Effect of vitamin D3 supplement in glycemic control of pediatrics with type 1 diabetes mellitus and vitamin D deficiency

Background: Glycemic control prevents microvascular complications in patients with type I diabetes mellitus such as retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy that influences quality of life. Some studies show the immunomodulatory effect of vitamin D in synthesis and secretion of insulin. Aims: In this study we evaluate glycemic changes after vitamin D3 supplement in children with type I diabetes mellitus and vitamin D deficiency. Materials and Methods: In children with type I diabetes mellitus, level of vitamin D and HbA1C was measured. Patients with type I diabetes mellitus who had vitamin D deficiency (25OHD 9.9. This supplement transfer patients toward better glycemic control for the entire group (p-value < 0.0001). Conclusion: Vitamin D3 supplement improves HbA1C in pediatrics with type I diabetes mellitus and vitamin D deficiency. © 2015, Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. All Rights Reserved

Numerical Analysis of Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Wall as Bridge Abutment

This paper presents the finite element analysis of a geosynthetic reinforced soil wall as a bridge abutment built in Tehran, and the predictions are compared with the available field measurements. This abutment is analysed using both Limit Equilibrium Method (LEM) for stability analysis and Finite Element Method (FEM) for deformation analysis. Two dimensional plane strain finite element model is adopted for the simulation. Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) geogrid with high tensile moduli and low creep characteristics has been adopted in this project to limit the deformation of the bridge abutment. In this model, the backfill soil and geogrids simulated adopting Mohr-Coulomb model, and the elasto-plastic material model that only works in tension, respectively. Bridge abutments can be stabilised by including geosynthetic layers with high tensile moduli satisfying both stability and deformation criteria reducing the construction cost and time, post construction deformations, and future maintenance cost

Numerical and experimental investigations on seismic response of building frames under influence of soil-structure interaction

In this study, an enhanced numerical soil-structure model has been developed which treats the behaviour of soil and structure with equal rigour. The proposed numerical soil-structure model has been verified and validated by performing experimental shaking table tests. To achieve this goal, a series of experimental shaking table tests were performed on the physical fixed based (structure directly fixed on top of the shaking table) and flexible base (considering soil and structure) models under the influence of four scaled earthquake acceleration records and the results were measured. Comparing the experimental results with the numerical analysis predictions, it is noted that the numerical predictions and laboratory measurements are in a good agreement. Thus, the proposed numerical soil-structure model is a valid and qualified method of simulation with sufficient accuracy which can be employed for further numerical soil-structure interaction investigation studies. Based on the predicted and observed values of lateral deflections of fixed base and flexible base models, lateral deflections of the flexible base model have noticeably amplified in comparison to the fixed base model. As a result of the lateral deflection amplifications, it is observed that the performance level of the scaled structural model changed significantly which could be safety threatening

Effects of Shear Wave Velocity Profile of Soil on Seismic Response of High Rise Buildings

There is, nowadays, a conspicuous demand for the high rise buildings in the high-density dwellings of the urban areas; in consequence, harnessing the whiz-bang numerical simulations plus conducting the rigorous experimental studies so as to design and construct such prodigious structures would be essential. Thus, the appropriate parameters for modeling the structure and the soil medium in the Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) system should be selected. The soil-structure interaction is referred to the process in which the soil response is told on by the structure motion whilst the latter is affected by the soil motion. The current research zeroed in on the soil shear wave velocity and its influence on the superstructure performance. Invoking the weighted average shear wave velocity with the aim of calculating the soil shear modulus, which is closely related to the strength and deformation characteristics of the soil, has been a hotly debated issue since the aforesaid parameter was posited by a plethora of codes and regulations to obtain the soil site classification required for the earthquake design. To that end, the numerical model, having two assorted profiles associated with the shear wave velocity, namely, the in situ non-uniform profile (Case A) and the equivalent uniform profile (Case B), was built by means of FLAC3D, capable of analyzing the complex interaction issues via the direct method whereby the entire system of the structure-foundation-soil is modeled and analyzed in one single step. To put it in a nutshell, employing the weighted average shear wave velocity for the entire soil mass in parsing of the 3D seismic soil-structure interaction problems would be accused for ending up with somewhat unreliable results, e.g., underestimated drift ratio and building deformation, which might be the culprit of the damage to the building and possibly the death of the residents residing in the earthquake-prone zones

Orexin 1 receptors in the anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal cortex regulate cost and benefit decision-making

