Abstract: Persea declinata (Bl.) Kosterm is a member of the
Lauraceae family, widely distributed in Southeast Asia. It is from the
same genus with avocado (Persea americana Mill), which is widely
consumed as food and for medicinal purposes. In the present study,
we examined the anticancer properties of Persea declinata (Bl.)
Kosterm bark methanolic crude extract (PDM). PDM exhibited a
potent antiproliferative effect in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells,
with an IC50 value of 16.68 .g/mL after 48h of treatment. We
observed that PDM caused cell cycle arrest and subsequent apoptosis
in MCF-7 cells, as exhibited by increased population at G0/G1 phase,
higher lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, and DNA
fragmentation. Mechanistic studies showed that PDM caused
significant elevation in ROS production, leading to perturbation of
mitochondrial membrane potential, cell permeability, and activation
of caspases-3/7. On the other hand, real-time PCR and Western blot
analysis showed that PDM treatment increased the expression of the
proapoptotic molecule, Bax, but decreased the expression of
prosurvival proteins, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, in a dose-dependent manner.
These findings imply that PDM could inhibit proliferation in MCF-7
cells via cell cycle arrest and apoptosis induction, indicating its
potential as a therapeutic agent worthy of further development.
Abstract: The organizations of European and Czech critical
infrastructure have specific position, mission, characteristics and
behaviour in European Union and Czech state/business environments,
regarding specific requirements for regional and global security
environments. They must respect policy of national security and
global rules, requirements and standards in all their inherent and
outer processes of supply - customer chains and networks. A
controlling is generalized capability to have control over situational
policy. This paper aims and purposes are to introduce the controlling
as quite new necessary process attribute providing for critical
infrastructure is environment the capability and profit to achieve its
commitment regarding to the effectiveness of the quality
management system in meeting customer/ user requirements and also
the continual improvement of critical infrastructure organization’s
processes overall performance and efficiency, as well as its societal
security via continual planning improvement via DYVELOP
modelling.
Abstract: Well-designed composite steel and concrete structures
highlight the good material properties and lower the deficiencies of
steel and concrete, in particular they make use of high tensile strength
of steel and high stiffness of concrete. The most common composite
steel and concrete structure is a simply supported beam, which
concrete slab transferring the slab load to a beam is connected to the
steel cross-section. The aim of this paper is to find the most adequate
numerical model of a simply supported composite beam with the
cross-sectional and material parameters based on the results of a
processed parametric study and numerical analysis. The paper also
evaluates the suitability of using compact concrete with the
lightweight aggregates for composite steel and concrete beams. The
most adequate numerical model will be used in the resent future to
compare the results of laboratory tests.
Abstract: Load Forecasting plays a key role in making today's
and future's Smart Energy Grids sustainable and reliable. Accurate
power consumption prediction allows utilities to organize in advance
their resources or to execute Demand Response strategies more
effectively, which enables several features such as higher
sustainability, better quality of service, and affordable electricity
tariffs. It is easy yet effective to apply Load Forecasting at larger
geographic scale, i.e. Smart Micro Grids, wherein the lower available
grid flexibility makes accurate prediction more critical in Demand
Response applications. This paper analyses the application of
short-term load forecasting in a concrete scenario, proposed within the
EU-funded GreenCom project, which collect load data from single
loads and households belonging to a Smart Micro Grid. Three
short-term load forecasting techniques, i.e. linear regression, artificial
neural networks, and radial basis function network, are considered,
compared, and evaluated through absolute forecast errors and training
time. The influence of weather conditions in Load Forecasting is also
evaluated. A new definition of Gain is introduced in this paper, which
innovatively serves as an indicator of short-term prediction
capabilities of time spam consistency. Two models, 24- and
1-hour-ahead forecasting, are built to comprehensively compare these
three techniques.
