The Response Modification Factor for Seismic Design of Integral Abutment Bridges

The response modification factor (R factor) is a crucial parameter for calculating the design seismic forces applied to a bridge structure. This factor considers the nonlinear performance of bridges during strong ground motions. Conventional bridge structures rely on the substructure components to resist earthquake forces. Accordingly, there are R factors available in the design codes based on the type of bridge substructure system. Lateral load resisting system of Integral Abutment Bridges (IABs) in the longitudinal direction is more complex than ordinary bridges. It involves the contributions from soils behind the abutments and soil/structure interaction (SSI) in addition to existing rigid connection between the superstructure and abutments. There is no R factor available in any design code throughout the world for IABs in the longitudinal direction that considers all these parameters. In this research, the Federal Emergency Management Agency publication  FEMA P695 methodology has been applied to estimate the R factor for IABs. It is found that 3.5 could be a safe and valid R factor in the longitudinal direction for seismic design of such bridges

Description of a Working Day as a Senior Emergency Medicine Resident; Burning Candle at Both Ends!

This text is a real-time description of an emergency medicine resident’s shift in an overcrowded emergency department (ED), Tehran, Iran

Evaluation of Normal Pressures during Filling in Steel Hoppers with Eccentric Outlet

Filling pressures are a necessary starting point in the design of silos and hoppers. The hoppers with complicated geometries are common in industrial applications due to physical space constraints and the need to interface with other processing equipment. The current paper deals with the effect of outlet eccentricity on normal pressures formed in steel hoppers during distributed filling process. Using finite element method, progressive filling process in hoppers was simulated and by changing the percentage of outlet eccentricity, the variation of pressure distribution was fully studied. The results showed an increase in the normal pressures of shallow side compared with the steep side of eccentric hopper. To quantify the pressure asymmetry, two parameters were introduced and they were evaluated for practical range of material parameters and steel hoppers dimensions. The results obtained are of interest since they facilitate the design of silos and hoppers with eccentric outlet

RF Energy Harvesting System and Circuits for Charging of Wireless Devices Using Spectrum Sensing

Recently, lots of works have been done on the optimal power management of wireless devices. This leads to the main idea of ambient energy harvesting. Among various energy harvesting approaches, one is to use radio waves existing in the ambient environment for battery charging, called RF energy harvesting. In this chapter, in order to improve the RF energy harvesting performance, we utilize spectrum sensing to allow the wireless devices to select the frequency band with maximum power that exceeds a predefined threshold to charge the device (this power threshold can be determined according to battery type and its required charging power) and the device can use this power for battery charging. Also, a novel voltage multiplier circuit is proposed. By means of simulations and experimental tests, it can be seen that after detection of our desired 1 mW RF signal, system output power is about 532μ W and 450μ W in simulation and practical situations respectively

The effect of infliximab on oxidative stress after myocardial infarction in rats

Infliximab is a human mouse human chimeric IgG1 antibody that includes human stable regions and variable mouse regions that have inhibitory effects on TNFα, and has recently been used to treat Crohn's disease, urticaria colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis. This study was conducted to determine the effect of TNFα inhibition on infectious stress and serum lactate levels in infants after isoproterenol induced myocardial infarction in rats. Methods and Results: For induction of myocardial infarction (MI), isoproterenol (100 mg/kg) was injected subcutaneously in a 24-hour saline solution in normal saline for 24 days. Animals after 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours after the second dose of isoproterenol was surgically treated. After infusion of inflections, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours of surgery were performed. Anesthesia for animal surgery with ketamine and xylazine (3 to 2. Blood samples were collected from the hepatic vein and serum was used after the isolation to measure biochemical factors. At the end of the test, the heart was quickly separated and washed with normal cold saline and water was taken and weighed. Induced infarction with isoproterenol 100 mg/kg changes the pattern and parameters of electrocardiography and hemodynamics, and also causes hypertrophy, necrosis, edema and severe cardiac inflammation. Injection of infliximab at a dose of 7 mg/kg in the mentioned intervals did not have an effect on induced hypertrophy due isoproterenol. Isoproterenol increases lipid peroxidation, lactate dehydrogenase, total serum antioxidant and heart tissue, and serum lactate, which seems to be a significant reduction in the levels of MDA, TAC, LDH, and LDH, especially in the early hours of myocardial infarction. Lactate reduces serum levels. But in some cases, with the passage of time does not apply photo effects. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that infliximab, at 24-48 hours after MI, has a protective effect on cardiac myocardial infarction, and in the long term may exacerbate oxidative activity

Coordinated Deep Neural Networks: A Versatile Edge Offloading Algorithm

As artificial intelligence (AI) applications continue to expand, there is a growing need for deep neural network (DNN) models. Although DNN models deployed at the edge are promising to provide AI as a service with low latency, their cooperation is yet to be explored. In this paper, we consider the DNN service providers share their computing resources as well as their models' parameters and allow other DNNs to offload their computations without mirroring. We propose a novel algorithm called coordinated DNNs on edge (\textbf{CoDE}) that facilitates coordination among DNN services by creating multi-task DNNs out of individual models. CoDE aims to find the optimal path that results in the lowest possible cost, where the cost reflects the inference delay, model accuracy, and local computation workload. With CoDE, DNN models can make new paths for inference by using their own or other models' parameters. We then evaluate the performance of CoDE through numerical experiments. The results demonstrate a $75\%$ reduction in the local service computation workload while degrading the accuracy by only $2\%$ and having the same inference time in a balanced load condition. Under heavy load, CoDE can further decrease the inference time by $30\%$ while the accuracy is reduced by only $4\%$

Cost-Efficient Scheduling for Deadline Constrained Grid Workflows

Cost optimization for workflow scheduling while meeting deadline is one of the fundamental problems in utility computing. In this paper, a two-phase cost-efficient scheduling algorithm called critical chain is presented. The proposed algorithm uses the concept of slack time in both phases. The first phase is deadline distribution over all tasks existing in the workflow which is done considering critical path properties of workflow graphs. Critical chain uses slack time to iteratively select most critical sequence of tasks and then assigns sub-deadlines to those tasks. In the second phase named mapping step, it tries to allocate a server to each task considering task's sub-deadline. In the mapping step, slack time priority in selecting ready task is used to reduce deadline violation. Furthermore, the algorithm tries to locally optimize the computation and communication costs of sequential tasks exploiting dynamic programming. After proposing the scheduling algorithm, three measures for the superiority of a scheduling algorithm are introduced, and the proposed algorithm is compared with other existing algorithms considering the measures. Results obtained from simulating various systems show that the proposed algorithm outperforms four well-known existing workflow scheduling algorithms