Shortest Path Routing Research Articles

The role of surface charge and its decay in surface dielectric barrier discharges

The charge accumulation and decay in surface dielectric barrier discharges (SDBDs) driven by a sine AC voltage waveform (4 kHz) in combination with a nanosecond positive voltage pulse (300 ns, 20 Hz) is experimentally investigated based on a combination of the electro-optical Pockels effect and a high-speed camera. It is found that the accumulation of positive surface charge on the dielectric promotes the discharge in the negative half cycle of the applied AC voltage, whereas it inhibits the development of following new positive charge filaments. The decay of a single positive charge filament on the surface is a result of the neutralization by negative charges that originate either from the migration of negative surface charge (electrons) or the drift of free electrons from the volume above the surface towards the surface. This work aims to contribute to a better understanding of the evolution of surface charge and its effects in SDBDs.

Menstrual Cycle: The Importance of Both the Phases and the Transitions Between Phases on Training and Performance

The authors present opinions based on their applied experiences of working with female athletes in combination with the existing evidence-based literature. Most of the existing menstrual cycle research focuses on a few steady-state time points within the pre-defined menstrual cycle phases, yet this disregards the day-to-day hormonal changes that women have to accommodate to perform optimally and consistently. The traditional research models are inadequate for studying symptoms and symptom management, and ultimately for supporting athletes to perform well throughout the entirety of their cycle. As such, the monitoring of the day-to-day variation, particularly during the transitions between menstrual cycle phases appears to be an important “overlooked” consideration. This is particularly pertinent considering the known intra-individual and inter-individual variation in menstrual cycle characteristics. Anecdotal and research evidence supports the idea that athletes can use non-pharmacological solutions to mitigate negative menstrual cycle symptoms and do not need to “grit their teeth and roll with it”. However, further research (including case studies) is needed in this important research area. Such knowledge should be and needs to be widespread amongst practitioners and athletes as they should not have to figure this out alone. As such, researchers and practitioners need to put more work into understanding symptom aetiology, symptom clusters and their relationship with hormonal changes, menstrual cycle phases and transitions, with potential for a profound impact on individual athlete health and well-being. In so doing, those working with female athletes need to continue building on the recent progress made in educating athletes and practitioners; for example, normalising the discussion of and about the menstrual cycle and all of its implications.

Glycoprotein nonmetastatic melanoma protein B regulates lysosomal integrity and lifespan of senescent cells

Accumulation of senescent cells in various tissues has been reported to have a pathological role in age-associated diseases. Elimination of senescent cells (senolysis) was recently reported to reversibly improve pathological aging phenotypes without increasing rates of cancer. We previously identified glycoprotein nonmetastatic melanoma protein B (GPNMB) as a seno-antigen specifically expressed by senescent human vascular endothelial cells and demonstrated that vaccination against Gpnmb eliminated Gpnmb-positive senescent cells, leading to an improvement of age-associated pathologies in mice. The aim of this study was to elucidate whether GPNMB plays a role in senescent cells. We examined the potential role of GPNMB in senescent cells by testing the effects of GPNMB depletion and overexpression in vitro and in vivo. Depletion of GPNMB from human vascular endothelial cells shortened their replicative lifespan and increased the expression of negative cell cycle regulators. Conversely, GPNMB overexpression protected these cells against stress-induced premature senescence. Depletion of Gpnmb led to impairment of vascular function and enhanced atherogenesis in mice, whereas overexpression attenuated dietary vascular dysfunction and atherogenesis. GPNMB was upregulated by lysosomal stress associated with cellular senescence and was a crucial protective factor in maintaining lysosomal integrity. GPNMB is a seno-antigen that acts as a survival factor in senescent cells, suggesting that targeting seno-antigens such as GPNMB may be a novel strategy for senolytic treatments.

