bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Portfolio Optimization and Asset Allocation With Metaheuristics
Authors: Ray Jhuma , Bhattacharyya Siddhartha , Bhupendro Singh N.
Published: January 2021

Portfolio optimization stands to be an issue of finding an optimal allocation of wealth to place within the obtainable assets. Markowitz stated the problem to be structured as dual-objective mean-risk optimization, pointing the best trade-off solutions within a portfolio between risks which is measured by variance and mean. Thus the major intention was nothing else than hunting for optimum distribution of wealth over a specific amount of assets by diminishing risk and maximizing returns of a portfolio. Value-at-risk, expected shortfall, and semi-variance measures prove to be complex for measuring risk, for maximization of skewness, liquidity, dividends by added objective functions, cardinality constraints, quantity constraints, minimum transaction lots, class constraints in real-world constraints all of which are incorporated in modern portfolio selection models, furnish numerous optimization challenges. The emerging portfolio optimization issue turns out to be extremely tough to be handled with exact approaches because it exhibits nonlinearities, discontinuities and high-dimensional, efficient boundaries. Because of these attributes, a number of researchers got motivated in researching the usage of metaheuristics, which stand to be effective measures for finding near optimal solutions for tough optimization issues in an adequate computational time frame. This review report serves as a short note on portfolio optimization field with the usage of Metaheuristics and finally states that how multi-objective metaheuristics prove to be efficient in dealing with portfolio selection problems with complex measures of risk defining non-convex, non-differential objective functions.
Gene Expression Programming
Authors: Laskar Baddrud Zaman , Majumder Swanirbhar
Published: January 2021

Gene expression programming (GEP) introduced by Candida Ferreira is a descendant of genetic algorithm (GA) and genetic programming (GP). It takes the advantage of both the optimization and search technique based on genetics and natural selection as GA and its programmatic Darwinian counterpart GP. It is gaining popularity because; it has to some extent eradicated the ‘cons' of both while keeping in the ‘pros'. It is still a new technique not much explored since its introduction in 2001. In this chapter both GA and GP is first discussed followed by the elaborate discussion of GEP. This is followed up by the discussion on research work done is different fields using GEP as a tool followed up by GEP architectures. Finally, here GEP has been used for detection of age from facial features as a soft computing based optimization problem using genetic operators.
Tracking Patterns with Particle Swarm Optimization and Genetic Algorithms
Authors: Tavares Yuri Marchetti , Nedjah Nadia , Mourelle Luiza de Macedo
Published: January 2021

The template matching is an important technique used in pattern recognition. The goal is to find a given pattern, of a prescribed model, in a frame sequence. In order to evaluate the similarity of two images, the Pearson's Correlation Coefficient (PCC) is used. This coefficient is calculated for each of the image pixels, which entails an operation that is computationally very expensive. In order to improve the processing time, this paper proposes two implementations for template matching: one using Genetic Algorithms (GA) and the other using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) considering two different topologies. The results obtained by the proposed methodologies are compared to those obtained by the exhaustive search in each pixel. The comparison indicates that PSO is up to 236x faster than the brute force exhausted search while GA is only 44x faster, for the same image. Also, PSO based methodology is 5x faster than the one based on GA.
Determining Headache Diseases With Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Celik Gaffari
Published: January 2021

Currently, medical diagnosis has a strong relation with the artificial-intelligence-oriented approaches. Because it is practical to employ intelligent mechanisms over some input data-expert knowledge and design effective solution ways, even the biomedical engineering field is interested in taking support from artificial intelligence. If applications in this manner are taken into consideration, we can see that medical diagnoses have a big percentage. In the sense of the explanations, the objective of this chapter is to use genetic algorithm (GA) for diagnosing headache diseases. As a popular and essential technique benefiting from evolutionary mechanisms, GA can deal with many different types of real-world problems. So, it has been chosen as the solution way/algorithm over the headache disease detection problem, which shapes the research framework of the study. The chapter content gives information about the performed diagnosis application and the results.
Energy and SLA Efficient Virtual Machine Placement in Cloud Environment Using Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Sharma Oshin , Saini Hemraj
Published: January 2021

To increase the availability of the resources and simultaneously to reduce the energy consumption of data centers by providing a good level of the service are one of the major challenges in the cloud environment. With the increasing data centers and their size around the world, the focus of the current research is to save the consumption of energy inside data centers. Thus, this article presents an energy-efficient VM placement algorithm for the mapping of virtual machines over physical machines. The idea of the mapping of virtual machines over physical machines is to lessen the count of physical machines used inside the data center. In the proposed algorithm, the problem of VM placement is formulated using a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm based multi-objective optimization. The objectives are: optimization of the energy consumption, reduction of the level of SLA violation and the minimization of the migration count.
Genetic Algorithm-Influenced Top-N Recommender System to Alleviate the New User Cold Start Problem
Authors: J. Sharon Moses , L. D. Dhinesh Babu , Srinivasan Santhoshkumar , M. Nirmala
Published: January 2021

