The Limit Behavior Of The Trajectories of Dissipative Quadratic Stochastic Operators on Finite Dimensional Simplex

The limit behavior of trajectories of dissipative quadratic stochastic operators on a finite-dimensional simplex is fully studied. It is shown that any dissipative quadratic stochastic operator has either unique or infinitely many fixed points. If dissipative quadratic stochastic operator has a unique point, it is proven that the operator is regular at this fixed point. If it has infinitely many fixed points, then it is shown that $\omega-$ limit set of the trajectory is contained in the set of fixed points.Comment: 14 pages, accepted in Difference Eq. App

High-throughput bioaccumulation, biotransformation, and production of silver and selenium nanoparticles using genetically engineered Pichia pastoris

A genetically modified Pichia pastoris strain overexpressing a metal-resistant variant of cytochrome b5 reductase enzyme was developed for silver and selenium biosorption and for nanoparticle production. The maximum recombinant enzyme expression level was approximately 31 IU/ml in the intercellular fluid after 24 h of incubation, and the capacity of the recombinant biomass for the biosorption of silver and selenium in aqueous batch models were measured as 163.90 and 63.71 mg/g, respectively. The ions were reduced in the presence of enzyme, leading to the formation of stable 70–180 nm metal nanoparticles. Various instrumental analyses confirmed the well-dispersed and crystalline nature of the spherical nanometals. The purified silver and selenium nanoparticles exhibited at least 10-fold less cytotoxicity toward HDF, EPG85–257, and T47D cells than silver nitrate and selenium dioxide. These results revealed that the engineered Pichia strain is an eco-friendly, rapid, high-throughput, and versatile reduction system for nanometal production

Effect of malathion insecticide on liver tissue and enzymes of Rutilus rutilus caspicus of the Caspian Sea

Malathion is an organophosphate insecticide which uses to destroy insects and pests of fruit trees, ornamental plants and agricultural corps. In the present study, effect of Malathion on liver and selected enzymes (SGOT, SGPT and ALP) was studied in Caspian Roach (Rutilus rutilus caspicus). Four treatments with three replications were designed to carry out the survey. Four groups of experimental fish (containing 30 fish in each group) were exposed to different concentrations of Malathion. e. 0, 0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 ppm respectively for 23 days. Blood collection was done in 3rd, 13th and 23th after exposure to Malathion and also 30 days after recovery in clean water and enzymes were measured using standard kits. Also liver tissues were isolated to histological examination. Results showed that tissues of control group (0ppm) were normal and there were no damages, yet there were hepatocytes degeneration, picnotic in nuclear, hepatocytes vacuolization, vascular congestion and sinusoid congestion in liver of other groups. Tissue damages were increased in higher malathion concentration and over time. Results related to enzymes showed that there were no significant differences in SGOT of fish treated with low concentrations of malathion (0.01 and 0.05 ppm) and control group but it was increased in highest concentration (p<0.05). Yet, SGPT increased significantly after passing 23 days in all fish exposed to malathion But ALP changes trend was decreasing

Stemming text-based web page classification using machine learning algorithms: a comparison

The research aim is to determine the effect of word-stemming in web pages classification using different machine learning classifiers, namely Naive Bayes (NB), k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Multilayer Perceptron (MP). Each classifiers' performance is evaluated in term of accuracy and processing time. This research uses BBC dataset that has five predefined categories. The result demonstrates that classifiers' performance is better without word stemming, whereby all classifiers show higher classification accuracy, with the highest accuracy produced by NB and SVM at 97% for F1 score, while NB takes shorter training time than SVM. With word stemming, the effect on training and classification time is negligible, except on Multilayer Perceptron in which word stemming has effectively reduced the training time

Understanding the design rules for a nonintrusive, textile, heart rate monitoring system

Background and Objectives: Nonintrusive heart rate (HR) monitoring can be a useful tool for health monitoring. By creating capacitively coupled textile electrodes, a comfortable monitoring system can be integrated into seating or bedding that can monitor HR through clothing. This work empirically studied two factors for a system of this type: the electrode size and the material worn by the subject. Materials and Methods: HR measurements were taken using six different sizes of the rectangular textile electrode with four subjects and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the signals were analyzed. A further set of experiments were conducted with a single subject and a fixed electrode size where different materials were worn. Results: Electrode size was seen to have a statistically insignificant effect on the collected signal quality. The SNR was also largely unaffected by the worn material type. Conclusion: This study provided empirical data relating to two important factors for nonintrusive, textile, and HR monitoring systems. This data will be helpful for designing a seat-based HR monitoring system or to understand the operational limitations of a system of this type

