bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Synthesis and Physical Property Characterisation of Spheroidal and Cuboidal Nuclear Waste Simulant Dispersions
Authors: Shiels Jessica , Harbottle David , Hunter Timothy N.
Published: July 2018

This study investigated dispersions analogous to highly active nuclear waste, formed from the reprocessing of Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF). Non-radioactive simulants of spheroidal caesium phosphomolybdate (CPM) and cuboidal zirconium molybdate (ZM-a) were successfully synthesised; confirmed via Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. In addition, a supplied ZM (ZM-b) with a rod-like/wheatsheaf morphology was also analysed along with titanium dioxide (TiO2). The simulants underwent thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and size analysis, where CPM was found to have a D50 value of 300 nm and a chemical formula of Cs3PMo12O40·13H2O, ZM-a a D50 value of 10 μm and a chemical formula of ZrMo2O7(OH)2·3H2O and ZM-b to have a D50 value of 14 μm and a chemical formula of ZrMo2O7(OH)2·4H2O. The synthesis of CPM was tracked via Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy at both 25 °C and 50 °C, where the reaction was found to be first order with the rate constant highly temperature dependent. The morphology change from spheroidal CPM to cuboidal ZM-a was tracked via SEM, reporting to take 10 days. For the onward processing and immobilisation of these waste dispersions, centrifugal analysis was utilised to understand their settling behaviours, in both aqueous and 2 M nitric acid environments (mimicking current storage conditions). Spheroidal CPM was present in both conditions as agglomerated clusters, with relatively high settling rates. Conversely, the ZM were found to be stable in water, where their settling rate exponents were related to the morphology. In acid, the high effective electrolyte resulted in agglomeration and faster sedimentation.
Effect of Turning and Surface Polishing Treatments on Surface Integrity and Fatigue Performance of Nickel-Based Alloy GH4169
Authors: Wu Daoxia , Zhang Dinghua , Yao Changfeng
Published: July 2018

In this paper, the effects of turning and surface polishing treatments on surface integrity and fatigue properties of superalloy GH4169 were investigated. Finish turning (FT), surface circumferential polishing treatment (TCP), surface oblique texture (TCPO), and surface axial texture (TCPA) were applied to GH4169 superalloy. The surface roughness, surface topography, residual stress, microhardness, and microstructure after different processes were studied. Rotating bending fatigue tests were carried out to investigate the effects of surface integrity and surface texture direction on the fatigue performance of GH4169. The experiments reveal that the TCPA specimens present the longest fatigue life of 15.01 × 104 cycles. By comparison with the FT, TCP, and TCPO specimens, the fatigue lives of TCPA specimens are increased by 134.2%, 183.7%, and 96.2%, respectively. Single crack initiation source is observed for TCPA specimen. It is mainly attributed to the small surface stress concentration factor and surface axial texture.
Platinum Nanoparticle Inclusion into a Carbonized Polymer of Intrinsic Microporosity: Electrochemical Characteristics of a Catalyst for Electroless Hydrogen Peroxide Production
Authors: Adamik Robert K. , Hernández-Ibáñez Naiara , Iniesta Jesus , Edwards Jennifer K. , Howe Alexander G. R. , Armstrong Robert D. , Taylor Stuart H. , Roldan Alberto , Rong Yuanyang , Malpass-Evans Richard , Carta Mariolino , McKeown Neil B. , He Daping , Marken Frank
Published: July 2018

The one-step vacuum carbonization synthesis of a platinum nano-catalyst embedded in a microporous heterocarbon (Pt@cPIM) is demonstrated. A nitrogen-rich polymer of an intrinsic microporosity (PIM) precursor is impregnated with PtCl62− to give (after vacuum carbonization at 700 °C) a nitrogen-containing heterocarbon with embedded Pt nanoparticles of typically 1–4 nm diameter (with some particles up to 20 nm diameter). The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of this hybrid material is 518 m2 g−1 (with a cumulative pore volume of 1.1 cm3 g−1) consistent with the surface area of the corresponding platinum-free heterocarbon. In electrochemical experiments, the heterocarbon-embedded nano-platinum is observed as reactive towards hydrogen oxidation, but essentially non-reactive towards bigger molecules during methanol oxidation or during oxygen reduction. Therefore, oxygen reduction under electrochemical conditions is suggested to occur mainly via a 2-electron pathway on the outer carbon shell to give H2O2. Kinetic selectivity is confirmed in exploratory catalysis experiments in the presence of H2 gas (which is oxidized on Pt) and O2 gas (which is reduced on the heterocarbon surface) to result in the direct formation of H2O2.
You Do Not Mess with the Glia
Authors: Herculano-Houzel Suzana , Dos Santos Sandra
Published: July 2018

