Outlier Detection and a Method of Adjustment for the Iranian Manufacturing Establishment Survey Data

The role and importance of the industrial sector in the economic development necessitate the need to collect and to analyze accurate and timely data for exact planning. As the occurrence of outliers in establishment surveys are common due to the structure of the economy, the evaluation of survey data by identifying and investigating outliers, prior to the release of data, is necessary. In this paper, different robust multivariate outlier detection methods based on the Mahalanobis distance with blocked adaptive computationally efficient outlier nominators algorithm, minimum volume ellipsoid estimator, minimum covariance determinant estimator and Stahel-Donoho estimator are used in the context of a real dataset. Also some univariate outlier detection methods such as Hadi and Simonoff’s method, and Hidiroglou-Barthelot’s method for periodic manufacturing surveys are applied. The real data set is extracted from the Iranian Manufacturing Establishment Survey. These data are collected each year by the Statistical Center of Iran using sampling weights. In this paper, in addition to comparing different multivariate and univariate robust outlier detection methods, a new empirical method for reducing the effect of outliers based on the value modification method is introduced and applied on some important variables such as input and output. In this paper, a new four-step algorithm is introduced to adjust the input and output values of the manufacturing establishments which are under-reported or over-reported. A simulation study for investigating the performance of our method is also presented

The fabrication of potentiometric membrane sensors and their applications

Ionophore-incorporated PVC-membrane sensors are well-established analytical tools routinely used for the selective and direct measurement of a wide variety of different ions in complex biological and environmental samples. The key ingredient of such plasticized PVC-members is the involved ionophore, defining the selectivity of the electrodes complex formation with the cation of interest. In the past few years, the development of new ion-selective electrodes for various ions has been reported inthe literature

Disulfide-induced self-assembled targets:A novel strategy for the label free colorimetric detection of DNAs/RNAs via unmodified gold nanoparticles

A modified non-cross-linking gold-nanoparticles (Au-NPs) aggregation strategy has been developed for the label free colorimetric detection of DNAs/RNAs based on self-assembling target species in the presence of thiolated probes. Two complementary thiol-modified probes, each of which specifically binds at one half of the target introduced SH groups at both ends of dsDNA. Continuous disulfide bond formation at 3' and 5' terminals of targets leads to the self-assembly of dsDNAs into the sulfur-rich and flexible products with different lengths. These products have a high affinity for the surface of Au-NPs and efficiently protect the surface from salt induced aggregation. To evaluate the assay efficacy, a small part of the citrus tristeza virus (CTV) genome was targeted, leading to a detection limit of about 5 x 10(-9) mol. L-1 over a linear ranged from 20 x 10(-9) to 10 x 10(-7) mol. L-1. This approach also exhibits good reproducibility and recovery levels in the presence of plant total RNA or human plasma total circulating RNA extracts. Self-assembled targets can be then sensitively distinguished from non-assembled or mismatched targets after gel electrophoresis. The disulfide reaction method and integrating self-assembled DNAs/RNAs targets with bare AuNPs as a sensitive indicator provide us a powerful and simple visual detection tool for a wide range of applications

Multiple Dp_p-branes as a Dp+2_{p+2}-brane

From BFSS matrix theory considerations, it is expected that a single D$_{p+2}$-brane action can be obtained from N D$_p$-brane action in large N limit. We examine and confirm this expectation by working out the details of DBI and Chern-Simons terms of D$_{p+2}$-brane action from D$_{p}$-brane action. We show that the same relation works for non-BPS, as well as BPS branesComment: 14 page

Disulfide-induced self-assembled targets: A novel strategy for the label free colorimetric detection of DNAs/RNAs via unmodified gold nanoparticles

