Common Part Research Articles

Assesmen of atherosclerotic lesions of the carotid artery and risk factors for rheumatoi arthritis patients

Aim . To study and evaluate risk factors and analyze carotid artery intima-media thickness parameters as an early predictor of atherosclerosis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Materials and methods . The study involved 86 patients (women - 67, men - 19) observed in the State Institution “City Medical Center №2”, Dushanbe, aged from 37 to 67 years (mean age - 56.5±2.9 years). The diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis was established according to the American College of Rheumatologists/EULAR 2010 criteria. The examination program included general clinical and instrumental methods (examination of common and accessible parts of internal and external carotid arteries), estimation of lumen size, the thickness of intima-media complex (TCIM), straightness of its course, atherosclerotic plaques of carotid arteries (ABS), echocardiography (ECHO-KG). Results and discussion . Thus, in the absence of significant gender differences in the frequency of arterial hypertension and increased intima-media thickness (the earliest manifestation of atherosclerotic vascular lesions), hypercholesterolemia and long-term glucocorticoid intake were more frequently recorded in women. Undoubtedly, each of the considered risk factors makes a definite contribution to the development of vascular atherosclerosis and the instability of their organic changes. However, the significance of these risk factors in the thickening of the intima-media complex of vessels may differ. Conclusion . Data correlated with intima-media thickness show sex differences, the significance of risk factors, and an increase in intima-media thickness despite the duration of glucocorticoid therapy. The factors mentioned are more significant in men, while in women, intima-media thickness is closely related to the duration of rheumatoid arthritis, total cholesterol levels, and blood pressure.

Mesh model registration via deep mapping by local projection for optical scanning based reverse engineering

ObjectiveFor mesh model obtained by optical scanning in reverse engineering, sub models registration to be the complete model is a key step. However, currently widely used registration methods may need well initial position condition. Moreover, in some common adverse conditions (e.g. with large angle differences, with incomplete common parts), they cannot achieve registration for sub models. We solve these issues from a direct matching viewpoint and present a robust and straightforward learning based registration method for 3D mesh models with any initial position conditions. MethodsFirst, projection is utilized to collect local geometrical information of all the vertices within the 3D mesh model; Second, the information of each vertex is stored in a matrix; Third, the Convolutional Auto-Encoder is utilized to reduce the matrices and extract main features of the geometrical information; Fourth, mesh vertices are matched by comparing the similarity of corresponding feature matrices; Finally, the RANSAC algorithm is utilized to register the 3D mesh models based on the mapping vertices. ResultComparing with other classic methods, it not only can achieve registration with any initial angle difference, but also can complete registration with inclusion relation and common parts.

Czochralski (CZ) process modification with cooling tube in the response to market Global silicon shortage

Recently, the silicon wafer producers, affected by Covid-19 and USA-China competition, looks for new production processes to increase the production. On the other hand, the common parts of CZ puller such as heater, crucible and thermal shield are optimized over time and now the common CZ process is reached to limitation for further improvement. Here, we propose a modified CZ method by adding a cooling tube into the growth zone. The new proposed Cz method is applied to the 8″ crystal growth process. A fully 3D transition model including energy equation, Navier–Stokes equation, surface-to-surface radiation heat transfer, moving mesh and thermal stress equations is implemented. The simulation is performed for both original and new CZ method. It was proved that the new CZ method increases the pulling speed up to 25 %. To ensure about the crystal quality, the thermal stress is compared between original and new proposed CZ method. Although it was found that the thermal stress increases about twice but still the maximum von Mises stress never exceeds the critical value 25 MPa. Additionally, the power consumption is also found to enhance maximum 2 kW under new conditions. To evaluate the model the interface and heater power for the original CZ puller is compared with industrial CZ process and it shows acceptable accuracy.

Intestinal flora plays a role in the progression of hepatitis-cirrhosis-liver cancer.

The liver is a vital metabolism and detoxification organ of human body, which is involved in the biotransformation and metabolism of the organism. Hepatitis - cirrhosis - liver cancer are significant and common part of liver diseases. The pathogenesis of liver diseases is generally as followed: inflammation and other pathogenic factors cause persistent damage to the liver, leading to the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and excessive deposition of extracellular matrix. Patients with chronic hepatitis have a high risk of developing into liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and even life-threatening liver cancer, which poses a great threat to public health.As the first organ to come into contact with blood from the gut, the liver is profoundly affected by the intestinal flora and its metabolites, with leaky gut and flora imbalance being the triggers of the liver's pathological response. So far, no one has reviewed the role of intestinal flora in this process from the perspective of the progression of hepatitis-cirrhosis-liver cancer and this article reviews the evidence supporting the effect of intestinal flora in the progression of liver disease.

