Western Fires are Burning Higher in the Mountains at Unprecedented Rates: It’s a Clear Sign of Climate Change

The Western U.S. appears headed for another dangerous fire season, and a new study shows that even high mountain areas once considered too wet to burn are at increasing risk as the climate warms. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. West is in severe to exceptional drought right now, including large parts of the Rocky Mountains, Cascades and Sierra Nevada. The situation is so severe that the Colorado River basin is on the verge of its first official water shortage declaration, and forecasts suggest another hot, dry summer is on the way. Warm and dry conditions like these are a recipe for wildfire disaster

A Review on Application of Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Microgrids

A microgrid can be formed by the integration of different components such as loads, renewable/conventional units, and energy storage systems in a local area. Microgrids with the advantages of being flexible, environmentally friendly, and self-sufficient can improve the power system performance metrics such as resiliency and reliability. However, design and implementation of microgrids are always faced with different challenges considering the uncertainties associated with loads and renewable energy resources (RERs), sudden load variations, energy management of several energy resources, etc. Therefore, it is required to employ such rapid and accurate methods, as artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, to address these challenges and improve the MG's efficiency, stability, security, and reliability. Utilization of AI helps to develop systems as intelligent as humans to learn, decide, and solve problems. This paper presents a review on different applications of AI-based techniques in microgrids such as energy management, load and generation forecasting, protection, power electronics control, and cyber security. Different AI tasks such as regression and classification in microgrids are discussed using methods including machine learning, artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, support vector machines, etc. The advantages, limitation, and future trends of AI applications in microgrids are discussed.©2022 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Thrombocytopenia as a Marker of Patient Outcome in Medical Intensive Care Unit

Introduction: Thrombocytopenia is a common hematologic disorder observed in many pathological conditions in critically ill patients. The current study aimed at investigating the prevalence of thrombocytopenia and its relationship with the length of stay and mortality among intensive care unit (ICU) patients.Methods: The current prospective cohort study enrolled 150 patients consecutively admitted to the medical ICU during a nine-month period. Patients’ baseline characteristics and underlying diseases were recorded. Laboratory findings and admission mean platelets and platelet counts on the 3rd day of admission were obtained. Patients were divided into thrombocytopenic (platelet count of less than 150×109/L or decrease of platelet to more than 50%) and non-thrombocytopenic groups according to the 3rd day platelet count.Results: Thrombocytopenia was detected in 53(35%) patients while 13 patients (8.6%) had severe thrombocytopenia (platelets count < 50 × 109/L). ICU stay and mortality were significantly higher in patients with thrombocytopenia compared with non-thrombocytopenic patients (16 ± 2.7 vs 12 ± 2.4 days, P = 0.01) and (45.5% vs 37.3%, P = 00.1) respectively.Conclusions: Platelet might be considered as a prognosis monitor in ICU settings. Severe thrombocytopenia could be mentioned as a poor prognostic factor for increased mortality and prolonged hospitalization period in ICU patients

Determination of Sustainable Tourism Development Strategies in Coastal Areas with Emphasis on Nature-based Tourism, Coastal Area of Bandar Mogham to Bandar Hasineh in Hormozgan Province

Nature-based tourism as one of the types of tourism can play an important role in the sustainable development of regions and also have important effects on improving the physical and mental health of tourists. Bandar Lengeh County has several natural capacities such as unique sandy, rocky and coral beaches, numerous islands, salt domes and unique mountain landscapes that indicate the proper capacity of this county for the development of nature-based tourism. However, it's potential and actual capacities have not yet been used effectively. The aim of this study is to determine the strategies for the development of sustainable tourism with an emphasis on nature-based tourism in the western region of Bandar Lengeh County. For this purpose, first, the internal factors (strength and weakness) and external (opportunity and threat) were determined using SWOT technique and the opinion of experts and then based on them, the strategies for developing nature-based tourism in the region have been identified, Finally, the strategies were ranked using the quantitative strategic planning matrix (QSPM) technique. The results show that strategies such as providing nature-based tourism equipment and facilities on the region's coasts, providing equipment for water sports and recreation on the region's coasts, and guiding tourists from Fars province, Kish island and the Persian Gulf countries to the region are more important in order than other strategies. The findings of this study can be considered by managers, decision-makers and planners in order to plan and develop nature-based tourism and subsequently achieve sustainable development in this region

