Maximum Amount Research Articles

Source parameter inversion of the 2021 MW7.4 Maduo earthquake and stress transfer in the eastern Bayan Har block

In order to explore the constraint degree of GNSS and InSAR data on the Maduo earthquake under the layered earth model structure, and to understand the cause of the Maduo earthquake and the danger of the surrounding area, this paper uses D-InSAR technology to obtain the InSAR co-seismic deformation field of the Maduo earthquake on May 22,2021. Based on GNSS and InSAR data, the co-seismic slip model and fault plane stress distribution of the Maduo earthquake are jointly inverted. This paper calculates the Coulomb stress changes caused by 14 M ≥ 7 strong earthquakes co-seismic, post-seismic viscoelastic relaxation and inter-seismic tectonic stress loading of 19 fault segments in the Bayan Har block research area (96°E-106°E, 29°N-36°N) since 1900. The results show that: (1) The maximum Line Of Sight (LOS) deformation obtained based on the ascending and descending InSAR data was about 0.9 m. The maximum slip amount of GNSS + InSAR joint inversion is 4.87 m, which is located in the Dongcao Along Lake section (∼98.6°E). Combined with the stress drop distribution of the fault surface, it is found that the Maduo earthquake is dominated by strike-slip. (2) The historical strong earthquakes delayed the Maduo earthquake by nearly 103 years. The 1937 Huashixia earthquake, the 1947 Dari earthquake, the 1963 Dulan earthquake, and the 1973 Luhuo earthquake had the greatest stress unloading effect, which was equivalent to delaying the Maduo earthquake by 53 years, 21 years, 11 years, and 17 years, respectively. The cumulative Coulomb stress at the source location of the Maduo earthquake reached 0.0112 MPa. Most area of the fault sections such as the East Kunlun Fault, the Maduo-Gande Fault, the western and eastern sections of the Dari Fault, the western and eastern sections of the Qingshuihe Fault, the Ganzi-Yushu Fault, and the eastern section of the Kunlunshankou-Jiangcuo Fault are in the Coulomb stress loading area, which should be paid attention to.

Examining attributes of retailers that influence where cannabis is purchased: a discrete choice experiment

BackgroundWith the legalization of cannabis in Canada, consumers are presented with numerous purchase options. Licensed retailers are limited by the Cannabis Act and provincial regulations with respect to offering sales, advertising, location, maximum quantities, and information sharing in an effort to protect public health and safety. The degree these policies influence consumer purchase behavior will help inform regulatory refinement.MethodsA discrete choice experiment within a cross-sectional online survey was used to explore trade-offs consumers make when deciding where to purchase cannabis. Attributes included availability of sales/discounts, proximity, product information, customer service, product variety, and provincial regulation. Participants ≥ 19 years old who lived in Canada and purchased cannabis in the previous 12 months were recruited through an online market research survey panel. A multinomial logit (MNL) model was used for the base model, and latent class analysis was used to assess preference sub-groups. Key limitations included ordering effect, hypothetical bias, and framing effect.ResultsThe survey was completed by 1626 people, and the base model showed that customer service carried the most weight in purchase decisions, followed by proximity and availability of sales and discounts. There was considerable heterogeneity in preference patterns, with a five-group latent class model demonstrating best fit. Only one group (15% of sample) placed a high value on the store being provincially regulated, while three groups were willing to make a trade-off with regulation to access better customer service, product information, or closer proximity. One group preferred non-regulated sources (24% of sample); this group was also primarily driven by the availability of sales and discounts. Three groups (60.5% of sample) preferred online stores.ConclusionThis study highlighted that there exists significant diversity with respect to the influence of consumer experiences on cannabis purchase behaviors. Modifications to cannabis retail regulations that focus on improving access to product information as well as reviewing limitations on sales and discounts could have the most impact for shifting customers to licensed retailers.

