In a factorial ring, we can define the p.g.c.d. of two elements (defined to the nearest unit) and the notion of prime elements between them. More generally, Bezout’s identity characterizes two prime elements in a mai...In a factorial ring, we can define the p.g.c.d. of two elements (defined to the nearest unit) and the notion of prime elements between them. More generally, Bezout’s identity characterizes two prime elements in a main ring. A ring that satisfies the property of the theorem is called a Bezout ring. We have given some geometry theorems that can be proved algebraically, although the methods of geometry and, in particular, of projective geometry are by far the most beautiful. Most geometric problems actually involve polynomial equations and can be translated into the language of polynomial ideals. We have given a few examples of a different nature without pretending to make a general theory.展开更多
Metal contamination in the environment is a global concern due to its high toxicity to living organisms and its worldwide distribution. The principal goal of this review is to examine the current strategies and techno...Metal contamination in the environment is a global concern due to its high toxicity to living organisms and its worldwide distribution. The principal goal of this review is to examine the current strategies and technologies for the remediation of metal- contaminated soils by metal-accumulating plants and assess the roles of arbnscular mycorrhizal （AM） fungi in remediation of soils under hyperaccumulator or non-accumulator plants. The use of plants to remove metals from the environment or reduce the toxicity, known as phytoremediation, is an environmentally sustainable and low cost remediation technology. The mechanisms of the use of hyperaccumulator plants for phytoremediation included solubilization of the metal in the soil matrix, the plant uptake of the metal, detoxification/chelation and sequestration, and volatilization. Recently, some ecologists have found that phytoremediation with the aids of mycorrhizae can enhance efficiency in the removal of toxic metals. AM fungi can facilitate the survival of their host plants growing on metal-contaminated land by enhancing their nutrient acquisition, protecting them from the metal toxicity, absorbing metals, and also enhancing phytostabilization and phytoextraction. Such information may be useful for developing phytoremediation program at metal-contaminated sites.展开更多
In this study, we reported and validated a novel and sensitive reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of irbesartan, candesartan, gliquidone and pioglitazone. Separation was pe...In this study, we reported and validated a novel and sensitive reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of irbesartan, candesartan, gliquidone and pioglitazone. Separation was performed at 230 nm using a mobile phase consisting of methanol–water(90:10, v/v) with a flow rate of 1 mL/min. p H was adjusted to 3.5 with phosphoric acid. The concentration-response relationship was found linear over a concentration range of 5–25 μg/mL for all of the analytes tested. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.83 and 2.78 for irbesartan, 0.30 and 1.01 for candesartan, 1.11 and 3.93 for gliquidone, and 0.41 and 1.41 μg/mL for pioglitazone, respectively. Described method permitted the successful determination of these drugs in human serum. The developed method was simple, rapid, and it did not require extensive sample purification.展开更多
Effect of cultivar differences on physical and proximate composition, and sensory attributes of sweet potato fries and crisps were determined. Physicochemical and colour characteristics of sweet potato flours and star...Effect of cultivar differences on physical and proximate composition, and sensory attributes of sweet potato fries and crisps were determined. Physicochemical and colour characteristics of sweet potato flours and starches were evaluated using Rapid Visco Analyser and Hunter L a b, respectively. Chroma, colour intensity and hue angle were calculated. Objective and sensory parameters of sweet potato fries and crisps were evaluated. Proximate and pasting properties were typical of sweet potato tubers, flour and starches. Maltose (0.05% - 0.08%), sucrose (0.05% - 1.60%) contents of sweet potato were significantly different (p < 0.05). Amylose and amylopectin contents of sweet potato starches were 19.5% - 24.6% and 75.4% - 80.5%, respectively. Swelling power and solubility were 2.42 - 2.88 and 0.11 - 0.32, 5.01 and 0.02 - 3.00 for flours and starches, respectively. Lovers name fries showed significantly better appearance, while Big Red and Black Vine fries showed similar sensory scores. No significant difference occurred in all the sensory attributes of crisps of the sweet potato cultivars.展开更多
