Safety Risk Investigation of Horizontal Directional Drilling Projects

Traditional underground utility construction and rehabilitation methods entail cutting open the ground which not only disrupts traffic causing delays and inconvenience, but also damages surface-based vegetation in some areas. Additionally, underground infrastructure density has been growing thereby making it more challenging to employ the traditional open-cut construction method. A sustainable alternative is the use of trenchless construction methods where underground infrastructure is installed or repaired with minimal surface disruption. Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is one of the popular trenchless methods for installing buried utility pipelines. Risk dimensionality and severity is generally greater in the case of HDD projects because of the fact that only limited soil and other sub-surface sampling will be done to choose the right type equipment, labor, materials, and drilling plan. Some of these risks have led to accidents on HDD projects in the past that not only damaged the equipment and other infrastructures, but also injured workers which proved fatal in some cases. In order to minimize the safety risk in HDD projects, there is an outstanding need for the investigation of hazards, factors and project characteristics that propel the probability of occurrence of accidents. This thesis report presents the development and demonstration of the hierarchical safety risk assessment framework for investigating the safety risk, especially the probabilities of occurrence of various hazards, of HDD projects. The developed “Hierarchical Risk Assessment” framework is demonstrated using two real-world HDD projects. The safety risk analysis performed on the two case studies highlighted the factors and project characteristics that aggravate the hazards and their probabilities of occurrence. The proposed approach for investigating safety risk on HDD projects needs to be further investigated and extensively evaluated on more real-world case studies before it can be developed into an adoptable tool for practice

Automatic PCB Inspection Systems

There are more than 50 process steps required to fabricate a printed circuit board (PCB). To ensure quality, human operators simply inspect the work visually against prescribed standards. The decisions made by this labor intensive, and therefore costly, procedure often also involve subjective judgements. Automatic inspection systems remove the subjective aspects and provide fast, quantitative dimensional assessments. Machine vision may answer the manufacturing industry\u27s need to improve product quality and increase productivity. The major limitation of existing inspection systems is that all the algorithms need a special hardware platform to achieve the desired real-time speeds. This makes the systems extremely expensive. Any improvements in speeding up the computation process algorithmically could reduce the cost of these systems drastically. However, they remain a better option than increasingly error prone, and slow manual human inspectio

Effect of hyperglycaemia on the activation and epigenetic programming of primary human macrophages