Enhanced Mixing Towards the Production of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters by In Situ Transesterification of Eucheuma Cottonii: Experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Analysis

Biodiesel is one of the alternative replacements for the conventional fossil fuel-based diesel as the demand for energy is increasing with the increasing world population. The production of biodiesel (also known as fatty acid methyl esters (FAME)) from macroalgae (E. cottonii) is the focus in this study. Conventionally, production of FAME from macroalgae will be carried out through the two-step transesterification processes, which consists of extraction of algal oil (lipids and free fatty acids) and subsequent transesterification step. However, the two-step transesterification method is time and energy consuming processes and thus ways to enhance the production yield of the biodiesel produced are being studied. This paper concentrates on utilization of enhanced mixing technique via in situ transesterification (ISTE) process in FAME production which elucidate the effects of reaction time and mixing intensity. The ISTE reaction was carried out at the ratio of biomass: Methanol (MeOH): Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) (w/v/v) of 1:20:5 and a reaction temperature of 60 °C. The total reaction time for the reaction was 90 minutes, where samples were collected at 30 minutes interval. The increase in reaction time and mixing intensity gave a significant positive impact on the production of FAME. At 90 minutes of reaction time and impeller rotational speed of 900rpm, the maximum amount of methyl palmitate and methyl stearate produced were 0.5729 wt% and 0.0559 wt% respectively. The results of contour of volume fraction (VF) of palmitic acid obtained from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis from the Aspen Fluent Software is in good agreement to the experimental results of the study.

Ethanol production from sugarcane bagasse by modified PDMS membrane in a membrane bioreactor: pervaporation technique

AbstractBACKGROUNDBioethanol is considered a highly promising alternative to fossil fuels due to its derivation from renewable sources. Reducing the disadvantages of conventional fermentation requires removing the product from the fermentation broth after its formation. Therefore, coupling the membrane separation with a biological process in a single unit leads a reduction of substrate and product inhibitions.RESULTSIn this work, bioethanol production was investigated in a membrane bioreactor (MBR) with sugarcane bagasse (lignocellulose waste) as a renewable source by the sulfuric acid hydrolysis process. Firstly, the optimum conditions to produce the maximum amount of sugar by acid hydrolysis were determined. Second, the membrane bioreactor and pervaporation unit equipped with poly(dimethyl siloxane) carbon nanotube/Tetrazole membrane (PDMS‐CNT/Tetrazole) was fabricated. Third, bioethanol production in a conventional batch reactor (CBR) and the novel MBR was implemented. The outcomes of the two kinds of reactors were then compared. The results illustrated that the optimum conditions for acid hydrolysis are at a temperature of 199.4 °C, an operation time of 30.77 min, and an acid concentration of 1.12%. The obtained data shows that the ethanol production in MBR was increased by 103.6% over conventional fermentation. Furthermore, the pervaporated ethanol concentration was higher than that of the broth because of the high membrane selectivity, where a maximum ethanol concentration of 165.7 g L−1 in the cold trap was achieved.CONCLUSIONFinally, the results illustrate that the MBR can decrease the cell density growth rate and dominate any substrate and product inhibitions, while keeping process productivity for ethanol quite high. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).

Adsorption effect and mechanism of Cd(II) by different phosphorus-enriched biochars.

The resource utilization of agricultural and forestry waste, especially the high-value transformation of low-grade phosphate rock and derivatives, is an important way to achieve sustainable development. This study focuses on the impregnation and co-pyrolysis of rice straw (RS) with fused calcium magnesium phosphate (FMP), FMP modified with citric acid (CA-FMP), and calcium dihydrogen phosphate (MCP) to produce three phosphorous-enriched biochars (PBC). The Cd(II) removal efficiency of biochars before and after phosphorus modification was investigated, along with the adsorption mechanism and contribution of biochars modified with different phosphorus sources to Cd(II) adsorption. The result indicated that CA-FMP and MCP could be more uniformly loaded onto biochar, effectively increasing the specific surface area (SSA) and total pore volume. The adsorption of Cd(II) onto PBC followed a mono-layer chemisorption process accompanied by intraparticle diffusion. The adsorption of Cd(II) by PBC involved ion exchange, mineral precipitation, complexation with oxygen-containing functional groups (OFGs), cation-π interaction, electrostatic interaction, and physical adsorption. Ion exchange was identified as the primary adsorption mechanism for Cd(II) by BC and FBC (51.53% and 53.15% respectively), while mineral precipitation played a major role in the adsorption of Cd(II) by CBC and MBC (51.10% and 47.98% respectively). Moreover, CBC and MBC significantly enhanced the adsorption capacity of Cd(II), with maximum adsorption amounts of 128.1 and 111.5mgg-1 respectively.