Capacity Analysis of Intelligent Reflecting Surface assisted RSMA System with Perfect and Imperfect CSI for 6G

Rate splitting multiple access (RSMA) and intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) are the promising candidates and front runners for 5G and beyond wireless communication. Recent studies have proved RSMA-IRS outperforms non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and enhances the quality of service (QoS). The performance of the downlink RSMA-IRS system is investigated in this paper using perfect and imperfect channel state information (CSI) conditions over the Rayleigh fading channel. Furthermore, the numerical analysis for the sum rate capacity is carriedout for the users under perfect and imperfect conditions. To assess the system’s performance, two distinct scenarios are explored. Initially, the system total capacity of each user’s common and private parts is determined without considering the channel estimate error (CEE). The total capacity for each user’s common part is 10 b/s, for private1 is 8.9 b/s, and for private2 is 6.5 b/s. After introducing CEE, the sum rate for the common part is 8.5 b/s, and the total capacity for private1 and private2 is 7.5 b/s and 6 b/s, respectively. The simulation results show that the perfect CSI, achieves enhanced sum rate than channel with CEE. however, to tolerate the imperfect scenario (CEE) optimum power allocation is determined for attaining the QoS.

Linear-Quadratic Non-Zero Sum Backward Stochastic Differential Game With Overlapping Information

This article studies a linear quadratic non-zero sum stochastic differential game with overlapping information, where the state dynamics are described by a backward stochastic differential equation and the information obtained by two players has a common part but no inclusion relation. The open-loop Nash equilibrium strategy is given by some conditional mean-field stochastic differential equations. In addition, coupled Riccati equations are introduced to express the state feedback form of the Nash equilibrium strategy.

Technology roadmap for cold-atoms based quantum inertial sensor in space

Recent developments in quantum technology have resulted in a new generation of sensors for measuring inertial quantities, such as acceleration and rotation. These sensors can exhibit unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy when operated in space, where the free-fall interrogation time can be extended at will and where the environment noise is minimal. European laboratories have played a leading role in this field by developing concepts and tools to operate these quantum sensors in relevant environment, such as parabolic flights, free-fall towers, or sounding rockets. With the recent achievement of Bose–Einstein condensation on the International Space Station, the challenge is now to reach a technology readiness level sufficiently high at both component and system levels to provide “off the shelf” payload for future generations of space missions in geodesy or fundamental physics. In this roadmap, we provide an extensive review on the status of all common parts, needs, and subsystems for the application of atom-based interferometers in space, in order to push for the development of generic technology components.

Nondestructive Data Acquisition Methodology for IoT Devices: A Case Study on Amazon Echo Dot Version 2

The smart speaker is becoming a common part of the modern household, which usually includes an AI-powered Intelligent Voice Assistant to communicate with its users. Amazon Echo Dot is a popular smart speaker that extends the above-stated functionality by acting as a communication hub for other Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices within its local network. The nature and volume of data that an Echo Dot handles make it a potential source of evidence, if one is seized for a digital forensics investigation. Researchers and practitioners have explored various techniques to extract data from these IoT devices. However, traditional methods make changes to the physical device and/or its data, which is undesirable from a digital forensics perspective. The current work focuses on developing a nondestructive methodology for extracting data from IoT devices, with Amazon Echo Dot version 2 as an example, which use embedded Multimedia Card (eMMC)/embedded Multichip Package (eMCP) chips as their primary storage. We identify all in-system programming (ISP) pins using the computed tomography (CT) Scan imagery of the main printed circuit board (PCB) of the device. We created a 3-D fixture that accommodates pogo pin connectors to create contact with the already identified ISP taps on the main PCB. The 3-D Test Probe Jig can extract data from an IoT device’s memory chip using an eMMC reader. The proposed nondestructive solution is reproducible, portable, and affordable.

Identification of construction defects in residential buildings

The formation of construction defects is a problem thatoccurs in every investment process. The aim of the research presentedin the article is to identify defects in residential buildingshanded over for use and to assess their degree of significance.To assess the significance of defects, the Pareto-Lorenz analysisand the called ABC classification. Based on the research, it wasfound that the defects identified in the following building elementsare significant for the quality of the building: plasters, windows,floors, electrical installations, common parts, plumbing,improper cleaning of elements, doors and glass

