Comparison of Data Mining Techniques for Predicting Compressive Strength of Environmentally Friendly Concrete

This material may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the American Society of Civil Engineers. This material may be found at https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%29CP.1943-5487.0000596 With its growing emphasis on sustainability, the construction industry is increasingly interested in environmentally friendly concrete produced by using alternative and/or recycled waste materials. However, the wide application of such concrete is hindered by the lack of understanding of the impacts of these materials on concrete properties. This research investigates and compares the performance of nine data mining models in predicting the compressive strength of a new type of concrete containing three alternative materials as fly ash, Haydite lightweight aggregate, and portland limestone cement. These models include three advanced predictive models (multilayer perceptron, support vector machines, and Gaussian processes regression), four regression tree models (M5P, REPTree, M5-Rules, and decision stump), and two ensemble methods (additive regression and bagging) with each of the seven individual models used as the base classifier

Securing Messages by Using Coverless Steganography : A Survey

In the last few decades, with the digitalization of information, digital data transmitted overinsecure communication can be under attack, so driving steganography to the forefront for securecommunication. Steganography is a method of transmitting hidden data via a suitable multimedia carrier. The fundamental issue of stenographic system design is to strike a reasonable balance between security, robustness, greater bit embedding rate, and imperceptibility. To send hidden communications over the internet, sophisticated steganography techniques are required. However, the object used to hide secret messages within may be exposed by compression or any form of noise, causing the secret message to be extracted erroneously. Therefore, non-traditional basics for information security, such as coverless image steganography, are necessary. Coverless image steganography does not need the usage of a cover image to embed the hidden data; rather it use its own intrinsic properties to do so. This paper includes contributions to provide a comprehensive survey in this field, where the essential frameworks, preprocessing, feature extraction, creation of hash sequences, and its mapping links have all been discussed, as well as a steganography overview of its primary types, categorization, and applications. Existing methodologies are examined, as well as future development opportunities

Hyperinsulinism-hyperammonaemia syndrome: novel mutations in the GLUD1 gene and genotype-phenotype correlations

Background: Activating mutations in the GLUD1 gene (which encodes for the intra-mitochondrial enzyme glutamate dehydrogenase, GDH) cause the hyperinsulinism–hyperammonaemia (HI/HA) syndrome. Patients present with HA and leucine-sensitive hypoglycaemia. GDH is regulated by another intra-mitochondrial enzyme sirtuin 4 (SIRT4). Sirt4 knockout mice demonstrate activation of GDH with increased amino acid-stimulated insulin secretion. Objectives: To study the genotype–phenotype correlations in patients with GLUD1 mutations. To report the phenotype and functional analysis of a novel mutation (P436L) in the GLUD1 gene associated with the absence of HA. Patients and methods: Twenty patients with HI from 16 families had mutational analysis of the GLUD1 gene in view of HA (n=19) or leucine sensitivity (n=1). Patients negative for a GLUD1 mutation had sequence analysis of the SIRT4 gene. Functional analysis of the novel P436L GLUD1 mutation was performed. Results: Heterozygous missense mutations were detected in 15 patients with HI/HA, 2 of which are novel (N410D and D451V). In addition, a patient with a normal serum ammonia concentration (21 µmol/l) was heterozygous for a novel missense mutation P436L. Functional analysis of this mutation confirms that it is associated with a loss of GTP inhibition. Seizure disorder was common (43%) in our cohort of patients with a GLUD1 mutation. No mutations in the SIRT4 gene were identified. Conclusion: Patients with HI due to mutations in the GLUD1 gene may have normal serum ammonia concentrations. Hence, GLUD1 mutational analysis may be indicated in patients with leucine sensitivity; even in the absence of HA. A high frequency of epilepsy (43%) was observed in our patients with GLUD1 mutations

Iron Status in Febrile Seizure: A Case-Control Study

ObjectiveData on the relationship between iron deficiency anemia and febrile convulsions are controversial. The aim of this study was to determine the association between iron deficiency anemia and febrile convulsions among children.Materials & MethodsThis case-control study was conducted during 2006-2007, on 90 children with febrile seizures (case) and 90 febrile children without seizures (control) referred to the Amirkola children hospital (a referral hospital in the north of Iran). Two groups were matched for age and sex. In all children hemoglobin (Hb) level, hematocrit (Hct), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and plasma ferritin (PF) were determined and the data collected were analyzed statistically using the t-test.ResultsThe mean PF and TIBC levels were not significantly different in the febrile seizure compared to the reference group; neither were differences in Hb levels statistically significant between two groups. However MCV and MCH were significantly higher in the febrile seizure group (pConclusionPlasma ferritin levels were not significantly lower in children with febrile seizures in comparison with the children in control group. It seems that iron insufficiency does not play a role in pediatric febrile seizures.

