De-Centralized and Centralized Control for Realistic EMS Maglev Systems

A comparative study of de-centralized and centralized controllers when used with real EMS Maglev Systems is introduced. This comparison is divided into two parts. Part I is concerned with numerical simulation and experimental testing on a two ton six-magnet EMS Maglev vehicle. Levitation and lateral control with these controllers individually and when including flux feedback control in combination with these controllers to enhance stability are introduced. The centralized controller is better than the de-centralized one when the system is exposed to a lateral disturbing force such as wind gusts. The flux feedback control when combined with de-centralized or centralized controllers does improve the stability and is more resistant and robust with respect to the air gap variations. Part II is concerned with the study of Maglev vehicle-girder dynamic interaction system and the comparison between these two controllers on this typical system based on performance and ride quality achieved. Numerical simulations of the ODU EMS Maglev vehicle interacting with girder are conducted with these two different controllers. The de-centralized and centralized control for EMS Maglev systems that interact with a flexible girder provides similar ride quality

Isolation of catechins from Cycas armstrongii Miq. of an Egyptian origin

The phytochemical investigation of Cycas armstrongii Miq. leaves and twigs using different chromatographic techniques led to the isolation of three catechin monomers; catechin (1), epicatechin (2), and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (3), for the first time from this species. The chemotaxonomic significance of the isolated compounds is discussed in the rest of this article

Wodel: a domain-specific language for model mutation

This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in SAC '16: Proceedings of the 31st Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/10.1145/2851613.2851751Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) is a software engineering paradigm that uses models as main assets in all development phases. While many languages for model manipulation exist (e.g., for model transformation or code generation), there is a lack of frameworks to de ne and apply model mutations. A model mutant is a variation of an original model, created by speci c model mutation operations. Model mutation has many applications, for instance, in the areas of model trans- formation testing, model-based testing or education. In this paper, we present a domain-speci c language, called Wodel, for the speci cation and generation of model mu- tants. Wodel is domain-independent, as it can be used to generate mutants of models conforming to arbitrary meta- models. Its development environment is extensible, permit- ting the incorporation of post-processors for di erent appli- cations. As an example, we show an application consisting on the automated generation of exercises for particular do- mains (automata, class diagrams, electronic circuits, etc.).Thanks to Víctor López Rivero for the initial implementation of the Wodel IDE. Work supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (TIN2014-52129-R), the Madrid Region (S2013/ICE-3006), and the EU commission (FP7-ICT-2013-10, #611125)

Detection and identification of Apple stem pitting virus and Apple stem grooving virus affecting apple and pear trees in Egypt

Apple stem pitting virus (ASPV) and Apple stem grooving virus (ASGV) are economically important and infect either individually or in mixed infection commercial apple and pear cultivars causing yield loses. Young green bud and/or base of petiole were collected from naturally infected apple and pear trees from different locations in Egypt. Both viruses were detected frequently in apple and pear samples. A total of 420 trees from 9 different orchards were tested using one-step RT-PCR; 13% and 17% of these samples were infected with ASPV and ASGV, respectively. Mixed infection with both viruses occurred in 4% of the tested trees. ELISA was reliable for detection of ASGV but not ASPV. Total RNA for one-step RT-PCR was isolated from 100 mg fresh affected apple and pear leaf tissue using Qiagen RNeasy plant mini-kit (Qiagen, Crawley, UK), according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The one step-RTPCR method was performed using ASPV and ASGV-specific primers for each virus. A 316 bp fragment for ASPV and 524bp fragment for ASGV were amplified and detected by gel electrophoresis analysis which indicated the presence of ASPV and ASGV in affected apple and pear cultivars. Southern blot hybridization of the amplified products to digoxigenin (DIG)-labeled cDNA probe for ASPV or ASGV confirmed the results obtained by electrophoresis analysis. No product was detected in amplified extracts of uninfected apple and pear samples. The detection of ASPV and ASGV by one step-RT-PCR assay was successful and appears useful for testing pome fruit germplasm in quarantine and budwood in certification programs.Keywords: Apple and pear, ASPV, ASGV, virus detection, One step RT-PCR, Southern blot hybridizatio

Synthesis and Evaluation of Some New Thiazoles as Antioxidant Additives for Egyptian Lubricating Oils

