MM DialogueGAT- A Fusion Graph Attention Network for Emotion Recognition using Multi-model System

Emotion recognition is an important part of human-computer interaction and human communication information is multi-model. Despite advancements in emotion recognition models, certain challenges persist. The first problem pertains to the predominant focus in existing research on mining the interaction information between modes and the context information in the dialogue process but neglects to mine the role information between multi-model states and context information in the dialogue process. The second problem is in the context information of the dialogue where the information is not completely transmitted in a temporal structure. Aiming at these two problems, we propose a multi-model fusion dialogue graph attention network (MM DialogueGAT). To solve the problem 1, the bidirectional GRU mechanism is used to extract the information from each model. In the multi-model information fusion problem, different model configurations and different combinations use the cross-model multi-head attention mechanism to establish a multi-head attention layer. Text, video and audio information are used as the main and auxiliary modes for information fusion. To solve the problem 2, in the temporal context information extraction problem, the GAT graph structure is used to capture the context information in the mode. The results show that our model achieves good results using the IMEOCAP datasets

The behavior of ß-lactoglobulin protein in plate heat exchanger’s channel during milk heat treatment

A major problem related to heat treatment of milk is formation of deposits. This is due to the chemical alteration of β-lactoglobulin protein that leads to formation of coatings on the walls of the equipment. These deposits induce losses in the thermal performance of the heat exchanger. In order to provide an adequate prediction of these deposits, we present a two-dimensional (2D) modelling study of the channel of a plate heat exchanger. Compared with the former studies, where the domain is related to a single plate, our work is related to the area between the two plates. This approach will allow a better understanding and description of the evolution and behaviour of β-lactoglobulin protein. Equations for fluid flow, energy, and fouling were resolved. Special boundary conditions had been implemented to link the amount of deposits with thermal transfer. Predicted results for the amount of fouling deposit on the wall were validated by comparisons with experimental data available in literature. The behaviour of β-lactoglobulin protein was studied by analyzing its distribution in the channel

Péritonite primitive: entité réelle mais de diagnostic difficile

Les péritonites primitives sont rares chez des patients sans facteurs de risques. Elles simulent les péritonites secondaires. C’est pourquoi leurdiagnostic ne peut être que peropératoire. Nous rapportons deux cas de péritonites primitives dans le but de discuter leurs aspects diagnostique etthérapeutiques.Key words: Diagnostic, péritonite primitive, traitemen

Tuberculous Duodenal Stenosis: Report of Two Cases

Duodenal tuberculosis is a rare clinical entity. The authors report and emphasize the lack of special clinical, radiological and endoscopic signs of duodenal tuberculosis. The diagnosis is affirmed, at laparotomy, out of the findings of peritoneal granulations or histology of lymphatic nodes. We report our experience of two cases of duodenal tuberculosis presenting with proximal intestinal obstruction and review the available literature

Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 Seroprevalence among Different National Populations of Middle East and North African Men

© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association. Background There are limited data on herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) seroprevalence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). We examined country- and age-specific HSV-2 seroprevalence among select MENA populations residing in Qatar. Methods Sera were collected from male blood donors attending Hamad Medical Corporation between June 2013 and June 2016. Specimens were screened for anti-HSV-2 IgG antibodies following a 2-test algorithm: HerpeSelect 2 ELISA was used to identify HSV-2-positive specimens, and Euroline-WB was used to confirm positive and equivocal specimens for final HSV-2 status. Trends and associations with HSV-2 seropositivity were assessed. Results Of the 2077 tested sera, 61 were found and confirmed positive. The proportion of those confirmed positive increased steadily with HerpeSelect 2 ELISA index value, ranging from 16.3% for index values of 1.101 to 1.999 to 92.9% for index values of 4 or greater. Nationality-specific seroprevalence was 6.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.1%-8.8%) in Qataris, 5.3% (95% CI, 2.5%-11.1%) in Iranians, 4.2% (95% CI, 1.8%-9.5%) in Lebanese, 3.1% (95% CI, 1.2%-7.7%) in Sudanese, 3.0% (95% CI, 1.4%-6.4%) in Palestinians, 2.2% (95% CI, 1.1%-4.3%) in Egyptians, 2.0% (95% CI, 1.0%-5.0%) in Syrians, 1.0% (95% CI, 0.3%-3.6%) in Jordanians, 0.7% (95% CI, 0.1%-3.7%) in Yemenis, and 0.5% (95% CI, 0.1%-2.8%) in Pakistanis. There was evidence for higher seroprevalence in older age groups. Conclusions The seroprevalence of HSV-2 was in the range of few percentage points. There were no major differences in seroprevalence by nationality. These findings add to our understanding of HSV-2 epidemiology in MENA and indicate unmet needs for sexual health and control of sexually transmitted infections.Funding text #1 From the *Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group, Weill Cornell Medicine—Qatar, Cornell University, Qatar Foundation—Education City; †Department of Biomedical Science, College of Health Sciences, and ‡BioMedical Research Center, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar; and §Department of Healthcare Policy and Research, Weill Cornell Medi-cine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Acknowledgments: The authors gratefully acknowledge the administrative support of Ms Adona Canlas. They are also grateful to Dr Asmaa Al-Marwani, Ms Maria Samatti, and Ms Sana Abohasera for their work on blood specimen collection. The authors are further grateful for sup-port provided by the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Biomathematics Research Core at Weill Cornell Medicine—Qatar. Funding text #2 Funding: Testing kits were provided through pilot funding by the Biomedical Research Program at Weill Cornell Medicine—Qatar. Funding text #3 G.K.N. acknowledges support by Qatar University internal grant No. QUST-CHS-SPR-15/16-7. L.J.A. and S.R.D. acknowledge study conception and design support through NPRP grant number 9-040-3-008 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation), and G.K.N. acknowledges support from the Qatar National Research Fund UREP grant number UREP18-001-3-001. The findings achieved herein are solely the responsibility of the authors

