Discussion on the paper “A note on the crack-plane stress field method for analysing SIFs and its application to a concentric penny-shaped crack in a circular cylinder opened up by constant pressure” by Wang Qizhi

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42781/1/10704_2004_Article_BF00033725.pd

Pertumbuhan dan penambahbaikan nanokomposit Ag-ZnO untuk aktiviti fotomangkin

Kami melaporkan hasil kajian terhadap nanokomposit Ag-ZnO dengan nisbah berat yang berbeza bagi Ag:ZnO (0:10, 7:10 & 25:10) yang telah disediakan melalui kaedah sonokimia. Kajian fotomangkin terhadap nanokomposit Ag-ZnO menunjukkan peningkatan kecekapan fotomangkin terhadap foto-penguraian larutan akues metilena biru berbanding nanobahan ZnO tulen di bawah penyinaran cahaya nampak. Sampel Ag-ZnO pada nisbah 7:10 menunjukkan aktiviti fotomangkin terbaik dan mencapai kadar penguraian sehingga 94% bagi tempoh masa penguraian selama 80 min, diikuti 86% bagi sampel ZnO tulen dengan menggunakan kaedah yang sama. Morfologi, struktur bahan, sifat optik dan kehabluran bagi nanokomposit Ag-ZnO juga dibincangkan menerusi data yang diperoleh melalui mikroskop elektron transmisi, spektroskopi ultralembayung-cahaya nampak dan difraktometer analisis sinar-X. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa dengan penambahan zarah Ag kepada ZnO telah meningkatkan kadar serapan cahaya bagi ZnO di kawasan cahaya nampak dan meningkatkan kadar pemisahan cas foto-aruhan bagi menghasilkan rawatan air tercemar pewarna yang lebih baik

Cost effective factor of a midimew connected mesh network

Background and Objective: Hierarchical Interconnection Network (HIN) is very much essential for the practical implementation of future generation Massively Parallel Computers (MPC) systems which consists of millions of nodes. It yields better performance with low cost due to reduction of wires and by exploring the locality in the communication\and traffic patterns. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the static cost effective factor of Midimew connected Mesh Network (MMN). Materials and Methods: A Midimew connected Mesh Network (MMN) is a HIN comprised of numerous basic modules, where the basic modules are 2D-mesh networks and they are hierarchically interconnected using midimew network to assemble the higher level networks. Results: This study, present the architecture of a MMN and evaluate the cost effective factor of MMN, TESH (Tori-connected Mesh), mesh and torus networks. The results shows that the cost effective factor of MMN was trivially higher than that of mesh and torus network. Conclusion: It was revealed that the proposed MMN yields a little bit high cost effectiveness factor with small diameter and average distance. Overall, performance with respect to cost effective factor with small diameter and average distance suggests that the MMN will be a promising choice for next generation MPC system

Time-cost effective factor of a Midimew connected Mesh network

Hierarchical Interconnection Network (HIN) is indispensable for the practical implementation of future generation massively parallel computer systems which consists of hundred thousands nodes or even millions of nodes. Because it yields good performance with low cost due to reduction of communication links and by exploring the locality in the communication & traffic patterns. A Midimew connected Mesh Network (MMN) is an HIN comprised of numerous basic modules, where the basic modules are 2D-mesh networks and they are hierarchically interconnected using midimew network to construct the higher level networks. In this paper, we present the architecture of a MMN and evaluate the time-cost effective factor of MMN, TESH, mesh, and torus networks. It is found that the proposed MMN yields slightly high time-cost effectiveness factor with small diameter and average distance as compared to other networks. Overall, performance with respect to time-cost effectiveness factor with small diameter and average distance suggests that the proposed MMN will be a indispensable choice for the next generation massively parallel computer systems

Association of vitamin B12 with pro-inflammatory cytokines and biochemical markers related to cardiometabolic risk in Saudi subjects

Background: This study aimed to examine the relationship between changes in systemic vitamin B12 concentrations with pro-inflammatory cytokines, anthropometric factors and biochemical markers of cardiometabolic risk in a Saudi population. Methods: A total of 364 subjects (224 children, age: 12.99 ± 2.73 (mean ± SD) years; BMI: 20.07 ± 4.92 kg/m2 and 140 adults, age: 41.87 ± 8.82 years; BMI: 31.65 ± 5.77 kg/m2) were studied. Fasting blood, anthropometric and biochemical data were collected. Serum cytokines were quantified using multiplex assay kits and B12 concentrations were measured using immunoassay analyzer. Results: Vitamin B12 was negatively associated with TNF-α (r = −0.14, p < 0.05), insulin (r = −0.230, p < 0.01) and HOMA-IR (r = −0.252, p < 0.01) in all subjects. In children, vitamin B12 was negatively associated with serum resistin (r = −0.160, p < 0.01), insulin (r = −0.248, p < 0.01), HOMA-IR (r = −0.261, p < 0.01). In adults, vitamin B12 was negatively associated with TNF-α (r = −0.242, p < 0.01) while positively associated with resistin (r = 0.248, p < 0.01). Serum resistin was the most significant predictor for circulating vitamin B12 in all subjects (r2 = −0.17, p < 0.05) and in children (r2 = −0.167, p < 0.01) while HDL-cholesterol was the predictor of B12 in adults (r2 = −0.78, p < 0.05). Conclusions: Serum vitamin B12 concentrations were associated with pro-inflammatory cytokines and biochemical markers of cardiometabolic risks in adults. Maintaining adequate vitamin B12 concentrations may lower inflammation-induced cardiometabolic risk in the Saudi adult population