A modified non-cross-linking gold-nanoparticles (Au-NPs) aggregation strategy has been developed for the label free colorimetric detection of DNAs/RNAs based on self-assembling target species in the presence of thiolated probes. Two complementary thiol- modified probes, each of which specifically binds at one half of the target introduced SH groups at both ends of dsDNA. Continuous disulfide bond formation at 3′ and 5′ terminals of targets leads to the self-assembly of dsDNAs into the sulfur- rich and flexible products with different lengths. These products have a high affinity for the surface of Au-NPs and efficiently protect the surface from salt induced aggregation. To evaluate the assay efficacy, a small part of the citrus tristeza virus (CTV) genome was targeted, leading to a detection limit of about 5 × 10-9 mol.L-1 over a linear ranged from 20 × 10-9 to 10 × 10-7 mol.L-1. This approach also exhibits good reproducibility and recovery levels in the presence of plant total RNA or human plasma total circulating RNA extracts. Self-assembled targets can be then sensitively distinguished from non-assembled or mismatched targets after gel electrophoresis. The disulfide reaction method and integrating self-assembled DNAs/RNAs targets with bare AuNPs as a sensitive indicator provide us a powerful and simple visual detection tool for a wide range of applications

The interrelation between the generation of large-scale electric fields and that of large-scale magnetic fields during inflation

The interrelation between the generation of large-scale electric fields and that of large-scale magnetic fields due to the breaking of the conformal invariance of the electromagnetic field in inflationary cosmology is studied. It is shown that if large-scale magnetic fields with a sufficiently large amplitude are generated during inflation, the generation of large-scale electric fields is suppressed, and vice versa. Furthermore, a physical interpretation of the result and its cosmological significance are considered.Comment: 12 pages, no figure, title changed, typos correcte

Large-scale magnetic fields from inflation due to Chern-Simons-like effective interaction

We discuss the generation of large-scale magnetic fields due to the breaking of the conformal invariance in the electromagnetic field through the $CPT$-even dimension-six Chern-Simons-like effective interaction with a fermion current in inflationary cosmology. It is shown that the magnetic fields on 1Mpc scale with the field strength of $\sim 10^{-9}$G at the present time can be generated even for the scale of the effective interaction being the Planck scale.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, additional explanations include

Association of Zinc, Copper and Magnesium with bone mineral density in Iranian postmenopausal women - a case control study

Background: The risk of inadequate nutrition such as trace elements and vitamin deficiencies is considerable in postmenopausal women. The aim of this study was to compare trace elements (Zinc, Copper and Magnesium) concentration in nail, urine and serum among osteoporotic postmenopausal women with control group in Iran.Methods: Forty eight postmenopausal women aged 36-60 years, were recruited, consisting 30 osteoporotic patients and 18 healthy controls. Blood, nail and urine concentration of Zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and magnesium (Mg) were determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma -Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES) method. Their Bone Mineral Density was measured by Dual X-ray Absorption (DEXA) method.Results: The urine level of trace elements had significant difference between osteoporotic groups and controls (p < 0.001). Moreover Mg level significantly differed in serum between two groups (p < 0.04). There was no statistically significant difference in trace minerals in nail beyond groups.Conclusion: Our findings indicate that Urine Zn level could be considerable an appropriate marker for bone absorption, usage of Zn supplements in postmenopausal women may result a beneficial reduction in osteoporotic risk. © 2014 Razmandeh et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Nambu-Poisson Bracket and M-Theory Branes Coupled to Antisymmetric Fluxes

By using the recently proposed prescription arXiv:0804.3629 for obtaining the $M5$ brane action from multiple $M2$ branes action in BLG theory, we examine such transition when 11 Dimensional background antisymmetric fluxes couple to the $M2$ brane world volume. Such couplings was suggested in arXiv:0805.3427 where it was used the fact that various fields in BLG theory are valued in a Lie 3-algebra. We argue that this action and promoting it by Nambu-Poisson bracket gives the expected coupling of fluxes with $M5$ brane at least at weak coupling limit. We also study some other aspects of the action for example, the gauge invariance of the theory.Comment: 14 page