Abstract: Dexamethasone (Dex) is a synthetic glucocorticoid
that is used in therapy. However prolonged treatments with high
doses are often required. This causes side effects that interfere with
the activity of several endocrine systems, including the gonadotropic
axis.
The aim of our study is to determine the effect of Dex on testicular
function in prepubertal Wistar rats.
Newborn Wistar rats are submitted to intraperitoneal injection of
Dex (1μg of Dex dissolved in NaCl 0.9% / 5g bw) for 20 days and
then sacrificed at the age of 40days. A control group received NaCl
0.9%. The rat is weighed daily. The plasmatic levels of testosterone,
LH and FSH were measured by radioimmunoassay. A histomorphometric
study was performed on sections of testis.
Treated groups showed a significant decrease in body weight (p
Abstract: Organizations are supposed to be systems and
consequently require defining the notion of equilibrium within.
However, organizations comprise people and unavoidably entail their
irrational aspects. Then, the question is what is the organizational
equilibrium and equilibrating mechanisms considering these aspects.
Hence, some arguments are provided here to conceptualize human
unconsciousness, irrationalities and consequent uncertainties within
organizations in the form of a system of psychic dynamism. The
assumption is this dynamism maintains the psychic balance of the
organization through a psychodynamic point of view. The resultant
conceptualization expected to promote the understanding of such
aspects in different organizational settings by hypothesizing
organizational equilibration from this perspective. As a result, the
main expectation is, if it is known that how the organization
equilibrates in this sense, we can explain and deal with such
irrationalities and unconsciousness by rational and, of course
conscious, planning and accomplishing.
Abstract: In developing countries located in monsoon areas like
Thailand where rainwater is currently of no value for urban dwellers
due to easily access to piped water supply at each household, studies
in rainwater harvesting for domestic use are of low interest. However
it is needed to undertake research to find out appropriate rainwater
harvesting systems particularly for small urban communities that are
recently developed from a full rural structure to urban context. As a
matter of fact, in such transitional period, relying on only common
water resources is risky. With some specific economic settings, land
use patterns, and historical and cultural context that dominate
perceptions of water users in the study area, the level of service in
this study may certainly be different from megacities or cities located
in industrial zone. The overviews of some available technologies and
background of rainwater harvesting including alternate resource are
included in this paper. Among other sources of water supply, ground
water use as the water resource of Thailand and also in the study area.
Abstract: The paper deals with the effect of ion nitriding and
carbonitriding on fatigue strength of steel parts under the fretting
conditions. Instrumented fatigue tests were carried out on surface
treated flat bars from EA1N and EA4T steels with different strength.
The chosen surfacing decrease importantly an unfavorable fretting
effect. Nitridation suppressed the unfavorable effect of fretting
almost entirely, while the influence of carbonitridation was less
striking. The results were compared with those ones obtained on bars
without surfacing. The causes of favorable influence of surfacing are
discussed.
Abstract: In elevating performance in competetive sports, an
athlete must continously train in achieving maximum
performance,but needs to pay attention to recovery therapy, that is to
recover from fatigue as well as injury.The correct recovery therapy
will assist in process of recovery and helps in the training in
achieving better performace. Binahong (Anredera cordifolia) was
proven empirically by the locals in assisting speedy recovery from an
injury.Clinical research with lab animals receiving blunt trauma
injury, microscopically shown signs of: 1) redness, 2) heatiness, 3)
swelling and, 4) lack of activity. There is also microscopic indication
of: 1) infiltration of inflame cells (migration of cells to the trauma
area), 2) Cells necrosis, 3) Congestion (as a result of dead red blood
cells), 4) uedema. On administration of Binahong for 3 days, there is
a significant drop of 5% in cell inflammation, 2% increase of
fibroblast (cell membrance) count.Conclutin: Binahong do assist in
reducing cell inflammation and increase counts of cells fibroblast.
Suggestion: In helping athlete's to recover from force injury, we need
study about Binahong's roots to inflammation cell and healing of
injuried cell.
