Bulk-boundary and RPS Thermodynamics from Topology perspective

In this article, we investigate the bulk-boundary and restricted phase space (RPS) thermodynamics of Rissner-Nordstr\"om (R-N) AdS and 6-dimensional charged Gauss-Bonnet AdS black holes. Also, we examine the topological characteristics of the considered black holes and compare them with the extended thermodynamics results. In fact, we have found that the topological behavior of the bulk-boundary thermodynamics is the same as that of the extended thermodynamics, whereas the RPS thermodynamics exhibits a distinct behavior. We also demonstrate that within the RPS formalism, there is only one critical point with a topological charge of +1 $(Q_t=+1)$. Additionally, for RPS formalism, the inclusion of higher derivative curvature terms in the form of Gauss-Bonnet gravity does not alter the topological classification of critical points in charged AdS black holes.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, 1 Tabl

Thermodynamic topology and photon spheres in the Hyperscaling violation black hole

It was shown that a standard ring of light can be imagined outside the event horizon for stationary rotating four-dimensional black holes with axial symmetry using the topological method. Based on this concept, in this paper, we investigate the topological charge and the conditions of existence of the photon sphere (PS) for a hyperscaling violation (HSV) black hole with various values of the parameters of this model. Then, after carrying out a detailed analysis, we show the conventional topological classes viz $Q=-1$ for the mentioned black hole and $Q=0$ for the naked singularities. Also, we propose a new topological class for naked singularities ($Q=+1$) with respect to $z>1$. Then, we will use two different methods, namely the temperature (Duan's topological current $\Phi$-mapping theory) and the generalized Helmholtz free energy method, to study the topological classes of our black hole. By considering the black hole mentioned, we discuss the critical and zero points (topological charges and topological numbers) for different parameters of hyperscaling violating black holes, such as ($z, \theta$) and other free parameters, and study their thermodynamic topology. We observe that for a given value of the parameters $z$, $\theta$, and other free parameters, there exist two total topological charges $(Q_{t}=-1, 0)$ for the $T$ method and two total topological numbers $(W=+1)$ for the generalized Helmholtz free energy method. Additionally, we summarize the results for each study as photon sphere, temperature, and generalized Helmholtz free energy in some figures and tables. Finally, we compare our findings with other related studies in the literature.Comment: 38 pages, 21 figures and 13 table

Bardeen Black Hole Thermodynamics from Topological Perspective

In this paper, we use the generalized off-shell Helmholtz free energy method to explore the thermodynamic properties of Bardeen black holes (BD BHs) from a topological perspective based on Duan's topological current $\phi$-mapping. We consider various structures of BD BHs, including regular BD-AdS BHs, BD-AdS BHs in Kiselev's model of quintessence, BD BHs in massive gravity (MG), and BD BHs in 4D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet (EGB) gravity. We demonstrate that these BHs have one topological classification (TC), i.e., TC is +1 for all BHs considered, and the addition of MG or GB terms, etc., does not change the topological numbers.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in the Annals of Physic

Value of Admission HbA1c Level in Non-diabetic Patients With Unstable Angina

Introduction: There have been incompatible evidences about the prognostic value of HbA1c on the adverse outcomes in acute coronary syndrome. Also, these data are so limited in nondiabetic patients with unstable angina.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, HbA1c level of 231 nondiabetic patients admitted with unstable angina, was measured using high performance liquid affinity chromatography (HPLC) at admission. Then transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) was performed for evaluation of ejection fraction (EF) using Simpson method.Results: Our data revealed that HbA1c was significantly higher in patients with EF≤ 50% in comparison with EF>50% group (P value=0.01).Conclusions: HbA1c may be a helpful prognostic marker in nondiabetic patients admitted in emergency department with diagnosis of unstable angina