Vertebrate neurons are enormously variable in morphology and distribution. While different glial cell types do exist, they are much less diverse than neurons. Over the last decade, we have conducted quantitative studies of the absolute numbers, densities, and proportions at which non-neuronal cells occur in relation to neurons. These studies have advanced the notion that glial cells are much more constrained than neurons in how much they can vary in both development and evolution. Recent evidence from studies on gene expression profiles that characterize glial cells—in the context of progressive epigenetic changes in chromatin during morphogenesis—supports the notion of constrained variation of glial cells in development and evolution, and points to the possibility that this constraint is related to the late differentiation of the various glial cell types. Whether restricted variation is a biological given (a simple consequence of late glial cell differentiation) or a physiological constraint (because, well, you do not mess with the glia without consequences that compromise brain function to the point of rendering those changes unviable), we predict that the restricted variation in size and distribution of glial cells has important consequences for neural tissue function that is aligned with their many fundamental roles being uncovered.
The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time: A Proposal in Natural Philosophy. By Roberto Mangabeira Unger and Lee Smolin. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2014; 566 pp.; ISBN-10: 1107074061, ISBN-13: 978-1107074064
Authors: McManus Matt
Published: July 2018

n/a
Behavior of an Inductive Loop Sensor in the Measurement of Partial Discharge Pulses with Variations in Its Separation from the Primary Conductor
Authors: Ardila-Rey Jorge Alfredo , Barrueto Aldo , Zerene Alvaro , Castro Bruno Albuquerque de , Ulson José Alfredo Covolan , Mas’ud Abdullahi Abubakar , Valdivia Patricio
Published: July 2018

Ideally, an insulation system must be capable of electrically insulating the active components of a machine or device subjected to high voltages. However, due to the presence of polluting agents or imperfections inside or on the surface of the insulation, small current pulses called partial discharges (PDs) are common, which partially short-circuit the insulation and cause it to lose its insulating properties, and thus its insulation capacity, over time. In some cases, measurements of this phenomenon are limited by the type of sensor used; if it is not adequate, it can distort the obtained results, which can lead to a misdiagnosis of the state of the device. The inductive loop sensor has experimentally been demonstrated to be capable of properly measuring different types of PDs. However, because of its current design, there are several practical limitations on its use in real devices or environments. An example is the presence of a primary conductor located at a fixed distance from the sensor, through which PD pulses must flow for the sensor to capture them. In this article, the sensor’s behavior is studied at different separation distances from the line through which the PD pulses flow. In addition, the measuring capacity of the sensor is tested by removing the presence of the primary conductor and placing the sensor directly over the line through which the PD pulses of a real device flow.
Trivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition via Convex Optimization for Rolling Bearing Condition Identification
Authors: Lv Yong , Zhang Houzhuang , Yi Cancan
Published: July 2018

As a multichannel signal processing method based on data-driven, multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD) has attracted much attention due to its potential ability in self-adaption and multi-scale decomposition for multivariate data. Commonly, the uniform projection scheme on a hypersphere is used to estimate the local mean. However, the unbalanced data distribution in high-dimensional space often conflicts with the uniform samples and its performance is sensitive to the noise components. Considering the common fact that the vibration signal is generated by three sensors located in different measuring positions in the domain of the structural health monitoring for the key equipment, thus a novel trivariate empirical mode decomposition via convex optimization was proposed for rolling bearing condition identification in this paper. For the trivariate data matrix, the low-rank matrix approximation via convex optimization was firstly conducted to achieve the denoising. It is worthy to note that the non-convex penalty function as a regularization term is introduced to enhance the performance. Moreover, the non-uniform sample scheme was determined by applying singular value decomposition (SVD) to the obtained low-rank trivariate data and then the approach used in conventional MEMD algorithm was employed to estimate the local mean. Numerical examples of synthetic defined by the fault model and real data generated by the fault rolling bearing on the experimental bench are provided to demonstrate the fruitful applications of the proposed method.
Clutter and Range Ambiguity Suppression Using Diverse Pulse Train in Pulse Doppler System
Authors: Xu Jiacen , Ren Lixiang , Fan Huayu , Mao Erke , Liu Quanhua
Published: July 2018

Pulse Doppler (PD) systems are widely used for moving target detection, especially in scenarios with clutter. Range ambiguity, which arises from fixed parameters in waveforms, is an inherent drawback in conventional systems. By using a diverse pulse train such as a train of coherent diverse phase coded pulses, these ambiguous peaks can be suppressed effectively but at the cost of sidelobe dispersions. In this work, a novel efficient PD process is proposed to suppress range ambiguity and detect moving targets under strong clutter. Poly-phase coded pulses are employed along with optimal receiving filters, by which the dispersed sidelobes are mitigated to a great extent. Moreover, a novel clutter suppression procedure is included in the PD process, by which strong clutter can be greatly suppressed. Well-designed receiving and inverse filters are employed. Simulation examples are presented to verify the theories. Compared with conventional methods, much better detection results are obtained for both near and remote targets, especially in scenarios with strong clutter.
Coalition Formation Based Compressive Sensing in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Masoum Alireza , Meratnia Nirvana , Havinga Paul J. M.
Published: July 2018

