A direct-sequence spread-spectrum communication system for integrated sensor microsystems

Some of the most important challenges in health-care technologies have been identified to be development of noninvasive systems and miniaturization. In developing the core technologies, progress is required in pushing the limits of miniaturization, minimizing the costs and power consumption of microsystems components, developing mobile/wireless communication infrastructures and computing technologies that are reliable. The implementation of such miniaturized systems has become feasible by the advent of system-on-chip technology, which enables us to integrate most of the components of a system on to a single chip. One of the most important tasks in such a system is to convey information reliably on a multiple-access-based environment. When considering the design of telecommunication system for such a network, the receiver is the key performance critical block. The paper describes the application environment, the choice of the communication protocol, the implementation of the transmitter and receiver circuitry, and research work carried out on studying the impact of input data characteristics and internal data path complexity on area and power performance of the receiver. We provide results using a test data recorded from a pH sensor. The results demonstrate satisfying functionality, area, and power constraints even when a degree of programmability is incorporated in the system

Dietary supplementation with chitosan oligosaccharide affects serum lipids and nutrient digestibility in broilers

This research was conducted to determine the effects of supplementation of chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) on the growth performance, blood parameters, carcass traits, fatty acid composition of breast meat, and apparent nutrient digestibility in broiler chickens. A total of 375 one-day-old Ross 308 male chicks were allocated to a control diet (T1) or diets supplemented with 50 ppm (T2) and 100 ppm (T3) of COS. There were five replicates of 25 chicks for each treatment. All the experimental birds were fed a starter (days 1 - 4), grower (days 15 - 28), and finisher diet (days 29 - 42). No differences were detected among treatments for live weight, gain, feed intake or feed conversion, except that feed intake was depressed in T3 during the grower period. Serum total protein and albumin levels did not differ among the treatments. Serum total cholesterol, low density lipoproteins (LDL), very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) and triglyceride concentrations were reduced significantly by supplementation with COS, whereas the high density lipoprotein (HDL) concentration was significantly lower only for T2 relative to T1. The dressing percentage was significantly higher for T2 and T3 than for T1. Fatty acid composition of the breast meat was unaffected by the treatments. The digestibility of the diet and some of its constituents was affected in a graduated manner by the addition of COS. Thus, supplementation of broiler diets with COS improved carcass yield and had a hypolipidemic effect in improving the serum lipid profile Keywords: carcass, digestibility, hypolipidemic effect, performanc

Black and Blue: Media Attention in Red vs. Blue States, An Analysis of Violence Against LGBT Between 2004 and 2015

Violence against any person is unacceptable; however, there seems to be a tacit collusion with perpetrators when the media non-reports or under-reports incidents of violence in which the victims are targeted because of their actual or perceived LGBT identity. One wonders if the political and religious broad brush strokes of a state influence the response of the media within that state. Close examination of this data will determine if there are discrepancies between the two types of states regarding their portrayal of anti-LGBT attacks. How does the governmental bias of a state influence the coverage of these attacks? All states with in the United States will be examined in this research, through newspaper articles and TV and radio news reports, to determine if there are significant differences in the portrayal of anti-LGBT violence as a result of the red or blue status of the state

A Model Based Approach to School Shootings: Every Second Counts!

The cycle of violence invading our nation's schools has necessitated the training of law enforcement agencies. A breakdown in communications could mean an incident spirals out of control and results in catastrophic unnecessary loss of lives. Active communication can be accomplished between officers and their superiors, so that decisions are made in a manner that best pursues a rapid end to the threat posed by the perpetrator, and a rapid extraction of the injured. Authors have developed an effective nine-step response model for law enforcement agencies after examination of the real-time cases, infamous school-shooting incidents, in the United States

Enhancing the Performance of Low Priority SUs Using Reserved Channels in CRN

Cognitive radio networks (CRNs) are considered a promising solution for spectrum resources scarcity and efficient channel utilization. In this letter, multi-dimensional analytical Markov model based on reservation channel access scheme and channel aggregation method is proposed to enhance spectrum utilization, capacity of low priority secondary users (SUs) and reducing handoff probability of SUs. Moreover, the proposed method improves the performance of high priority SUs by providing the capability to resume the connection after dropping. The numerical results indicate that the modified reservation access model can enhance the performance of SUs compared to the traditional basic random access model

Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors. Inhibition of red blood cell ostrich (Struthio camelus) carbonic anhydrase with a series of aromatic and heterocyclic sulfonamides.

