2D Floor Plan Segmentation Based on Down-sampling

In recent years, floor plan segmentation has gained significant attention due to its wide range of applications in floor plan reconstruction and robotics. In this paper, we propose a novel 2D floor plan segmentation technique based on a down-sampling approach. Our method employs continuous down-sampling on a floor plan to maintain its structural information while reducing its complexity. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by presenting results obtained from both cluttered floor plans generated by a vacuum cleaning robot in unknown environments and a benchmark of floor plans. Our technique considerably reduces the computational and implementation complexity of floor plan segmentation, making it more suitable for real-world applications. Additionally, we discuss the appropriate metric for evaluating segmentation results. Overall, our approach yields promising results for 2D floor plan segmentation in cluttered environments

Genetic Variation in Response to Global Warming in a Coral Reef Species, Porites lobata

Climate change due to global warming is one of the worst environmental disasters in the world, which affects all ecosystems and has led to increasing degradation of coral reefs. The increase of sea surface temperature is inversely related to the resistance of corals and is directly associated with their bleaching. High temperature disrupts the symbiotic relationship between coral and algal symbiont and results in coral bleaching. To evaluate the adaptation of corals to heat stress, in this study, we investigated the thermal stress effect on the expression of genes involved in programmed cell death (PCD), cysteinyl aspartate proteases 3 (will be mentioned as Caspas3 hereafter) and anti-apoptotic pathway, B-cell lymphoma 2 (will be mentioned as Bcl2 hereafter) in Porites lobata (Dana, 1846). Corals were incubated at 25°C for 2 weeks (adaptation period) and then exposed to 34°C (heat shock) for 24 and 48 hours. Then, the expression of genes was measured using real-time PCR. The results revealed that both genes were up-regulated at 24 hours after heat induction. Bcl-2 expression (anti-apoptotic gene) was induced at 24 hours and was down-regulated at 48 hours. In contrast, Caspase3 (apoptotic gene) continued to be expressed up to 48 hours. These results might indicate that coral cells are headed towards bleaching and death with increased temperature. The results of this study, regarding the observed expression patterns, can clarify the response of different genes to a thermal stress in coral reefs. The exposure of corals to acute conditions with high temperatures presented the behavior of the desired genes in the studied conditions

A comprehensive review on surface modifications of biodegradable magnesium-based implant alloy: polymer coatings opportunities and challenges

The development of biodegradable implants is certainly intriguing, and magnesium and its alloys are considered significant among the various biodegradable materials. Nevertheless, the fast degradation, the generation of a significant amount of hydrogen gas, and the escalation in the pH value of the body solution are significant barriers to their use as an implant material. The appropriate approach is able to solve this issue, resulting in a decrease the rate of Mg degradation, which can be accomplished by alloying, surface adjustment, and mechanical treatment. Surface modification is a practical option because it not only improves corrosion resistance but also prepares a treated surface to improve bone regeneration and cell attachment. Metal coatings, ceramic coatings, and permanent polymers were shown to minimize degradation rates, but inflammation and foreign body responses were also suggested. In contrast to permanent materials, the bioabsorbable polymers normally show the desired biocompatibility. In order to improve the performance of drugs, they are generally encapsulated in biodegradable polymers. This study summarized the most recent advancements in manufacturing polymeric coatings on Mg alloys. The related corrosion resistance enhancement strategies and future potentials are discussed. Ultimately, the major challenges and difficulties are presented with aim of the development of polymer-coated Mg-based implant materials

Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 359 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017.