Most recommender systems are based on the familiar collaborative filtering algorithm to suggest items. Quite often, collaborative filtering algorithm fails in generating recommendations due to the lack of adequate user information resulting in new user cold start problem. Cold start problem is one of the prevailing issues in recommendation system where the system fails to render recommendation. To overcome the new user cold start issue, demographical information of the user is utilised as the user information source. Among the demographical information, the impact of user gender is less explored when compared with other information like age, profession, region, etc. In this chapter, genetic algorithm influenced gender-based top-n recommender algorithm is proposed to address the new user cold start problem. The algorithm utilises the evolution concepts of genetic algorithm to render top-n recommendations to a new user. The evaluation of the proposed algorithm using real world datasets proved that the algorithm has a better efficiency than the state-of-art approaches.
Medical Image Thresholding Using Genetic Algorithm and Fuzzy Membership Functions
Authors: Mishra Shashwati , Panda Mrutyunjaya
Published: January 2021

Thresholding is one of the important steps in image analysis process and used extensively in different image processing techniques. Medical image segmentation plays a very important role in surgery planning, identification of tumours, diagnosis of organs, etc. In this article, a novel approach for medical image segmentation is proposed using a hybrid technique of genetic algorithm and fuzzy logic. Fuzzy logic can handle uncertain and imprecise information. Genetic algorithms help in global optimization, gives good results in noisy environments and supports multi-objective optimization. Gaussian, trapezoidal and triangular membership functions are used separately for calculating the entropy and finding the fitness value. CPU time, Root Mean Square Error, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy are calculated using the three membership functions separately at threshold levels 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9. MRI images are considered for applying the proposed method and the results are analysed. The experimental results obtained prove the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method.
Optimization and Evolution in Architectural Morphogenesis
Authors: Buffi Alessandro , Filippucci Marco , Bianconi Fabio
Published: January 2021

In the last century, a large number of architects and engineers developed a variety of form-finding strategies, and some of them looked to natural systems with the aim of transfering their principles into architecture. Through digital techniques, the designer can emulate or invent new processes to create architectural forms characterized by the same efficiency and beauty of natural systems. In particular, the efficiency of living systems is the result of a slow evolutionary process, as explained by Darwin's theory of evolution. The possibility to apply this process to architecture through genetic algorithms puts in the hands of the designer a powerful tool, which can be used in a wide variety of applications. In this chapter, by means of a case study, a form-finding strategy based on genetic algorithms is structured. A generative model able to adapt to different contexts is designed, and the research of the final shape is driven by a multifunctional optimization process aiming to reduce the energy consumption of the building and the weight of its structure.
A Rule Based Classification for Vegetable Production Using Rough Set and Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Rathi R. , Acharjya Debi Prasanna
Published: January 2021

This article describes how agriculture is the main occupation of India, and how the economy depends on agricultural production. Most of the land in India is dedicated to agriculture and people depend on the production of agricultural products. Therefore, forecasting the accuracy of future events based on extracted patterns plays a vital role in improving agricultural productivity. By considering the availability of micronutrients and macronutrients of the soil and water in a particular place, the growth of a plant is determined. This helps people to determine the crops to be cultivated at a certain place. In this article, the forecasting is carried out using rough sets and genetic algorithms. Rough sets are used to produce the decision rules whereas genetic algorithms are used to refine the rules and improve classification accuracy. Accuracy of the classification rules is analyzed using different selection methods and crossover operators. Results show that genetic algorithms with a roulette wheel selection and single point crossover provides better performance when compared with other existing techniques.
Performance Evaluation of VM Placement Using Classical Bin Packing and Genetic Algorithm for Cloud Environment
Authors: Sharma Oshin , Saini Hemraj
Published: January 2021

In current era, the trend of cloud computing is increasing with every passing day due to one of its dominant service i.e. Infrastructure as a service (IAAS), which virtualizes the hardware by creating multiple instances of VMs on single physical machine. Virtualizing the hardware leads to the improvement of resource utilization but it also makes the system over utilized with inefficient performance. Therefore, these VMs need to be migrated to another physical machine using VM consolidation process in order to reduce the amount of host machines and to improve the performance of system. Thus, the idea of placing the virtual machines on some other hosts leads to the proposal of many new algorithms of VM placement. However, the reduced set of physical machines needs the lesser amount of power consumption therefore; in current work the authors have presented a decision making VM placement system based on genetic algorithm and compared it with three predefined VM placement techniques based on classical bin packing. This analysis contributes to better understand the effects of the placement strategies over the overall performance of cloud environment and how the use of genetic algorithm delivers the better results for VM placement than classical bin packing algorithms.
Holography
Authors: Shriwastawa Aprajita , Srivastava Satyajee
Published: January 2021

In this growing era of new generation and well-developed technologies, the human mind is willing to develop something new every day, something more innovative to make our life simpler. The requirement of better and clear output has been increased tremendously. The innovation requirement has reached such a level that before an uttered word, the visual presentation behind that thought needs to be seen. One of those developments started with the development of the stereo-photographs, after which 3-D or 3D images came in the picture; now the development is taking place in the holography section. In this paper, the reader learn know about the difference in all three eras and more details about holography and hologram formation. From the starting age to the date till now the developments in 3-D are explored along with the interconnection of holography and 5G, he future scope of holography, how it is useful for mankind and its real-life applications. About the physics involved in holography, its evolution and conclusion about its existence in the future are explored.
Seizure Prediction and Classification Using Affective Technology
Authors: Kayode Folakemi Favour
Published: January 2021

