Modelling of the relation of natural disasters and the economic growth using neural network

In the recent years, the phenomenon of global climate change has approached a growing and accelerating process and the dangers caused by it are strongly threatening all the dimensions of humans’ lives. It is obvious that economy and production and commerce ability of the countries are also under the influence of natural changes. But when the changes and natural challenges finds a high speed or volume, they are called natural incident or natural disaster. Natural incidents, in addition to damages to life and emotion that set upon human’s heart and soul, it will also be followed by hard monetary expenses. This study, with taking some distance from theoretical models which they have expressed on this matter, has tried to model the relation of expense caused by natural incidents and economic growth using the technique of neural network. The results from data analysis with neural network show that natural incidents and the amount of expense caused by it have influence on the economic growth and through reliance on that, the economic growth can be predicted.Keywords: Natural Disasters, Neural Network Model, Economic Growth and  Development,Predictio

Amino Acid Features of P1B-ATPase Heavy Metal Transporters Enabling Small Numbers of Organisms to Cope with Heavy Metal Pollution

Phytoremediation refers to the use of plants for extraction and detoxification of pollutants, providing a new and powerful weapon against a polluted environment. In some plants, such as Thlaspi spp, heavy metal ATPases are involved in overall metal ion homeostasis and hyperaccumulation. P1B-ATPases pump a wide range of cations, especially heavy metals, across membranes against their electrochemical gradients. Determination of the protein characteristics of P1B-ATPases in hyperaccumulator plants provides a new opportuntity for engineering of phytoremediating plants. In this study, using diverse weighting and modeling approaches, 2644 protein characteristics of primary, secondary, and tertiary structures of P1B-ATPases in hyperaccumulator and nonhyperaccumulator plants were extracted and compared to identify differences between proteins in hyperaccumulator and nonhyperaccumulator pumps. Although the protein characteristics were variable in their weighting, tree and rule induction models; glycine count, frequency of glutamine-valine, and valine-phenylalanine count were the most important attributes highlighted by 10, five, and four models, respectively. In addition, a precise model was built to discriminate P1B-ATPases in different organisms based on their structural protein features. Moreover, reliable models for prediction of the hyperaccumulating activity of unknown P1B-ATPase pumps were developed. Uncovering important structural features of hyperaccumulator pumps in this study has provided the knowledge required for future modification and engineering of these pumps by techniques such as site-directed mutagenesis

Frequency response of atomic force microscopy microcantilevers oscillating in a viscous liquid: A comparison of various methods

AbstractOperating an Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) with the cantilever and sample immersed in a liquid has many advantages, including the elimination of capillary forces and reduction of van der Waals forces in the study of liquid–solid interactions. Accurately identifying the maximum of the amplitude–frequency curves at which resonances occur is a challenging issue. The frequency response of a cantilever beam in a viscous liquid near a surface depends on the hydrodynamic loadings. First, in this paper, there is a comparison of predicted resonant frequencies from five different theoretical models, with measurements for the case of an ambient liquid of infinite extent. The precision of each method is indicated. Then, the motion of microcantilevers of variable widths close to a solid surface is simulated. When the cantilever tip approaches the sample surface gradually, the effect of squeezed film damping causes the resonance frequencies to shift toward lower values at lower amplitudes, and subsequently as the tip-sample separation becomes smaller, the resonance peaks seem to vanish completely. The results demonstrate that any changes in the geometrical dimensions of the cantilever and in the fluid properties may influence the accuracy of the model. Furthermore, due to the considerable effect of tip-sample separation on the resonance, some models are restricted to be applicable only in the circumstances of free liquid

Production of Sn02 nano-particles by hydrogel thermal decomposition method

SnO2 is an important functional material having a wide range of applications in gas sensors and optoelectronic devices. There is a great interest for finding new costeffective and straight-forward methods for production of these particles. In this research, hydrogel thermal decomposition method (HTDM) is used for production of high purity SnO2nano-particles. Cost effective reactants and green routs of production are the advantages of polysaccharide based hydrogel as starting material for this method. Visual observations indicated that there is very little tendency for agglomeration in the SnO2nano-particles produced by this method which can be considered as an advantage for this method over other methods for production of SnO2nano-particles. SnO2nanoparticles are also characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) in terms of purity and the sizes. It is found that high purity SnO2nano-particles in the size range of 25 – 36 nm can be produced by HTDM. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/2068

Evaluation of WHO’s partogram alert line for prediction of the APGAR score at the first minute after birth