Impact of Soil Temperature and Precipitation on Vegetation Cover Over Selected Stations in Iraq

Records of precipitation and soil temperature, two of the most significant climatic elements impacting vegetation cover, were gathered as annual and monthly data over a period of 20 years from the European Center for Long-term Numerical Weather Forecasts. The goal of this study was to ascertain the impact of plant cover on climatic variations. The study’s final findings revealed that Mosul station had the greatest value of vegetation at 0.24 and Basra station had the lowest value at 0.15. The Mosul station recorded the maximum amount of precipitation, 1400 mm in the northern and central parts during the winter, and the lowest amount, 8 mm, during the fall and summer months in the districts west of the Rutba station. Using the Pearson test, it was discovered that the relationship between vegetation cover and soil temperature is inverse, and this, in turn, plays a significant role in the lack of vegetation cover in the southern regions because of nature. The desert of the region, as well as the lack of precipitation and high temperatures, is responsible for the region’s lack of vegetation. The highest value reached by the soil temperature was in the year 2018 at the Basra station.

The most suitable system to grind the whole tooth to use it as graft material

Aim: In regenerative dentistry, the success is influenced by the graft material, which should act as an osteoconductive scaffold. It provides a mineral substrate during resorption and induces the activity of osteoinductive cells capable of producing new bone, platelet growth factors, and cell differentiation factors that guide the differentiation of undifferentiated mesenchymal cells. Given that dentin shares many biochemical characteristics with bone tissue, it has recently attracted considerable interest as a biomaterial for bone repair. The aim of this study is to compare two grinder types to determine the optimal method for producing dentinal particles using a mechanical grinder. Methods: A sample of 40 natural human teeth without restorations, prostheses, or root canal treatments was used and divided into two groups subjected to two different grinder speeds (high-speed and low-speed). Results: The high-speed showed a greater dispersion (53.5% ± 9.89% of the tooth) due to the pulverisation (highly thin granules) of part of the tooth. The low-speed grinder did not pulverize the dentin and the percentage of tooth loss is 9.16% ± 2.34%. Conclusions: The low-speed grinder allows to save a major part of the tooth and has a maximum quantity of graft material but requires more time. Further studies must be promoted to optimise the grinding procedures.

Preparation of Lanthanum-Modified Tea Waste Biochar and Its Adsorption Performance on Fluoride in Water.

In this study, tea waste was used as a raw material, and TBC (tea waste biochar) was prepared by pyrolysis at 700 °C. La(NO3)3·6H2O was used as the modifier to optimize one-way modification; the orthogonal experiment was undertaken to determine the optimal preparation conditions; and La-TBC (lanthanum-modified biochar) was obtained. The key factors for the adsorption of fluoride by La-TBC were investigated by means of batch adsorption experiments, and kinetics and isothermal adsorption experiments were carried out on the adsorption of fluoride in geothermal hot spring water. The adsorption mechanism of fluoride by La-TBC was analyzed via characterization methods such as SEM-EDS (Scanning Electron Microscope and Energy Dispersive Spectrometer), BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller), FTIR (Fourier transform infrared), XRD (X-ray diffraction), and so on. The results show that La-TBC had the best adsorption effect on fluoride at pH 7. The process of adsorption of fluoride follows the pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isothermal model, and the maximum theoretical adsorption quantity was 47.47 mg/g at 80 °C, while the removal rate of fluoride from the actual geothermal hot spring water reached more than 95%. The adsorption process was dominated by the monolayer adsorption of chemicals, and the mechanisms mainly include pore filling, ion exchange, and electrostatic interaction.