Amalgamated Evolutionary Approach for Optimized Routing in Time Varying Ultra Dense Heterogeneous Networks

Routing mechanisms in Ultra-Dense Network (UDNs) are expected to be flexible, scalable, and robust in nature and the establishment of the shortest path between the source and destination pairs will always be a critical challenge. Through this projected work, the optimized shortest route of different source-destination pairs is found using a class of evolutionary optimization algorithms namely PSO, GA, and our proposed hybrid PSO–Genetic Mutation (PSO-GM) algorithm which searches for an optimized solution by representing it as a Shortest Path Routing (SPR) problem. The key attribute of the PSO-GM approach is related to the application of an amalgamated strategy with Gaussian, Cauchy, Levy, Single-point, and Chaos mutation operators. Simulation results and application of the above-mentioned algorithms to the SPR problem in UDNs reveal that the hybrid PSO-GM algorithm provides a comparatively enhanced optimized solution. In the case of the rate of convergence to the theoretical limit, the hybrid PSO-GM gives us 20% better results compared to the PSO and GA.

Parents in couple therapy: An intervention targeting marital and coparenting relationships.

This article describes the treatment framework and core therapeutic principles of the integrative brief systemic intervention (IBSI), a manualized six‐session intervention intended for parents seeking couple therapy. IBSI aims to work on the couple's presenting problem, considering its specific impact in the marital and coparenting domains. The basic premise of IBSI is to consider that, when working with couples who have children, therapeutic work on their coparenting alliance may be used as a lever, as both parents may be particularly motivated to improve their relationship for their children's benefit. Increasing the coparenting alliance may then facilitate work on deeper conflicts within the marital relationship. The core therapeutic principles of IBSI are: (1) joining with the couple as romantic partners and a coparenting team from the start of the therapeutic process; (2) supporting the parents in increasing their awareness regarding their children's behavior and emotional experiences when facing their parents’ conflicts; and (3) working on the spill‐ and cross‐over effects between marital and coparenting relationships (i.e., exploring how conflict or positivity spills over from one relationship to the other or crosses over from one partner to the other). Therapeutic work following these main therapeutic principles is expected to improve the quality of both relationships. A clinical case is provided to illustrate the core therapeutic principles of IBSI.

Benefits of psychological detachment from work in a digital era: How do job stressors and personal strategies interplay with individual vulnerabilities?

This study examined how individual strategies (boundary creation around information and communication technology; ICT) and job stressors (work-related extended availability) relate to psychological detachment, and how the latter associates with employees' behaviors (presenteeism) and attitudes (family life satisfaction). This research also explored the moderating role of performance-based self-esteem in these relationships. Questionnaire surveys were collected among 321 teachers in Sample 1 and 283 workers in Sample 2. Results from Sample 1 revealed that boundary creation surrounding ICT was positively linked to psychological detachment but only among employees with low performance-based self-esteem. Results from Sample 2 indicated that work-related extended availability negatively related to psychological detachment but only among employees with high performance-based self-esteem. In addition, psychological detachment was associated with lower levels of presenteeism (Samples 1 and 2) and higher levels of family-life satisfaction (Sample 2). More generally, these results confirm performance-based self-esteem to be a maladaptive individual characteristic, adding up to a negative cycle of stressors to decrease psychological detachment, in turn leading to maladaptive functioning.

Optimal ATAPE task scheduling on reconfigurable and partitionable hierarchical hypercube networks

The hierarchical hypercube (HHC) network (N=2n, n=2m+m, m≥2) is one of scalable networks for the large-scale parallel-computing systems since its implementation cost is lower than the popular hypercube (HC) network. However, the complicated HHC-routing may conflict (due to the reduction-of-edges in the hierarchical construction) and cannot be reconfigured simply for k > 2m nodes-per-task. Thus, a crucial research to fulfill the HHC-network is the conflict-free routing since the conflict is not handled easily during runtime. Recently, the HHC-conflict was solved by the shortest-path routing and the special HHC-partitioning, called the grouping-of-cross dual-cube (GCD) partitioning, for k=2m+1 nodes-per-task. In this study, we propose the reconfigurable-and-partitionable HHC (RP-HHC) network for 2m+2 ≤ k ≤ N/2M-1 nodes-per-task (M=2m-1) by the grouping-of-cross sub-system (GCS) combining (the optimal reconfiguring). Moreover, we present the efficient task-scheduling and processor-allocation, incorporated with the reconfigured binary-tree. Since the first-fit policy is fast but returns low-performance while the best-fit policy yields high-performance but is time-consuming, we propose the efficient best-fit driven-policy to work as fast as the first-fit policy while maintaining the high-performance. The correctness of new reconfiguring and time-complexity of task-allocation were analyzed. In experiments, all-to-all personalized exchange (ATAPE) communication was assessed to confirm no-conflict on the RP-HHC systems.