Abstract Orexin neurons are discretely localized within the lateral hypothalamus and have widespread projections into all areas of the brain. In addition, several lines of evidence specify that orexins may also participate in the regulation of a variety of affective and cognitive processes. The Orexin-1 receptor (OX1r) is distributed extensively throughout the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Delay-based decision- making is mediated largely by the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) while effort- based decision-making is controlled by the anterior cingulated cortex (ACC). Hence, in the present study, a series of experiments were conducted to clarify the role of OX1r in the mPFC (ACC and/or OFC) in cost and benefit decision-making. The rats were trained in a delay and/or effort-based form of cost-benefit T-maze decision-making task. Two goal arms were different in the amount of accessible reward and cost. Before surgery, all animals were selecting the high reward arm and pay the cost on almost every trial. During the test days, the rats received local injections of either DMSO 20% /0.5 μl, as a vehicle, or SB334867 (3, 30 and 300 nM/0.5 μl), as a selective OX1r antagonist, within the ACC and/or OFC. The results of this study showed that the bilateral microinjection of SB334867 into ACC and/or OFC changed the preference to a low reward arm with no cost, indicating the role of OX1 receptors in cost and benefit decision- making. From these results, it can be implied that OX1 receptors in the mPFC play a crucial role for allowing the animal to evaluate and pay the cost to acquire greater rewards. Keywords Delay-based decision-making Effort-based decision-making Orexin Orbitofrontal cortex Anterior cingulate cortex Ra

Remediation of Expansive Soils Using Agricultural Waste Bagasse Ash

© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Bagasse is a fibrous material remaining after crushing sugarcane to extract its juice; and bagasse ash is produced after burning bagasse. Improper disposal of this material can create environmental problems around sugar manufacturing plants. Bagasse ash, comprising a high percentage of silica (SiO2), is considered as a sensible pozzolanic material with non-reactive behaviour and has potential to be used in road subgrade stabilisation. One of the main challenges for transportation organisations in Australia is to treat subgrades including expansive soils. Expansive soils exhibit significant movements when the moisture content changes, and hence it causes substantial damage to road pavements constructed over these type of soils. Road engineers need to employ materials having acceptable strength, relatively low price and being eco-friendly. In order to demonstrate the potential ability of bagasse ash in curtailing the adverse effects of expansive soils on roads, an array of experimental tests using bagasse ash have been conducted. In this study to activate and improve the effectiveness of bagasse ash, hydrated lime was used and mixed with black soil samples, collected from Queensland Australia. Samples were prepared using different contents of bagasse ash and hydrated lime (0%, 6%, 10%, 18% and 25% by the dry mass of soil), at a ratio of 3:1, respectively. The results of free swell ratio (FSR) test, unconfined compression strength (UCS) and California bearing ratio (CBR) tests are presented for untreated and treated samples after various curing time periods of 3, 7 and 28 days. The outcomes of these tests clearly demonstrate that stabilisation of expansive soils using bagasse ash and hydrated lime not only improves the strength, but also facilitates to cope with environmental concerns through reduction of sugar industry waste material

Performance of laterally loaded piles considering soil and interface parameters

© 2014 Techno-Press, Ltd. To investigate the soil-pile interactive performance under lateral loads, a set of laboratory model tests was conducted on remoulded test bed of soft clay and medium dense sand. Then, a simplified boundary element analysis had been carried out assuming floating pile. In case of soft clay, it has been observed that lateral loads on piles can initiate the formation of a gap, soil heave and the tension crack in the vicinity of the soil surface and the interface, whereas in medium dense sand, a semi-elliptical depression zone can develop. Comparison of test and boundary element results indicates the accuracy of the solution developed. However, in the boundary element analysis, the possible shear stresses likely to be developed at the interface are ignored in order to simplify the existing complex equations. Moreover, it is unable to capture the influence of base restraint in case of a socketed pile. To bridge up this gap and to study the influence of the initial stress state and interface parameters, a field based case-study of laterally-loaded pile in layered soil with socketed tip is explored and modelled using the finite element method. The results of the model have been verified against known field measurements from a case-study. Parametric studies have been conducted to investigate the influence of the coefficient of lateral earth pressure and the interface strength reduction factor on the results of the model