Compressive sensing originates in the field of signal processing and has recently become a topic of energy-efficient data gathering in wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we propose an energy efficient distributed compressive sensing solution for sensor networks. The proposed solution utilizes sparsity distribution of signals to group sensor nodes into several coalitions and then implements localized compressive sensing inside coalitions. This solution improves data-gathering performance in terms of both data accuracy and energy consumption. The approach curbs both data-transmission costs and number of measurements. Coalition-based data gathering cuts transmission costs, and the number of measurements is reduced by scheduling sensor nodes and adjusting their sampling frequency. Our simulation showed that our approach enhances network performance by minimizing energy cost and improving data accuracy.
Adaptive Square-Root Unscented Particle Filtering Algorithm for Dynamic Navigation
Authors: Wei Wenhui , Gao Shesheng , Zhong Yongmin , Gu Chengfan , Hu Gaoge
Published: July 2018

This paper presents a new adaptive square-root unscented particle filtering algorithm by combining the adaptive filtering and square-root filtering into the unscented particle filter to inhibit the disturbance of kinematic model noise and the instability of filtering data in the process of nonlinear filtering. To prevent particles from degeneracy, the proposed algorithm adaptively adjusts the adaptive factor, which is constructed from predicted residuals, to refrain from the disturbance of abnormal observation and the kinematic model noise. Cholesky factorization is also applied to suppress the negative definiteness of the covariance matrices of the predicted state vector and observation vector. Experiments and comparison analysis were conducted to comprehensively evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm exhibits a strong overall performance for integrated navigation systems.
Extending QGroundControl for Automated Mission Planning of UAVs
Authors: Ramirez-Atencia Cristian , Camacho David
Published: July 2018

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs) have become very popular in the last decade due to some advantages such as strong terrain adaptation, low cost, zero casualties, and so on. One of the most interesting advances in this field is the automation of mission planning (task allocation) and real-time replanning, which are highly useful to increase the autonomy of the vehicle and reduce the operator workload. These automated mission planning and replanning systems require a Human Computer Interface (HCI) that facilitates the visualization and selection of plans that will be executed by the vehicles. In addition, most missions should be assessed before their real-life execution. This paper extends QGroundControl, an open-source simulation environment for flight control of multiple vehicles, by adding a mission designer that permits the operator to build complex missions with tasks and other scenario items; an interface for automated mission planning and replanning, which works as a test bed for different algorithms, and a Decision Support System (DSS) that helps the operator in the selection of the plan. In this work, a complete guide of these systems and some practical use cases are provided.
Young Accreting Compact Objects in M31: The Combined Power of NuSTAR, Chandra, and Hubble
Authors: Lazzarini M. , Hornschemeier A. E. , Williams B. F. , Wik D. , Vulic N. , Yukita M. , Zezas A. , Lewis A. R. , Durbin M. , Ptak A. , Bodaghee A. , Lehmer B. D. , Antoniou V. , Maccarone T.
Published: July 2018

We present 15 high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) candidates in the disk of M31 for which we are able to infer compact object type, spectral type of the donor star, and age using multiwavelength observations from NuSTAR, Chandra, and the Hubble Space Telescope. The hard X-ray colors and luminosities from NuSTAR permit the tentative classification of accreting X-ray binary systems by compact object type, distinguishing black hole from neutron star systems. We find hard-state black holes, pulsars, and non-magnetized neutron stars associated with optical point-source counterparts with similar frequency. We also find nine non-magnetized neutron stars coincident with globular clusters and an equal number of pulsars with and without point-source optical counterparts. We perform spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting for the most likely optical counterparts to the HMXB candidates, finding seven likely high-mass stars and one possible red helium-burning star. The remaining seven HMXB optical counterparts have poor SED fits, so their companion stars remain unclassified. Using published star formation histories, we find that the majority of HMXB candidates—X-ray sources with UV-bright point-source optical counterpart candidates—are found in regions with star formation bursts less than 50 Myr ago, and three are associated with young stellar ages (<10 Myr). This is consistent with similar studies of HMXB populations in the Magellanic Clouds, M33, NGC 300, and NGC 2403.
The Heliosphere Is Not Round
Authors: Schwadron N. A. , Bzowski M.
Published: July 2018

Observations from the Ion and Neutral Camera (INCA) on the Cassini mission of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) at ∼10 keV and ∼45 keV showed significant correlated time variations over relatively fast 2–3 yr timescales. These observed ENA variations have been interpreted as indicating limited scale lengths of ∼80–120 au along the line of sight for the size of the heliosphere. We show here, however, that rather than a heliosphere with a quasi-spherical shape, the INCA line-of-sight observations vary in response to episodic cooling and heating of the inner heliosheath plasma during periods of large-scale expansion and compression.
Forward Asteroseismic Modeling of Stars with a Convective Core from Gravity-mode Oscillations: Parameter Estimation and Stellar Model Selection
Authors: Aerts C. , Molenberghs G. , Michielsen M. , Pedersen M. G. , Björklund R. , Johnston C. , Mombarg J. S. G. , Bowman D. M. , Buysschaert B. , Pápics P. I. , Sekaran S. , Sundqvist J. O. , Tkachenko A. , Truyaert K. , Reeth T. Van , Vermeyen E.
Published: July 2018

