Power-cycle-library-based control strategy for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

It has been demonstrated that considering the knowledge of drive cycle as a priori in the PHEV control strategy can improve its performance. The concept of power cycle instead of drive cycle is introduced to consider the effect of noise factors in the prediction of future drivetrain power demand. To minimize the effect of noise factors, a practical solution for developing a power-cycle library is introduced. A control strategy is developed using the predicted power cycle which inherently improves the optimal operation of engine and consequently improves the vehicle performance. Since the control strategy is formed exclusively for each PHEV rather than a preset strategy which is designed by OEM, the effect of different environmental and geographic conditions, driver behavior, aging of battery and other components are considered for each PHEV. Simulation results show that the control strategy based on the driver library of power cycle would improve both vehicle performance and battery health.<br /

Quantitative Precipitation Nowcasting: A Lagrangian Pixel-Based Approach

Short-term high-resolution precipitation forecasting has important implications for navigation, flood forecasting, and other hydrological and meteorological concerns. This article introduces a pixel-based algorithm for Short-term Quantitative Precipitation Forecasting (SQPF) using radar-based rainfall data. The proposed algorithm called Pixel- Based Nowcasting (PBN) tracks severe storms with a hierarchical mesh-tracking algorithm to capture storm advection in space and time at high resolution from radar imagers. The extracted advection field is then extended to nowcast the rainfall field in the next 3. hr based on a pixel-based Lagrangian dynamic model. The proposed algorithm is compared with two other nowcasting algorithms (WCN: Watershed-Clustering Nowcasting and PER: PERsistency) for ten thunderstorm events over the conterminous United States. Object-based verification metric and traditional statistics have been used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. It is shown that the proposed algorithm is superior over comparison algorithms and is effective in tracking and predicting severe storm events for the next few hours. © 2012 Elsevier B.V

Cost-effectiveness of rotavirus vaccination for under-five children in Iran

Background: Rotavirus diarrhea is one of the most important causes of death among under-five children. Anti-rotavirus vaccination of these children may have a reducing effect on the disease. Objectives: this study is intended to contribute to health policy-makers of the country about the optimal decision and policy development in this area, by performing cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis on anti-rotavirus vaccination for under-5 children. Patients and Methods: A cost-effectiveness analysis was performed using a decision tree model to analyze rotavirus vaccination, which was compared with no vaccination with Iran�s ministry of health perspective in a 5-year time horizon. Epidemiological data were collected from published and unpublished sources. Four different assumptions were considered to the extent of the disease episode. To analyze costs, the costs of implementing the vaccination program were calculated with 98 coverage and the cost of USD 7 per dose. Medical and social costs of the disease were evaluated by sampling patients with rotavirus diarrhea, and sensitivity analysis was also performed for different episode rates and vaccine price per dose. Results: For the most optimistic assumption for the episode of illness (10.2 per year), the cost per DALY averted is 12,760 and 7,404 for RotaTeq and Rotarix vaccines, respectively, while assuming the episode of illness is 300, they will be equal to 2,395 and 354, respectively, which will be highly cost-effective. Number of life-years gained is equal to 3,533 years. Conclusions: Assuming that the illness episodes are 100 and 300 for Rotarix and 300 for Rota Teq, the ratio of cost per DALY averted is highly cost-effective, based on the threshold of the world health organization (< 1 GDP per capita = 4526 USD). The implementation of a national rotavirus vaccination program is suggested. © 2015, Growth & Development Research Center

Intraspecies Gene Variation within Putative Epitopes of Immunodominant Protein P48 of Mycoplasma agalactiae

