Medical image enhancement using threshold decomposition driven adaptive morphological filter

One of the most common degradations in medical images is their poor contrast quality. This suggests the use of contrast enhancement methods as an attempt to modify the intensity distribution of the image. In this paper, a new edge detected morphological filter is proposed to sharpen digital medical images. This is done by detecting the positions of the edges and then applying a class of morphological filtering. Motivated by the success of threshold decomposition, gradientbased operators are used to detect the locations of the edges. A morphological filter is used to sharpen these detected edges. Experimental results demonstrate that the detected edge deblurring filter improved the visibility and perceptibility of various embedded structures in digital medical images. Moreover, the performance of the proposed filter is superior to that of other sharpener-type filters

CFD study of thermal effect on Power-law fluid in rotating annular flow

Drilling in oil and gas industry is a crucial and precarious process. Inaccurate estimation or expectation of any of the parameters interfering in this process can lead to catastrophic results if not handled carefully and in proper timing. One of the main parameters is the drilling fluid, which is used throughout the whole drilling procedure for numerous functions. The drilling fluid is tested under normal atmospheric temperature. However in the drilling process the fluid is exposed to high temperature that can impact the drilling fluid properties and flow behavior. Adding to that the rotation of the drill string impact which can change the dynamic viscosity of the fluid. As more high temperature high pressure wells are being drilled the need to better understand the impact of high temperature in the fluid annular flow became necessary. In this study we tried to understand and investigate the effect of both temperature and rotation on the properties of the drilling fluid and on the flow behavior in a concentric annuli. The scope and methodology of this research involved Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach, with ANSYS-CFX (in ANSYS 15) as the analysis system, where a CFD model with an optimum mesh size was created and validated against previous experimental data. The fluid was modelled using Power Law rheology

The Design and Optimization of Jet-in-Cross-Flow (JICF) for Engineering Applications: Thermal Uniformity in Gas-turbines and Cavitation Treatment in Hydro-turbines

Jet-in-cross-flow (JICF) is a well-known term in thermal flows field. Ranging from the normal phenomenon like the volcano ash and dust plumes to the designed film cooling and air fuel mixing for combustion, JICF is always studied to understand its nature at different conditions. Realizing the behavior of interacting flows and importance of many variables lead to the process of reiterating the shapes and running conditions for better outcomes or minimizing the losses. Summarizing the process under the name of optimization, two JICF applications are analyzed based on the principles of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, then some redesigns are proposed to reach the optimal statuses for the goals sought. Correlations and recommendations are given between the input variables and the outputs. In the first application, annular thermal mixing chamber, the cold stream penetrates the axial hot flow as circumferential inward jets. Thermal uniformity of the exit mixture is the target to maximize, and accordingly, a streamlined body is firstly suggested to be placed at the center of the chamber to divert the hot stream towards the cold one. Following the idea, the shape and dimensions (length and maximum diameter) are tested experimentally with four 3-D printed bodies expressing different aspect, blockage, and profile ratios. Later, an Analysis LED Design stage (numerical then experimental) checked the effect of adding swirlers on the best streamlined shape. Swirlers shape, number, and height are examined for the relation with the uniformity and pressure drop. By defining a decision-making variable (useful efficiency), the two contradicting variables were consolidated into one, and the swirlers performance was easier to be quantified and the most efficient one was nominated. At the final stage, a numerical study searched the optimal design(s) using design of experiment and optimization (Global and Hybrid) algorithms. The study sought the optimality of the dimensional aspects (diameter, length, and position) of the swirling streamlined body based on minimizing the contradicting objectives. The results were represented by Pareto curve, correlation matrix, parallel axes, and response surface model. It was understood that the optimization can offer improvement of 68% and 15% to the uniformity number and the pressure drop respectively. On the other hand, aeration treatment for cavitating flow in axial Kaplan turbine was considered for the second engineering application. Using CFD models of a 7.5-cm hydro-turbine, cavitation situation was simulated, then air is injected from the housing to redistribute around the blades of the rotor. The value of the vapor fraction is tracked over the blades and the hub areas throughout the time of turbine cycles. Comparison is achieved by evaluating an average value for the vapor fraction at each case. Air mass flowrate and ports distribution are found to be effective in reducing the cavitation phenomena. Proposed linear aeration distributor on the housing presented a promising technology for spreading the air over the blade chord in a better way than the circumferential distribution. The study allowed the understanding of the flow behavior (in terms of air flow, liquid pressure, and cavitation formations) and turbine performance (i.e. mechanical power) at different air injection locations and turbine rotational speeds. A broader view of research investigated the functionality of linear aeration distributor on the hub with an air supply going through a hollow shaft. The invention of the hub air injection targets the marine industry (i.e. propellers) where the housing/shrouds do not exist, but it also can be a competitor to the housing air injection technology as well. For the two aeration approaches (housing and hub), the conducted numerical investigations were based on the vapor mitigation and power regain in the Kaplan turbine, meanwhile the experimentation looked for the vapor and motor power reduction for the propeller operation. A good agreement (qualitatively and quantitatively) was found between matching cases created for such purpose using tools for high-speed imaging, statistical analysis for turbulent flow, image processing and power measurements. Finally, the dissertation sets some recommendations for the continuation of the researches on the two applications (thermal uniformity and aeration treatments) for better jets interaction with the cross flow by the consideration of the addition/orientation of guide vanes and the relocation of the jets on the turbine blades respectively