Epilepsy is a neurological issue that is described by abrupt and irregular seizures. As indicated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), roughly 1% of the total populace are epileptic patients. The abrupt nature of epileptic seizures constitutes a major disabling aspect of the ailment due to the impediments in patients' daily activities. Therefore, a method that can speculate the event of seizures could essentially improve the wellbeing of epileptic patients. Hence, the point of this paper is to build up a model that can anticipate seizures and furthermore characterize them, using a GSR sensor, temperature sensor, and also a pulse rate sensor.
Enhanced Adaptive Call Admission Control Scheme With Bandwidth Reservation for LTE Networks
Authors: Umar Maniru Malami , Mohammed Amimu , Roko Abubakar , Tambuwal Ahmed Yusuf , Abdulazeez Abdulhakeem
Published: January 2021

Call admission control (CAC) is one of the radio resource management techniques that regulates and provide resources for new or ongoing calls in the network. The existing CAC schemes wastes bandwidth due to its failure to check before degrading admitted real-time calls and it also increases the call dropping probability (CBP) and calling blocking probability (CBP) of real-time calls due to the delay incurred when bandwidth is degraded from them. This paper proposed an enhanced adaptive call admission control (EA-CAC) scheme with bandwidth reservation. The scheme employs a prior-check mechanism that ensured bandwidth to be degraded will be enough to admit the new call request. It further incorporates an adaptive degradation mechanism that degrades non-real time calls before degrading the RT calls. The performance of the EA-CAC scheme was evaluated against two existing schemes using Vienna LTE system level simulator. The EA-CAC scheme exhibits better performance compared to the two schemes in terms of throughput, CBP, and CDP of RT calls without sacrificing the performance of NRT calls.
Dynamic Scheduling Model of Rail-Guided Vehicle (RGV) Based on Genetic Algorithms in the Context of Mobile Computing
Authors: Xu Chen , Xiong Xueyan , Du Qianyi , Liu Shudong , Li Yipeng , Zhong Deliang , Yaqi Liu
Published: January 2021

Track guidance vehicle (RGV) is widely used in logistics warehousing and intelligent workshop, and its scheduling effectiveness will directly affect the production and operation efficiency of enterprises. In practical operation, central information system often lacks flexibility and timeliness. By contrast, mobile computing can balance the central information system and the distributed processing system, so that useful, accurate, and timely information can be provided to RGV. In order to optimize the RGV scheduling problem in uncertain environment, a genetic algorithm scheduling rule (GAM) using greedy algorithm as the genetic screening criterion is proposed in this paper. In the experiment, RGV scheduling of two-step processing in an intelligent workshop is selected as the research object. The experimental results show that the GAM model can carry out real-time dynamic programming, and the optimization efficiency is remarkable before a certain threshold.
3D Music Impact on Autonomic Nervous System Response and Its Potential Mechanism
Authors: Qin Yi , Zhang Huayu , Wang Yuni , Mao Mei , Chen Fuguo
Published: January 2021

This paper is made to observe the impact of 3D (three-dimensional) and 2D (two-dimensional) music on autonomic nervous system and to explore the mechanism of the music. This study changes and retains some musical elements of the four music, and 73 healthy participants listened to four music tracks with headphones: 3D slow music, 2D slow music, 3D fast music, and 2D fast music. The results show that galvanic skin response (GSR) data decreased in all participants after listening to 3D music. Among them, the first and third 3D music, which bears obvious characteristics of sound spatial movements, high melody definition, stable rhythm structure, and high timbre identification of the main melody significantly changed participants' GSR compared to the benchmark obtained before the experiment (P<0.05). It can be reasonably argued that 3D music may improve the regulation of autonomic nervous system responses, which contributes to the health of mind and body.
A Comparative Study of Graph Kernels and Clustering Algorithms
Authors: Bhattacharya Riju , Nagwani Naresh Kumar , Tripathi Sarsij
Published: January 2021

Graph kernels have evolved as a promising and popular method for graph clustering over the last decade. In this work, comparative study on the five standard graph kernel techniques for graph clustering has been performed. The graph kernels, namely vertex histogram kernel, shortest path kernel, graphlet kernel, k-step random walk kernel, and Weisfeiler-Lehman kernel have been compared for graph clustering. The clustering methods considered for the kernel comparison are hierarchical, k-means, model-based, fuzzy-based, and self-organizing map clustering techniques. The comparative study of kernel methods over the clustering techniques is performed on MUTAG benchmark dataset. Clustering performance is assessed with internal validation performance parameters such as connectivity, Dunn, and the silhouette index. Finally, the comparative analysis is done to facilitate researchers for selecting the appropriate kernel method for effective graph clustering. The proposed methodology elicits k-step random walk and shortest path kernel have performed best among all graph clustering approaches.
Automated Filtering of Eye Movements Using Dynamic AOI in Multiple Granularity Levels
Authors: Jayawardena Gavindya , Jayarathna Sampath
Published: January 2021