Uniqueness of Bessel models: the archimedean case

In the archimedean case, we prove uniqueness of Bessel models for general linear groups, unitary groups and orthogonal groups.Comment: 22 page

New Natural Injection-Moldable Composite Material from Sunflower Oil Cake

Through a twin-screw extrusion process the native structure of sunflower oil cake was completely transformed (globular protein denaturation/texturization and husk fiber defibration) into a simpler matrix-fiber structure, as could be seen on SEM micrographs. Further chemical reduction of protein disulfide bridges greatly reduced the melt viscosity of the moistened composite that it could be injection-molded. The molded specimens were tested and their tensile and flexural properties and water absorption calculated. Their water resistance appeared to be particularly high, and could be enhanced further after a thermal treatment (N2, 200°C). The proteic matrix seemed to behave like a natural thermoset resin. Sunflower oil cake could be used without any additives to make biodegradable, water resistant and exceptionally cheap material

Heterogeneous determinants of quality of life in different phenotypes of Parkinson's disease

Objectives Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is considered a very important outcome indicator in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). A broad list of motor and non-motor features have been shown to affect HRQoL in PD, however, there is a dearth of information about the complexity of interrelationships between determinants of HRQoL in different PD phenotypes. We aimed to find independent determinates and the best structural model for HRQoL, also to investigate the heterogeneity in HRQoL between PD patients with different phenotypes regarding onset-age, progression rate and dominant symptom. Methods A broad spectrum of demographic, motor and non-motor characteristics were collected in 157 idiopathic PD patients, namely comorbidity profile, nutritional status, UPDRS (total items), psychiatric symptoms (depression, anxiety), fatigue and psychosocial functioning through physical examination, validated questionnaires and scales. Structural equation model (SEM) and multivariate regressions were applied to find determinants of Parkinson's disease summary index (PDSI) and different domains of HRQoL (PDQ-39). Results Female sex, anxiety, depression and UPDRS-part II scores were the significant independent determinants of PDSI. A structural model consisting of global motor, global non-motor and co-morbidity indicator as three main components was able to predict 89 of the variance in HRQoL. In older-onset and slow-progression phenotypes, the motor domain showed smaller contribution on HRQoL and the majority of its effects were mediated through non-motor features. Comorbidity component was a significant determinant of HRQoL only among older-onset and non-tremor-dominant PD patients. Fatigue was not a significant indicator of non-motor component to affect HRQoL in rapid-progression PD. Conclusions Our findings showed outstanding heterogeneities in the pattern and determinants of HRQoL among PD phenotypes. These factors should be considered during the assessments and developing personalized interventions to improve HRQOL in PD patients with different phenotypes or prominent feature. © 2015 Fereshtehnejad et al

SCAILET: An intelligent assistant for satellite ground terminal operations

NASA Lewis Research Center has applied artificial intelligence to an advanced ground terminal. This software application is being deployed as an experimenter interface to the link evaluation terminal (LET) and was named Space Communication Artificial Intelligence for the Link Evaluation Terminal (SCAILET). The high-burst-rate (HBR) LET provides 30-GHz-transmitting and 20-GHz-receiving, 220-Mbps capability for wide band communications technology experiments with the Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS). The HBR-LET terminal consists of seven major subsystems. A minicomputer controls and monitors these subsystems through an IEEE-488 or RS-232 protocol interface. Programming scripts (test procedures defined by design engineers) configure the HBR-LET and permit data acquisition. However, the scripts are difficult to use, require a steep learning curve, are cryptic, and are hard to maintain. This discourages experimenters from utilizing the full capabilities of the HBR-LET system. An intelligent assistant module was developed as part of the SCAILET software. The intelligent assistant addresses critical experimenter needs by solving and resolving problems that are encountered during the configuring of the HBR-LET system. The intelligent assistant is a graphical user interface with an expert system running in the background. In order to further assist and familiarize an experimenter, an on-line hypertext documentation module was developed and included in the SCAILET software