Efficient Mobile Data Collection with Mobile Collect

WISENET (NES)PromosCONE

Do Sensor Networks need Mobile MAC Protocols?

WISENET (NES)SSFCNSCONETPromo

Late clinical events of drug eluting versus bare metal stenting; OPCES' ancillary study

Objective: To compare one year clinical outcomes of patients with chronic stable angina who underwent implantation of bare metal stent (BMS) or drug eluting stent (DES). Methodology: Four hundred forty two (442) participants of OPCES study (Osvix versus Plavix in Cardiovascular Events after Stenting) were included in this sub-study. After evaluation of exclusion criteria (combined DES and BMS stenting (n=31) and incomplete data (n=48) patients were divided in two groups according to selected stent(DES or BMS). Follow-up was conducted by a structured telephone interview after 6 and 12 months. The patients' documents were reviewed by the Study Event Committee in the Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Center to evaluate the occurrence of study endpoints which consisted of clinical success rate and major adverse cardiac events (Major Adverse Cardiac Events (MACE), cardiac death, non-fatal MI, target vessel revascularization and stroke) in hospital, after 6 and 12 months. Results: One hundred sixty six (45.7%) patients were in the DES and 197(54.3%) were in the BMS group. Procedural complications were seen more frequently in the DES group (1.0% vs. 4.8%, P=0.027), the prevalence of the in-hospital MACE, angiographic and clinical success rate were the same between both the groups. There was no significant difference regarding 6 and 12 months MACE rate in patients treated by BMS or DES (6 months: 1.1% vs. 0.6%, p>0.999 12 month: 3.4% vs 2.6%, P = 0.755). Conclusion: Considering the same clinical outcome and the economical parameters, use of the BMS after proper patient selection are recommended

Three-dimensional CFD-DEM simulation of raceway transport phenomena in a blast furnace

Improving energy efficiency in a blast furnace (BF) has a significant effect on energy consumption and pollutant emission in a steel plant. In the BF, the blast injection creates a cavity, the so-called raceway, near the inlet. On the periphery of the raceway, a ring-type zone is formed which is associated with the highest coke combustion rate and temperatures in the raceway. Therefore, predicting the raceway size or in other words, the periphery of the ring-type zone with accuracy is important for estimating the BF’s energy and coke consumption. In the present study, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is coupled to Discrete Element Method (DEM) to develop a three-dimensional (3D) model featuring a gas–solid reacting flow, to study the transport phenomena inside the raceway. The model is compared to a previously developed two-dimensional (2D) model and it is shown that the assumptions associated with a 2D model, result in an overestimation of the size of the raceway. The 3D model is then used to investigate the coke particles’ combustion and heat generation and distribution in the raceway. It is shown that a higher blast flow rate is associated with a higher reaction rate and a larger raceway. A 10% increase in the inlet velocity (from 200 m/s to 220 m/s) caused the raceway volume to grow by almost 40%. The DEM model considers a radial discretization over the particle, therefore the heat and mass distributions over the particle are analyzed as well

Nicotine Content of Domestic Cigarettes, Imported Cigarettes and Pipe Tobacco in Iran

Background: There are many different kinds of cigarettes and tobacco available in the market. Since nicotine content of various brands of cigarettes are very variable, therefore evaluation and comparison of nicotine content of different brands of cigarettes is important. The goal of the present study was to determine and compare nicotine content of various domestic and imported cigarettes available in the area. Methods: Fourteen popular imported brands and nine popular domestic brands of cigarettes and three available brands of tobaccos were investigated for the amounts of nicotine content. Nicotine was extracted from each cigarette and tobacco samples and was analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Findings: The amount of nicotine in each cigarette was from 6.17 to 12.65 mg (1.23 ± 0.15 percent of tobacco weight in each cigarette) in domestic cigarettes. It was between 7.17-28.86 mg (1.80 ± 0.25 percent of tobacco weight in each cigarette) for imported cigarette, and between 30.08- 50.89 mg (3.82 ± 1.11 percent) for the pipe nicotine. There was significant difference in nicotine amount between imported and domestic brands of cigarettes. There was also no significant difference in nicotine content between light and normal cigarettes in imported brands. Conclusion: Nicotine content of all tested cigarettes, imported and domestic brands, were higher than the international standard.   Keywords: Nicotine, Tobacco, Cigarettes, Human health, Bran

A Deep Insight Into CAR-T Cell Therapy in Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: Application, Opportunities, and Future Directions