Eye-tracking experiments involve areas of interest (AOIs) for the analysis of eye gaze data. While there are tools to delineate AOIs to extract eye movement data, they may require users to manually draw boundaries of AOIs on eye tracking stimuli or use markers to define AOIs. This paper introduces two novel techniques to dynamically filter eye movement data from AOIs for the analysis of eye metrics from multiple levels of granularity. The authors incorporate pre-trained object detectors and object instance segmentation models for offline detection of dynamic AOIs in video streams. This research presents the implementation and evaluation of object detectors and object instance segmentation models to find the best model to be integrated in a real-time eye movement analysis pipeline. The authors filter gaze data that falls within the polygonal boundaries of detected dynamic AOIs and apply object detector to find bounding-boxes in a public dataset. The results indicate that the dynamic AOIs generated by object detectors capture 60% of eye movements & object instance segmentation models capture 30% of eye movements.
A Survey on Privacy Preservation in Location-Based Mobile Business
Authors: Aloui Ahmed , Kazar Okba
Published: January 2021

In mobile business (m-business), a client sends its exact locations to service providers. This data may involve sensitive and private personal information. As a result, misuse of location information by the third party location servers creating privacy issues for clients. This paper provides an overview of the privacy protection techniques currently applied by location-based mobile business. The authors first identify different system architectures and different protection goals. Second, this article provides an overview of the basic principles and mechanisms that exist to protect these privacy goals. In a third step, the authors provide existing privacy protection measures.
QoS-Based Collaborative Filtering for Web Service Mining
Authors: Feddaoui Ilhem , Felhi Faîçal , Algarni Fahad , Akaichi Jalel
Published: January 2021

Stored information in the databases is heterogeneous, from various sources, and of large volumes. The web service selection becomes nontrivial, as the users are easily overloaded by vast amount candidates. Using the keyword-based search method, users are struggling to choose the best web services among those having similar features. In the traditional methods, the users set different constraints and QoS parameters of a web service from what's claimed by the provider. Moreover, different researches challenge this problem, introducing semantic discovery process to enable relevant and desired search results. These approaches don't give importance to users' opinions and the selection history. The classical development of the ontology is typically entirely based on high human participation. In this paper, the authors use ontology-based querying, user profile to know the history, new collaborative filtering to calculate user, and query similarity and QoS as the final step for web service selection. The approach combines the syntactic and semantic methods to increase the selection precision.
Vector-Based Realisation of Geographical Voronoi Treemaps With the ArcGIS Engine
Authors: Tian Song
Published: January 2021

In geographical field, the researches on spatial hierarchies are extensive, but there is a lack of effective method to generate and express hierarchical spatial structures. As a frequently-used visualising method, Voronoi Treemaps are able to represent hierarchical data, but limited to displaying non-spatial data. The approach of geographical Voronoi Treemaps is proposed to solve these problems by allowing for spatial division from point features with spatial coordinates and references. Additionally, this enables to create hierarchical layouts in the form of Voronoi Treemap in GIS environments with the ArcGIS Engine. The generated layouts are saved in a geodatabase, which is convenient for adding GIS enhancements such as colouring, edge sizes, legends, borders, scales, and compass. The approach aims to establish a kind of spatial data model to represent urban hierarchies, organisation structures and region differences and so on, which expands the application range of Voronoi Treemaps in the geographical field.
Evaluation of the Mechanical Properties of Glass/Epoxy Composite by Embedding Shape Memory Alloy and Nanoclay
Authors: Pattar Niranjan , Patil S.F. , Patil Pratik , Anikivi Iranna , Hiremath Shridhar
Published: January 2021

Embedding smart materials in the composite to enhance mechanical strength have become a research hotspot owing to their unique properties. The present research also focus on novel way to fabricate composite by embedding Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wire and montmorillonite (MMT) nanoclay by varying clay concentration (0-7 wt.%). The extent of dispersion of nanoclay in epoxy resin was studied using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Fabricated samples were examined for tensile, flexural and impact characteristics. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to study the adhesion, delamination and damage occurred within the composite due to tensile loading. Results shows that the tensile strength, flexural strength and impact energy of SMA/MMT/glass/epoxy composite was improved by 23%, 21% and 57% respectively, when it was compared with composite with glass/epoxy composite.
Study of Mechanical and Tribological Behavior of Aluminium Metal Matrix Composite Reinforced with Alumina
Authors: Hamritha S. , Shilpa M. , Shivakumar M.R. , Madhoo G. , Harshini Y.P. , Harshith
Published: January 2021

