The in vitro effect of cytokine autoantibodies on Th17-differentiation and function

Revised version: appendix removed.Master's Thesis in Biomedical SciencesBMED395MAMD-MEDB

Stapedotomy Favorable Outcome on Osteosclerosis Patient's with High Pitch Tinnitus

Background: Otosclerosis is a primary disease of the temporal bone and otic capsule with autosomal dominant transmission and variable expression. The exact pathogenesis and factors affecting tinnitus in otosclerosis patients are unknown. This study aims to find the effect of stapes surgery on improving tinnitus in otosclerosis patients. Aim: This study aims to find the effect of stapes surgery on improving tinnitus in otosclerosis patients. Methods: Twenty-nine otosclerosis patients with preoperative tinnitus were enrolled in the study. Patients were divided into three groups; patients with high pitch tinnitus (>2 kHz), patients with medium pitch frequency (500-2000 Hz), and patients with low pitch frequency (<500 Hz). In addition, a visual analog scale was used to evaluate tinnitus severity. Results: In our study, 15 (51%) patients' tinnitus showed significant improvement, 5 (17%) patients' tinnitus converted to medium and low frequency, and nine (31%) patients' tinnitus remained unchanged. The majority of subjects (24, 83%) have decreased VAS scores (p= 0.001), and 5 (17%) patients remained unchanged. Results of pre and postoperative ABG showed that 82.3% of subjects (n=27) have postoperative ABG<10, and 18% (n=6) have ABG of 10 to 20. The patient's mean ABG was decreased from 35.9 ± 10.7 dB before surgery to 9.03 ± 7.9 dB after surgery (p= 0.001). Conclusion: Patients high pitched tinnitus may be a better candidate for stapes surgery, although others can also benefit from surgical intervention

THE EFFECTS OF ŽIŽEKIAN READING OF VIOLENCE IN SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET ON READERS

Literature has a greater impact on the reader's mind than media, as it activates imagination, visualizes characters, and keeps their actions and behaviors in the reader's mind for longer periods. Famous literary works and authors attract more readers, causing greater effects if not adequately explained. The study, based on the constructivist paradigm, used a phenomenological strategy to show the negative effects of (constant) reading of the violence in Shakespeare's Hamlet, an English play that is one of the most famous literary masterpieces in the world. Participants in this study were educated men and women who had the capacity to comprehend violence in literature. The participants included ten educated individuals with various university degrees, from an associate degree to a doctorate, from different fields of study, and between the ages of 20 and 50. Participants' experiences and feedback were analyzed, and the results demonstrated that violent actions in stories can have great effects on the lives of not only the readers themselves but their families and also the whole society

Stochastic Analysis and Regeneration of Rough Surfaces

We investigate Markov property of rough surfaces. Using stochastic analysis we characterize the complexity of the surface roughness by means of a Fokker-Planck or Langevin equation. The obtained Langevin equation enables us to regenerate surfaces with similar statistical properties compared with the observed morphology by atomic force microscopy.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure

Analysis of Transmission Methods for Ultra-Reliable Communications

Fifth generation of cellular systems is expected to widely enable machine-type communications (MTC). The envisioned applications and services for MTC have diverse requirements which are not fully supported with current wireless systems. Ultra-reliable communications (URC) with low-latency is an essential feature for mission-critical applications, such asindustrial automation, public safety, and vehicular safety applications. This feature guarantees a communication service with a high level of reliability. This paper investigates the feasibility and efficiency of URC over wireless links. It also analyzes the effectiveness of different transmission methods, including spatial diversity and support of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). Finally, the importance of reliable feedback information is highlighted.Peer reviewe

Delay Analysis of Network Architectures for Machine-to-Machine Communications in LTE System

Machine-to-machine communications has emerged to provide autonomic communications for a wide variety of intelligentservices and applications. Among different communication technologies available for connecting machines, cellular-basedsystems have gained more attention as backhaul networks due to ubiquitous coverage and mobility support. The diverse ranges of service requirements as well as machine constraints require adopting different network architectures. This paper reviews three M2M network architectures to integrate machines into the LTE system and analyzes their associated communication delays. It also presents how the appropriate networks can be selected for some machine-to-machine applications, fulfilling their latency constraints.Peer reviewe

Data Aggregation in Capillary Networks for Machine-to-Machine Communications

As machine-to-machine applications using cellular systems become pervasive, it is an important concern that their deployment does not jeopardize the performance of the cellular systems. Support for a massive number of machines brings technical challenges affecting the performance of the random access channel and efficiency of radio resource allocation. Capillary networks are considered as an extensions to the cellular systems for providing large-scale connectivity. This paper proposes an aggregation scheme for capillary networks connected to the LTE network to improve their communication efficiency. A gateway, an intermediate unit between machines and the base station, aggregates packets from the machines during a predefined time, and then delivers them to the LTE network. In addition, this paper analyzes the trade-offs between random access interaction, resource allocation, and communication latency. Results reveals that accepting the extra latency for accumulating packets can significantly reduce the random access requests and the required resources for the data transmissions.Peer reviewe