4-(2-Aminothiazol-4-yl)-phenol (1) reacted with 2-(4-methoxy-benzylidene)-malononitrile or 1,3-diphenyl-1H- pyrazole-4-carbaldehyde to afford enaminonitrile, pyrazolo derivatives 2 and 3, respectively. On the other hand, methylation of 1 afforded the acetyl derivative 4 which reacted with phenyl isothiocyanate, diazonium salt, acetic anhydride, cyclic anhydride, ethyl acetoacetate, benzaldehyde or phosphorous oxychloride to afford compounds 5-9, 11 and 12, respectively. Moreover, the compound 12 reacted with ethyl cyanoacetate to afford compound 13. A one-pot reaction of compound 1 with ethyl acetoacetate and benzaldehyde afforded compound 10. The synthesized compounds were evaluated as antioxidant additives for lube oil. Key words: Key words: Aminothiazole; Condensation; Antioxidant Additive

Frontal-view Face Detection in The Presence of Skin-Tone Regions Using a New Symmetry Approach

In this paper, an efficient algorithm for detecting frontalview faces in color images is proposed. The proposed algorithm has a special task; it detects faces in the presence of skin-tone regions such as human body, clothes, and background. Firstly, a pixel based color classifier is applied to segment the skin pixels from background. Next, a hybrid cluster algorithm is applied to partition the skin region. It is well known that the frontal face is symmetrical; therefore we introduce a new symmetry approach, which is the main distinguishing feature of the proposed algorithm. It measures a symmetrical value, searches for the real center of the region, and then removes the extra unsymmetrical skin pixels. The cost functions are adopted to locate the real two eyes of the candidate face region. Finally, a template matching process is preformed between an aligning frontal face model and the candidate face region as a verification step. We have tested our algorithm on 200 images from different sets. Experimental results reveal that our algorithm can perform the detection of faces successfully under wide variations of captured images.Facultad de Informátic

Dexmedetomidine as an adjuvant to bupivacaine in ultrasound fascia iliaca compartment block in proximal end femur surgeries

Background: Fracture neck femur is a common cause of hospital admission among the elderly population. Many patients admitted with fracture femur have long-standing cardiac, hepatic or renal problems. This makes a challenge to balance adequate analgesia with side effects of opioids. Fascia iliaca compartment block (FICB) is one of the peripheral nerve block techniques. It became widely used in providing postoperative analgesia for patient with fracture neck femur either in emergency department or in the operating room.Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of addition of dexmedetomidine to bupivacaine on the duration and quality of postoperative analgesia in ultrasound guided fascia iliaca compartment block in proximal end femur surgeries.Patients and methods: Sixty patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status I - II of both sexes aged from 20-60 years scheduled for proximal end femur surgeries. They were randomly assigned to one of two equal groups (n=30 each), using closed envelope technique: Bupivacaine group (B group), and Bupivacaine + dexmedetomidine (BD group). Result: Our study demonstrated prolongation of postoperative analgesia in bupivacaine-dexmedetomidine group (BD) compared to bupivacaine group (B). It showed statistically significant reduction in cumulative pethidine doses and prolongation in the time till first rescue analgesic is required in the BD group in comparison with the B group in the first 24 hours. Hemodynamic changes and incidence of side effects, were statistically insignificant among the two groups. Conclusion: Addition of dexmedetomidine, as an adjuvant to the local anesthetic bupivacaine, in ultrasound fascia iliaca compartment block provides prolongation of the duration of postoperative analgesia with less opioid consumption without remarkable side effects

Molecular changes in detrained & retrained adult jaw muscle

A hypofunctional masticatory system was developed in 21-day-old male rats by feeding them a soft diet for 27 weeks. Retraining of a parallel group for 6 weeks was achieved by switching back to a hard diet after 21 weeks. A control group was fed a hard diet for 27 weeks. At the end of the experimental period, the expression levels of the myosin heavy chain isoform genes MYH 1 and 2 (fast), 3 (embryonic) and 7 (slow) in the deep masseter were compared using qRT-PCR analysis. The gene expressions of MYH 3 and MYH 7 were significantly higher in the rehabilitation group compared with the normal and hypofunctional group, but no significant differences were found in regards to the gene expression of MYH 1 and 2. Retraining made it possible for the slow (MYH 7) isoform levels to adapt to the increased mechanical load. The increased level of embryonic (MYH 3) isoform could be due to the need of creation of new MYH isoform

