Empirical Formulations for Estimation of Ultimate Strength of Continuous Stiffened Aluminium Plates under Combined in-plane Compression and Lateral Pressure

peer reviewe

Energy Efficient Handover Management in Cluster Based Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless sensors are compact-size, low power, inexpensive devices which are capable to measure local environmental conditions or other parameters such as temperature, acceleration, and forward such information to a sink for proper processing. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been under development by both academic and industrial societies for a while. By moving toward applications such as the area of medical care and disaster response mobility in wireless sensor networks has attracted a lot of attentions. In energy constraint sensor network, mobility handling introduces unique challenges in aspects like resource management, coverage, routing protocols, security, etc. This paper, proposes an energy-efficient mobility-aware MAC protocol to handle node handover among different clusters. The simulation-based experiments show that the proposed protocol has better performance compared to the existing S-MAC method

The Effects of an Adaptive and Distributed Transmission Power Control on the Performance of Energy Harvesting Sensor Networks

The design of routing protocols for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has been traditionally tackled by assuming battery-powered sensors, in which minimizing the power consumption was the main objective. Advances in technology and the ability to harvest energy from the environment has enabled self-sustaining systems and thus diminish the significance of network lifetime considerations in the design of WSNs. Although WSNs operated by energy-harvesting sensors are not limited by network lifetime, they still pose new design challenges due to the unstable and uncertain amount of energy that can be harvested from the environment. In this paper, we propose a new protocol for energy-harvesting sensor networks that uses adaptive transmission power to maintain the network connectivity, and distributes the traffic load on the network. Based on local information, each node dynamically adjusts its transmission power in order to maximize the network’s end-to-end performance. The simulation results indicate that the proposed protocol keeps the network connected at most of the times by using an efficient power management, outperforming greedy forwarding and dynamic duty cycle protocols in terms of packet delivery ratio, delay, and power management

The effects of vitamin D supplementation on interictal serum levels of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in episodic migraine patients: Post hoc analysis of a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial

Background: Emerging evidence showed promising effects of vitamin D on headaches characteristics. Thus, it seems there is still a need for more researches to clarify the mechanisms by which this vitamin exerts anti-migraine effects. Methods: The present study was conducted as a 16-week randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial on 80 episodic migraine patients allocated in 2 parallel groups each consisted of 40 patients who received vitamin D 2000 IU/d or placebo. At baseline and after the intervention completion, headache diaries and migraine disability assessment questionnaire (MIDAS) were used to assess migraine related variables in patients. Also, interictal serum concentration of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) (as the dominant mediator of migraine pain pathogenesis) was evaluated using ELISA method. Results: The mean (SD) of age in the vitamin D and placebo groups was 37 (8) and 38 (12) years, respectively. ANCOVA test adjusted for baseline values, and confounders showed vitamin D supplementation resulted in a significant improvement in MIDAS score after 12 weeks in the intervention group (21.49 (16.22-26.77)) compared to placebo (31.16 (25.51-36.82) P value: 0.016). Moreover, after controlling for baseline levels, and other variables using ANCOVA, CGRP level was appeared to be significantly lower following vitamin D supplementation (153.26 (133.03-173.49) ng/L) than the patients in the placebo arm (188.35 (167.15-209.54) ng/L) (P value = 0.022). Conclusion: According to the current findings, vitamin D supplementation in episodic migraineurs, particularly in those with migraine with aura, may potentially improve migraine headache characteristics and disability probably through attenuating CGRP levels. Therefore, these results could provide a new insight into anti-nociceptive effects of vitamin D; however, more studies are required to confirm our findings. Trial registration: The trial is registered in the Iranian registry of clinical trials (IRCT) at 11 July 2018, with IRCT code: IRCT20151128025267N6. © 2020 The Author(s)

Diabetes mellitus and oral lichen planus: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To undertake a meta-analysis of the association of Oral Lichen Planus (OLP) with diabetes, two diseases with an important impact on public health and the economy, but the evidence of which about their association is inconsistent. Methods: Relevant studies were localized by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, Conference Proceedings, and other databases from inception to October 2020, without restrictions. The reference lists of included studies and of related reviews were also inspected. Global pooled odds ratios were calculated, and predefined subgroup analyses were performed. The heterogeneity between studies and publication bias was assessed and sensitivity analysis was carried out. Results: Thirty-two studies were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled ORs showed a moderate association between diabetes and OLP [OR: 1.87 (95%CI: 1.57, 2.34)]. The association is limited to studies carried out on adults only [OR: 2.12 (95%CI: 1.75, 2.57)] and is observed in all study designs. Globally, the heterogeneity was low to moderate. Studies carried out in European populations show a stronger association of diabetes and OLP than Asiatic studies [OR: 2.49 (95%CI: 1.87, 3.32) and 1.60 (95%CI: 1.25, 2.03), respectively]. Conclusions: Diabetes and OLP are moderately associated. Systematic diagnosis of diabetes in OLP patients could prove usefulS

Nonstandard Errors

In statistics, samples are drawn from a population in a data-generating process (DGP). Standard errors measure the uncertainty in estimates of population parameters. In science, evidence is generated to test hypotheses in an evidence-generating process (EGP). We claim that EGP variation across researchers adds uncertainty-nonstandard errors (NSEs). We study NSEs by letting 164 teams test the same hypotheses on the same data. NSEs turn out to be sizable, but smaller for more reproducible or higher rated research. Adding peer-review stages reduces NSEs. We further find that this type of uncertainty is underestimated by participants

Non-Standard Errors

In statistics, samples are drawn from a population in a data-generating process (DGP). Standard errors measure the uncertainty in estimates of population parameters. In science, evidence is generated to test hypotheses in an evidence-generating process (EGP). We claim that EGP variation across researchers adds uncertainty: Non-standard errors (NSEs). We study NSEs by letting 164 teams test the same hypotheses on the same data. NSEs turn out to be sizable, but smaller for better reproducible or higher rated research. Adding peer-review stages reduces NSEs. We further find that this type of uncertainty is underestimated by participants