Application of SWAT Model for Assessment of Surface Runoff in Flash Flood Areas

In addition to changes in the amount of rain, changes in land use upstream are considered a factor that directly affects the maximum runoff flow in a basin, especially in areas that have experienced floods and flash floods. This research article presents the application of the SWAT model to assess runoff in areas that have experienced flash floods, in order to analyze the proportion of land use change to the maximum runoff. Study areas that experienced flash floods were in three basins in Thailand (Lam Saphung Basin, Phrom River Basin, and Chern River Basin Part 1, which is a sub-basin of the Nam Chi River Basin). This study analyzed two main factors that influenced runoff in the river basin by considering two simulation situations: (1) changes in land use affecting runoff assessed by considering land use maps in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021 when using rainfall data only in the year 2021 for all cases and (2) changes in the amount of rainfall influencing runoff by considering the rainfall records in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021 when using the land use data only in the year 2021 for all cases. The results of the study found that the SWAT model can be effectively applied to estimate annual runoff in areas that have experienced flash floods under eight parameters with R2 values of 0.74, 0.82, and 0.74 for the Lam Saphung River Basin, Phrom River Basin, and Chern River Basin Part 1, respectively. In addition, it was found that the proportion of land use changes that involved changes from forested areas to residential areas was the greatest from 2008 to 2010 in the Phrom River Basin and Chern River Basin Part 1. This resulted in an increase in the maximum runoff amounts of 77.78% and 46.87%, respectively. When land use was constant, it was found that the rainfall in 2010, which was the highest, also had the greatest impact on the runoff in all three areas.

Influence of Naphthalene Acetic Acid, Gibberellic Acid and Calcium Chloride on Quality Parameters of Kagzi Lime (Citrus aurantifolia Swingle)

An experiment was carried out to investigate the influence of Naphthalene acetic acid, Gibberellic acid and Calcium chloride on quality parameters of Kagzi lime (Citrus aurantifolia Swingle) in the Garden, Dept. of Fruit Science, C. S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur (U.P.) during two cropping seasons i.e., 2021-2022, 2022-2023. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications and Ten treatments viz, T1-NAA (20 ppm), T2-NAA (40 ppm), T3-NAA (60 ppm), T4-GA3 (10 ppm), T5-GA3 (20 ppm), T6-GA3 (30 ppm),T7-CaCl2 (0.10%),T8-CaCl2 (0.15%),T9-CaCl2 (0.2%) and T10-Control (water spray only). During both years of investigation, it was recorded that GA3 at 20 ppm exhibited significantly higher amount of total soluble solids (9.300Brix) andtitratable acidity (8.70%) as compared to all other treatments. Similarly, NAA treatments also contributed to an increase in the TSS and titratable acidity content with the rise in their concentrations. In terms of TSS: acid ratio, there were no significant differences were recorded within the treatments, indicating its stability. Ascorbic acid content was significantly higher in GA3 treated fruits and with the GA3 at 20 ppm maximum amount of ascorbic acid was recorded (56.47 mg/100ml juice) while the control fruits had the lowest ascorbic acid content. The juice content in fruits were increased in NAA and GA3 treatments, while in CaCl2 treatments it remained relatively stable. Higher amount of juice content (56.49%) was also recorded in fruits treated with GA3 at 20 ppm. In the context of sugar content, GA3 at 20 ppm also exhibited the highest reducing (0.86%), non-reducing (0.70%) and total sugar (1.56%) content in the plains of north India.

Valorisation of sawdust-based spent mushroom substrate for sustainable xylooligosaccharides production using low-cost crude xylanases from Aspergillus flavus KUB2

ABSTRACT Spent mushroom substrate (SMS), a lignocellulosic waste after mushroom production is generally discarded without proper management. There is increasing interest in the sustainable transformation of lignocellulosic waste into high-value products. Within this context, the present study investigated the potential of the SMS from the cultivation of Pleurotus pulmonarius and Auricularia auricula on rubber tree wood sawdust as substrates for xylooligosaccharides (XOS) production. SMS samples from these two edible mushrooms were extracted using alkaline xylan extraction, producing maximum true recovery amounts of xylan in the range 34.61%–37.49% using 18% NaOH at 70 °C for 3 h. Production of XOS from alkaline-extracted xylan from the SMS samples of both mushroom species using economically crude xylanases from Aspergillus flavus KUB2 resulted in XOS (X2–X5) production of 241.47–249.04 mg/g, with X3 as the predominant XOS product. The produced XOS had excellent prebiotic activity and 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity and contained high total phenolic contents. The combined beneficial bioactivities in terms of prebiotic and antioxidant properties suggested that the XOS produced from sawdust-based SMS samples of P. pulmonarius and A. auricula could be promising ingredients for both food and pharmaceutical applications.