The World Health Organization has declared the rapidly spreading coronavirus to be a global pandemic.The FDA is yet to approve a vaccine for human novel coronavirus.Here,we developed a peptide-based vaccine and used h...The World Health Organization has declared the rapidly spreading coronavirus to be a global pandemic.The FDA is yet to approve a vaccine for human novel coronavirus.Here,we developed a peptide-based vaccine and used high-throughput screening by molecular dynamics simulation to identify T-cell-and p-cell-recognized epitopes for producing specific antibod-ies against SARS-nCoV-2.We construct~12 P'antigenic epitope peptides to develop a more effective vaccine and identify specific antibodies.These epitope peptides selectively presented the best antigen presentation scores for both human pMHC class I and II alleles to develop a strong binding affinity.All antigens identified of SARS-nCoV-2 different proteins by each attached specific~1-7 L linker adaptor were used to construct a broad single peripheral peptide vaccine.It is expected to be highly antigenic with a minimum allergic effect.As a result of these exciting outcomes,expressing a vaccine using the intimated peptide was highly promising and positive to be highly proposed as epitope-based peptide vaccine of specific antibody against SARS-nCoV-2 by initiating T cells and β-cells.An in vitro study for the proposed peptide-based vaccine is.mostly recommended.Further clinical trials are required to check the efficacy of this vaccine.展开更多
Rapid developments of mobile technologies, data acquisition and big data analytics, and their integration with critical application domains such as transportation systems have the potential to produce more efficient, ...Rapid developments of mobile technologies, data acquisition and big data analytics, and their integration with critical application domains such as transportation systems have the potential to produce more efficient, real-time, intelligent and safe transportation infrastructure. To increase the quality of transportation services, wireless sensor networks, mobile phones, crowd sourcing, RFID and Bluetooth technologies are being used. We surveyed innovations that were transformed from ideas in research labs into commercial systems in practical use. In this paper, we present some innovative mobile technologies, services and platforms that are being used in modern transportation applications including traffic data acquisition, traffic management and control, route optimizations, infrastructure redesign, road safety and enhancing user experience.展开更多
Essential oils are secondary metabolites produced by plants, can be extracted from any organ such as： leaves, branches, roots, rhizomes, flowers, fruits, seeds, wood and stem bark. The present study aimed to analyze ...Essential oils are secondary metabolites produced by plants, can be extracted from any organ such as： leaves, branches, roots, rhizomes, flowers, fruits, seeds, wood and stem bark. The present study aimed to analyze the compounds found in the essential oil of leafHancornia speciosa var. pubescens （C. Nees ＆ Mart.） MUll. Arg. （Apocynaceae）, popularly known as mangaba, and perform the soil chemical analysis of the occurrence of the same species. The oil was obtained by hydrodistillation in Clevenger from crushed leaves, their analysis was performed using the Shimadzu gas chromatograph model 2010 GC Ultra coupled to a mass spectrometer. The apofarnesol （48.45%）, naphthalene （4.84%）, ct-bisabolene （4.12%）, trans-i3-heptanone （2.34%）, spathulenol （1.48%）, cypermethrin were identified （1.35%） and malonic acid （1.34%）, which according to literature all these compounds have great insecticidal characteristics. Soil testing was performed according to the protocols of the S.L. Goi^nia/GO, which was found a soil poor in nutrient with acidic pH, these predominant features of the Cen：ado＇s soils, which can influence the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. Concluding that Hancornia speciosa variety pubescens may have insecticidal activities.展开更多
Obstacle removal in crowd evacuation is critical to safety and the evacuation system efficiency. Recently, manyresearchers proposed game theoreticmodels to avoid and remove obstacles for crowd evacuation. Game theoret...Obstacle removal in crowd evacuation is critical to safety and the evacuation system efficiency. Recently, manyresearchers proposed game theoreticmodels to avoid and remove obstacles for crowd evacuation. Game theoreticalmodels aim to study and analyze the strategic behaviors of individuals within a crowd and their interactionsduring the evacuation. Game theoretical models have some limitations in the context of crowd evacuation. Thesemodels consider a group of individuals as homogeneous objects with the same goals, involve complex mathematicalformulation, and cannot model real-world scenarios such as panic, environmental information, crowds that movedynamically, etc. The proposed work presents a game theoretic model integrating an agent-based model to removethe obstacles from exits. The proposed model considered the parameters named: (1) obstacle size, length, andwidth, (2) removal time, (3) evacuation time, (4) crowd density, (5) obstacle identification, and (6) route selection.The proposed work conducts various experiments considering different conditions, such as obstacle types, obstacleremoval, and several obstacles. Evaluation results show the proposed model’s effectiveness compared with existingliterature in reducing the overall evacuation time, cell selection, and obstacle removal. The study is potentially usefulfor public safety situations such as emergency evacuations during disasters and calamities.展开更多