Aluminium alloy has gained importance in the automotive and aerospace industry as it is easily available and easy in manufacturing. In the recent years, materials science has gained huge importance in the field of composites. In the field of composites metal matrix composite is playing a lead role in industrial applications. The unique combinations of properties provided by aluminum and its alloys make aluminum one of the most versatile, economical and attractive metallic materials. To enhance the properties of aluminum, it has been reinforced with alumina, silicon carbide, graphene and others. In this study, A357 aluminum has been strengthened by using different weight percent of alumina as reinforcement. Percentage of alumina used are 4%, 8% and 12% to enhance the mechanical and tribological property of A357.The fabricated samples were studied to understand the performance of the composite for mechanical and tribological characters. It was observed that the composites showed superior properties compared to the base material. Statistical analysis i.e. regression analysis has been carried out for hardness and tensile strength of alumina reinforced aluminum composite.
Investigation on the Performance of Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Geopolymer Concrete Made of M-Sand under Heat Curing
Authors: Ganesh A. Chithambar , Sivasubramanaian J. , Seshamahalingam Mahalingam Sesha , Millar J. , Kumar V. Jayanth
Published: January 2021

Due to the elevating demand to replace the conventional cement concrete with any other building material, there has been a continuous effort to promote the properties of geopolymer concrete. The objective of this paper is to reduce the brittleness of geopolymer concrete. This research paper goes for exploring the impact of high and low young’s modulus fiber in geopolymer concrete made of M-sand. Mix proportion of various materials is based on the Rangan’s proposed Mix design. Geopolymer concrete used in this investigation is the Fly ash – Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag blend based. Concoction of NaOH solution and Na2SiO3 solution is used as the alkali solution. Sine 80 percent of the source material is flyash, the specimens are exposed to heat curing. Fresh property and hardened characteristics like workability, ductility factor, compressive, split tensile, flexural and impact strength are assessed in this study. Significant increase in the engineering properties is observed with respect to both the fibers. This work unveils lot of potential in the vicinity of Geopolymer concrete.
CTLA4-Ig–Based Bifunctional Costimulation Inhibitor Blocks CD28 and ICOS Signaling to Prevent T Cell Priming and Effector Function
Authors: Goenka Radhika , Xu Zhenghai , Samayoa Josue , Banach David , Beam Christine , Bose Sahana , Dooner Gerri , Forsyth Charles M. , Lu Xiaoqing , Medina Limary , Sadhukhan Ramkrishna , Sielaff Bernhard , Sousa Silvino , Tao Qingfeng , Touw Debra , Wu Fei , Kingsbury Gillian A. , Akamatsu Yoshiko
Published: January 2021

CTLA4-Ig/abatacept dampens activation of naive T cells by blocking costimulation via CD28. It is an approved drug for rheumatoid arthritis but failed to deliver efficacy in a number of other autoimmune diseases. One explanation is that activated T cells rely less on CD28 signaling and use alternate coreceptors for effector function. ICOS is critical for activation of T-dependent humoral immune responses, which drives pathophysiology of IgG-mediated autoimmune diseases. In this study, we asked whether CD28 and ICOS play nonredundant roles for maintenance of T-dependent responses in mouse models. Using a hapten–protein immunization model, we show that during an ongoing germinal center response, combination treatment with CTLA4-Ig and ICOS ligand (ICOSL) blocking Ab completely dissolves ongoing germinal center responses, whereas single agents show only partial activity. Next, we took two approaches to engineer a therapeutic molecule that blocks both pathways. First, we engineered CTLA4-Ig to enhance binding to ICOSL while retaining affinity to CD80/CD86. Using a library approach, binding affinity of CTLA4-Ig to human ICOSL was increased significantly from undetectable to 15–42 nM; however, the affinity was still insufficient to completely block binding of ICOSL to ICOS. Second, we designed a bispecific costimulation inhibitor with high-affinity CTLA4 extracellular domains fused to anti-ICOSL Ab termed bifunctional costimulation inhibitor. With this bispecific approach, we achieved complete inhibition of CD80 and CD86 binding to CD28 as well as ICOS binding to ICOSL. Such bispecific molecules may provide greater therapeutic benefit in IgG-mediated inflammatory diseases compared with CTLA4-Ig alone.
Recurrence of COVID-19 related symptoms and viral detection in a patient discharged after complete recovery and test negativization
Authors: Vassallo Chiara , Pupo Francesca , Marri Luca , Schiavi Chiara , Giusti Francesca , Greco Monica , Negrini Simone , De Palma Raffaele , Guastalla Andrea
Published: January 2021

Since the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a pandemic, the possibility of recurrence of the disease after recovery has become a debated issue. We report a case of an 84-years-old male patient who was admitted to our hospital for dyspnea and fever. Lab and clinical workout showed that he had COVID-19. After a full recovery of symptoms and a double negative nasopharyngeal swab of severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by realtime polymerase chain reaction assay, he was discharged from the hospital. One month later, he developed dyspnea and fever again with lung involvement. Surprisingly, the nasopharyngeal swab of SARS-CoV-2 was positive. Since he denied contacts with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, he probably experienced a reactivation of a persistent infection. The failed eradication of the virus could depend on both virus’ escape mechanisms and dysfunctional immune response. Further studies are needed to confirm the hypothesis of viral reactivation and identify signs of an incomplete clearance.
Transvaginal subfascial synthetic mesh sling in female stress urinary incontinence: A Novel technique
Authors: Khawaja Abdul Rouf , Bashir Farzana , Bhat Arif , Dar Yaser , Malik Sajad , Wani Saleem
Published: January 2021