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF RICE GROWTH PHASES IN KARAWANG USING THE GAUSS-JORDAN ELIMINATION METHOD

Indonesia's growth cannot be separated from Indonesia's economic growth. The agricultural sector has a massive and significant impact on Indonesia's economic growth. One of the agricultural products that’s important is rice. Rice is a seasonal crop that is very necessary for human survival. Karawang, one of the districts in West Java Province, which is known as Lumbung Padi City, is the location of the main topic in making this journal. In fact, based on BPS data, the area harvested for paddy fields in Karawang from 2010-2015 was found not to have increased regularly from year to year. This is interesting to discuss because the rice harvest area is expected to increase regularly to support Indonesia's economic growth. Of course, this is because the rice harvest area will affect the amount of rice produced in the rice fields. By ignoring other internal and external factors of rice growth, this journal will only focus on rice harvest area based on rice growth phases (vegetative 1, vegetative 2, and generative) and accumulated harvest area using the Gauss Jordan elimination method. Calculations are carried out to determine the possibility of farmers to predict the maximum amount of rice production and avoid losses in purchasing materials to support rice growth

Matching analysis on flow limiting valve of marine diesel engine common rail system

The flow limiting valve (FLV) designed for the high pressure common rail fuel system (CRS) was designed, the simulation model of the FLV and electronic controlled injector is established and the injector’s model was verified by experiment data. Through simulation, the maximum cycle injection quantity (CIQ) and close flow quantity (CFQ) of the CRS matched with the FLV are verified, and the influence of key FLV’s parameters on the matching performance was analysed. The maximum CIQ is 722mm3 and the CFQ is 1194.2mm3, which can satisfy the technical requirements of the CRS under overload conditions. The closing lift and orifice diameter of the FLV has a significant impact on the CFQ, which should be carefully designed according to the technical requirements, and the dimensional tolerance and processing accuracy should be guaranteed in the production and assembly process to ensure the consistency of the CFQ.

Batch adsorption study of Congo Red dye using unmodified Azadirachta indica leaves: isotherms and kinetics

Abstract A low-cost adsorbent developed from unmodified Azadirachta indica leaves was used for adsorptive removal of the Congo Red dye from an aqueous medium. The adsorbent was characterized by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. For optimization of operational parameters such as dye concentration, solution pH, adsorbent dose, contact time, and temperature, batch adsorption experiments were performed. It was found that for neem leaves powder (NLP), the optimum conditions were as follows: adsorbent dose of 0.8 g, contact time of 100 min having a solution with pH value of 5, adsorbate initial concentration of 40 ppm at temperature 60 °C where maximum amount of dye, i.e., 84%, removal was observed. The process followed pseudo-first-order kinetics, which reveals physical adsorption. According to isothermal investigations, sorption data were best fit with the Freundlich isotherm model. Thermodynamically, the adsorption of the Congo Red dye by the neem leaf powder was exothermic. Furthermore, the mechanistic removal of the Congo Red dye by the NLP has been explored with the help of the surface complex formation (PHREEQC) mechanism. Overall, the results of the study explore the promising nature of NLP for Congo Red dye removal.