In this study, n-butanol-diesel blends were burned in a turbo-charged, direct injection diesel engine where the brake thermal efficiency, (BTE) or brake specific fuel consumption, (BSFC) was compared with that of etha...In this study, n-butanol-diesel blends were burned in a turbo-charged, direct injection diesel engine where the brake thermal efficiency, (BTE) or brake specific fuel consumption, (BSFC) was compared with that of ethanol-diesel or methanol-diesel blends in another study by other authors. The test blends used were B5, B10 and B20 (where B5 is 5% n-butanol by volume and 95% diesel fuel-DF). In this study, the BTE was higher and the BSFC improved more than in the other study. Because of improved BTE with increasing brake mean effective pressure, BMEP, the BSFC reduced, however the increased shared volume of n-butanol in DF increased BSFC. Adding n-butanol in DF slightly derated the torque, brake power output with increasing speed, and caused a fall in exhaust gas temperatures, (EGT) which improves the volumetric efficiency and reduces compression work. Therefore, a small-shared volume of n-butanol in DF fired in a turbo-charged diesel engine performs better in terms of BTE and BSFC than that of ethanol or methanol blending in DF.展开更多
Folate deficiency has been confirmed to be related to various diseases.Unfortunately,there are few reports on the folate status of Chinese adults.This study aims to evaluate the serum folate status of blood donors in ...Folate deficiency has been confirmed to be related to various diseases.Unfortunately,there are few reports on the folate status of Chinese adults.This study aims to evaluate the serum folate status of blood donors in south-central China.In this study,248 blood donors were included.The information on subjects was collected by a brief questionnaire concerning alcohol consumption habits,smoking habits,fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity.The serum folate concentration was measured by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay.The geometric mean serum folate concentration was 13.4 nmoll-1(95%CI,12.7-14.1).The prevalence of serum folate concentrations below 6.8 nmoll-1 was 5.2%(95%CI,2.5-8.0).There were significant differences in serum folate concentrations with respect to sex(p-values<0.05),age(p-values<0.05),fruit and vegetable consumption(p-values<0.05),and alcohol consumption habits(p-values<0.05).The concentration of serum folate increased with age(p-values<0.05)and fruit and vegetable consumption(p-values<0.05).Individuals with an age of 30 years or younger were nearly 3.5 times as likely as those aged over 30 years to have an insufficient level of serum folate(OR=3.48;95%CI:1.01-11.99).An age of 30 years or younger was a risk factor for folate deficiency.Most blood donors had sufficient serum folate concentrations in south-central China.National surveys of folate status should be implemented in China.展开更多
In high-density gatherings,crowd disasters frequently occur despite all the safety measures.Timely detection of congestion in human crowds using automated analysis of video footage can prevent crowd disasters.Recent w...In high-density gatherings,crowd disasters frequently occur despite all the safety measures.Timely detection of congestion in human crowds using automated analysis of video footage can prevent crowd disasters.Recent work on the prevention of crowd disasters has been based on manual analysis of video footage.Some methods also measure crowd congestion by estimating crowd density.However,crowd density alone cannot provide reliable information about congestion.This paper proposes a deep learning framework for automated crowd congestion detection that leverages pedestrian trajectories.The proposed framework divided the input video into several temporal segments.We then extracted dense trajectories from each temporal segment and converted these into a spatio-temporal image without losing information.A classification model based on convolutional neural networks was then trained using spatio-temporal images.Next,we generated a score map by encoding each point trajectory with its respective class score.After this,we obtained the congested regions by employing the non-maximum suppression method on the score map.Finally,we demonstrated the proposed framework’s effectiveness by performing a series of experiments on challenging video sequences.展开更多
Black cumin (Nigella sativa L.;Family-Ranunculaceae) is an important spice crop. Mature seeds are consumed for edible and medical purposes and also used as a food additive and flavour. Seed of black cumin has great po...Black cumin (Nigella sativa L.;Family-Ranunculaceae) is an important spice crop. Mature seeds are consumed for edible and medical purposes and also used as a food additive and flavour. Seed of black cumin has great potentiality as spice crop due to nutritive and medicinal values. The experiments were carried out at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur during 2011 to 2012 to determine optimum planting time for seed production of black cumin. The experiment was two factorials. Factor A: 4 genotypes were V1: Exotic, Iran;V2: BARI kalozira-1;V3: Local, Faridpur and V4: Local, Natore. Factor B: sowing date: D1: 16 October;D2: 1 November;D3: 16 November and D4: 1 December. Therefore, treatment combinations were 16 in total. So, in 3 replications total plot was 48. Result revealed that significantly the highest 2.37 t/ha in V1, followed by V2 (1.96 t/ha). V2 and V3 (1.97 t/ha) were statistically similar and maximum yield was obtained from D2 (2.65 t/ha). In combined effect, maximum yield 3.00 t/ha was obtained in V1D2.. Investigation on time of sowing revealed that performance of black cumin was better in earlier sowings (16 October, 1 November) than later ones. The highest yield (4g plant-1;2.65 tha-1) was obtained when the crop was sown on 1 November. Among the genotypes, the exotic one with sowing in 1 November gave the highest seed yield (4.54 g·plant-1;3.00 t·ha-1).展开更多
