Cluster Computing with Single Thread Space

postprin

Development of Web-Based Real-time Energy Monitoring System for Campus University

This study presents development of real time energy monitoring system installed in Level 17, Tower 2, Engineering Complex, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia. The device and programming uses microcontroller board Arduino, ESP8266 Wi-Fi module, sensors and Emoncms.org web server to record and display the real time power and energy consumption, energy cost, energy index and CO2 emissions. The device allows 3 phase measurement of energy use in the building level where the main power source has been divided into several loads such as lighting, power plug, and Air Conditioning (AC) fan. The device is capable to transmit the data at set time interval using Wi-Fi communication and logging directly to local SD card for further analysis. The device was calibrated using FLUKE 485 power meter concurrently to meet a good reliable result with lower tolerance. The device was installed and tested during testing period including weekdays and weekend to see hourly energy performance in the particular building level. It is found that the device provides reading with average error of 2.04% as compared to commercial meter during one week testing period

Effects of resistance and functional-skills training on habitual activity and constipation among older adults living in long-term care facilities: a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Large-scale RCTs comparing different types of exercise training in institutionalised older people are scarce, especially regarding effects on habitual physical activity and constipation. This study investigated the effects of different training protocols on habitual physical activity and constipation of older adults living in long-term care facilities. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial with 157 participants, aged 64 to 94 years, who were randomly assigned to 1) resistance training; 2) all-round functional-skills training; 3) both; or 4) an 'educational' control condition. Habitual physical activity was assessed with a physical activity questionnaire and accelerometers. Constipation was assessed by a questionnaire. Measurements were performed at baseline and after six months of training. RESULTS: At baseline the median time spent sitting was 8.2 hr/d, the median time spent on activity of at least moderate intensity was 32 min/d. At baseline, about 22% of the subjects were diagnosed with constipation and 23% were taking laxatives. There were no between-group differences for changes in habitual physical activity or constipation over 6-months. CONCLUSION: Six months of moderate intensity exercise training neither enhances habitual physical activity nor affects complaints of constipation among older people living in long-term care facilities

Development of web-based real-time energy monitoring system for Campus University

This study presents development of real time energy monitoring system installed in Level 17, Tower 2, Engineering Complex, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia. The device and programming uses microcontroller board Arduino, ESP8266 Wi-Fi module, sensors and Emoncms.org web server to record and display the real time power and energy consumption, energy cost, energy index and CO2 emissions.The device allows 3 phase measurement of energy use in the building level where the main power source has been divided into several loads such as lighting, power plug, and Air Conditioning (AC) fan.The device is capable to transmit the data at set time interval using Wi-Fi communication and logging directly to local SD card for further analysis.The device was calibrated using FLUKE 485 power meter concurrently to meet a good reliable result with lower tolerance.The device was installed and tested during testing period including weekdays and weekend to see hourly energy performance in the particular building level.It is found that the device provides reading with average error of 2.04% as compared to commercial meter during one week testing period

Shot noise in mesoscopic systems

This is a review of shot noise, the time-dependent fluctuations in the electrical current due to the discreteness of the electron charge, in small conductors. The shot-noise power can be smaller than that of a Poisson process as a result of correlations in the electron transmission imposed by the Pauli principle. This suppression takes on simple universal values in a symmetric double-barrier junction (suppression factor 1/2), a disordered metal (factor 1/3), and a chaotic cavity (factor 1/4). Loss of phase coherence has no effect on this shot-noise suppression, while thermalization of the electrons due to electron-electron scattering increases the shot noise slightly. Sub-Poissonian shot noise has been observed experimentally. So far unobserved phenomena involve the interplay of shot noise with the Aharonov-Bohm effect, Andreev reflection, and the fractional quantum Hall effect.Comment: 37 pages, Latex, 10 figures (eps). To be published in "Mesoscopic Electron Transport," edited by L. P. Kouwenhoven, G. Schoen, and L. L. Sohn, NATO ASI Series E (Kluwer Academic Publishing, Dordrecht

Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) infection in Greece: the changing prevalence during a ten-year period and its antigenic profile

BACKGROUND: To evaluate changes in H pylori infection prevalence in Greece during a ten-year period, and to examine its antigenic profile. METHODS: Three groups of patients were studied. Group O-87: Banked serum samples of 200 consecutive adult outpatients, from the Hepato-Gastroenterology clinic of a teaching hospital at Athens, collected in 1987. Group O-97: Serum samples of 201 similarly selected outpatients from the same Unit, collected in 1997. Group BD-97: Serum samples of 120 consecutive blood donors from the same hospital, collected in 1997. H pylori IgG antibody seroprevalence was studied by a quantitative ELISA. Antigenic profile was studied by western-blot IgG assay, in 62 IgG positive patients of O-97 and BD-97. Results were analyzed by conventional statistics and multivariate regression analysis. RESULTS: The H pylori seroprevalence increased with age in the three tested groups. In O-97, seroprevalence did not differ from that, in BD-97. On the contrary, there was a significant decrease in seropositivity between O-87 and O-97 (59.5% vs 49.2%, p = 0.039). Multiple regression analysis showed that age over 35 years (OR:3.45, 95% CI:1.59–7.49, p = 0.002) and year of patients' selection – that is 1987 or 1997 – (OR:1.73, 95% CI:1.14–2.65 for 1987, p = 0.010), were independent risk factors of H pylori infection. The seroprevalence of CagA+ and VacA+ strains was 77.4% and 58.5%, respectively, and type I(CagA+/VacA+) strains were significantly more common than type II(CagA-/VacA-) strains (59.7% vs 22.6%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: During a ten-year period, we found a significant decrease of H pylori infection in Greece and our data support the birth cohort phenomenon as an explanation for the age-dependent increase of H pylori infection. The prevalence of CagA and/or VacA positive strains is relatively high, in a country with low incidence of gastric cancer