Semicooperation under curved strategy spacetime

ABSTRACT Mutually beneficial cooperation is a common part of economic systems as firms in partial cooperation with others can often make a higher sustainable profit. Though cooperative games were popular in 1950s, recent interest in noncooperative games is prevalent despite the fact that cooperative bargaining seems to be more useful in economic and political applications. In this paper we assume that the strategy space and time are inseparable with respect to a contract. Furthermore, it is assumed that each firm’s strategy polygon is a geodesic polygon which changes its shape every point of time with the stubbornness strategy surface of firm’s executive board follow a Gaussian free field. This gives us more flexibility to deal with generalized geodesic cooperative games which is the main contribution of this paper. Under this environment we show that the strategy spacetime is a dynamic curved Liouville-like 2-brane quantum gravity surface under asymmetric information and that traditional Euclidean geometry fails to give a proper feedback Nash equilibrium. Cooperation occurs when two firms’ strategies fall into each other’s influence curvature in this strategy spacetime. Small firms in an economy dominated by large firms are subject to the influence of large firms. We determine an optimal feedback semicooperation of the small firm in this case using a Liouville-Feynman path integral method.

Research on gear fault diagnosis method based on SSA–VME–MOMEDA

As a common mechanical part, gear is easy to be damaged because of its complex working environment, which can impact the running of the whole transmission device. Thus, it is very important to evaluate the health of gears in time. A gear fault diagnosis method based on multipoint optimal minimum entropy deconvolution adjusted (MOMEDA) and variational modal extraction (VME) is proposed to solve the problem that the periodic fault features of gears are difficult to be completely extracted from signals. Meanwhile, sparrow search algorithm (SSA) is introduced to optimize the initial parameters of VME and MOMEDA. First, SSA serves to hunt for the best α of VME, VME serves to obtain the signal near the gear fault frequency, and then SSA serves to hunt for the best L and T values of MOMEDA, and MOMEDA serves to strengthen the gear impact features. Finally, the gear impact features are extracted by envelope spectrum. Simulation and experiment show that this method can extract gear fault components from noise effectively with good results.

Umbrella review: Summary of findings for acupuncture as treatment for radiation-induced xerostomia.

Acupuncture is a common part of complementary medicine. However, traditional Chinese acupuncture has been built on concepts which are not in accordance with science-based medicine. Our aim was to critically assess the evidence presented in systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs) about the effectiveness of acupuncture on radiotherapy induced xerostomia. A systematic search was conducted in February 2022. We evaluated all SRs/MAs using the AMSTAR-2 instrument. Eight SRs, with 12 controlled studies were included. All SRs summarize that the methodological drawbacks do not allow to give a clear statement about the effectiveness of acupuncture. While objective assessments in most SRs/MAs reported no difference between real and sham acupuncture, some favorable effects on subjective xerostomia symptoms are found. No clinical meaningful effectiveness of acupuncture on xerostomia has been proven so far, but positive subjective findings need to be explored more. While most SRs recommend further studies, studies involving patients with a serious cancer diagnosis are ethically questionable.

Diversity Assessment, Utilization Pattern and Indigenous uses of Plants in Shri Naina Devi Conservation Area in District Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, North Western Himalayas

The Indian Himalayan region is one of the largest biodiversity hotspot in the world. In IHR most of the communities are lived in remote or rural area and are totally dependent on natural resources to fulfill their daily needs. Natural resources such as plant diversity is used as food, medicine, fodder, dye yielding, fuel, timber, rituals and various other function. Shri Naina Devi conservation reserve situated in Bilaspur districts of Himachal Pradesh has not been yet explored for plant diversity. The present study is carried out to assess the plant diversity and their utilization pattern and indigenous uses of the plants. A total 121 species recorded belonged from 107 genera and 57 families. Among these species shrub (26 spp.), tree (48 spp.), herb (47 spp.) were present. The families, Fabaceae (11 spp.), Asteraceae (10 spp.), Moraceae (8 spp.), Poaceae (7 spp.), Lamiaceae (4spp.), Solanaceae (4 spp ), Myrtaceae (4spp.) Brassicaceae (1 spp.); Euphorbiaceae (3 spp.); Rosaceae (3 spp.) were rich species. Among genera, Ficus (7 spp.), Allium (2 spp.), Bauhinia (2 spp.), Acacia (2 spp.), Cassia (2 spp.), Phyllanthus (2 spp.), Rumex (2 spp.), were the dominant genera. 91 species were of multipurpose utility and 30 species were monotypic. The species were used as medicine (107 spp.), food (27 spp.), fuel (37 spp.), fodder (57 spp.), ornamental (24 spp.) timber (9 spp.) and religious (6 spp.) by the inhabitants of the area. This paper gives the scientific name of wild plants along with common names, local names, family, life form, indigenous uses and plant part used by the local inhabitants of the area. Plant parts used such as whole plants, roots (including rhizomes and tubers), leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds and stems by the local people for curing various diseases.