Hyperglycaemia is the hallmark of diabetes that is related to the development of diabetic vascular complications. Macrophages are key innate immune regulators of inflammation that undergo two major vectors of functional polarisation: classically (M1) and alternatively (M2) activated macrophages. Both M1 and M2 types of macrophages play a role in diabetes. M1 are involved in the establishment and progression of insulin resistance and inflammatory processes leading to vascular complications, whereas M2 can have protective effects in diabetes by reducing inflammation, obesity and insulin resistance. However, the effect of hyperglycaemia on differentiation and functional programming of macrophages is poorly understood. In order to analyse the detrimental effects of high glucose on the differentiation and activation of monocytes and macrophages, we established a new model system based on primary human monocyte-derived macrophages cultured in serum-free conditions in the presence of 5mM and 25mM glucose. The effects of high glucose were examined in control (M0), classically (M1) and alternatively (M2) activated macrophages. Using RT-PCR and ELISA, the expression and release of TNF-alpha and IL-1beta (M1 cytokines) and IL-1Ra and CCL18 (M2 cytokines) were quantified. Hyperglycaemia stimulated the production of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and IL-1Ra during macrophage differentiation. The effect of hyperglycaemia on TNF-alpha was acute, while the stimulating effect on the production IL-1beta and IL-1Ra was continuous during monocyte to macrophage differentiation. Production of CCL18 was suppressed in M2 macrophages by hyperglycaemia. Altogether, analysis of the cytokine release indicated that hyperglycaemia itself, independent of other metabolic factors, can induce a mixed M1/M2 cytokine secretion profile that can support the progression of diabetes and vascular complications. In order to identify differentially expressed genes in M0, M1 and M2 macrophages differentiated in normal and high glucose conditions, an Affymetrix DNA microarray was used. We found that hyperglycaemia-induced differential expression of 1171 genes in M0, 1573 genes in M1 and 16 genes in M2. The major affected groups of differentially expressed genes were: chemokines, cytokines, chemokine receptors, the glycoproteins family, the RNase A family, the S100 calcium binding protein family, the solute carrier family, the transmembrane protein family and the zinc finger family. Hyperglycaemia had a very strong inducing effect on the expression of CCR2, a major receptor for macrophage chemotactic factor CCL2 that mediates recruitment of macrophages in chronic inflammation. The ability of hyperglycaemia to enhance the trans-migratory activity of macrophages was analysed in a trans-well system. Significantly higher amounts of M0 (7.6 times increase) and M1 (11.2 times increase) transmigrated towards CCL2 (100 Summary 95 ng/ml) in hyperglycaemic conditions. In consistency with the strong induction of CCR2 expression, hyperglycaemia also induced migration of M1 macrophages towards CCL2 even when it was used in very low concentrations (up to 1.56 ng/ml). The histone code was demonstrated to be an essential mechanism that controls macrophage differentiation in inflammatory conditions. However, the role of the histone code in the hyperglycaemia-mediated programming of human macrophages remained unknown. The chromatin immunoprecipitation assay (ChIP) was applied to examine the presence of histone marks on the promoters of these genes. Three active histone modifications (acetylation of histone H3(aceH3), H3K4me3 and H3K4me1) and two repressive histone modifications (H3K9me3 and H3K27me3) at the promoters of CCR2 and IL-1beta genes were analysed in primary human macrophages cultured in normal and hyperglycaemic conditions. It was demonstrated that hyperglycaemia caused a statistically significant increase in the level of histone activating marks H3K4me1 and H3K4me3 at the CCR2 promoter and IL-1beta promoters. Hyperglycaemia did not affect repressing histone marks on the CCR2 and IL-1beta gene promoters. Analysis of macrophages isolated from individual donors demonstrated that levels of activating histone marks on CCR2 and IL-1beta promoters corresponded to the level of up-regulation of their gene expression. The cooperation of H3K4me1, H3K4me3 and AcetylH3 was required for efficient stimulation of CCR2 gene expression, while cooperation of H3K4me1 and H3K4me3 was critical for stimulation of IL-1beta gene expression in hyperglycemic conditions. Tri-methylation of H3K4 is mediated by the MLL group of enzymes, and our study, for the first time, suggests that MLL enzymes can be involved in the hyperglycaemia-mediated epigenetic programming of macrophages. In summary, we found that hyperglycaemia-induced expression of CCR2 and IL-1beta on primary human macrophages is linked to epigenetic modifications of CCR2 and IL-1beta promoters by activating the histone code. Elevated levels of CCR2 resulted in a high sensitivity of macrophages to the chemotactic ligand CCL2. Our data suggest that hyperglycaemia can be a primary factor that induces attraction of pro-inflammatory macrophages into the sites of low-grade inflammation that can affect the progression of vascular complications at very early stages

Visual Inspection Algorithms for Printed Circuit Board Patterns A SURVEY

The importance of the inspection process has been magnified by the requirements of the modern manufacturing environment. In electronics mass-production manufacturing facilities, an attempt is often made to achieve 100 % quality assurance of all parts, subassemblies, and finished goods. A variety of approaches for automated visual inspection of printed circuits have been reported over the last two decades. In this survey, algorithms and techniques for the automated inspection of printed circuit boards are examined. A classification tree for these algorithms is presented and the algorithms are grouped according to this classification. This survey concentrates mainly on image analysis and fault detection strategies, these also include the state-of-the-art techniques. Finally, limitations of current inspection systems are summarized

Metastases to Both Parotid Glands Six and Twelve Years after Resection of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Metastases of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) involving the parotid gland are very rare. We present to our knowledge the first case of a 74-year-old woman with metastases of an RCC which affected both parotid glands six and twelve years following curative therapy

Detection of Skin Tumor Boundaries in Color Images

A simple and yet effective method for finding the borders of tumors is presented as an initial step towards the diagnosis of skin tumors from their color images. The method makes use of an adaptive color metric from the red, green, and blue planes that contains information for discriminating the tumor from the background. Using this suitable coordinate transformation, the image is segmented. The tumor portion is then extracted from the segmented image and borders are drawn. Experimental results that verify the effectiveness of this approach are give