Abnormal levels of plasma lipid have been linked to atherosclerosis, strokes and heart conditions. Variations in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels are considered as ri...Abnormal levels of plasma lipid have been linked to atherosclerosis, strokes and heart conditions. Variations in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels are considered as risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD). Furthermore, triglycerides are a leading cause of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, measurement of plasma lipid levels is an important mortality predictor. Several factors were associated with irregularity in plasma lipids such as genetic alterations. Recent researches have linked single nucleotides polymorphism (SNP) in ApoA5 gene with these deviations. In this study, we reported the effects of the genetic variant c.553G>T in ApoA5 on the levels of plasma lipids. To explore these effects, a case-control study including 280 male and female subjects (44 of them were assigned as CAD cases while the remaining subjects were categorized as control) was established. All patients in the study were recruited from the western region in KSA. The results have detected minor variations in LDL, HDL and cholesterol levels between CAD patients carrying T allele and CAD patients carrying the WT allele. However, there were no significant effects due to these variations. TG levels in the wild type carriers reached up to 291 mg/dl while T allele carriers, the cases, presented lower levels of TG (170 mg/dl and 71 mg/dl). Although, T allele showed no effects on plasma lipids with the exception of TG levels. We suggest by this study that T allele in this SNP might be considered as a valuable tool in the diagnosis of CAD.展开更多
Background: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a widespread and debilitating disorder with relatively high prevalence in Saudi Arabia. Neuropsychological and radiological investigations have revealed t...Background: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a widespread and debilitating disorder with relatively high prevalence in Saudi Arabia. Neuropsychological and radiological investigations have revealed that there are some differences in the components of the brain regions in children with and without ADHD. In this study we have performed whole exome sequencing (WES) in four non-familial cases of ADHD from Makkah Region to identify the genetic polymorphisms associated with the disease in our Saudi population. Methods: Exome sequencing was carried out using Ion Proton with AmpliSeq Exome library methods, and the data were analysed by Ion Reporter 5.6 software. Results: A total of 33 variants were identified from 222 genes selected from the GWAS catalogue for ADHD associated genes. However, the SNPs we identified in these genes were not reported to be associated with ADHD in previous studies. We have identified 2 novel missense variants;one in c.3451G > T;p. (Ala1151Ser) in ITGA1 gene and another is c.988G > A;p. (Ala330Thr) in SPATA13 genes. The variants rs928661, rs11150370 and rs386792899 were the only three variants that appeared on all the 4 patients studied. Six missense variants, rs16841277, rs2228209, rs2230283, rs3741883, rs1716 and rs2272606, were found in 3 different patients, respectively. However, the three documented variants are rs13166360 with bipolar disorder, rs920829 with neuropathic pain, and rs6558702 with schizophrenia. Conclusion: We have identified 2 novel variants in ADHD children. SIFT score of all variants indicates that these substitutions have damaging effects on the protein function. Further screening studies are recommended for confirmation.展开更多
Ischemia occurs in diabetic retinopathy with neuronal loss, edema, glial cell reactivity and oxidative stress. Epacs, consisting of Epac 1 and Epac2, are cAMP mediators playing important roles in maintenance of endoth...Ischemia occurs in diabetic retinopathy with neuronal loss, edema, glial cell reactivity and oxidative stress. Epacs, consisting of Epac 1 and Epac2, are cAMP mediators playing important roles in maintenance of endothelial barrier and neuronal functions To investigate the roles of Epacs in the pathogenesis of ischemic retinopathy, transient middle cerebral artery occlusion （tMCAO） was performed on Epacl-deficient （Epacl-/- ） mice, Epac2-deficient （Epac2-/-） mice, and their wild type counter-parts （Epacl＋/＋ and Epac2＋/＋）. Two-hour occlusion and 22-hour reperfusion were conducted to induce ischemia/reperfusion injury to the retina. After tMCAO, the contralateral retinae displayed similar morphology between different genotypes. Neu-ronal loss, retinal edema and increase in immunoreactivity for aquaporin 4 （AQP4）, glial fibrillary acidic protein （GFAP）, peroxiredoxin 6 （Prx6） were observed in ipsilateral retinae. Epac2 / ipsilateral retinae showed more neuronal loss in retinal ganglion cell layer, increased retinal thickness and stronger immunostaining of AQP4, GFAP, and Prx6 than those of Epac2＋/＋. However, Epacl-/- ipsilateral retinae displayed similar pathology as those in Epacl＋/＋ mice. Our observations suggest that Epac2-deficiency led to more severe ischemic retinopathy after retinal ischemia/reperfusion injury.展开更多
