Numerical solutions of two-point boundary value problems in Chebyshev series

Series expressed in terms of Chebyshev polynomials are applied using Lie series to the iterative solution of ordinary differential equations. After a discussion of initial value problems, the method is then used to solve two-point boundary value problems and an improved method of shooting type is derived and tested

Preoperative Fasting Time and Selected Postoperative Outcomes among Patients Undergoing Abdominal Surgeries: Correlation Study

Background: Prolonged preoperative fasting time had a negative impact on the recovery of the patient in the postoperative period. Aim of the study: was to determine the relationship between the preoperative fasting time and selected postoperative outcomes among patients undergoing abdominal surgeries at one of the University Hospitals Cairo-Egypt. Research question: What is the relationship between the preoperative fasting time and the selected postoperative outcomes (patients' blood glucose levels, blood pressure and vomiting frequency) among patients undergoing abdominal surgeries? Design: Descriptive-correlation design was utilized. Setting: The study was conducted on waiting areas of general surgery operating room at 2nd and 3rd floor in addition to the general surgical wards at one of the University Hospitals. Subjects: A convenience sample of 60 female & male adult patients with the following inclusion criteria: 1- undergoing abdominal surgeries, 2- have no diabetes or hypertension were recruited in the current study Tools: Two tools were utilized to collect data pertinent to the study; I- A semi-structured interview questionnaire, it contained two parts: 1: Demographic data 2: Surgical patient’s clinical data.  II - Postoperative outcomes data sheet: It included measurement of the three selected postoperative outcomes. Results: The current study findings revealed that nearly three quarters of the study sample fasted for longer than required time with a mean+ SD= 11.1 + 2.5 and more than two third of the study sample had waiting time between 3->6 hrs. There was a significance difference between pre-operative & post-operative, post-operative & baseline readings regarding the systolic blood pressure and between the baseline and the pre-operative diastolic blood pressure. There was a positive moderate correlation between the pre-operative fasting time and the post-operative blood glucose results r=0.41. Also, there was a strong correlation between baseline and preoperative blood glucose results r=0.77, while, There was no correlation  between frequency of vomiting post operatively and age, preoperative fasting time, waiting time, blood glucose, and blood pressure.  Conclusion: There was a correlation between preoperative fasting time and blood glucose level followed by blood pressure while no correlation with vomiting frequency postoperatively. Recommendations: Awareness of heath care team regarding updating evidence-based preoperative fasting guidelines, nurse should measure blood glucose level and blood pressure for the non-diabetic as well as the diabetic patients before the surgical procedure and further studies are needed to determine the optimal fasting time and its effect on postoperative outcomes. Keywords: Preoperative fasting time, waiting time, abdominal surgery, blood glucose level, blood pressure, postoperative vomiting

Ensemble DNN for Age-of-Information Minimization in UAV-assisted Networks

This paper addresses the problem of Age-of-Information (AoI) in UAV-assisted networks. Our objective is to minimize the expected AoI across devices by optimizing UAVs' stopping locations and device selection probabilities. To tackle this problem, we first derive a closed-form expression of the expected AoI that involves the probabilities of selection of devices. Then, we formulate the problem as a non-convex minimization subject to quality of service constraints. Since the problem is challenging to solve, we propose an Ensemble Deep Neural Network (EDNN) based approach which takes advantage of the dual formulation of the studied problem. Specifically, the Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) in the ensemble are trained in an unsupervised manner using the Lagrangian function of the studied problem. Our experiments show that the proposed EDNN method outperforms traditional DNNs in reducing the expected AoI, achieving a remarkable reduction of $29.5\%$.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Expression analysis of regulatory MicroRNA in bovine cumulus oocyte complex and preimplantation embryos