Novel Process for Designing Topology Optimized Femoral Stems Printable by Metal Additive Manufacturing

Total hip arthroplasty faces an issue of the high cost and risks of revision surgeries. Studies show that more than 50% of the revision surgeries are the consequence of the aseptic loosening of the implant. The cause of the loosening is the bone resorption during the bone remodeling due to poor load transfer to the bone because of the stiff metal used for the implant. The aim of this work is illustrating a novel process of designing topology optimized femoral stems printable by additive manufacturing to increase the load transfer. The proposed manual penalization process is used to produce the required stems followed by a multiple simulations process to select the optimum stem extraction iso-surface threshold value. The results show printable stems that increased the strain energy in the bone by 20% and had better micromotions uniform distribution resulting in more uniform bone growth

Coral Growth and Skeletal Density Relationships in Some Branching Corals of the Red Sea, Egypt

The coral reefs at the exposed zones are exhibited to strong wave action, renewable water masses, clear seawater and small temperature variations, however, in the sheltered zones they exposed to high turbidity, high temperature variations and protected from the surge waves and currents. In situ measurements of seasonal and annual growth rates and the branch thicknesses using Varner Caliber and the laboratory measurements of skeletal densities using Archimedes’s Principle were done in four branching coral species growing in the exposed and sheltered zones of Hurghada and Hamrawin at the northern Red Sea. Acropora humilis recorded the highest seasonal and annual growth rates at all zones; 0.68±0.02, 0.76±0.03, 0.66±0.03 and 0.69±0.02mm/month and 7.25±0.20, 7.96±0.33, 7.10±0.11 and 7.34±0.14mm/yr respectively. Pocillopora damicornis recorded the highest averages of skeletal density at the different zones of Hurghada and Hamrawin; 2.04±0.35, 1.64±0.26, 2.64±0.66 and 1.96±0.18gm/cm3 respectively and the highest averages of the branch thicknesses at the exposed and sheltered zones of Hurghada (1.66±0.42cm2, 1.51±0.30cm2) while, A. humilis recorded the highest average of the branch thicknesses at the exposed and sheltered zones of Hamrawin (1.49±0.16cm2, 1.14±0.08cm2). A. humilis was the fastest growing species in the worm season at the exposing and sheltered zones of Hurghada and Hamrawin, while P. damicornis was the slowest growing species because of it tends to form thick and dense branches. The oceanographic and local conditions as; temperature variations, aragonite saturation, turbidity, effects of surge waves and light intensity are responsible about the differences in the skeletal parameters of the studied species. Keywords: Branching corals – Growth rates - Skeletal density – Branch thicknesses – exposed and sheltered zones