This article attempts to establish a mathematical epidemic model for the outbreak of the new COVID-19 coronavirus.A new consideration for evaluating and controlling the COVID-19 outbreak will be constructed based on t...This article attempts to establish a mathematical epidemic model for the outbreak of the new COVID-19 coronavirus.A new consideration for evaluating and controlling the COVID-19 outbreak will be constructed based on the SEIQR Pandemic Model.In this paper,the real data of COVID-19 spread in Saudi Arabia has been used for the mathematical model and dynamic analyses.Including the new reproductive number and detailed stability analysis,the dynamics of the proposed SEIQR model have been applied.The local sensitivity of the reproduction number has been analyzed.The domain of solution and equilibrium based on the SEIQR model have been proved using a Jacobian linearization process.The state of equilibrium and its significance have been proved,and a study of the integrity of the disease-free equilibrium has been carried out.The Lyapunov stability theorem demonstrated the global stability of the current model equilibrium.The SEIQR model has been numerically validated and projected by contrasting the results from the SEIQR model with the actual COVID-19 spread data in Saudi Arabia.The result of this paper shows that the SEIQR model is a model that is effective in analyzing epidemic spread,such as COVID-19.At the end of the study,we have implemented the protocol which helped the Saudi population to stop the spread of COVID-19 rapidly.展开更多
文摘In a factorial ring, we can define the p.g.c.d. of two elements (defined to the nearest unit) and the notion of prime elements between them. More generally, Bezout’s identity characterizes two prime elements in a main ring. A ring that satisfies the property of the theorem is called a Bezout ring. We have given some geometry theorems that can be proved algebraically, although the methods of geometry and, in particular, of projective geometry are by far the most beautiful. Most geometric problems actually involve polynomial equations and can be translated into the language of polynomial ideals. We have given a few examples of a different nature without pretending to make a general theory.
基金Supported by the Research Grant Council,Hong Kong SAR,China
文摘Metal contamination in the environment is a global concern due to its high toxicity to living organisms and its worldwide distribution. The principal goal of this review is to examine the current strategies and technologies for the remediation of metal- contaminated soils by metal-accumulating plants and assess the roles of arbnscular mycorrhizal （AM） fungi in remediation of soils under hyperaccumulator or non-accumulator plants. The use of plants to remove metals from the environment or reduce the toxicity, known as phytoremediation, is an environmentally sustainable and low cost remediation technology. The mechanisms of the use of hyperaccumulator plants for phytoremediation included solubilization of the metal in the soil matrix, the plant uptake of the metal, detoxification/chelation and sequestration, and volatilization. Recently, some ecologists have found that phytoremediation with the aids of mycorrhizae can enhance efficiency in the removal of toxic metals. AM fungi can facilitate the survival of their host plants growing on metal-contaminated land by enhancing their nutrient acquisition, protecting them from the metal toxicity, absorbing metals, and also enhancing phytostabilization and phytoextraction. Such information may be useful for developing phytoremediation program at metal-contaminated sites.
文摘In this study, we reported and validated a novel and sensitive reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of irbesartan, candesartan, gliquidone and pioglitazone. Separation was performed at 230 nm using a mobile phase consisting of methanol–water(90:10, v/v) with a flow rate of 1 mL/min. p H was adjusted to 3.5 with phosphoric acid. The concentration-response relationship was found linear over a concentration range of 5–25 μg/mL for all of the analytes tested. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.83 and 2.78 for irbesartan, 0.30 and 1.01 for candesartan, 1.11 and 3.93 for gliquidone, and 0.41 and 1.41 μg/mL for pioglitazone, respectively. Described method permitted the successful determination of these drugs in human serum. The developed method was simple, rapid, and it did not require extensive sample purification.
文摘Effect of cultivar differences on physical and proximate composition, and sensory attributes of sweet potato fries and crisps were determined. Physicochemical and colour characteristics of sweet potato flours and starches were evaluated using Rapid Visco Analyser and Hunter L a b, respectively. Chroma, colour intensity and hue angle were calculated. Objective and sensory parameters of sweet potato fries and crisps were evaluated. Proximate and pasting properties were typical of sweet potato tubers, flour and starches. Maltose (0.05% - 0.08%), sucrose (0.05% - 1.60%) contents of sweet potato were significantly different (p < 0.05). Amylose and amylopectin contents of sweet potato starches were 19.5% - 24.6% and 75.4% - 80.5%, respectively. Swelling power and solubility were 2.42 - 2.88 and 0.11 - 0.32, 5.01 and 0.02 - 3.00 for flours and starches, respectively. Lovers name fries showed significantly better appearance, while Big Red and Black Vine fries showed similar sensory scores. No significant difference occurred in all the sensory attributes of crisps of the sweet potato cultivars.