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non coding endogenous molecules which participate in gene regulation post transcriptionally. These small RNAs are shown to be involved in a wide range of biological processes including development, cell differentiation, cell proliferation and apoptosis in diverse organisms. However, little is known about their abundance in bovine oocytes and their surrounding cumulus cells during oocyte development. To elucidate this, we investigated the relative expression pattern of a set of 88 miRNAs between bovine oocytes and the surrounding cumulus cells during in vitro maturation, using miRNA PCR array related to human cell development and differentiation. Results revealed a total of 47 and 51 miRNAs to be differentially expressed (p ≤ 0.05 and fold change ≥ 2) between immature (GV) and matured (MII) oocytes, respectively compared to their surrounding cumulus cells. However, 8 and 6 miRNAs were found to be highly abundant in cumulus cells compared to oocytes at immature and matured stages, respectively. The expression analysis of six oocytes enriched miRNAs (miR-205, -150, -122, -96, -146a and -146b-5p) in bovine preimplantation embryo stages was performed. Results showed that expression of these miRNAs were highly abundant in early stages of embryo development and reduced after 8-cell until the blastocyst stage following a typical maternal transcript profile. Comparable results were obtained by in situ localization of miR-205 in preimplantation embryo stages. However, the two selected miRNAs enriched in cumulus cells (miR-210 and miR-452) showed no defined profile. The same eight miRNAs were detected at high level in fully grown oocyte (BCB+) compared to growing one (BCB-). Interestingly, the presence or absence of oocytes or cumulus cells during maturation was found to affect the expression of selected miRNAs in each of the two cell types. Furthermore, miR-205 and miR-210 were in situ localized in ovarian follicle and revealed a spatio-temporal expression during follicular development. Hence, our results evidenced the presence of distinct set of miRNAs in oocytes and cumulus cells which may have potential role in regulation of bidirectional communication between the two cell types. Moreover, maternal miRNAs were found to persist until the major genome activation in bovine.Expressionsanalyse von regulierenden MircoRNA im bovinen Kumulus-Oocyten Komplex und präimplantierten Embryonen MicroRNAs (miRNAs) sind kleine nicht-kodierende endogene Moleküle, die an der post-trankriptionellen Genregulierung beteiligt sind. Diese kleinen RNAs sind an einer Reihe von biologischen Prozessen, wie Entwicklung, Zelldifferenzierung, Zellproliferation und Apoptose in verschiedenen Organismen, involviert. Jedoch ist bisher nur wenig über ihre Rolle in bovinen zellen und umgebenden Kumuluszellen während der Eizellenentwicklung bekannt. Um dieses aufzuklären, untersuchten wir die relativen Expressionsmuster zwischen bovinen Eizellen und den umgebenden Kumuluszellen während der in vitro Maturation. Die Expressionsmuster eines Sets von 88 miRNAs wurden mittels eines miRNA PCR Arrays für humane Zellentwicklung und-differenzierung erfasst. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass insgesamt 47 bzw. 51 miRNAs unterschiedlich zwischen immaturen (GV) bzw. reifen Eizellen (MII) und ihren umgebenden Kumuluszellen exprimiert waren (p ≤ 0.05, fold change ≥2). Dabei wurden 8 bzw. 6 miRNAs stärker in den Kumuluszellen exprimiert beim Vergleich von Eizellen im reifen bzw. unreifen Stadium. Weitere Expressionsanalysen wurden von sechs ausgewählten miRNAs (miR-205, -150, -122, -96, -146a und 146b-5p) in bovinen Embryonen des Präimplantationsstadiums durchgeführt, da diese in Eizellen angereichert auftraten. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass die Expression dieser miRNAs stark erhöht in frühen Stadien der Embryonalentwicklung und reduziert nach dem 8- Zellen-Stadium. Zu beobachten waren bis zum Blastozysten Stadium folgten die Embryonen den typischen maternalen Transkriptionsmustern. Vergleichbare Ergebnisse wurden bei der in situ Lokalisierung von miR-205 in Embryonen des Präimplantationsstadiums beobachtet. Leider zeigten die ausgewählten miRNAs (miR- 210 und miR-452), die in Kumuluszellen vermehrt exprimiert waren, kein definiertes Profil. Die gleichen acht miRNAs wurden in einer hohen Menge in voll ausgewachsenen Eizellen (BCB+) im Vergleich zu noch wachsenden Eizellen (BCB-) detektiert. Interessanterweise konnte beobachtet werden, dass die Präsenz oder Abwesenheit von Eizelle oder Kumuluszellen während der Maturation einen Einfluss auf die Expression der ausgewählten miRNAs in den entsprechenden Zelltypen hatte. Des Weiteren wurden miR-205 und miR-210 in situ in Follikeln lokalisiert und zeigten eine raum-zeitliche Expression während der Follikelentwicklung. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen die Präsenz einer definierten Gruppe von miRNAs in Eizellen und Kumuluszellen, welch möglicherweise eine Rolle in der Regulation der bidirektionellen Kommunikation zwischen diesen zwei Zelltypen spielen