How long one lives, how many years of life are spent in good and poor health, and how the population's state of health and leading causes of disability change over time all have implications for policy, planning, and provision of services. We comparatively assessed the patterns and trends of healthy life expectancy (HALE), which quantifies the number of years of life expected to be lived in good health, and the complementary measure of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), a composite measure of disease burden capturing both premature mortality and prevalence and severity of ill health, for 359 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories over the past 28 years. Methods We used data for age-specific mortality rates, years of life lost (YLLs) due to premature mortality, and years lived with disability (YLDs) from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 to calculate HALE and DALYs from 1990 to 2017. We calculated HALE using age-specific mortality rates and YLDs per capita for each location, age, sex, and year. We calculated DALYs for 359 causes as the sum of YLLs and YLDs. We assessed how observed HALE and DALYs differed by country and sex from expected trends based on Socio-demographic Index (SDI). We also analysed HALE by decomposing years of life gained into years spent in good health and in poor health, between 1990 and 2017, and extra years lived by females compared with males. Findings Globally, from 1990 to 2017, life expectancy at birth increased by 7·4 years (95% uncertainty interval 7·1-7·8), from 65·6 years (65·3-65·8) in 1990 to 73·0 years (72·7-73·3) in 2017. The increase in years of life varied from 5·1 years (5·0-5·3) in high SDI countries to 12·0 years (11·3-12·8) in low SDI countries. Of the additional years of life expected at birth, 26·3% (20·1-33·1) were expected to be spent in poor health in high SDI countries compared with 11·7% (8·8-15·1) in low-middle SDI countries. HALE at birth increased by 6·3 years (5·9-6·7), from 57·0 years (54·6-59·1) in 1990 to 63·3 years (60·5-65·7) in 2017. The increase varied from 3·8 years (3·4-4·1) in high SDI countries to 10·5 years (9·8-11·2) in low SDI countries. Even larger variations in HALE than these were observed between countries, ranging from 1·0 year (0·4-1·7) in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (62·4 years [59·9-64·7] in 1990 to 63·5 years [60·9-65·8] in 2017) to 23·7 years (21·9-25·6) in Eritrea (30·7 years [28·9-32·2] in 1990 to 54·4 years [51·5-57·1] in 2017). In most countries, the increase in HALE was smaller than the increase in overall life expectancy, indicating more years lived in poor health. In 180 of 195 countries and territories, females were expected to live longer than males in 2017, with extra years lived varying from 1·4 years (0·6-2·3) in Algeria to 11·9 years (10·9-12·9) in Ukraine. Of the extra years gained, the proportion spent in poor health varied largely across countries, with less than 20% of additional years spent in poor health in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, and Slovakia, whereas in Bahrain all the extra years were spent in poor health. In 2017, the highest estimate of HALE at birth was in Singapore for both females (75·8 years [72·4-78·7]) and males (72·6 years [69·8-75·0]) and the lowest estimates were in Central African Republic (47·0 years [43·7-50·2] for females and 42·8 years [40·1-45·6] for males). Globally, in 2017, the five leading causes of DALYs were neonatal disorders, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Between 1990 and 2017, age-standardised DALY rates decreased by 41·3% (38·8-43·5) for communicable diseases and by 49·8% (47·9-51·6) for neonatal disorders. For non-communicable diseases, global DALYs increased by 40·1% (36·8-43·0), although age-standardised DALY rates decreased by 18·1% (16·0-20·2)

Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 359 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

How long one lives, how many years of life are spent in good and poor health, and how the population's state of health and leading causes of disability change over time all have implications for policy, planning, and provision of services. We comparatively assessed the patterns and trends of healthy life expectancy (HALE), which quantifies the number of years of life expected to be lived in good health, and the complementary measure of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), a composite measure of disease burden capturing both premature mortality and prevalence and severity of ill health, for 359 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories over the past 28 years.; We used data for age-specific mortality rates, years of life lost (YLLs) due to premature mortality, and years lived with disability (YLDs) from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 to calculate HALE and DALYs from 1990 to 2017. We calculated HALE using age-specific mortality rates and YLDs per capita for each location, age, sex, and year. We calculated DALYs for 359 causes as the sum of YLLs and YLDs. We assessed how observed HALE and DALYs differed by country and sex from expected trends based on Socio-demographic Index (SDI). We also analysed HALE by decomposing years of life gained into years spent in good health and in poor health, between 1990 and 2017, and extra years lived by females compared with males. Globally, from 1990 to 2017, life expectancy at birth increased by 7·4 years (95% uncertainty interval 7·1-7·8), from 65·6 years (65·3-65·8) in 1990 to 73·0 years (72·7-73·3) in 2017. The increase in years of life varied from 5·1 years (5·0-5·3) in high SDI countries to 12·0 years (11·3-12·8) in low SDI countries. Of the additional years of life expected at birth, 26·3% (20·1-33·1) were expected to be spent in poor health in high SDI countries compared with 11·7% (8·8-15·1) in low-middle SDI countries. HALE at birth increased by 6·3 years (5·9-6·7), from 57·0 years (54·6-59·1) in 1990 to 63·3 years (60·5-65·7) in 2017. The increase varied from 3·8 years (3·4-4·1) in high SDI countries to 10·5 years (9·8-11·2) in low SDI countries. Even larger variations in HALE than these were observed between countries, ranging from 1·0 year (0·4-1·7) in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (62·4 years [59·9-64·7] in 1990 to 63·5 years [60·9-65·8] in 2017) to 23·7 years (21·9-25·6) in Eritrea (30·7 years [28·9-32·2] in 1990 to 54·4 years [51·5-57·1] in 2017). In most countries, the increase in HALE was smaller than the increase in overall life expectancy, indicating more years lived in poor health. In 180 of 195 countries and territories, females were expected to live longer than males in 2017, with extra years lived varying from 1·4 years (0·6-2·3) in Algeria to 11·9 years (10·9-12·9) in Ukraine. Of the extra years gained, the proportion spent in poor health varied largely across countries, with less than 20% of additional years spent in poor health in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, and Slovakia, whereas in Bahrain all the extra years were spent in poor health. In 2017, the highest estimate of HALE at birth was in Singapore for both females (75·8 years [72·4-78·7]) and males (72·6 years [69·8-75·0]) and the lowest estimates were in Central African Republic (47·0 years [43·7-50·2] for females and 42·8 years [40·1-45·6] for males). Globally, in 2017, the five leading causes of DALYs were neonatal disorders, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Between 1990 and 2017, age-standardised DALY rates decreased by 41·3% (38·8-43·5) for communicable diseases and by 49·8% (47·9-51·6) for neonatal disorders. For non-communicable diseases, global DALYs increased by 40·1% (36·8-43·0), although age-standardised DALY rates decreased by 18·1% (16·0-20·2). With increasing life expectancy in most countries, the question of whether the additional years of life gained are spent in good health or poor health has been increasingly relevant because of the potential policy implications, such as health-care provisions and extending retirement ages. In some locations, a large proportion of those additional years are spent in poor health. Large inequalities in HALE and disease burden exist across countries in different SDI quintiles and between sexes. The burden of disabling conditions has serious implications for health system planning and health-related expenditures. Despite the progress made in reducing the burden of communicable diseases and neonatal disorders in low SDI countries, the speed of this progress could be increased by scaling up proven interventions. The global trends among non-communicable diseases indicate that more effort is needed to maximise HALE, such as risk prevention and attention to upstream determinants of health

