An inquiry into non-survey techniques for updating input-output coefficients: Comparative experiments with data from the Soviet Union

The study begins with explanation of I-O tables, intertemporal stability of its coefficients, and logic of updating techniques. Following a literature review, nine non-survey updating methods are selected and utilized to update the actual 1966 table of the Soviet Union to the target year of 1972. Next, the data and simulation procedure are specified and justified. The concept of matrix comparison along with methods to accomplish this task are discussed. Then, the resultant updated matrices are compared with the actual data, via employment of 25 criterions. Accordingly, RAS and Friedlander procedures are ranked as top performers. The results, while reasonable in holistic sense, are not impressive partitively. Exogenous estimation of a subset of coefficients is considered next. Several possibilities for selective targeting are investigated, and three such criterions, namely key, most important, and largest coefficients are adopted. These criterions, then are used to modify RAS, Friedlander, and NAIVE methods via incorporation of exogenous data. An additional approach, Residual Minimum method, is also employed. Thus, ten modified estimates are obtained and compared with the actual table. The outcome indicates substantial improvements in the RAS and Friedlander updates, particularly when exogenously estimated subset consists of the largest, or the most important coefficients. NAIVE method displays reasonable improvement. Inclusion of prior information, however, in some instances leads to deterioration of individual estimates for the remaining coefficients. Finally, sectoral aggregation and its effects on the performances of updating methods are addressed. Aggregated estimates at three levels of sectoral details, i.e., 36, 16, and 6 sectors, are obtained and comparisons are performed. The results indicate that, generally the performances of the updating methods, as well as the intertemporal stability of coefficients, are direct functions of the level of sectoral detail. No change in ranking occurs due to aggregation, Conclusions of this research may be used for selection of updating methods, as well as in construction phase of tables, to identify and focus on the most influential coefficients. Throughout, a rather detailed presentation of methods and statistical tools are offered. All experiments are conducted for both direct and inverse matrices. NAIVE, (constant coefficient), is added for comparative purposes

Fuzzy Depth Based Routing Protocol for Underwater Acoustic Wireless Sensor Networks

Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks consist of a variable number of sensors and vehicles that are implemented to perform collaborative monitoring tasks over a given area. However, designing energy-efficient routing protocols for this type of networks is essential and challenging because the sensor nodes is powered by batteries, underwater environment is harsh and propagation delay is long. Most of the existing routing protocols used for underwater wireless sensor networks, such as depth based routing (DBR) protocol use a greedy approach to deliver data packets to the destination sink nodes at the water surface. Further, DBR does not require full-dimensional location information of sensor nodes. Instead, it needs only local depth information, which can be easily obtained with an inexpensive depth sensor that can be equipped in every underwater sensor node. DBR uses smaller depth as the only metric for choosing a route. This decision might lead to high energy consumption and long end to end delay which will degrade network performance. This paper proposes an improvement of DBR protocol by making routing decisions depend on fuzzy cost based on the residual energy of receiver node in conjunction with the depth difference of receiver node and previous forwarder node and the number of hops traveled by the received packet. Our simulation was carried out in Aquasim an NS2 based underwater simulator and the evaluation results show that the proposed fuzzy multi metric DBR protocol (FDBR) performs better than the original DBR in terms of average end to end delay, packet delivery ratio and energy savin

Lead Toxicity Resulting from Chronic Ingestion of Opium

A 32-year-old man presented to the emergency department (ED) with lower abdominal pain and constipation. He related chronic ingestion of large amounts of opium. Physical examination showed mild abdominal tenderness and gingival discoloration. Diagnostic studies showed a mild hypochromic, microcytic anemia with basophilic stippling of the red blood cells. Abdominal imaging showed no intra-abdominal pathology. A diagnosis of lead toxicity was confirmed through serum lead levels. The patient was put on chelation therapy and his signs and symptoms started to resolve. As a comprehensive search for other sources of lead was unsuccessful, opium adulterants were considered as the culprit. Chemical analysis of the opium confirmed this. Contaminated drugs have been reported as a source of exposure to toxins such as arsenic or lead. While other reports deal with patients from clinics, this report illustrates lead toxicity from ingestion of contaminated opium in the ED

Investigating the effects of flax fibers application on multi-objective optimization of laminated composite plates for simultaneous cost minimization and frequency gap maximization

Funding information This research is supported by a research grant of the University of Tabriz (grant No. 3500). CRediT authorship contribution statement Yousef Hosseinzadeh: Conceptualization, Methodology. Shahin Jalili: Software, Writing - original draft. Reza Khani: Visualization, Investigation.Peer reviewedPostprin

Performance assessment of meta-heuristics for composite layup optimisation

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Retraction Note to: The protective effect of Pentoxifylline on testopathy in male rats following Dimethyl Nitrosamine administration: An experimental study

This article has been retracted at the request of the IJRM editorial board, based on research the results of an investigation which found serious flaws in publishing the study results. &nbsp

Anesthetic Considerations in a Patient With Plexiform Neurofibromatosis: A Case Report

Plexiform neurofibromatosis is an uncommon variant of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) (Von Recklinghausen’s disease). There is a greater prevalence of neurofibromatosis 1 in patients with other neoplasms, such as rhabdomyosarcomas, gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), pheochromocytomas, carcinoid tumors and ganglioneuromas. We report the anesthetic implications of a case of a 33 year old patient with plexiform neurofibromatosis and a history of pheochromocytoma which was operated on previously. He presented with painless swelling on upper eye-lead since childhood and had multiple café-au-lait spots and neurofibromas on the trunk. The surgery was done in two sessions first on the plexiform neurofibroma of the eye followed by the operation on the brain mass

Secondary Brain Lymphoma in a Case of Breast Diffused Large B-Cell Lymphoma: Case Report

Secondary central nervous system lymphoma (SCNSL) is known as a rare disease. The risk factor of developing SCNSL is primary lymphoma type and site of involvement. We present a patient with an altered mental status known case of breast diffused large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who underwent stereotactic biopsy because of a left periventricular mass lesion, which diagnosed as secondary brain lymphoma after pathologic typing. Because of limited data about the secondary central nervous system, lymphoma and it is a risk factor, we reported an aggressive breast DLBCL with brain involvement

A comprehensive survey on cultural algorithms

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