Towards Generalizable Morph Attack Detection with Consistency Regularization

Though recent studies have made significant progress in morph attack detection by virtue of deep neural networks, they often fail to generalize well to unseen morph attacks. With numerous morph attacks emerging frequently, generalizable morph attack detection has gained significant attention. This paper focuses on enhancing the generalization capability of morph attack detection from the perspective of consistency regularization. Consistency regularization operates under the premise that generalizable morph attack detection should output consistent predictions irrespective of the possible variations that may occur in the input space. In this work, to reach this objective, two simple yet effective morph-wise augmentations are proposed to explore a wide space of realistic morph transformations in our consistency regularization. Then, the model is regularized to learn consistently at the logit as well as embedding levels across a wide range of morph-wise augmented images. The proposed consistency regularization aligns the abstraction in the hidden layers of our model across the morph attack images which are generated from diverse domains in the wild. Experimental results demonstrate the superior generalization and robustness performance of our proposed method compared to the state-of-the-art studies.Comment: Accepted to the IEEE International Joint Conference on Biometrics (IJCB), 202

Predictive Value of Absent Septal q Wave in Patients with Significant Stenosis of Proximal Left Anterior Descending Coronary Artery

Aims: There is conflicting data about the predictive value of absent septal q wave in patients with significant stenosis of proximal Left Anterior Descending coronary artery. To clarify the exact role of this simple electrocardiographic sign we conducted this prospective descriptive study. Methods: Patients who were referred for coronary angiography in Milad Hospital between December 2008 and September 2009 were chosen randomly. Standard ECG was performed and reviewed for presence or absence of septal q wave, and then the coronary angiography was done and reported by another cardiologist. Results: Of 148 patients with absent septal q wave in ECG, 85 patients (57%) had significant stenosis of proximal LAD in coronary angiography. Statistical analysis showed that significant stenosis of proximal LAD could be predicted by absence of septal q wave in ECG with sensitivity of 59% and specificity of 47%. However, Kappa statistic (Kappa = 0.36) showed low agreement between them. Conclusion: Absence of normal septal q wave in ECG could be a low value predictor of coronary artery disease mainly significant proximal LAD stenosis