P48 protein of Mycoplasma agalactiae is used to diagnose infection and was identified as potential vaccine candidate. According to the genetic nature of mycoplasma and variable sensitivity in P48-based serological diagnosis tests, intra species variation of P48 nucleotide sequence investigated in 13 field isolates of difference province of Iran along with three vaccine strains. Samples were collected from sheep and goat and were cultured in modified PPLO broth.  Two pair of primer employed to confirm genus and species of isolates and a pair of primer has developed to amplify the P48 gene. The sequencing results of PCR products were aligned and analyzed besides published sequences in GenBank. T-Cell and B-Cell epitopes and antigenicity of sequence were computationally predicted. The results have shown P48 nucleotide sequences are 99.9% identical in field isolates and vaccine strain of Iran, but analysis of GenBank published sequences have shown  divergence up to 5.3% at the nucleotide level and up to 4.9% divergence in protein level of P48 sequences of Iran isolates and other available sequences in GenBank. Single nucleotide polymorphism exists in 89 positions and variable amino acid was observed at 25 residues. Phylogenetic analyses have shown that Mycoplasma agalactiae isolates fall into three main groups based on P48 nucleotide sequences. Immunoinformatics analysis of all available P48 nucleotide sequences have revealed that gene variation lead to differences in immunological properties, but  the gene in Iranian isolates are conservative and stable. The sequence variation in epitopes can be underlying source of antigen heterogeneity as a result, affect serological tests accuracy. Due to the high level of divergence in worldwide isolates and high degree of similarity in P48 protein of Iranian isolates, designing recombinant P48 protein based on local pattern can increase the sensitivity and consistency of serological test

On the elastic beam-fluid intreaction based on structural mode shapes

The concept of fluid-structure interaction(FSI) has a vast range of practical engineering applications. Since the analytical solution for such a systems is not available, numerical methods are adopted. Two main approaches are monolithic and partitioned methods. Treating the coupled system of fluid and structure simultaneously as in monolithic approach will limit the flexibility, in the other hand this property is maintained by decomposing the physical system into fluid and structure. Using a partitioned approach, the solution is separately advanced in time over each partition. Interaction effects are accounted for by transmission and synchronization of coupled state variables. The strength of the coupling is traditionally maintained by correcting the interaction effects iteratively. Besides convergence’s high computational cost, the physics of the interaction can also jeopardize an iterative procedure. For two-way physically coupled systems the information exchange among two partitions (fluid and structure) is relaxed to avoid numerical instabilities. In this paper, the idea of preserving coupling strength by catching the presence of the structure through an interaction law is studied and formulated. The structural modal representation is utilized to derive the interaction boundary at the fluid-structure interface. Since this approach strongly enforces the information exchange on the fluid-structure interface, the source of instabilities is abolished. As a test case, a 1D Euler-Bernoulli beamlocated at the bottom of a 2D tank is strongly coupled with a fluid above by means of iterative under-relaxed coupling results and also the weak coupling. The results are shown and then discussed

Estimation of the wastage rate of MMR and pentavalent vaccines in open and closed vials in three western provinces of Iran

Background: Vaccine wastage is one of quality indicators of immunization program and high vaccine wastage will increase overall costs and impede efforts towards a more efficient and sustainable program. We aimed at estimating of the wastage rates of Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) and pentavalent (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-hepatitis B -Haemophilus influenza type b) vaccines in different vaccine vial sizes. Study design: Multicentre descriptive study using existing data. Methods: This study was in three provinces (Hamadan, Kermanshah and Kordestan) of Iran including 131,135 populations with 2,548 under-1years children. Twenty-seven health facilities were selected randomly from nine districts in three provinces of western part of Iran. Six-months data including vaccination and vaccine stock records collected from April to September 2017. Finally, number of opened vials and number of target population vaccinated were collected and data were analysed to estimate the wastage rates in both unopened and opened vials of both antigens. Results: The wastage rate for combined MMR 2-dose and 5-dose opened vials for three provinces was 29%(Hamadan 18%, Kermanshah 14% and Kordestan 52%). The wastage rate for combined pentavalent single-dose and 10-dose vials for three provinces was 17% (in Kordestan33%, 11% Kermanshah 11% and Hamedan 3%). The total average of pentavalent single-dose and 10-dose vials wastage rate was 5% and varied 13% for urban and 3% for rural areas. The average of discarded unopened vials wastage rate in all facilities for MMR was 3.9% (3.2% for MMR 2-dose vial and 10.2% for MMR 5-dose vial). This rate was 1.7% for pentavalent total (1.9% for single dose vial and 0.4% for 10 dose vial). Conclusion: The vaccine wastage rates in Iran are in line with other countries and lower than the suggested rate based on WHO policies for multi-dose vials. The wastage rates were different for in provinces, districts and health facilities. The MMR total wastage rate in rural is higher than those in urban areas. However, the pentavalent total wastage rate was higher in urban area