Exact Algorithms for Maximum Lifetime Data-Gathering Tree in Wireless Sensor Networks

We tackle an optimization problem arising in the design of sensor networks: given a set of sensors, only one being connected to a backbone, to establish connection routes from each of them to the sink. Under a shortest path routing protocol, the set of connections form a spanning tree. Energy is required to transmit and receive data, and sensors have limited battery capacity: as soon as one sensor runs out of battery, a portion of the network is disconnected. We, therefore, search for the spanning tree maximizing the time elapsed before such a disconnection occurs, and therefore, maintenance is required. We propose new mathematical formulations for the problem, proving and exploiting theoretical results on its combinatorial structure. On that basis, we design algorithms offering a priori guarantees of global optimality. We undertake an extensive experimental campaign, showing our algorithms to outperform previous ones from the literature by orders of magnitude. We also identify which instance features have higher impact on network lifetime.

Higher Rumination Tendency Is Associated with Reduced Positive Effects of Daily Activity Participation in People with Depressive Disorder.

Objectives Rumination, a response style characterized by self-reflection loops of negative thoughts, tends to exacerbate depressive symptoms and may impair daily functional behaviors of individuals with depression. However, the specific impacts of rumination on activity participation remain unclear. The current study was aimed at examining the differences in daily activity participation profiles between clinically depressed people with higher versus lower rumination tendencies, with the hope to provide insightful suggestions for improving the quality of life of ruminative individuals with major depression. Methods We recruited 143 participants with a depression-related diagnosis from psychiatric daycare centers or clinics and analyzed the differences in activity participation profiles between individuals with higher versus lower rumination tendencies. Results Although compared to those with lower rumination tendencies, participants with higher rumination tendencies spent a longer time in activity participation; they experienced lower participation quality during these activities. Furthermore, their activity participation was primarily motivated by meeting others' expectations rather than self-interest. They also misattributed participation restriction to “lack of family support,” indicating that the unhealthy rumination pattern might be the cause of their lack of positive feelings from engaging in meaningful daily activities. Conclusions The current results suggest that the unhealthy motivation behind activity participation seems to be an important factor that decreases the quality of participation in individuals with higher rumination tendency. Establishing a healthy motivation for activity participation is therefore critical for improving their quality of participation. As an initial step, OT interventions could put a focus on helping them clarify and escape from the source of negative rumination cycles that impede their positive feeling of activity participation.

Point mutation revealed the resurgence of sub-genotype VII.2 Newcastle disease virus in Israel