Malignant pleural effusion: updates in diagnosis, management and current challenges

Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is a common condition which often causes significant symptoms to patients and costs to healthcare systems. Over the past decade, the management of MPE has progressed enormously with large scale, randomised trials answering key questions regarding optimal diagnostic strategies and effective management strategies. Despite a number of management options, including talc pleurodesis, indwelling pleural catheters and combinations of the two, treatment for MPE remains symptom directed and centered around drainage strategy. The future goals for providing improved care for patients lies in changing the treatment paradigm from a generic pathway to personalised care, based on probability of malignancy type and survival. This article reviews the current evidence base, new discoveries and future directions in the diagnosis and management of MPE

The Internet of Things Beverages Bottle Shape Defect Detection using Naïve Bayes Classifier

This paper presents an automatedcomputer vision system using internet of things(IoT) platform for shape defect detection. Theproposed system used beverage bottles as a testedproduct. Morphological operation is applied tosegment the image using erosion and dilationprocess. The features of shape bottle such asarea, perimeter, major axis length and extend areextracted. Naïve Bayes classifier is implementedto classify the shape of bottle either pass or rejectsbased on the estimated extend parameters. All theimages are taken using webcam and the capturedimage is stored in server for wirelessly access.The analysis is done by using image processingtoolbox using Matlab in real-time. The resultdemonstrate that the tested product based onshape is achieved 92% accuracy for good bottle and90% accuracy for defect bottle using 100 sampleimages. It shows that the proposed system can beapplied for beverages quality control application

The static performance effect of hybrid-hierarchical interconnection by shifted completely connected network

Massively parallel computer (MPC) systems execute many operations based on internal networks called interconnection networks. The performance of these networks is affected by their topolo- gies.There are many topologies of interconnection networks for MPC systems, unfortunately, they faced many drawbacks. Expanding the size of the network degrades the performance of these topologies. That is why this current paper presents a hybrid-hierarchical interconnection network (HIN) topology by Shifted Completely Connected Network (SCCN) to circumvent the drawbacks of the existing topologies. An experimental evaluation involving the design and development of a hierarchical network was carried out. A two-dimensional higher level networks has been produced and its static network performance parameters evaluated through simulators. The �nding of the simulations has shown some good performances compared to many previous designed networks. SCCN is better than all conventional networks in terms of diameter, cost and average distance

Design of a Class-E Rectifier with DC-DC Boost Converter

This paper presents the design of Class-E rectifier with dc-to-dc boost converter. In this paper, Class E synchronous rectifier that regulates the output voltage at a fixed switching frequency of 1 MHz is presented by a dc-dc power conversion. The experimental prototype has been built and evaluated. The converter achieved 83.33 percent efficiency with less than 5 percent of ripple percentage of the rectifier. This integrated power converter with class E rectifier provides a low loss operation suitable for Very High Frequency (VHF) applications

Breathlessness in COPD: linking symptom clusters with brain activity

Rationale: Current models of breathlessness often fail to explain disparities between patients' experiences of breathlessness and objective measures of lung function. While a mechanistic understanding of this discordance has thus far remained elusive, factors such as mood, attention and expectation have all been implicated as important modulators of breathlessness. Therefore, we have developed a model to better understand the relationships between these factors using unsupervised machine learning techniques. Subsequently we examined how expectation-related brain activity differed between these symptom-defined clusters of participants. Methods: A cohort of 91 participants with mild-to-moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) underwent functional brain imaging, self-report questionnaires and clinical measures of respiratory function. Unsupervised machine learning techniques of exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical cluster modelling were used to model brain-behaviour-breathlessness links. Results: We successfully stratified participants across four key factors corresponding to mood, symptom burden and two capability measures. Two key groups resulted from this stratification, corresponding to high and low symptom burden. Compared to the high symptom load group, the low symptom burden group demonstrated significantly greater brain activity within the anterior insula, a key region thought to be involved in monitoring internal bodily sensations (interoception). Conclusions: This is the largest functional neuroimaging study of COPD to date and is the first to provide a clear model linking brain, behaviour and breathlessness expectation. Furthermore, it was possible to stratify participants into groups, which then revealed differences in brain activity patterns. Together, these findings highlight the value of multi-modal models of breathlessness in identifying behavioural phenotypes, and for advancing understanding of differences in breathlessness burden