Remarks on Characterizations of Malinowska and Szynal

The problem of characterizing a distribution is an important problem which has recently attracted the attention of many researchers. Thus, various characterizations have been established in many different directions. An investigator will be vitally interested to know if their model fits the requirements of a particular distribution. To this end, one will depend on the characterizations of this distribution which provide conditions under which the underlying distribution is indeed that particular distribution. In this work, several characterizations of Malinowska and Szynal (2008) for certain general classes of distributions are revisited and simpler proofs of them are presented. These characterizations are not based on conditional expectation of the kth lower record values (as in Malinowska and Szynal), they are based on: (i) simple truncated moments of the random variable, (ii) hazard function

Comparison of Fennel and Chamomile extract and placebo in treatment of premenstrual syndrome and dysmenorrheal

Introduction: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and dysmenorrheal are experienced by majority of women in reproductive age and in 1% of the women it is severe enough to interfere with social interaction and work performance. Many investigations on treatment of this problem, in particular on treatment with chemical drugs, have been carried out. The aim in this study is to find whether or not herbaceous drugs such as Fennel and Chamomile, which are generally used in traditional medicine, are effective in treatment of dysmenorrheal and PMS. Methods: In this clinical trial study, 60 women over 16 years of age with a convincing history of premenstrual syndrome were randomly selected and their PMS and dysmenorrheal experiences were investigated in 5 menstruation cycles. During the 1st cycle, they didn’t take any medication, during the 2nd and 3rd cycles they took Fennel extract and during 4th and 5th cycles, they took Chamomile extract. After each cycle they completed a questionnaire containing 16 PMS symptoms. Friedman statistical test was used to compare the results from different cycles. P<0.05 was considered significant. Results: Based on the results, there was a significant difference between severity of symptoms in the control cycle, and other cycles in 3 of the 16 PMS symptoms (p<0.05). These three symptoms were pelvic and abdominal pains, fatigue and lethargy, depression and anger. As for other symptoms, the severity in the Fennel and Chamomile herbal drugs cycles was less than that of the control cycle, but this difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: According to this study, Fennel and Chamomile are effective in reducing some PMS disorders. Fennel is more effective in pelvic and abdominal pain and depression but Chamomile is more effective in fatigue and letharg

Micropiled-Raft Foundations for High-Rise Buildings on Soft Soils — A Case Study: Kerman, Iran

For the structures supported on soft soils, piled raft foundations have been shown to be more economical than conventional piled foundations. In piled raft foundations, the bearing capacity of the underlying soil is taken into account to support the superstructure loads and the piles are placed such that they increase the bearing capacity of the raft and control both the total and differential settlements of the superstructure. In the city of Kerman, Iran, the predominance of soft soils had historically hampered the construction of high-rise buildings across the city. Recently, an eighteen-story reinforced concrete building was constructed on a micropiled-raft foundation which was placed on a 30 m-thick layer of soft saturated calcareous silty soil. Conventional laboratory and plate loading test results on the foundation soil indicated that a raft foundation would have adequate bearing capacity, but would experience excessive settlements. As a remedial solution, a micropiled-raft foundation system was considered as a design option for the foundation of the structure. A prototype micropile was designed and installed based on the FHWA (2000) guidelines and tested at the site. The test results were used to design the micropiled raft foundation using a finite element program. The results of the analysis showed that micropiled-raft foundations can provide a cost-effective engineering solution for high-rise buildings constructed on soft soils. The results of this study were successfully employed to construct additional high-rise buildings in the city

Polar Kerr Effect in Multiband Spin-Orbit Coupled Superconductors

We undertake a theoretical analysis to probe the Kerr spectrum within the superconducting phase of strontium ruthenate, where the Kerr rotation experiments demonstrate the existence of a superconducting state with broken time reversal symmetry. We find that spin-orbit coupling changes the hybridization along the Fermi surface's diagonal zone mainly affects Hall transport. We show that the dominant Hall response arises mainly from the quasi-1D orbitals $d_{yz}$ and $d_{xz}$, linked to their hybridization, while other contributions are negligible. This establishes that, the breaking of time reversal symmetry of quasi-1D orbitals can account for the existence of the Kerr angle, irrespective of the order symmetry specific to the $d_{xy}$ orbital. Moreover, the optical Hall conductivity and Kerr angle estimated for the hypothesised superconducting orders also closely match the experimental findings, providing important novel insight on the role of the spin-orbit coupling, hybridization, and emergent order.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

A Hierarchal Planning Framework for AUV Mission Management in a Spatio-Temporal Varying Ocean

The purpose of this paper is to provide a hierarchical dynamic mission planning framework for a single autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to accomplish task-assign process in a limited time interval while operating in an uncertain undersea environment, where spatio-temporal variability of the operating field is taken into account. To this end, a high level reactive mission planner and a low level motion planning system are constructed. The high level system is responsible for task priority assignment and guiding the vehicle toward a target of interest considering on-time termination of the mission. The lower layer is in charge of generating optimal trajectories based on sequence of tasks and dynamicity of operating terrain. The mission planner is able to reactively re-arrange the tasks based on mission/terrain updates while the low level planner is capable of coping unexpected changes of the terrain by correcting the old path and re-generating a new trajectory. As a result, the vehicle is able to undertake the maximum number of tasks with certain degree of maneuverability having situational awareness of the operating field. The computational engine of the mentioned framework is based on the biogeography based optimization (BBO) algorithm that is capable of providing efficient solutions. To evaluate the performance of the proposed framework, firstly, a realistic model of undersea environment is provided based on realistic map data, and then several scenarios, treated as real experiments, are designed through the simulation study. Additionally, to show the robustness and reliability of the framework, Monte-Carlo simulation is carried out and statistical analysis is performed. The results of simulations indicate the significant potential of the two-level hierarchical mission planning system in mission success and its applicability for real-time implementation

Adequacy of Direct Digital Radiography (DDR) Compared to Conventional Radiography in Detection of Mechanically Created Bone Lesions.

Background and Aim: Early diagnosis of bone pathologic lesions is of paramount importance in enabling the clinician to provide immediate and appropriate dental treatment. Conventional radiographs have always been used as the primary and fundamental means of diagnosis, treatment and follow up of endodontic lesions. In recent years, digital imaging has gained high popularity for diagnostic purposes. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of digital radiographic imaging compared to conventional radiography in detecting mechanically created jaw bone lesions. Materials and Methods : This experimental study was conducted on the lower jaw of a cow cadaver. Mechanical lesions with different depths (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4,5mm)were drilled into the jaw with a surgical bur (021). A digital radiograph followed by a conventional image with E-speed film were obtained and the images were evaluated by five examiners. Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks test was used for statistical analysis. Results: According to the results of this study, examiners were more successful in detecting lesions with DDR than with conventional radiography.The mean value and standard deviation of detection score were 1/25 ± 0/98 for conventional and 1/85 ± 0/53 for digital methods. This difference was statistically significant. (P< 0.001) Conclusion : The adequacy of digital radiography in detection of bone lesions is much higher than conventional radiography. Digital images are recommended for diagnostic purposes