Low-cost natural interface based on head movements

Sometimes people look for freedom in the virtual world. However, not all have the possibility to interact with a computer in the same way. Nowadays, almost every job requires interaction with computerized systems, so people with physical impairments do not have the same freedom to control a mouse, a keyboard or a touchscreen. In the last years, some of the government programs to help people with reduced mobility suffered a lot with the global economic crisis and some of those programs were even cut down to reduce costs. This paper focuses on the development of a touchless human-computer interface, which allows anyone to control a computer without using a keyboard, mouse or touchscreen. By reusing Microsoft Kinect sensors from old videogames consoles, a cost-reduced, easy to use, and open-source interface was developed, allowing control of a computer using only the head, eyes or mouth movements, with the possibility of complementary sound commands. There are already available similar commercial solutions, but they are so expensive that their price tends to be a real obstacle in their purchase; on the other hand, free solutions usually do not offer the freedom that people with reduced mobility need. The present solution tries to address these drawbacks. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V

Полиморфизм вставки/делеции гена АПФ связан с глиобластомой у населения Ирана: исследование случай-контроль

Background. The insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene has recently been reported to be associated with the pathogenesis and development of human cancers.This study aimed to assess the potential association between ACE (I/D) polymorphism and glioblastoma in an Iranian population.Material and Methods. This case-control study was conducted on 80 patients with glioblastoma and 80 healthy blood donors as controls. Gap-polymerase chain reaction (Gap-PCR) was used to determine the ACE (I/D) genotypes. PCR products were separated and measured by electrophoresis on a 2 % agarose gel.Results. Analysis of demographic data showed a significant difference in the family history of cancer between the case and control groups (p=0.03). The distribution of ACE gene variants including II, ID, and DD genotypes was also calculated, and significant differences were seen in the DD genotype (p=0.03) and D allele (p=0.04) between the glioblastoma cases and controls.Conclusion. ACE gene polymorphism was associated with glioblastoma in the study population. Further studies are needed to approve this finding.Актуальность. Недавно сообщалось, что инсерционно-делеционный (I/D) полиморфизм гена ангиотензин-превращающего фермента (АПФ) связан с патогенезом и развитием рака человека.Целью исследования была оценка потенциальной связи между I/D полиморфизмом гена АПФ и глиобластомой у населения Ирана.Материал и методы. В исследовании случай-контроль участвовали 80 пациентов с глиобластомой и 80 здоровых доноров в качестве группы контроля. Полимеразная цепная реакция (Gap-PCR) использовалась для определения генотипов I/D полиморфизма гена AПФ. ПЦР-продукты разделяли и измеряли электрофорезом в 2 % агарозном геле.Результаты. Анализ демографических данных показал значительную разницу в семейной истории рака между основной и контрольной группами (p=0,03). Было рассчитано распределение вариантов гена АПФ, включая генотипы II, ID и DD, и были обнаружены значительные различия в генотипе DD (p=0,03) и аллеле D (p=0,04) между группой больных с глиобластомой и контрольной группой.Заключение. Полиморфизм гена AПФ был связан с глиобластомой в исследуемой популяции. Необходимы дальнейшие исследования, чтобы подтвердить эти данные

Ductile Fracture of Magnesium Alloys: Characterization and Modeling

Magnesium alloys are prime potential candidates for lightweight structural applications because of their superior specific stiffness and strength. However, their effective insertion in transportation vehicles hinges on improving their ductility and developing cost-effective forming technologies. Here, the processes of damage initiation and accumulation to fracture are investigated at ambient temperature, experimentally and theoretically, in two Mg alloys, AZ31 and WE43. Material AZ31 exhibits strong basal texture whereas WE43 has a weak non-basal texture with quasiisotropic properties. The microstructural characterization is carried out on the initial materials aiming at determining the texture, the grain size/shape distribution as well as the chemical composition, volume fraction, shape and spatial arrangement of second-phase particles. The macroscopic plastic flow anisotropy is characterized using round tensile bars and compression pins along three principal and three off-axes orientations. Semi-continuous measurement of diameter contraction in two orthogonal directions enabled the monitoring of relative volume change and strain-ratio evolution. The data is used to model the plastic anisotropy of the materials using models from the literature. A significant increase in volume is measured during plastic deformation. Macroscopic fracture loci, along two principal and one off-axis directions, are obtained for each material using round notched bars of varying notch acuity so as to study the effect of stress triaxiality and directionality on flow and fracture. It was found that notched AZ31 bars exhibit higher failure strain than uniaxial specimens. Second phase particles and deformation twins are identified as critical sites for damage initiation. Experiments also indicate that WE43 and AZ31 display significantly different sensitivities to stress triaxiality. Substantial drop in the failure strains of WE43 with increasing triaxiality is attributed to intergranular fracture. Image analysis is performed on specimens deformed to incipient and complete fracture to infer the distribution properties of voids and particles. A micromechanics-based continuum damage model is used to rationalize the main experimental trends and explore conflicting hypotheses. The model has two components: (i) a shape-dependent void growth; and (ii) a shape-dependent void/crack coalescence part. The results provide the groundwork for understanding the effects of microstructural and loading variables on damage and fracture in magnesium alloys