We propose a methodological framework to perform forward asteroseismic modeling of stars with a convective core, based on gravity-mode oscillations. These probe the near-core region in the deep stellar interior. The modeling relies on a set of observed high-precision oscillation frequencies of low-degree coherent gravity modes with long lifetimes and their observational uncertainties. Identification of the mode degree and azimuthal order is assumed to be achieved from rotational splitting and/or from period spacing patterns. This paper has two major outcomes. The first is a comprehensive list and discussion of the major uncertainties of theoretically predicted gravity-mode oscillation frequencies based on linear pulsation theory, caused by fixing choices of the input physics for evolutionary models. Guided by a hierarchy among these uncertainties of theoretical frequencies, we subsequently provide a global methodological scheme to achieve forward asteroseismic modeling. We properly take into account correlations among the free parameters included in stellar models. Aside from the stellar mass, metallicity, and age, the major parameters to be estimated are the near-core rotation rate, the amount of convective core overshooting, and the level of chemical mixing in the radiative zones. This modeling scheme allows for maximum likelihood estimation of the stellar parameters for fixed input physics of the equilibrium models, followed by stellar model selection considering various choices of the input physics. Our approach uses the Mahalanobis distance instead of the often-used χ
2 statistic and includes heteroscedasticity. It provides estimation of the unknown variance of the theoretically predicted oscillation frequencies.
An Improved Encryption Scheme for Traitor Tracing from Lattice
Authors: Ye Qing , Hu Mingxing , Chen Guangxuan , Qin Panke
Published: July 2018

This article first describes a paper by Ling, Phan, and Stehle at the CRYPTO 2014 which presented the first encryption scheme for traitor tracing from lattice, and the scheme is almost as efficient as the learning with errors (LWE) encryption. However, their scheme is not constructed on an efficient trapdoor, that is, the trapdoor generation and preimage sampling algorithms are rather complex and not suitable for practice. This article is considered to use the MP12 trapdoor to construct an improved traitor tracing scheme. First, by using batch execution method, this article proposes an improved extracting algorithm for the user's key. Then, this article combines that with multi-bit encryption system to construct an efficient one-to-many encryption scheme. Furthermore, it is presented that a novel projective sampling family has very small hidden constants. Finally, a comparative analysis shows that the parameters of the scheme such as lattice dimension, trapdoor size, and ciphertext expansion rate, etc., all decrease in some degree, and the computational cost is reduced.
Keyframe-Based Vehicle Surveillance Video Retrieval
Authors: Liu Xiaoxi , Liu Ju , Gu Lingchen , Ren Yannan
Published: July 2018

This article describes how due to the diversification of electronic equipment in public security forensics, vehicle surveillance video as a burgeoning way attracts us attention. The vehicle surveillance videos contain useful evidence, and video retrieval can help us find evidence contained in them. In order to get the evidence videos accurately and effectively, a convolution neural network (CNN) is widely applied to improve performance in surveillance video retrieval. In this article, it is proposed that a vehicle surveillance video retrieval method with deep feature derived from CNN and with iterative quantization (ITQ) encoding, when given any frame of a video, it can generate a short video which can be applied to public security forensics. Experiments show that the retrieved video can describe the video content before and after entering the keyframe directly and efficiently, and the final short video for an accident scene in the surveillance video can be regarded as forensic evidence.
Print-Scan Resilient Binary Map Watermarking Based on DCT and Scrambling
Authors: Peng Fei , Wang Shuai-ping , Long Min
Published: July 2018

This article describes how combing the characteristics of simple textures and uneven black area distribution of a binary map, a novel blind print-scan resilient watermarking scheme is proposed. First, the flipping probability of each pixel is calculated, and then the image characteristic value matrix is obtained by scrambling and partitioning. Second, a DCT transform is performed on the characteristic value matrix and then the DCT coefficients are modified according to the hidden data. After that, an inverse DCT is made to the modified DCT coefficient matrix, and the pixels of the corresponding block are flipped. Finally, the watermarked map is obtained by inverse scrambling. Experimental results and analysis show that the proposed scheme not only provides a large capacity and good imperceptibility, but also can resist the impact of a print-scan operation, and has strong robustness. Meanwhile, compared with the existing algorithms, it has a low implementation complexity and can be applied to military maps, engineering design drawings and other binary images.
A Cloud-User Watermarking Protocol Protecting the Right to Be Forgotten for the Outsourced Plain Images
Authors: Dong Xiaojuan , Zhang Weiming , Hu Xianjun , Liu Keyang
Published: July 2018