Abstract: This paper present an efficient and reliable technique of optimization which combined fuel cost economic optimization and emission dispatch using the Sigmoid Decreasing Inertia Weight Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (PSO) to reduce the cost of fuel and pollutants resulting from fuel combustion by keeping the output of generators, bus voltages, shunt capacitors and transformer tap settings within the security boundary. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been demonstrated on IEEE 30-bus system with six generating units. The results clearly show that the proposed algorithm gives better and faster speed convergence then linearly decreasing inertia weight.
Abstract: A gene network gives the knowledge of the regulatory
relationships among the genes. Each gene has its activators and
inhibitors that regulate its expression positively and negatively
respectively. Genes themselves are believed to act as activators and
inhibitors of other genes. They can even activate one set of genes and
inhibit another set. Identifying gene networks is one of the most
crucial and challenging problems in Bioinformatics. Most work done
so far either assumes that there is no time delay in gene regulation or
there is a constant time delay. We here propose a Dynamic Time-
Lagged Correlation Based Method (DTCBM) to learn the gene
networks, which uses time-lagged correlation to find the potential
gene interactions, and then uses a post-processing stage to remove
false gene interactions to common parents, and finally uses dynamic
correlation thresholds for each gene to construct the gene network.
DTCBM finds correlation between gene expression signals shifted in
time, and therefore takes into consideration the multi time delay
relationships among the genes. The implementation of our method is
done in MATLAB and experimental results on Saccharomyces
cerevisiae gene expression data and comparison with other methods
indicate that it has a better performance.
Abstract: Texture classification is an important image processing
task with a broad application range. Many different techniques for
texture classification have been explored. Using sparse approximation
as a feature extraction method for texture classification is a relatively
new approach, and Skretting et al. recently presented the Frame
Texture Classification Method (FTCM), showing very good results on
classical texture images. As an extension of that work the FTCM is
here tested on a real world application as detection of abnormalities
in mammograms. Some extensions to the original FTCM that are
useful in some applications are implemented; two different smoothing
techniques and a vector augmentation technique. Both detection of
microcalcifications (as a primary detection technique and as a last
stage of a detection scheme), and soft tissue lesions in mammograms
are explored. All the results are interesting, and especially the results
using FTCM on regions of interest as the last stage in a detection
scheme for microcalcifications are promising.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to study in depth some methodological aspects of social interventation, focusing on desirable passage from social maternage method to peer advocacy method. For this purpose, we intend analyze social and organizative components, that affect operator's professional action and that are part of his psychological environment, besides the physical and social one. In fact, operator's interventation should not be limited to a pure supply of techniques, nor to take shape as improvised action, but “full of good purposes".
Abstract: The effect of artificial pozzolan (waste brick) on the
physico-chemical properties of cement manufactured was
investigated. The waste brick is generated by the manufacture of
bricks. It was used in the proportions of 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%
by mass of cement to study its effect on the physico-chemical
properties of cement incorporating artificial pozzolan. The physicochemical
properties of cement at anhydrous state and the hydrated
state (chemical composition, specific weight, fineness, consistency of
the cement paste and setting times) were studied. The experimental
results obtained show that the quantity of pozzolanic admixture
(waste brick) of cement manufactured is the principal parameter who
influences on the variation of the physico-chemical properties of the
cement tested.
Abstract: With China's urbanization continuing to accelerate, a amount of rural people flood into China's cities in recent years, and the issue of agriculture, rural areas and farmers is getting more and more serious. In 2005, the Chinese government put forward a plan for “the construction of new rural village", in order to coordinate the development of both urban and rural areas. The planning method of rural region differs sharply from that of urban areas, as same as village social structure and habits of farmer-s life, so the studies which can consider the special needs of village construction in China are absolutely essential. This paper expresses explore current situation and problems existing in the construction of China-s new rural village, such as bigger gap between urban and rural areas, excessive new construction projects, extinct traditional village style and so on. It tries to analyze the deep reason of the present situation of the village from law system, industrial structure, financial sources and planning method. Then it also provides a guide for developing policies and procedures promoting the development of china-s rural areas.
