93 research outputs found

    Variable structure based control strategy for treatment of HCV infection

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    Hepatitis C is such a harmful disease which can lead to serious health problems and it is caused by the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) which causes liver inflammation and sometimes liver cancer. In this work, the control treatment strategy for HCV infection has been proposed. The advanced nonlinear dynamical mathematical model of HCV that has two control inputs and three state variables such as virions, infected hepatocytes and uninfected hepatocytes are considered for controller design in this research work. Moreover, four nonlinear controllers such as the Fractional Order Terminal Sliding Mode Controller (FOTSMC), Integral Terminal Sliding Mode Controller (ITSMC), Double Integral Sliding Mode Controller (DISMC) and Integral Sliding Mode Controller (ISMC) have been proposed in this work for HCV infection control inside the human body. In order to control the amount of uninfected hepatocytes to its required maximum safe limit, controllers are designed for antiviral therapy in which the amount of virions and infected hepatocytes are tracked to zero. One control input is ribavirin which blocks virions production and the other is pegylated interferon (peg-IFN-a) that acts as reducing infected hepatocytes. By doing so, uninfected hepatocytes increase and achieve the required maximum safe limit. To prove the stability of the whole system, Lyapunov stability analysis is used in this work. Simulation results and comparative analysis are carried out by using MATLAB/Simulink. It can be depicted from the given results that the virions and infected hepatocytes are reduced to their required levels completely using FOTSMC and the Sustained Virologic Response (SVR) rate is also enhanced in it. It reduces the treatment period as compared to previous strategies introduced in the literature and also system behaves very nicely even in the presence of un-modeled disturbances

    Variable Structure-Based Control for Dynamic Temperature Setpoint Regulation in Hospital Extreme Healthcare Zones

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    In critical healthcare units, such as operation theaters and intensive care units, healthcare workers require specific temperature environments at different stages of an operation, which depends upon the condition of the patient and the requirements of the surgical procedures. Therefore, the need for a dynamically controlled temperature environment and the availability of the required heating/cooling electric power is relatively more necessary for the provision of a better healthcare environment as compared to other commercial and residential buildings, where only comfortable room temperature is required. In order to establish a dynamic temperature zone, a setpoint regulator is required that can control the zone temperature with a fast dynamic response, little overshoot, and a low settling time. Thus, two zone temperature regulators have been proposed in this article, including double integral sliding mode control (DISMC) and integral terminal sliding mode control (ITSMC). A realistic scenario of a hospital operation theater is considered for evaluating their responses and performance to desired temperature setpoints. The performance analysis and superiority of the proposed controllers have been established by comparison with an already installed Johnson temperature controller (JTC) for various time spans and specific environmental conditions that require setpoints based on doctors’ and patients’ desires. The proposed controllers showed minimal overshoot and a fast settling response, making them ideal controllers for operation theater (OT) zone temperature control

    Efficient Gated Convolutional Recurrent Neural Networks for Real-Time Speech Enhancement

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    Deep learning (DL) networks have grown into powerful alternatives for speech enhancement and have achieved excellent results by improving speech quality, intelligibility, and background noise suppression. Due to high computational load, most of the DL models for speech enhancement are difficult to implement for realtime processing. It is challenging to formulate resource efficient and compact networks. In order to address this problem, we propose a resource efficient convolutional recurrent network to learn the complex ratio mask for real-time speech enhancement. Convolutional encoder-decoder and gated recurrent units (GRUs) are integrated into the Convolutional recurrent network architecture, thereby formulating a causal system appropriate for real-time speech processing. Parallel GRU grouping and efficient skipped connection techniques are engaged to achieve a compact network. In the proposed network, the causal encoder-decoder is composed of five convolutional (Conv2D) and deconvolutional (Deconv2D) layers. Leaky linear rectified unit (ReLU) is applied to all layers apart from the output layer where softplus activation to confine the network output to positive is utilized. Furthermore, batch normalization is adopted after every convolution (or deconvolution) and prior to activation. In the proposed network, different noise types and speakers can be used in training and testing. With the LibriSpeech dataset, the experiments show that the proposed real-time approach leads to improved objective perceptual quality and intelligibility with much fewer trainable parameters than existing LSTM and GRU models. The proposed model obtained an average of 83.53% STOI scores and 2.52 PESQ scores, respectively. The quality and intelligibility are improved by 31.61% and 17.18% respectively over noisy speech