This article describes how cloud storage dramatically benefits people in freeing up their local storage space, while bringing the separation of the data ownership and private manipulation. Hence, it is difficult for the cloud user to make sure that the cloud storage provider (CSP) has obeyed the request of deletion to remove all corresponding data. To solve the issue technically, this article proposes an interactive cloud-user watermarking protocol (CUW) based on the homomorphic encryption. To meet security requirements, the encrypted watermark is embedded into encrypted data. Moreover, to enjoy the convenient cloud services, the uploaded data is eventually stored in the cloud server in the form of plain text. The performance of the CUW protocol is evaluated through a prototype implementation.
Smart Traffic Management System for Anticipating Unexpected Road Incidents in Intelligent Transportation Systems
Authors: Sahraoui Abdelatif , Makhlouf Derdour , Roose Philippe
Published: July 2018

This article describes how anticipating unforeseen road events reveal a serious problem in intelligent transportation systems. Due to the diversity of causes, road incidents do not require regular traffic conditions and accurate prediction of these incidents in real-time becomes a complicated task not defined so far. In this article, a smart traffic management system based cloud-assisted service is proposed to preserve the traffic safety by controlling the road segments and predicts the probability of incoming incidents. The proposed cloud-assisted service includes a predictive model based on logistic regression to predict the occurrence of unforeseen incidents. The sudden slowdown of vehicles speeds is the practical case of the article. The classification task of the predictive model incorporates four explained variables, including vehicle speed, the travel time and estimated delay time. The prediction accuracy is proved by checking the model relevance according to the quality of fit and the statistical significance of each explained variable.
Qualitative Evaluation of IoT-Driven eHealth
Authors: Lokshina Izabella V. , Lanting Cees J.M.
Published: July 2018

This article explains that eHealth has major potential, and its adoption may be considered necessary to achieve increased ambulant and remote medical care, increased quality, reduced personnel needs, and reduced costs potential in healthcare. In this paper, the authors try to give a reasonable, qualitative evaluation of IoT-driven eHealth from theoretical and practical viewpoints. They look at associated knowledge management issues and contributions of IoT to eHealth, along with requirements, benefits, limitations and entry barriers. Important attention is given to security and privacy issues. Finally, the conditions for business plans and accompanying value chains are realistically analyzed. The resulting implementation issues and required commitments are also discussed. The authors confirm that IoT-driven eHealth can happen and will happen; however, much more needs to be addressed to bring it back in sync with medical and general technological developments in an industrial state-of-the-art perspective and to recognize and get timely the benefits.
Performance Evaluation of Industrial Wireless Sensor Network Technologies
Authors: Battsh Jebril A. , Sheltami Tarek Rahil , Mhamoud Ashraf S. Hasan , Barnawi Abdulaziz Y.
Published: July 2018

This article describes how with the continuous developments in communication technology, the use of wireless network devices is increasing rapidly. However, most companies still rely on wired networks and do not trust wireless networks, especially for process control applications. The confidence in wireless technologies can be built by first evaluating the technology before using it for industrial applications. To this end, the performance of three wireless sensor networks (WSNs) standards, namely, ZigBee, WirelessHART and ISA100, is evaluated. The performance metrics are the throughput, the end to end delay, and the energy consumption. The results show that ISA100 and WirelessHART perform better than ZigBee in large networks. In addition, ISA100 is more flexible than WirelessHART, since it allows using the combination of slotted and slow hopping and configurable timeslot sizes.
A Methodology to Improve the Decision-Making Process
Authors: Nikulin Christopher , Solis Paulina , López-Campos Mónica
Published: July 2018

The modeling approach is relevant to support the decision-making process. Modeling requires a structured approach, knowledge and specific analytical skills in order to obtain an appropriate representation of the situation under analysis. Nevertheless, creating a good representation of the reality is not a simple task; it is not trivial to choose an analysis approach since most of decision-makers could have partial lacks information during the different stages of the modeling process. Considering this, we propose a methodology to support the decision-making process by using a novel structured integration of different quantitative and qualitative tools, such as system dynamics, decision theory and the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ), in order to simplify the modeling process in complex analysis. A case study attempts to illustrate the application of the methodology in a real problem situation, related to the analysis of disasters within the boundaries of Valparaíso City, specifically fires.
Web Service Usability Analysis Based on User Preferences
Authors: Fabisiak Luiza
Published: July 2018

This article attempts to closely examine the users' preferences in the author's method of assessing the usability of websites. In particular, the issues bring a closer evaluation of websites by users. It sets rules for the accuracy of users' preferences on the basis of the scoring method. In the considered problem of assessing the usability of websites the methods of decision support, logs, and user preferences on the basis of the scoring method were used. It should be noted that websites and user preferences change over time and usually vary during the design from the pages already available on the network. Website aging forces companies to conduct a new study on the usability of websites. This article presents an original method for usability analysis based on users' preferences. The proposed method compares with other methods of usability of websites and conducts verification of this method on the basis of exemplary websites.
Data Analytics Assisted Internet of Things Towards Building Intelligent Healthcare Monitoring Systems
Authors: Srinivasa K G  , Sowmya BJ  , Shikhar Abhinav , Utkarsha Ritu , Singh Aahan
Published: July 2018