文摘The World Health Organization has declared the rapidly spreading coronavirus to be a global pandemic.The FDA is yet to approve a vaccine for human novel coronavirus.Here,we developed a peptide-based vaccine and used high-throughput screening by molecular dynamics simulation to identify T-cell-and p-cell-recognized epitopes for producing specific antibod-ies against SARS-nCoV-2.We construct~12 P'antigenic epitope peptides to develop a more effective vaccine and identify specific antibodies.These epitope peptides selectively presented the best antigen presentation scores for both human pMHC class I and II alleles to develop a strong binding affinity.All antigens identified of SARS-nCoV-2 different proteins by each attached specific~1-7 L linker adaptor were used to construct a broad single peripheral peptide vaccine.It is expected to be highly antigenic with a minimum allergic effect.As a result of these exciting outcomes,expressing a vaccine using the intimated peptide was highly promising and positive to be highly proposed as epitope-based peptide vaccine of specific antibody against SARS-nCoV-2 by initiating T cells and β-cells.An in vitro study for the proposed peptide-based vaccine is.mostly recommended.Further clinical trials are required to check the efficacy of this vaccine.
文摘Rapid developments of mobile technologies, data acquisition and big data analytics, and their integration with critical application domains such as transportation systems have the potential to produce more efficient, real-time, intelligent and safe transportation infrastructure. To increase the quality of transportation services, wireless sensor networks, mobile phones, crowd sourcing, RFID and Bluetooth technologies are being used. We surveyed innovations that were transformed from ideas in research labs into commercial systems in practical use. In this paper, we present some innovative mobile technologies, services and platforms that are being used in modern transportation applications including traffic data acquisition, traffic management and control, route optimizations, infrastructure redesign, road safety and enhancing user experience.
文摘Essential oils are secondary metabolites produced by plants, can be extracted from any organ such as： leaves, branches, roots, rhizomes, flowers, fruits, seeds, wood and stem bark. The present study aimed to analyze the compounds found in the essential oil of leafHancornia speciosa var. pubescens （C. Nees ＆ Mart.） MUll. Arg. （Apocynaceae）, popularly known as mangaba, and perform the soil chemical analysis of the occurrence of the same species. The oil was obtained by hydrodistillation in Clevenger from crushed leaves, their analysis was performed using the Shimadzu gas chromatograph model 2010 GC Ultra coupled to a mass spectrometer. The apofarnesol （48.45%）, naphthalene （4.84%）, ct-bisabolene （4.12%）, trans-i3-heptanone （2.34%）, spathulenol （1.48%）, cypermethrin were identified （1.35%） and malonic acid （1.34%）, which according to literature all these compounds have great insecticidal characteristics. Soil testing was performed according to the protocols of the S.L. Goi^nia/GO, which was found a soil poor in nutrient with acidic pH, these predominant features of the Cen：ado＇s soils, which can influence the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. Concluding that Hancornia speciosa variety pubescens may have insecticidal activities.
文摘Obstacle removal in crowd evacuation is critical to safety and the evacuation system efficiency. Recently, manyresearchers proposed game theoreticmodels to avoid and remove obstacles for crowd evacuation. Game theoreticalmodels aim to study and analyze the strategic behaviors of individuals within a crowd and their interactionsduring the evacuation. Game theoretical models have some limitations in the context of crowd evacuation. Thesemodels consider a group of individuals as homogeneous objects with the same goals, involve complex mathematicalformulation, and cannot model real-world scenarios such as panic, environmental information, crowds that movedynamically, etc. The proposed work presents a game theoretic model integrating an agent-based model to removethe obstacles from exits. The proposed model considered the parameters named: (1) obstacle size, length, andwidth, (2) removal time, (3) evacuation time, (4) crowd density, (5) obstacle identification, and (6) route selection.The proposed work conducts various experiments considering different conditions, such as obstacle types, obstacleremoval, and several obstacles. Evaluation results show the proposed model’s effectiveness compared with existingliterature in reducing the overall evacuation time, cell selection, and obstacle removal. The study is potentially usefulfor public safety situations such as emergency evacuations during disasters and calamities.
文摘In this study, n-butanol-diesel blends were burned in a turbo-charged, direct injection diesel engine where the brake thermal efficiency, (BTE) or brake specific fuel consumption, (BSFC) was compared with that of ethanol-diesel or methanol-diesel blends in another study by other authors. The test blends used were B5, B10 and B20 (where B5 is 5% n-butanol by volume and 95% diesel fuel-DF). In this study, the BTE was higher and the BSFC improved more than in the other study. Because of improved BTE with increasing brake mean effective pressure, BMEP, the BSFC reduced, however the increased shared volume of n-butanol in DF increased BSFC. Adding n-butanol in DF slightly derated the torque, brake power output with increasing speed, and caused a fall in exhaust gas temperatures, (EGT) which improves the volumetric efficiency and reduces compression work. Therefore, a small-shared volume of n-butanol in DF fired in a turbo-charged diesel engine performs better in terms of BTE and BSFC than that of ethanol or methanol blending in DF.
