The Modified Coastal Storm Impulse Parameter

The correlation of the morphological changes to the coast and storm characteristics is among interests of coastal engineers. Better understandings of a storm\u27s potential forces ultimately lead engineers to safer designs and minimize the damages. Therefore, a need to quantify the storm potential forces to a storm parameter is evident. The desired storm parameter is to consider all the relative physical factors and is to present realistic results that then can be proven by actual nature response. The concept of Coastal Storm Impulse (COSI) parameter was first introduced by Basco and Klentzman (2006) and is based on the conservation of horizontal momentum to combine storm surge, wave dynamics, and currents over the storm duration and here is referred to as original COSI parameter. The COSI parameter consists of three components of wave, surge and current momentum. The current momentum is not considered in the original COSI parameter since it was not significant in compare to the wave and surge momentum (Klentzman, 2007). It is not considered in this dissertation for the Modified COSI parameter in order to keep the consistency of the analysis. In this dissertation, steps have been taken to examine and to redefine the criterion of storm definition, wave momentum and surge momentum in order to improve shortcomings of original COSI parameter. For the Modified COSI parameter, the estimation of wave momentum integrated over the water depth and averaged over the wave period utilizing nonlinear (Fourier) wave theory is introduced for the first time. A computer FORTRAN code developed within the Hydraulic and Coastal Group in the Department of Civil Engineering at University of California, Berkeley is used to develop a set of empirical formulas to estimate the wave momentum. Also, the importance of tides in beach stability has been noted and is considered by applying water elevations above Mean High Water (MHW) to obtain the storm surge momentum. The Modified COSI Parameter introduced here is sum of the wave momentum and the surge momentum. For a storm event it was assumed that the wave height will stay at or above 1.6 meter for 12 hours to have a chance to ride on the high tide and it is based on a tidal cycle of approximately 12 hours. The data set for year 1994-2003 at USACE Field Research Facility (FRF), Duck, NC, has been reanalyzed based on the new methodology and criterion set forth in this dissertation. This new approach has produced 148 storms in compare to 160 storms from original COSI results (Klentzamn, 2007) over the period of 10 years the data (1994-2003). The analyses of the 10-year data (1994-2003) show a better proportionality of the wave momentum (60%) and the storm surge momentum (40%) to the total momentum. In general the average wave momentum resulting from empirical formulation introduced in this dissertation is in average 10 times smaller than the maximum wave momentum from Hughes (2004) formulation

Big Data and Knowledge-based Urban System in Tehran

Data, information and knowledge are essential sources of decision- making and policy- making processes in urban and regional planning and are considered to be an essential source to achieve urban planning goals. Big data is defined generally with respect to its size but this paper is focused mainly on urban and regional data, that is, data streamed from cities and regions which are regularly related to space and time. Big data has benefits of providing a detailed view of the activity patterns for multiplicity of urban populations, how cities function and can be managed, rather than a general feature by traditional statistics. In this context, application of big data has been rapid expansion in urban and regional studies and planning to cope with uncertainty and provide information requirement of decision- making processes. Appling big data in urban studies and planning processes and the practice of urban planning has been introduced as potential to more effective urban planning a more conscious decision- making. Metropolitan planning of Tehran faces known and unknown contingencies which could affect the anticipated outcome of the planning system. This shows the necessity of availability to new sources of data in order to cope with inherent uncertainties and constrains posed upon this city’s planning practice. The main questions presented by this paper are first, to explore the resources and potential of creating and appling big data –- as a knowledge resource -- in the planning and management system of Tehran, and second, how the applyication of big data affect and facilitate the function of urban planning and management in Tehran? A descriptive-analytic process has been adopted to answer this twofold question: first) tracing the creation and application of big data in urban planning around the world through systematic literature review, and second) analysis the creation and applicability of big data in Tehran planning and management system. This paper is to discuss potentials and challenges of creation, development and application of big data in the planning and management processes with a positive impact to improve urban policy- making in coping with known and unknown contingencies and uncertaitities throuh networking this type of date to other type of information and knowledge to establish a knowledge-based urban system as part of a knowledge management framework