Thermodynamics, isotherms, and mechanisms studies of lithium recovery from seawater desalination reverse osmosis brine using roasted and ferrocyanide modified date pits

In this study, the adsorption isotherms and thermodynamic studies of lithium ions from seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination brine were investigated. Three adsorbents were utilized namely, roasted date pits (RDP), potassium copper, and nickel hexacyanoferrate-date pits (RDP-FC-Cu and RDP-FC-Ni). The prepared adsorbents showed enhanced morphological and chemical structures such as high porosity, carbonaceous composition, larger pore and volume sizes, smaller particle sizes as well as the presence of unique functional groups on their surface. The adsorption of lithium ions onto the three adsorbents was enhanced with an increase in solution temperature and initial lithium concentration. The temperature that showed the highest adsorption of lithium ions onto the three adsorbents was 45 °C. The adsorption of lithium ions onto the three adsorbents was the highest at an initial lithium concentration of 100 mg/L. The three adsorbents achieved an adsorption capacity of around 99 mg/g at the optimum temperature and initial concentration. On the other hand, RDP-FC-Cu achieved the highest adsorption capacities for lithium ions at all the studied initial concentrations. The thermodynamic study showed that the adsorption process of lithium ions onto the adsorbents is endothermic, spontaneous, and favorable at all the studied temperatures (25 °C, 35 °C, and 45 °C). Moreover, the adsorption of lithium ions onto the three adsorbents followed the Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin–Radushkevich, and Temkin adsorption isotherm models differently at each studied temperature. For RDP, the adsorption process followed the Freundlich adsorption isotherm model at 25 °C, while it was more fitted to the Langmuir isotherm model at 45 °C and all models at 35 °C. The adsorption of lithium ions onto RDP-FC-Cu followed Langmuir adsorption isotherm model at 25 °C and 35 °C, while it fitted all models at 45 °C. On the other hand, Langmuir and Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm models were best fit for the adsorption of lithium ions onto RDP-FC-Ni at 25 °C and 35 °C. The desorption study presented 99% desorption percentages of lithium ions from all the adsorbents, which showed the great regeneration potential of the adsorbents. Furthermore, the selectivity study showed that RDP-FC-Cu achieved 99.9% adsorption removal of lithium ions from the SWRO brine while RDP-FC-Ni and RDP achieved 99.8% and 99.3% adsorption removals, respectively. Finally, the cost analysis revealed that the total cost for the preparation of the adsorbent was 29.81 USD.Scopu

Performance evaluation of four type-specific commercial assays for detection of herpes simplex virus type 1 antibodies in a Middle East and North Africa population.