The purification of red blood cell carbonic anhydrase (CA, EC 4.2. 1. 1) from ostrich (scCA) blood is reported, as well as an inhibition study of this enzyme with a series of aromatic and heterocylic sulfonamides. The ostrich enzyme showed a high activity, comparable to that of the human isozyme II, with k(cat) of 1. 2 center dot 10(6) s(-1) and k(cat)/K-M of 1. 8 center dot 10(7)M(-1) s(-1), and an inhibition profile quite different from that of the human red blood cell cytosolic isozymes hCA I and II. scCA has generally a lower affinity for sulfonamide inhibitors as compared to hCA I and II. The only sulfonamide which behaved as a very potent inhibitor of this enzyme was ethoxzolamide (K-1 = 3.9 nM) whereas acetazolamide and sulfanilamide behaved as weaker inhibitors (inhibition constants in the range 303-570 nM). Several other aromatic and heterocyclic sulfonamides, mostly derivatives of sulfanilamide, homosulfanilamide, 4-aminoethylbenzenesulfonamide or 5-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazole-2-sulfonamide, showed good affinities for the ostrich enzyme, with K-1 values in the range 25 - 72 nM

An application of fuzzy-AHP to ship operational energy efficiency measures

Lowering fuel consumption of ships has gained a great deal of attention in maritime industry with regards to both environmental and economic concerns. The potential for fuel economy in shipping ranging between 25% to 75% is possible by using existing technology and practices and technical improvements in the design of new ship. Despite the existence of many technology and design-based approaches, limitations of emerging these measures has led to discussions about the potential energy savings through operational changes. In this study, operational measures were examined within the scope of Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) adopted by International Maritime Organization (IMO). We applied the Analytic Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy-AHP) approach, one of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques, to prioritize the weight of each measure. Fuzzy AHP effectively reflects the vagueness of human thinking with interval values, and shows the relative importance of operational measures - which can be the fundamental decision making data for decision makers (ships' masters, operating companies and ship owners) - by providing a strategic approach to identify energy efficient solutions

Effect of demographic features on morphometric variables of the knee joint: Sample of a 20 to 40-year-old Turkish population

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between body mass index (BMI), age, and sex and morphological risk factors that may cause internal knee injuries. The magnetic resonance images of 728 participants who met the inclusion criteria and had a mean age of 34.4?±?6.8 years were analyzed retrospectively. Demographic differences were analyzed by measuring 17 morphological parameters known to be associated with internal knee injuries. Men had a higher anterior cruciate ligament length (ACLL), anterior cruciate ligament width, (ACLW) lateral femoral condylar width (LFCW), medial femoral condylar width (MFCW), lateral femoral condylar depth (LFCD), distal femoral width (DFW), and intercondylar femoral width (IFW) than women (P?<?.05). By contrast, the medial meniscus bone angle (MMBA) was lower in men than in women (P?<?.05). Women aged 31 to 40 years had a lower Insall-Salvati index (ISI) and lateral tibial posterior slope (LTPS) than those aged 21 to 30 years (P?<?.05), whereas men aged 31 to 40 years had a lower ISI than those aged 21 to 30 years (P?<?.05). Women with BMI???30 had a higher LFCW and MFCW but a lower ISI than those with BMI?<?30 (P?<?.05). Men with BMI???30 had a higher LFCW, MFCW, DFW, and MMBA than those with BMI?<?30 (P?<?.05). The use of value ranges structured according to demographic characteristics, rather than a single value range for all patient groups, may contribute to the evaluation and treatment of the morphological features that are thought to be effective in the development of internal knee injuries. These values may also shed light on future radiological risk scoring systems and artificial intelligence applications in medicine. Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc

Mass attenuation coefficients, water and tissue equivalence properties of some tissues by Geant4, XCOM and experimental data

The mass attenuation coefficients (μ/ρ) of some tissues such as muscle (ICRU-44), adipose (ICRP) and blood (Whole) and tissue equivalents such as soft tissue model (H63C6O28N) and water have been investigated using Geant4 simulation tool kit. Appreciable variations have been noted for μ/ρ values by changing the photon energy for the studied tissues. The simulated μ/ρ have been compared with experimental data available in the literature and theoretical XCOM results in the energy region 1 keV–100 GeV, and good agreement has been observed. Also, mass attenuation coefficients relative to water have been calculated in the entire energy region to evaluate the water equivalence of the studied tissues. It is shown that a maximum difference of 8.8 % between water and mentioned soft tissue is observed at 8 keV and soft tissue is found to be a good tissue equivalent for blood and muscle tissue