Abstract: Due to reduced stiffness, research on second
generation titanium alloys for implant applications, like the
metastable β-titanium alloy Ti-15Mo, become more and more
important in the recent years. The machinability of these alloys is
generally poor leading to problems during implant production and
comparably large production costs. Therefore, in the present study,
Ti-15Mo was alloyed with 0.8 wt.-% of the rare earth metals
lanthanum (Ti-15Mo+0.8La) and neodymium (Ti-15Mo+0.8Nd) to
improve its machinability. Their microstructure consisted of a
titanium matrix and micrometer-size particles of the rare earth metals
and two of their oxides. The particles stabilized the microstructure as
grain growth was minimized. As especially the ductility might be
affected by the precipitates, the behavior of Ti-15Mo+0.8La and Ti-
15Mo+0.8Nd was investigated during static and dynamic
deformation at elevated temperature to develop a processing route.
The resulting mechanical properties (static strength and ductility)
were similar in all investigated alloys.
Abstract: The aim of the paper was to elaborate a novel calculator BasWilCalc, that allows to estimate the actual amount of biomass on the basket willow plantations. The proposed method is based on the results of field experiment conducted during years 2011-2013 on basket willow plantation in the south-western part of Poland. As input data the results of destructive measurements of the diameter, length and weight of willow stems and non-destructive biometric measurements of diameter in the middle of stems and their length during the growing season performed at weekly intervals were used. Performed analysis enabled to develop the algorithm which, due to the fact that energy plantations are of known and constant planting structure, allows to estimate the actual amount of willow basket biomass on the plantation with a given probability and accuracy specified by the model, based on the number of stems measured and the age of the plantation.
Abstract: To mimic the natural circumstances of cell growth in an organism, we present three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds fabricated by microfluidics for cultivation. This work investigates the cellular behaviors of rat cardiomyocytes in gelatin 3D scaffolds compared to those on 2D control, such as proliferation, viability and morphology. We found that the scaffolds may induce skeletal differentiation of H9c2 cells.
Abstract: In Capitalism all economic activity rests upon a set of
core institutional foundations, main from which are privately owned
capital assets and profit. How these core institutional foundations are
working in former soviet countries, in particular in Travel and
Tourism Industry of Georgia?
The role of Travel and Tourism as a key pillar of economic growth
is being increasingly recognized by governments in all regions of the
world. For the last few years Georgia succeeded in the World Bank
and IFC “Doing Business” rankings. Despite of that, during decades
totally different statistical data of the tourism sector were provided by
the different State bodies; economic parameters were published few,
or not published at all.
The frequency and extent of property rights violation in Georgia
has repeatedly been the subject of concern for the last decade. Total
value of abrogated by the former Georgian Government private
property is estimated approximately in US$4-5 billion.
Thus, if economic profitability is unknown and property rights are
not protected – that means that the main institutional foundations of
capitalism in Georgia, are not working properly yet, that cause
management problems at all levels of the national Travel and
Tourism industry of Georgia.
Abstract: In this work, we propose the application of Japanese
“Origami” art for a floating function of a small aerial vehicle such as a
hexarotor. A preliminary experiment was conducted using Origami
magic balls mounted under a hexarotor. This magic ball can expand
and shrink using an air pump during free flying. Using this interesting
and functional concept, it promises to reduce the resistance of wind as
well as reduce the energy consumption when the Origami balls are
deflated. This approach can be particularly useful in rescue emergency
situations. Furthermore, there are many unexpected reasons that may
cause the multi-rotor has to land on the surface of water due to
problems with the communication between the aircraft and the ground
station. In addition, a complementary experiment was designed to
prove that the hexarotor can fly maintaining the stability and also,
takes off and lands on the surface of water using air balloons.