ABSTRACT Real-time reverse transcription PCR (rRT-PCR) is a widely used method for Newcastle disease virus (NDV) diagnosis and classification. The virus matrix (M) gene is usually used for general NDV identification and the fusion (F) gene for virulence differentiation. This method is rapid and sensitive, but the high mutation rate of the viral genome is a source of concern, as it may cause diagnostic failure. In late 2019, we encountered a problem classifying virulent NDV in samples from a few poultry flocks in which clinical signs were observed. Although the general NDV identification test was positive, the rRT-PCR virulence differentiation test gave negative results or higher cycle threshold values (Ct) than expected. Partial F gene sequencing for unclassified clinical NDV samples was used to investigate the cause of the rRT-PCR virulence differentiation test failure. The cause of the diagnostic failure was found to be a mismatch at the 3′ end of the reverse primer and adjustments were made to the diagnostic assay. The partial sequencing also allowed us to differentiate the virus as virulent according to the amino acid sequence of the F gene cleavage site and to genetically classify the virus as sub-genotype VII.2 NDV. After realizing that this is a resurgence event of sub-genotype VII.2 virus in an already endemic area of sub-genotype VII.1, we traced the spread of the new virus for several months. In addition, whole-genome sequencing of two 2020 sub-genotype VII.2 isolates was performed. GenBank search yielded related sequences from Jordan (2018) and Pakistan (2015–2016). RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS In 2019, there was a resurgence of NDV from sub-genotype VII.2 in Israel, in an already endemic area of sub-genotype VII.1. A mismatch at the 3′ end of the reverse primer caused a diagnostic failure of the NDV virulence differentiation rRT-PCR assay. The 2019 NDV sub-genotype VII.2 virus is genetically close to viruses from Jordan (2018) and Pakistan (2015–2016).

Morphology in a Parallel, Distributed, Interactive Architecture of Language Production.

How do speakers produce novel words? This programmatic paper synthesizes research in linguistics and neuroscience to argue for a parallel distributed architecture of the language system, in which distributed semantic representations activate competing form chunks in parallel. This process accounts for both the synchronic phenomenon of paradigm uniformity and the diachronic process of paradigm leveling; i.e., the shaping or reshaping of relatively infrequent forms by semantically-related forms of higher frequency. However, it also raises the question of how leveling is avoided. A negative feedback cycle is argued to be responsible. The negative feedback cycle suppresses activated form chunks with unintended semantics or connotations and allows the speaker to decide when to begin speaking. The negative feedback cycle explains away much of the evidence for paradigmatic mappings, allowing more of the grammar to be described with only direct form-meaning mappings/constructions. However, there remains an important residue of cases for which paradigmatic mappings are necessary. I show that these cases can be accounted for by spreading activation down paradigmatic associations as the source of the activation is being inhibited by negative feedback. The negative feedback cycle provides a mechanistic explanation for several phenomena in language change that have so far eluded usage-based accounts. In particular, it provides a mechanism for degrammaticalization and affix liberation (e.g., the detachment of -holic from the context(s) in which it occurs), explaining how chunks can gain productivity despite occurring in a single fixed context. It also provides a novel perspective on paradigm gaps. Directions for future work are outlined.

On the number of limit cycles in piecewise smooth generalized Abel equations with two asymmetric zones

This paper devotes to the study of a kind of generalized Abel equation dxdθ=ap(θ)xp+aq(θ)xq,where p,q∈Z∖{1}, q−1p−1∉Z≤1, and ap, aq are piecewise trigonometrical polynomials of degree m with two zones 0≤θ<θ1 and θ1≤θ≤2π. We focus on the maximum number of positive and negative limit cycles (i.e., positive and negative isolated periodic solutions) that the equation can have, and the problem that how this maximum number, denoted by Hθ1(m), is affected by the location of the separation line θ=θ1. Then, by virtue of arbitrary higher order analysis using the theories of Melnikov functions and Chebyshev systems, we obtain lower bounds for Hθ1(m) that, Hθ1(m)≥2(3m+1) (resp. Hθ1(m)≥3m+1) when θ1∈0,π∪π,2π and either p or q is odd (resp. both p and q are even), and Hθ1(m)≥4m (resp. Hθ1(m)≥2m) when θ1=π and either p or q is odd (resp. both p and q are even). This result includes the estimates for not only the classical Abel equations but also some other equations from the real problems, such as the pendulum-like equations. In general, the asymmetry of the two zones increases the number of limit cycles in comparison with the case where the two zones are symmetric.

