45 research outputs found

    Micro-Manipulator for Neurosurgical Application

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    HANDOVER TRIGGER SCHEME FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATION IN HIGH SPEED MOBILE ENVIRONMENT

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    ABSTRACT High speed rail has been developed rapidly in recent years. The passengers travelled by trains demand for higher data rate and service continuity in order for them to access the Internet. The realization to provide reliable communication for the users in high speed mobility is challenging due to the frequent request for handover since the trains moving in high speed which resulting heavy overhead implementation. Since the User Equipment (UE) in trains communicates directly to the outside of the Base Station (BS), it reduced handover successful rate and hence, degraded the service quality. This research identified the system parameters to improve handover performance in high speed railway network. Moreover, mathematical equation has been derived by integrating the information of train speed and time travelled across the cell. This research has improved handover performances by reducing the probability of drop call rate and increasing the number of handover successful rate. Keywords: receive signal strength (RSS), base station (BS), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), long term evolution (LTE), time to trigger (TTT), quality of service (QOS). INTRODUCTION LTE is a wireless broadband technology designed to support roaming on cell phones and handheld devices. LTE offers significant improvements over previous cellular communication standards. OFDM used in LTE systems make it possible to supply high-speed data service on railway The authors in The

    Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications

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    Spintronics, or spin electronics, involves the study of active control and manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. This article reviews the current status of this subject, including both recent advances and well-established results. The primary focus is on the basic physical principles underlying the generation of carrier spin polarization, spin dynamics, and spin-polarized transport in semiconductors and metals. Spin transport differs from charge transport in that spin is a nonconserved quantity in solids due to spin-orbit and hyperfine coupling. The authors discuss in detail spin decoherence mechanisms in metals and semiconductors. Various theories of spin injection and spin-polarized transport are applied to hybrid structures relevant to spin-based devices and fundamental studies of materials properties. Experimental work is reviewed with the emphasis on projected applications, in which external electric and magnetic fields and illumination by light will be used to control spin and charge dynamics to create new functionalities not feasible or ineffective with conventional electronics.Comment: invited review, 36 figures, 900+ references; minor stylistic changes from the published versio

    The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems

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    We review the formation and evolution of compact binary stars consisting of white dwarfs (WDs), neutron stars (NSs), and black holes (BHs). Binary NSs and BHs are thought to be the primary astrophysical sources of gravitational waves (GWs) within the frequency band of ground-based detectors, while compact binaries of WDs are important sources of GWs at lower frequencies to be covered by space interferometers (LISA). Major uncertainties in the current understanding of properties of NSs and BHs most relevant to the GW studies are discussed, including the treatment of the natal kicks which compact stellar remnants acquire during the core collapse of massive stars and the common envelope phase of binary evolution. We discuss the coalescence rates of binary NSs and BHs and prospects for their detections, the formation and evolution of binary WDs and their observational manifestations. Special attention is given to AM CVn-stars -- compact binaries in which the Roche lobe is filled by another WD or a low-mass partially degenerate helium-star, as these stars are thought to be the best LISA verification binary GW sources.Comment: 105 pages, 18 figure

    Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

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    Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

    Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

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    Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions-was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing-and in some countries reversal-of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.Peer reviewe

    Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

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    From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions

    The influence of operational parameters and feed preparation in a convective batch ribbon powder mixer

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    Sin Tung Yeow, Asnawi Shahar, Norashikin Abdul Aziz, Mohd Shamsul Anuar, Yus Aniza Yusof, Farah Saleena TaipDepartment of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, MalaysiaPurpose: To investigate the effect of feed preparation characteristics and operational parameters on mixing homogeneity in a convective batch ribbon mixer.Methods: Lactose 100M, lactose 200M, ascorbic acid, and zinc oxide powders were used for the mixing study. Operational parameters studied were rotational speed and mixing time. The feed preparations studied were the use of preblending and the particle size of the feed materials. The blends of ascorbic acid, zinc oxide, and lactose were prepared with preblending and without preblending, prior to mixing at different blender rotation speeds and mixing times. Chemical tests were performed to measure the homogeneity of the ascorbic acid in the model mixture.Results: With preblending, a mixture with lactose 200M achieved the required homogeneity in a shorter period of time at a lower rotational speed.Conclusion: The results indicated that the homogeneity of the mixtures was influenced by the blender rotation speed and mixing time. Better mixing can be obtained with higher rotation speeds and longer mixing time. It was also observed that preblending and smaller feed particle size achieved the required homogeneity in a shorter period of time at a lower rotational speed. These results illustrate that using binders with a smaller particle size and a preblending technique improves the mixing process in a convective batch ribbon powder mixer. However, prolonged periods of high-speed mixing will lead to mixture segregation.Keywords: powder blending, ascorbic acid, rotational speed, particle size, preblendin

    Age and gender effects on wideband absorbance in adults with normal outer and middle ear function

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    Purpose: This study examined the effects of age and gender on wideband energy absorbance in adults with normal middle ear function. Method: Forty young adults (14 men, 26 women, aged 20–38 years), 31 middle-aged adults (16 men, 15 women, aged 42–64 years), and 30 older adults (20 men, 10 women, aged 65–82 years) were assessed. Energy absorbance (EA) data were collected at 30 frequencies using a prototype commercial instrument developed by Interacoustics. Results: Results showed that the young adult group had significantly lower EA (between 400 and 560 Hz) than the middle-aged group. However, the middle-aged group showed significantly lower EA (between 2240 and 5040 Hz) than the young adult group. In addition, the older adult group had significantly lower EA than the young adult group (between 2520 and 5040 Hz). No significant difference in EA was found at any frequency between middle-aged and older adults. Across age groups, gender differences were found with men having significantly higher EA values than women at lower frequencies, whereas women had significantly higher EA at higher frequencies. Conclusions: This study provides evidence of the influence of gender and age on EA in adults with normal outer and middle ear function. These findings support the importance of establishing age- and gender-specific EA norms for the adult population
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