Modeling investigation of gas hydrate decomposition: thermodynamic approach and molecular dynamic simulations

In the last few decades, there has been a great interest in the hydrate reservoirs for energy storage and source purposes. It has been proven that hydrates can contribute to ocean carbon cycling, global climate change, and coastal sediment stability. The permafrost and offshore environments contain enormous quantities of methane in the form of gas hydrates. In addition, the natural gas has been recently produced worldwide including in Alaska, Siberia, Japan, and North West Territories of Canada. However, the gas hydrates formation may lead to various forms of blockages in oil/gas production and transportation processes, resulting in high capital and operating costs. Detailed experimental and modeling investigations of hydrate formation and decomposition can assist to better understand the mechanisms involved in gas production from hydrates. Thus, it is important to determine the equilibrium hydrate-forming conditions so that a systematic parametric sensitivity analysis is conducted to identify the vital process and thermodynamic parameters affecting this occurrence. This project focuses on the hydrate formation/dissociation conditions where equations of state and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations are used. Giving further information, this study provides a reliable model to determine the gas hydrate formation and decomposition conditions of pure, binary, and ternary systems of hydrate gases where the van der Waals Platteuw model is utilized by combining with extended UNIQUAC model and PC-SAFT equation of state. In addition, MD simulations are conducted to investigate the microscopic mechanisms/phenomena and intermolecular forces involved in gas (pure and mixture) hydrate decomposition, where the molecular interactions, structures, and behaviours of hydrate systems need to be appropriately explored. Through a systematic design of simulation runs, the impacts of temperature, pressure, cage occupancy, and inhibitors on the hydrate dissociation are studied. Furthermore, the diffusion coefficient, density, and heat capacity of gas hydrates with different structures and compositions of methane, carbon dioxide, propane, and isobutane are determined through employing MD strategy. A very good agreement is noticed between the modeling results and the experimental data so that the value of AADT% for PC-SAFT equation of state is lower, compared to the previous EOS/thermodynamic models. The binary interaction parameters for different binary components are investigated by using experimental hydrate data, leading to better outcome compared with results obtained through fitting the VLE data. The trend of the heat capacity and density of methane hydrate obtained from the MD simulations shows a good match with the real data. The hydrate decomposition is not achieved at the equilibrium temperature at 100% cage occupancy; however, the decomposition of the methane hydrate lattice is observed when the cage occupancy reduces from 100% to 87.5% or 75% because of low stability and high diffusion coefficient of the methane molecules at low cage occupancies where the temperature and pressure are constant. The lattice parameter for the methane/water and methane/isobutane systems is calculated at a variety of pressures and temperatures. A good agreement between the experimental data and simulation results is noticed. The relative importance of inhibitors in terms of gas hydrate decomposition duration is assessed. Based on this criterion, the inhibitors are ordered as follows: methanol > ethanol >glycerol. The physical properties such as density and lattice parameter for different compositions of methane + carbon dioxide are obtained which are in agreement with those determined by experimental and theoretical techniques. According to the MD results, the structure with methane (25%) + carbon dioxide (75%) composition is almost stable under 300 K at 5 MPa; it means the best configuration to have a stable structure is when carbon dioxide and methane molecules are in large and small cavities, respectively. MD technique is used to investigate the bubble formation and evolution of carbon dioxide and methane after dissociation. Analysing the outcome of the present and previous works, the current study provides new reliable/useful information and data on the thermodynamic behaviours and molecular level of the hydrate dissociation process. It is expected that such a research investigation offers effective tips/guidelines to deal with hydrate formation and dissociation in terms of utilization, prevention, and processing

A study on detection and examination of sustainable architecture effects on decrease in fuel consumption and environmental pollutants

