Genetic Algorithm-Based Model for Determination of Efficient Management Strategies for Irrigation Canal Networks

An optimization model for the determination of efficient management strategies for an irrigation canal network is developed. The objective is to minimize the total water consumed while satisfying various system constraints. An unsteady flow model is used to simulate the flow in the network. A genetic algorithm- (GA-) based framework is used to solve the model. The suitable GA parameters that should be used within the model, as well as the performance of various constraint-handling techniques, are studied. Uncertainties in crop pattern and water consumption rates are incorporated into the search procedure to identify more reliable solutions. A graphical interface is also developed to make the model more user-friendly

Sinc-Galerkin method for solving nonlinear boundary-value problems

AbstractThe sinc-Galerkin method is used to approximate solutions of nonlinear problems involving nonlinear second-, fourth-, and sixth-order differential equations with homogeneous and nonhomogeneous boundary conditions. The scheme is tested on four nonlinear problems. The results demonstrate the reliability and efficiency of the algorithm developed

Aortic Valve Disease: State of the Art

Aortic valve replacement is the most commonly performed valve operation. It has been shown to be an effective therapy in all age groups, including the very elderly (age > 90 years). The most common etiologies for aortic stenosis are calcific degeneration, rheumatic disease, and congenital bicuspid valves. The most common causes of pure aortic regurgitation include annuloaortic ectasia and associated dilation of the aortic root, endocarditis, aortic dissection, and rheumatic disease. The indications for surgery depend on the pathophysiology and symptoms. The choice of the prosthesis can be difficult and depends on multiple clinical and lifestyle considerations. Early and late outcomes are generally quite good, even in high-risk patients

Effect of tramadol addiction alone and its co-abuse with cannabis on urinary excretion of Copper, Zinc, and Calcium among Egyptian addicts

Background: The use of illicit drugs has become a worldwide health problem. Substances with the potential to be abused may have direct or indirect effects on physiologic mechanisms that lead to organ system dysfunction and diseases.Objective: The present study aims to investigate the structural and reabsorption integrity of the nephron among Egyptian addicts of tramadol alone and coabused with cannabis.Methods: Sixty-five males were included in the study, they were classified into control group (G1=19), tramadol addicts group (G2=18), and tramadol coabused with cannabis addicts group (G3=28). Parameters investigated for structural integrity were urinary levels ofleucineaminopeptidase and N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase, and urinary parameters for reabsorption integrity were levels of copper and zinc as well as calcium, also urinary creatinine was measured. In addition, urinary levels of tramadol and tetrahydrocannabinol were estimated.Results: Among the two addicted groups, all measured parameters were not significantly different in comparison with the control group except for urinary calcium excretion which was found to be significantly increased among the two addicted groups.Conclusion: Both tramadol addiction alone or coabused with cannabis causes increased urinary excretion of calcium, indicating reabsorption dysfunction of calcium without affecting structural integrity along the nephron.Keywords: Enzymuria, copper, zinc, calcium, reabsorption impairment, tubular structural integrity

Low copper levels measured in the aortic wall of New Zealand patients with non-syndromic ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm

OBJECTIVES: Studies in animals have shown causal relationships between copper (Cu) deficiency and the development of thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAAs) [1, 2]. Cu deficiency is widespread in New Zealand (NZ) soils; the high soil pH from the use of lime fertilizers reduces the bioavailability of Cu for grazing animals and growing plants; this, in turn, reduces Cu availability in the NZ human food chain. Our study is a pilot study to explore associations between Cu and TAA. We measured Cu levels in aneurysmal aortic tissues in patients undergoing Bentall procedures and non-aneurysmal aortic tissue from coronary artery bypass graft patients. METHODS: Aortic samples were collected from 2 groups of patients during elective open-heart surgery over 4 months between November 2017 and February 2018. The groups were a TAA group, patients with non-syndromic aortic aneurysm and without the bicuspid aortic valve or known infectious or inflammatory condition (ANEURYSM; n = 13), and a control coronary artery bypass graft group (CONTROL; n = 44). Standardized digested dry tissue weighed samples were analysed from both groups. Tissue extraction of trace elements was carried out using HCl-H2O2 digestion and a highly sensitive analytical technique, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry-used to measure elemental concentrations. RESULTS: Cu concentration (mean ± SD) was significantly lower in ANEURYSM (3.34 ± 0.16 µg/g) when compared to the CONTROL group tissues (4.33 ± 0.20 µg/g) (dry weight; mean ± SD; Student's t-test, P < 0.05). Over 46% of the Aneurysm patients were Maori and live in a geographically Cu-deficient NZ territory. CONCLUSIONS: Cu deficiency may play a role in the development or progression of non-syndromic ascending aortic aneurysms in NZ. Maori patients are more at risk as they commonly live in rural NZ, dependent on locally grown nutritional sources. Further studies are required to confirm this exciting finding and to establish cause and effect relationship

Estado da arte da temática de Internacionalização do Ensino Superior e de suas Instituições: mapeamento sistemático da produção global

Diante da realidade do aumento de estudos no que tange à Internacionalização do Ensino Superior, vê-se a necessidade de realizar o estudo a respeito do estado da arte do tema, com o objetivo de captar, sistematizar e analisar a produção científica sobre a temática da Internacionalização do Ensino Superior. Para atingir este objetivo foi realizado um estudo em 58 artigos, sendo todos voltados ao tema central citado acima, dos quais foram classificados a fim de maior organização e clareza dos dados, em 4 seções, são elas: (i) ano de publicação; (ii) autor(es) responsáveis pelo estudo; (iii) país de publicação; (iv) artigos publicados no International Journal of Educational Management. Foram encontradas nas categorias de análise futura, ou seja, pesquisas futuras, as seguintes lacunas: (i) estudos que partam de amostras maiores e diversificadas, para melhor representatividade da Internacionalização do Ensino Superior; (ii) estudos que tratam dos fatores decisivos para indivíduos no contexto da internacionalização de estudantes; (iii) estudos que tragam contribuição metodológica por meio de pesquisas mistas dentro da área de international education; (iv) estudos que abordem os esforços individuais de pesquisadores para a internacionalização, bem como as parcerias internacionais entre IES, com foco em particularidades culturais. Além disso, também foram analisados os autores mais citados.Palavras-chave: internacionalização no ensino superior; ensino superior; estratégia organizacional; educação internacional

Effect of tramadol addiction alone and its co-abuse with cannabis on urinary excretion of Copper, Zinc, and Calcium among Egyptian addicts

Background: The use of illicit drugs has become a worldwide health problem. Substances with the potential to be abused may have direct or indirect effects on physiologic mechanisms that lead to organ system dysfunction and diseases. Objective: The present study aims to investigate the structural and reabsorption integrity of the nephron among Egyptian addicts of tramadol alone and coabused with cannabis. Methods: Sixty-five males were included in the study, they were classified into control group (G1=19), tramadol addicts group (G2=18), and tramadol coabused with cannabis addicts group (G3=28). Parameters investigated for structural integrity were urinary levels ofleucineaminopeptidase and N-acetyl-\u3b2-D-glucosaminidase, and urinary parameters for reabsorption integrity were levels of copper and zinc as well as calcium, also urinary creatinine was measured. In addition, urinary levels of tramadol and tetrahydrocannabinol were estimated. Results: Among the two addicted groups, all measured parameters were not significantly different in comparison with the control group except for urinary calcium excretion which was found to be significantly increased among the two addicted groups. Conclusion: Both tramadol addiction alone or coabused with cannabis causes increased urinary excretion of calcium, indicating reabsorption dysfunction of calcium without affecting structural integrity along the nephron