Topic Extraction and Interactive Knowledge Graphs for Learning Resources

Humanity development through education is an important method of sustainable development. This guarantees community development at present time without any negative effects in the future and also provides prosperity for future generations. E-learning is a natural development of the educational tools in this era and current circumstances. Thanks to the rapid development of computer sciences and telecommunication technologies, this has evolved impressively. In spite of facilitating the educational process, this development has also provided a massive amount of learning resources, which makes the task of searching and extracting useful learning resources difficult. Therefore, new tools need to be advanced to facilitate this development. In this paper we present a new algorithm that has the ability to extract the main topics from textual learning resources, link related resources and generate interactive dynamic knowledge graphs. This algorithm accurately and efficiently accomplishes those tasks no matter how big or small the texts are. We used Wikipedia Miner, TextRank, and Gensim within our algorithm. Our algorithm"s accuracy was evaluated against Gensim, largely improving its accuracy. This could be a step towards strengthening self-learning and supporting the sustainable development of communities, and more broadly of humanity, across different generations.The researcher was partially funded by the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Minia University in the Arab Republic of Egypt. [Joint supervision mission from the fourth year missions (2015–2016) of the seventh five-year plan (2012–2017)]

Evaluación de la degradación de prefabricados de hormigón sometidos a ambientes marinos mediante técnicas No Destructivas y Análisis F-Q

Se trata en este trabajo obtención de un procedimiento de evaluación del ciclo de vida de los hormigones preparados y puestos en servicio en ambientes marinos. Para ello, se precisa la integración de diferentes técnicas de caracterización de las propiedades que afectan a los hormigones, técnias no destructivos y ánalisis físico-químico. ABSTRACT: In this work is it has been treated to obtain an evaluation procedure of the life cycle of concrete prepared and put into service in marine environments.For this purpose, accurate integration ofdifferent techniques is used for characterization the properties that they affect to the concrete. non-destructive technique and physico-chemical analysisMahmoud, TI. (2009). Evaluación de la degradación de prefabricados de hormigón sometidos a ambientes marinos mediante técnicas No Destructivas y Análisis F-Q. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/14412Archivo delegad

A Unique Solution of Stochastic Partial Differential Equations with Non-Local Initial condition

In this paper, we shall discuss the uniqueness ”pathwise uniqueness” of the solutions of stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) with non-local initial condition,We shall use the Yamada-Watanabe condition for ”pathwise uniqueness” of the solutions of the stochastic differential equation; this condition is weaker than the usual Lipschitz condition. The proof is based on Bihari’sinequality

Existence and Uniqueness of Abstract Stochastic Fractional-Order Differential Equation

In this paper, the existence and uniqueness about the solution for a class of abstract stochastic fractional-order differential equations                                           where  in and  are given functions, are investigated, where the fractional derivative is described in Caputo sense. The fractional calculus, stochastic analysis techniques and the standard $Picard's$ iteration method are used to obtain the required

Slotted Reinforced Concrete Beam-Column Connection: State-of-the-Art Review

Research on reinforced concrete (RC) beam-column connections has significantly increased during the past few decades. Interest in this topic is related to the importance of beam-column connections in maintaining the integrity of the whole structure. The slotted RC beam-column connection was investigated as promising low damage beam-column connection replacement for conventional design. A slotted RC beam consists of a conventional RC beam, modified with a narrow vertical slot adjacent to the face of the column that runs approximately three-quarters of the beam depth. This study reviews the literature on the mechanics and design of slotted beams, illustrating the works of various researchers on developing and modifying this innovative system. Then, the research progress in the behavior of slotted RC beams is briefly described, in chronological order, to place each contribution in a wider context. Extremely promising structural performance was observed due to minimum beam elongation, non-tearing action, minimum cracks, high energy dissipation, and stable hysteresis response. At the end of the study, a list of the main gaps that need further investigation and recommendations to fill out these gaps are provided