The object of this paper is to assess the treatment outcome and overall efficacy of a novel technique of transvaginal subfascial synthetic mesh for female stress urinary incontinence. The study included 53 patients of female stress urinary incontinence managed at our institution between March 2005 and December 2015. Preoperative evaluation included a detailed history, base-line investigations and cystoscopic examination including stress test, uroflometry with residual urine was done in all cases. Lower urinary tract imaging and urodynamic evaluation was done in selected cases . patients with concomitant pelvic organ prolapse and severe BMI were excluded from the study. All patients underwent a transvaginal subfascial sling procedure under regional anesthesia. Urethral catheter was removed the day after procedure. Post procedure results were assessed in terms of improvement in stress urinary incontinence, procedure related complications, and overall satisfaction of the patient. Mean age of the patients was 43.5 years (25-63 years). All patients were multiparous. Complete resolution of symptoms in 49 patients (92.4%) while in 4 patients (7.5%) had some degree of SUI. Urinary retention in 3 (5.6%), increased frequency in 5 (9.4%) patients and urge incontinence in 2 (3.7%) One (1.8%) had mesh erosion at 3 months after the procedure. None of the patient had any sexual dysfunction on follow up. Overall success rate of the procedure was around 93%.However patients with preoperatively urge incontinence needs anticholinergics in post operative period for 1-2 months. Operative time was 30-45 minutes. Three patients (5.6%) who experience transient postoperative retention had no symptoms of SUI on follow up. Transvaginal subfascial sling is a modification of the original mid urethral sling procedure with an advantage of being less invasive, simpler to learn and achieve similar results compared to other sling procedures.
Transoesophageal echocardiography-guided hybrid balloon valvuloplasty for severe pulmonic stenosis in small dogs
Authors: Uemura Akiko , Seijirow Goya , Tanaka Ryou , Kocaturk Meriç , Yilmaz Zeki
Published: January 2021

Pulmonic stenosis (PS) is the most common congenital heart disease in dogs and is commonly seen in small breeds, such as Chihuahuas. Conventional treatments have limitations specific to small dogs, including the invasive nature of open-heart surgery and size limitations in percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty. Here, transoesophageal echocardiography (TEE)-guided balloon valvuloplasty via thoracotomy was performed for three small dogs with PS. The procedure was feasible in all cases, including those for which percutaneous treatment was not an option. Although the procedure is invasive, because of the need for thoracotomy, it is one of the treatment options that may be effective for PS, especially in small dogs, as it allows visualisation of the pulmonary artery lesion without relying on the experience of the surgeon.
Existence and Uniqueness of Positive Solutions for a Singular Second-Order Integral Boundary Value Problem
Authors: Caballero Josefa , López Belén , Sadarangani Kishin
Published: January 2021

In this work, we discuss the existence and uniqueness of positive solutions for the second order integral boundary value problem

\left\{ \begin{aligned} x''(t) + f(t,x(t),(Hx)(t)) &=0, \quad 0 < t < 1,\\ x(0)=0,\quad x(1)&= \int_{0}^{1}a(s)x(s)ds, \end{aligned} \right.

where the function

f

has a singularity at

t_{0}=0

. Our main tool is a fixed point theorem of Wardowski (2012). Moreover, we present several examples illustrating our result.
Positive Solutions for Non-Variational Fractional Elliptic Systems with Negative Exponents
Authors: de Araujo Anderson L.A. , Faria Luiz F.O. , Leite Edir J.F. , Miyagaki Olímpio H.
Published: January 2021

In this paper, we study strongly coupled elliptic systems in non-variational form with negative exponents involving fractional Laplace operators. We investigate the existence, nonexistence, and uniqueness of the positive classical solution. The results obtained here are a natural extension of the results obtained by Ghergu [J. Funct. Anal. 258 (2010), 3295–3318] for the fractional case.
Максимальные алгебры Ли среди локально нильпотентных дифференцирований
Authors: Skutin Alexander Andreevich
Published: January 2021

Исследуются максимальные подалгебры Ли среди локально нильпотентных дифференцирований алгебры многочленов. Дж. Фройденбургом была высказана гипотеза о том, что треугольная алгебра Ли локально нильпотентных дифференцирований алгебры многочленов является максимальной алгеброй Ли, содержащейся в множестве локально нильпотентных дифференцирований, и гипотеза о том, что каждая максимальная алгебра Ли, содержащаяся в множестве локально нильпотентных дифференцирований, сопряжена треугольной алгебре Ли. В настоящей работе мы доказываем справедливость первой части гипотезы и приводим контрпример ко второй ее части. Также мы покажем, что при некотором естественном условии, наложенном на максимальную алгебру Ли, существует сопряжение, переводящее эту алгебру Ли в треугольную алгебру Ли.
Библиография: 2 названия.
Junior secondary school students' intralingual errors in essays written in French language
Authors: Umoh S.M. , Ezenwa P.C.N.
Published: January 2021