Abstract: The abundance and availability of rice husk, an agricultural waste, make them as a good source for precursor of activated carbon. In this work, rice husk-based activated carbons were prepared via base treated chemical activation process prior the carbonization process. The effect of carbonization temperatures (400, 600 and 800oC) on their pore structure was evaluated through morphology analysis using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Sample carbonized at 800oC showed better evolution and development of pores as compared to those carbonized at 400 and 600oC. The potential of rice husk-based activated carbon as an alternative adsorbent was investigated for the removal of Ni(II), Zn(II) and Pb(II) from single metal aqueous solution. The adsorption studies using rice husk-based activated carbon as an adsorbent were carried out as a function of contact time at room temperature and the metal ions were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The ability to remove metal ion from single metal aqueous solution was found to be improved with the increasing of carbonization temperature. Among the three metal ions tested, Pb(II) ion gave the highest adsorption on rice husk-based activated carbon. The results obtained indicate the potential to utilize rice husk as a promising precursor for the preparation of activated carbon for removal of heavy metals.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a method named Signal Level
Matrix (SLM) which can improve the accuracy and stability of active
RFID indoor positioning system. Considering the accuracy and cost,
we use uniform distribution mode to set up and separate the
overlapped signal covering areas, in order to achieve preliminary
location setting. Then, based on the proposed SLM concept and the
characteristic of the signal strength value that attenuates as the
distance increases, this system cross-examines the distribution of
adjacent signals to locate the users more accurately. The experimental
results indicate that the adaptive positioning method proposed in this
paper could improve the accuracy and stability of the positioning
system effectively and satisfyingly.
Abstract: The recent growth of using multimedia transmission
over wireless communication systems, have challenges to protect the
data from lost due to wireless channel effect. Images are corrupted
due to the noise and fading when transmitted over wireless channel,
in wireless channel the image is transmitted block by block, Due to
severe fading, entire image blocks can be damaged. The aim of this
paper comes out from need to enhance the digital images at the
wireless receiver side. Proposed Boundary Interpolation (BI)
Algorithm using wavelet, have been adapted here used to
reconstruction the lost block in the image at the receiver depend on
the correlation between the lost block and its neighbors. New
Proposed technique by using Boundary Interpolation (BI) Algorithm
using wavelet with Pixel interleaver has been implemented. Pixel
interleaver work on distribute the pixel to new pixel position of
original image before transmitting the image. The block lost through
wireless channel is only effects individual pixel. The lost pixels at the
receiver side can be recovered by using Boundary Interpolation (BI)
Algorithm using wavelet. The results showed that the New proposed
algorithm boundary interpolation (BI) using wavelet with pixel
interleaver is better in term of MSE and PSNR.
Abstract: In hypersonic environments, the aerothermal effect
makes it difficult for the optical side windows of optical guided
missiles to withstand high heat. This produces cracking or breaking,
resulting in an inability to function. This study used computational
fluid mechanics to investigate the external cooling jet conditions of
optical side windows. The turbulent models k-ε and k-ω were
simulated. To be in better accord with actual aerothermal
environments, a thermal radiation model was added to examine
suitable amounts of external coolants and the optical window
problems of aero-thermodynamics. The simulation results indicate that
when there are no external cooling jets, because airflow on the optical
window and the tail groove produce vortices, the temperatures in these
two locations reach a peak of approximately 1600 K. When the
external cooling jets worked at 0.15 kg/s, the surface temperature of
the optical windows dropped to approximately 280 K. When adding
thermal radiation conditions, because heat flux dissipation was faster,
the surface temperature of the optical windows fell from 280 K to
approximately 260 K. The difference in influence of the different
turbulence models k-ε and k-ω on optical window surface temperature
was not significant.
