Energy efficient radio tomographic imaging

pre-printIn this paper, our goal is to develop approaches to reduce the energy consumption in Radio Tomographic Imaging (RTI)-based methods for device free localization without giving up localization accuracy. Our key idea is to only measure those links that are near the current location of the moving object being tracked. We propose two approaches to find the most effective links near the tracked object. In our first approach, we only consider links that are in an ellipse around the current velocity vector of the moving object. In our second approach, we only consider links that cross through a circle with radius r from the current position of the moving object. Thus, rather than creating an attenuation image of the whole area in RTI, we only create the attenuation image for effective links in a small area close to the current location of the moving object. We also develop an adaptive algorithm for determining r. We evaluate the proposed approaches in terms of energy consumption and localization error in three different test areas. Our experimental results show that using our approach, we are able to save 50% to 80% of energy. Interestingly, we find that our radius-based approach actually increases the accuracy of localization

Reduction of left ventricular ejection fraction after 12-month follow-up in hemodialysis patients.

INTRODUCTION Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in hemodialysis patients. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to detect echocardiographic abnormality in the beginning and after 12-month follow-up in the hemodialysis patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS In a cross-sectional study, 60 hemodialysis patients older than 18 years and the dialysis duration longer than three months were enrolled. At the beginning of the study, echocardiography was done and after 12 months was repeated in all of the patients by the same cardiologist. At the end of the study, data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 19). RESULTS From the total of cases 37 were male and 23 female. At the beginning of the study, mitral regurgitation, tricuspid regurgitation and aortic insufficiency were found in 54, 47 and 11 patients respectively. After 12 months left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) decreased significantly, however there was no significant difference between other echocardiographic findings at the beginning and after 12 months. CONCLUSION Decrease in LVEF over time in hemodialysis patients may be due to negative effect of uremia on cardiac function, so it seems that periodical cardiac evaluation of these patients is essential and beneficial

Reversing conditional orderings

We analyze some specific aspects concerning conditional orderings and relations among them. To this purpose we define a suitable concept of reversed conditional ordering and prove some related results. In particular we aim to compare the univariate stochastic orderings ≤ st, ≤ hr, and ≤ lr in terms of differences among different notions of conditional orderings. Some applications of our result to the analysis of positive dependence will be detailed. We concentrate attention to the case of a pair of scalar random variables X, Y ​. Suitable extensions to multivariate cases are possible

Meta-Analysis of Biofilm Formation, Antibiotic Resistance Pattern, and Biofilm-Related Genes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated from Clinical Samples

Resistant microorganisms such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa grow by developing biofilms in hospitals. We aimed to investigate the biofilm formation and the frequencies of biofilm-related genes and their associations with antibiotic resistance pattern in P. aeruginosa isolated from Iranians' clinical samples. This review was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We conducted a systematic literature search in scientific databases using medical subject heading terms, including "Pseudomonas aeruginosa,""biofilm formation,""biofilm-related genes,""antibiotic resistance,"and "prevalence,"to obtain related articles published from 1st January, 2000, to 30th March, 2019. The studies reporting the prevalence of biofilm formation, the frequencies of biofilm-related genes, and the antibiotic resistance pattern in P. aeruginosa retrieved from Iranian patients were included. Meta-analysis was performed using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software. The pooled rate of biofilm formation was calculated as 86.5 (95 confidence interval CI: 79-91.6). The combined frequencies of strong, moderate, and weak biofilms were 51% (95% CI: 37.4-64.4), 29.2% (95% CI: 20.9-39.1), and 25.4% (95% CI: 11.5-47.2), respectively. The pooled prevalence of laslR, algD, algU, ppyR, and pelF genes were 93.6% (95% CI: 88.1-96.6), 91.4% (95% CI: 80.8-96.4), 89.3% (95% CI: 85.2-92.3), 98.7% (95% CI: 96.5-99.6), and 93% (95% CI: 82.7-97.3), respectively. The highest combined antibiotic resistance rates of P. aeruginosa isolates were against piperacillin/tazobactam (90%). This study showed that biofilm formation was higher in multidrug-resistant (MDR) P. aeruginosa than non-MDRs. A significant correlation was observed between biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance in 50% of studies included in this review. © Copyright 2020, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2020

Epinecidin-1, a highly potent marine antimicrobial peptide with anticancer and immunomodulatory activities

Background: Antibiotic-resistant pathogens are an emerging threat in this century. Epinecidin-1 is a multi-functional Antimicrobial Peptide (AMP) produced by Orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides) has been shown to have extensive potentials as an alternative for current antibiotics. Due to the huge costs for the study and the production of a new drug, if an antimicrobial peptide has other beneficial functions in addition to antimicrobial activities, it would be preferred. Methods: In this study, properties and applications of Epinecidin-1 were investigated and addressed comprehensively. To achieve this, the Google Scholar search engine and three databases of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were used. Results: Epinecidin-1 is a cationic AMP with an alpha-helical structure. Seven functional usages of this peptide have been reported in the literature including antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antiprotozoal, anticancer, immunomodulatory, and wound healing properties. Moreover, this peptide has high potential to be used as an active ingredient in cleaning solutions as well as application in vaccine production. Conclusion: Due to significant antimicrobial activities tested on bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Helicobacter pylori and also wound healing properties, Epi-1 has high potential to be considered as an important candidate for the production of new drugs and treatment of various infections including diabetic foot ulcer and peptic ulcer. Moreover, adjuvant-like properties of Epi-1 make it a suitable candidate for the studies related to an adjuvant. Other attractive properties such as anticancer effects have also been reported for this peptide which encourages further studies on this peptide. © 2019 The Author(s)