基金This work was supported by the Medical Research Project of Wuhan Municipal Health Commission(Grant No.WG14B13)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.31600692)the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province(2017CFB406).
文摘Folate deficiency has been confirmed to be related to various diseases.Unfortunately,there are few reports on the folate status of Chinese adults.This study aims to evaluate the serum folate status of blood donors in south-central China.In this study,248 blood donors were included.The information on subjects was collected by a brief questionnaire concerning alcohol consumption habits,smoking habits,fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity.The serum folate concentration was measured by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay.The geometric mean serum folate concentration was 13.4 nmoll-1(95%CI,12.7-14.1).The prevalence of serum folate concentrations below 6.8 nmoll-1 was 5.2%(95%CI,2.5-8.0).There were significant differences in serum folate concentrations with respect to sex(p-values<0.05),age(p-values<0.05),fruit and vegetable consumption(p-values<0.05),and alcohol consumption habits(p-values<0.05).The concentration of serum folate increased with age(p-values<0.05)and fruit and vegetable consumption(p-values<0.05).Individuals with an age of 30 years or younger were nearly 3.5 times as likely as those aged over 30 years to have an insufficient level of serum folate(OR=3.48;95%CI:1.01-11.99).An age of 30 years or younger was a risk factor for folate deficiency.Most blood donors had sufficient serum folate concentrations in south-central China.National surveys of folate status should be implemented in China.
基金supported by the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia(Grant Number 0909).
文摘In high-density gatherings,crowd disasters frequently occur despite all the safety measures.Timely detection of congestion in human crowds using automated analysis of video footage can prevent crowd disasters.Recent work on the prevention of crowd disasters has been based on manual analysis of video footage.Some methods also measure crowd congestion by estimating crowd density.However,crowd density alone cannot provide reliable information about congestion.This paper proposes a deep learning framework for automated crowd congestion detection that leverages pedestrian trajectories.The proposed framework divided the input video into several temporal segments.We then extracted dense trajectories from each temporal segment and converted these into a spatio-temporal image without losing information.A classification model based on convolutional neural networks was then trained using spatio-temporal images.Next,we generated a score map by encoding each point trajectory with its respective class score.After this,we obtained the congested regions by employing the non-maximum suppression method on the score map.Finally,we demonstrated the proposed framework’s effectiveness by performing a series of experiments on challenging video sequences.
文摘Black cumin (Nigella sativa L.;Family-Ranunculaceae) is an important spice crop. Mature seeds are consumed for edible and medical purposes and also used as a food additive and flavour. Seed of black cumin has great potentiality as spice crop due to nutritive and medicinal values. The experiments were carried out at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur during 2011 to 2012 to determine optimum planting time for seed production of black cumin. The experiment was two factorials. Factor A: 4 genotypes were V1: Exotic, Iran;V2: BARI kalozira-1;V3: Local, Faridpur and V4: Local, Natore. Factor B: sowing date: D1: 16 October;D2: 1 November;D3: 16 November and D4: 1 December. Therefore, treatment combinations were 16 in total. So, in 3 replications total plot was 48. Result revealed that significantly the highest 2.37 t/ha in V1, followed by V2 (1.96 t/ha). V2 and V3 (1.97 t/ha) were statistically similar and maximum yield was obtained from D2 (2.65 t/ha). In combined effect, maximum yield 3.00 t/ha was obtained in V1D2.. Investigation on time of sowing revealed that performance of black cumin was better in earlier sowings (16 October, 1 November) than later ones. The highest yield (4g plant-1;2.65 tha-1) was obtained when the crop was sown on 1 November. Among the genotypes, the exotic one with sowing in 1 November gave the highest seed yield (4.54 g·plant-1;3.00 t·ha-1).
文摘Abnormal levels of plasma lipid have been linked to atherosclerosis, strokes and heart conditions. Variations in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels are considered as risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD). Furthermore, triglycerides are a leading cause of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, measurement of plasma lipid levels is an important mortality predictor. Several factors were associated with irregularity in plasma lipids such as genetic alterations. Recent researches have linked single nucleotides polymorphism (SNP) in ApoA5 gene with these deviations. In this study, we reported the effects of the genetic variant c.553G>T in ApoA5 on the levels of plasma lipids. To explore these effects, a case-control study including 280 male and female subjects (44 of them were assigned as CAD cases while the remaining subjects were categorized as control) was established. All patients in the study were recruited from the western region in KSA. The results have detected minor variations in LDL, HDL and cholesterol levels between CAD patients carrying T allele and CAD patients carrying the WT allele. However, there were no significant effects due to these variations. TG levels in the wild type carriers reached up to 291 mg/dl while T allele carriers, the cases, presented lower levels of TG (170 mg/dl and 71 mg/dl). Although, T allele showed no effects on plasma lipids with the exception of TG levels. We suggest by this study that T allele in this SNP might be considered as a valuable tool in the diagnosis of CAD.