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) is a cancer that starts in the lymphatic system. In NHL, the important part of the immune system, a type of white blood cells called lymphocytes become cancerous. NHL subtypes include marginal zone lymphoma, small lymphocytic lymphoma, follicular lymphoma (FL), and lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma. The disease can emerge in either aggressive or indolent form. 5-year survival duration after diagnosis is poor among patients with aggressive/relapsing form of NHL. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis involved in NHL establishment and progression. In the next step, we can develop innovative therapies for NHL based on our knowledge in signaling pathways, surface antigens, and tumor milieu of NHL. In the recent few decades, several treatment solutions of NHL mainly based on targeted/directed therapies have been evaluated. These approaches include B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling inhibitors, immunomodulatory agents, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), epigenetic modulators, Bcl-2 inhibitors, checkpoint inhibitors, and T-cell therapy. In recent years, methods based on T cell immunotherapy have been considered as a novel promising anti-cancer strategy in the treatment of various types of cancers, and particularly in blood cancers. These methods could significantly increase the capacity of the immune system to induce durable anti-cancer responses in patients with chemotherapy-resistant lymphoma. One of the promising therapy methods involved in the triumph of immunotherapy is the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells with dramatically improved killing activity against tumor cells. The CAR-T cell-based anti-cancer therapy targeting a pan–B-cell marker, CD19 is recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of chemotherapy-resistant B-cell NHL. In this review, we will discuss the structure, molecular mechanisms, results of clinical trials, and the toxicity of CAR-T cell-based therapies. Also, we will criticize the clinical aspects, the treatment considerations, and the challenges and possible drawbacks of the application of CAR-T cells in the treatment of NHL

Scalable Data Collection for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

In the near future WSNs (wireless sensor networks) which consist of tiny wireless embedded systems will be an inseparable part of our daily lives. Data collection, collecting data from a large number of sources to one or more base stations, is a typical application for WSNs. A substantial number of data collection algorithms have been specifically designed for static scenarios while there are some scenarios in which sensor nodes are attached to intrinsically mobile objects. Generally, in such scenarios delay tolerant networking approaches have been exploited for offline data analysis. However, in-situ dta collection from mobile scenarios has received little attention. We propose Mobile Collect to address the limitations of static data collection protocols in mobile scenarios. For this purpose, Collection Tree Protocol (CTP), a de facto standard for data collection, which is implemented in Contiki-OS (Contiki Collect), has been optimized to avoid loops and to react quickly to topology changes which occur frequently in mobile scenarios. The MAC (Medium Access Control) layer in WSNs has a decisive impact on the overall performance of mobile networks in terms of power consumption, and packet delivery rate. We have evaluated Mobile Collect protocol with a receiver-initiated (A-MAC that we implemented in Contiki-OS) and a sender-initiated (Contiki-MAC) MAC protocol. Compared to the Contiki Collect and the recently proposed DYMO (Dynamic MANET On-demand) protocol, MObile Collect with Contiki-MAC shows a significant improvement in reliability while it has a slight increase in power consumption. A-MAC slightly improves reliability for sparse topologies, but has higher power consumption

Scalable Data Collection for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

In the near future WSNs (wireless sensor networks) which consist of tiny wireless embedded systems will be an inseparable part of our daily lives. Data collection, collecting data from a large number of sources to one or more base stations, is a typical application for WSNs. A substantial number of data collection algorithms have been specifically designed for static scenarios while there are some scenarios in which sensor nodes are attached to intrinsically mobile objects. Generally, in such scenarios delay tolerant networking approaches have been exploited for offline data analysis. However, in-situ dta collection from mobile scenarios has received little attention. We propose Mobile Collect to address the limitations of static data collection protocols in mobile scenarios. For this purpose, Collection Tree Protocol (CTP), a de facto standard for data collection, which is implemented in Contiki-OS (Contiki Collect), has been optimized to avoid loops and to react quickly to topology changes which occur frequently in mobile scenarios. The MAC (Medium Access Control) layer in WSNs has a decisive impact on the overall performance of mobile networks in terms of power consumption, and packet delivery rate. We have evaluated Mobile Collect protocol with a receiver-initiated (A-MAC that we implemented in Contiki-OS) and a sender-initiated (Contiki-MAC) MAC protocol. Compared to the Contiki Collect and the recently proposed DYMO (Dynamic MANET On-demand) protocol, MObile Collect with Contiki-MAC shows a significant improvement in reliability while it has a slight increase in power consumption. A-MAC slightly improves reliability for sparse topologies, but has higher power consumption

Comparison of Topical Sucralfate and Silver Sulfadiazine Cream in Second Degree Burns in Rats

Background. The most prevalent topical treatment for partial thickness burns is silver sulfadiazine 1% (SSD). Recent studies have shown that the healing of partial thickness burns is delayed with the use of SSD. One of the potential burn dressings is sucralfate. Objectives. With this study the authors have aimed to analyze comparatively the effects of sucralfate and SSD on second degree burn wounds in rats. Material and Methods. Forty-eight male rats were divided into three equal groups. A burn model was constituted on the back of all rats. The burned areas in the first, second and third groups were covered daily with sucralfate, SSD and cold cream (control), respectively. At the end of the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th day, the rats were anesthetized and the burned skin tissue samples were collected for histopathological examination. Results. At the end of the study, the epidermis and horny layer was completely formed in the SSD and sucralfate group; however the appendix of skin was just formed in the sucralfate group. Also the percentage of wound healing was calculated at 76%, 91% and 100% respectively in the control, silver sulfadiazine and sucralfate groups. Conclusions. Sucralfate is known to have multiple beneficial effects on wound healing. Using topical sucralfate accelerates the burn wound healing process in comparison with both the control and SSD groups and can be used as an adjunctive or alternative agent in the future (Adv Clin Exp Med 2013, 22, 4, 481–487)