, this situation was reversed. The intervention became cost-effective. Therefore, further research is needed to justify the intervention
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