文摘Background: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a widespread and debilitating disorder with relatively high prevalence in Saudi Arabia. Neuropsychological and radiological investigations have revealed that there are some differences in the components of the brain regions in children with and without ADHD. In this study we have performed whole exome sequencing (WES) in four non-familial cases of ADHD from Makkah Region to identify the genetic polymorphisms associated with the disease in our Saudi population. Methods: Exome sequencing was carried out using Ion Proton with AmpliSeq Exome library methods, and the data were analysed by Ion Reporter 5.6 software. Results: A total of 33 variants were identified from 222 genes selected from the GWAS catalogue for ADHD associated genes. However, the SNPs we identified in these genes were not reported to be associated with ADHD in previous studies. We have identified 2 novel missense variants;one in c.3451G > T;p. (Ala1151Ser) in ITGA1 gene and another is c.988G > A;p. (Ala330Thr) in SPATA13 genes. The variants rs928661, rs11150370 and rs386792899 were the only three variants that appeared on all the 4 patients studied. Six missense variants, rs16841277, rs2228209, rs2230283, rs3741883, rs1716 and rs2272606, were found in 3 different patients, respectively. However, the three documented variants are rs13166360 with bipolar disorder, rs920829 with neuropathic pain, and rs6558702 with schizophrenia. Conclusion: We have identified 2 novel variants in ADHD children. SIFT score of all variants indicates that these substitutions have damaging effects on the protein function. Further screening studies are recommended for confirmation.
基金supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong(RGC)HKU 764008M to Sookja Kim Chung
文摘Ischemia occurs in diabetic retinopathy with neuronal loss, edema, glial cell reactivity and oxidative stress. Epacs, consisting of Epac 1 and Epac2, are cAMP mediators playing important roles in maintenance of endothelial barrier and neuronal functions To investigate the roles of Epacs in the pathogenesis of ischemic retinopathy, transient middle cerebral artery occlusion （tMCAO） was performed on Epacl-deficient （Epacl-/- ） mice, Epac2-deficient （Epac2-/-） mice, and their wild type counter-parts （Epacl＋/＋ and Epac2＋/＋）. Two-hour occlusion and 22-hour reperfusion were conducted to induce ischemia/reperfusion injury to the retina. After tMCAO, the contralateral retinae displayed similar morphology between different genotypes. Neu-ronal loss, retinal edema and increase in immunoreactivity for aquaporin 4 （AQP4）, glial fibrillary acidic protein （GFAP）, peroxiredoxin 6 （Prx6） were observed in ipsilateral retinae. Epac2 / ipsilateral retinae showed more neuronal loss in retinal ganglion cell layer, increased retinal thickness and stronger immunostaining of AQP4, GFAP, and Prx6 than those of Epac2＋/＋. However, Epacl-/- ipsilateral retinae displayed similar pathology as those in Epacl＋/＋ mice. Our observations suggest that Epac2-deficiency led to more severe ischemic retinopathy after retinal ischemia/reperfusion injury.
基金The authors are grateful and thank the Research and Development Grants Program for National Research Institutions and Centres(GRANTS),Target Research Program,Infectious Diseases Research Grant Program,King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology(KACST)Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,for funding this project and this work with grant number(5-20-01-007-0002).
文摘This article attempts to establish a mathematical epidemic model for the outbreak of the new COVID-19 coronavirus.A new consideration for evaluating and controlling the COVID-19 outbreak will be constructed based on the SEIQR Pandemic Model.In this paper,the real data of COVID-19 spread in Saudi Arabia has been used for the mathematical model and dynamic analyses.Including the new reproductive number and detailed stability analysis,the dynamics of the proposed SEIQR model have been applied.The local sensitivity of the reproduction number has been analyzed.The domain of solution and equilibrium based on the SEIQR model have been proved using a Jacobian linearization process.The state of equilibrium and its significance have been proved,and a study of the integrity of the disease-free equilibrium has been carried out.The Lyapunov stability theorem demonstrated the global stability of the current model equilibrium.The SEIQR model has been numerically validated and projected by contrasting the results from the SEIQR model with the actual COVID-19 spread data in Saudi Arabia.The result of this paper shows that the SEIQR model is a model that is effective in analyzing epidemic spread,such as COVID-19.At the end of the study,we have implemented the protocol which helped the Saudi population to stop the spread of COVID-19 rapidly.