The impact of probiotic yogurt consumption on lipid profiles in subjects with mild to moderate hypercholesterolemia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Background and aims: Potential beneficial effect of probiotic yogurt on the lipid profile has raised much interest. However, the results are inconsistent in this regard. The aim of the study is to determine the effects of probiotic yogurt on serum lipid profile in individuals with mild to moderate hypercholesterolemia. Methods and results: Online databases including PubMed, Scopus, ISI Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Science Direct, Google Scholar and Igaku Chuo Zasshi were searched until March 19th 2019. The effect sizes were expressed as the weighted mean difference (WMD) with 95 confidence interval (CI). Seven eligible trials with 274 participants were included in this systematic review. Pooling of 9 effect sizes from these seven articles revealed a significant reduction in total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels following probiotic yogurt consumption (mean difference: �8.73 mg/dl, 95 CI: �15.98, �1.48, p-value = 0.018 and mean difference: �10.611 mg/dl, 95 CI: �16.529, �4.693, p-value = 0.000, respectively) without significant heterogeneity among the studies (I2 = 40.6, p-value = 0.1 and I2 = 24.2, p-value = 0.229, respectively). The results showed no significant changes in high density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Also, none of the variables showed a significant change for sensitivity analysis. Conclusion: Available evidence suggests that probiotic yogurt can significantly reduce total cholesterol and LDL-c in subjects with mild to moderate hypercholesterolemia without a significant effect on HDL-c and triglyceride levels. © 2019 The Italian Society of Diabetology, the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Italian Society of Human Nutrition, and the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II Universit

Characterization of Iranian grapevine cultivars using microsatellite markers

Sixty-two grapevine (Vitis spp.) accessions from Iran and the USA were characterized at 9 highly polymorphic microsatellite loci using fluorescent primers and a capillary electrophoresis fragment sizing system. The number of alleles observed per locus ranged from 4 to 16 and heterozygosity values ranged from 0.47 to 0.86. Genetic similarity was estimated for each pair of accessions as the proportion of shared alleles. A phenogram constructed from genetic dissimilarity values revealed three clusters, one each for table grapes, wine grapes and rootstocks. The phenogram also revealed three clonal sets (Askari, Bidane and Yaghoti) as well as some synonyms and homonyms among Iranian table grape cultivars.

Classification of learning styles using behavioral features and twin support vector machine

Background and Objective:Internet and computer access have created opportunities for e-learning. Easier access to resources and freedom of action for users is one of the benefits of e-learning. However, e-learning is not as attractive and dynamic as traditional or face-to-face instruction, and in these systems the user's condition, such as learning rate and motivation, is not taken into account. Therefore, the developers of e-learning systems can help to solve the problems mentioned in these systems by considering the learning style and design of interactive user relationships. Automated identification of learning style not only increases the attractiveness of e-learning, but also increases the efficiency and motivation of learners in e-learning environments. Research shows that people differ in decision making, problem solving, and learning. Learning style makes people understand a story differently. For example, people with good visual memory prefer to present topics visually rather than orally. Applying a proper teaching method improves the learner's performance in the learning environment. Lack of attention to students' learning style reduces their motivation and interest in studying and engagement in educational courses. Students’ success is one of the prominent goals in the learning environments. In order to achieve this goal, paying attention to students’ learning style is essential. Being aware of students’ learning style helps to design an appropriate education method which improves student’s performance in the learning environments. In this paper, the aim is to create a model for automatic prediction of learning styles. Methods: Therefore, two real datasets collected from an e-learning environment which consists of 202 electrical and computer engineering students. Behavioral features were extracted from users’ interaction with e-learning system and then learning styles were classified using twin support vector machine. Twin support vector machine is an extension of SVM which aims at generating two non-parallel hyperplanes. This classifier is not sensitive to imbalanced datasets and its training speed is fast. Findings: In this study, increasing the attractiveness of e-learning is emphasized and the issue of automatic recognition of students' learning style has been investigated by MBTI model. Two data sets from the interaction of 202 electrical and computer engineering students with the Moodle e-learning system have been collected. The collected data set is very unbalanced, which has a negative effect on the accuracy of the categories. With this in mind, the twin support vector machine uses the least squares as a binder. The distinctive feature of this category is the low sensitivity to data balance and very high speed. The results show that the proposed method, despite the inconsistency of the data, has performed very well in the classification of students' learning style and accurately recognizes 95% of learning styles.Conclusion: Due to the excellent performance of the proposed method, a new component can be added to e-learning systems such as Moodle by identifying the learning style, content and appropriate teaching method for the learner. Future research could also gather more data from an e-learning environment and categorize learning styles with cognitive characteristics from the learner.   ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS  ©2019 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.  ====================================================================================