Sensitivity analysis and calibration of the alligator cracking model in the mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide using regional data

The models used in the mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide (M-EPDG) were calibrated using the data from all across the United States. The alligator cracking model uses traffic, material and structural data along with local and global calibration factors to calculate the number of axles to failure and the damage index. Both of which are further used to calculate the fatigue cracking in the pavement with the help of regression coefficients and calibration constants. However, as these coefficients and constants were developed using the national database, the model might not predict the fatigue behavior of the pavement accurately for a particular state. This problem arises from the fact that there were limited sections of LTPP in every state and the model was calibrated on the average value using the national database. The verification of M-EPDG with level 2 and 3 inputs for the State of New Jersey did not yield satisfactory results with respect to alligator cracking for 25 sections analyzed in one of the studies. The reasons for the difference between the predicted and measured results might be due to inaccurate inputs or error in the calibration factors or regression coefficients in the prediction models. As the accuracy of the input data was confirmed by using multiple resources, the confidence level with respect to the input data was very high. Thus the error might be due to error in the calibration factors or regression coefficients in the prediction model that was calculated based on the national average. The main focus of this study is to use the twenty five sections evaluated in the above mentioned study and four more NJDOT sections to understand the physical impact of these regression constants on pavement performance and their variability with different pavement properties and parameters. The final aim of this study is to calibrate and validate the alligator cracking model for the state of New Jersey using these twenty nine sections spread across the State

Overview of Cancers and Impact of Music Therapy in Intervention: A Literature Review

Cancer is taken under consideration as a fatal disease. It’s caused by a spread of things including unhealthy lifestyles, pollution, stress, radiation exposure, infection, tobacco consumption, and unhealthy food choices. There are several varieties of cancer that affect the chassis and their growth varies depending on the type. Cancer could be a major reason for death after a heart condition. There are 10 million new cases of cancer and approximately 5 million deaths in 2020 were caused by cancer (World Health Organization, 2018)1, and deaths from cancer worldwide are projected to still rise to over 20 million by 2025 (Stewart and Wild. 2014)2. There are several intervention modes to treat cancer patients. Besides medical intervention, there are prominent psychosocial concerns that have a very noticeable impact on intervention in the case of cancer patients. Cancer treatment facilities in India have incorporated psychosocial services into cancer care by routinely assessing patients’ levels of distress. For that Music therapy can improve their quality of life by addressing the emotional, spiritual, and physical needs that will arise during this point. Furthermore, music therapy also can be applied to assist relationships throughout the grieving process by providing comfort, continuity, and opportunities for specific feelings of loss (Rossetti et al., 2017)3. Hence, there’s a greater need and justification for exploring the scope of using music therapy with cancer patients, especially in low-income countries, including Indi

LANAP, Periodontics and Beyond: A Review

ABSTRACTLaser has emerged as an adjunct in several treatment modalities in dentistry in the past few decades. This less invasive bladeless technique is bringing revolutionary outcomes in a plethora of periodontal treatment procedures as well. A unique ameliorative approach termed LANAP, described as laser-assisted new attachment procedure was developed by Gregg and McCarthy. In 1990 they introduced an innovative treatment for diseases of gums incorporating pulsed neodymium yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd: YAG) 1064 nm wavelength laser (PerioLase MVP-7). The LANAP concept was endorsed by Yukna et al who conducted a study according to the protocol reinforced at the1996 world workshop in periodontics, which established specific histologic criteria to prove regeneration. Yukna’s histological study found that regeneration of the periodontally compromised root could be achieved by Nd: YAG laser. LANAP facilitates refurbishing of new tissues from supporting structures of the periodontium wherein the unhealthy surface of the roots exhibit pristine attachments in human beings. This paper is a review providing a detailed report of LANAP from its inception to recent advances

Pigmented Corneal Ulcer

Purpose: To report the clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, and treatment of a rare case of keratitis caused by pigmented fungi Bipolaris hawaiiensis. Case Report: A 55-year-old man presented with a history of trauma with vegetative matter in his left eye. Slit lamp biomicroscopic examination revealed the presence of a brownish-black pigmented plaque with surrounding infiltrates. Corneal scrapings revealed multiple septate hyphae. Culture revealed growth of the Bipolaris species. The patient was treated with topical natamycin 5%, topical voriconazole 1%, and oral itraconazole followed by intracameral amphotericin B (5 μg/mL). The patient responded well to the treatment. Conclusion: Brown pigmented infiltrates are an important clinical feature of dematiaceous fungi. B. hawaiiensis is a rare cause of corneal phaeohyphomycosis. Our patient responded well to intracameral amphotericin B, which obviated the need for penetrating keratoplasty

Harnessing the Power of Many: Extensible Toolkit for Scalable Ensemble Applications

Many scientific problems require multiple distinct computational tasks to be executed in order to achieve a desired solution. We introduce the Ensemble Toolkit (EnTK) to address the challenges of scale, diversity and reliability they pose. We describe the design and implementation of EnTK, characterize its performance and integrate it with two distinct exemplar use cases: seismic inversion and adaptive analog ensembles. We perform nine experiments, characterizing EnTK overheads, strong and weak scalability, and the performance of two use case implementations, at scale and on production infrastructures. We show how EnTK meets the following general requirements: (i) implementing dedicated abstractions to support the description and execution of ensemble applications; (ii) support for execution on heterogeneous computing infrastructures; (iii) efficient scalability up to O(10^4) tasks; and (iv) fault tolerance. We discuss novel computational capabilities that EnTK enables and the scientific advantages arising thereof. We propose EnTK as an important addition to the suite of tools in support of production scientific computing

High-throughput Binding Affinity Calculations at Extreme Scales

Resistance to chemotherapy and molecularly targeted therapies is a major factor in limiting the effectiveness of cancer treatment. In many cases, resistance can be linked to genetic changes in target proteins, either pre-existing or evolutionarily selected during treatment. Key to overcoming this challenge is an understanding of the molecular determinants of drug binding. Using multi-stage pipelines of molecular simulations we can gain insights into the binding free energy and the residence time of a ligand, which can inform both stratified and personal treatment regimes and drug development. To support the scalable, adaptive and automated calculation of the binding free energy on high-performance computing resources, we introduce the High- throughput Binding Affinity Calculator (HTBAC). HTBAC uses a building block approach in order to attain both workflow flexibility and performance. We demonstrate close to perfect weak scaling to hundreds of concurrent multi-stage binding affinity calculation pipelines. This permits a rapid time-to-solution that is essentially invariant of the calculation protocol, size of candidate ligands and number of ensemble simulations. As such, HTBAC advances the state of the art of binding affinity calculations and protocols