Higher-dimensional black holes with a conformally invariant Maxwell source

We consider an action for an abelian gauge field for which the density is given by a power of the Maxwell Lagrangian. In d spacetime dimensions this action is shown to enjoy the conformal invariance if the power is chosen as d/4. We take advantage of this conformal invariance to derive black hole solutions electrically charged with a purely radial electric field. Because of considering power of the Maxwell density, the black hole solutions exist only for dimensions which are multiples of four. The expression of the electric field does not depend on the dimension and corresponds to the four-dimensional Reissner-Nordstrom field. Using the Hamiltonian action we identify the mass and the electric charge of these black hole solutions.Comment: 5 page

Resilience in intentionally destroyed historic settlements: An examination on Kirkuk Citadel and the old town of Van

Armed conflict is considered a major risk for cultural heritage since the Second World War and guidelines are prepared by international organizations such as UNESCO and ICCROM on risk management and protection of cultural heritage in conflict-affected areas. However, the main concerns are reducing risks prior to the armed conflict by identifying, analyzing, evaluating, treating and monitoring risks and managing them before the risk occurs. The literature is quite narrow in respect to the ways of protecting cultural heritage and sustaining life for both buildings and people in intentionally destroyed historic settlements. Within this context, this study aims to raise the question on how to manage change in the intentionally destroyed historic settlements and how to strengthen resilience in conflict-affected areas. In order to achieve this aim, an examination on two case studies, Kirkuk Citadel and the Old Town of Van, which were both intentionally destroyed as a result of armed conflict is made using comparative analysis method. The cases are chosen to represent different time periods, scales and types of destruction. Depending on the international law and guidelines, the study tries to understand the impact of armed conflict on the historic settlements embracing tangible and intangible cultural heritage, types of risks that threaten them and the ways to strengthen resilience in such areas. It is revealed as a result of the study that for both case study areas, being in the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage is seen a primary step to be internationally recognized and to claim help for future actions aiming to reduce risks. Nevertheless, it can be argued that strategies have to be developed depending on the size and level of destruction, and the level of intervention to preserve and to rehabilitate life in such historic settlements, as each intentionally destroyed historic settlement has unique cultural, political and economic characteristics

Statistical distributions in the folding of elastic structures

The behaviour of elastic structures undergoing large deformations is the result of the competition between confining conditions, self-avoidance and elasticity. This combination of multiple phenomena creates a geometrical frustration that leads to complex fold patterns. By studying the case of a rod confined isotropically into a disk, we show that the emergence of the complexity is associated with a well defined underlying statistical measure that determines the energy distribution of sub-elements,``branches'', of the rod. This result suggests that branches act as the ``microscopic'' degrees of freedom laying the foundations for a statistical mechanical theory of this athermal and amorphous system

Physico-mechanical properties and bacterial adhesion of resin composite CAD/CAM blocks : an in-vitro study

The recent introduction of CAD/CAM technology has been strongly impacting the workflow in dental clinics and labs. Among the used CAD/CAM materials, resin composite CAD/CAM blocks offer several advantages. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physic

Application of PROMETHEE method for demand side management (DSM) options ranking

Demand Side Management (DSM) is a method used to modify the electrical load profile of a consumer to reduce its electricity bill. There are various types of DSM options available but mostly involve costs to be incurred by consumers. Moreover, the effectiveness of a DSM option depends on various factors including investment cost, saved energy, payback period and more. Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is a tool that can be applied to make decision when a lot of factors to be taken into account. In DSM, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one MCDA technique that is widely used in ranking the DSM options. However, AHP requires additive aggregation that may cause lost in detailed information. This paper presents another MDCA method; Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) to perform the ranking of DSM options. PROMETHEE (I and II) were used in a case study and the results shows that PROMETHEE give the same result as AHP. PROMETHEE has an advantage over AHP as it does not require additive aggregation even the problem is multi-dimensional and could provide visual analysis

Effect of intrapartum pethidine on the neonatal outcome: is it duration related?