A system of ODEs for a Perturbation of a Minimal Mass Soliton

We study soliton solutions to a nonlinear Schrodinger equation with a saturated nonlinearity. Such nonlinearities are known to possess minimal mass soliton solutions. We consider a small perturbation of a minimal mass soliton, and identify a system of ODEs similar to those from Comech and Pelinovsky (2003), which model the behavior of the perturbation for short times. We then provide numerical evidence that under this system of ODEs there are two possible dynamical outcomes, which is in accord with the conclusions of Pelinovsky, Afanasjev, and Kivshar (1996). For initial data which supports a soliton structure, a generic initial perturbation oscillates around the stable family of solitons. For initial data which is expected to disperse, the finite dimensional dynamics follow the unstable portion of the soliton curve.Comment: Minor edit

Secondary metabolites, hormonal homeostasis, and antioxidant enzymes of Moringa oleifera in response to white or violet Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) combined with cytokinins under tissue culture conditions

The present study was carried out between 2021 and 2022 at the tissue culture lab and experimental station of the vegetable and floriculture department, faculty of agriculture, Mansoura University. Using mature seeds, Moringa oleifera is propagated on a large scale and in rapid succession by in vitro culture. Two types of cytokinin: 6-benzylaminopurin (BAP), and thidiauron (TDZ) singly at three different concentrations (0, 1, or 2 mg/L), were used, as well as light-emitting diode systems (LEDs) (white as control and violet; the combination of red and blue; 1:1). After incubation for 30 days, the obtained results showed that the survival percentage increased by the treatments with the maximum value (85%) by MS medium supplemented with 2 mg/L TDZ, under violet LEDs illumination. However, the addition of thidiazuron (TDZ) to the medium did not propagate shoot, and this treatment recorded 100% callus formation other than BAP. The maximum number of axillary shoots per explant and the number of leaves recorded in the MS medium contained 2 mg/L BAP under violet LEDs. Compared to the control values, all the used treatments generally caused surprisingly stimulating the determined antioxidant enzymes and compounds (peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase &amp;catalase and phenols, flavonoids, anthocyanin&amp; ascorbic acid). Concerning the phytohormone content of the hormone-free medium (control), IAA, kinetin, and zeatin increased. Meanwhile, GA3 and ABA decreased with the used treatments

Minimum follow-up time required for the estimation of statistical cure of cancer patients: verification using data from 42 cancer sites in the SEER database

BACKGROUND: The present commonly used five-year survival rates are not adequate to represent the statistical cure. In the present study, we established the minimum number of years required for follow-up to estimate statistical cure rate, by using a lognormal distribution of the survival time of those who died of their cancer. We introduced the term, threshold year, the follow-up time for patients dying from the specific cancer covers most of the survival data, leaving less than 2.25% uncovered. This is close enough to cure from that specific cancer. METHODS: Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database were tested if the survival times of cancer patients who died of their disease followed the lognormal distribution using a minimum chi-square method. Patients diagnosed from 1973–1992 in the registries of Connecticut and Detroit were chosen so that a maximum of 27 years was allowed for follow-up to 1999. A total of 49 specific organ sites were tested. The parameters of those lognormal distributions were found for each cancer site. The cancer-specific survival rates at the threshold years were compared with the longest available Kaplan-Meier survival estimates. RESULTS: The characteristics of the cancer-specific survival times of cancer patients who died of their disease from 42 cancer sites out of 49 sites were verified to follow different lognormal distributions. The threshold years validated for statistical cure varied for different cancer sites, from 2.6 years for pancreas cancer to 25.2 years for cancer of salivary gland. At the threshold year, the statistical cure rates estimated for 40 cancer sites were found to match the actuarial long-term survival rates estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method within six percentage points. For two cancer sites: breast and thyroid, the threshold years were so long that the cancer-specific survival rates could yet not be obtained because the SEER data do not provide sufficiently long follow-up. CONCLUSION: The present study suggests a certain threshold year is required to wait before the statistical cure rate can be estimated for each cancer site. For some cancers, such as breast and thyroid, the 5- or 10-year survival rates inadequately reflect statistical cure rates, and highlight the need for long-term follow-up of these patients