Behavior of expanded polystyrene (EPS) blocks under cyclic pavement foundation loading

This study introduces a mechanism for initial assessment and future development to improve understanding of expanded polystyrene (EPS) behavior as a super-lightweight material for road construction. Large scale cyclic plate load tests on model pavements were performed. The effect of several factors including thickness of soil, thickness of subsequent EPS layers and density of EPS on the surface deformations, resilient modulus (Mr) and interlayer pressure transfer were investigated. The results indicated that, compared to a covering soil layer of 300 mm, the rut depth on the loading surface reduced by 13.5% and 40.8% when the soil thickness was increased by 33% and 100%, respectively. With a constant soil thickness, increasing the thickness of an upper (denser) EPS layer with respect to a bottom (softer) EPS layer, from 200 mm to 600 mm, would only result in a 20% decrease in the peak settlements after loading. Resilient modulus of the system was found to be dependent on soil thickness. A designer can choose an appropriate resilient modulus assuming the soil-EPS composite acts as subgrade or subbase. In order to extend the results to a wider range of geofoams, soils and layer thicknesses, a simple stress analysis method was also trialed

Role of CD99 in adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Background: When it comes to acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the large proportion of patients usually have relapses. Acute myeloid leukemia, Lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia, as well as Ewing sarcoma all have high CD99 expression.Objective: The aim of the current work was to assess CD99 expression frequency in patients with AML, and also to evaluate its association with different clinical and laboratory data.Patients and Methods: This comprehensive study included a total of 40 AML patients and 20 matched healthy subjects, attending at Departments of Clinical Pathology and Medical Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University Hospitals. Clinical and laboratory data were correlated with CD99 expression frequency in patients with AML in order to examine its usefulness as a predictive and prognostic factor.Results: Examination of CD99 expression in AML patients revealed that 80% of patients are CD99 positive, while (20%) are negative.Conclusion: CD99 expression in acute myeloid leukemia patients is of good prognostic value

Diagnostic Accuracy of Corneal and Epithelial Thickness Map Parameters to Detect Keratoconus and Suspect Keratoconus

Aim. To establish the diagnostic accuracy of corneal and epithelial thickness measurements obtained by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) in detecting keratoconus (KC) and suspect keratoconus (SKC). Methods. This retrospective study reviewed the data of 144 eyes separated into three groups by the Sirius automated corneal classification software: normal (N) (n = 65), SKC (n = 43), and KC (n = 36). Corneal thickness (CT) and epithelial thickness (ET) in the central (0-2 mm) and paracentral (2-5 mm) zones were obtained with the Cirrus high-definition OCT. Areas under the curve (AUC) of receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were compared across groups to estimate their discrimination capacity. Results. ROC curve analysis revealed excellent predictive ability for ET variables: minimum (Min) ET (0_2), minimum-maximum (Min-Max) ET (0_2), superonasal-inferotemporal (SN-IT) ET (2_5), Min-Max ET (2_5), and Min ET (2_5) to detect keratoconus (AUC > 0.9, all). Min-Max CT (0_2) was the only CT parameter with excellent ability to discriminate between KC and N eyes (AUC = 0.94; cutoff = ≤-32 μm). However, both ET and CT variables were not strong enough (AUC < 0.8, all) to differentiate between SKC and N eyes, with the highest diagnostic power for Min-Max ET (2_5) (AUC = 0.71; cutoff = ≤-9 μm) and central corneal thickness (CCT) (AUC = 0.76; cutoff = ≤533 μm). Conclusion. These results demonstrate that OCT-derived CT and ET are able to differentiate between KC and N eyes, with a high level of certainty. However, Min-Max ET (2_5) was the parameter with the highest ability to detect suspect keratoconus

EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF ACETAMINOPHEN COMPARED TO TRAMADOL AFTER LAPAROSCOPIC CHOLECYSTECTOMY

Abstract Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy become widely popular because of its less postoperative pain produced compared to conventional cholecystectomy. The use of opioids postoperatively to reduce pain may be harmful and produce some adverse effects .Tramadol is a centrally acting opioid which is effective for postoperative analgesic pain but produce undesirable adverse effects the patients do not tolerate it so that intravenous acetaminophen could be helpful to optimize postoperative analgesia by reducing the requirement for opioids and their adverse effects.Method: A prospective randomized clinical trial was carried out on 27 adults undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy were randomly assigned to two groups in this study (13patients) to receive intravenously 1000mg acetaminophen and (14 patients) to receive intramuscularly tramadol 100mg postoperatively; visual analog scale (VAS) was utilized to asses pain severity and efficacy of analgesic agents. Pain scores were assessed at 0,2,4,6,8,10 and 12h after surgery the incidence of adverse effects was also assessed.Results: Over a period of 12hours, visual analog scale (VAS) scores were significantly lower in each group at each time interval compared to zero time; there is a non significant difference in pain score between the different groups; the incidence of adverse effects like nausea and vomiting was significant in tramadol group compared to acetaminophen group.Conclusion: Postoperative intravenous acetaminophen infusion of 1000mg is useful for reducing pain scores after elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy; it is effective and safe analgesic with less adverse effects compared to tramadol.  Key words: laparoscopic cholecystectomy, Acetaminophen, Tramadol, Postoperative analgesia.  Â

Identification of a double recessive genotype for 'B' genes controlling presence and absence of pigmented testa in sorghum

The dominant complementary genes B1 and B2, in combination with a spreader gene, S, produce grains with a brown testa and undesirable high tannin content. Thirteen white-grained cytoplasmically male-sterile lines without a pigmented testa were crossed with 2 white-grained testers, IS475 (B1B1 b2b2 SS) and BTx623 (b1b1 B2B2 SS). On the basis of grain colour of F1 plants, 12 of the lines were of genotype b1b1 B2B2 and one (SPL76A) was b1b1 b2b2. SPL76A is considered useful as a seed parent for developing tannin-free hybrids in combination with white-grained restorers of any origi