This study set out to identify students’ intralingual errors in the essays written in French. The study adopted the ex-post facto design, using the content analysis technique. The population comprised 2,893 copies of descriptive essays written in French Language by year 3 junior secondary school students in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in 2015, 2016 and 2017 in Imo State. The sample of 228 essays was selected through stratified, purposive and proportionate random sampling techniques. The three instruments for the study were the question papers on French Language, the students’ answer scripts and a researcher-designed Checklist of Intralingual Errors for Learning French (CIELF). The data from the error analysis were subjected to analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and the research question that guided the study was answered in percentages. The results showed that the students committed eight intralingual errors, which include overgeneralization, omission, addition, simplification of parts of speech, misinformation, agreement, verb forms and mechanical errors. Part of the recommendations is for teachers of French to build language instructions on students’ prior knowledge and experiences, thereby making French languagelearning to be real and interesting to the students.
Knowledge and practice of wait-time in mathematics classroom instructions
Authors: Abiam Patrick Obere , Odok John Kizinghe
Published: January 2021

The study was designed to ascertain if mathematics teachers in secondary schools know and practise wait-time during classroom instructions. It also sought to determine wait-time periods in current practice by mathematics teachers in Nigeria. Four research questions were used to guide the study. The study adopted survey research design. The sample used for the study comprised 210 qualified mathematics teachers. Two instruments, namely; Wait-time Practice Questionnaire (WPQ) and Checklist for Classroom Wait-time Observations (CCWO) were constructed by the investigators and used for data collection. Research questions 1, 2, and 4 were answered using percentage (%), while research question 3 was answered using mean. The results established that wait-time is being practised in Nigerian secondary schools by mathematics teachers during classroom instructions. The results equally revealed that mathematics teachers currently practise an average of 1.33 seconds wait-time in class. Based on these findings, it was recommended that mathematics teachers should not only practise waittime, but; they should be seen to practise adequate wait-time of at least 3 seconds each lesson, and the practice of wait-time should be emphasised in Nigerian schools for meaningful learning of mathematicsto take place.
Disease incidence, severity and changes in morphological characteristics of some high value hybrid genotypes of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) seedlings as influenced by fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Elaeidis
Authors: Madi Galdima , Ntsomboh-Ntsefong Godswill , Ebongue Georges Frank Ngando , Ngobisa Aurelie Nyaka , Taffouo Victor Désiré
Published: January 2021

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis (F.o.e) which is a causative agent of vascular wilt disease is the main threat to oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) cultivation in Africa. Its effects are more widely known on adult palms at production stage than on palm trees at the pre-nursery stage. The aim of his study was to evaluate the effects of F.o.e on the morphological parameters and the disease incidence and severity on seedlings during four months of pre-nursery stage. Ten high value hybrid genotypes of germinated seeds, including three tolerant to F.o.e were used. Seedlings were inoculated at four weeks of age with F.o.e. The morphological parameters (height and stem diameter of the seedlings, leaf length and width, leaf area) were recorded every two weeks and the disease incidence and severity on seedlings were determined. All the observed parameters were negatively influenced by F.o.e. Seedling height showed the highest difference (5.34%) and two genotypes (T1N and T3F) out of the ten assessed recorded no influence of F.o.e. As these results are not correlated with the internal symptoms of vascular wilt, it is not evident to deduce tolerance of the progeny solely based on F.o.e effects on the growth traits. There was a positive and significant correlation (r = 0.67, P<0.05) between the index of Fusarium (IF) and the disease severity, between the IF and disease incidence (r = 0.85, P< 0.01). However, the correlation between the IF and seedling morphology was negative and not significant (r = - 0.17, P> 0.05). The morphological parameters of T3N and T5N genotypes initially known to be susceptible to Fusarium wilt were the most affected (19.05% and 13.33% respectively) of the inoculated seedlings compared to control seedlings. T1N initially known to be susceptible here manifested signs of tolerance confirming the observations made on internal symptoms. Moreover, T3F, T2F and T1F progenies recorded an IF<100 and have also been morphologically more efficient thus confirming their Fusarium tolerance status. These results may serve as a pre-diagnostic index of Fusarium wilt in oil palm.Keywords: Elaeis guineensis, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis, growth parameters, hybrid genotypes, pre-nursery.
Evaluation de l’état trophique des eaux du complexe lagunaire côtier du Sud-Ouest Bénin en période de hautes eaux (de Togbin à l’Embouchure Mono)
Authors: Bocodaho O. B. M. Lucinde , Chouti Waris Kéwouyèmi , Dedjiho Comlan Achille , Mama Daouda
Published: January 2021