Feasibility of Implementing Multi-factor Authentication Schemes in Mobile Cloud Computing

Abstract-Mobile cloud computing is a new computing technology, which provides on-demand resources. Nowadays, this computing paradigm is becoming one the most interesting technology for IT enterprises. The idea of computing and offloading data in cloud computing is utilized to overcome the inherent challenges in mobile computing. This is carried out by utilizing other resource providers besides the mobile device to host the delivery of mobile applications. However, this technology introduces some opportunities as new computing concept, several challenges, including security and privacy are raised from the adoption of this IT paradigm. Authentication plays an important role to mitigate security and privacy issue in the mobile cloud computing. Even some authentication algorithms are proposed for mobile cloud computing, but most of these algorithms designed for traditional computing models, and are not using cloud capabilities. In mobile cloud computing, we access to pooled computation resources and applying more complicated authentication schemes is possible. Using different authentication factors, which is called multifactor authentication algorithms, has been proposed for various areas. In this paper, feasibility of implementation of different kinds of multi-factor authentication protocols are discussed. Furthermore, the security and privacy of these algorithms are analyzed. Finally, some future directions are recommended

A Century of Observations Reveals Increasing Likelihood of Continental-Scale Compound Dry-Hot Extremes

Using over a century of ground-based observations over the contiguous United States, we show that the frequency of compound dry and hot extremes has increased substantially in the past decades, with an alarming increase in very rare dry-hot extremes. Our results indicate that the area affected by concurrent extremes has also increased significantly. Further, we explore homogeneity (i.e., connectedness) of dry-hot extremes across space. We show that dry-hot extremes have homogeneously enlarged over the past 122 years, pointing to spatial propagation of extreme dryness and heat and increased probability of continental-scale compound extremes. Last, we show an interesting shift between the main driver of dry-hot extremes over time. While meteorological drought was the main driver of dry-hot events in the 1930s, the observed warming trend has become the dominant driver in recent decades. Our results provide a deeper understanding of spatiotemporal variation of compound dry-hot extremes

Copper-nickel oxide nanofilm modified electrode for non-enzymatic determination of glucose

CuxO-NiO nanocomposite film for the non-enzymatic determination of glucose was prepared by the novel modifying method. At first, anodized Cu electrode was kept in a mixture solution of CuSO4, NiSO4 and H2SO4 for 15 minutes. Then, a cathodization process with a step potential of -6 V in a mixture solution of CuSO4 and NiSO4 was initiated, generating formation of porous Cu-Ni film on the bare Cu electrode by electrodeposition assisted by the release of hydrogen bubbles acting as soft templates. Optimized conditions were determined by the experimental design software for electrodeposition process. Afterward, Cu-Ni modified electrode was scanned by cyclic voltammetry (CV) method in NaOH solution to convert Cu and Ni nanoparticles to the nano-scaled CuxO-NiO film. The electrocatalytic behavior of the novel CuxO-NiO film toward glucose oxidation was studied by CV and chronoamperometry (CHA) techniques. The calibration curve of glucose was found linear in a wide range of 0.04–5.76 mM, with a low limit of detection (LOD) of 7.3 μM (S/N = 3) and high sensitivity (1.38 mA mM-1 cm-2). The sensor showed high selectivity against some usual interfering species and high stability (loss of only 6.3 % of its performance over one month). The prepared CuxO-NiO nanofilm based sensor was successfully applied for monitoring glucose in human blood serum and urine samples

INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF CONSTRUCTION, ARCHITECTS AND INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES IN THE MUNICIPALITIES OF MAZANDARAN PROVINCE

Abstract. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance of construction, architecture and industrial companies in the municipalities of Mazandaran province. This research is descriptive-correlative method and is of applied research type. The statistical population of the study consisted of all construction, architectural and industrial companies in the municipalities of Mazandaran province during 2013 to 2017, in which 50 companies were studied. The data of the research were extracted from the financial statements of the companies and analyzed using regression models using combination data. The research findings showedthat there is a positive and significant relationship between corporate social capital and asset returns and earnings per share of companies, and there is not a significant relationship between corporate social capitals with equity returns.Keywords: Social Responsibility, Financial Performance, Returns on Assets, Return on Equity, Earnings perShare