US Energy Policy During 2011–2022 and its Impact on China–Saudi Arabia Relations

IntroductionThe China–Saudi Arabia relations have witnessed significant growth and development from 2011 to 2022. Primarily driven by oil relations, the relations between the two countries have flourished in areas such as trade, investment, technology, and military cooperation. In December 2022, the two countries established the highest level of bilateral ties by signing 34 investment agreements valued at around 30 billion dollars, spanning various sectors such as clean energy, hydrogen production, solar energy, information technology, transportation, medical and housing industries, and building materials factories. Furthermore, China’s oil imports from Saudi Arabia increased from 5 million and 66 thousand barrels per day in 2011 to 10 million and 852 thousand barrels per day in 2020. The figure remained above 10 million barrels during 2022, despite the challenges posed by the COVID–19 pandemic and unfavorable economic conditions. This trend Indicates growing relations between China and Saudi Arabia.China and Saudi Arabia have exchanged a large share of capital in the energy sector. The Saudi active presence in the Chinese oil market has positioned it as China’s largest trade partner in the West Asia and African region. The bilateral investment volume between the two countries stands at approximately 73 billion dollars. Saudi Arabia’s extensive investments aimed at controlling China’s oil import network, refineries, and petrochemical industry, along with its involvement in the plan to double China’s strategic oil reserve, underscore the importance of maintaining China’s energy market for Saudi Arabia. Consequently, given China’s status as the largest energy consumer and Saudi Arabia’s position as the largest oil exporter, both countries possess the requisite capacity to foster cooperation in this field.In addition, Vision 2030 and the One Belt One Road Initiative are strategic factors facilitating the expansion of China–Saudi Arabia relations. In this regard, the two countries have signed comprehensive strategic cooperation agreements, leading to the establishment of the High-Level Joint Committee. During the committee’s second meeting in Riyadh in August 2017, contracts valued at 70 billion dollars were signed. Moreover, an important milestone was reached by signing a memorandum of understanding between the two countries for the establishment of a joint investment fund worth 20 billion dollars. Furthermore, Industrial Development Fund, China’s Silk Road Fund, and Everbright Bank were established. These agreements, memoranda, and funds intend to expedite the development of China’s One Belt One Road Initiative and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. Although China is trying to maximize its energy security by distributing its oil imports among different countries (e.g., the US), Saudi Arabia’s consistent share of approximately 20% in recent years remains of utmost significance.Literature ReviewSeveral studies have examined the topics of US energy policy and the development of China–Saudi Arabia relations. However, few works have linked these two phenomena in an analytical manner. The novelty of this article lies in its attempt to bridge this gap and provide an analysis by exploring the interplay between these two issues.Materials and MethodsThis research adopted a mixed methods design, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data. Documents and library resources were used to collect the data. Relying on an examination of research, analytical and statistical texts, the study focused on indexing and defining variables and their influential factors in a bid to conduct an analytical and inferential exploration to elucidate the trends and interrelationships between the independent and dependent variables.ConclusionThe US–Saudi oil relations have witnessed unparalleled growth and encompassed various economic, political, and security sectors in recent decades. Furthermore, to ensure its own growth and development, it is imperative for China to maintain stability and security in the energy sector. This objective can be achieved through effective management of competition and, in certain instances, cooperation with the United States. The ongoing trend of expanding relations between China and Saudi Arabia in the energy sector is unprecedented, solidifying China’s position as a significant competitor to the United States.     The growing China–Saudi Arabia relations are driven by the mutual needs in the energy sector and strategic development plans. Yet the present research aimed to analyze China–Saudi Arabia relations with an eye to the US energy policy, relying a neo-mercantilist approach. Consequently, the primary question addressed in this article is: how has the US energy policy during 2011–2022 influenced the dynamics of China–Saudi Arabia relationship. The study was based on the hypothesis that the US energy policy during 2011–2022, characterized by increased oil and shale gas production and a reinforced neo-mercantilist approach in the energy sector, played a crucial role in fostering closer ties between China and Saudi Arabia, primarily in the oil sector, and supported their efforts to broaden mutual cooperation across other fields. The hypothesis was tested through empirical and explanatory methods. The research findings suggest that China–Saudi Arabia cooperation is expected to expand further in the future, while taking into account the sensitivities associated with these relations from the perspective of the United States

AAFACE: Attribute-aware Attentional Network for Face Recognition

In this paper, we present a new multi-branch neural network that simultaneously performs soft biometric (SB) prediction as an auxiliary modality and face recognition (FR) as the main task. Our proposed network named AAFace utilizes SB attributes to enhance the discriminative ability of FR representation. To achieve this goal, we propose an attribute-aware attentional integration (AAI) module to perform weighted integration of FR with SB feature maps. Our proposed AAI module is not only fully context-aware but also capable of learning complex relationships between input features by means of the sequential multi-scale channel and spatial sub-modules. Experimental results verify the superiority of our proposed network compared with the state-of-the-art (SoTA) SB prediction and FR methods.Comment: Accepted to $30^{th}$ IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP 2023) as an oral presentatio

Changes of Left Ventricular Mass Index Among End-Stage Renal Disease Patients After Renal Transplantation

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine left ventricular (LV) mass index via echocardiography in end-stage renal disease patients (ESRD) before and after renal transplantation, and its association with one-year survival. Materials and Methods: Forty-seven patients with ESRD who were candidate for renal transplantation were evaluated with echocardiography before and 4 months after the operation. Left ventricular ejection fraction (EF), LV mass, and LV mass index were determined. All of the patients were followed up for 1 year.Results: Mean LVEF was 51.6% which increased to 53.7% after renal transplantation (P = .001). Mean LV mass was 209 gr before the operation which decreased to 189 gr after the operation (P = .001). Mean LV mass index before the operation was 120 gr/m2 which decreased to 110 gr/m2 following the operation (P = .002). All of the patients survived during 1-year follow-up, and no death was reported.Conclusion: Renal transplantation had beneficial effects in terms of LV function in young patients with ESRD