Indigenous Knowledge and Perception of Local People towards Biodiversity Conservation in Rajouri District of Jammu and Kashmir, India

Plant resources have been used by humans for their wellbeing for ages. Tribal communities live in far flung areas in close proximity with forests and have a rich cultural heritage and traditional knowledge of forest resources. The present study was carried out in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir to document the traditional knowledge of plant usage and local perception towards biodiversity conservation. A total of 86 informants were selected through non-probability sampling using a convenience sampling method based on easy access, availability and relevance of informants. During the present study, a total of 92 plant species belonging to 85 genera and 57 families were recorded. Fabaceae and Rosaceae were found to be dominant families. In terms of growth forms, herbaceous species were dominant, followed by trees. Leaves were the most common parts used, followed by fruits. These plant species are used for different purposes such as medicine, edibles, fodder and dye making. A number of plant species were found to be multipurpose in use. Most of the documented plant species are collected by local people from the wild. Local people perceived that the populations of many species, such as Dolomiaea costus, Dioscorea deltoidea and Dolomiaea macrocephala, have declined in recent decades. Climate change, urbanization, deforestation, pollution, overexploitation and species invasion are some of the major threats to biodiversity perceived by the local people. Therefore, the establishment of protected areas and cultivation of wild species are recommended to safeguard forest wealth of the area. Furthermore, mass awareness and cooperation-building programs are highly recommended so that locals can enthusiastically participate in conservation and management programs.

Learning Domain-Adaptive Landmark Detection-Based Self-Supervised Video Synchronization for Remote Sensing Panorama

The synchronization of videos is an essential pre-processing step for multi-view reconstruction such as the image mosaic by UAV remote sensing; it is often solved with hardware solutions in motion capture studios. However, traditional synchronization setups rely on manual interventions or software solutions and only fit for a particular domain of motions. In this paper, we propose a self-supervised video synchronization algorithm that attains high accuracy in diverse scenarios without cumbersome manual intervention. At the core is a motion-based video synchronization algorithm that infers temporal offsets from the trajectories of moving objects in the videos. It is complemented by a self-supervised scene decomposition algorithm that detects common parts and their motion tracks in two or more videos, without requiring any manual positional supervision. We evaluate our approach on three different datasets, including the motion of humans, animals, and simulated objects, and use it to build the view panorama of the remote sensing field. All experiments demonstrate that the proposed location-based synchronization is more effective compared to the state-of-the-art methods, and our self-supervised inference approaches the accuracy of supervised solutions, while being much easier to adapt to a new target domain.

Medicinal Plants and Plant-Based Remedies in Grande-Terre: An Ethnopharmacological Approach.

The island of Grande-Terre is a French overseas region that belongs to the Guadeloupean archipelago, a biodiversity hotspot with unique flora. Herbal medicine is widely used in the island for therapeutical purposes; however, there is a significant knowledge gap in the records relating to medicinal plants and their associated uses. Ethnobotanical survey methodology using quantitative parameters (informant consensus factor, species use value, relative frequency of citation, frequency use of a treatment and plant for an ailment) provided insights into the traditional medicinal use of a given plant. Ninety-six different plant species distributed among 56 families were identified and 523 remedies were documented in the survey. After data filtering, 22 plants species were associated with 182 remedies. The most frequent plant families were Poaceae, Myrtaceae, Cucurbitaceae and Rubiaceae. Aerial parts of these plants were the most common parts of the plant used for the remedies and the most frequent mode of administration was oral ingestion. This study highlights a valuable traditional knowledge of folklore medicine and helps to document and preserve the association of a plant with-and its use frequency for-a given ailment. These findings might be the starting point for the identification of biologically active phytocompounds to fight common health debilities.

The Design of a Mechanical Temperature-driven Shut-off Valve

The structural design of a mechanical temperature-driven shut-off valve used in the water and steam sampling device of a power plant is designed using a Iventor drawing software. A NiTi shape memory alloy with high temperature-sensitivity is used as the driven spring to control the opening and closing of the valve. In addition to the design of the structures and common parts of the shut-off valve, the mechanical calculation and parameter-design of the driven spring are also carried out. The valve is unimpeded and can take water-steam samples under the normal state. When the temperature exceeds a 49 oC, the valve will be shut off due to the driven spring extends and the water intake will stop. When it is necessary to take water-steam samples again, it can be reset manually.