Serial analysis of circulating tumor cells in metastatic breast cancer receiving first-line chemotherapy

Background: We examined the prognostic significance of circulating tumor cell (CTC) dynamics during treatment in metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients receiving first-line chemotherapy. Methods: Serial CTC data from 469 patients (2,202 samples) were used to build a novel latent mixture model to identify groups with similar CTC trajectory (tCTC) patterns during the course of treatment. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios for progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in groups based on baseline CTCs (bCTC), combined CTC status at baseline to the end of cycle 1 (cCTC), and tCTC. Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) was used to select the model that best predicted PFS and OS. Results: Latent mixture modeling revealed 4 distinct tCTC patterns: undetectable CTCs (tCTCneg, 56.9% ), low (tCTClo, 23.7%), intermediate (tCTCmid, 14.5%), or high (tCTChi, 4.9%). Patients with tCTClo, tCTCmid and tCTChi patterns had statistically significant inferior PFS and OS compared to those with tCTCneg (P&lt;.001). AIC indicated that the tCTC model best predicted PFS and OS when compared to bCTC and cCTC models. Validation studies in an independent cohort of 1,856 MBC patients confirmed these findings. Further validation using only a single pretreatment CTC measurement confirmed prognostic performance of the tCTC model. Conclusions: We identified four novel prognostic groups in MBC based on similarities in CTC trajectory patterns during chemotherapy. Prognostic groups included patients with very poor outcome (tCTCmid+tCTChi, 19.4%) who could benefit from more effective treatment. Our novel prognostic classification approach may be utilized for fine-tuning of CTC-based risk-stratification strategies to guide future prospective clinical trials in MBC

A new computational solution to compute the uptake index from 99mTc-MDP bone scintigraphy images

The appearance of bone metastasis in patients with breast or prostate cancer makes the skeleton most affected by metastatic cancer. It is estimated that these two cancers lead in 80% of the cases to the appearance of bone metastasis, which is considered the main cause of death. 99mTc-methylene diphosphonate (99mTc-MDP) bone scintigraphy is the most commonly used radionuclide imaging technique for the detection and prognosis of bone carcinoma. With this work, it was intended to develop a new computational solution to extract from 99mTc-MDP bone scintigraphy images quantitative measurements of the affected regions in relation to the non-pathological regions. Hence, the uptake indexes computed from a new imaging exam are compared with the indexes computed from a previous exam of the same patient. Using active shape models, it is possible to segment the regions of the skeleton more prone to be affected by the bone carcinoma. On the other hand, the metastasis is segmented using the region-growing algorithm. Then, the uptake rate is calculated from the relation between the maximum intensity pixel of the metastatic region in relation to the maximum intensity pixel of the skeletal region where the metastasis was located. We evaluated the developed solution using scintigraphic images of 15 patients (7 females and 8 males) with bone carcinoma in two distinct time exams. The bone scans were obtained approximately 3 h after the injection of 740 MBq of 99mTc-MDP. The obtained indexes were compared against the evaluations in the clinical reports of the patients. It was possible to verify that the indexes obtained are according to the clinical evaluations of the 30 exams analyzed. However, there were 2 cases where the clinical evaluation was unclear as to the progression or regression of the disease, and when comparing the indexes, it is suggested the progression of the disease in one case and the regression in the other one. Based on the obtained results, it is possible to conclude that the computed indexes allow a quantitative analysis to evaluate the response to the prescribed therapy. Thus, the developed solution is promising to be used as a tool to help the technicians at the time of clinical evaluation

Stress Leads to Contrasting Effects on the Levels of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor in the Hippocampus and Amygdala

Recent findings on stress induced structural plasticity in rodents have identified important differences between the hippocampus and amygdala. The same chronic immobilization stress (CIS, 2h/day) causes growth of dendrites and spines in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), but dendritic atrophy in hippocampal area CA3. CIS induced morphological changes also differ in their temporal longevity- BLA hypertrophy, unlike CA3 atrophy, persists even after 21 days of stress-free recovery. Furthermore, a single session of acute immobilization stress (AIS, 2h) leads to a significant increase in spine density 10 days, but not 1 day, later in the BLA. However, little is known about the molecular correlates of the differential effects of chronic and acute stress. Because BDNF is known to be a key regulator of dendritic architecture and spines, we investigated if the levels of BDNF expression reflect the divergent effects of stress on the hippocampus and amygdala. CIS reduces BDNF in area CA3, while it increases it in the BLA of male Wistar rats. CIS-induced increase in BDNF expression lasts for at least 21 days after the end of CIS in the BLA. But CIS-induced decrease in area CA3 BDNF levels, reverses to normal levels within the same period. Finally, BDNF is up regulated in the BLA 1 day after AIS and this increase persists even 10 days later. In contrast, AIS fails to elicit any significant change in area CA3 at either time points. Together, these findings demonstrate that both acute and chronic stress trigger opposite effects on BDNF levels in the BLA versus area CA3, and these divergent changes also follow distinct temporal profiles. These results point to a role for BDNF in stress-induced structural plasticity across both hippocampus and amygdala, two brain areas that have also been implicated in the cognitive and affective symptoms of stress-related psychiatric disorders