Abstract: No matter how much perfect we become in our
practical skills regarding the implementation of learned ideas, the
need of technical writing capability cannot be neglected being a
professional. Technical writing is a way of communicating the ideas
in written which otherwise need to be presented orally. Technical
writing skills have always been the need of the time, as they are
required for internal as well as external official communication in
both formal and informal manner. Moreover, they are the best way to
capture the attention of your customers by presenting information in
effective manner. This paper aims to analyze the importance of
technical writing skills in professional industries of Pakistan by
conducting a survey. Survey results presented in this paper clearly
depicts the importance of formal and informal written communication
media used in different professional industries in Pakistan. Analysis
and discussion of the extent to which the alternative ways of
communication besides technical writing have got importance in
Pakistan is also an important aspect of this survey.
Abstract: Ficus deltoidea from the Moraceae family is a popular
medicinal herb in Malaysia. It possesses strong antioxidant and antiinflammatory
properties. In the present study, the anti-inflammatory
effects of F. deltoidea extract on UVB-irradiated HaCaT
Keratinocytes were investigated. HaCaT Keratinocytes were UVBirradiated
(12.5 mJ/cm3) and were treated with 0.05, 0.08 or 0.1% of
F. deltoidea extract. Cell viability following UVB irradiation was
significantly higher in the groups treated with the F. deltoidea extract
at doses of 0.05, 0.08 or 0.1% than in control group with UVB
irradiation only. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1α
(IL-1α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and cyclooxygenase (COX-2) play
primary roles in the inflammation process upon UV irradiation and
are known to be stimulated by UVB irradiation. Treatment with the
F. deltoidea extract dramatically inhibited the UV-induced TNF-α,
IL-1α, IL-6, and COX-2 expression. These results suggest that the F.
deltoidea extract inhibits the production of pro-inflammatory
cytokines and may be an effective protective agent for the treatment
of skin diseases.
Abstract: This entry concerned with dense silica bricks
microstructure was produced as a part of a project within the
Technology Agency of the Czech Republic which is being
implemented in cooperation of the biggest producer of refractories
the P-D Refractories CZ company with the research organisation
Brno University of Technology. The paper is focused on the
influence of mixture homogenisation and the influence of grain size
of the mineraliser on the resulting utility properties of the material as
well as its microstructure. It has a decisive influence on the durability
of the material in a building structure. This paper is a continuation of
a previously published study dealing with the suitability of various
types of mineralising agents in terms of density, strength and mineral
composition of silica brick.
The entry describes the influence of the method of mixture
homogenisation and the influence of granulometry of the applied Femineralising
agent on the resulting silica microstructure. Porosity,
density, phase composition and microstructure of the experimentally
prepared silica bricks samples were examined and the results were
discussed in context with the technology of homogenisation and
firing temperature used. The properties of silica bricks samples were
compared to the sample without any Fe-mineraliser.
Abstract: The paper presents combined automatic speech
recognition (ASR) of English and machine translation (MT) for
English and Croatian and Croatian-English language pairs in the
domain of business correspondence. The first part presents results of
training the ASR commercial system on English data sets, enriched
by error analysis. The second part presents results of machine
translation performed by free online tool for English and Croatian
and Croatian-English language pairs. Human evaluation in terms of
usability is conducted and internal consistency calculated by
Cronbach's alpha coefficient, enriched by error analysis. Automatic
evaluation is performed by WER (Word Error Rate) and PER
(Position-independent word Error Rate) metrics, followed by
investigation of Pearson’s correlation with human evaluation.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the ability to
identify and acquire knowledge from external sources at the regional
level in the Czech Republic. The results show that the most important
sources of knowledge for innovative activities are sources within the
businesses themselves, followed by customers and suppliers.
Furthermore, the analysis of relationships between the objective of
the innovative activity and the ability to identify and acquire
knowledge implies that knowledge obtained from (1) customers aims
at replacing outdated products and increasing product quality; (2)
suppliers aims at increasing capacity and flexibility of production;
and (3) competing businesses aims at growing market share and
increasing the flexibility of production and services. Regions should
therefore direct their support especially into development and
strengthening of networks within the value chain.