An Isolated Bridgeless Cuk–SEPIC Converter-Fed Electric Vehicle Charger

A single-stage electric vehicle (EV) battery charger with an isolated bridgeless (BL) Cuk–single-ended primary-inductor converter (SEPIC) converter is developed in this article. The design of proposed charger is ensured in discontinuous conduction mode with intrinsic power factor correction (PFC) at ac mains. Compared to the BL Cuk converter topology when used for both positive and negative cycles, the proposed topology has reduced number of components with improved efficiency. This is due to integration of Cuk and SEPIC converters during the individual half cycle. The presence of output inductor at Cuk converter side also smoothens the output current, as compared to SEPIC converter used for both cycles. A high power quality (PQ) operation of new BL isolated PFC converter with an EV battery load of 48 V/100 Ah is verified using single-phase PQ analyzer. A laboratory prototype of proposed charger is developed and validated to corroborate the efficient performance during two charging profiles. Test results are shown under steady state as well as over extreme load and line conditions. Different performance indices such as displacement PF, ac mains PF, and mains current distortion are recorded, which comply the IEC 61000-3-2 standard.

Circumfixation: A semasiological approach

This paper investigates what kinds of meanings are expressed by circumfixes cross-linguistically, with an eye toward explaining this rare formal phenomenon. Based on the study of several hundred languages, it shows that circumfixes express negation relatively more often than other functions, followed by a wide array of TAME and derivational meanings and some more specific functions such as adjectival degree or the formation of ordinal numerals. While circumfixes are found in many unrelated languages and in all macro-areas, they nevertheless cluster in specific families, which suggests that it is their diachronic emergence that is rare rather than their synchronic distribution per se. The semantic contributions of circumfixes are explained by different diachronic mechanisms. Negative circumfixes are argued to ultimately follow from the negative cycle, whereas circumfixes encoding other functions are claimed to emerge from the cumulation of functionally compatible morphs, as in the case of certain aspectual and temporal markers. In addition, there is also some evidence that empty morphs may be reinterpreted as parts of circumfixes. All these processes are further constrained by the fact that one half of the developing circumfix has to be a prefix. Since prefixes are relatively rare overall, this necessary condition for circumfixation often is not met. On the other hand, prefixes express negation relatively frequently, and this helps to further explain why circumfixes have strong ties to this particular semantic domain.

A Single-Stage Rectifier-Less Boost Converter Circuit for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Systems

In this paper, a single-stage rectifier-less boost converter circuit (SSRBC) for piezoelectric energy harvesting from ambient vibration was proposed. The proposed rectifier-less circuit acted as a boost converter to extract energy from a piezoelectric device (PD). It combined the conventional boost, buck-boost methods using two split inductors and single filter capacitor. The proposed integrated circuit topology functioned in both positive and negative half cycles generated by the PD. In the proposed topology, inductors were invigorated by being enveloped with the current, which was produced by the PD through the switches. This facilitated active rectification of ultra-low AC (amplitude < 0.5 V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">P</sub> ). Theoretical analysis, control strategies, simulation and experimental study were presented. The proposed circuit was capable of converting a low amplitude AC voltage of 0.5 V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">P</sub> into 5.1 V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">dc</sub> . The highest output power extracted by the proposed circuit was 281.1 μW, which outperformed existing circuits. It could potentially facilitate the advancement of vibration-based energy harvesting systems for low power demand applications such as sensors, quartz watches and portable charging devices.

Scalable routing in low-Earth orbit satellite constellations: Architecture and algorithms

Low-Earth orbit satellite constellations (LEO-SCs) are attractive for provisioning global, high-speed and low latency Internet access services. Due to the fast movement of satellites and the lack of inter-satellite links (ISLs), the LEO-SC topology is highly dynamic. Applying shortest path routing directly to LEO-SCs may suffer from poor scalability and frequent route changes. In this paper, a scalable two-layer routing architecture is first proposed. Based on it, two stable routing algorithms, delay-bounded routing (DBR) and delay-aware routing (DAR), are designed to minimize route changes. DBR is flow-based. It provides bounded network latency but at the cost of a larger forwarding table. DAR is destination-based. Although network latency is not bounded, we show that the further reduction in route changes is significant and the increase in average latency is minimal.