Abstract: Through 1980s, management accounting researchers
described the increasing irrelevance of traditional control and
performance measurement systems. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
is a critical business tool for a lot of organizations. It is a
performance measurement system which translates mission and
strategy into objectives. Strategy map approach is a development
variant of BSC in which some necessary causal relations must be
established. To recognize these relations, experts usually use
experience. It is also possible to utilize regression for the same
purpose. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), which is one of the
most powerful methods of multivariate data analysis, obtains more
appropriate results than traditional methods such as regression. In the
present paper, we propose SEM for the first time to identify the
relations between objectives in the strategy map, and a test to
measure the importance of relations. In SEM, factor analysis and test
of hypotheses are done in the same analysis. SEM is known to be
better than other techniques at supporting analysis and reporting. Our
approach provides a framework which permits the experts to design
the strategy map by applying a comprehensive and scientific method
together with their experience. Therefore this scheme is a more
reliable method in comparison with the previously established
methods.
Abstract: The effect of the blade tip geometry of a high pressure
gas turbine is studied experimentally and computationally for high
speed leakage flows. For this purpose two simplified models are
constructed, one models a flat tip of the blade and the second models
a cavity tip of the blade. Experimental results are obtained from a
transonic wind tunnel to show the static pressure distribution along
the tip wall and provide flow visualization. RANS computations
were carried to provide further insight into the mean flow behavior
and to calculate the discharge coefficient which is a measure of the
flow leaking over the tip. It is shown that in both geometries of tip
the flow separates over the tip to form a separation bubble. The
bubble is higher for the cavity tip while a complete shock wave
system of oblique waves ending with a normal wave can be seen for
the flat tip. The discharge coefficient for the flat tip shows less
dependence on the pressure ratio over the blade tip than the cavity
tip. However, the discharge coefficient for the cavity tip is lower than
that of the flat tip, showing a better ability to reduce the leakage flow
and thus increase the turbine efficiency.
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to a design of pattern
classification model based on the back-propagation (BP) algorithm for
decision support system. Standard BP model has done full connection
of each node in the layers from input to output layers. Therefore, it
takes a lot of computing time and iteration computing for good
performance and less accepted error rate when we are doing some
pattern generation or training the network.
However, this model is using exclusive connection in between
hidden layer nodes and output nodes. The advantage of this model is
less number of iteration and better performance compare with standard
back-propagation model. We simulated some cases of classification
data and different setting of network factors (e.g. hidden layer number
and nodes, number of classification and iteration). During our
simulation, we found that most of simulations cases were satisfied by
BP based using exclusive connection network model compared to
standard BP. We expect that this algorithm can be available to
identification of user face, analysis of data, mapping data in between
environment data and information.
Abstract: Selecting the data modeling technique for an
information system is determined by the objective of the resultant
data model. Dimensional modeling is the preferred modeling
technique for data destined for data warehouses and data mining,
presenting data models that ease analysis and queries which are in
contrast with entity relationship modeling. The establishment of data
warehouses as components of information system landscapes in
many organizations has subsequently led to the development of
dimensional modeling. This has been significantly more developed
and reported for the commercial database management systems as
compared to the open sources thereby making it less affordable for
those in resource constrained settings. This paper presents
dimensional modeling of HIV patient information using open source
modeling tools. It aims to take advantage of the fact that the most
affected regions by the HIV virus are also heavily resource
constrained (sub-Saharan Africa) whereas having large quantities of
HIV data. Two HIV data source systems were studied to identify
appropriate dimensions and facts these were then modeled using two
open source dimensional modeling tools. Use of open source would
reduce the software costs for dimensional modeling and in turn make
data warehousing and data mining more feasible even for those in
resource constrained settings but with data available.
Abstract: Energy and exergy study of air-water combined solar collector which is called dual purpose solar collector (DPSC) is investigated. The method of ε - NTU is used. Analysis is performed for triangle channels. Parameters like the air flow rate and water inlet temperature are studied. Results are shown that DPSC has better energy and exergy efficiency than single collector. In addition, the triangle passage with water inlet temperature of 60O C has shown better exergy and energy efficiency.