The number of diagnostic assays for the detection of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) antibodies has increased over the years. However, their performance characteristics could vary among global populations. To investigate performance of two commercial ELISA kits, HerpeSelect1 ELISA and Euroimmun Anti-HSV-1 (gC1) ELISA (IgG); and two commercial immunoblot (IB)/Western blot (WB) assays, HerpeSelect1 and 2 Immunoblot IgG, and Euroimmun Anti-HSV-1/HSV-2 gG2 Euroline-WB (IgG/IgM); in detecting HSV-1 antibodies in a Middle East and North Africa (MENA) population. Blood specimens were collected from blood donors in Doha, Qatar, June 2013-2016. Twenty specimens were randomly selected from 10 MENA nationalities (Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen; total = 200), and tested for HSV-1 antibodies. Across all six comparisons between assays, positive percent agreement ranged between 95.7% (95% CI: 91.4-98.3%) and 100.0% (95% CI: 97.8-100.0%). Negative percent agreement ranged between 86.2% (95% CI: 68.3-96.1%) and 96.2% (95% CI: 80.4-99.9%). Overall percent agreement ranged between 95.7% (95% CI: 91.7-97.8%) and 99.4% (95% CI: 96.7-99.9%). Cohen's kappa statistic ranged between 0.84 (95% CI: 0.73-0.95) and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.93-1.00). Compared against IB/WB, HerpeSelectand Euroimmun had sensitivities and specificities >96% and >86%, respectively. Positive and negative predictive values were >97% and >83%, respectively. The assays showed excellent concordance with one another, and with a high kappa statistic. The ELISA kits demonstrated robust diagnostic performance compared to the IB/WB assays. These findings support the assays' utility in clinical diagnosis and research in MENA populations

Sensor fusion to estimate the depth and width of the weld bead in real time in GMAW processes

The arc welding process is widely used in industry but its automatic control is limited by the difficulty in measuring the weld bead geometry and closing the control loop on the arc, which has adverse environmental conditions. To address this problem, this work proposes a system to capture the welding variables and send stimuli to the Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) conventional process with a constant voltage power source, which allows weld bead geometry estimation with an open-loop control. Dynamic models of depth and width estimators of the weld bead are implemented based on the fusion of thermographic data, welding current and welding voltage in a multilayer perceptron neural network. The estimators were trained and validated off-line with data from a novel algorithm developed to extract the features of the infrared image, a laser profilometer was implemented to measure the bead dimensions and an image processing algorithm that measures depth by making a longitudinal cut in the weld bead. These estimators are optimized for embedded devices and real-time processing and were implemented on a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device. Experiments to collect data, train and validate the estimators are presented and discussed. The results show that the proposed method is useful in industrial and research environments

A Mathematical Model of Liver Cell Aggregation In Vitro

The behavior of mammalian cells within three-dimensional structures is an area of intense biological research and underpins the efforts of tissue engineers to regenerate human tissues for clinical applications. In the particular case of hepatocytes (liver cells), the formation of spheroidal multicellular aggregates has been shown to improve cell viability and functionality compared to traditional monolayer culture techniques. We propose a simple mathematical model for the early stages of this aggregation process, when cell clusters form on the surface of the extracellular matrix (ECM) layer on which they are seeded. We focus on interactions between the cells and the viscoelastic ECM substrate. Governing equations for the cells, culture medium, and ECM are derived using the principles of mass and momentum balance. The model is then reduced to a system of four partial differential equations, which are investigated analytically and numerically. The model predicts that provided cells are seeded at a suitable density, aggregates with clearly defined boundaries and a spatially uniform cell density on the interior will form. While the mechanical properties of the ECM do not appear to have a significant effect, strong cell-ECM interactions can inhibit, or possibly prevent, the formation of aggregates. The paper concludes with a discussion of our key findings and suggestions for future work

InVERT molding for scalable control of tissue microarchitecture

Complex tissues contain multiple cell types that are hierarchically organized within morphologically and functionally distinct compartments. Construction of engineered tissues with optimized tissue architecture has been limited by tissue fabrication techniques, which do not enable versatile microscale organization of multiple cell types in tissues of size adequate for physiological studies and tissue therapies. Here we present an ‘Intaglio-Void/Embed-Relief Topographic molding’ method for microscale organization of many cell types, including induced pluripotent stem cell-derived progeny, within a variety of synthetic and natural extracellular matrices and across tissues of sizes appropriate for in vitro, pre-clinical, and clinical studies. We demonstrate that compartmental placement of non-parenchymal cells relative to primary or induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes, compartment microstructure, and cellular composition modulate hepatic functions. Configurations found to sustain physiological function in vitro also result in survival and function in mice for at least 4 weeks, demonstrating the importance of architectural optimization before implantation.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (EB008396)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (DK56966)National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Cancer Center Support Core Grant P30-CA14051)National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (1F32DK091007)National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (1F32DK095529)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowship Program (1122374