Les lagunes servent de tanières pour un grand nombre d’espèces aquatiques et constituent de ce fait des richesses à entretenir. Malheureusement, la lagune côtière du Bénin fait face à un déséquilibre écologique qui se manifeste par une croissance excessive des végétaux aquatiques. En vue de caractériser l’état trophique de la lagune, une campagne d’échantillonnage a été effectuée en période de hautes eaux sur onze points représentatifs. La méthodologie de dosage au spectrophotomètre a été adoptée pour mettre en évidence les paramètres de diagnostic de pollution. Les analyses signalent de fortes concentrations en phosphore (28,75 mg/L) et en nitrites (10 mg/L) dans les eaux de la lagune. La lagune se trouve alors dans un état d’hyper-eutrophisation selon la grille de qualité établie par Ifremer. Le non-respect des mesures de protection des plans d’eau et la mauvaise gestion des déchets ménagers et des eaux usées entraînent la prolifération des nutriments responsables de l’eutrophisation de la lagune côtière. Vu l’ampleur de la pollution mise en relief par cette étude, l’institution d’un programme de surveillance s’avère indispensable afin de veiller au maintien de la qualité écologique des écosystèmes aquatiques en République du Bénin.Mots clés : Lagune côtière, eutrophisation, nutriments, pollution.

English Title: Assessment of the trophic state of the waters of the coastal lagoon complex of Southwest Benin during high water periods (from Togbin to Mono Mouth)The lagoons serve as places of residence for several aquatic species and therefore constitute riches to be properly maintained. Unfortunately, the coastal lagoon of Benin faces an ecological imbalance visibly manifested by an excessive growth of aquatic plants. In order to characterize the trophic state of the lagoon, a sampling campaign was carried out during high water periods according to eleven representative points. The spectrophotometer assay methodology was adopted to highlight the pollution diagnostic parameters. Analyzes report high concentrations of phosphorus (28.75 mg/L) and nitrites (10 mg/L) in lagoon waters. The lagoon is then in an enlarged state according to the quality grid established by Ifremer. Failure to comply with measures to protect water bodies and poor management of household waste and wastewater lead to the proliferation of nutrients responsible for eutrophication within the coastal lagoon. Given the magnitude of the pollution highlighted by this study, the implementation of a monitoring program is essential in order to ensure the maintenance of the ecological quality of aquatic ecosystems in the Republic of Benin.Keywords: Coastal lagoon, eutrophication, nutrients, pollution.
Modélisation mathématique du séchage dans un four (air chaud) de tranches de mangue (Mangiféra indica L.)
Authors: Abouo N’guessan Verdier , Fofana Alhassane , N’guessan Yevi Delphine , Assidjo Nogbou Emmanuel
Published: January 2021

Ce travail vise à étudier le séchage de la mangue à différentes épaisseurs et températures en vue de valorisation. Les expériences ont été menées à partir d’une matrice factorielle par la méthode gravimétrique statique. Les valeurs expérimentales ont été ajustées à huit modèles empiriques par la méthode du gradient afin d’estimer les paramètres et coefficients des modèles. Les critères statistiques que sont le R², l’erreur quadratique moyenne (EQM) et le χ² ont servi à justifier le choix du modèle de séchage. Le séchage a duré 16-18 ; 23-27 et 29-33 minutes respectivement aux températures 60, 50 et 40°C pour les épaisseurs 1,5 et 1 cm. Le modèle logarithmique est retenu et présente les valeurs du R² (0,9984 ; 0,9984 ; 0,9981 ; 0,9987 ; 0,9988 ; 0,9985) les plus élevées et les plus faibles valeurs de χ² (2,43 e-07 ; 1,58 e-07 ; 1,25 e-06 ; 2,02 e-07 ; 4,56 e-06 et 1,37 e-06) et EQM (2,42 e-04 ; 1,95 e-07 ; 5,47 e-04 ; 2,20 e-04 ; 0,0010 et 5,69 e-04). Le coefficient de diffusion varie de 8,615 e-09 à 9,155 e-09 m² / s et dépend fortement de la température de séchage. L’énergie d’activation est estimée entre 22,430 – 25,358 KJ / mol.Mots clés : Séchage, mangue, modèle, coefficient de diffusion, énergie d’activation.

 

English Title: Mathematical modeling of the drying in an oven (hot air) of slices of mango (Mangifera indica L.)This work aims to study the drying of mango at different thicknesses and temperatures a view to valorization. The experiments were carried out from a factor matrix by the static gravimetric method. The experimental values were fitted to eight empirical models by the gradient method in order to estimate the parameters and coefficients of the models. The statistical criteria of R², mean square error (MSE) and χ² were used to justify the choice of the drying model. Drying lasted 16-18; 23-27 and 29-33 minutes respectively at temperatures 60, 50 and 40 °C for thicknesses 1.5 and 1 cm. The logarithmic model is retained and presents the highest values of R² (0.9984; 0.9984; 0.9981; 0.9987; 0.9988; 0.9985) and the lowest values of χ² (2.43 e-07; 1.58 e-07; 1.25 e-06; 2.02 e-07; 4.56 e-06 and 1.37 e-06) and MSE (2.42 e-04; 1.95 e-07; 5.47 e-04; 2.20 e-04; 0.0010 and 5.69 e-04). The diffusion coefficient varies from 8.615 e-09 to 9.155 e-09 m² / s and strongly depends on the drying temperature. The activation energy is estimated to be 22.430 - 25.358 KJ / mol.Keywords : Drying, mango, models, diffusion coefficient, activation energy.