A study on different plant species of the Rosaceae family and their ethnobotanical uses among the local communities at Swat district, Pakistan

Background: The study area possess 55 plants of the family Rosaceae, which are widely used traditionally throughout the area. The family contains a range of plants that have high ethnobotanical and economical value. The family is well-known for its economically valuable fruits and medicinal plants. As a result, the purpose of this study was to collect ethnobotanical data of the Rosaceae family from Swat district in order to provide comprehensive documentation for future research. Methods: The ethnobotanical data was collected from 2021 to 2022 from 80 respondents by using semi-structured questionnaires, open-ended questionnaires, and personal observations. The interviewed participants were mostly herbalists, farmers, folk healers, shepherds, and knowledgeable group members, age from 30 to 80 years. All the collected data was analyzed through Microsoft Excel (2016). Results: There were 55 plant species of the family Rosaceae existing in the area, including 7 (13%) climbing shrubs, 19 (34%) herbs, 11 (20%) shrubs, and 18 (33%) tree species. Results of the present study showed that 85% of the plants in the family were utilized as medicinal in the area, followed by honeybees (44%), fuel wood (33%), foods (33%), fodder (31%), fencing (25%), ornamentals (14%), timber (7%), and (7%) plants were used for making agricultural tools. The most common part used as medicine was fruits (43%), followed by shoot (30%), leaves (13%), flowers (6%), roots (4%) and other parts were used (4%). Powder was the most commonly used preparation method (32%), followed by decoction (28%), direct consumption (19%), juice extraction (17%), and other methods (6%). Results of the present study indicated that plants of the family Rosaceae were highly economical for the native communities of the area. Conclusion: This study provides awareness to the native community and the worldwide trend towards native information, regeneration and transmission of knowledge. Furthermore, this study of the family's ethnobotanical uses will provide a foundation for future research in the family. Keywords: Ethnobotanical, Diversity, Family Rosaceae, Swat

A confidence level estimation technique for reliable Data-Driven FRA interpretation in air-core winding faults

Frequency response analysis (FRA) data interpretation is among highly challenging tasks in transformer fault diagnosis. Among different quantitative methods, employing statistical indicators on FRA results for mechanical integrity assessment is well-stablished. However, the boundary values of indices that differentiate normal/healthy, suspicious, and abnormal transformer operating conditions are not yet agreed upon. This will make the FRA data interpretation using SIs subjective and unreliable. In this study, data-driven critical boundaries of the most frequently used SIs are introduced. To address the uncertainty of the decision boundaries, a confidence level estimation technique is developed to quantify the probability of a transformer being in a particular operating condition. Reporting a confidence level along with the classified conditions facilitates objective decision-making that can support utility operators during on-site transformer evaluation. The confidence level estimation technique proposed in this work was inspired by bolstered error estimation method widely applied in pattern recognition. Moreover, this study provides a new comprehensive technique of transformer winding fault modeling using SPICE netlists. The proposed analytical winding model is validated through practical FRA measurements with high precision. It is further used to generate various scenarios of common active part faults, such as disk space variation, radial displacement, and disk tilting. Consequently, the proposed method of confidence level estimation is examined on different winding deformations and demonstrated a high potential for comprehensive transformer winding diagnosis.

Multi-lingual multi-platform investigations of online trade in jaguar parts.

We conducted research to understand online trade in jaguar parts and develop tools of utility for jaguars and other species. Our research took place to identify potential trade across 31 online platforms in Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch, French, Chinese, and Vietnamese. We identified 230 posts from between 2009 and 2019. We screened the images of animal parts shown in search results to verify if from jaguar; 71 posts on 12 different platforms in four languages were accompanied by images identified as definitely jaguar, including a total of 125 jaguar parts (50.7% posts in Spanish, 25.4% Portuguese, 22.5% Chinese and 1.4% French). Search effort varied among languages due to staff availability. Standardizing for effort across languages by dividing number of posts advertising jaguars by search time and number of individual searches completed via term/platform combinations changed the proportions the rankings of posts adjusted for effort were led by Portuguese, Chinese, and Spanish. Teeth were the most common part; 156 posts offered at least 367 teeth and from these, 95 were assessed as definitely jaguar; 71 of which could be linked to a location, with the majority offered for sale from Mexico, China, Bolivia, and Brazil (26.8, 25.4, 16.9, and 12.7% respectively). The second most traded item, skins and derivative items were only identified from Latin America: Brazil (7), followed by Peru (6), Bolivia (3), Mexico (2 and 1 skin piece), and Nicaragua and Venezuela (1 each). Whether by number of posts or pieces, the most commonly parts were: teeth, skins/pieces of skins, heads, and bodies. Our research took place within a longer-term project to assist law enforcement in host countries to better identify potential illegal trade and presents a snapshot of online jaguar trade and methods that also may have utility for many species traded online.