1,140 research outputs found
Promoting Local Talents to Fight Local Health Issues STEP-UP in the Pacific
This manuscript introduces the abstracts for the University of Hawai\u27i at Manoa Coordinating Center
Treatment of Conjunctival Keratoacanthoma with Topical Interferon-alpha2b
Conjunctival keratoacanthoma is a rare disease which is believed to be a low-grade form of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Although conjunctival keratoacanthoma was primarily described almost 60 years ago, only few cases have been described in the English literature and its diagnosis and treatment guidelines are still controversial. Almost all suggested treatment options have been surgical methods and non-invasive methods have rarely been examined in treatment of this disease. Here we report an interesting case of conjunctival keratoacanthoma which was treated with topical Interferon-alpha2b. Keywords: Interferon-alpha2b; Keratoacanthoma; Conjunctival neoplams.
Computational approaches for engineering effective teams
The performance of a team depends not only on the abilities of its individual
members, but also on how these members interact with each other. Inspired by
this premise and motivated by a large number of applications in educational,
industrial and management settings, this thesis studies a family of problems,
known as team-formation problems, that aim to engineer teams that are
effective and successful. The major challenge in this family of problems is
dealing with the complexity of the human team participants. Specifically, each
individual has his own objectives, demands, and constraints that might be in
contrast with the desired team objective. Furthermore, different collaboration
models lead to different instances of team-formation problems. In this thesis,
we introduce several such models and describe techniques and efficient
algorithms for various instantiations of the team-formation problem.
This thesis consists of two main parts. In the first part, we examine three
distinct team-formation problems that are of significant interest in (i)
educational settings, (ii) industrial organizations, and (iii) management
settings respectively. What constitutes an effective team in each of the
aforementioned settings is totally dependent on the objective of the team. For
instance, the performance of a team (or a study group) in an educational
setting can be measured as the amount of learning and collaboration that takes
place inside the team. In industrial organizations, desirable teams are those
that are cost-effective and highly profitable. Finally in management settings,
an interesting body of research uncovers that teams with faultlines are prone
to performance decrements. Thus, the challenge is to form teams that are free
of faultlines, that is, to form teams that are robust and less likely to break
due to disagreements. The first part of the thesis discusses approaches for
formalizing these problems and presents efficient computational methods for
solving them.
In the second part of the thesis, we consider the problem of improving the
functioning of existing teams. More precisely, we show how we can use models
from social theory to capture the dynamics of the interactions between the team
members. We further discuss how teams can be modified so that the interaction
dynamics lead to desirable outcomes such as higher levels of agreement or
lesser tension and conflict among the team members
Failure strength of thin-walled cylindrical GFRP composite shell against static internal and external pressure for various volumetric fiber fraction
A study on a Circular cylindrical thin-walled shell failure made of GRP composite subjected to static internal and external pressure was carried out. The results were acquired using analytical and FEM simulation approaches for various volumetric fiber fractions. Fiber breakage, matrix breakage, interlaminate shear deformation, delamination shear deformation and micro buckling failure were investigated employing maximum failure criteria against internal and external pressure. One-ply cylindrical shell with fiber angle orientation of 0 degree was modeled in ABAQUS finite element simulation and the result was varied using analytical approaches. Moreover, the pressure fluctuations for various volumetric fiber fraction were quadratic according to plotted graphs. Meanwhile, MATLAB software was used for theoretical analysis. The comparison of two approaches was proved to be accurate. Subsequently, failure strength of various laminated GFRP cylindrical shell with different fiber angle orientations at each ply was studied for diverse volumetric fiber fraction factors. Stacking sequence, fiber angle orientations were mainly effective on failure strength
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