Granger Causality between Consumption, Intermediate and Capital Good Imports and Inflation in Iran

Many studies have been done about inflation in all developed and developing countries and they have tried to analyze and assess the factors affecting inflation. However, few studies have been done on the causality of inflation. In this study, we have tried to use time series methods to identify different variables that have the greatest impact on inflation in Iran. The purpose of this paper is to find causal relationships between the imports of consumption, intermediate and capital goods in one hand and inflation on the other hand during the period 1980-2010 in Iranian economy. In this study, we have tried to identify different variables that their time series have the greatest impact on inflation in Iran, Therefore, in this study we have considered the different variables of the consumer price index (inflation rate), liquidity, per capita GNP, free market exchange rate, the adjusted ratio of budget deficit to GDP (BD, GDP), as well as imports of capital, consumption and intermediate goods. In this study, VAR model, error correction model and Granger causality test are used and the resultd confirm one-way and two-way relationship between inflation and and different types of imports

Development and Evaluation of a Solid Self-Nanoemulsifying Drug Delivery System for Loratadin by Extrusion-Spheronization

Purpose: Recently the liquid nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SNEDDS) have shown dramatic effects on improving oral bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs. The main purpose of this study was to prepare a solid form of self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system of loratadin by extrusion-spheronization. The liquid SNEDDS are generally prepared in a soft or hard gelatin capsules which suffers from several disadvantages. Therefore incorporation of SNEDDS into solid dosage form is desirable to get together the advantages of SNEDDS and solid multiparticualte systems. Methods: The SNEDDS was consisted of liquid paraffin, capriole, span 20, transcutol and loratadin as a poorly soluble drug. A multilevel factorial design was used to formulation of SNEDDS pellets, liquid SNEDDS (20 and 30%) was mixed with lactose, microcrystallin cellulose (40%) and silicon dioxide (0, 5 and 10%), and Na- crosscarmelose (0, 5 and 10%). The resulting wet mass transformed into pellets by extrusion-spheronization. The pellets were dried and characterized for size (sieve analysis), shape (image analysis), mechanical strength (friability test), droplet size (laser light scattering) and drug release rate (dissolution test). Selected SNEDDS pellets were also compared with conventional loratadin pellet or tablet formulation. Results: The resulting SNE pellets exhibited uniform size and shape. Total friability of pellets did not affected by formulation variables. The in vitro release of SNE pellets was higher than the liquid SNE and powder tablets. Conclusion: Our studies demonstrated that extrusion-spheronization is a viable technology to produce self-emulsifying pellets in large scale which can improve in vitro dissolution with better solubility