MHD free convection flow of a non-Newtonian power-law fluid over a vertical plate with suction effects

In this study, we present a numerical analysis of free convection flow and heat transfer ispresented for non-Newtonian power-law fluids with MHD effects over a vertical porous plate,the surface of which is exposed to a constant wall temperature. For analysis, the Continuty,Momentum and Energy equations are solved by the implicit finite difference scheme ofCrank–Nicolson’s type. Velocity and temperature of the flow have been presented for variousparameters such as Prandtl number, flow behavior index (n), porous plate parameter andmagnetic parameter. The local Nusselt number and skin friction coefficient is also presentedgraphically.Keywords: Magnetohydrodynamic flow; free convection flow; Non-Newtonian power-lawfluids; Vertical porous plate

A Survey on Acoustic Side Channel Attacks on Keyboards

Most electronic devices utilize mechanical keyboards to receive inputs, including sensitive information such as authentication credentials, personal and private data, emails, plans, etc. However, these systems are susceptible to acoustic side-channel attacks. Researchers have successfully developed methods that can extract typed keystrokes from ambient noise. As the prevalence of keyboard-based input systems continues to expand across various computing platforms, and with the improvement of microphone technology, the potential vulnerability to acoustic side-channel attacks also increases. This survey paper thoroughly reviews existing research, explaining why such attacks are feasible, the applicable threat models, and the methodologies employed to launch and enhance these attacks.Comment: 22 pages, conferenc

Detection of Helicobacter pylori using PCR in dental plaque of patients with and without gastritis

Objectives: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) accounts for gastritis, peptic ulcer and is a probable cause of gastric cancer. Since its detection in the oral cavity, concerns have been raised about dental plaque as a reservoir for reinfection. The aim of this study was to detect the organism in the dental plaque and to determine the association, if any, between H. pylori gastritis and dental plaque contamination causing H. pylori. Study design: A polymerase chain reaction-based method was used for detection of H. pylori in clinical specimens. Supra and subgingival samples were collected from 67 patients with chronic periodontitis, 23 of whom were also suffering from gastritis. The data were analyzed with Chi square and Fisher exact test and the statistical significance was set to 0.05. Results: H. pylori was scarce in patients with periodontitis(5.9%). There was a significant association between the presence of H. pylori in the dental plaque and gastritis (p=0.012). Conclusions: Although rarely seen, H. pylori infected dental plaque may be a source for reinfection. It is therefore suggested that professional plaque removal and oral hygiene procedures be performed, along with the antibiotic treatment of H. pylori

Evaluation of Microbial Resistance Pattern in Children with Urinary Tract Infection in Bushehr between 2017 and 2018

Background and Aim: Urinary tract infection is one of the most common childhood illnesses that can lead to complications such as hypertension and kidney failure. The aim of this study was to evaluate microbial resistance and sensitivity and to determine the relationship between urinary tract abnormalities and prior antibiotic use with microbial resistance. Methods: This is a descriptive-analytic study on 90 patients with a positive urine culture. Urine culture samples were taken using one of the sampling methods (midstream clean catch, catheterization, urine bag, suprapubic aspiration) and ultrasonography was requested for all patients to evaluate urinary system abnormalities. Also, a history of prior antibiotic use was asked and recorded. Results: Of all patients, 55.6% showed E.coli and 44.4% showed other bacteria in urine culture. 97.7% of patients' cultures were sensitive to imipenem, 82.2% to nitrofurantoin, and 77.8% to cefixime. 65% of patients' cultures showed resistance to nalidixic acid, 56.7% to co-trimoxazole, and 38.9% to ceftriaxone. There was a significant relationship between cefixime and amikacin antibiotic resistance with abnormal ultrasound and there was a significant relationship between antibiotic resistance to cefixime, ceftriaxone, co-trimoxazole, and duration of prior antibiotic use (p-value <0.05). Conclusion: The most common pathogen in UTI was E.coli. The highest sensitivity was to imipenem, nitrofurantoin, and cefixime, and the highest resistance was to nalidixic acid, co-trimoxazole, and ceftriaxone. There was a relationship between urinary tract abnormalities and prior antibiotic use with microbial resistance, so it is suggested to use kidney ultrasound in all patients with urinary tract infection