The rise in technology has had a tremendous impact in the field of healthcare. Moreover, the Internet of Things and ubiquitous computing when applied to the field of healthcare can ease the process by helping doctors better monitor their patients thereby enabling a speedy recovery. This paper proposes three systems to demonstrate the wide array of fields in healthcare and everyday life where Internet of Things can be applied. The first is a system to monitor infants while they sleep to detect crying. Once detected the system swings the cradle and also alerts the parents. The second system aims to help in rehabilitation of patients undergoing corrective knee surgery or other knee related procedures. This is done with the help of accelerometers attached to the joint which interfaces with a microcontroller and constantly monitors the knee movements. The last system aims to help the blind wear the right combination of clothing. This is achieved using image and pattern recognition.
A inerência do diagnóstico clínico na produção de (in)exclusão educacional
Authors: Christmann Morgana , Oliveira Pavão Sílvia Maria de
Published: July 2018

Apresentar um diagnóstico clínico no contexto da Educação Especial pode ser interpretado como via de mão dupla: por um lado, pode ser utilizado como forma de construir estratégias para a atenção ao estudante; por outro, ser causa de preconceito e exclusão, resultando, até mesmo, na delimitação de práticas educativas. Essas são as reflexões que sustentam a discussão deste artigo, cujo objetivo é refletir sobre a inerência do DC como produtor de inclusão/exclusão na perspectiva da educação inclusiva. Para atender a esse objetivo, foi utilizado como método de pesquisa a revisão integrativa, tendo como material de exame os artigos produzidos por duas importantes revistas da área da educação especial: a Revista Brasileira de Educação Especial e a Revista Educação Especial. Pôde-se concluir que o DC é um aliado na formulação de estratégias de atuação pedagógicas, razão pela qual pode ser estruturado pela saúde e pela educação, enquanto conceitos transversais, com a finalidade de melhorar as condições educacionais. A exclusão, por sua vez, é um processo inerente à produção de um DC.
Hydatidiform mole coexisting with normal foetus: A rare presentation of a case report from University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital
Authors: Kabir Abba , Kullima Abdulkarim A. , Adamu Adamu I. , Peter Anna , Bukar Abba Z. , Nggada Haruna A.
Published: July 2018

A twin pregnancy comprising a complete hydatidiform mole coexisting with a foetus is a rare obstetric condition with an incidence of 1 in 22,000 to 1 in 100,000 pregnancies. The management of such case is challenging due to the associated risk of maternal and foetal complications. We report a case of a 25-year-old woman, gravida 2, para 1 with a normal intrauterine pregnancy coexisting with complete hydatidiform mole. An ultrasound scan demonstrated normal foetus and placenta along with coexistent intrauterine echogenic mass with features of hydatidiform mole. The microscopic examination of the abnormal placenta confirmed complete hydatidiform mole. Although twin pregnancy with complete hydatidiform mole and coexistent foetus is associated with increased risk of developing maternal and foetal complications, continuation of pregnancy may be an acceptable option under close monitoring to detect early signs of complications.
Postural instability in Parkinson's patients
Authors: Habibi Amir Hassan , Arab Sogand , Sina Farzad , Razmeh Saeed
Published: July 2018

Postural instability is a major cause of disability in patients with Parkinson’s disease and therefore increases their dependence on other people and decreases the quality of life in these patients. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of Postural instability and its onset in patients with Parkinson’s disease. We evaluated 250 Parkinson’s patients who referred to the movement disorder Clinic during 2016. All patient information, including gender, age, onset time of symptoms, as well as the time interval between symptoms start to postural instability were recorded. A total of 41 patients (16.4%) had a Postural instability, there was no significant difference between the two groups with and without instability in the distribution of sex and mean age. The mean age for the onset of symptoms in men and women was 54±11/3 and 50/6±12.2 respectively Which was significantly lower in women than in men (P value: 0.026). Also, the mean time between the onset of symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and the onset of motor instability was 5.2±4.9. This time was 8.2±4.5 in men and 11.5±5.7 in women which is significantly shorter in men than women (P value: 0.047). In our society, 16.4% of patients with Parkinson’s disease have a motor instability .this outbreak is independent of the variables of gender and age of the patients. According to our study, although women tend to experience signs of Parkinson’s disease earlier than men, the time interval between the onset of the disease manifestation and the onset of postural instability in males was shorter than that of women.
Giant apocrine carcinoma of the breast: A case report with review
Authors: Muthusamy Rajeshwari K. , Mehta Sangita S.
Published: July 2018

Invasive apocrine carcinoma of the breast is rare. The criteria for the diagnosis are uncertain with the variable reported incidence in the literature. The use of androgen receptor studies by immunohistochemistry and its potential response to androgen analogs necessitates the subtyping of this tumor. We report a case of giant invasive apocrine carcinoma of the breast involving the entire breast parenchyma without skin and chest wall infiltration. The clinical, pathological, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural findings are discussed with emphasis on morphological and immunohistochemical features that aid in the diagnosis of this rare tumor.
Role of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of gall-bladder carcinoma: A boon for low-resource settings
Authors: Khanduri Sachin , Goyal Aakshit , Usmani Tarim , Jain Shreshtha , Goyal Arun , Chaudhary Mriganki , Sharma Hritik , Sabharwal Tushar , Yadav Santosh , Khanduri Shobha , Singh Taruna
Published: July 2018

Purpose: The present study was done with an aim to evaluate the usefulness of ultrasonography (USG) in early diagnosis of gall-bladder carcinoma for low-resource settings.