Pharmacy Ethics: Evaluation Pharmacists’ Ethical Attitude

Alterations in pharmacy practice from prescription dispensing to more patient-centered relationship intensifies the necessity of clinical decision-making. Pharmacists' knowledge as well as ethical reasoning affects their clinical decision-making. Unfortunately in Iran pharmacy ethics did not develop along with medical ethics and special considerations are of major importance. The study was designed to evaluate pharmacists' attitude toward some principles of bioethics.A cross-sectional survey was performed on a sample of Iranian pharmacists attended in continuous education programs in 2010. Based on the pharmacists' attitude toward common ethical problems, 9 Likert-type scale scenarios were designed. A thousand pharmacists were surveyed and 505 questionnaires were filled. For the whole questionnaire the strongly disagree answer was the most ethical answer. On a scale from 1-5 on which 5=strongly disagree, the total score of pharmacists ethical attitude was 17.69 ± 3.57. For easier analysis we considered the score of 1 for agree and strongly agree answers, score of 2 for neutral answers and score of 3 for disagree and strongly disagree answers. The total score in confidentiality for all participants was 4.15 ± 1.45 out of 9, in autonomy 6.25 ± 1.85 out of 9, in non-maleficence 5.14 ± 1.17 out of 6 and in justice was 2.27 ± 0.89 out of 3, however there was no significant difference between men and women in the total score and the score of each theme. The older participants (> 40 years) significantly had lower total score (P< 0.05) as well as the score of each theme (P< 0.05), except for non-maleficence. The work experience showed impact on the pharmacists' attitude toward autonomy and the participants with more than 5 years work experience significantly obtained lower score in this theme.Compiling ethical guidelines and improving pharmacy ethics curriculum is highly critical to provide the best pharmaceutical care and to make clinical decisions in critical situations. Therefore further quantitative and qualitative investigations into finding pitfalls and challenges in this issue are highly recommended

Social Prerequisites and Outcomes of Accountable Curriculum in Higher

AbstractHigher education system(HES) is a social institution that has long been set up to accomplish threemissions education, research and service, but during recent years entrepreneurship has been added to itsmissions. Curriculum is the most important component and subsystem of HES and has been thought of as theheart of higher education (HE), because it is the most fundamental means that provides students withknowledge, experience and skills to supply services to the society. The curriculum which can accomplishideals and missions of universities, organizational (of the university) and social (of the employers and thesociety) is called accountable curriculum (AC). The main goal of this research was explanation ofprerequisites and social outcomes of higher education accountable curriculum (HEAC). To do the researchdescriptive survey method was used and in order to collect the needed data interview and questionnaireinstruments were utilized.The sample of the study which the questionnaire was distributed in, included faculty members and graduatestudents of university of Isfahan, Technical University of Isfahan, and Medical University of Isfahan andalso employers and administrators of the companies of Isfahan city. The participants of the sample wereal1ocated using stratified random sampling. The questionnaire surveyed the sample's viewpoints aboutprerequisites and outcomes of the AC in the field of social services. The collected data were analyzed atdescriptive and inferential levels using SPSS. The findings of T-test revealed that the mean of the sample'sviewpoints about the explained prerequisites and outcomes had been more than the hypothetical (theoretical)mean of the population (p≤0/001). The multivariate variance analysis( MANOVA) of the data showed thatthere hadn't been significant difference among viewpoints of faculties, and employers in respect ofprerequisites of HEAC, but there had been significant difference between their views about expected socialoutcomes of HEAC (P ≤0/005)

A meta-analytical attitude to the form–function relation in architecture using the concept of creativity

Architecture is an impressive area in human life, with the nature that returns to the design process in any way. Generally, the design is a motivated effort to satisfy human needs, which focuses on two main elements, form and function, in macroscale view of architecture. It is expanded that the relation between forms and their functions is the matter always considered due to the architectural essence. Accordingly, the main aim of this research is analyzing this relation and identifying its affecting factors based on recognizing the levels of human existence, as the user of architectural products. Therefore, this research was conducted by a qualitative content analysis, including the comparative–interpretative approach to identify key variables existing in related theoretical context and describe their connections, in terms of methodology. Regarding this, we tried to redefine the relationship between these two concepts (form and function) with a logical reasoning. Since the analytical investigation of our research was developed based on the previous theoreticians’ analytical processes, it could be considered as a qualitative meta-analysis study focusing on the related anthropological and psychological dimensions. According to the content proximity of the design and creativity natures, particularly in art and architecture, applying the concept of creativity to explain the form–function relation seems to be logical. Finally, a comprehensive conceptual model and associated manifest were presented that covers all of the studied theories in this regard