Abstract: Access control is one of the most challenging issues
facing information security. Access control is defined as, the ability to
permit or deny access to a particular computational resource or digital
information by an unauthorized user or subject. The concept of usage
control (UCON) has been introduced as a unified approach to capture a
number of extensions for access control models and systems. In
UCON, an access decision is determined by three factors:
authorizations, obligations and conditions. Attribute mutability and
decision continuity are two distinct characteristics introduced by
UCON for the first time. An observation of UCON components
indicates that, the components are predefined and static. In this paper,
we propose a new and flexible model of usage control for the creation
and elimination of some of these components; for example new
objects, subjects, attributes and integrate these with the original
UCON model. We also propose a model for concurrent usage
scenarios in UCON.
Abstract: This paper deals with a protection of the national and
European infrastructure. It is issue nowadays. The paper deals with
the perspectives and possibilities of "smart solutions" to critical
infrastructure protection. The research project deals with computers
aided technologies are used from the perspective of new, better
protection of selected infrastructure objects. Protection is focused on
communication and information channels. These communication and
information channels are very important for the functioning of the
system of protection of critical infrastructure elements.
Abstract: Chloride resistance in Ultra High Performance
Concrete (UHPC) is determined in this paper. This work deals with
the one dimension chloride transport, which can be potentially
dangerous particularly for the durability of concrete structures. Risk
of reinforcement corrosion due to exposure to the concrete surface to
direct the action of chloride ions (mainly in the form de-icing salts or
groundwater) is dangerously increases. The measured data are
investigated depending on the depth of penetration of chloride ions
into the concrete structure. Comparative measurements with normal
strength concrete are done as well. The experimental results showed
that UHCP have improved resistance of chlorides penetration than
NSC and also chloride diffusion depth is significantly lower in
UHCP.
Abstract: In this study, the evaluation of thermal stability of the
micrometer-sized silica particle reinforced epoxy composite was
carried out through the measurement of thermal expansion coefficient
and Young’s modulus of the specimens. For all the specimens in this
study from the baseline to those containing 50 wt% silica filler, the
thermal expansion coefficients and the Young’s moduli were
gradually decreased down to 20% and increased up to 41%,
respectively. The experimental results were compared with fillervolume-
based simple empirical relations. The experimental results of
thermal expansion coefficients correspond with those of Thomas’s
model which is modified from the rule of mixture. However, the
measured result for Young’s modulus tends to be increased slightly.
The differences in increments of the moduli between experimental and
numerical model data are quite large.
Abstract: Over the past era, there have been a lot of efforts and
studies are carried out in growing proficient tools for performing
various tasks in big data. Recently big data have gotten a lot of
publicity for their good reasons. Due to the large and complex
collection of datasets it is difficult to process on traditional data
processing applications. This concern turns to be further mandatory
for producing various tools in big data. Moreover, the main aim of
big data analytics is to utilize the advanced analytic techniques
besides very huge, different datasets which contain diverse sizes from
terabytes to zettabytes and diverse types such as structured or
unstructured and batch or streaming. Big data is useful for data sets
where their size or type is away from the capability of traditional
relational databases for capturing, managing and processing the data
with low-latency. Thus the out coming challenges tend to the
occurrence of powerful big data tools. In this survey, a various
collection of big data tools are illustrated and also compared with the
salient features.
Abstract: The global demand for continuous and eco-friendly
renewable energy as alternative to fossils fuels is large and ever
growing in nowadays. This paper will focus on capability of Vortex
Induced Vibration (VIV) phenomenon in generating alternative
energy for offshore platform application. In order to maximize the
potential of energy generation, the effects of lock in phenomenon and
different geometries of cylinder were studied in this project. VIV is
the motion induced on bluff body which creates alternating lift forces
perpendicular to fluid flow. Normally, VIV is unwanted in order to
prevent mechanical failure of the vibrating structures. But in this
project, instead of eliminating these vibrations, VIV will be exploited
to transform these vibrations into a valuable resource of energy.