Materials and Methods: A total of 264 clinically suspicious cases were enrolled in the study. The patients underwent USG followed by computed tomography (CT). Histopathological specimens were obtained from 208 cases. Final diagnosis was confirmed histopathologically/CT. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive, and negative predictive values of USG were calculated.

Results: A total of 29 cases were confirmed as gall-bladder carcinoma, 58.6% were diagnosed at advanced stage (Stage III/IV). USG diagnosed 42 cases as neoplastic, however, 24 were true positive and 18 were false positive. USG was 82.8% sensitive and 92.5% specific. The positive and negative predictive values were 57.1% and 97.8%, respectively, diagnostic efficacy was 91.5%. 94.1% advanced stage gall bladder cancers were diagnosed correctly by USG. Sensitivity for early stages was promising (61.9%), however false positive was higher. Cost of USG was nearly five times lesser as compared to that of CT.

Conclusion: USG was a useful economical imaging modality for the screening of gall bladder cancer in low-resource settings, especially for advanced stages. However, for early stages too, it seemed useful. We recommend to encourage the use of USG in early detection of gall-bladder carcinoma in socially and economically disadvantaged settings.
Influence of Clinical Competency Committee Review Process on Summative Resident Assessment Decisions
Authors: Schumacher Daniel J. , King Beth , Barnes Michelle M. , Elliott Sean P. , Gibbs Kathleen , McGreevy Jon F. , del Rey Javier Gonzalez , Sharma Tanvi , Michelson Catherine , Schwartz Alan ,   Members of the APPD LEARN CCC Study Group
Published: July 2018

Background 

Clinical Competency Committees (CCCs) are charged with making summative assessment decisions about residents.

Objective 

We explored how review processes CCC members utilize influence their decisions regarding residents' milestone levels and supervisory roles.

Methods 

We conducted a multisite longitudinal prospective observational cohort study at 14 pediatrics residency programs during academic year 2015–2016. Individual CCC members biannually reported characteristics of their review process and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education milestone levels and recommended supervisory role categorizations assigned to residents. Relationships among characteristics of CCC member reviews, mean milestone levels, and supervisory role categorizations were analyzed using mixed-effects linear regression, reported as mean differences with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and Bayesian mixed-effects ordinal regression, reported as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% credible intervals (CrIs).

Results 

A total of 155 CCC members participated. Members who provided milestones or other professional development feedback after CCC meetings assigned significantly lower mean milestone levels (mean 1.4 points; CI –2.2 to –0.6; P < .001) and were significantly less likely to recommend supervisory responsibility in any setting (OR = 0.23, CrI 0.05–0.83) compared with CCC members who did not. Members recommended less supervisory responsibility when they reviewed more residents (OR = 0.96, 95% CrI 0.94–0.99) and participated in more review cycles (OR = 0.22, 95% CrI 0.07–0.63).

Conclusions 

This study explored the association between characteristics of individual CCC member reviews and their summative assessment decisions about residents. Further study is needed to gain deeper understanding of factors influencing CCC members' summative assessment decisions.
Music and Aging: A Contribution to the Research of the Role of Music in Quality Aging Supported by the Case of the Ptuj Retirement Home
Authors: Lunežnik Vita , Hofman Ana , Ličen Nives
Published: July 2018

The article focuses on the benefits of music for older adults in retirement homes. Relevant literature was studied to investigate the theoretical and sociocultural context. Furthermore, participatory action research was conducted in the Ptuj retirement home. The findings indicate that the music programme has substantial personal and social value for the residents.
The Structure of Musical Preferences of Youth: Cross-cultural Perspective
Authors: Habe Katarina , Dobrota Snježana , Reić Ercegovac Ina
Published: July 2018

The aim of this study was to explore the differences in musical preferences between Slovene and Croatian students. The sample consisted of 369 students from Slovenia and 371 students from Croatia. The results show that there are significant differences in musical preferences between Slovene and Croatian students. Furthermore, differences with regard to gender, age and study program were confirmed.
The Influences of Spectral Music on Slovenian Compositional Creativity in the Last Few Decades
Authors: Vrhunc Larisa
Published: July 2018

Doctoral thesis The Influences of Spectral Music on Slovenian Compositional Creativity in the Last Few Decades seeks to provide answers to two sets of questions. The first set examines the definition of spectral music and its role in European history of music, while the second aims to prove the traces of spectral thinking in Slovenian music.
Income distribution and the balance of payments: a formal reconstruction of some Argentinian structuralist contributions Part I: Technical dependency
Authors: Dvoskin Ariel , Feldman Germán David
Published: July 2018