    IFRS adoption, cost of equity and firm value: evidence from Iraq

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    Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of adoption of IFRS on the Iraqi environment by studying the relationship between the adoption of international financial reporting standards and the cost of equity and the effect of the cost of equity on the value of the company.   Theoretical framework: The international financial reporting standards (IFRS) are becoming special driver for the convergence of management and financial accounting and as the leading principles for over 120 countries in the world including those that voluntarily adopted the standards.   Design/methodology/approach: The population of the study comprises 17 commercial companies listed in the Iraqi Stock Exchange for the periods of 2011-2013 and 2016-2018 with the exception of Islamic companies due to the difference in the privacy of the applicable regulations   Findings: The results from the data collected through questionnaire survey showed the distinctive effects of financial and management accounting standards before and after the adoption of IFRS. Therefore, there are inconsistencies in the results of the value of the companies between the samples for the periods before and after the application of international financial reporting standards.   Research, Practical & Social implications: The study examined the differences in the outcomes of the years when IFRS was yet to be adopted when the standards are adopted by considering the control variables such as age of the companies, size of the companies and leverages.   Originality/value: the value of the study's originality by measuring adopting IFRS for the first time in Iraqi Banking for the periods of 2011-2013 and 2016-2018 with the exception of Islamic companies due to the difference in the privacy of the applicable regulations

    Fracture Pattern Analysis of the Upper Cretaceous-Eocene Carbonates along with the Ghumawan Dome, Hazara Basin

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    Deformational history of the Hazara basin indicates a primitive collision of the two landmasses that undergoes an episodic deformation with NE-SW structural trend. Panjal Thrust (PT) and Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) demarcate the northern and southern extremities of the basin, respectively. The area bounded between these two thrusts is the core consideration of the present research. Different stratigraphic units juxtapose along the Hazara Kashmir Syntaxes (HKS), while the strike-slip component is indicated by imbrication due to thrusts. The study is amied to analyze the paleo-stresses along with developed fracture patterns. Field data were collected via Circle Inventory Method from various localities of the Ghumawan dome, Hazara basin. The zones of upper Cretaceous to Eocene carbonates were mainly targeted during the data collection. Win-Tensor was the key software that helps to analyze the paleo-stresses and fracture pattern of the study area. NW-trending fracture pattern was observed with a highly non-symmetric to dense fracture pattern. The local thrust system lead to severely de-shape the study area. N-S oriented σ1 indicated the compressional tectonic condition that prevailed during deformation of this area. Some segments also show extensional features i.e. normal faulting

    Umbelliferone prevents isoproterenol-induced myocardial injury by upregulating Nrf2/HO-1 signaling, and attenuating oxidative stress, inflammation, and cell death in rats

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    The role of oxidative injury and inflammatory response in cardiovascular diseases and heart failure has been well-acknowledged. This study evaluated the protective effect of umbelliferone (UMB), a coumarin with promising radical scavenging and anti-inflammatory activities, on myocardial injury induced by isoproterenol (ISO) in rats. Rats received 50 mg/kg UMB orally for 14 days and 85 mg/kg ISO twice at an interval of 24 h. Administration of ISO elevated serum troponin I, creatine kinase-MB and lactate dehydrogenase, and caused histopathological alterations, including degeneration, fatty vacuolation, myolysis, and atrophy of myocardial fibers. Malondialdehyde (MDA), nitric oxide (NO), nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) p65, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-1β were increased, whereas reduced glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase were decreased in ISO-administered rats. UMB effectively ameliorated myocardial injury, alleviated cardiac function markers, MDA, NO, NF-κB p65, and the inflammatory mediators, and enhanced cellular antioxidants. Bax, caspase-3, and 8-OHdG were decreased, and Bcl-2 was increased in ISO-administered rats treated with UMB. In addition, UMB upregulated nuclear factor-erythroid factor 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and heme oxygenase (HO)-1 in the heart of ISO-administered rats. In conclusion, UMB can protect the myocardium from oxidative injury, inflammatory response, and cell death induced by ISO by upregulating Nrf2/HO-1 signaling and antioxidants

