Wearable Conformal Antennas for 2.4 GHz Wireless Body Area Networks

 Microstrip fed inset patch antennas embedded in planar and cylindrically curved surfaces are introduced to be used in Body Area Networks (BANs) presented. These antennas are designed as wearable antennas for industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band wireless communication networking. The proposed antennas consist of 50 Ω microstrip line feeding inset patch printed on the front face of dielectric substrate and a rectangular ground plane on the bottom face. The proposed planar antenna is conformed on finite cylindrical substrates of radii 2.5, 5 and 7.5 cm corresponding approximately to the typical size of human wrist, humerus and shoulder of a human body respectively. Modeling and performance evaluation of the cylindrical structures has been carried out using the commercially available electromagnetic software CST Studio Suite2009. Simulation results, obtained for the return losses, current distribution, and radiation pattern of the antennas are presented. Furthermore, results show that the designed conformal antennas are resonating at the designed frequency with reasonable gain and field pattern characteristics

Hybrid and modular multilevel converter designs for isolated HVDC–DC converters

Efficient medium and high-voltage dc-dc conversion is critical for future dc grids. This paper proposes a hybrid multilevel dc-ac converter structure that is used as the kernel of dc-dc conversion systems. Operation of the proposed dc-ac converter is suited to trapezoidal ac-voltage waveforms. Quantitative and qualitative analyses show that said trapezoidal operation reduces converter footprint, active and passive components' size, and on-state losses relative to conventional modular multilevel converters. The proposed converter is scalable to high voltages with controllable ac-voltage slope; implying tolerable dv/dt stresses on the converter transformer. Structural variations of the proposed converter with enhanced modularity and improved efficiency will be presented and discussed with regards to application in front-to-front isolated dc-dc conversion stages, and in light of said trapezoidal operation. Numerical results provide deeper insight of the presented converter designs with emphasis on system design aspects. Results obtained from a proof-of-concept 1-kW experimental test rig confirm the validity of simulation results, theoretical analyses, and simplified design equations presented in this paper. - 2013 IEEE.Scopu

A framework for assessing robustness of water networks and computational evaluation of resilience.

Arid regions tend to take careful measures to ensure water supplies are secured to consumers, to help provide the basis for further development. Water distribution network is the most expensive part of the water supply infrastructure and it must maintain performance during unexpected incidents. Many aspects of performance have previously been discussed separately, including reliability, vulnerability, flexibility and resilience. This study aimed to develop a framework to bring together these aspects as found in the literature and industry practice, and bridge the gap between them. Semi-structured interviews with water industry experts were used to examine the presence and understanding of robustness factors. Thematic analysis was applied to investigate these and inform a conceptual framework including the component and topological levels. Robustness was described by incorporating network reliability and resiliency. The research focused on resiliency as a network-level concept derived from flexibility and vulnerability. To utilise this new framework, the study explored graph theory to formulate metrics for flexibility and vulnerability that combine network topology and hydraulics. The flexibility metric combines hydraulic edge betweenness centrality, representing hydraulic connectivity, and hydraulic edge load, measuring utilised capacity. Vulnerability captures the impact of failures on the ability of the network to supply consumers, and their sensitivity to disruptions, by utilising node characteristics, such as demand, population and alternative supplies. These measures together cover both edge (pipe) centric and node (demand) centric perspectives. The resiliency assessment was applied to several literature benchmark networks prior to using a real case network. The results show the benefits of combining hydraulics with topology in robustness analysis. The assessment helps to identify components or sections of importance for future expansion plans or maintenance purposes. The study provides a novel viewpoint overarching the gap between literature and practice, incorporating different critical factors for robust performance

The essence of fertilization: oocyte meets sperm

The problem of reduced fertility in high yielding dairy cattle is a very complicated one, and the relationship between various measures of fertility and level of milk production remains controversial. In this brief review the essence of the problem is considered: what is the oocyte's and the sperm's contribution, and what is the importance of the resulting embryo in the declining fertility of the Holstein Friesian cow

Using the Induced Response Function to Measure and Analyze the Impact of Fiscal Policy Shocks on Some Macroeconomic Variables

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to use the induced response function to measure and analyze the reality of the general budget and the trade balance and the impact of the flexible fiscal policy on some macroeconomic variables.   Theoretical framework:  The public finances after 2003 in Iraq were oriented towards consumerism, far from the orientations and objectives of economic policy, through the increase in commercial expenditures at the expense of investment expenditures, in contrast to the increase in the volume of imports of goods and services with the dominance of oil exports over the volume of total exports, and these factors Together, they made the flexible fiscal policy unable to achieve its goals, foremost of which is economic stability.   Design/methodology/approach:  The study starts from the hypothesis. The fiscal policy shocks were deliberately created by the government as part of strategic plans that serve its policy, philosophy, and goals it seeks, or as preventive plans against undesirable events, or may occur within treatment plans in response to certain pressures. To achieve the objectives of the study and to prove or refute the mentioned hypothesis, the research relied on the descriptive analysis method To reach the required results. Depending on the period from 2003 to 2018 (Iraq is a case study).   Findings:  The shock that was occurring in the financial policy tools were fabricated by the decision-makers to meet the needs of the security side, which was reflected in its shadows on the increase in current spending resulting from the wages and salaries system and allocations directed to the security system to achieve stability and control the security situation, in addition to the political repercussions that increased the level of employment or Operation to achieve other goals.   Research, Practical & Social implications:  Future studies can look at measuring and analyzing the impact of fiscal policy shocks on macroeconomic variables or their repercussions on economic, social, and political policies.   Originality/value:  This study contributes to the literature related to fiscal policy by analyzing the results of the impact of financial shocks on some macroeconomic variables, and provides a practical and applied perception of the role played by the fiscal policy methodology in Iraq.