TO PROGRESS THE POWER QUALITY IN RAILWAY SYSTEM USING RPFC

Twisting from claiming sinusoidal voltage Also present waveforms created toward sounds will be a standout amongst those significant forces personal satisfaction worries in the electric force business. Static energy converters and other nonlinear loads are the culprits of these distortions. Respectable deliberations need been aggravated to later A long time will enhance the management of symphonious twisting clinched alongside force frameworks. Centering on the freight-train predominant electrical track control framework (ERPS) blended for ac-dc and ac-dc-ac locomotives (its force variables [0. 70, 0. 84]), this paper proposes a control element situated track control stream controller (RPFC) to those force nature change for ERPS. Those far reaching association of the essential control factor, converter capacity, and the two stage load ebbs and flows would constructed in this paper. Besides, Similarly as those primary commitment for this paper, those ideal compensating methodology suiting those irregular fluctuated two period loads is investigated Also outlined In view of An true footing substation, for the purposes of fulfilling the energy caliber standard, upgrading RPFC’s control flexibility, What's more diminishing converter’s ability. Finally, both those reenactment and the analysis need aid used to accept those recommended consider. Coordination those characters of parallel force personal satisfaction compensator Furthermore arrangement force personal satisfaction compensator, bound together control personal satisfaction conditioner (RPFC) need by and large been acknowledged similarly as another electric force personal satisfaction conditioner which need a great advancement possibility. Towards a phenomenal execution RPFC device, exact Furthermore ongoing indicator location is much significant. Immediate sensitive energy principle dependent upon vector change is broadly connected in dynamic channel.                 

Intensity-based image registration using multiple distributed agents

Image registration is the process of geometrically aligning images taken from different sensors, viewpoints or instances in time. It plays a key role in the detection of defects or anomalies for automated visual inspection. A multiagent distributed blackboard system has been developed for intensity-based image registration. The images are divided into segments and allocated to agents on separate processors, allowing parallel computation of a similarity metric that measures the degree of likeness between reference and sensed images after the application of a transform. The need for a dedicated control module is removed by coordination of agents via the blackboard. Tests show that additional agents increase speed, provided the communication capacity of the blackboard is not saturated. The success of the approach in achieving registration, despite significant misalignment of the original images, is demonstrated in the detection of manufacturing defects on screen-printed plastic bottles and printed circuit boards

Epigenetic Regulation of S100A9 and S100A12 Expression in Monocyte-Macrophage System in Hyperglycemic Conditions

The number of diabetic patients in Europe and world-wide is growing. Diabetes confers a 2-fold higher risk for vascular disease. Lack of insulin production (Type 1 diabetes, T1D) or lack of insulin responsiveness (Type 2 diabetes, T2D) causes systemic metabolic changes such as hyperglycemia (HG) which contribute to the pathology of diabetes. Monocytes and macrophages are key innate immune cells that control inflammatory reactions associated with diabetic vascular complications. Inflammatory programming of macrophages is regulated and maintained by epigenetic mechanisms, in particular histone modifications. The aim of our study was to identify the epigenetic mechanisms involved in the hyperglycemia-mediated macrophage activation. Using Affymetrix microarray profiling and RT-qPCR we identified that hyperglycemia increased the expression of S100A9 and S100A12 in primary human macrophages. Expression of S100A12 was sustained after glucose levels were normalized. Glucose augmented the response of macrophages to Toll-like receptor (TLR)-ligands Palmatic acid (PA) and Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) i.e., pro-inflammatory stimulation. The abundance of activating histone Histone 3 Lysine 4 methylation marks (H3K4me1, H3K4me3) and general acetylation on histone 3 (AceH3) with the promoters of these genes was analyzed by chromatin immunoprecipitation. Hyperglycemia increased acetylation of histones bound to the promoters of S100A9 and S100A12 in M1 macrophages. In contrast, hyperglycemia caused a reduction in total H3 which correlated with the increased expression of both S100 genes. The inhibition of histone methyltransferases SET domain-containing protein (SET)7/9 and SET and MYND domain-containing protein (SMYD)3 showed that these specifically regulated S100A12 expression. We conclude that hyperglycemia upregulates expression of S100A9, S100A12 via epigenetic regulation and induces an activating histone code on the respective gene promoters in M1 macrophages. Mechanistically, this regulation relies on action of histone methyltransferases SMYD3 and SET7/9. The results define an important role for epigenetic regulation in macrophage mediated inflammation in diabetic conditions