Mutations of rpob Gene Associated with Rifampin Resistance among Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Isolated in Tuberculosis Regional Reference Laboratory in Northeast of Iran during 2015-2016

Background: Drug resistance is a leading concern in control of TB. Resistance against rifampin as one of the most important drugs in the treatment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is caused by mutations in the 81-base pair region of the rpoB gene encoding the β-subunit of RNA polymerase. This study aimed to characterize the mutations in the rpoB gene associated with rifampin resistance among M. tuberculosis. Methods: This study was conducted on referred samples of patients who did not respond to anti-TB treatment, in Tuberculosis Regional Reference Laboratory at Shariati Hospital. Drug susceptibility of M. tuberculosis isolates was surveyed using a proportional method on LJ medium. The isolates with resistant to rifampin were reconfirmed and then the rpoB gene was amplified and sequenced. Results: Among 27 resistant cases, 8, 11 and 8 people were from Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan, respectively. In 26 out of 27 isolates, rpoB gene mutations were observed. The most prevalent mutations belonged to the codon 53. The most prevalent mutations belonged to the TCG (Ser) 531TTG (leu) with prevalence 51.8 (n=14), and GAC (Asp)516TAC (Tyr), CAC (His) 526GAC (Asp) and CAC (His) 526TAC(Tyr) mutations with prevalence 14.8(n=4). Twenty-three isolates had just one mutation. Conclusion: The use of rpoB gene sequencing led to the lack of the need for growth of the organism in the culture medium, the direct use of clinical samples, reduction of biological risks and a detection about 96.3 of MDR TB cases lowering the cost of the treatment

Estimation of inbreeding coefficient in Rusa Deer (Cervus timorensis) using microsatellite loci in Malaysia.

To estimate inbreeding coefficient in a small and closed population of Rusa deer (Cervus timorensis) in Malaysia, 38 individual mares were typed from blood samples at thirty nine sets of primer pairs for bovine and reindeer microsatellite loci. The mean number of alleles was 6.77±4.49 per polymorphic loci. The gene diversity over all individuals and loci was 0.52. Departure from Hardy-Weinberg proportions was tested only for two loci (BMS789, BM121). The mean heterozygosity was 0.51±0.30. The associated estimates of FIS was 0.04 ranging between −0.79 and 0.61. The FIS estimate, as well as the mean intraindividual kinship values, was quite low, indicating that the studied population does not suffer from ill effects of inbreeding

Meta models for real-time design assessment within an integrated information and numerical modelling framework

In situations where rapid decisions are required or a large number of design alternatives is to be explored, numerical predictions of construction pro-cesses have to be performed in near real-time. For the design assessment of com-plex engineering problems such as mechanised tunnelling, simple numerical and analytical models are not able to reproduce all complex 3D interactions. To over-come this problem, in this paper a novel concept for on-demand design assess-ment for mechanized tunnelling using simulation-based meta models is proposed. This concept includes: i) the generation of enhanced simulation-based meta mod-els; ii) real-time meta model-based design assessment in the design tool, and; iii) the implementation within a unified numerical and information modelling plat-form called SATBIM. The capabilities of this concept are demonstrated through an example for the evaluation of tunnel alignment design and the assessment of the impact of tunnelling on existing infrastructure. Moreover, meta models are used for fast forward calculation in sensitivity analyses for the evaluation of the importance of model parameters. The concept proved its efficiency by assessing the design alternatives in real-time with the prediction error of less than 3% com-pared to complex numerical simulation in presented example

The Pseudomonas aeruginosa Transcriptional Landscape Is Shaped by Environmental Heterogeneity and Genetic Variation

Phenotypic variability among bacteria depends on gene expression in response to different environments, and it also reflects differences in genomic structure. In this study, we analyzed transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) profiles of 151 Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates under standard laboratory conditions and of one P. aeruginosa type strain under 14 different environmental conditions. Our approach allowed dissection of the impact of the genetic background versus environmental cues on P. aeruginosa gene expression profiles and revealed that phenotypic variation was larger in response to changing environments than between genomically different isolates. We demonstrate that mutations within the global regulator LasR affect more than one trait (pleiotropy) and that the interaction between mutations (epistasis) shapes the P. aeruginosa phenotypic plasticity landscape. Because of pleiotropic and epistatic effects, average genotype and phenotype measures appeared to be uncorrelated in P. aeruginosa