    Response of Starter Broiler Chickens to Feed Diets Treated with Organic Acids

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    Background: Organic acids contain one or more carboxylic acid groups which are linked with covalent bond and  have acidic properties that can enhance the reservation of protein and some other nutrients in birds. Antibiotic growth promoters have been banned due to their residues that remain in the meat and effects the human beings. Therefore, the organic acids are used as their alternatives. The present study is aimed to inspect the outcome of organic acids on uptake of feed, feed gain ratio, and live weight gain in broiler chickens.Methods: A total of 150 unsexed broiler chickens were used for this experiment which were having five categories of treatment as T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5. Each category had thirty birds. T1 was treated with a standard diet, T2was treated with acetic acid, T3 with butyric acid, T4 with citric acid and T5 with formic acid.  The duration of this experiment was 28 days. After the specified time of this experiment, the data of uptake of feed and body weight was gathered on weekly basis.  Comparison of all the five treatments was done by using the Duncan's multiple range test.Results: Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) was found lower in T5 than other treatments. T5 group showed the highest average value of final body weight of broilers in contrast to the T3 group which showed the lowest final body weight.  Feed intake was found significantly different within the treatments. T3 showed significantly lower value as compared to other treatments. The lowest value of average regular uptake of grains was found in T3 treatment group. Broilers fed on formic acid have shown a better protein efficiency ratio than that of butyric acid and citric acid. Broilers treated with citric acid have a significant difference which indicates more water consumption as compared to other treatments.Conclusion: Organic acids have a productive effect on the growth of animals and broiler chickens. Organic acids including butyric acid, acetic, citric, formic, fumaric, and propionic acid vary in their biochemical actions in the system of animals. Organic acid affects the final weight gain, average regular gain in weight, total uptake of feed, and feed to gain ratio, daily intake of protein, protein efficiency ratio, total water uptake, average water intake, and water feed ratio. Based on the present study, further analysis is required to look over the impacts of addition of organic acid on the growth accomplishment of broiler chicks.Keywords: Broiler chicks; Organic acid; Butyric acid; Citric acid; Acetic acid; Formic acid 

    Realizing surface amphiphobicity using 3D printing techniques: A critical move towards manufacturing low-cost reentrant geometries

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    Amphiphobic surfaces are obtained by lowering the surface energy through changes in surface geometry. These changes can be designed on the surface, thereby altering its wettability, and in turn rendering it amphiphobic. The main geometrical entities behind this phenomenon are reentrant geometries which prevent the solid-liquid interface tension from breaking, thereby resulting in contact angles greater than 90°. The science behind modelling and manufacturing of these reentrant geometries is well established apart from manufacturing them via extrusion-based 3-Dimensional printing processes. This review paper in identifying this gap summarizes various characterization parameters for surface wettability followed by identifying the role of surface reentrant geometries to introduce superamphiphobicity in polymers. The focus of the paper then moves towards achieving amphiphobicity using 3D printing processes where the current state of research is discussed in terms of reentrant profiles and achievement of high static contact angles. Role of the most common yet rarely reported Fused Deposition Modelling technique is discussed in more detail and a preliminary investigation based on characteristics flow and printing parameters used in Fused Deposition Modelling has been presented. The surface amphiphobicity is achieved in a one-step process characterized by high static contact angles with low and high surface tension liquids owing to air entrapment in characteristic layer-by-layer deposition features obtained in Fused Deposition Modelling
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