Hierarchical Bayesian Atmospheric Retrieval Modeling for Population Studies of Exoplanet Atmospheres: A Case Study on the Habitable Zone

Abstract With the growing number of spectroscopic observations and observational platforms capable of exoplanet atmospheric characterization, there is a growing need for analysis techniques that can distill information about a large population of exoplanets into a coherent picture of atmospheric trends expressed within the statistical sample. In this work, we develop a Hierarchical Bayesian Atmospheric Retrieval (HBAR) model to infer population-level trends in exoplanet atmospheric characteristics. We demonstrate HBAR on the case of inferring a trend in atmospheric CO2 with incident stellar flux, predicted by the presence of a functioning carbonate–silicate weathering negative feedback cycle, an assumption upon which all calculations of the habitable zone (HZ) rest. Using simulated transmission spectra and JWST-quality observations of rocky planets with H2O, CO2, and N2 bearing atmospheres, we find that the predicted trend in CO2 causes subtle differences in the spectra of order 10 ppm in the 1–5 μm range, underscoring the challenge inherent to testing this hypothesis. In the limit of highly precise data (100 stacked transits per planet), we show that our HBAR model is capable of inferring the population-level parameters that characterize the trend in CO2, and we demonstrate that the null hypothesis and other simpler trends can be rejected at high confidence. Although we find that this specific empirical test of the HZ may be prohibitively challenging in the JWST era, the HBAR framework developed in this work may find a more immediate usage for the analysis of gas giant spectra observed with JWST, Ariel, and other upcoming missions.

Simultaneous temperature and viscosity estimation capability via magnetic nanoparticle relaxation.

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is emerging as a highly promising imaging modality. Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are used as imaging tracers in MPI, and their relaxation behavior provides the foundation for its functional imaging capability. Since MNPs are also utilized in magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH) and MPI enables localized MFH, temperature mapping arises as an important application area of MPI. To achieve accurate temperature estimations, however, one must also take into account the confounding effects of viscosity on the MPI signal. In this work, we analyze the effects of temperature and viscosity on MNP relaxation and determine temperature and viscosity sensitivities of relaxation time constant estimations via TAURUS (TAU estimation via Recovery of Underlying mirror Symmetry) at a wide range of operating points to empower simultaneous mapping of these twoparameters. A total of 15 samples were prepared to reach four target viscosity levels (0.9-3.6mPa s) at five different temperatures (25-45 C). Experiments were performed on a magnetic particle spectrometer (MPS) setup at 60 different operating points at drive field amplitudes ranging between 5 and 25mT and frequencies ranging between 1 and 7kHz. To enable these extensive experiments, an in-house arbitrary-waveform MPS setup with temperature-controlled heating capability was developed. The operating points were divided into four groups with comparable signal levels to maximize signal gain during rapid signal acquisition. The relaxation time constants were estimated via TAURUS, by restoring the underlying mirror symmetry property of the positive and negative half cycles of the time-domain MNP response. The relative time constants with respect to the drive field period, , were computed to enable quantitative comparison across different operating points. At each operating point, a linear fit was performed to as a function of each functional parameter (i.e., temperature or viscosity). The slopes of these linear fits were utilized to compute the temperature and viscosity sensitivities ofTAURUS. Except for outlier behaviors at 1kHz, the following global trends were observed: decreases with drive field amplitude, increases with drive field frequency, decreases with temperature, and increases with viscosity. The temperature sensitivity varies slowly across the operating points and reaches a maximum value of 1.18%/ C. In contrast, viscosity sensitivity is high at low frequencies around 1kHz with a maximum value of 13.4%/(mPa s) but rapidly falls after 3kHz. These results suggest that the simultaneous estimation of temperature and viscosity can be achieved by performing measurements at two different drive field settings that provide complementary temperature/viscosity sensitivities. Alternatively, temperature estimation alone can be achieved with a single measurement at drive field frequencies above 3kHz, where viscosity sensitivity isminimized. This work demonstrates highly promising temperature and viscosity sensitivities for TAURUS, highlighting its potential for simultaneous estimation of these two environmental parameters via MNP relaxation. The findings of this work reveal the potential of a hybrid MPI-MFH system for real-time monitored and localized thermal ablation treatment ofcancer.