Catastrophe Swap Valuation Based on Stochastic Damage and its Numerical Solution

Pricing catastrophe swap as an instrument for insurance companies risk management, has received trivial attention in the previous studies, but in most of them, damage severities caused by the disaster has been considered to be fixed. In this study, through considering jumps for modeling the occurrence of disasters as in Unger [32] and completing it through considering damages caused by natural disasters as stochastic, an integro-differential model was extracted to value catastrophe swap contracts. In determining the swap price changes, the Ito command was followed and to achieve the catastrophic swap model, the generalization of the Black and Scholes modeling method was used. [3]. With regard to the initial and boundary conditions, extracted model does not have an analytical solution; thus, its answer was approximated using the finite difference numerical method and the effect of considering the damage as stochastic on swap value was analyzed. In addition, the model and the extracted numerical solution were separately implemented on the data about the earthquake damage in the United States and Iran. The results showed that prices will experience a regular upward trend until damage growth, damage severities, and occurrence probability of a catastrophe are not so high that the buyer of the swap is forced to pay compensation to the swap’s seller. Of course, the prices will fall sharply as soon as they reach and cross the threshold

Digesters in traditional Persian medicine

Background: Functional gastrointestinal diseases are common in general populations and comprise more than 40% visits to gastroenterologists. Treatment options of gastrointestinal diseases have been limited. There are a few medications for functional gastrointestinal diseases and some of medications are not available in the market or in the place where the patient lives. Traditional Persian medicine (TPM) is a branch of alternative and traditional medicine based on individual viewpoint and humoral theory, focuses on lifestyle modification and uses natural products to manage the patients. Methods: In this study, a set of compound drugs known as digesters (jawarishes) and other applications are described based on main TPM text books. Results: Jawarishes have different formulations containing various medicinal herbs used for better food digestion and improved gastric functions and also used for other disorders including reinforcing the brain, heart, liver and some therapeutic approaches. Conclusions: By reviewing medieval Persian pharmaceutical manuscripts, we can conclude that many herbs are effective in different systems of the body and improve gastric functions. Zingiber officinalis and Piper nigrum are mixed together to get various formulations. The variety of jawarishes formulations and their different clinical applications can indicate continuity of their use

Acute exposure to nocturnal train noise induces endothelial dysfunction and pro-thromboinflammatory changes of the plasma proteome in healthy subjects

Nocturnal train noise exposure has been associated with hypertension and myocardial infarction. It remains unclear whether acute nighttime train exposure may induce subclinical atherosclerosis, such as endothelial dysfunction and other functional and/or biochemical changes. Thus, we aimed to expose healthy subjects to nocturnal train noise and to assess endothelial function, changes in plasma protein levels and clinical parameters. In a randomized crossover study, we exposed 70 healthy volunteers to either background or two different simulated train noise scenarios in their homes during three nights. After each night, participants visited the study center for measurement of vascular function and assessment of other biomedical and biochemical parameters. The three nighttime noise scenarios were exposure to either background noise (control), 30 or 60 train noise events (Noise30 or Noise60), with average sound pressure levels of 33, 52 and 54 dB(A), respectively. Flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery was 11.23 ± 4.68% for control, compared to 8.71 ± 3.83% for Noise30 and 8.47 ± 3.73% for Noise60 (p < 0.001 vs. control). Sleep quality was impaired after both Noise30 and Noise60 nights (p < 0.001 vs. control). Targeted proteomic analysis showed substantial changes of plasma proteins after the Noise60 night, mainly centered on redox, pro-thrombotic and proinflammatory pathways. Exposure to simulated nocturnal train noise impaired endothelial function. The proteomic changes point toward a proinflammatory and pro-thrombotic phenotype in response to nocturnal train noise and provide a molecular basis to explain the increased cardiovascular risk observed in epidemiological noise studies