Kinematic synthesis of a well service machine

Blowout preventers are used in the oil well industry to prevent accidental oil fires, and guide valves are assembled atop the preventers. The current solution is to use cranes, as this is time-consuming and expensive, a solution using an appropriate four-bar mechanism for this purpose was contemplated, using Burmester theory and the four-position synthesis method.;The angles and distance of the four positions were calculated and the data obtained was specified as input for the synthesis of the four-bar mechanism using four-position synthesis programmed in MATLAB(TM). The moving pivots (k) and the ground pivots (m) were obtained from the program and are used in calculating the link lengths W and Z. These link lengths were input to ADAMS(TM) software to simulate the behavior of the mechanism. Mechanism configurations were evaluated and the mechanical advantage was calculated to select the better design.;Results suggest that the method of four-position synthesis can used to design an appropriate mechanism to place the guide valve on the blowout preventer

Information Systems and Health Care-VI: Medical Nomograms with Decision Support Systems: A Case Study and an Enhanced Architecture

Nomograms are used extensively in medical practice as decision aids to adjust treatment protocols based on knowledge gained from previous outcomes. In this paper, we describe a case study of a surgical nomogram system that was developed for estimating laser settings in refractive eye surgery. This system was developed in Microsoft Access with add-ins from Total Access Statistics. It is being used in one of the authors\u27 surgical practice. Based on experiences with the system, we present an enhanced architecture for a nomogram server that can be used in other areas of medicine

Building Decision Adviser Bots

This overview article explores the prospects and promises of new technologies for developing conversational software to aid, assist and advise people in personal and organizational decision situations. The quest for conversational decision advisers began in the 1970s with the development of interactive, computing systems like the Hewlett-Packard 2000 Access Time- Share systems. With the advent of Cloud-based, Artificial Intelligence development environments, the capabilities needed to develop conversational software are increasingly available and easy to use. Hence, it is feasible to develop decision adviser (DA) bots and the bots are easier to deploy. Bots can be built for action taking and for question and answer dialogs. DA bots can be deployed for use in both structured and semi-structured decision situations. DA bots can perform increasingly complex tasks. Overall, more exploratory design science research is needed to improve our understanding of the design, development, and deployment of DA bots for use by managers, customers, and clients

Teaching Programming Via The Web: A Time-Tested Methodology

Advances in information and communication technologies give us the ability to reach out beyond the time and place limitations of the traditional classroom. However, effective online teaching is more than just transferring traditional courses to the World Wide Web (WWW). We describe how we have used “off the shelf” software and the infrastructure that is available via the WWW to develop and deliver a complete learning experience in programming business applications using a popular programming language. The course is unique in its coordinated use of traditional and nontraditional materials to introduce and explain difficult programming constructs. Student performance, job placement, and feedback have confirmed the convenience and effectiveness of this method

UNI Diversity Assessments: Organizational Diversity Assessment; Student Climate Assessment; Diversity Key Performance Indicators [2009]

An analysis of the organizational diversity survey and the student climate assessment survey results on diversity from 2009.+E248E240:E24

FORMULATION AND IN-VITRO EVALUATION OF EFAVIRENZ LIQUISOLID COMPACTS

Objective: The present research is aimed to enhance the dissolution rate of Efavirenz using liquisolid compact technology.Methods: About 16 different formulations were developed using factorial design with carriers (Neusilin and Fugicalin), binder (PVP K-30) and vehicle (polyethylene glycol 300) as independent variables and aerosil 200 is used as coating material. The In-vitro drug release from the LSC has used a dependent variable. The empirical method by Spireas and Bolton was applied to calculate the amounts of carrier and coating materials and obtained the improved flow characteristics and hardness by changing the proportion of carrier and coating materials.Results: A 23 factorial design is used and developed LSC using Neusilin (LSC-N1 to LSC-N8) and Fugicalin (LSC-F1 to LSC-F8). The physicochemical evaluation of all formulations exhibited well within the specification limits with respect to weight variation, hardness, friability and content uniformity. The In-vitro drug release from these LSC was evaluated in 0.1 N HCl and the optimized formulation (LSC-N8) was compared with pure drug (capsule) and physical mixture (tablet). The release studies proved that the liquisolid tablets results in higher release profile than pure drug and physical mixture due to increase in surface and wetting properties of the drug.Conclusion: LSC technique confirmed the enhanced dissolution rate of Efavirenz, which in turn helps in improving bioavailability.Â

Evaluation of the autologous bone marrow mononuclear therapy and functional restoration in the scarred myocardium by imaging analysis

A 62-year-old male patient with previous history of myocardial infarction, akinetic myocardial segments, and an ejection fraction of 31% with the NYHA class III category was selected for the autologous bone marrow (ABM)-derived mononuclear cell fraction injection during CABG surgery. Nitrate augmented myocardial tracer uptake was imaged by ECG gated SPECT pre- and 1 year post-ABM therapy, using radiotracer Tc99m Sestamibi. The baseline gated SPECT demonstrated full thickness infarct in 40% area of LAD territory. Bone marrow aspirate of 20.0 ml from sternum yielding a mono nuclear cell fraction of 4.5 × 107 cells/ml was suspended in 2.0 ml of sterile normal saline to be injected at eight sites of the injured myocardium. There were no apparent side effects due to the procedure, i.e., life threatening events, major bleeds, reaction, or shock. The case was followed at the end of 1, 3, 6 months by ECG and Holter monitor and ECG gated SPECT at the end of 12 months. The gated SPECT images demonstrated mild but definitely improved tracer uptake within part of the infarcted segments along with improvement in ejection fraction to 45%, and a clinical change in the NYHA Class to II. Cell-based therapy may offer benefits of induction of normal tissue microenvironment

Why Delannoy numbers?

This article is not a research paper, but a little note on the history of combinatorics: We present here a tentative short biography of Henri Delannoy, and a survey of his most notable works. This answers to the question raised in the title, as these works are related to lattice paths enumeration, to the so-called Delannoy numbers, and were the first general way to solve Ballot-like problems. These numbers appear in probabilistic game theory, alignments of DNA sequences, tiling problems, temporal representation models, analysis of algorithms and combinatorial structures.Comment: Presented to the conference "Lattice Paths Combinatorics and Discrete Distributions" (Athens, June 5-7, 2002) and to appear in the Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference

Optimization and Heuristic Facility Location Algorithms for the Smart Grid

One of the most crucial aspects in maintaining a smart grid Network is to monitor its stability, control and minimize the outages, blackouts etc. which can be achieved by Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). Despite having a number of advantages, PMUs are expensive and cannot be placed at every node in a network for constant observation. Therefore, it is economically feasible to place these PMUs at optimal locations, depending on the demand of each node. Our current research attempts to resolve the issue of positioning PMUs in a dynamic network at optimal locations which is accomplished by using two different heuristic algorithms, K-Median and K-Center heuristic algorithms. A limited number of PMUs will be used such that all nodes are served efficiently. Further, we will compare the time taken for the optimization and heuristic procedures of both algorithms in a dynamic network