Voiding cystourethrogram: Who gets a cyclic study and does it matter?

Voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) images the urethra and bladder during both bladder filling and emptying, as well as the ureters and kidneys when vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is present. Given the variation in VCUG technique and reporting, the American Academy of Pediatrics Sections on Urology and Radiology published a joint standardized VCUG protocol in 2016, which included the recommendation of at least 2 voiding cycles to identify intermittent VUR and/or ureteral ectopia. VCUG were assessed for adherence to performance of cyclic study. Children who underwent cyclic evaluation were compared to those who underwent a single cycle VCUG. Radiation dosage was also analyzed. Studies performed on patients >18 years of age and those obtained as part of a trauma evaluation were excluded from study. Two hundred and eighty-four VCUGs were analyzed, 97 (34.2%) were positive for VUR on the initial cycle. Of the remaining 187 studies, 116 (62%) had multiple filling-voiding cycles while in 71 (38%) only a single cycle was performed. One hundred and sixty-one (86.1%) were negative for vesicoureteral reflux. Twenty-six (13.9%) children were diagnosed with VUR after the initial filling-voiding cycle: 6 were diagnosed with grade I, 2 grade II, 11 grade III, 2 grade IV and 5 grade V. Of the 123 total children found to have VUR, 26 (21.2%) were diagnosed after an initial negative cycle. Younger children were significantly more likely to have a cyclic study performed; mean age of patients undergoing a cyclic study was 1.09±2.16 years versus 3.86±4.5 years (p≤0.0001). Categorically, 74.1% of children less than 1 year of age underwent a cyclic study compared to 6.9% of children older than 5 years of age (p≤0.0001). There was no difference based on sex with 49.1% of males and 50.9% of females (p=0.667) undergoing cyclic evaluation. Children undergoing a cyclic study had lower median radiation dose 2.15 microGy m2 (range 0.09-111) compared to 4.41 (range 1.3-104) [p=0.01]. Vesicoureteral reflux may occur intermittently and cyclic VCUG is thought to enhance the ability to detect reflux. In our cohort, 26 children (9.2%) were only diagnosed after an additional cycle - ie 21.1% of reflux would have been missed had a cyclic study not been performed. The majority of these patients (69.2%, 18 of 26) were found to have dilating, and thus perhaps more clinically significant, reflux. Our study highlights the importance of obtaining as much information as possible and adhering to the standardized VCUG protocol. Younger children are more likely to undergo cyclic VCUG. While most reflux is detected with the initial filling-voiding cycle, 26 (21.2%) patients were diagnosed after an initial negative cycle with the majority being dilating VUR.

Wireless Sensor Network Cluster Head Selection and Short Routing Using Energy Efficient ElectroStatic Discharge Algorithm

Wireless sensor networks attract so much attention in current IoT-enabled industrial and domestic applications having either homogeneous or heterogeneous sensors deployed to acquire information of intent. WSNs are designed to operate using self-powered sensor nodes as their choice of application is geographic critical. Such nodes must support energy efficiency so that network longevity becomes high. Cluster head selection plays a crucial stage in a WSN architecture which mainly focuses on the minimization of network energy consumption. It groups sensor nodes in such a way that a sophisticated network cluster is formed to have enhanced life time besides a low power consumption. A popular clustering technique, known as LEACH and its variants, is found to be energy efficient compared to its counterparts. The authors propose a novel fully connected energy efficient clustering (FCEEC) mechanism using the electrostatic discharge algorithm to establish a fully connected network with shortest path routing from sensor nodes (SNs) to cluster head (CH) in a multihop environment. The proposed electrostatic discharge algorithm (ESDA) enhances network life time while attaining energy efficient full connectivity between sensor nodes. As a result of ESD, the dead node count is reduced significantly so that the network longevity is increased. In the end, simulation results exhibited improved performance metrics such as energy efficiency, dead node count, packet delivery, and network latency compared to certain conventional CH selection approach.