Assessment of Multi-Story Building Seismic Design Factors with Structural Irregularity

Many high-rise buildings are practically irregular as a result of the architectural and service requirements in the design process, errors and modification during the construction phase, and changes of the building use throughout its service life. Structural irregularities could increase the uncertainties related to the ability of the building to meet the design objectives. This study is thus devoted to assess the safety margins and calibrate the seismic design response factors of modern high-rise buildings with different vertical irregularity features. A brief survey of the most common vertical irregularities inn reinforced concrete multi-story buildings is conducted to select reference structures. Five 50-story high-rise buildings are then selected and fully designed using international building codes to represent well-designed tall buildings with principal vertical irregularity types. Fiber-based simulation models are developed to assess the seismic response of the five benchmark buildings under the effect of forty earthquake records representing far-field and near-field seismic scenarios. The comprehensive results obtained from inelastic pushover and incremental dynamic analyses are employed to provide insights into the local and global seismic response of the reference structures. The probabilistic vulnerability assessment of the five high-rise buildings is conducted at different limit states using fragility relationships. The study concluded that the seismic performance of well-designed regular and vertically irregular high-rise buildings is satisfactory under the design earthquake. Under severe earthquakes, the seismic response of tall buildings with extreme soft story and geometry irregularity is not inferior to that of the regular counterpart at different seismic performance levels. Despite the over strength factor adopted in the design of buildings with discontinuities in the lateral-force-resisting system and extreme weak story, the observed negative impacts of these irregularity categories on increasing the vulnerability of high-rise buildings are substantial. This confirms the pressing need for mitigation strategies to reduce the expected seismic losses of the latter classes of building. The calibration of seismic design response factors of the reference high-rise buildings also confirms that, although the code coefficients are adequately conservative, they can be revised to arrive at a more efficient and cost-effective design of regular and irregular high-rise building

ASSESSMENT OF ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF NOVEL DISINFECTANT BASED ON PEROXYGEN/BIGUANIDE/ALCOHOL COMBINATION

A new disinfectant formula based on combination of Hydrogen peroxide 0.6g%, Chlorohexidine gluconate 0.5g% and Isopropanol 70.5g% was investigated to be used as broad spectrum disinfectant in an attempt to make better control over microbial bioburden in clean area during critical processes. A proper neutralization method was first implemented using combi-nation of dilution 1:10 (v/v) and chemical inactivation method using LBC3T then disinfectant efficacy study was conducted using surface challenge test and finally compatibility with other disinfectants was performed to ensure that there is no adverse interaction between them. This new product demonstrated more than 3 log reduction (LR) in less than one minute against tested vegetative bacteria and yeast Bacillus subtilis (>4.68, >4.81, >3.85 and >4.88), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (>4.00, >4.34, >3.85 and >4.04) Candida albicans (>4.11, >4.18, >4.95 and >4.48), Micrococcus lylae (>5.56, >5.56, >5.65 and 5.74) and Leifsonia aquaticum (>5.82, 5.79, >5.75 and >5.74) but about 15min were needed to achieve high log reduction against Aspergillus niger (3.02, 2.94, 2.91 and 3.10) and no remarkable log reduction of bacterial spores of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus pumilus even after 30min of contact time on coupons inoculated with microorganisms. There is no interaction between this new formula and any other commonly used disinfectants in pharma-ceutical facility. The new disinfectant may be used as sanitizer with good activity but not as sporicidal agent for up to 30min contact time

Comparison between different methods of sonographic cervical length assessment during pregnancy