Comparison of Heat Transfer and Friction in Pipes With Various Internal Roughness

Abstract The heat transfer and friction factor of turbulent pipe flows with different internal roughness are experimentally investigated. Three types of roughness in forms of a mesh, hemispherical elements, and a coil are added to the interior of pipes with an inner diameter of 52.5 mm. The working fluid is air, and the Reynolds numbers vary from 20,000 to 90,000 in increments of 10,000. For investigating the heat transfer, the pipe wall is heated to 375 °C while the inlet air remains at the room temperature. The measurements show that the mesh-type roughness results in a maximum Nusselt number, Nu, increase of approximately 6%, the pipes with hemispherical roughness increased the Nu by a maximum amount of 30%, and the coil increased Nu by up to 60% compared with the smooth pipe. The maximum increase of friction factor is 40% for the pipes with mesh-type roughness, 30% for pipes with hemispherical roughness, and 67% for pipes with coil roughness. The experimental results indicate that adding hemispherical and coil roughness to the internal surface of the pipe can lead to a significant improvement in the rate of heat transfer while adding a mesh-type roughness can have marginal improvements and comes with a large frictional loss penalty. The analysis shows that the highest thermohydraulic performance is achieved using the hemispherical roughness elements.

Scalable Multi-Hierarchy Embedded Platform for Neural Population Simulations.

Brain-inspired structured neural circuits are the cornerstones of both computational and perceived intelligence. Real-time simulations of large-scale high-dimensional neural populations with complex nonlinearities pose a significant challenge. Taking advantage of distributed computations using embedded multi-cores, we propose an ARM-based scalable multi-hierarchy parallel computing platform (EmPaas) for neural population simulations. EmPaas is constructed using 340 ARM Cortex-M4 microprocessors to achieve high-speed and high-accuracy parallel computing. The tree-two-dimensional grid-like hybrid topology completes the overall construction, reducing communication strain and power consumption. As an instance of embedded computing, the optimized model for a biologically plausible basal ganglia-thalamus (BG-TH) network is deployed into this platform to verify the performance. At an operating frequency of 168 MHz, the BG-TH network consisting of 4000 Izhikevich neurons is simulated in the platform for 3000 ms with a power consumption of 56.565 mW per core and an actual time of 2748.57 ms, which shows the parallel computing approach significantly improves computational efficiency. EmPaas can meet the requirement of real-time performance with the maximum amount of 2000 Izhikevich neurons loaded in each Extended Community Unit (ECUnit), which provides a new practical method for research in large-scale brain network simulation and brain-inspired computing.

Analysis of deck house height and center of gravity in anti-capsize patrol boat

The design of patrol boats, especially in Indonesian waters which have extreme sea conditions, requires fairly good stability capabilities and special self-righting capabilities. Designing a self-righting ship will be closely related to the ship stability because the center of gravity (G) is affected by the load and the height of the deckhouse of a ship, which has implications for the ship’s self-righting. Present study was carried out with experimental study for patrol boat design that has capability self-righting moment. The patroal boat has 4 deckhouse height variations with 2.01 m, 2.11 m, 2.21 m, and 2.31 m, respectively. There are 4 variations of the load conditions, i.e., the condition with 50% of the maximum amount of cargo, the condition 50% the passengers and cargo, full load condition without passengers, and the last one is the condition of the passenger baggage is only 50%. The results showed that a deckhouse with a height of 2.01 m has the worst GZ curve analysis, where in some conditions the results touch a negative number before heeling to 180°. The results showed by trial and error that the minimum deckhouse height is 2.07 m to have a self-righting moment in all conditions.

A study to evaluate patient benefit/risk preferences for treatment of metastatic prostate cancer (mPC) in Hong Kong: A discrete choice experiment.