The Protective Role of Iraqi Propolis in Preventing Anemia Caused by AFB-1 in Male Rats

Aflatoxins have been linked to cause  anemia in many research, these  effects can be countered by natural materials like Propolis. Our study designed to investigate the protective role of propolis against AFB-1 on erythrocytes indices and iron status and  to find out the status of the anemia in rats exposed to AFB-1 for 60 days. 24 male rats divided into equal 4 groups: group C was control, second group AF received Aflatoxin-B1 ( 0.025mg/kg ), third group P received Propolis in dose (50 mg /kg BW) and the fourth group AFP received Aflatoxin-B1 (0.025 mg/ 1kg BW) + Propolis (50 mg / 1kg BW). Results revealed that AFB1 orally induced anemia indicated by significant decrease of PCV,  HB, RBCs count, MCV and MCH with increase of RDW in AF group and non-decreased in P and AFP groups when compared with control group. Iron status showed a significant increase in iron TIBC, UIBC and PTS in all of the groups while the ferritine decreased in all of them except the control. In conclusion , orally exposure to Aflatoxin-B1 for 60 days induced anemia characterized by iron overload and microcytic, hypochromic and anisocytosis erythrone. Propolis showed a high activity to improve all the above measurements  and counter these deleterious effect of Aflatoxin-B1 to normal situation, and was successful in treatment of anemia. Keywords: Aflatoxin, Propolis, Anemia, Erythrocytes indices, Iron status

Island Loss for Learning Discriminative Features in Facial Expression Recognition

Over the past few years, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have shown promise on facial expression recognition. However, the performance degrades dramatically under real-world settings due to variations introduced by subtle facial appearance changes, head pose variations, illumination changes, and occlusions. In this paper, a novel island loss is proposed to enhance the discriminative power of the deeply learned features. Specifically, the IL is designed to reduce the intra-class variations while enlarging the inter-class differences simultaneously. Experimental results on four benchmark expression databases have demonstrated that the CNN with the proposed island loss (IL-CNN) outperforms the baseline CNN models with either traditional softmax loss or the center loss and achieves comparable or better performance compared with the state-of-the-art methods for facial expression recognition.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

EXPRESSION OF CANCER STEM CELL MARKER OCTAMER-BINDING TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR 4 IN HIGH-GRADE TRANSITIONAL CELL CARCINOMA

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to provide an outlook of urothelial carcinoma through the immunohistochemical expression patterns of octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (OCT4) in high-grade transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder. Methods: A total number of 60 tissue samples were collected for the study. Patients were divided into two groups according to the pathological diagnosis of the bladder tissue, Group A: 30 cases with high-grade TCC of the bladder and Group B: 30 cases with apparently normal bladder tissue. Tissue immunohistochemical analysis was applied to investigate the expression patterns of cancer stem cell (CSC) markers OCT4 in bladder samples. Results: OCT4 was positive in 80% of specimens of Group A and 3.3% in specimens of Group B. The association between OCT4 marker result and certain histopathological features in high-grade group: Positive OCT4 result was found in patients with inflammation and necrosis (90.9%) with a significant association (p=0.013). Regarding muscular invasion, we noticed that 87.5% of patients with muscular invasion showed positive OCT4 marker result with a significant association (p=0.039) between OCT4 marker result and muscular invasion. As well, OCT4 marker was highly sensitive and specific (sensitivity=66.7%, specificity=96.7%, and accuracy=76.7%). Conclusion: There was a significant expression of CSC OCT4 in high-grade TCC, OCT4 can be considered as a key regulator of tumor progression, aggressive behavior, and metastasis

Compact harsh environment energy conversion systems

The quest for energy is leading the industry into drilling deeper wells. Typically, a temperature gradient of 1°C/150 ft can be expected, with bottom hole temperatures reaching beyond 200°C in many areas of the world. Moreover, the increased recovery benefits and cost reductions possible with the use of horizontal and multilateral wells has triggered a need for higher power energy conversion systems in bottom hole assemblies, such as rotary steerable tools and downhole tractors. The concepts developed throughout this work address some of these new needs. This research investigated improvements, novel solutions and considerations that will lead to significant advantages in terms of reliability, extended temperature operation, increased power capability and reduced size and cost of compact harsh environment energy conversion systems. Improvements to both the electromechanical subsystem and the power electronic subsystem are introduced. Air gap viscous losses were shown to a have a significant effect on the optimal design of submersible PM (permanent magnet) machines, and a design procedure to account for this loss component in the design was developed. The application of a dual winding exterior rotor PM machine in a downhole environment enabled a significant increase in the application’s torque capability, provided protection against generator winding over voltage, and reduced parts count. Comprehensive switching device qualification, testing, and simulation lead to a simple failure mitigation technique for the operation of the most suitable devices at elevated temperature. A flying capacitor multilevel inverter was then successfully constructed and temperature tested. A novel motor drive concept suited for elevated temperature oil filled environment applications concluded the research