In this two-part paper, we explore the interaction between income distribution and the balance of payments, by assessing the contributions of three Argentinian exponents of the Latin American Structuralist School: Oscar Braun, Marcelo Diamand and Adolfo Canitrot. With this aim, we introduce a two-sector model inspired by the classical tradition. Part I of the article examines the implications for prices and quantities of the phenomenon of ‘technical dependency’. That is, the inelastic demand for imported inputs observed in peripheral economies, a true constraint to growth during the Bretton Woods era. We leave until Part II of the paper the assessment of the implications of ‘financial dependency’, namely the influence exerted on the profit rate of peripheral economies by the international profit rate.
Experimental study on mechanical performance of partially precast steel reinforced concrete beams
Authors: Xue Yicong , Yang Yong , Yu Yunlong , Liu Ruyue
Published: July 2018

In order to exploit the potentials in mechanical and constructional performance of steel reinforced concrete structures and prefabricated structures, three innovative kinds of partially precast steel reinforced concrete beams, which are abbreviated here as PPSRC, HPSRC and PPCSRC beam, are presented in this paper. The PPSRC beam is composed of two parts, which are the precast outer shell with high-performance concrete and the cast-in-place inner part with common-strength concrete. Meanwhile, on the basis of PPSRC beam, the PPCSRC beam applies castellated steel shape and the HPSRC beam keeps the beam core hollow. With the aim to investigate the mechanical behavior, failure mode and bearing capacity of  the PPSRC, PPCSRC and HPSRC beams, a static loading experiment with twenty four specimens was carried out. The effects of aspect ratio, construction method, section shape, concrete flange and strength of concrete were critically examined. Test results indicate that the HPSRC, PPCSRC and PPSRC beams both exhibit similar mechanical performance and bonding performance. The flexural capacity and shear capacity are seldom affected by the construction method and section shape, and increase with the increasing of the cast-in-place concrete strength. The shear strength of the specimens is significantly affected by the concrete flange and aspect ratio.
An experimental study of composite effect on the behaviour of beam-column joints subjected to impact load
Authors: Tan Kang Hai , Chen Kang
Published: July 2018

This paper presents an experimental study on structural behaviour of composite beam-column joints under a middle column removal scenario. Specimens were subjected to impact loads from an MTS drop-weight testing machine. Two joints with welded unreinforced beam flange and bolted web connections were designed per AISC 360-10. One of the beam-column joints had a thicker composite slab. The joints were restrained by pinned supports at two beam ends, which were connected to rigid A-frames to represent boundary conditions from adjacent structures. Test results indicated that the composite slab significantly affected the impact force due to an increase of inertia. However, other structural responses (especially displacement of the middle column) decreased due to increase of stiffness contributed by the thicker composite slab. The finding was that increasing thickness of composite slab can increase the resistance of composite joint significantly due to increased composite effect. More experimental studies were conducted to investigate other types of joints.
Analysis and behavior of high-strength rectangular CFT columns
Authors: Lai Zhichao , Varma Amit
Published: July 2018

The current AISC Specification (AISC 360-16) specifies the material strength limits for concrete-filled steel tube (CFT) columns. According to AISC 360-16, the steel yield stress (Fy) for CFT columns should not exceed 525 MPa, and the concrete compressive strength (f’c) should not exceed 70 MPa. CFT columns are classified as high strength if either Fy or f’c exceeds these specified limits, and are classified as conventional strength if both Fy and f’c are less than or equal to the limits. Due to lack of adequate research and comprehensive design equations, AISC 360-16 does not endorse the use of high-strength materials for CFT columns. This paper makes a contribution towards addressing this gap using a two-step approach. The first step consists of compiling an experimental database of high-strength rectangular CFT column tests in the literature and evaluating the possibility of extending the current AISC 360-16 design equations to high-strength rectangular CFT columns. The second step consists of developing and benchmarking detailed 3D nonlinear finite element models for predicting the behavior of high-strength CFT columns from the database. The benchmarked models are being used to perform comprehensive parametric studies to address gaps in the database and propose design equations for high-strength rectangular CFT members, which will be part of a future paper.
Fire and post-fire performance of circular steel tube confined reinforced concrete columns
Authors: Liu Faqi , Yang Hua , Zhang Sumei
Published: July 2018

Fire and post-fire behaviours of reinforced concrete columns confined by circular steel tubes, also known as circular steel tube confined reinforced concrete (STCRC) columns, are investigated in this paper. 5 full-scale specimens exposed to fire and 47 specimens after fire exposure were tested. Temperatures across the sections, displacement versus time curves, fire resistance, load versus displacement responses and load-bearing capacities were measured and discussed. A finite element (FE) model was developed using the program ABAQUS, and validated against the test results from the present study. Simplified design methods were proposed for predicting the fire resistance and residual load-bearing capacity of the STCRC columns under and after fire exposure, respectively.