Background and aim: The early diagnosis of abnormal progress of labour and prevention of long term delivery are the main keys to reduce fetal mortality rate due to hypoxia and tissue ischemia. One of the WHO’s proposed methods for prevention of abnormal delivery is using partogram. Therefore, this survey was conducted to evaluate WHO’s partogram alert line for APGAR score at the first minute after birth. Methods: This descriptive–analytical study was performed on 140 pregnant women under partogram in Shahrood Fatemieh hospital. Using the partogram alert line, the progress of labour, mother’s and infants condition started to be controled from 3 cm dilation of the cervix. Decision for resuscitation was made based on respiration, heart rate and skin color of the infant 20 to 30 seconds after the birth. Tools of this research were a questionare, inspection form consisted of WHO’s partogram and step by step resuscitation form. χ2, t–test and analytical methods of sensitivity, specificity and negative and positive values were used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that 68.8% of the subjects cervical dilatation remained on or to the left side of the alert line and 28.6% was on the right side and 2.9% was on or to the right side of the active line. According to χ2 test, there was a significant relationship between the first minute APGAR score after delivery and the location of cervical dilation. The value of alert line for surveying of APGAR score at the first minute after birth had a sensitivity of 25%, specificity of 96.87% , negative and positive predictive value of 75.6% and 76.92%, respectively. Conclusion: Our results showed that using WHO’s partogram prevents long term delivery, helps for on time diagnosis of fetal distress and reduction in stillbirth and fetal mortality. So, partogram should be a part and parcel of fetal and maternal health care

Evaluation and comparison of clinical and para clinical diagnosis of Candida vaginitis in women referred to Shahrood city health care centers years between 2004-2007

Background and aim: Candida vaginitis is the second common cause of vaginitis and Candida albicans is cause of 90 percent of vaginal fungal infections. Because antifungal drugs are among the cheapest vaginal drugs this study was performed to evaluate and compare clinical and paraclinical diagnosis of candida vaginitis in women referred to health care centers in Shahrood cityfrom 2004 to 2007. Methods: This deh1ive-analytic research was performed on 300 women with vaginitis infections who were referred to the Shahrood city health care centers. Two samples of secretions were taken from both endocervix and exocervix using speculum and spread on two glass slides and then one sample was taken from posterior culdesac secretions with a cotton soup and entered into a tube containing sterilized physiological serum. A questionnaire was filled out by a midwife for every patient. Standard laboratory methods (cultures Pap smear wet smear and etc.) were used to evaluate the samples and the second questionnaire was filled out by the midwife. Finally results were analyzed by statistical methods. Results: Based on clinical results 132 persons (44%) had candida infection but the infection was not proved by cell culture in 30 patients ((10%) and wet smear in 111 persons (37%). No candida infection was found in cytology survey. Based on clinical results vaginal pH was measured 5.01. The amount of pH was found 5.52 5.8 and 5.71 based on wet smear cell cultures and Pap smear respectively. The physical examination sensitivity for detecting vaginal candidiasis was 63.33% compared to the cell culture. Conclusion: The results of this study show that some para-clinical examinations should be considered for diagnosis of vaginal candidiasis. These para-clinical experiments help to prevent and reduce the side effects of some unnecessary medications

Effect of flavonoids of extract of cichorium intybus L. leaf on induction of P19 stem-cells differentiation to insulin-producing cells

Background and purpose: Regarding the effective role of plant flavonoids in the prevention and treatment of diabetes mellitus, in this investigation, induction of P19 stem cells differentiation into insulin producing cells by flavonoids of methanol extract of Cichorium intybus L. leaf was examined. Materials and methods: Initially, flavonoids of methanol extract of Cichorium intybus L. leaf were concentrated. The P19-derived embryonic bodies were cultured in α-MEM (Minimum Essential Medium) containing 15 fetal bovine serum for three days. To induce the differentiation, the cells treated with the concentrations of 50, 100 and 200 μg/ml of flavonoids of methanol extract of Cichorium intybus L. leaf for 12 days. Untreated P19 cells and embryonic bodies were used as controls. Dithizone staining, immunoflorecence and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) techniques were used to demonstrate the differentiated cells. Results: Differentiated P19 cells by different concentrations of extract shown positive reaction to dithizone staining. Most percentage of positive dithizone cells was reached in concentration of 100 μg/ml. Immunoflorecence method showed that differentiated P19 cells were able to express the pancreas beta cell-specific markers. Pdx-1 gene expression in the cells was demonstrated by RT-PCR technique. Conclusion: The flavonoids of methanol extract of Cichorium intybus L. leaf are able to induce differentiation of P19 stem cells to insulin producing cells. © 2014 Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Optimal discrete stopping times for reliability growth tests

Often, the duration of a reliability growth development test is specified in advance and the decision to terminate or continue testing is conducted at discrete time intervals. These features are normally not captured by reliability growth models. This paper adapts a standard reliability growth model to determine the optimal time for which to plan to terminate testing. The underlying stochastic process is developed from an Order Statistic argument with Bayesian inference used to estimate the number of faults within the design and classical inference procedures used to assess the rate of fault detection. Inference procedures within this framework are explored where it is shown the Maximum Likelihood Estimators possess a small bias and converges to the Minimum Variance Unbiased Estimator after few tests for designs with moderate number of faults. It is shown that the Likelihood function can be bimodal when there is conflict between the observed rate of fault detection and the prior distribution describing the number of faults in the design. An illustrative example is provided