ABSTRACT Nowadays, decrease in fossil resources and increase in pollutions arisen from use of these resources have caused the researchers at different areas strive to develop a variety of solutions to resolve such problems. The industries related to construction sector such as cement and steel factories more likely contribute to increase of such pollutions. On the other hand, using modern construction methods such as sustainable architecture to achieve a healthier environment, reduce environmental pollutants and decrease fuel consumption, the architects strive to help for creating a sustainable environment and green building in use of materials and type of design methods. In the present research, sustainable architecture effects and green architecture elements in reduction of environmental pollutants and fuel consumption have been examined using library sources and descriptive-analytical research method; then operating instructions for sustainable buildings are proposed by means of detection of different elements of sustainable architecture and different methods for use of green architecture

Focus on the Role of D-serine and D-amino Acid Oxidase in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/Motor Neuron Disease (ALS)

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus has been circulating in Vietnam since 2003, while outbreaks of HPAI H5N6 virus are more recent, having only been reported since 2014. Although the spatial distribution of H5N1 outbreaks and risk factors for virus occurrence have been extensively studied, there have been no comparative studies for H5N6. Data collected through active surveillance of Vietnamese live-bird markets (LBMs) between 2011 and 2015 were used to explore and compare the spatio-temporal distributions of H5N1- and H5N6-positive LBMs. Conditional autoregressive models were developed to quantify spatio-temporal associations between agro-ecological factors and the two HPAI strains using the same set of predictor variables. Unlike H5N1, which exhibited a strong north-south divide, with repeated occurrence in the extreme south of a cluster of high-risk provinces, H5N6 was homogeneously distributed throughout Vietnam. Similarly, different agro-ecological factors were associated with each strain. Sample collection in the months of January and February and higher average maximum temperature were associated with higher likelihood of H5N1 positive market-day status. The likelihood of market-days being positive for H5N6 increased with decreased river density, and with successive Rounds of data collection. This study highlights marked differences in spatial patterns and risk factors for H5N1 and H5N6 in Vietnam, suggesting the need for tailored surveillance and control approaches

Metformin Treatment Has No Beneficial Effect in a Dose-Response Survival Study in the SOD1G93A Mouse Model of ALS and Is Harmful in Female Mice

Background: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurological disorder characterized by selective degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons. The primary triggers for motor neuron degeneration are unknown but inflammation, oxidative stress and mitochondrial defects have been identified as potential contributing factors. Metformin is an anti-type II diabetes drug that has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties, can bring about mitochondrial biogenesis and has been shown to attenuate pathology in mouse models of Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis. We therefore hypothesized that it might increase survival in the SOD1G93A murine model of ALS. Methodology/Principal Findings: Treatment of male and female SOD1G93A mice (n = $6 per sex) with 2 mg/ml metformin in the drinking water from 35 days, resulted in a significant increase in motor unit survival, as measured by in vivo electrophysiology at 100 days, in male EDL muscles (24+/22 vs. 14+/22 motor units, p,0.005) and female TA muscles (21+/ 21 vs. 15+/22 motor units, P = 0.0134). We therefore continued to test the effect of 0.5, 2 and 5 mg/ml metformin in the drinking water from 35 days on disease onset and progression (identified by twice weekly determination of weight and neurological score) as well as survival in male and female SOD1G93A mice (n =$14 per sex). Results for all groups were compared using Kaplan-Meier time to event analyses. In this survival study, metformin was unable to reduce pathology at any dose and had an unexpected dose-dependent negative effect on the onset of neurological symptoms (P = 0.0236) and on disease progression (P = 0.0362) in female mice. Conclusions/Significance: This study suggests that metformin is a poor candidate for clinical trial in ALS patients and that the possibility of harmful effects of metformin in female ALS patients with type II diabetes should be investigated

Optimization of the detection of microbes in blood from immunocompromised patients with haematological malignancies

AbstractThe present study aimed to improve the rate of detection of blood-borne microbes by using PCRs with pan-bacterial and Candida specificity. Seventeen per cent of the blood samples (n = 178) collected from 107 febrile patients with haematological malignancies were positive using standard culture (BacT/Alert system). Candida PCR was positive in 12 patients, only one of whom scored culture-positive. Bacterial PCR using fresh blood samples was often negative, but the detection rate increased when the blood was pre-incubated for 2 days. These data indicate that PCR assays might be a complement for the detection of blood-borne opportunists in immunocompromised haematology patients