Objectives: To study the effect of pethidine on the intrapartum fetal heart rate (FHR) pattern and to assess the neonatal outcome with regards to the interval between pethidine administration to delivery of the fetus. Materials: 73 healthy women intrapartum from labour suite hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Kuantan, Malaysia Methods: This is a prospective observational study done on 73 healthy consented women with singleton pregnancy at term . All fetus were normal, vertex presentation with reactive FHR tracing before pethidine administration. FHR recording were performed for 40 minutes prior to and one hour post pethidine. Cervical dilatation of all patients ≤ 4 cm at time of pethidine administration. Intramuscular pethidine 1mg/kg was given as an intrapartum analgesia. The study sample was divided into two groups, first group delivered within 4 hours and second group delivered more than 4 hours after the pethidine administration. The data were analysed by SSPS 17.0. Results: the mean age of the recruited patients is 28.15 ± 6.15 years and mean gestational age of 39.14 ± 1.094 weeks. The mean duration from pethidine administration to delivery is 296.48 ± 173.65 minutes (4 hours and 56 minutes). Four (5.5%) cases had suspicious CTG 1 hour post pethidine, 1 with absence of acceleration for 45 minutes and 3 cases with early deceleration lasted for 60 to 90 minutes. Out of 73 patients, 38 babies delivered within 4 hours and 35 delivered after 4 hours of pethidine. All neonates delivered with good Apgar Score (AS), 8 at 1 minute and 9 at 5 minute except 1 with AS of 5 at 1 min and 7 at 5 min which delivered more than 4 hours after pethidine. Sixteen (21.9%) cases were admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Eleven (68.75%) cases were admitted due to neonatal sedation from the delivery group less than 4 hours after pethidine. Five (31.25%) cases from the delivery group more than 4 hours, 4 cases with a diagnosis of transient tachypnea of newborn and 1 secondary to meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS). All discharge to mother after 24 hours, non required ventilation apart from the one with MAS which required ventilation for one day and longer admission. Despite of the higher number of those require admission in the less than 4 hours group, it was not statistically significant with P value of 7.44. Conclusions: Pethidine can be used as an intrapartum analgesia which is safe, easily available without major effect on fetal heart rate pattern and neonatal outcome even if given in advance stage of labour

Health risk assessment due to emissions from medical waste incinerator in Malaysia

In this research, health risk assessment due to the emission of pollutants from a medical waste incinerator located within industrial estate in the northern part of Malaysia was presented. The influence of pollutants emission in the vicinity of the incineration plant was the main concern in this research. The measured emissions of pollutants from the stacks of the studied plant that may pose risk to human health and the environment are compared against the acceptable limit as in the Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulation 2014. Next, the levels of pollutants in ambient air are assessed in comparison with the guideline established by the Malaysia Ambient Air Quality Guideline (MAAQG). The health risk assessment was then conducted by calculating the quantitative risk for non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic pollutants. The study reveals that the total cancer risk due to emission of carcinogenic pollutants from the incinerator is 1.84 × 10-5, which indicates risky circumstances as the calculated risk is higher than the benchmark of acceptable risk of 1 × 10-6. Meanwhile the health risk calculated due to emission of non-carcinogenic pollutants ranges between 0.000286 and 0.1, indicating acceptable risk. The result shows that the non-carcinogenic pollutants emitted from the studied medical waste incinerator are within the acceptable exposure limits. However, for carcinogens, the released amounts may cause human health risk, and therefore demands for further attention to reduce the concentrations as low as reasonably practicable, at least in compliance with the established guidelines

Value of Serum Growth Differentiation Factor 15 in diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer

Background: Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is considered the third most deadly and fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world.Objective: The aim of the present study was to compare serum levels of growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) in patients with CRC and in those healthy control subjects.Patients and methods: The study included 60 subjects that were divided in two groups: Group Ι included 30 patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer and group ΙΙ that included 30 healthy volunteers as control group. They didn`t have any acute or chronic diseases. All subjects of this study were subjected to full history taking, clinical examination and laboratory investigations. The study was conducted at Internal Medicine Department (gastroenterology and endoscopy unit), Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University. Results: The study comprised 35 males (58.3%) and 25 females (41.7%), with a mean age of 61 ± 9 years. Twenty-six participants were from urban areas (43.3%) and 34 from rural areas (56.7%). Thirteen participants had a suspicious occupational exposure (21.7%) and 27 were smokers (45%). Mean BMI of all participants was 31 ± 6 kg/m2 with no statistically significant differences between the studied groups. Regarding Hb level and GDF-15, there were statistically significant differences between CRC group and control group where Hb was higher in the control group, while GDF15 was higher in CRC group. Conclusion: Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) could be used as a valuable independent biomarker for screening CRC