Occurrence of Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli in raw chicken and beef meat in northern Egypt and dissemination of their antibiotic resistance markers

Background The global incidence of foodborne infections and antibiotic resistance is recently increased and considered of public health concern. Currently, scarcely information is available on foodborne infections and ESBL associated with poultry and beef meat in Egypt. Methods In total, 180 chicken and beef meat samples as well as internal organs were collected from different districts in northern Egypt. The samples were investigated for the prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Salmonella enterica serovars and Escherichia coli. All isolates were investigated for harbouring class 1 and class 2 integrons. Results Out of 180 investigated samples 15 S. enterica (8.3%) and 21 E. coli (11.7%) were isolated and identified. S. enterica isolates were typed as 9 S. Typhimurium (60.0%), 3 S. Paratyphi A (20.0%), 2 S. Enteritidis (13.3%) and 1 S. Kentucky (6.7%). Twenty-one E. coli isolates were serotyped into O1, O18, O20, O78, O103, O119, O126, O145, O146 and O158. The phenotypic antibiotic resistance profiles of S. enterica serovars to ampicillin, cefotaxime, cefpodoxime, trimethoprim/sulphamethoxazole and tetracycline were 86.7, 80.0, 60.0, 53.3 and 40.0%, respectively. Isolated E. coli were resistant to tetracycline (80.9%), ampicillin (71.4%), streptomycin, trimethoprim/sulphamethoxazole (61.9% for each) and cefotaxime (33.3%). The dissemination of genes coding for ESBL and AmpC β-lactamase in S. enterica isolates included bla CTX-M (73.3%), bla TEM (73.3%) and bla CMY (13.3%). In E. coli isolates bla TEM, bla CTX-M and bla OXA were identified in 52.4, 42.9 and 14.3%, respectively. The plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes identified in S. enterica were qnrA (33.3%), qnrB (20.0%) and qnrS (6.7%) while qnrA and qnrB were detected in 33.3% of E. coli isolates. Class 1 integron was detected in 13.3% of S. enterica and in 14.3% of E. coli isolates. Class 2 integron as well as the colistin resistance gene mcr-1 was not found in any of E. coli or S. enterica isolates. Conclusions This study showed high prevalence of S. enterica and E. coli as foodborne pathogens in raw chicken and beef meat in Nile Delta, Egypt. The emergence of antimicrobial resistance in S. enterica and E. coli isolates is of public health concern in Egypt. Molecular biological investigation elucidated the presence of genes associated with antibiotic resistance as well as class 1 integron in S. enterica and E. coli

Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance of Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci Isolated from Healthy Turkeys in Egypt: First Report of Linezolid Resistance

Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) are gaining much attention as causative agents of serious nosocomial infections in humans. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and phenotypic antimicrobial resistance of CoNS as well as the presence of resistance-associated genes in CoNS isolated from turkey farms in Egypt. Two hundred and fifty cloacal swabs were collected from apparently healthy turkeys in Egypt. Suspected isolates were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). The susceptibility testing of CoNS isolates against 20 antimicrobial agents was performed using the broth microdilution test. The presence of resistance-associated genes like mecA, vanA, blaZ, erm(A), erm(B), erm(C), aac-aphD, optrA, valS, and cfr was determined. Thirty-nine CoNS were identified. All isolates were phenotypically resistant to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, penicillin, ampicillin, and tetracycline. The resistance rates to erythromycin, chloramphenicol, oxacillin, daptomycin, and tigecycline were 97.4%, 94.9%, 92.3%, 89.7%, and 87.2%, respectively. Thirty-one isolates were resistant to linezolid (79.5%). Low resistance rate was detected for both imipenem and vancomycin (12.8%). The erm(C) gene was identified in all erythromycin phenotypically resistant isolates, whereas two resistant isolates possessed three resistance-conferring genes erm(A), erm(B), and erm(C). The cfr and optrA genes were detected in 11 (35.5%) and 12 (38.7%) of the 31 linezolid-resistant isolates. The mecA, aac-aphD, and blaZ genes were identified in 22.2%, 41.9%, and 2.6% of phenotypically resistant isolates to oxacillin, gentamicin, and penicillin, respectively. This is the first study revealing the correlation between linezolid resistance and presence of cfr and optrA genes in CoNS isolates from Egypt, and it can help to improve knowledge about the linezolid resistance mechanism