Background: Preterm birth is the presence of uterine contraction of sufficient frequency and intensity to effect progressive effacement and dilatation of cervix prior to term gestation (between 20 and 37 weeks). The objective of this study was to compare between the different methods of assessment of cervical length (Trans abdominal, trans vaginal, and transperineal) during pregnancy as a possible screening of preterm birth.Methods: Prospective cohort study was performed on 200 cases who attended at Elshat by hospital. At gestational age from 20 to 26 weeks, there was no significant difference regarding demographic data as (maternal age, parity). The route of examination was started according to urinary bladder fullness at admission. Accordingly, the patient was not instructed to void if she had full bladder, rather we started by transabdominal route. If she had empty bladder at the time she presented we started by transperineal then transvaginal route. The four measurements were compared to each other and the difference between them calculated. The selected sample size was found to be 200 pregnant women.Results: Transvaginal route gave the longest cervical measurements followed by transperineal route then abdominal route (full bladder) and finally tans abdominal route (semi-full bladder). Our results indicate that there is a significant positive correlation among the four methods of measuring cervical length in that gestational age.Conclusions: Tran-abdominal assessment could be used initially for cervical length screening, considering the maternal and fetal condition. Then, if the need arises, transvaginal sonography could be used. This step by step approach may be more convenient and useful to both patients and physicians for cervical length screening

Accounting information system in the water industry : The case of cost management.

Water is a primary human need. The supply of water has not increased in the face of population growth. At present severe pressure exists on water supplies in California and along the river system both in the developed and developing world (especially in the case of the Nile in Egypt). Whatever our policy stance towards the economics of water supply (the liberal market, social democracy and democratic socialism), cost management and processes are central to the water sector. The control or governing ideas within which cost management takes place are the two major concerns of this thesis. These two issues were explored in a case study of the General Organisation for the Greater Cairo Water Supply, focusing specifically upon government policy, administrative controls, the influence of public sector bodies and other customers. Control procedures, the perceptions and experiences of managers (regarding policy choice), cost management policies and practices, environmental demands (both market and physical), were all sought. Data was collected from multiple sources (triangulation) involving interviews, questionnaires, documentation, direct observation and participant observation. The research findings showed that the practice of cost management has developed. Reasons were multi-fold: (a) To keep costs well above revenue (b) To engender a factor-resources cost and technical approach to cost management (for efficiency and optimisation) (c) To deflect any attention away from strategic cost management (d) To engender an organisational belief that ambiguity and unpredictability in the environmental market is impossible to handle (e) To deny the relevance of customer cost/usage efficiency as a matter of systemic significance. This 'evolution of control' is explained through the theoretical context of institutional theory; demonstrating how values, beliefs and modes of regulation have produced a technical and passive non-reactive control system

Evaluation of early changes of cartilage biomarkers following arthroscopic meniscectomy in young Egyptian adults

Background: The metabolic imbalance in the articular cartilage following meniscectomy includes an increase in cartilage degradation with an insufficient reparative or anabolic response resulting in structural, biochemical and mechanical changes that can progress from pre-clinical, to pre-radiographic, to radiographic damage of the joint.Purpose: To evaluate combinations of imaging and biochemical biomarkers for cartilage breakdown, synthesis and quantity in the early period of post-arthroscopic meniscectomy.Subjects and methods: Twenty young adults (three of them were females) who underwent unilateral arthroscopic partial meniscectomy were evaluated. The patients had a mean age of 32.5 years (range, 24–39), mean BMI of 28.5 kg/m2 (range, 24–34). Preoperative and six months postoperative US and MRI-based  markers (cartilage thickness and volume, respectively) were quantified for media  and lateral tibio-femoral compartments for both knees. Preoperative, three and six months postoperative biochemical markers serum assays were measured; COMP and Col II (cartilage matrix breakdown) and PIICP (cartilage synthesis). These three markers were measured in an age, sex and BMI matched twenty healthy subjects for comparison.Results: The meniscectomized knees had significantly lower total knee cartilage volume, P < 0.05 but non-significant mean thickness than the intact contralateral knees. Among the individual biochemical markers, PIICP had the highest significant diagnostic accuracy quantified as the area under the receiver-operator  characteristics curve (AUC) of 0.75 (95% confidence interval: 0.509– 0.912) higher than all others, P < 0.05 to distinguish subjects with progressive cartilage loss from non-progressors. Diagnostically, ratio of COMP and Col II to PIICP scored AUC of 0.90 (0.69– 0.98, higher than PIICP: P = 0.0001). For prediction of cartilage loss, none of the individual markers could be used.Conclusion: Cartilage volume loss by MRI combined with changes in cartilage matrix turnover detected by molecular biomarkers may reflect the initial changes associated with cartilage degeneration that account for early OA.