104 Background: The patient’s preference for treatment is dynamic across different cultures and at various stages of cancer. Yet little is known regarding their priorities in making treatment decisions. The study's primary objective is to examine the preference weightings in terms of risk/ benefit attributes of therapy in metastatic prostate cancer (mPC) patients in both the hormone-sensitive (mHSPC) and castration-resistant (mCRPC) settings. Methods: This is a non-interventional cross-sectional survey study. A discrete choice experiment was used to assess their priorities on treatment options. 300 consecutive patients with mPC (200 mHSPC and 100 mCRPC) diagnosed within 5 years were recruited from the specialty clinics of our hospital from Feb 2023 to Jul 2023. A facilitated group interview session of 5 patients was conducted to evaluate the importance and relevance of potential attributes selected from the literature search. Five attributes were adopted, and each has 3 levels compromised between real-life rates and expectations of patients from the interview session. Patients were randomized into 2 blocks by recruitment sequence and chose 1 medication profile out of 2 throughout the 9 questions in each block of the questionnaire. A mixed logit model was used for data analysis. Results: Median age was 75 (IQR:71-81). One hundred and seventy (56.7%) had no income, and 245 (81.7%) claimed to take care of themselves. The mean maximum amount affordable for treatment was US$20,456 (SD:43,568), and 160 (53.3%) said they would not consider further treatment if the cost exceeded their affordability. Compared to intravenous formulation, oral medication once/day had a non-statistically significant favorable preference (0.06 p:0.272), and oral medication twice/day had a negative statistically significant preference (-0.20 p:0.040). The percentage of retained self-care ability (4.37 p<0.001) and percentage of extension in life expectancy (2.83 p<0.001) had a statistically significant favorable preference. In contrast, the chance of adverse effects leading to complicated medication treatment or hospitalization (-6.97, p<0.001) and treatment cost (in HK$ million) (-3.14 p<0.001) had a negative statistically significant preference. The mCPRC group was more sensitive to changes in treatment cost (-3.61 vs. -2.97), percentage of extension in life expectancy (3.47 vs. 2.55) and the chance of adverse effects (-7.55 vs -6.80) than the mHSPC group. Those who could afford treatment were more sensitive to the percentage of retained self-care ability (4.89 vs. 4.02) and the chance of adverse effects (-7.57 vs -6.70) than those who could not. Conclusions: The chance of adverse effects took the largest weighting in treatment decisions, followed by the percentage of retained self-care ability.

Encountering distributed denial of service attack utilizing federated software defined network

This research defines the distributed denial of service (DDoS) problem in software-defined-networks (SDN) environments. The proposes solution uses Software defined networks capabilities to reduce risk, introduces a collaborative, distributed defense mechanism rather than server-side filtration. Our proposed network detection and prevention agent (NDPA) algorithm negotiates the maximum amount of traffic allowed to be passed to server by reconfiguring network switches and routers to reduce the ports' throughput of the network devices by the specified limit ratio. When the passed traffic is back to normal, NDPA starts network recovery to normal throughput levels, increasing ports' throughput by adding back the limit ratio gradually each time cycle. The simulation results showed that the proposed algorithms successfully detected and prevented a DDoS attack from overwhelming the targeted server. The server was able to coordinate its operations with the SDN controllers through a communication mechanism created specifically for this purpose. The system was also able to determine when the attack was over and utilize traffic engineering to improve the quality of service (QoS). The solution was designed with a sophisticated way and high level of separation of duties between components so it would not be affected by the design aspect of the network architecture.

Finite Element Analysis of the Influence of Implant Tilting and the Direction of Loading on the Displacement and Micromotion of Immediately Loaded Implants

ABSTRACT Objectives: To investigate the outcome of the loading direction and implant tilting on the micromotion and displacement of immediately placed implants with finite element analysis (FEA). Materials and Method: Eight blocks of synthetic bone were created. Eight screw-type implants were inserted, four axially and four slanted, each measuring 11 mm in length and 4.5 mm in diameter. The axial implants and the tilted implants were distally inclined by 30°. The top of the abutment was subjected to 180 N vertical and mesiodistal oblique (45° angle) loads, and the displacement of the abutment was measured. The abutment displacement and micromotion were estimated, and nonlinear finite element models simulating the in vitro experiment were built. In vitro studies and FEA data on abutment displacement were compared, and the reliability of the finite element model was assessed. Result: Under oblique stress, abutment displacement was larger than under axial loading, and it was also greater for tilted implants than for axial implants. The consistency of the in vitro and FEA data was satisfactory. Under vertical stress, the highest micromotion values in the axial and tilted implants were extremely near Conclusion: Under mesiodistal oblique stress, tilted implants may have a smaller maximum amount of micromotion than axial implants. The loading direction had a significant impact on the highest micromotion values. The abutment displacement values were not reflected in the maximum micromotion measurements.